Here’s an idea. It will never happen, but, hey, I can dream.
There should be a consortium of the top 30 schools that select their incoming class through a process similar to the medical residency match. Students submit their applications to a central portal and rank their choices in priority order. Schools review the applications that designate their school as a choice, then rank the students in priority order. A computer spits out the results. The algorithm can account for such factors as URM, talents, and geographic diversity. Recruited athletes are considered outside the system.
Students who “match” with a college in the system would not be required to attend, unless they indicated in their application that they would, which would give them a few more points in the algorithm. If they are not happy with their matched school, they are free to select a school outside of the top 30.
In this system, all participating schools would have to agree to meet full need. The benefits would be:
Big stress-reliever for students. They do not have to submit multiple applications and fees.
It will eliminate the crazy chase to reduce the acceptance rate and increase the yield.
Schools outside the top 30 might be encouraged to offer excellent financial aid to provide another option to students who are not happy with their matched school.
Those Nobel prize winners and Olympians probably wouldn’t need merit aid, as they tend to have sponsors, and huge monetary prizes already. Doesn’t the Nobel prize offer $1,000,000? A certain Nobel prize winner who I believe is applying during this app round, already has her own book!
LKnomad, they wouldn’t need merit aid, but would they pass on a freebie? I am not a psychologist and can’t claim to know universal truth, but I do know that some of the richest people can be incredibly stingy - and possibly that’s why they became wealthy, because of their extreme frugality. Let’s talk about athletes (it’s hard to generalize Nobel Prize winners when there will never be many of those without a college degree) with 1 million in endowments. Would someone turn down 250K worth of elite education when s/he has another 250K to spend on law school, wants to buy a better house for the parents, or possibly wants to spend any extra money on a charity he/she believes in?
The same principles apply to everyday people. Let’s imagine Stanford changes their policy, and no longer offers need-based aid at all, but makes tuition + living expenses = 20k/year for everyone so it’s affordable to most. Let’s further imagine they also offer 2-3 10K merit scholarships to the most exceptional kids. If you could afford to pay 20K and your kid was offered 10K scholarship, would you turn it down so that someone less fortunate could afford to go, or would you use that 40K (for 4 years) to start the graduate school savings fund?
I agree with @typiCAmom. We are full pay, but next year if D is fortunate enough to get into both a top-10 need based university and a top-25 program that gives her a full-merit scholarship, we will think long and hard about the full merit offer.
I’d like to hear if the older Obama daughter gets turned down anywhere. Actually having a First Kid on your campus could be a real PITA with the Secret Service everywhere.
Mlia’s fame puts her in a different part of the elite admissions flow chart. Regardless of her grades, test scores, ECs and essays, she’s not in the excellent/average bucket.
I think her app is pretty much complete once she fills in her home address at 1600 PA Ave.
See the helpful flow chart at post #109 on the current thread on explaining ivy league admissions.
Yeah, she is definitely just “average” average. Haha!
Kidding, by all accounts she is a smart cookie. At one point, I deluded myself into thinking she and my D could be roomies at Brown :))
Assuming they meet. A colleges Minimum standards A Presidents daughter ( never mind one who is a URM) is going to be accepted anywhere she wants to go. I’d say they are equivalent to a top recruit athlete. The standards are way below what they would be for anyone else. The extracurriculars don’t matter. And neither do essays or recommendations.
Malia seems like she has the smarts which as a URM ( and a Columbia/ Harvard legacy) could get her into ivys even without the FDOTUS status.
I hope everybody is chill around Malia and she can find a small group around whom she can relax - I cannot imagine having all of that attention and pressure.
@glido presumably she’s had friends in high school, I’m sure no one at whatever school she chooses wants to be “that kid” who annoys the pres’ daughter
