COVID grades, Jesus. My kid got a B in algebra 2… thought it was impossible to learn online. We don’t plan to explain. If they don’t know what these kids have been through, whatever.
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A friend told me last year her son was admitted to a mid-sized public on the spot, during a visit to his HS school. I’ve never heard of that before.
The school will be visiting later this month and I guess I wouldn’t be surprised if they made such offers again.
This is something I was wondering about so thank you!
Yes FOR sure include the farm. IMHO don’t worry about the covid grade. I think they can see the year it was and figure it out for themselves.
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For our college tours, she’s a senior, and we have limited time and money to accomplish them at this point so they are going to be somewhat more about “selling” a school to our D23 that is within budget, is the right location and meets her needs and most wants. So that means formal tour, lots of time checking out the cool student venues on and off campus. Coffee places, football games, cute shops, and visiting the club sport team she wants to join.
So fewer tours overall but that’s ok at this point.
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Stevens sends out “priority” application invitations to high-stat kids hoping to get them to apply and enroll. It provides a quicker way to apply vs the standard common app application, but there isn’t anything else special about it. Acceptances will go out as per their regular schedule for ED or RD, not any sooner despite them calling it a “priority” application.
But all that aside, it’s a great school with a new President who’s really good.
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They are trying to figure out their yield. The short answer is that they will accept less, and waitlist more. With applications increasing, the yield should be decreasing, just not as much as some colleges would have thought. (the more popular colleges) The less popular colleges are losing students. There will be a time when application numbers plateau, when that does, the craziness will end.
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Yes, my son’s grades dipped in 19-20, not awful, but down. There is no reason to explain that. I don’t know how high schools are identifying that on transcripts, but my DD’s college transcripts, note there was a severe disruption due to covid, on the semesters that were affected.
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Schools will advertise open house days where they will accept students on the spot.
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Bard has some sort of immediate response program where they admit you on the spot.
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My son has quite a few grades lower than a B all throughout HS. It never crossed my mind that he should explain them. It seems pretty self-explanatory to me. He is not good at math or any science involving math. It didn’t matter if it was in-person or online.
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Like just about anyone they are trying to reduce uncertainties. Makes sense
We found the best college visits were a mixture of D.I.Y. (meaning set up in advance and tailored) and official tours. My kids were zeroed in on specific programs at various universities. Emails and/or phone calls yielded one on one (generally lasting about an hour) sessions with faculty members or even department heads. One also included coffee with a recent grad from the program. These experiences were invaluable when it came down to choosing among acceptances. We also stayed in on-campus hotels whenever possible.
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Great advice about the hotels! We are staying as close to campus as possible. And yes D23 is planning on contacting Biology depts a little closer to the date as well as the club sport she wants to join.
Agree re hotels but had zero luck with the academic departments setting up a meeting or even a call… no idea how all of you guys do it. My son reached out to over a dozen and ended up with … none. I think they would do it for an admitted student perhaps but not for an applicant? Or he did something wrong… In any case what you are describing is great but not sure people should expect to be able to do the same…
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Congrats on the Pitt admission! That must feel great! Can I ask what the video interview was like for Case? My son is thinking of setting one up.
One of my kiddos two B’s was AP Calc online in 2020. Teacher sucked, class sucked, she didn’t take the AP exam, and we don’t feel the need to explain. It is a tad frustrating when your kiddo has a 36 ACT, but some schools require a 4.0 for some merit- instead of waiving test scores, how about excusing some B’s on self-taught online covid AP classes 
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It was about a half-hour.
He dressed nicely 
He said it was just a conversation, like he was catching up over coffee with a friend. She asked about what he was passionate about; he asked about how she’d characterize the student vibe.
ps: You likely will need to haunt the interview scheduling page. They’re booked solid through EA deadline. I kept clicking randomly several times a day for at least a week and a spot finally opened up.
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Thank you for that information! I knew he should have signed up for a summer one! Ok I’ll tell him to get on scheduling one ASAP! Appreciate this!
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D23 is filling out some activities on apps and scholarships. she made the tennis team her freshman year on march 6; had a few practices and then covid hit. just like for millions of kids of course. Does she say she’s a 4-yr tennis player even though she didnt play that year? What are your kids putting down for sports and other ec’s that spring 2020 - and beyond (for those of you who were remote in 2020/21)? (I guess she doesn’t have a ton of consistency with activities with a school change in there so i was wondering about this. played 10th and 11th grades)