Tomorrow and Friday contain all of my son’s top choices. He refused to apply to any others but I twisted his arm into vandy (rejected and showed zero interest) and he applied to JHU and was admitted so that’s the backup plan. Just praying he has a choice to make…
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These sound like great choices. Best of luck.
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My D22 was waitlisted to NYU today. That is 6 waitlists for her! She was excited to at least be waitlisted there. She has 9 acceptances, 6 waitlists and 4 rejections. Only Cornell left tomorrow. Hoping to end on a positive note! She is definitely leaning towards Northeastern right now and we already signed up for their admitted Students day April 9th! 
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My # of acceptances, waitlisted, and rejected is identical to yours, but not as prestigious!! Congrats on your awesome admits!
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S22’s final news arrived today. It wasn’t positive news but it makes decisions easier. I can’t believe we are done!! 
I am so grateful for all the information I received on this forum and all the wonderful camaraderie! 
You all have been such an amazing support through all this!
Accepted: USF, UW-Seattle, UC Davis, UCI, UCSD, UCB
Waitlisted: UCLA, Loyola Marymount
Rejected: USC, NYU, BU
Congratulation to everyone on all your acceptances! 
And fingers crossed for everyone waiting for final news and on waitlists. 
Looking forward to more shared news on where everyone’s kid makes their final commitment!!
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We are considering UIUC CS too. Do you mind sharing what your S22 liked about UIUC CS program compared to Georgia Tech?
We’re a little in shock right now. D22 was accepted to Barnard this afternoon!
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We used a private college counselor. I don’t know anyone who didn’t use one. But — NO ONE talked about it. It is like a dirty secret that everyone already knows.
She advised on summer programs grades 10-12, helped select school list, and gave very specific tailored advice on what to do and not to do on college essays. She read every line and gave feedback.
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It’s nice to be able to afford that option. I don’t know anyone who DID use one.
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I noticed this as early as kindergarden. I taught my eldest numbers alphabet etc at home and then sent her off to a private kindergarten where she learned . . . nothing. They sent her home end of the year with a list of things they said she could do—but she couldn’t. She would have learned more at home playing at my feet in the kitchen while I worked.
So I hired a retired public school teacher who in three weeks taught my child to read. She worked with her on math and reading through 4th grade. Guess what happens in 4th grade? Kids go into higher or lower math levels. They tell parents everyone is learning the same thing. But it is like the scene in Elf where Will Farrell tells the fake Santa that he is sitting on a throne of lies.
So those kids with outside tutors all got into higher math in 4th grade then 5th grade. Guess what after that? They go in middle school into advanced math. Then in 9th they all go into Honors Math and Honors Science and get all the AP Math and Science spots.
Those chairs were all filled by kids who were tutored in elementary school. I can’t tell you how many WONDERFUL public school teachers we used for tutoring in all kinds of things at that age. They were amazing!
This happens over and over in various ways big and small. Tutors, coaches, evaluations, assessments and then finally private college advisors.
And no one talks about it. Getting rid of SATs won’t begin to fix this problem. It is more structural.
Also I am just talking about our own experiences, and this may not be anything like what it was at another school. What I am saying is that for me -my eyes were opened early!!
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It’s true. It’s sad when you think of kids that have incredible potential but go to bad schools and don’t have the financial means for the extra help.
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There are also plenty of people who do not do any of those things still get into advanced tracks or whatever. Those few who do in our system still struggle to keep up with the ones who don’t need the outside hours of tutoring, and they are definitely not the norm. I get why people do it–to get their kids into tracks that allow higher level classes–but is that really the right approach? Especially the “secret” tutoring I hear about–just seems very strange to me unless for specific learning disabilities, which would be done in partnership with the school, not on the side and secretly. Why would you want to push your kid into levels they did not belong in based on the normal school assessment, and had to have many outside hours of help just to be there?
And I know TWO people out of the dozens and dozens going through college apps the last few years who used a private counselor.
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Wow those are some amazing choices.
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Congratulations on all the great options! Has he made a decision?
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Yes, exactly what I was thinking. Getting rid of SATs is leading to race for stellar ECs and unfortunately relatively wealthy have an advantage even in this.
And the scenario you mention happens with more than 60-70% of the kids where we live (not just in our high school but in our larger area). I always feel bad for the rest of the kids. Inequality in college admissions is increasing further with this new race.
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Re: College Counselor
As we’ve seen here, you don’t need a private college counselor. Kids get into wonderful colleges every year without professional help. That said…
For D19 we used a private college counselor who happened to be a family friend and she was absolutely invaluable and wonderful! The process for D19 was enlightening, organize, and pretty painless.
For S22 we sadly weren’t fortunate enough to have our friend with us anymore, so we hired a different professional who was useless. While we made it through the process successfully, it was a battle. I’m sure some of that was due to my son’s personality - getting him to talk about college was like pulling teeth. I had to become a massive nag, and at times I wanted to pull my hair out with frustration. But we made it.
There are many ways to skin a cat. Hiring a college counselor is like having anesthesia.
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Can’t put it any better than this. I second the fact that kids who are coached in elementary years tend to go higher levels in math and science during middle and high school years. From what I know, almost everyone in our school who can afford, hired a private counselor. We learnt about it when mine was in her Junior year spring break. For some it made a difference, for many it didn’t. Can’t judge what went wrong though.
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@Ca_Grace UC Santa Cruz is close to Silicon Valley so tons of potential employers. However, RPI is an amazing STEM school and it is a unique recruiting hub for top employers. I can’t find the report so see if their dept career center can provide you with the actual stat—their CA majors have a much higher salary than the average CS grad across the country.
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I think the moderately rich actually have a bigger advantage on their ECs than they do on SATs. I can’t see how they can even fairly compare them.
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I did this she was reading before pre-k, lots of math practice when young. She went thru gifted program, advanced math routes. She missed out on EC because of her personality. What I learned there are so many amazing kids around. Makes me feel proud of all of the youngsters.
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