Carnegie Mellon has a google funded center on campus. If you like SoCal, USC has an amazing alum network and it is right smack in the middle of Silicon Beach. CalTech is, of course, the darling of the STEM world.
I think it’s an excellent idea to check into career placement on campus and see what types of jobs and internships kids get. If you know folks in the tech world, check out their recruiting hubs. Many companies have go-to campuses they recruit from.
Interesting suggestion. I’ll have to check with the guidance counselor in the spring.
@Learnum Make sure you have a good narrative as to why it makes better sense for your student to take the CC course for the high school course (e.g. want to go further than the AP Calc AB that the school provides, better transfer, better continuity to start @ the CC, etc.). I know our school will not allow kids to take the equivalent CC class if an AP class is already offered at the high school. I’m not sure why other than funding the schools get when kids take the classes on campus?
I see that… I read and learned about that point earlier in this thread actually - great advice to have an explanation ready if asked. I think his school may not encourage their students to substitute HS classes with JC classes. I should ask about all this before the school year ends, just so I know. I have discussed these types of issues with my friends who are parents of older students and parents of students who homeschool (some of their children will in essence have their AA degree when they graduate high school), but not with the school personnel yet. Considering our situation, I can imagine that S24 will choose to take AP Calc AB in high school and we’ll have to see what he decides to do after that.
I wouldn’t worry so much about the classes your sophomore is going to take next year and as a senior. As long as they take the most rigorous classes (that are right for them) offered at your school it is going to be fine. The most important thing to do is make sure they are getting good grades and staying involved in things that interest them. College talk too soon can turn kids off - I’ve got a senior as well as a S24 and my younger son isn’t interested at all, and that is fine. He is taking the most rigorous classes available, getting As and is involved with several ECs - that is good for now. I’ll add this - the college landscape is always changing -when my S22 was a sophomore Covid didn’t exist, TO wasn’t prevalent etc. You can’t pre-plan everything.
Our school also discourages students to take CC classes for courses that the school offers as AP classes. So if school offers it they said one of the reasons to take outside is scheduling conflicts example: you want to take 2 sciences in one year and school allows only one.
My niece took quite a few classes in CC (night classes). The school wanted to review and make sure she was taking classes that her HS didn’t offer.
Having said that some HS schools in NorCal have a special program with local CC that allows juniors/seniors to take the entire curriculum through CC. Kids don’t have to come to the HS. so it’s all school dependant. I hate that idea though.
Our school district offers it and it called middle college I think. I know some one who took that option. The main reason they did this was they felt they had more freedom and they felt that the classes in CC were less stressful compared to HS. We are in highly competitive district.
I was going through another thread in CC regarding yield protection. My conclusion was that most if not many private colleges operate like a business, yield protection exists, and the need for financial aid does impacts admission.
For those who have gone through the process already, do you think that’s true?
In the common app, every college has a required line item asking if you require need-based financial aid. Are need-blind schools truly need-blind if they ask applicants if they required need-based aid?
Here is my understanding: a college admissions office sets up its review system. The data from Common App that displays to admission officers in reviewing an app may not include every field in the app, and AOs at need-blind schools are not seeing that financial aid checkbox up front. In short, I believe that need-blind schools are need-blind for initial admission decisions. (Waitlist is an entirely different matter.) Another example of the difference between what is in the app and what is on the AO’s screen: some test optional schools may have set up their process of review that does not display the test scores, or possibly even that scores were submitted, unless the AO does something or the app reaches some juncture in the process.
Yield protection could be considered yield management, or yield prediction. It boils down to the likelihood of the student attending if admitted. Algorithms are an important part of this, though one wonders how, as a practical matter, determinations are made when an algorithm says this kid is not likely to attend but the supplemental essays give a different impression subjectively (maybe there is a score for that too? lol, probably). Apparently, enrollment management consulting is a $15B/yr industry.
As an aside, from last year’s experiences, I wonder whether test score (where a student submitted) was more weighted in the yield algorithms than in the rest of the admission decision. In other words, I wondered whether there was something oxymoronic where a high score could lead to a low value via the yield algorithm for likelihood of attending (as in, likelihood of being admitted somewhere else more desirable), but yet not weighed significantly by the college in question for academic strength of the applicant, as test optional policies may have reduced the value of scores compared to other portions of the app. (Am I making sense? need to reword…)
What makes you say waitlist is a different matter? Do need-blind schools turn need-aware when they try to fill the gaps with waitlisted applicants?
Yes
It really depends on the school, but it’s safe to say they all have to meet the budget and they are driven by rankings.
Most public schools are fairly straightforward, and it’s often stats driven. Private schools are far more focused on yield and ability to pay. An easy way to look at it is schools that use EA instead of ED aren’t all that concerned about yield. The more a school leans on ED the more they need to lock in guaranteed acceptances. With ED you don’t get to compare final cost, but with EA/RD you can and will spread them out on the kitchen table and decide.
As for need blind or aware, it’s safe to assume every college has a budget for tuition revenue. They don’t get to May, sit down at a conference table, and find out that their awesome incoming class is a little poorer than usual so they need to hit the endowment hard. Harvard has a $40+ billion endowment, so I’m sure there is a fair amount of leeway. At most other private schools a miss might mean someone’s job, and that’s why EM software/consulting is a $15 billion a year industry.
Schools know the cost of ECs, parent’s education level, parent’s degrees, parent’s address so they also can estimate equity, and a whole bunch of other data points that can be used to predict financial need. The person reading the app and judging the essays doesn’t know that info but the people shaping the class certainly do.
ETA: public schools use instate and out of state tuition to balance the books and budget a certain % of OOS students. It’s on the admissions department to hit that number of enrolled students.
Selection from the waitlist is really the final shaping of the class, so the school will take what they need from that group. It might be a kid from WY so they can say there is a freshman from every state, it might be an URM, or it might be a full pay kid.
The above statement confuses me. Who are the people shaping the class? and are they the ultimate decision-maker? and they are different than AO who reads the app?
Information on who is need-blind is also very spotty and doesn’t seem accurate. For example,
https://www.edmit.me/blog/need-blind-vs-need-aware-colleges
says Boston College, Boston University and NYU are need-blind. However, only BC website explicitly says they are need-blind. Stanford, MIT, and Harvard’s website also explicitly states they are need-blind.
So, I’m guessing if the school’s website doesn’t explicitly state they are need-blind, then they are not need-blind.
I can understand why schools don’t want to admit that they do consider financial needs.
So, I’m guessing if the school’s website doesn’t explicitly state they are need-blind, then they are not need-blind.
Correct.
I agree with @AlwaysMoving in that even if the school says they are need-blind, there is going to be a checkpoint where they have to balance the class so that by May, they’re not dealing with a budget issue with everyone coming in need financial aid. That would be the practical approach. That said, we don’t know the inner-workings of admissions 100% so maybe the schools who say they are need-blind is truly 100% need-blind and if choosing between two equally qualified candidates, they would still pick the student with need despite having to balance the budget? I’m just way too jaded and skeptical. LOL.
@i_am_taxed The people shaping the student body for that incoming year is the admission officials/admission dean and his/her group. In terms of yield protection or yield management, I think for some colleges, it comes down to running it like a business. If they have high yields, it feeds into the college ranking surveys, it helps their bonds (just like how test score averages plays a factor in their bonds investments, etc.). All of that is true. There is also a matter of yield management. Colleges really want to have the perfect amount of kids. Not enough, they fall short on quota. Too many kids saying yes would mean not enough housing or capacity to support them. I know private schools that do this and I would think public schools do this, too. In my mind, there should be no reason why CSU San Jose automatically rejects a valedictorian with solid EC’s but accepts a student with a 3.6 GPA and lower math rigor history for their engr program. Somehow, some formula is in-play here. With test-optional and such high application rates at some schools, I think those schools are using ED/EA and waitlist more to help with either yield protection results or yield management.
The admission office has need-based aid info at their fingertips (required line item in the common app’s school-specific question section).
I would be very skeptical if they don’t look at all even for need-blind school. It would be interesting to see how much need-blind schools use the info.
It seems like if one’s goal is to maximize the acceptance rate, apply to a school
Why would the admission officer reject such a candidate?
SJSU would reject valedictorians because they know it would only bring down their yield similar to countless stories of Tufts/Northeastern putting top students on the waitlist.
I was surprised with CSU San Jose because it is a public/state school. I personally always thought that need-blind meant that if a student was qualified and the school really wanted them, they wouldn’t reject the student s/he doesn’t have enough money to attend. They would take them and give them $. That said, they would still have to round out their overall portfolio of students and budget is a factor.
In regards to maximizing chances to get accepted, I wouldn’t worry about need-aware, need-sensitive, need-blind. That is just another complicated factor for a kid to have to figure out. If application fee is not an issue, I’d just have the student apply to their curated list. If there are absolute dream school and family is able to afford it, I would then support (which we did) my kid applying ED and saying no financial aid needed.
If money and app fee is an issue, I would still hope that student seeks app fee waivers, curate their list, but with more realism in terms of applying to more targets and safety schools.
I personally don’t think it’s realistic to assume you would maximize your acceptance rate if stat is not in the 75%tile. I think it’s still iffy at 50%tile. Based on anecdotal data of the 11-12 kids I helped last year.
Are you sure about SJSU. I think they use a different category to do this. There criteria is different and they have what is the called impaction score that is calculated based on GPA and other stuff.