Parents of the HS Class of 2024

Of course that’s what’s happening. Look at schools that have a reputation of having upper income kids:

Vanderbilt, Wash U, SMU, Tulane, NYU, Wake Forest

Im surprised BC didnt fall.

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It’s true but I don’t think that the entire story.

in 2023, they considered the below but decided not to in 2024.

  • Class size 8% → 0%
  • Alumni giving average 3% → 0%
  • Graduate debt proportion borrowing 2% → 0%
  • High school class standing 2% → 0%

Total 15%. → 0%

in 2024, the new items are

  • First generation graduation rates 0% → 2.5%
  • First generation graduation rate performance 0 → 2.5%

Overall, large public schools benefited from the change. Personally, I don’t really care since DS24 list is not based on the ranking.

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It’s interesting we made a spreadsheet of USNWR, Forbes, Niche and WSJ rankings for his 10 schools just to show S24 that it doesn’t really matter b/c depending who you ask they rank very differently. Was really interesting actually to see such dramatic difference depending on which ranking system.

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Yes they tried to level the field due to the criticisms they had received in the past that their factors tended to benefit wealthy, small schools.

But that does not mean they are rewarding schools that accept more students from lower-income families. For that statement to be true, one of the factors would have to be “percent of students that are Pell grant recipients”.

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Just received the email to sign the ED agreement on D24’s common app. Guess things are progressing…

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I did the same a few days ago. He just needs to finish the application now🤓

I took a look for D24’s list and the biggest change for hers was that UNC Wilmington, staying almost the same, is now ranked below UNC Charlotte, which jumped from 219 to 178.

A couple of her reaches (UNC Chapel Hill and Georgia Tech) will probably end up even reachier due to their higher rankings.

A couple of schools went from T50 to T100 or vice versa.

Interesting, but nothing that would make her change course at this point.

S24 submitted all 6 Common Apps this weekend. Having to do the personal essay and resume over the summer for one school with rolling admission was a huge gift. The school counselor submitted the school report and recommendation today. Just waiting on the teachers recommendations.

He is applying to two UCs, so he still has the UC App. He has 2 PIQs done, a solid outline for the third, and is trying to decide between a few ideas for the 4th. He says he needs a break because he is tired of writing about himself. He found the virtual workshops on PIQs and activities hosted by the UCs to be very useful and reassuring.

While I am thrilled that S24 has made such progress, he is definitely not the norm. His counselor said she was able to do his recommendation really fast because he is the first in a class of 900+ to get his recommendation packet turned in.

They are still running workshops on how to make a college list at his school. The process is actually just starting for the vast majority. And many kids actually benefit from being in school for a few weeks so they can get excited about the process with their peers.

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S24 is still considering Williams for ED. The continued number 1 LAC rank and now no supplemental essay will make their acceptance rate plummet even further.

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I don’t think the ranking will have any impact on Williams applications. It stayed status quo. It’s been in that slot for a while.

With Williams (and some of its peers), I would suggest your S24 check in with the school counselor and confirm they haven’t given commitments to multiple athletes at his HS already. There are years at my kids school where its a wasted ED because they have already picked as many as they will from one school beforehand.

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Ha. Wrong school! We had two D1 commits last year but they are very few and very far between. Williams is a very uncommon school for our HS and my S is only interested because he has a music spike.

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D24 got accepted today to ASU and U of Arizona (we are in state). Also received $5k merit award from U of A!

UNM’s Common App seems to have issues. Am going to have her submit that through their website instead.

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Of course, the ranking changes shouldn’t affect college lists. But, this being CC where we kick around these sorts of ideas, is there any chance that app volume would change at the margin for highly selective schools that moved dramatically up or down in ranking? Hard to imagine that high school seniors are that fickle or uninformed, and yet, I wonder. Anyone recall examples of that in past years?

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IMHO They might get more applications, but I doubt there will be a significant increase. IIRC they didn’t have a supplemental essay for fall 2021 applicants and there were more applicants than last year, but not a huge amount. I suspect that some of the possible Hail Mary applicants will be weeded out if they don’t submit the optional academic paper and/or scientific research abstract.

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Dropping class size as a consideration does not make sense to me. I have taught graduate classes and there was a significant difference in learning outcomes when I taught the same material online/in a large lecture/in a small section. Perhaps my teaching gifts were limited and better suited to a small setting, but my colleagues had similar experiences.

We have nearly ruled out our very highly ranked state flagship because online classes and huge lectures are the norm and those just do not work for my kids. But it sure reduces cost and slashes debt ratios.

We are choosing schools for the overall learning experience and community, not rankings.

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Like, if you think the new US News methodology was rough on my “Larger-metro Upper-Middle All-Stars” (LUMAS? sure, why not), that is nothing compared to how the WSJ beat up on them.

Their message was basically if you don’t either place more people into CS and Investment Banking, or at least provide social mobility to a slightly larger percentage than usual, you ain’t worth their spit.

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Activities sheet is done, Personal Statement looks good, and so does the “Overcome a Challenge” supplement. Now, S24 is working on the “why us” supplements, which are the most difficult IMHO, especially when you apply to 12 or more schools.

LORs have been requested and school guidance counselor has Son’s final list and approves.

I was telling Son about the USN rankings. He doesn’t care except he is half-hoping schools like Wake and Tulane will be a little easier this year. I doubt it but it doesn’t hurt to hope!

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Is your son applying ED to Tulane?

This article shows how grim applying to Tulane RD is.
“Of the 14,000 or so high-school students who applied to Tulane on the RD schedule, just 106 got in. That makes Tulane’s official (RD) acceptance rate a mind-blowing 0.7%.” (yr2020 or 2021?)

Applying EA to Tulane and will likely convert to ED2 if necessary/given the chance.

I really hate Tulane’s RD stats. They should remove the category and make everyone apply EA.

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Tulane got a new Admissions Director in the past year or two (the old one went to Northeastern :face_with_diagonal_mouth:) and they were making a big deal last year that ED/RD we’re going to be different than in the past. I don’t know how it all shook out in the end, but people on the 2023 board said the admissions talks all said it wouldn’t be like it had been in the past. :woman_shrugging:t2:

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