I know SOOOOO many kids who had Ivies+ on their list,
UNTIL they get started on the applications.
My own nephew, he had a huge list, which he kept chopping off each college as he was getting burnt out with each essay.
I had him regroup:
That is true to a certain extent. Iâm not sure how it could be less random, though. Even if admittance was purely on stats, the number of kids with the requisite stats would exceed the available spots. As is, these schools have institutional priorities far beyond academics which applicants (and their anxious parents) are not privy to. I have told S24 already to go into the process expecting rejection from any T20s he applies to - that way an acceptance (should he receive one) can be a happy surprise.
Congratulations to your nephew!
My own kid applied to a bunch of them. 21 schools in total and almost all are considered âtopâ but each was carefully picked and made sense. Results were good but mixed and very random.
The yield protection is an interesting question. We have decided that S24 will apply to a bunch of schools to look for merit, esp music dependent. How do you show true interest? I think we will have to make a lot of trips to these schools to show true interest and have in person auditions, which will be an expense and time commitment in and of itself.
Weâve gone through this process twice now (in the last three years) and will be entering our final college search/selection with S24. This doesnât have to be a stressful process.
D20 applied to 3 (not a typo) schools, was accepted to both her 1st and 2nd choice before Thanksgiving and was done with the process.
D23 applied to 4 (again not a typo) schools, accepted to all 4 before Christmas and is finalizing her choice as we speak.
S24 just finished up his spring break college tourâŠhas 3 schools on his short list from that trip and now we have a much better idea of what he wants from a college campus and college experience. We will look for other schools that might also work and hopefully he will have his final list by August so that he can get all his applications in before Halloween.
Remember your child (and you) are in control of which schools are chosen, how much energy you put into the process and how much stress you imbue the process with.
There are plenty of schools that are excellent, give good to great merit and need based aid who are looking for great students to say yes to.
Neither D20 nor D23 are going to âsuper prestigiousâ schools. Both are/will be in the Top 100 (on whatever rankings you might check) which seems plenty prestigious as far as Iâm concerned (will admit we arenât into brand names).
I know it is hard to remember sometimes, but all of our decisions during a college search/admission process are choices. We have to own them, and the consequences/effects thereof.
Shopping for merit at top schools is so tough in a process where ED rules the world.
Yes, engage with the school. I donât think multiple visits are necessary but you can engage with the school online too. One thing I learned after the fact is that many schools offer optional interviews which are scheduled by the applicant and âsell outâ early. We thought it was some part of the process after we hit the submit button, and missed out on several opportunities.
I donât know where you are located, but we are in the east coast where we hoped to stay, but ended up applying to several excellent midwest schools where we thought we might have a small geographical advantage. Those schools tend to offer great merit and it turned out to be a successful strategy. If music is a consideration, Oberlin could be a great one to consider.
So this would be for schools with 30-50% acceptance rates for my high stats kids. He is not looking for a conservatory program (like Oberlin) but regular schools that have music major and offer scholarships and admissions boosts for musicians. For Ivies and other top 20s and many LACs that do not have music schools his level of music is considered a âspikeâ but for the next tier of schools it may lead to tuition reduction.
Our schoolâs college counselor said that in last yearâs senior class, a student applied to 29 schoolsâŠall but 1 were top-ranked schools. Between the application fees and the âsending the test scoresâ fees, the family spent $4000 just on the application process.
Before the kid even got admitted anywhere. She got rejected from all of the top-ranked places and attended ASU. This was a kid with a 1550+ SAT and stellar GPA and good extracurriculars.
Counselor tried to talk her out of applying to solely top-ranked places. The kid insisted, kept saying, âBut I at least have to try!â Counselor told all of us 11th grade parents that the logic of âif apply to MORE top-ranked schools and each of them is a small % chance of getting in, then when you add up all of the odds, youâre BOUND to get in to ONE of themâ is faulty reasoning.
I dont see this trend changing anytime soon. Ive come to accept it and not judge people even if I disagree with it.
This whole process is a stampede of mass applications hoping to land a Golden ticket.
Weâre applying to 2 safeties and 8 reaches, of which only 1 is an Ivy (Brown, maybe) even though our D is a top, top student.
Iâm totally fine w/students applying to wherever they want.
But you need to learn to love your safety schools, too. Donât put all of your emotional eggs in one basket. If parents want to shell out upwards of $91k/year for junior to go to NYU and you can afford it? Go for it.
I think that it should be more about a student finding the right âfitâ for them. âFitâ in terms of:
And what that looks like varies a lot from 1 family to another. Thereâs no single ârightâ answer to this.
To be honest if my S did not have a âspikeâ in music I would be discouraging him from playing this game. Pick schools that you love that are reachable and appropriate, limit the applications and go from there.
I think this post from @mtnsun13 is really insightful about how to show interest: Parents of the HS Class of 2023 (Part 1) - #9559 by mtnsun13
But not everybody can make visits, much less multiple visits. How could this technique be used if youâre not visiting these schools? If thereâs a synchronous virtual event (i.e. at a specific timeâŠnot just available to stream whenever), participate the event and email your admission counselor about the things you liked about the school/program that you learned about in the session. Even if itâs an asynchronous event, if the school just emailed out a link to their new virtual tour, or a panel with some students, or whatever, after youâve clicked on the link, then email your admissions counselor about what you liked.
Not only is this a great way to show demonstrated interest, itâs a great way to get excited about schools and to learn which ones might be a better fit. That could come up in the âwhy usâ essays if the application hasnât been submitted, but itâs also helpful once all the acceptances come in and your kidâs trying to figure out where to enroll.
excellent post! Thank you! We are planning in person scholarship and placement auditions with each program rather than recorded auditions, hopefully that will give him a boost but will definitely look at virtual events and get in touch with counselors.
This is fantastic, and I would love my children to have a similar experience --apply to 2-4 schools and be done. Actually, I donât think that my D22 was highly stressed about the whole process but if she had not received an affordable early action acceptance, she would have been. Or at least I would have been. I try to keep my teens focused on the here and now so that they can enjoy school rather than focusing on where theyâll be admitted or matriculate in the future. But without a truly affordable acceptance in December, I definitely would have been stressed and trying to hide it from D22.
But is this really true? At least not in my experience running NPCs for my D22. The in-state public options were more expensive than many private options. The schools in our area that provide generous enough merit were never a slam dunk admittance for her. She is currently a freshman at a school that covers our need entirely. The parent contribution is under 2K, which is the most that is doable for me (she has a job but no loan expectation).
D24 is looking for a college that will offer a similar package (under $5,000 total COA) and within a 4 hour driving radius from where we will be living in the fall of 24. She is just starting the search, but outside very selective colleges, there donât seem to be many affordable 4 year residential options. Yes, if she were willing to go further away and she were a NMF (she is not), she might be able to bring the COA down to 5K. But even if she limits herself to âsafetyâ schools, there is absolutely no guarantee that weâd be able to apply to 3 schools and be accepted some place that would have such a low COA. So I can shelter her from my financial stress, but unless I am missing something, I donât think there are plenty of schools that are able to fund their students to level of the highly ârejectiveâ colleges. The merit aid out there is also very competitive to get and often only a handful of admitted students receive such great merit scholarships.
I feel the same. The next year is going to a stressful for sure especially as I watch the results of the 2023 kids.
Well for the UCâs they are the state flagships for the state of California and are more affordable than OOS or private. California being a big state inspite of having many UCâs they are still not able to serve all. The UCâs let you apply to all UCâs so this complicates stuff. They are test blind now and its feels more like chance than science as how some people are getting admitted so people now apply to almost all UCâs
Totally. They talked a lot about this on a recent âYour College Bound Kidâ podcast.
Thereâs many ways to âdemonstrate/show interestâ beyond visiting in person.
All of those emails that your kid gets from School X? Click on the links in those and then spend time browsing the schoolâs website. They track what you look at based on website cookies.
Send an email with specific questions you have to the admissions office. When your assigned admissions officer responds, acknowledge that you got the email and say thank you.
Attend virtual/online information sessions.
If the college is going to be at a local college fair in your area, then go to the college fair, show up in person, ask meaningful questions beyond the stuff thatâs easily available on their website (i.e., beyond âwhat majors do you have?â).
Yes, this is key. Admissions at schools with under 15% acceptance rate arenât simply ultra competitive - theyâre unpredictable.
Yes, theyâre driven by institutional priorities but these are mostly unknowable from the outside.
And thatâs why itâs so hard for kids with amazing stats and no hooks to see someone else get accepted and donât understand why they didnât. This seeming randomness is hard for most 17 year olds to digest.
I am not sure itâs any easier for the adults in the room.