One can join the military. I thank them in advance for their service. You can thank them in advance for preserving your retirement.
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Iâm so sorry to hear that and know how painful it can be not to get the decision we want.
USC, Middlebury, and the other (Michigan?) arenât target schools for anyone. They are reaches, because their admit rate is under 50%.
Michigan takes only 4,000 OOS students from around the globe.
Mine was rejected from UNC (8% acceptance for OOS) and Michigan, and we expected that to be the case despite a 4.3/4.4, excellent essays, varsity sport, leadership, etc.
23 will probably be rejected from Brown and was rejected from Syracuse, too. Kids with lower stats got into Syracuse.
The reason?
Institutional priorities. If a school needs an English major from Colorado, theyâll snap your kid up. If they have too many from
Colorado, forget it.
On another thread, I saw a student sad they could not afford CU Boulder.
I hope your student can become excited about the options they have and not take any rejection personally. With those stats, they will do well and always have the knowledge theyâve gained.
Amherst is a great location and near several other schools for added fun.
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I donât think anyone is calling you âsexiestâ perhaps you meant sexist given your commentary?
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Agree that USC, Middlebury (and most under <20% admits) are reaches for everyone. Donât agree that a âtargetâ is always >50% admit rate.
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My main point is - you can set kids up to fall in love - a certain percent of the population is into aesthetics.
Thereâs a chat now about Vassar and not being in the best physical shape - from the tours.
WUSTL brags they have Tempur Pedic beds. High Point - you can get the Courtyard Marriott or Ritz Carlton treatment.
Too often we read - I want to go here but canât afford it - not in all cases, but in many cases, that could have been known up front and never even been given consideration, etc.
Put your kids in a position to fall in love with that safety school - so if it comes to that - they wonât be unhappy.
Thatâs my point.
Did you son apply to Allegheny and Kalamazoo?
Many schools with less than 25% admit rates are not reaches for kids coming from certain private Day schools or Boarding schools or public specialized magnets that send huge %s to T30s, and yes some are actually Likelies, for some students, based on actual data. The high school success rate , even in this new era of TO, does matter for chances. The problem is most on CC do not seem to have access to HS data or knowledgeable counselors to give these types of details, so it is safer to call them Reaches for everyone on these forums.
Accurate chancing depends on the actual kid as well as the HS they come from.
These days, I think it is. Itâs okay for us not to agree on that point, though.
No - I could have used many schools. We know someone at Allegheny in Astronomy and got a killer merit deal. I know someone at Loyola Marymount - but was very close to going to DePauw and Iâve been helping someone on here - and they got a huge deal at K that blows away higher ranked schools they got into and will provide an opportunity for their student to come to the US - whereas the others wonât.
The reality is - certain schools are wonderful but donât have the brand name. They are easier to get into, and because they donât have the brand name, they have to use incentives to get butts in seat.
This is no different than say a car manufacturer that needs to incent sedans heavily but not SUVs - because one is primo and the other isnât.
All Iâm saying is - and many have said it - nothing matters more than a safety - and there are ways for a family to get a kid to love a safety. It may not be easy or possible financially (for example to travel far) - but too many focus on the tippy top and not the bottom - and my hypothesis is that those are the ones that end up unhappy.
I got lucky - we had two early trips - Tulane (a reach) and my daughter hated, thought it was dumpy. LSU - she loved - but we never applied due to lack of Jewish life - but total safety. Charleston - I knew when we were there that was it - even though she wanted to follow through and apply to 20 and keep visiting. Total safety - her only concern was when they put up the ACT scores - they were low and she was concerned about student quality. And U of SC which I thought was a safety - and she loved it #2 - but I could tell not near as much as Charleston - and she got into Honors.
So our first four visits were to three safeties, two of which she ended up applying to and they ended up #1-2. Other trips were to Indiana and a few other safeties. Then we hit the UF, FSU, W&L, W&M, Emory, UGA, UNC etc. - those that were higher level - but before this time, she loved what she loved and those others werenât going to pass Charleston.
Maybe Iâm just lucky it worked out that way and it wasnât planned - but looking back, hitting the safeties first was a good idea!!
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Hmmm⊠I have both the kids 4 years apart so no overlap, and then 2 that are 1 year apart.
The 4 years apart is much easier to swing financially. The 2 at a time, if financial aid didnât reflect it, weâd be having to 2nd mortgage the house or something to come up with that much cash at one time once we burned thru the college fund.
But our kids either went to privates, with CSS profiles in play, or are considering a state school with no aid at all in the picture, so perhaps we wouldnât have felt this law as much.
re: changing FAFSA & efc - from what i gather, schools that use the CSS and give grant/need aid havent exactly said how they will figure out their own EFCs; so the new formula for the federal pell determination may not matter much?? For schools that dont give need-based aid, Iâm not quite sure how a larger EFC would make a difference except with subsidized loans (unless youâre pretty low income and in the pell grant range.) what am i missing on this on why people are worried?
Several of S23âs colleges (on his list that is) are private, give need based aid, and only use FAFSA.
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I find your advice for finding safeties hilarious, and kind of what we did, lol. We knew we needed safeties and we knew our kid wanted to stay in California, but needed to be in a rigorous academic environment. The California schools we could have considered safeties wouldnât have met his academic or social needs. We looked to Alabama, full ride with honor college, Arizona, some scholarship, and Purdue, not as safe a bet but likely with a nice scholarship in the end, to suit our sonâs needs. If the California schools he wanted hadnât have worked out, he could have gotten excited about those schools.
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ok - that makes sense. hadnt thought about those.
Just thinking about it - we sent my son to Purdue for a week after Junior year for STEP - because after changing his interest from Astro Physics to Professional Pilot to Atmospheric Sciences to Engineering, we wanted to see if engineering was really something of interest.
Turns out he fell in love with the school - and its food - which he raved about.
While itâs not a safety for engineering (it can be for other things) - letâs say I sent him to Ole Miss or Nebraskas, etc. it could have had a similar effect.
Thereâs a poster who is looking at Summer programs at Brown and Hobart. Perhaps if they send their kid to HWS and they love it there, thatâll make a fantastic safety (assuming the academics would support this) and theyâd have that part of the consideration set finalized.
I know someone above blocked my âhilariousâ commentary - but letâs be honest - this is how kids think. Even adults think this way so appropriate or not, itâs a reality.
I think there is a lot for future prospects to learn from past experiences.
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We thought Purdue was safe-ish for physics and that panned out. Our kid got a nice scholarship or top of already being affordable out of state. He could have found his people there and could have been proud of his alma mater. He could have also felt good about taking a full ride at Alabama and heâd have found his people in the honor college. I have doubts he could have gotten excited about UC Merced or the CSUs that could have been safeties. A lot of thought went into finding appropriate safeties.
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I donât know how we archive a post for all to see - but yes, yes, yes!!
Congrats to your family on a successfully run search.
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Others have said this, but I want to post it on its own, to highlight it:
The acceptances you listâperhaps especially Boulder, and particularly with the honors admitâare a lot of kidsâ dream schools.
I realize that the ones your kid got into donât have the USNWR cachet of the rejecteds, but USNWR rankings only count for bragging, not for either education or the âcollege experienceâ.
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Agree umass amherst is a great school.
Many kids were rejected this year. Itâs become a
Very sought after state school
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