This entire college application process is broken. That’s just my opinion.
I equate it to companies putting out a job ad when their intention is to hire internally unless a perfect candidate sends in their resume. Meanwhile, they’re wasting everyone else’s time.
The ridiculous amount of EC’s that kids feel like they have to do - being president of this club, that club, trying to win that elusive award to impress a bunch of strangers and spending hours upon hours crafting an essay that most AOs will glance at for 5 -10 minutes at most.
Meanwhile, colleges are sending tons of direct mail, spam email, and endless communication to feed their applicant pool.
The worst part is it’s cloaked in some mysterious secrecy so parents have to wade through the experience along with their kids trying to support each other while also looking for some narrow path to “victory”. Isnt this why so many people are here?
What a complete cluster of brain power, mental and financial resources that could be used for better purposes - like celebrating their academic and social wins in High school instead of the Teen Squid Games.
Yes! I agree 100%! My S24 initially wanted small to mid-size LAC with a focus on teaching and small classes. Then he switched and applied EA to 9 SEC/ACC football powerhouse schools. I have encouraged him to also apply to some of the smaller schools he initially loved, plus some honors programs, so hopefully he will like his options in the spring
I agree a gap year is the right choice for many people. My husband should have taken a gap year, and instead had to transfer. I know several kids who had great experiences with gap years (and some who got stuck in the gap, too). I have asked my son if a gap year interests him; currently it doesn’t. But if he never gets excited, that is a path I agree merits serious consideration.
Same here! With S22 I got on Scoir every.single.day to monitor the updates. I also could figure out who all the main players were based on parent chatter, majors, ACT scores. I will also say not a single other parent at the school even knew about the wonder of the Scattergram.
He does. I think mostly he is wise enough to take them with an appropriate sense of caution, although I do worry about a bit of overconfidence in a couple cases. Like, he has what was classified as a target that I think he has mentally reclassified as a likely/safety based on the fact there are no flat denials anywhere close to his range. But there are some waitlisted:unknowns scattered in among the acceptances, really all over the map. Like, the highest cluster is still two acceptances and one waitlist:unknown.
I don’t know the story there. This is a demonstrated interest college, so maybe that is it, and he is interested and tried to demonstrate it. But I “prefer” (just for safer admissions purposes) the peer of that school where there are notably fewer (although not no) waitlist:unknowns anywhere near him. But he is dragging his feet a bit on getting that application done.
Anyway, knock on wood all this is totally moot anyway. But I do wonder if this is helpful at all, or really just too much information.
Yeah, philosophically I totally agree with that. Practically–I think it would be nice for him to move on from all this to focusing purely on having a great senior year. But honestly, I am pretty chill about whatever happens with his REA school.
I would say that is super normal (if that is not a contradiction). The unhooked kids I know about have chosen an ED school that is not totally unrealistic, but also not safely likely either. I am sure there are exceptions, but I think being in that general range you described is very common.
One always wonders about the degree of truth in all these essays and ECs, when the AOs simply don’t have the allocated time to check and verify the truth of these statements. This is exactly what the college scandal coach exploited to the n-th degree
Joining here a little late - DD24 has submitted one rea and 4 rd with last scholarship essay in last night; we are in Europe and this is so different to the process she has running in parallal at home! We are mystified how AOs get through the number of applications never mind verify them.
It really does. S24 is now 18 and drove himself to an orthopedics appt yesterday that was about 40 minutes away. He texted me from the exam room while he was waiting for the Ortho to come in and says “guess who just pre-screened me for the ortho? My third grade teacher’s SON”. He totally remembers her talking about her son when he was in third grade about how he was applying to medical schools. This was THE teacher who made him actually not hate school after a very rocky start with a horrible first grade teacher. She retired at the end of his third grade school year and there were any tears shed. Anyway, it was interesting to hear my son say time flies when I feel like usually it only flies for the grownups and barely moves from their perspective.
I mentioned this in another thread, being done by 12/1 (which S24 is) adds so much relief to my life. I appreciate it even more having gone through the agony of late spring notifications with S22.
I both agree and disagree. On CC, there is a tendency to forget that most colleges accept most applicants. Moreover, most students don’t apply to the kind of schools that require anything more than good grades (and sometimes test scores) along with a few ECs to show that the kid is doing something outside of school. That’s it. S22 had what I’d consider to be weaker than average EC’s, but he still got into most of the schools he applied to - all ranked 50-100. Where things get tricky is when it comes to “elite” college admissions - what I’m going through now with S24. He’s has an outstanding academic profile (3.98/1580) but he’s unhooked so his chances aren’t great at his reach schools - he has strong ECs, but they are typical HS stuff - varsity athlete, part-time job, volunteering, academic clubs etc. and that isn’t likely to be “enough” at many of the schools he is interested in. While frustrating, it is what it is. I remind myself often (and him too) that he has had a lot of wonderful opportunities that most kids don’t get and he’ll do well wherever he lands.
Has anyone here been affected by Alabama’s scholarship issues? Students here who were accepted with the auto scholarships for National Merit, received a letter weeks later saying they had canceled the National Merit scholarship program.
Disclaimer: Effective October 19, 2023, the National Recognition Scholarship has been discontinued. The University of Alabama will honor the award value for any student who qualified for the National Recognition Scholarship and received an admitted admission decision on or before October 19.
National Recognition Scholars who submit an application and all supporting documents by the January 15 priority deadline will be eligible for competitive awards up to tuition and the new UA Competitive Achievement Scholarship. Details on the new scholarship are below. Please visit the National Recognition FAQ webpagefor more information.
The students I have heard from didn’t meet that 10/19 date (because it wasn’t advertised), so they aren’t guaranteed the same $. My daughter didn’t apply to Alabama, so it doesn’t affect us, but it’s very disappointing.
There’s a slight difference between National Recognition and National Merit Finalist. If I recall Alabama was one of the few universities to offer any scholarship (let alone the one that they did) for National Recognition. The change did not affect National Merit Finalist scholars.
National Recognition is a College Board program that recognizes high performing minority students. It is different from the one sponsored be the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
