Parents of the HS Class of 2022

[InfoQuestMom]

Same here. Yes, exactly this!

[lkg4answers]

Sure, UCM, UCR or maybe UCSC might be considered a safety for very high stats kids not majoring in CS, but over confident T20 admits would probably say they have no intention of attending those schools either.

[Evie800]

@baerli Japan! Same with my S22. He applied to Temple University Japan but is also planning to apply to Waseda’s program. How about your daughter?

[baerli]

D22 has applied to Hokkaido University’s ISP and Nagoya University’s G30, both for biological sciences. Sadly Temple did not offer the sciences she was looking for. We are now waiting for the zoom interview appointments.

It was interesting to see their applications. EC were nowhere to be found on them. Academics only. She had to go to her teachers and request some additional recommendations and even get the approval from her principal.

Fingers crossed for our kids. I know she is ready and has thought about this for a long time.

[tkoparent]

Be very careful with Japan. At the moment, most foreigners (other than those with resident status) are barred from entry to Japan under COVID restrictions, and it has been reported that more than 100,000 students have been unable to enter the country to begin or continue their studies here. The government just announced today that, as a small exception, they are going to allow 87 students back in, all with less than a year till graduation. Unless the pandemic is really over, I would hesitate, as closing the border has been one of Japan’s main strategies whenever there is a new surge. There is some useful information here if you want to follow the issue: COVID-19 Information - U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Japan

[Twoin18]

@KaliHoosier

From my experience the out of state safeties that a lot of the students in California apply for offer more of a traditional residential campus experience than what might be considered in state safeties in California. (Arizona/ASU/Oregon/Oregon State receive a lot of applications from California.)

Yes, especially amongst wealthier parents there is a strong trend towards PAC-12 schools rather than lower tier UCs. And some sporty, residential CSUs like San Diego State tend to get more attendees than say UC Riverside or Merced. Our high school tends to see clusters of kids picking the same school in a given year - that choice has shifted around between Oregon, CU Boulder and Arizona.

[Southoftheriver]

Ours as well. D22 admitted to both SDSU and UO and sees them as really good options. Lots of kids at our school also applied to Humboldt State this year — a new cal poly, forestry, environmental programs. UW also a big favorite.

Edit: I think the UC bloodbath last year caused a lot to look at options further afield. Hot colleges this year NYU and Brown. Barnard to a lesser degree. Of the UCs, UCB and UCSB. (We are in NorCal)

[sushiritto]

@DadOfJerseyGirl

But my friend said kids were applying to auto-admit type colleges and laughing off the acceptances with “I’m never going there”.

I didn’t see any of this at my our local HS here in the Silicon Valley area.

We do get quite a few high stat kids deciding to apply and go to Washington, Colorado and Oregon. In my D18’s case, she was accepted to Washington and Colorado with their best merit scholarships (Purple & Gold and Presidential respectively), but they still couldn’t lure her there. She didn’t apply to Oregon.

D21 only applied to CA schools. She attends Cal Poly SLO, but I don’t think it’s a safety for high stat CA students, since SLO did reject many high stat students last cycle. There was one SLO applicant who was accepted to Stanford REA, but waitlisted at SLO. I believe he ultimately was admitted from the waitlist though.

[QuestInfo]

I have come across a few kids who are applying oos with every intention of attending if things work out. couple of factors contributing 1) not being sure if they can get into UCs ( stats may be good but thinking they do not have strong ECs, can’t use SATs since it is blind state) 2) family open to move out of california (migration to other states coupled by ability to work from home from anywhere by parent(s)) 3) I am seeing less obsession with brand names / top univs ( seeing interest in conserving funds in uncertain pandemic times). My sample size is small, only a few kids from our neighborhood . Good points made by others though. Informative thread.

[GoodGrief16]

@professionaldad

As DD is shotgunning apps, I’m thinking of her sending our GC the email addresses of each school’s admissions office. GC can Bcc them all the mid-year report in one message.

Any issues? Even if they didn’t ask for it? It’ll be all A’s.

My daughter’s counselor uploaded the mid year grades to the Common App, and I noticed that all the schools downloaded it, including schools where she had an acceptance. Whether they all look at it, I am not sure. But I imagine that if she has a decision pending, midyear grades will be considered.

[GoodGrief16]

@lkg4answers

I would avoid telling the GC how to do his/her job. If you feel the need to contact your daughter’s GC, you might just reiterate which schools your daughter applied to and confirm that mid year reports will be sent to all of them

I will say that in our case, I do have to give my daughter’s guidance counselor a lot of guidance It’s a (public) charter school for homeschoolers, and she has little experience with college admissions. There’s a lot of handholding on my part.

[GoodGrief16]

@professionaldad

We don’t have Naviance. I was trying to help the GC. Every year our HS has 1-5 students that apply to anywhere other than state schools. Almost never does anyone apply to 20 schools.

I just don’t know how they are shared: Common App, Portal, email. If email, this is a way she can have the full list. Im not telling her how to do her job, just trying to help.

Ah, yes, sounds similar to our situation! I see that there are many responses, so forgive me if I am repeating: if they are Common App schools, your best bet is to have her do the midyear report portion of the Common App.

[GoodGrief16]

@Vineyarder

We’re moving to NYC in July and giving up our car, and of course he won’t need one while attending NYU. But at least he’s licensed and ready for the future.

My oldest was a nervous driver, and, of course, we live in a place without significant traffic. She went off to Seattle for college, and used public transportation for four years. Then graduated, and decided to settle in Seattle in a place where she needed to drive. We ended up helping her out with a round of “big city” driving lessons, because she had forgotten everything in four years!

[GoodGrief16]

My D22 has 23 apps/17 states. Many of them were simpler apps and some free. A lot of “what if” in our situation: geographically remote state with pre-app visits challenging and a student who really needs to get the feel of a place. A bit of uncertainty as far as what she would get for merit aid…and a need for merit aid. An interest in being near a boyfriend, and the possibility that things could end with the boyfriend and she will want to be far away (that last part is my thought, not hers, haha).

Seeing how the apps play out, what happens with the money, and planning some spring visits, and a decision that will probably happen closer to May 1.

[Picklenut6]

Yes even for high stat kids. Last year it was absolutely bonkers the amount of high stat kids who got rejected or put on wait lists in for California publics. My kid was one of them. Counselors were shaking their heads in disbelief. We feel like we hit the jackpot that our daughter got a California acceptance-and only one. She applied to 5. There was a lot of waitlist movement for the 2020 kids and hardly any at all for the 2021 kids.

[neela1]

We are OOS for CA. At the last minute I pulled the plug on applying to UCSD because a) they won’t look at testing, b) they won’t look at reccs, and c) the won’t look at senior year.

[Evie800]

@baerli Oh wow, those are excellent universities. S22 looked at some of the actual Japanese universities but was too intimidated with the application process since it was so different. Good luck to your daughter!
@tkoparent I have been worried about this. I joined a FB group of parents with kids in the Temple U Japan program and all of their kids are stuck in the US, zooming in the middle of the night to join their classes there. They are all in limbo waiting to see if they will be allowed into Japan. I figure if S22 is accepted, we will wait and see what other colleges he gets into here in the US. If he has better options here, it might be best to wait for a junior year study abroad in Japan, even as badly as he wants to go now, it might be totally out of our hands with the Covid situation.

[advitha]

In most cases that we know here, counselors did recommend a rolling-based safety admit at hand. One big reason is the 2021 trend. In our known circles some of the kids got just one UC (of 4-5 they applied to). This is with very high stats, both academic and EC. It’s just being proactive I would say. We never knew ASU was a rolling admission until my D’s friend told about it. D22 applied there and got an acceptance to their engineering and honors school with a fat scholarship. It’s a great school for engineering I would say. Some of the people we know are looking to go there if they can’t get admissions in their favor.

My D22’s very good friend, at this point, have nothing but 1 of her OOS safety acceptances at hand. This is despite of the fact she applied to many good schools (Bio/Pre-med/cog sci track). It makes kids and parents nervous.

[neela1]

I think some of this increased uncertainty is because schools have become test optional or test blind.

[baerli]

Yes, we are keeping an eye on that too.

DD was supposed to go on a Worldstride trip to Japan with her school in 2020 we’ll, we are hoping it might happen this summer as a gradution gift now.

DD is taking AP Japanese and wants to continue it at minimum as a minor. Her plan if it all falls through is to potentially do her master in Japan. Either there or Germany.