Thank you so much!
Sort of a random question but is anybody running into random judgmental comments about college from grandparents yet? My dad came for a visit yesterday and he was chock full of ridiculousness. But to put it mildly, heās a bit of a nutter anyway. Between that and my mother in lawās assumptions that my kids can get into Ivy League schools entirely based on where they went to high school, Iām like, āStick a fork in me ācuz Iām just DONE!ā 
Another whole year.
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The entire standardized testing policy is annoying.
Itās stressful for the kids (even if the parents tell them not to worry).
If they get a high score, itās a small factor that the AO spends 30 seconds reviewing even though kids spent countless hours prepping.
They get a great score and it may not matter. They get a decent score, itās not good enough for the super selective schools.
You go test optional and there may be an implicit bias why you didnt submit scores but other tops kids at your school did.
Now it creates an arms race that only the top scores get submitted so a 1500 SAT is in the bottom 25% percentile at these schools.
Itās almost a lose/lose where a 1570 is like an annoying cover charge that only gets you in the door but could still get beat out because the school needs a really good trumpet player in their band.
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We heard a ton from grandparents with Kid #1 about college admissions and choices. They had a pretty unrealistic idea of what the landscape looked like and there was quite a bit of āSmile and Nodā while they spoke and heart to hearts with D20 about ignoring their āinputā without arguing it.
They now are huge boosters for the school D20 ended up attending after expressing hesitation at its lack of āname brand prestigeā. Her experience has been so overwhelmingly positive that they are converts to its charms.
All this to say, get ready for a lot of āSmile and Nodā this year.
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Congratulations! Same with our kid. Heās got a good mix of colleges on his list and his score is in the mid-50 range of the most selective school heās considering, so he wants to be done with the test now. Weāre ok with that.
I feel you so much. Itās just from my mom, thankfully my in-laws donāt seem to care where my kids go. And we are in the middle of watching the dumpster fire that is my nieceās admissions process for this year and I think they get it now. She is a high stats kid who thought anything over 50% acceptance rate was a safety for her. She only got into a few of her safeties and made the mistake of not loving her safeties and is a mess now b/c she feels like she has ānowhereā to go. They get why my kid will apply to the schools he is applying to. My mother on the other hand still thinks Ivy only and it is a sure thing b/c he is āhandsome and niceā lord give me the strength
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I watched āBorrowed Futureā last night. If you havenāt heard of it, itās a documentary about the student loan/student debt crisis in the US. It was really hard to watch and brought up all kinds of feelings for me. I went to school 1991-1995 and remember my mother saying āgo where you want and just take out loansā. So I did. These are 17/18 year old kids who have no idea what they are getting themselves into when they click that button on the computer to accept the loan. I am one of the lucky ones who graduated ready to start my career in the health care field and was able to start repayment at the 6 month mark. Millions of people are not so lucky. I got really emotional watching it and ended up crying for these people who told their stories. It is just insane what has happened to higher education in the last 25 years in terms of cost, ārankingsā, etc., etc. I know I am preaching to the choir here, but for anyone who hasnāt had a chance to watch it, it is worth it. Itās on Amazon Prime. Even if you are lucky enough to not need financial aid for your kids, it is worth a watch.
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Wrong thread 
I know a very good tutor for SAT/ACT. Please PM if someone is looking for a tutor.
Based on how this admissions cycle is shaping up, looking like many of the schools that were targets for S24 will be reaches for him 
and the likewise will be targets. Itās scary that this gets worse/harder/more stressful every year.
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Iām wondering if this is really the case, though. That is, are colleges truly being more selective with their admittances, or are they pulling in a larger pool of applications thereby driving their admission percentages down even though theyāre admitting the same types of students they did previously? Iām sure itās a combination of both of those and other factors, but Iām inclined to think that the profile for a ātypical admitted/attending studentā at any particular school hasnāt changed that much, but instead the ease of applying to more and more schools (via Common App or lack of standardized test requirements, e.g.) has increased the pool of applications more dramatically than any changes to selection criteria.
That said, if there are a greater number of qualified students applying to a particular school, the chances of admission certainly decrease and it seems to become more of a random chance for acceptance, all other things being equal. Iām sure itās also different at different tiers of schools.
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NYT has a nice article where they talk to 30 somethings about their college choice and if they would go to the same school all over again.
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Our HSās regular instruction basically ends a month from tomorrowā¦on 4/28. Dang! Thatās coming up fast. And thereās AP exams for the 1st 2 wk of May. D24 has 5 of them. Sheās starting to get burned out, has said that sheās looking forward to a summer of no homework. Glad we scrapped the plans for her to take a summer community college class.
She was in tears on the way home from school on Fri. All of her classmates were talking at school on Fri about their 3/11 SAT scores. 1 particularly vocal kid complained about how she āonlyā got a 1490 and then commented that āWell, so-and-so is poor and heās black, so of COURSE heāll get into an Ivy.ā 
Rude. D24 was crying so much, said that she feels like the dumbest kid at school sometimes when kids like this other student make test score comments and complain that they āONLYā got an A-.
In the spirit of ālove the schools that love you back,ā I had her watch some virtual tours of dorm rooms yesterday of 2 pretty much āsure thingā admits at OOS schools. She liked some of those dormsā¦REALLY liked 1 of them at UNM. So I think that is helping brush off the Friday commentary from Butthead Betty (not her real name, of course).
We also got some recommendations from the AP Music Theory teacher on how to prep for the exam a little better.
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@sbinaz, Tell her not to worry about those comments. Your school seems to be much better. Our school is the worst school. Most of the work in Science Fair, volunteering all that is done by parents. Itās like a competition between the parents not between the kids. If talk to the school superintendent about that he thinks I have to explain my kid. They have 23 APs, there are kids who finished even multivariable calculus in 10th grade. Itās so crazy and making these kids feel themselves inferior or under performers.
When I was growing up or in college, 75-80% was an excellent achievement and now the society is making them feel that they are failure kids. Even the colleges also expect a 15 year old to publish a paper, invent a cure for the cancer and all this is becoming a big business. To achieve the kidās dreams, parents are involving too much. I know cases where parents completed the kidās homework from online class in a community college.
I really donāt know what values these parents are teaching the next generation kids. Your daughter is motivated and she will be successful.
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For what it is worth, I donāt post very often in Class of 2024 parents forum (though I also have a D24). However, I have been following your journey here. Your daughter sounds like a terrific kid, and you are a great mom. I am really impressed with the balance that you have found --you are giving her the space to figure out what she wants from college while also giving her loving support and practical guidance. Bravo to your parenting, bravo to your daughterās thoughtfulness, and boo to her thoughtless classmates. Tell her not to pay them any mind. Those sorts of comments can turn a positive school community into a toxic one, and they should be ignored.
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Iām wondering if schools will be pulling more from the waitlist this year. Iāve heard many schools have been having trouble accurately judging yields with increasing numbers of people applying to 20 schools. Are they managing that by waitlisting more and pulling from the waitlist earlier? If so that is a different environment that Iām not sure how to account for.
(Just as an anecdote, my S23 just got into BU spring start. It was a reach for him and many people with MUCH better stats didnāt get in. It does feel a bit random, but like you have to give a school you like a shot because you canāt guess the outside.)
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My high stats niece got WL at BU- only got into her three safeties, deferred/WL from targets and reaches.
D24 just got her March ACT scores back. Did not think she had done well. To her surprise, every section went up and she beat her superscore by 2 full points. She is now done and can focus on applications this summer instead of test prep.
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AWESOME!! Way to go!
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Thanks for sharing. It was interesting. Two students were from University of Chicago - really underscores that it is really, really a fit school. Also, the most important lesson from this article - no matter how prestigious the school, do NOT borrow a lot of money for undergrad. It really hampers your life.
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