Yes we have been through this some time ago with our Son. So For the first time readers its important to have safeties, matches and reaches list and be particularly sure to be happy to attend a couple of colleges/universities from each list. We were really high on liberal arts colleges back then. They are worth exploring especially for any one who has graduate education in mind. Highly suggest first time applicants to read “colleges that change lives”. Eventhough my son didn’t attend an LAC, he applied the concepts and got a great education from Cornell. Big universities have so much to offer, One can even get broad based education at undergrad level if they desire it. Cornell is very underrated among its peer universities for what it has to offer.
It Looks like it became more competitive for majors like CS and in general admission rates are falling across the board. Also Colleges actively recruiting full pay international students change things a bit for sure. Planning to monitor the admission results this cycle to come up with reasonable lists for D24.
My advice is to focus on why Princeton. What is it about Princeton that makes it unique and the stand alone top choice? It has to be something more than location (tons of privates in the NE) or that Princeton is prestigious.
Also, what is her brand? There will be 10,000+ students with top scores and grades competing with your D, so what makes her stand out? How can you find an external validation of those unique traits? Winning an award for her art would be an example of an external validation.
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, and Caltech are so hard to get into because they don’t have ED and give fantastic financial aid.
Jeff Selingo wrote a re great article for The Atlantic about how broken college admissions is right now. Jeff has been writing and active in high ed for decades, so his insight is valuable.
MIT usually admits one girl and one boy every year from our school which is a math science magnet in the state and Princeton is known to admit atleast 3 girls each year. So there is that. atleast 10 percent of the student body goes to top schools.
As you observed why essays are important. Yes all these Universities and LAC’s (Swarthmore has 5% acceptance rate) are very hard to get in to and cliched essays won’t get them there obviously.
3 acceptances a year to Princeton is excellent!
That was definitely an interesting read!
D24 will NOT be applying ED anywhere. We will be chasing merit scholarships.
This year looks really crazy, I am thinking that the audition process for kids going into conservatory programs that seemed so random is actually more rational than the general admissions process. I don’t understand how they are making these decisions. Our school also had excellent results this year with multiple kids to brown, princeton, NU, and ones to Cal Tech, Vanderbilt, Stanford and Yale but most were ED. That seems to be the way to go for T10 schools.
A NYTimes article about Ivy admissions decisions from 1970! https://twitter.com/AndyBorstUofI/status/1379397901823184896
How’s Everyone doing? Its been very quiet around here :).
S24 is very busy this semester due to taking an additional class online and Tennis season here for us. He has also started working as tennis coach on weekends so keeping fully busy. Waiting for end of next week when the Tennis season at school will be done so he can start relaxing.
Busy. Some ups and downs. learned that D24 currently has a 79% in French, which is very frustrating. Had an 85 at end of 2nd trimester. She admitted yesterday to not studying enough, promised to study more, and then we snapped at each other today when I reminded her to do the very thing that she promised to do (study more).
Her performance in math class has slipped a bit as well because they just wrapped up trigonometry and she’s always struggled in that. It’s a good thing that she is not interested in computer science or engineering as a college major because, as she put it the other day, “I don’t want to do 2 years of college calculus.”
She’s in a children’s community choir 1 evening a week. Today, the choir director announced that starting next school year, they’re adding an additional choir just for 11th and 12th graders. Requires an audition. You have to do some sort of ‘senior capstone project.’ It’s been also set up to coordinate w/3 local school districts so you get a special fine arts seal on your HS diploma (we’re not in any of those 3 districts).
Choir director talked a lot about “blah blah blah, it’ll be a great way for you to show leadership and build your resume” in the parent-student meeting this evening.
D24 is going to pass on the higher level choir, said she doesn’t want it to start feeling like a job, and all she wants to do is sing with her friends. She doesn’t want to major or even minor in music in college. She also said that she’s already going to have a lot of school work and other stuff going on in 11th and 12th grade and thinks this will be a little too much.
In other news, she talked about this AP Bio lab they did today in class…something involving big worms that sort of look like large meal worms. She has to bring 2 types of vegetables to school tomorrow for the rest of the lab. Talked half the way home from choir practice about worms. This is the same kid who picked up the little red wiggler worms in a worm compost bin at a demonstration farm on her 6th grade field trip and was talking to the worms and telling them how cute they are.
LOL.
4 years later and she still likes worms.
Haha that’s me too! All creatures. I still love to pick them up and scare my husband and DD with them!
We are so ready for spring break here. S24 finally has his summer plans set, a little disappointment tempered by a surprise program that looks fantastic. He has some big auditions in the next few weeks which is very exciting and we think he finally decided on schedule for next year (woohoo!) Hoping this will be an exciting last few months of school, it is a bit odd for them that they are sophomores and will be taking finals for the first time, not sure how that will go.
Things are busy around here and definitely looking forward to spring break for some relaxation! D24 is busy with dance performances with her school team and studio classes, getting ready for other ecs to wrap up and looking ahead to summer! Hard to believe they will be juniors in a few short months.
Yes we S24 also is set for Spring break. We have a late break here. Glad summer plans are finalized for your S24. Good luck with his Auditions.
My S24 was disappointed with one of the summer programs he wanted that he did not get in. His summer plan is not yet fixed. Need to close on it next couple of weeks.
Yes the year seems to have gone very fast and they will be Juniors in few Months.
Hope your D24 will be able pull through to a higher grade in French. It is frustrating to be borderline and you know that they could have done better.
Hope she can do better in the next few weeks and get back to higher.
I dont remember where you guys are, do you have leads for other programs? My S will be at a STEM program at WPI in addition to a few music programs. Looks amazing
We are in CA. He was hoping to get into COSMOS and I know the admit rates are 10% or less so I was prepared for the result but some how he was thinking he had a good chance. That why I worry with him and his expectations sometimes he is confident and optimistic kid in general so he is not as realistic in expectations.
We are looking at other programs though he may be late at this time. we did not know about WPI STEM program. Hope your S enjoys it.
Did you look at SLO Epic? The deadline is April 15.
Thanks He did apply for it. Waiting to hear back.