Did anyone take a kiddo on a tour last weekend during a football game weekend? I was at a game and wondered what prospective students would think. All over the map I guess.
I told my son that we could’ve been in West Lafayette for the Purdue vs Oregon State game. He was glad we went in early August as part of a vacation even though we didn’t have a tour or see many students.
My S22 is a good writer but like many kids, he says he hasn’t had struggles or anything exciting to write about. So that’s where I come in and help him brainstorm ideas, and he realizes he has some interesting topics to write about. He is done with the Common App essay and the 4 UC essays. He is working now on some private school essays but there isn’t much overlap with the UC essays so it’s a lot of work. However, his 4 essays he did with the private school can probably be tailored to other schools he’s applying to. I feel like my D20 didn’t have as many essays to do (liberal arts), but these extra engineering school essays are more work.
Interesting stats about college admissions……more women than men. I know there have been posts, but wanted you to see one of the sources on the stats.
I think college applications should be treated like a job interview. They should show, in all the different elements, why they would be a good fit for the school (not why the school is a good fit for them). Like any good job interview the applicant needs to demonstrate they have researched the school — its requirements, it’s mission, it’s values — and be prepared to show how their experience meets the requirements. Bragging would not be advised, but enthusiasm over ECs that got results would only bolster the application. Answers should be thoughtful and authentic but not canned. They can be vulnerable without turning the process into a therapy session.
I cringe every time a student wants to write about a struggle with a mental illness etc — you would never lead with that information in a job interview. A company wants to know what skills and talents you bring and what kind of co-worker you’ll be.
For students that are stuck or think they have nothing to say, perhaps thinking of it in this way will help them develop an essay. It’s not a laundry list of accomplishments but writing about something from their life to demonstrate a quality the college is looking for.
What will be interesting is how these numbers change over the next two years. No doubt students either postponed or abandoned college plans last year. I want to see which of those it turned out to be. We’ve seen an interesting mix of overcrowding and struggling for enrollment this fall.
Fwiw, depending on which source you believe, more women than men have enrolled in college since somewhere in the 1980s.
I have no expertise (beyond my own kids) and I understand what you are saying but I think it is an adult perspective that almost ensures a bit of a predicable essay.
In fact you are suggesting almost exactly the strategic mistake I almost made had my kid not been so determined to do it his way.
Your advice is based on making an assumption about what “the college is looking for”. If you start from this perspective you are going to select from a fairly predictable and redundant set of assumed qualities. I also think it is dangerous to write to a presumed broad audience (the college) when in reality your reader is a human with a very personal perspective that extends well beyond a specific set of expectations or measures who reads literally hundreds of assays daily.
In other words, if following this advise you are writing what you are guessing an ill defined evaluator wants to conclude and hoping you pull it off with insight and humility. Tough do for a kid and stay true to your voice.
I would instead suggest a truly authentic voice will only result when writing what you want to say versus what you think a total stranger wants to hear.
Once again please know this is entirely a personal opinion but in retrospect was likely my greatest takeaway having been through it. Previously I kept thinking of it as you suggest, like a job interview where skills and achievements were the measures being considered and realized after the fact that AOs were looking for the entire person.
Good luck and your experience may differ.
Like a job interview, an essay reader will be armed with a scoring system to evaluate the content. Colleges do trainings and audits, and have more experienced admissions people evaluate the scoring to make sure essays and other portions of the application are scored in a consistent way. This one essay reader you mention is likely a team of people looking to see if the applicant hits certain criteria. If there wasn’t, it would be an entirely unfair and subjective system.
My opinion is this is not a creative writing exercise, a journal entry or an academic essay. I do agree that they shouldn’t write what they think an AO wants to hear. Instead, they need to understand certain things the college values and write an authentic essay that addresses those values. These essays should be as varied as the students. If this is in some way difficult or forced, it may be that the school is not a good fit.
This is contrary in several ways to the process that was described to us at a few schools once we visited at “accepted students” events.
I would consider they are not trying to fill a single job but build a community of diverse and unique people who share intellectual curiosity and academic ability. That goal doesn’t lend itself well to anything but a “subjective system”at highly competitive schools when the vast majority of applicants have extremely strong and similar academic records and test scores.
Once again I wish you and your daughter well.
First college tours! I am super excited because we just booked tickets for a whirlwind tour of NYU and BU. We have one day in Boston and one and a half days in NY. Unfortunately, their official tours are already booked. These will be our first attempt at touring colleges (and our first time flying since 2019!). Any advice for what we should try to do or see to get a feel for the colleges? A friend’s daughter is a junior at BU and I’m hoping she can show us around but might be helpful if I can tell her what we’d like to see. We are from small town, west coast so are completely unfamiliar with the area.
College tours are exhausting but great. Hard to not be tourists, but focus on campus and environs. Stay in a hotel close to or on campus. Pack light and walk around/eat in the area around the campus.
Since tours aren’t available, can your kid meet with their AO rep or someone in the department where they want to major? My D has done that and it’s better than a formal tour. What are other things of interest/concern? Dorms, food, athletic facilities, etc?
It’s good you are visiting to get the feel of these very urban campuses.
Sorry to confuse things. My S22 and I share the home computer and he (wabiwenzel) was still logged in when I wrote the last post. I think he’s mostly interested in seeing what the vibe is on campus. We’re from a small town (pop. about 9k) so it’s very friendly and laid back. In his mind, S22 wants an exciting, urban campus, but not sure if it will feel as welcoming and someplace he could imagine calling home for 4 years until he sees it. He doesn’t care about food, athletic facilities, etc. I guess he cares more about what the students are like (friendly, open, collaborative, and the non-Greek social scene).
Meeting with an AO rep sounds a little intimidating. Do you really think that’s a good idea? Should S22 prepare somehow, like it’s an interview? He’s not as sophisticated as probably most of the kids who apply there though I believe he’s intelligent and ambitious enough to do well there.
Have fun - check out the website Daytripper University and they have ideas for a lot of colleges on where to eat, sleep, student hang outs etc. We found the info so helpful and it is free 
I was able to get a campus tour from a student by asking on a college’s parents Facebook group. I offered to pay $50 but the student said she loved her school and would not accept any money. She did a great job with her tour. At the campuses we visited on our own where there no tours, I thought it was very hard to get a sense of the school. Things were quiet due to remote classes, we could not go in buildings and not many students were around.
I think determining fit and vibe are key. My D’s meetings/discussions with AOs were not interviews. Rather, they answered questions she had about her specific area of interest and how she might pursue it. These were things that could not be answered on a website or in an admissions presentation, and the information she gathered will be really helpful for her “Why X school” essay.
How do you think your son can best determine fit? Do they allow students to sit in on a class or meet with student ambassadors? My D really had a lightbulb moment when talking to a student ambassador — he was describing why he chose the school and his desire for social/academic balance. He was saying the very things my daughter wants in a school, and she walked away feeling like she belonged there. Exciting to see.
We found it helpful to reach out to students from our high school who were attending the colleges we visited. We often met for lunch or coffee and were able to hear the perspective of someone coming from our school (rigor, social life, etc.) and community (weather, diversity, etc.) to that college environment.
I had to give every college the “bathroom test,” buildings, dining halls, dorms, etc. If the university can’t maintain their bathrooms properly, then that told me a lot about the rest of the school’s facilities.
Especially the bathrooms next to the admissions/welcome centers. The worst was UCSC followed by UCSB. 
@vistajay Did your S take the ACT today? Fingers crossed you found a place!
As both BU and NYU are in the middle of the city, I would suggest to arrive by public transportation and walk around. BU is stretched for several blocks along Commonwealth Ave, and NYU is more or less grouped b/w 6ave and Broadway. Stay clear of Washington Park, as it got worse over pandemic. There are many places to eat around NYU and watch students pass by. At BU you maybe consider getting a take away lunch, seating on the grass by the river as you observe the kids. PM me if you have more questions.
@Evie800
I wouldn’t go to Washington Park at 2 am (it’s illegal anyway), but I would visit during the day. It’s right by NYU and if your son ends up there, he will likely go there often enough.
I was there in the evening (8 pm) in June or July after all the bad press, and it was just fine. There are was a big police presence, but otherwise it was it’s usual - people playing music, chess, walking dogs, selling art, etc. Both my son and my husband were there on their own in June/July, and both thought it was ok, but they too commented on the police presence.
Unfortunately, many of the restaurants didn’t make it throughout the pandemic.