- DO NOT judge your chances by the elusive "acceptance rate." It is only a ball park idea of chances with divisions at below 20%(reach for EVERYONE), 20-60%( target), and 60% and above (safety). I got rejected from my dream school but still got into a school I love.
- Don't fall in love with a school before they accept you... It hurts getting rejected. (As point 1 states)
- Do what you love, and don't kill yourself because you may find in the end that it may not be worth doing stuff you don't truly enjoy.
- Be authentic. Can't overstate this.
- If you applying to over 15 schools... please chill out. I learned this the hard way. Some schools I realized after getting in that I would never go there, and I just selfishly took someone else's spot.
- Don't forget to have fun.
- Don't stress too much about standardized testing. I guarantee you that if you have a score 100 points below the lower 25%, the reason you didn't get in is not cuz your scores. That ad person could be cranky for a day or something.
- College acceptance/rejection does not define you. I'm still the dumb kid in my class that my friends make fun of since that's who I am. Getting into college did not change that.
- LOVE YOUR BUDDIES CUZ EVERYONE YOU MEET IS AMAZING <3
It’s ok to have a dream school. Because it’s your dream school you’ll spend the most time on the essays for that school and it’ll be your best application. Having a dream school is incentive to try really really hard.
Make sure you are honest with yourself, or if you are a parent - be honest with your kids. It is so easy to get seduced by rankings, prestige and all the rest. Every kid is different - think about what makes the student “tick” and find schools that “fit” that.
Parts of scholarships are taxable income.
Websites that calculate chances are misleading if you are applying to a popular-selective major. It may show an 80% chance of getting in based on the schools overall SAT-GPA but your major may only have a 15% acceptance rate.
As a parent my advice is to visit schools close to your home whether interested or not to get an idea of what you like and disalike about schools. You may think you want a small or big school but after visiting a number you may stay consistent or change your mind. Its better to have some clue before you spend the money and the time to travel further away. Always apply somewhere close even if you are deadset against your instate university. Alot can change from the time you apply in the fall and have to make a decision in the spring. Apply to at least one school early action that is affordable and aa safety so you are assured an acceptance. Do not just look at the school but the area around it. What is off campus can be just as important as oncampus. If you are from the south visit a northern school in the winter and those from the north visit southern schools when the heat has settled in. What matters in college selection first is affordability and second is fit. Your senior year provide the necessary information to the counselor that they require for your recs to be completed asap. Start your essays the summer before senior year. Take the classes you like in high school that have rigor. If you are weak in a subject that you dislike its ok to take onlevel. If you want to dual enroll its not going to ruin your shot at acceptance. Do what you like not what you think colleges want. This does not mean take fluff classes but there is a time and place to know your weaknesses and take classes accordingly. I cannot stress this enough apply to some colleges you can afford without financial aid.
Physically sort schools into a Google Docs file that is shared between student and parents. The file changes over time as you go through the search process, and it is useful for everyone to be able to see the latest version.
Sort the schools in the file into the following categories:
– Safety
– Likely
– Target
– Reach
– Double Reach
– Winter Contingent
– No Application Planned
Keep the main list to 1 page for all 7 categories. Notes on the schools are fine, but notes go onto page 2+.
Definitions:
– Safety/Likely/Target/Reach – standard sorting methodology.
– Double Reach – raw odds of admission are less than 10% given the application method (e.g., applying RD at tippy top school where you know going in that the odds of admission are extremely poor via that application route).
– Winter Contingent – These are schools that you plan to apply to in addition to all the others if your EA and/or ED1 apps fail to generate an admission. Think of the scenario this way: with the new information in hand in middle of December that you did not get in to any EA or ED1 schools, does that change where else you would like to apply to? The plan would be to work on these apps over winter break. On the flip side, if you did get in via EA or ED to one of your favorites, then you may not need to apply to any of these schools.
– No Application Planned – A place for keeping track of some school names you might need later (i.e., partially researched schools, schools you want to research, etc.).
Why I recommend this approach:
– It forces you to write down your choices. Writing forces thinking and planning.
– The shared file serves as a communication vehicle between students and parents, esp. busy students and parents.
– The sorting method makes explicit how many reaches and double reaches you have working in the current version of your plan. As many others have noted, you must limit the number of reaches and double reaches in your plan. Viewed this way, you start to think of the reaches and double reaches as competing among themselves for the limited number of spaces that you can afford to allocate to them.
– It keeps the list organized as there is a surprising amount of movement in the list over time. IME, schools were getting promoted off the No Application Planned list and demoted off of the active roster (Safety/Likely/Target/Reach/Double Reach/Winter Contingent) frequently due to trip findings and additional research on the schools.
Money, Money, Money.
- Disregard rankings, prestige or anything else. The cold reality is that colleges want cash before you attend. Wanting to go will not pay the bill.
2). The NPC is your friend.
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Only look at or consider colleges that fall $5K under the amount you can pay per year. There is no free money out there and do not listen to anybody who spouts these lies. Do not let your student step foot on a campus that does not meet this criteria. It is cruel to set your kids up like that.
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ED, EA, or RD makes no difference at all for the majority of kids. The cost will be the same.
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Tell your kids early that college will not be some dream vacation come true. They are going to attend where they can afford and that is it. Do not bother wishing you were a rich trust fund kid. It will only make you unhappy in life.
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there is a college for everyone. You will definitely get a degree.
Don’t fall in love with a school early on. Make sure when you pick all of your safeties, matches, and reaches that you would love to attend and that it is affordable.
If possible, write essays for a school you don’t care that much about first. Don’t have the first essays you write be for your top choice. You’ll get better at essay writing along the way. (Unfortunately, that’s hard to fit with an ED strategy.)
College Admission process:
Get in your applications ASAP. But especially for the schools with rolling admission (the big popular state schools), you want to send those apps in in like September or October. Even if they’re your safety school. I got waitlisted at my safety school (luckily I got into my target schools already) because they just had so many applicants and so many people wanted to go. If you apply early, you find out sooner and you will more likely get a spot.
Also, unless you are certain it is your #1 and your chances are decent, don’t apply ED for the heck of it. Applying ED to a reach school (that I got rejected from) prevented me from applying to restrictive early actions schools that have much higher acceptance rates early. Applying ED can tie you up so don’t do that unless you’re positive that that is where you want to go.
Several things I learned.
- Only apply EA or REA if you will attend that school if you get in.
- Expect unexpected. Don't try to figure out why you got in or got rejected. That will just take up valuable time and effort. My kid got into Stanford REA and got denied at UCLA for the same non-STEM major. UCLA was a safety school for my kid, so we thought. lol 50 students get into UCLA from my kid's high school, whereas only one kid gets into Stanford per year on average.
- Seriously consider Community College route or Honors College route if you can be designated NMF. Once you have an Honors College with a nice merit-scholarship as a back-up, you will at least have a nice college to go to if other reach colleges don't line up.
- Convey clearly to your kid what you as a parent can afford and not afford.
I think you mean ED, not EA. EA is a great option because it’s non-restrictive.
We have learned a lot in the last few months!! Some of this is for parents and some is for students and it’s all MHO:
- Do not even think for one second about spending $300,000 on a bachelor's degree unless you are an ultra-high net worth family and can afford to blow the money. Set expectations at the beginning of the process. Parents must not sacrifice their financial security in retirement to pay for the kids' college dreams. Kids must not borrow their way into financial oblivion. Keep your powder dry--professional school does cost $300K and up, unless you get a coveted seat in a public university. (I know of one couple, both schoolteachers, whose kid went to a $300K private med school and then didn't match in the chosen specialty. Ouch.)
- Start a 529 plan for each offspring, like, 17 years ago. Contribute $500, or what you can afford, automatically every month. We did; it's a huge help to have 6 figures of tax-free education money per kid already in the can. (BTW if you want to finance a four year private education, it's more like $1200/month. From birth. With decent investment returns. You decide if it's worth it.)
- GPA, GPA, GPA. That is all the California public universities care about, and is probably true of most selective universities. So unfortunately, that means a ton of APs to juice the weighted GPA to > 4.0. It doesn't matter that much whether you went to Hoity Toity High or Bonehead Academy. They weigh 'em and count 'em before they look at anything else. We didn't appreciate this fact enough.
- Take SAT and ACT both, and early. Be prepared to re-study and re-take. Test scores are not as heavily counted on some admissions formulas, though every bit helps. Consider SAT II subject exams. But really, GPA.
- Consider pros and cons before applying (cost of attendance, cost of living, location, cost of travel, degree programs, environment, graduation rate, ROI and yes, reputation, but just a little bit). Apply to fewer reaches and more safeties. But don't go nuts. Ten schools max. If a kid can't get in to at least one school out of 10 possibilities, then there is a mismatch between expectations and reality. Or just really bad luck, which happens.
- For residents of Western states, consider WUE. It's a great deal. Tuition is about 1.5 times in state for OOS kids who qualify by living in a participating state. Google it. In many cases, it can be less expensive than in state schools.
- UC and CSU admissions, especially in impacted majors, are a huge mess for the 12% of the U.S. population who live in California. Something has got to give. See my take on this if you are interested: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-general/1975773-uc-admissions-observations-on-2016-17-and-a-modest-proposal-long-post-p1.html
- Choice of major is a humungous factor in the probability of admission. For schools that require admission directly to a major, especially STEM, forget the overall selectivity stats. Engineering, nursing, business, biological sciences, way worse. Getting admitted to pre-major or undeclared status is a potential trap. If you accept in hopes that you can wangle your way in to the desired major at the fancy school, good luck. You might not ever get in to the program you want. Look up the specific stats from recent years on number of applicants and number of positions at each target school by major and proceed accordingly.
- Future employers really will not care all that much where you went to school. They will care about what you know how to do, how you get along with others, and how hard you work. Reputation is in your mind, in the minds of CC members, and in the minds of US News editors. Reputation is not nearly as important as you think. Competence is.
- Go where you will be happy and fulfilled. If that is community college with a transfer to advanced standing in your dream major at your dream school, good on ya. That's what I did many years ago and it has worked out great. (CC, BA UCSD, MD UCSF, MBA UCLA). Trust me, if you do your best and keep putting one foot in front of the other, it will work out just fine in the end. :) Best of luck!!
I wish I knew one could file for extra time on the SAT/ACT for learning or mood disabilities/disorders (which I have). I would have done a lot better, even though I did well and got into some great Universities. I’m a first generation college student whom didn’t receive much help from guidance councilors or parents. Now I know for Law school.