<p>I'll add one more caution. If you think you are well hooked at an Ivy, do a search on Freckly Becky and her trials with admissions, particularly Yale.</p>
<p>I couldn't have said it better than Somemom--"Find lots of happy options." (Sound better than "Apply to a safety in case your worst nightmare happens to you.")</p>
<p>One small correction to bandit's suggestion: Search for the saga of "freckly beckly" (note the "l" in "beckly".</p>
<p>Go Andi! Everyone: Please do Andi a favor and read the old threads rather than pepper her with questions answered fully on the boards last spring. </p>
<p>you are a dear to warn all the new crop of eager seniors about the perils of applying to schools with less than 20% acceptance rates. Treacherous, unpredictable, unfathomable outcomes that are NO REFLECTION on your child's qualifications. Scads of the applicants are fully qualified and wonderful young people!! Even though you guys know what 12% admission means, you must believe it. I thought my kid was extremely realistic but watched him feel very very disappointed when waitlisted at a school with a 12% admission stat. I had no idea he was secretly sure he would get in "because he exceeded all of their expectations and it was his first choice." He was not logical on this matter. </p>
<p>Moral is that even realistic sensible kids will get into magical thinking and crushing. Parents get into magical thinking and crushing on schools, too. I also think that college selection is sort of like romances...it is nigh impossible to not have a "favorite" one pines over all the time, but it is a MISTAKE. This is not finding an ideal date to the Prom, this is all about recognizing that your five or six colleges ALL are wonderful and you could be happy and fulfilled at several locations, especially those schools where you are a MATCH not a Reach. It is OK to court them all..that does not make you disloyal or shallow, it makes you realistic and mentally healthy and upbeat.</p>
<p>Make sure to read Harvard Schmarvard, where the author is a Harvard Grad but he truly values many of our top fifty colleges and recognizes most of them have excellent teachers, facilities and places to grow up, shine and stand out. He will even tell you what was sort of milk-toast about Harvard and what other schools ranked below Harvard can do very well. Let this open your mind. </p>
<p>You will come out happy in April if you Attach to your Match schools. That means visiting, overnights, attending classes, daydreaming and visualizing yourself in the schools most likely to give you a spot. Not saving all your love for your Reach colleges. I really don't believe you need Safety schools...except in the sense that you should have a total sure bet...only apply to schools where you can visualize a Life for yourself. Convey that vision in your essays and interviews and mean it. </p>
<p>I would like to put out there that Geographic or Gender diversity can work in your favor. An SAT of 1550 from our town would likely have very different results than one would get from a National Merit Scholar from Boston if you favor East Coast locations. Andison's safety schools assumed he was using them as a safety and would have other options he would prefer since he was such a strong student. But his other schools were Ivies that seek all sorts of eccentric factors in their student bodies and they have the glut of applicants to allow them to do it. </p>
<p>Get out the map and realize that air travel is not that big of an expense for Parents Weekends and the two breaks a year. Be willing to apply to the best colleges in other cities. I personally know that Vanderbilt in Nashville is a superior place to be, but it is a hard sell for East Coasters who don't understand that Nashville is really not about country music. Nashville is a city that is a gateway to many other corporate centers and it is a capitol city...vibrant and fresh. Be willing to look at Liberal Arts Colleges..some of the top LACs have enrolled more females than males for instance and might jump on your application. You might be living in Richmond or Minnesota but take a hard look. Your graduate school applications may have the same outcomes that a Duke graduate had...outstanding admission rates to that next level of education...then you can take off for the big city. </p>
<p>Build your Match School list and Love and Respect your Match schools. By all means shoot a great effort at a couple of Reach colleges, too. It is a hard process and can feel unnatural and insincere, but this is the one time in your life when you must spread the Love around and stay open to getting roughed up a bit (not chosen) and also pleasantly surprised. Good luck every one of you as you make it through the unknowns in this year of life.</p>
<p>Oh Andi
I wish your post was required reading for senior year parents AND guidance counselors!So many are so unknowledgable,and think their kid will simply "get in" everywhere. I have a senior S now starting the process (2nd kid) who because of his intended major is aiming "lower" than his GC would like him to.We're perfectly comfortable with his choices,having gone the route of financial safety with firstborn NMF who took the free ride to ASU's Honor's College and graduated last June very successfully with a now free ride to Grad School.You can't believe the comments we hear when S goes through his list with friends parents/neighbors who are aware of his stats and accomplishments.
But we are wise to the flaws and foibles of the admissions game.At least we hope he'll have some comfortable choices to make come April.Guaranteed they'll be at least one of is schoolmates going down the same road your S is this year.
Best of luck to Andison on his gap year and new admissions process.</p>
<p>Hi Andi,</p>
<p>Thanks so much for sharing your story with this year's group of applicants. </p>
<p>As usual, I am just in awe of you; the amount of grace that you showed during last season's trying admissions season. Now you are opening your self up to helping others in the hope that their experience will be different. Talk about a teachable moment! </p>
<p>I am so happy that his gap year is going well. I believe that Andison, is going to have some great choices as he becomes part of the class of 2010. His outcome alone is enough for me to stick around another year. The usual suspects will be waiting at "home on the parent's forum' ready to crack that big bottle of cyber bubbly.</p>
<p>Andi and Andison: Nothing useful to add...so am sending huge gobs of cyberlove and many big cyberhugs...to everyone else: know that Andi isn't reflecting the bias of mother - love when she describes Andison...several of us have gotten to know him over the past few months as we were honored to participate a bit in his gap year planning and his effort to get off wait lists...he is an exceptional, talented and altogether worthy person. He could have as easily come out of the "super select lottery" with 8 acceptances...</p>
<p>Andison is a stellar example of the "luck" factor in the admissions process...few will have all good luck or all bad luck...but some will. So take yourselves out of the luck game by having one or two or three choices that don't require some luck (no matter how little) to succeed.</p>
<p>Andi & Andison: you are terrific and we're blessed to have you in the CC family!</p>
<p>Maybe it's just the season, but I'm reminded of apple-picking. When I fill my bag with juicy, sweet apples, I'm not rejecting the others; I just haven't picked them. There are many delightful apples that get left on the tree, perhaps for other lucky pickers. (Gee, now that I reread this, maybe I'm also hungry).
Andi, a good and timely reminder. Congratulations to your family for handling this situation in such a positive and growful way.</p>
<p>Another thing to keep in mind- in some states the flagship state u is not a safety (like ours- Texas). It is only a safety if you are top 10% of the class, which doesn't apply to S because he attends high school outside of Texas. So-he has to use another state u as one of his safeties. Also- if you have some kind of blip on your record (like a suspension/expulsion) you need to add additional safeties because you can't predict how every AdComm will react.</p>
<p>I would like to tweak ELLEMENOPE's post a bit. Sometimes when you apply to safeties and are accepted, you realize that many can offer as rewarding experience as any match or reach...and in some cases a better one. So, IMHO, safeties aren't last choice, they're just part of the that wonderful bushel of apples JASMOM refers to.</p>
<p>When our now senior son started building his college list last year, we told him to keep a really open mind and look at all sorts of schools...searching for the "special one". Well that "special one" (the one you just fall in love) ended up being a small LAC in NC. All the stats screamed "safety", but in our hearts it was a MATCH-MATCH-MATCH...so DS applied to this school (and only this school) over the summer (school has rolling EA)...and he was accepted for the Fall 2006!!!! He is so happy!!!! We're certain he'll get a wonderful education there, and receive all the personal attention that will ease the transition into college and adult life. No need to look further, sometimes it's that easy....</p>
<p>ANDI and ANDISON ~ If you've read any of my posts, you'll note that my DS has an entirely different profile from your DS, so we were looking for very different things. My DS really lucked out, because over the years, education...while attractive to my DS...was a constant struggle. Achievement was earned with much pain. I admire you both for sharing your story. I believe that this experience, no matter how challenging, will make your son a much stronger student and person. I believe he will value the college, which is lucky enough to recognize his wonderful qualities, even more...and settle into his coursework with a seriousness of purpose that will far exceed that of his peers. In the long run, he will benefit enormously from this adverse life experience in the same way that my DS has benefited from his. I wish you both only the best. OB</p>
<p>Andi, glad to hear he is having a great year. Can you tell us, did he interview at his safeties, did he visit? Also sounds like his advisor did an awful job.</p>
<p>Just a note on likely admits...
when picking out a likely admit (aka safety) school, don't just look at the SAT/top 10% statistics - also look at the % admitted by sex. Highly ranked schools such as Bowdoin (with an acceptance rate of under 25%) <em>are</em> going to reject/wl a certain number of high-stats students.</p>
<p>Dear Andi,</p>
<p>Your experiences last year influenced which colleges we visited and my daughter's list. She still doesn't quite believe that she won't get into all of her matches, but we are pursuing safeties where I'm sure she could be happy and receive an excellent education. Given the rigors of the application process, I'm quite sure we wouldn't have cast such a wide net it you hadn't shared your son's story, and I'm very grateful for your generosity under such difficult circumstances. (And I'm forced to admit that I've developed some negative feelings toward the school for which andison seemed so seriously overqualified but that didn't take him off its wl.)</p>
<p>A few of you have asked about how much effort we had put into the so-called safety school. Here goes:</p>
<p>Andison chose his safety because it met his various interests and yet he was at the high end stats wise. Many kids from our hs go there as it has a very similar environment- it's almost like a college version of andison's hs. These are kids we have known and felt assured that if 'they' got in 'he' could get in. (may sound stupid now, but it's the truth!) Indeed, as I've mentioned, even THIS year, friends who had lower grades, test scores and less involved ECs got in. Two of his closest friends have just started freshmen year.</p>
<p>Well---did andison go visit? NO. Why? Many reasons, he was very busy with lots of tough courses, and a lot of EC activities; it was a 10 hour car ride one way; it was a fairly expensive trip and since we have another son who had started college the year before we had taken waaay more than our fair share of college visits by that time; we felt that we knew enough about the school thru reading about it and talking to friends; we didn't realize how important the visit was from the college's point of view............</p>
<p>Whether this lack of a show of interest made the 'entire' difference I don't know for sure, but we're not approaching things in this way the second time around. It also highlights the problem with applying to too many reach schools- you can only invest so much time and emotion into them without skimping on the safeties. </p>
<p>Blythe89 I'll share his school choices when it's all over (if it ever is :) )</p>
<p>Dukedevils_27 I've just mentioned some of his gap year activities. He's got other stuff on the agenda too.</p>
<p>As Andi said, for some schools demonstrated interest (visits) is a big deal. For others, notably the Ivies, they could care less. Do your research if you are limited on where you can visit.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for all the sharing in this thread. College admissions lessons can be very tough. The GC at our school was an adcom at several schools before becoming our college GC. He did warn senior parents that it's really tough to predict which kids will get in or be denied, especially at the most selective schools.
He is developing a list of schools which count "interest" in their evaluation of students, but warns us not to be a "pest," and also that with e-mail it's important to be respectful of how easy it is to become a pest if we sent too many e-mails that are really of no consequence.</p>
<p>Good luck Andi & son! Looking forward to reading of the wonderful opportunities that unfold for both of you.</p>
<p>Andi, so wonderful of you to post for the newbies, and important for them to hear it directly, because when I tell people your story or similar ones here, they don't believe them. Know that more than half of my d's friends in college took a gap year. Best of luck to your son.</p>
<p>Also some schools look for a good match - they want happy students. This means you need to reseach how the school is unique and what type of students attend the school and show how you fit in. My D was offered a guaranteed transfer after one year to her reach school mainly because she was a good match in every aspect. Her GC told her she shouldn't bother to waste her time applying, that she will never get in. The only reason I let her apply was because I could see that this school was a good match for her. She did show alot of interest in the school including making me drive 6 hours away for an open house. </p>
<p>Also her GC and I secretly applied to our local State University for her and that is where she is going for one year. The reason she is going to the State University is because she loved all her other schools so much (her safety the most!) that she was worried she would never transfer after a year there. In addition, it saved our family quite a bit of money.</p>
<p>This is a very sad story and all, but am I the only one weirded out by the fact that Andi named her son Andison? A little insight please Andi?</p>
<p>response to the above from Mod JEM:
I believe that "Andison" is not REALLY Andi's son's name. That is the name CCC posters, including Andi, use to refer to him. "Real" names are not usually posted on the forum. Hope that clears things up for you.</p>
<p>Am I glad I live in California! We have safeties built-in.
I do one UC app for all the UC's. If I don't make a top tier
UC, chances are I'll make Santa Barbara or Santa Cruz or Riverside.
Plus I'll have the option of going to the local community college and
transfering to a good UC if I do well. If all else fails, I land up
at a CSU, rank at the top and get multiple job offers.
Grounded on this, I can now reach out to the Ivies and top tier
out-of-state ... give them a shot now and try grad school down
the road. How is it the other states don't have a safety
net such as this for their precious overachievers?</p>