Well, S22 announced tonight that he’s cutting another university from his list. And, then there were five. At this point I had to ask whether he was sure he would be happy ar his safety schools if the reach schools did not pan out. He was emphatic that he was. So (for Computer Science/Engineering):
Alabama—applied (but, unlikely to attend)
Arizona State—applied
Iowa State—admitted
Texas A&M
Washington
We visit A&M in ten days. I am unsure how much he will like it. We’ve been up front and honest that Washington is a reach from an admissions and financial standpoint. But, he wants to try. He applied to Bama, but has told us that he is not interested in going. I have asked him whether I should discuss other schools with him, but he is not interested. He won’t say whether he was that impressed with Iowa State to not look elsewhere. We’ve never been to Arizona State. I told him that so long as he would honestly feel that he put in the necessary effort in researching and considering this decision, I wouldn’t question his decision to narrow his application list.
I have no idea if there is any correlation to this or just pure randomness, but your comment about him getting a 1 on CS caught my eye because my UT D19 has a good friend she met during orientation that is in BHP with her who is also from Texas. After orientation my D mentioned how the friend had something like a 99% in the AP CS course but earned a 1 on the AP CS test. The girl also was a Forty Acres Finalist (or perhaps semi-finalist, I can’t recall). She ultimately didn’t get that but did receive a partial scholarship. My D thought it so odd that someone clearly so bright and making it that far in the Forty Acres scholars did so poorly in that exam especially having such a high average. UT was the only business program my D applied to as she also had been accepted at highly ranked Engineering/CS progams but her heart was always with UT and Business. Anyway, we always wondered if there is just something with either how CS is taught there or the curriculum they’re being taught is not what they’re needing to know for the AP Exam. Your post caught my eye because it was like deja vu all over again. I chalk it up more to something going on in the teaching of the students and not the students in whatever they’re being taught. It’s hard to find good CS teachers for high schools and a lot of them have no idea what they’re doing or are just thrown into teaching a course that they have no real background in themselves. Anyway, just my two cents.
For Engineering, as a male, as you know, he needs to cast a wide net, but also doesn’t need to submit his SAT to all schools this year, especially where it’s optional. He may also want to look at Michigan State, Ohio State, Iowa State, Miami (Oh) which gives $, Colorado, Arizona State (gunning for students and giving $), and a whole lot more.
UT Engineering as you know is super intense anyway and the turn off for my other daughter who is in Engineering (not at UT) is that you’re pigeon-holed and can’t change your major. So many kids change their majors and at UT if you want to change you’re stuck. You can leave Engineering, but you can’t change within Engineering. In her case, she’s in CS anyway, which at UT is in CNS so it wouldn’t have been an issue. School’s like Purdue though are nice because you don’t have to declare a major off the bat and can get a taste of what you really like. Iowa also has a pretty decent engineering program where if you do well you can get a good job and do well - I often say, it’s not always about the prestige of the school but what you do at a good school and work it to your advantage to put yourself in the best position. It’s not always a good thing to be the small fish in a big pond, but to be the big fish in a small pond can be a very good thing. The negative of course for your S is that many of these are cold weather schools.
Is anyone else stressing about teacher recommendations a la COVID? Looking at teacher rec forms and there is no way 2 teachers would really “know” a kid that well after this strange year.
While my son’s teachers knew him quite well even with covid, my daughters are very introverted and were always in the same classes. Teachers do a really good job with LORs even when they may not “technically” know kids because they do know their work but also a good LOR writer will often ask for a resume, or provide the student with a questionairre to fill out or interview them to really gain some insight into them so that they can gain some insight into them well enough to write a great LOR. Don’t fret!
I kind of am. Although they were virtual pretty much all year, both teachers have a strict limit on the number of recommendations they will provide. Both AP English Language and AP US History have said 10 is their limit. They have asked for students to ask them in person at the beginning of their Senior year, and to give them a list of universities they will be applying to. Although both teachers know my kid pretty well, and they both like her a lot, my kid still needs to hustle to get to them before the 10 is up.
Same here. I posted about letters of rec as well. Our CA public school was 4-days a week (hybrid) and he saw each teacher 1 day a week. I am actually more worried about the guidance counselor rec as our school is huge and my son has met his counselor prob 5 min in the past 3 years.
S22 was disappointed with his 3 on the AP Chemistry exam. Hoping to do better with the lineup for senior year: AP French, AP Human Geo, AP Stats and AP EnvSci (the last one in place of AP Physics — probably fine now that he doesn’t want to do a STEM major). It’s funny about French — he refuses to speak it at home (wife and I both speak a bit), but he’s apparently quite good at it.
Saw the news item below about UC San Diego, made me think of Purdue’s work to accommodate its big class. Sounds like Purdue has a better approach. For UCSD, why not rely on the vaccines for protection instead of eliminating beds? Tough decisions.
UC San Diego plans to welcome a record number of students in the fall — as many as 41,000 — but it hasn’t got enough housing for them. The campus is standing by a decision to eliminate more than 2,000 beds over coronavirus worries, even as the waiting list for campus housing has grown to nearly 3,200 students. Many have been stunned to learn that they are being tossed into one of the most competitive rental markets in California. “It’s a debacle," said one parent. “Just abysmal.”
Completed. And congratulations on finding meaningful ECs during these crazy covid times. I’m sure you will have a robust college application when that time comes for you!
Yeah, I’m a UCSD alum who lived in the area for years and only recently moved away. UCSD has had these kinds of housing shortages every year for years. It’s not new, it’s not pandemic related. They just can’t seem to get their act together over there. I believe they were making headlines just a few years ago for putting incoming freshman onto housing waitlists and forcing them into the rental market, which is just ridiculous. It’s really unfortunate, and they are very disingenuous about it.
Many schools have similar data at various levels of granularity. There have also been posts to CC with responses to direct inquiries to the admissions offices.
I used College Vine and found their estimates helpful for my son to see his chances. He applied to 17 (a good mix of safety, target, hard target and reaches) and got in everywhere except Columbia which was listed as a Reach 11-21%.