Not sure why this topic evokes such apparently strong and seemingly vitriolic opinions in some people.
@blossom , btw, is one of my all time favorite posters on CC! I marvel at her clarity of thought and her writing every time I read one of her posts. I am very happy that she’s part of this community.
Nor do I. The strong opinions are fine. The vitriolic ones are not. And everyone on this thread has seen my posts over the years highlighting the finer points of the Forum Rules.
At this point, the same handful of users are just debating their opinion. For that reason, I am pausing the thread for a bit. If, when the thread reopens, the posts continue to be circular, I will be forced to shut for good.
This topic was automatically opened after 21 hours.
McGill does make allowances for certain groups of applicants but only for Canadian applicants.
I have two thoughts on this topic. First, I think when and how the Ivy League schools choose to release their decisions is irrelevant for most students. I would guess that a very small proportion of students apply to more than a couple of Ivy League schools. Second, I think that being disappointed is not unusual or a problem and life will ultimately bring a lot of disappointments along the way. What can be a problem is when a student’s identity is defined by the schools they are accepted to.
In my opinion students should not be attempting to create an application with the purpose of getting into specific schools. They should be the students they are and apply as such, and apply to schools that will allow them to pursue their future goals and help them to be productive adults. I’m not saying don’t apply to selective schools just don’t allow the school to define you. The school is not the destination it is a vehicle or tool. I believe that when college is looked at as such there is much less stress because the outcome does not define the student. The student defines themselves.
Our public district began testing kids in Kindergarten for its gifted program. Our oldest child’s K teacher shook her head and said she didn’t understand why they started that young and that the testing was less accurate the younger the child was. One of our kids tested in in K and the other kept getting referred for testing every year by each classroom teacher and slightly missing the mark. He began to get a complex about how he wasn’t good enough. Eventually we switched to a private school where every student was held to a high standard and math tracking did not begin until 7th grade. No one gets a 4.0, either. I wish we’d never put him through that suggested testing back then because it still seems he never is quite sure if he is “enough.” It’s fine that he didn’t belong in the program but not fine the way their selection system affected his vision of himself.
That’s refreshing to see.
Sorry to hear that. Here in England, you have assessments to get into private schools starting from age 3-4 - we foolishly registered our D22 for a couple of private schools in the neighborhood, she underwent the assessments (I think mostly observations of how she played) and didn’t make the cut. Fortunately, we didn’t tell her what they were doing so it didn’t have an impact on her (we finally told her a few months ago and she just shrugged).
I think it depends if you checked that box when registering for ACT/SAT. But I giggle at all the Uchicago mail references. My S hasn’t received anything from them thus far. the most frequent mailer is definitely Colgate for him.
I think U Chicago is one that starts very early (9th grade maybe) with giant posters and more mailings. The kids and families think they are uniquely being recruited… they just took the PSAT in 8th grade.
Don’t check the box if you don’t want mailers. If you invite them to send you mail they will.
The kids are being told to get their pre coding done while at school before the test. They really do not know what they are checking off.
When we look at the info from precoding that gets spit back out with the scores some kids put all kinds of things that will throw off the mailing analytics, but we are clearly getting off topic.
I am okay with mailings in general. But some do give a false sense of hope to families.
D22 top scholar at her private high school in NEw England . Waitlisted to all of her targets / reaches mostly private , one OOS public uni . She did get Honors colleges offers with merit from two OOS state schools . Admitted to McGill with merit renewable scholarship and committed there . We are very grateful for this option - as you mentioned her hard work and rigor in the high school was rewarded and respected at McGill - that ranked top 30 globally .
My daughter only applied to one Ivy (waitlisted) and thumbed her nose at her double legacy parents (her father and I went to same Ivy school, she would not apply there), so that day wasn’t AS brutal for us, BUT
I think it’s only brutal bc it’s so many and only Ivies and it was virtually the end of the decision window. Soaring dreams shattered and right at the end.
So I may be an outlier, but I actually think ALL regular decision application results should come on ONE same day in mid-March. All of them. Every RD school. (Consistent early dates for that matter too!) Every student would have a mix of news. Would be across a range of schools (assuming they’ve been well counseled about reach, fit, safety, etc). Wouldn’t draw out the stress.
It infuriates me that there are standardized dates for testing (and standardized tests), common applications, and yet the colleges themselves get to have any willy-nilly dates or process they want. March was insane from the middle to the end. This is all incredibly hard on and unhealthy for students and families.
And - yes, in a social media reality, the kids would know and post and some would be obnoxious, but there almost would be so much chaos and noise of all those decisions on one day, it wouldn’t feel so individually stinging. It’s like match day for med students. Get it over in ONE day.
It ain’t gonna happen, but it would at least make this whole thing make some sense. Just my $0.02 after doing it twice within two years!
I find this amusing, but not really. 
My daughter was able to sign up for one session with the college counselor senior year, it turned out when she got there it was not a one-on-one session like they made it seem, it was a group session and was mostly about the state or district requirement to submit a FAFSA in order to graduate and gave some other very general information about the college application process. The guidance counselor she had for first 3 years, was not friendly and was actually detrimental to her planning, but they only met once a year and never about college. The new guidance counselor she had this year was much friendlier, but they never really had any sit-down conversations about where she was applying to college and what her plans were - it was more reactive than proactive. There was never any meeting with the parents in 4 years.
One way to minimize disappointment is to establish thresholds for entry, which most CC users dislike. Most public school kids in Texas are not disappointed by a rejection from UT; they understand well before junior year that if not in the top 6%, there is little reason to apply, and their rank is determined quarterly…
You must not have been following the UT Austin thread - I haven’t really looked at it in months, but when I was looking at it, I recall a lot of anger, resentment and hurt from students (and parents) who were very let down and resentful. There were a lot more students on UT thread than others I was following. But that top 6% didn’t guarantee them a spot in the school or major they wanted. A lot of them were CAPped (not sure of proper spelling) or that other program they offer similar to Blinn at A&M, a lot got second or third major. I remember endless posts by students (or parents of students) who were valedictorian, salutatorian, or top 1%, had perfect or near perfect SATs and tons of ECs and were essentially soft rejected by UT Austin with an offer of their 3rd major in Liberal Arts, when they applied to Engineering or McCombs, or an offer for CAP. My D22 was auto-admit and was accepted into her major, but most of her friends were not. Kids applying to Engineering, Business and CS had a particularly hard time.
They still only recruit at highly selective schools. You need to have a connection otherwise.
False false false. Every year students from a wide variety of schools get internships and full time jobs at MBB without connections. Please stop perpetuating old school practices as current.
I agree @itsgettingreal21 that the number of target schools has significantly increased in the last 5 years. At least that’s the case in
I Banking. In fact my firm has a dedicated HR recruiter who goes to “off the run” schools in pursuit of top students for our summer training programs.
I do think the elite schools remain significantly over represented and benefit from a deeper alumni pool of potential mentors but there is a significant effort to both recruit and support those kids who join from underrepresented schools.
Impossible to know or quantify but I do believe it is easier to get a coveted internship if you come from a big name brand school for various reasons but certainly those same opportunities are available across the spectrum.