I always laugh at the help that some ppl seem to get from their GC. My HS is MASSIVE and it takes an act of god to get help. Ex: I recently asked a question and four emails and two voice messages later…still no answer. It has been two weeks. If I walk into the office they greet me with “what do you want?!” When I say I have a question they say “fill out a form!” Everyone on campus knows that form will never get addressed. So basically, I rarely attempt to talk with my GC. She wouldn’t know if I got into Rice, joined the military, or decided to quit everything and sell weed. Seriously! Definitely sending my own kids to private school!!!
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There were surprise admits to UNC in my circle as well from NYC. DD22 did not think to apply to Flagler/UNC as we thought it was impossible.
Well - there is a lot of brokering going on at privates. They limit your applications. Would never support (at least in one private school’s case) applying EA to UNC, UVA and Umich. In addition, take your place behind all the big donor legacies.
Nice post. I agree with you that stats aren’t the end all, be all. Just part of the puzzle. It’s more important to be challenging yourself and show rigor and that does not mean the more APs win. You just need some and this point never gets enough attention. It’s also what type of school you go to. Some schools barely have honor classes let alone APs. Challenging yourself comes in different flavors. I know many kids at Michigan with what people here would consider subpar stats but when looking at everything on their applications they are as much a Rockstar as someone else…
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Our S was public and it fit him. D needed that specialization and smaller feel, so we took the plunge for 9th grade. Been the best thing for her. BUT…the last 2+ years have changed things. There are many schools (WF being one) that have pushed back at our school the last few years, actively choosing not to accept them. Penn is another. We used to get 4-5 ED kids every year. Last two? Athletes only. Legacy, 36 ACT, good leadership and #3 in the class? Rejected this year. GCs think it is an active “spit on privilege” attempt by many of the schools. We’re of course in no position to begin crying over this, lol, but it is a thing.
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Of, I’m sure there’s a lot to it that I dont know about.
She applied to Flagler but did not receive a direct admit. However, if she attends she’ll do so with a possible mind to transfer in (or stay in her STEM field and probably still be happy). Ross would trump it, but she’s not in UM yet so that’s a LONG shot lol!
Ah, didn’t know your DD22 applied to Ross. Good luck to her!
Absolutely agree with this. The consensus in nyc seems to be that Harvard takes care of its legacies. Penn/Cornell/brown not so much, especially at privates.
Just catching up here, are you saying if someone is accepted ED, they do not always pull all their other applications? Also, if a student applies ED they cannot also apply EA to schools such as UVA, UNC, Michigan? We are a big public school and very different here.
Yes and no. Ours somewhat controls WHO they apply to. For example, they’ll allow any kid to ED to any school- that’s their perogative. But they won’t let them shotgun top 20s if their grades and stats don’t support it. There are some tough conversations with GC and parents, and if the parents push hard enough then they’ll allow the apps. But there are relationships with many of the schools…and it’s wise to listen to the GCs.
My view on ours (and many) privates is this- the top of the class and the bottom of the class are helped. The top generally (not always, see my above post) achieve where they’d like to go and the bottom receive the benefit of the prestige of the school and can generally sneak into some of the schools that they probably shouldn’t be accepted into (think B10 not UM or NW). But the middle? They get hurt.
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We are at a public school in Westchester and seeing the same things you mention recently as well.
So we are talking about 3 scenarios here. DD22 is in public and can apply to as many schools as she wanted, non binding EAs (Michigan/UNC/UVA et al.)
Some private schools (not all) would not support a student applying ED to college 1 and non binding EA to another. The school is also willing to make a phone call to a student’s EA which our public school GC would not.
Some private schools allow ED and EA, but upon getting ED decision make the kid withdraw EA app. What’s the rationale? Maybe to improve yield for the kids who also applied EA but didn’t get ED? Not sure.
Got it. Thought you had to withdraw all apps if you are accepted ED? My DD19 was accepted ED and pulled out all EA apps. Thought that was part of the ED agreement.
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You are supposed to pull all apps if you get in ED are commiting and aren’t awaiting financial aid decisions.
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Yes correct. If you’re accepted ED you do have to withdraw/decline all others (unless you can show the ED school that you can’t afford to attend. But that can be tricky)
But ED does not prevent you from applying EA to other schools
A few years ago our school used to send quite a few to Michigan but now that has changed. I think Michigan is now trying to balance more things out by taking different students at different schools no longer a benefit to be at a particular public school (unless in-state of course).
I never said price fixing- you are conflating two different issues.
Setting aside the legal challenge, it would be extremely arrogant for colleges, or anyone else, to attempt to mandate what the right number of applications are for every family.
Furthermore, I don’t believe you are fully considering the unintended consequences of this proposal- including this requires colleges to track applicants application history so that it can enforce this mandate or limiting applicants to a single vehicle, e.g., common app.
For families determined to not have need there is significant price variability from college-to-college and from student-to-student. As with any other major purchase, we have the right to shop, compare & negotiate without limitation.
(For my S17 I was able to secure an additional $20,000 yr in merit from a private school by demonstrating ROI at comparable programs he held offers from.)
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Only musing as to a solution to the hamster wheel many are on. Apply to more schools than one would have the year before and ending up with fewer acceptances than expected, then this builds fear for the next cycle, and so on.
I appreciate, of course, that some need to apply to many schools to get the best offer. But just how many is sufficient, and perhaps those who don’t need to can pare down number of apps?
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there has to be smarter solution - this process is remarkably stupid and suboptimal.
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