Utah, in general. We have spent some time in the state. Lovely people, but family has some Mormon in the background which has been interesting. I will leave it there.
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Well, kid got his first college-related rejection email. For a summer program he applied to. We kind of knew this was coming but heās going to be so disappointed. He did get invited to something else hosted at the school, so I figure this is good practice for not getting too discouraged when you get rejected while pursuing a goal.
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my sonās guidance counselor calls them ālikelies.ā
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This happened to us last year. Our D applied to Kenyon summer writing program and Iowa Young Writers Studio. Kenyon put her on waitlist and she was really disappointed but then later she got into Iowa so she was thrilled.
The agony of defeat and the thrill of victory.
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Congrats on Iowa Young Writers Studio! Thatās great.
S only applied to one summer program but heās got a great summer job teaching math at a local math center and has sport competitions until the beginning of August, so hopefully he wonāt dwell on this too much.
I agree that it is a good practice. My son was very disappointed that he didnāt get into the summer camp he thought he had a good chance. I told him this is a good practice because similar things will happen during his college application process.
Overall, she loved her experience because of the great people at IYWS and the fellow students. But the 2 takeaways from her time there were:
- She didnt want to be a writer.
- She didnt want to go to a rural school like Iowa.
It did give her a chance to live on a college campus and āfeelā like a college student and she made 2 great friends whom she still talks to regularly.
It also made her realize she wanted a big city experience and not a small college town.
I dont want to disparage IYWS because it is a fantastic program and we donate to their scholarship fund because as I stated earlier, they are wonderful people who really care about the kids.
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Totally agree with all of this, S had one rejection, one waiting list and a few acceptances to summer programs and actually is winding up at the place that is the best fit for him. It is outstanding practice for the year to come.
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Does anyone know anything about fly in programs? Is there any point in applying if you are not low income?
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I agree with you its a good learning experience. Son got rejected last year for a summer program that he applied and was also upset. This year he applied to few got into one, waitlisted at one and rejected at one, missed the deadline for applying for one as he was doing it in last minute and the university was in east coast while we are west coast because of time difference he was kicked out of the app. So now he has experienced various possible results and I think itās a good practice for the upcoming college applications.
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So does my sonās. āLove your likelies!ā
DS2022 was accepted to MIT WISE fly-in program (but it was covid time, so it was virtual).
We are not low income, but son is URM.
I HIGHLY recommend fly-ins, because I truly believe that WISE was the thing that pushed him into the YES pile.
He was deferred from EA,
and acceptance rate in RD from EA deferral was under 1.9%.
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S is not an URM but is a high performance musician so we were thinking of him applying to a fly in at his first choice school. He will also apply ED and meet with the music department. Figure the more interest they see even if he isnt accepted to the fly in is beneficial right?
Had our family college meeting with the head of college counseling at Dās school today. It really hit home that Jr. year is almost over. Weāve been through this once with D20, but Iām just not ready for D24 to be a senior! Good luck to all the 24s to finish the year strong! Itās definitely getting real now.
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Had our last college guidance meeting scheduled this morning. D24 and I arrived early, as scheduled, before school. Counselor was a no show. We were told, upon our arrival, that counselor had to reschedule. Wellā¦I took off from work. D24 is spending her free time in labs (so, when, exactly, are we to reschedule, especially when we scheduled this time?). No prior notice, and to date no further communication. Now, this is the same counselor we had for S22. At no point in the process for either kid has counselor asked questions like: what is the budget or what is student interested in? Nope. None of that. Counselorās advice on when to take the ACT conflicted with the math teacher. We went with the math teacher. But kids made a composite of 34 on the ACT. Counselor missed the release of NMF for the Class of 2022 (I had to call and ask her about it because the local media was about to release the schoolās list). Our kids go to a private high school. We pay a lot. Their education is good. Their teachers are good. Their college guidance is abysmal. Of course, we need this counselor to write recommendations. Soā¦I have to tread lightly. For now. The day is coming.
I think the counselor sounds like hot garbage and I hope you can express that after your children are done with process.
At same time, I can understand counselor not asking about budget for a few reasonsā¦the biggest being that unless you want to get granular with your finances - your budget and what individual schools are going to cost are way beyond the scope of a counselors job/business.
Also, as weāve seen on this board time and again - what someone (student and/or family) says their budget is and what is actually turns out to be are often in conflict. I think it makes sense for a school guidance counselor to stay well away from budget discussions unless and until it is a specific part of their job description.
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It sounds like families here are all over the place in terms of how far along we are in the process of college applications. I am feeling anxious because I know there is so much to do, but I feel like there is very little we can do until (1) S24 has the time and the mental energy to put into visiting more schools or thinking more about what he wants from a school; and (2) we get his āfinal statsā (grades for this year, 2nd taking SAT results from June, AP results).
This week is fairly stressful for him because he has finals in all of his āacademicā classes, as well as prep for AP tests the next two weeks. Two weeks from today, though, he is done with everything except his music class.
He will probably do some prep for the June SAT, but we also scheduled his high school āadventure tripā for the last week of May. The trip probably wouldnāt be a big deal to most people, but we donāt get to do any family travel due to our younger kidsā special needs. We have made a point to take each of our older kids on a trip to do some thing related to one of their interests and that will stretch them a bit out of their comfort zone during their junior or senior year. Last summer S23 did a road trip with dad to Cleveland to see the Rock ānā Roll Hall of Fame. This year S24 is going to fly to Nashville with dad to see the Broadway touring show of Into the Woods.
I am hopeful that his excitement about that adventure will make up for a bit of the grind that this year has been and next year is likely to be. 
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FWIW, people in this forum are not a typical representative sample and way ahead of most people on this process. Most people donāt do anything until the fall of Senior year, besides maybe taking one of the standardized tests.
My latest who just concluded this process ignored all our prodding, refused to do any tours, did nothing to demonstrate interest anywhere, and did most of his apps last minute. And it worked out well.
Donāt get me wrong ā itās awesome if you and your son can do more sooner. But I wouldnāt let it stress you in April.
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I recognize that. However, when S22 when was applying her sole suggestion was that he apply to schools ālike Stanford and Georgia Tech for Computer Scienceā. Nowā¦I know what the admission rates are for Computer Science are at those universities. At that meeting, I pointedly noted that while S22 certainly had the stats to be accepted at comparable universities, CS was one of the hardest majors for acceptance. I also explained that such universities were not within financial reach. I pointedly asked asked why her sole recommendations in S22ās college search were two of the more difficult schools for admissions (which would certainly reflect well on her and the high school in general)?
Oh sheās definitely hot garbage. And a terrible counselor. And I still think the finance piece is not, and should not be, in her purview.
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