Yes. It’s complicated. Kids want to get into x-kind of schools but then also want to be with “kids like them”. As much as some kids SAY they want diversity, they don’t usually want to be one of the lesser represented types of kids on campus (whether it’s geography, URM, or other types).
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It would help if the moderately-selective stats-based-admission colleges would do one of the following:
- If they are willing to pre-announce automatic admission thresholds, do that. Example: https://admission.asu.edu/first-year/apply
- If they determine thresholds competitively each year, publish past year thresholds. Example: Freshmen Impaction Results | Admissions
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No, your long list is a strawman. We factored in not a single thing you listed. Our list of “musts” was extremely short. Everything else was negotiable. And like I said, it worked out for us. My kid turned out a winner in the game that is U.S. college admissions. Because I turned research into a Second Shift job. I contrast this with the experience of my friends in the Netherlands where things are sane. Just because it CAN be accomplished does not mean our system is healthy.
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This is mostly true. I know kids who went to college looking for a diverse group of friends and ended up spending all their time with kids exactly like them. On the other hand, D18 purposly went to a school with kids that were atypical to those she grew up with and has made some great friendships with different types of people. Her experience has enriched her life.
I guess that depends on what one considers to be part of “the system.”
There’s a lot of stereotyping and judgement in your replies. Parents may not understand the process, have time to research, have access to the data you’re suggesting, have a cultural/language barrier…. I would suggest that your privilege/approach doesn’t apply to everyone.
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I’m hoping DS will be willing to spread his wings more if/when considering grad school.
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You do not need to apply to 50 colleges and hope one works out. There are many ways to get into college. Applying to 50 is the worst way. Hope is not an application strategy.
-Make sure your grades (and test scores, if used) fall into the top 75th percentile of accepted students. This info is readily available. There is a good website called College Data that puts it all in one place. https://www.collegedata.com/
-Look at the colleges’ Common Data Set and pay attention to section C7. Note what they consider important and try to show it in your app.
-Apply instate to public schools with high acceptance rates. You’ll get in.
-Apply to private colleges with high acceptance rates, AND show interest. You’ll probably get in, maybe with merit aid.
-Apply to schools outside your region. Better chance of getting in.
-Apply to LACs, especially if you’re male. Better chance of getting in.
-Use your school Naviance, if available, to see where you fall in the range of students accepted from your school.
-Research colleges you know little about that are respected and admit most students. Better chance of getting in.
-Apply to less known but good colleges that perhaps your neighbors haven’t heard of: Marquette, Seton Hall, Gonzaga, Goucher, Centre, Suffolk, U Denver, George Mason, Eckerd, many others. Here is a list (though a number of colleges on this list are super well known and I don’t mean those.) RANKED: the 50 Most Underrated Colleges in America
-Go to community college for two years and transfer.
No one needs to apply to 50 colleges.
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The kids on Reddit vehemently disagree with this. Yes, small sample size, but so is CC.
Respectfully, kids on Reddit are clueless. That’s a place where kids go to keep feeding the monsters.
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They’re not all wrong either. I think there is a median between college confidential which is moderated and leans fiscally responsible and Reddit.
What do you mean? I honestly don’t understand this statement.
Eh, I was just stating what the kids who come to school in March of senior year say… “I’m pretty sure I want to go to college, what do I need to do?”
Your answer is the same we give them. Most will go to cc. Those who don’t can often head to a local state school. A few take a gap year, but of those, not so many keep the drive for college once they’re in that gap year. They end up working somewhere and stay there.
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Note that collegedata.com replicates a subset of Common Data Set information, including the content of section C7. This can be helpful if a college does not publish its Common Data Set.
Adding another point that is important for many students and parents: check the cost, financial aid, scholarships, and net price calculators before making the application list. If a merit scholarship is needed for affordability, then reach/match/likely/safety must be based on the scholarship, not admission. Admission without affordability = rejection.
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Yes. People can google Common Data Set for most colleges which is sometimes the information they want, rather than navigating on Collegedata.
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Definitely consider cost. It’s the first thing I tell parents to do.
Admission without affordability can mean loans that are way too high to afford.
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I am sorry that I wasn’t clear that I was talking about privileged applicants. Not ones whose parents don’t speak English, didn’t go to college, or kids who decide in March that they want to go to college, per Creekland’s example. etc. I am talking about educated parents with high achieving kids who are upper middle class. Why wouldn’t research be expected?
Its kind of like acquaintances complaining that they don’t get financial aid because money is tight, when they have an nyc apartment, a $1 m lake house, and drive mercedes.
I am not talking about kids like our old friend Kimpossible. Those are the kids the system is stacked against.
Privileged kids, and their parents, have the brainpower and the drive to figure out college admissions. If they don’t, well, maybe they don’t have what those selective schools are looking for.
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I am on both. College confidential feels more “mainstream American” parents focused on reasonable debt load, managing expectations.
Reddit probably trends more male, def kid-heavy, international, and they are shooting for the moon. Many times, they get it (confirmation bias notwithstanding).
Both are interesting and provide valuable insight to me. A bit too late! As i stayed off until this year, after all apps in.
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Perhaps there is also the phenomenon that some such upper-edge-of-upper-middle-class parents may see any non-elite college / major / career / income level for their kid as downward mobility to be avoided, since it somehow reflects poorly on them (as in, “your kids are supposed to do better than you”). Some of the kids may also realize that the typical post-graduation income levels in most college graduate jobs would come nowhere near paying for the lifestyle that they grew up with. Those of the kids who may be in the academic elite of their high schools may not have the perspective that they are not as elite in the realm of college that they are in their high schools.
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Perhaps the truest thing I’ve ever read on this site.
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