<p>@vossron: no bad advice given!!
Good advice followed on SAT preps - which gave results!
College search/identification was definitely my doing :(</p>
<p>totally second this on the OOS being not real “safeties”.
i am still to figure out how being a citizen overseas will factor into this who thing :(</p>
<p>btw, how do i get these smileys /or others?
thanks</p>
<p>@aagdad,</p>
<p>we looked at the Collegeboard site as well for college identification and D seemed a match by SAT scores and stats. </p>
<p>unfortunately, results did not match that.</p>
<p>@apply2school</p>
<p>I hope I was clear that the Collegeboard tool was just a rough guide. Just a start. As many posters here have said, any school with less than a 30%, or maybe even a 50% acceptance rate is not a “safety” for anyone, and a “match” merely tells you you’re in the ballpark. That’s why I said in another post that we cast a wide net last year. By stats alone (gpa and test scores), our S was a match or better for several schools that rejected or waitlisted him. At the same time he was admitted to 4 highly ranked schools</p>
<p>Stats need to be above a school’s 90th %ile to be a safety. Think of match as a 50% chance; applying to 10 match schools would then give a theoretical one in a thousand (2**10) chance of rejection by all of them, so five acceptances seem within range. Our local girl (“bad advice”) will attend a local CC or apply to rolling admissions schools.</p>
<p>You get smilies by entering [noparse]
or ;)[/noparse] for or ;). Click on “Smilies” at the lower left (of some pages!) to see more.</p>
<p>[College</a> Confidential - Smilies](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/misc.php?do=showsmilies]College”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/misc.php?do=showsmilies)</p>
<p>for smilies.</p>
<p>There are sections on this board that have merit awards and scholarships. Also if you use the methodology that Momfromtexas used to get full ride scholarships but narrowed your parameters, you can find some awards. You also have to peruse the FASTWEB and scholarship books which will list scholarships at various schools. You need to check each scholarship and condition with the school to make sure it is still current because these things change regularly. When my oldest was in applying to colleges, Pitt had an automatic entry to Honors College and Chancellor’s awards, with a cut off much lower than what it takes just to be considered for either these days. </p>
<p>Yes, grade deflation hurt your daughter. No she was not likely treated as an international applicant, and probably got some benefit being an American overseas. But the very top schools are intolerant of anyone performing at anything other than at the very top level unless the school is known the college as a special exception. Those schools that make a point of saying they are need blind in admissions usually are. From what I have seen in the past 10 years, they seem to be, though I’ve had some counselors have doubts on some of them. Looking at the financial aid and full pay kids here who went through the process this year with those schools doesn’t show any striking issue, and the counselors at my sons school does not feel it was a big deal in the decision process. In fact very top schools accepted those who very much needed aid. Otherwise the school did not do so well this year in HYP acceptances. A number of full pay legacies whose parents were involved with their alma maters did not gain acceptance, something that surprised my son, as these kids were also very qualified for acceptance even without the legacy hook.</p>
<p>This was my first go round with college apps and given that my boy was a very good student with very good test scores I thought he’d be a shoe-in at the schools where he was in the upper end of the prior average SAT/GPA according to the common data sets. However, since he applied to as an engineering major apparently the bar is set higher! He was accepted to a number of excellent schools but not as many as we expected and yesterday was a bit of a heartbreaker although he laughed that maybe they would email they made a mistake and he really did get in to Yale! He did get into UCSD for bioengineering so he’s pretty excited and I’m happy he’ll only be 500 and not 3000 miles from home and the cost is 30k not 55k! I’m also happy my D is six years younger and therefore I won’t have to go through this again for several years.</p>
<p>“yesterday was a bit of a heartbreaker although he laughed that maybe they would email they made a mistake and he really did get in to Yale!”</p>
<p>Anyone heartbroken about not getting into an Ivy is just not being realistic!</p>
<p>^ my term not his - do you prefer disappointed?</p>
<p>in re: vossron: nope!!</p>
<p>Rather, anyone heartbroken about not getting into an Ivy is ALSO not being realistic! </p>
<p>It’s OK to have dreams and still be hearbroken even if it’s a long shot.</p>
<p>And for Ivies, it’s almost ALWAYS a long shot; e.g,., Brown:
says no to 80 % of valedictorians and 85% of salutatorians</p>
<p>Vossron – good advice (especially about the smilies) but what I’ve found this year is you can still be rejected by safeties because they don’t want to accept kids who are using them as safeties (they want to protect their yield). D was dinged by schools where she was at or above their 90th percentile. I think the accept/reject numbers at so-called safeties are now 50%. Which will just spur MORE apps next year.</p>
<p>@aagdad: Yes I do understand NOW. the BIG BIG mistake i did was to look at the numbers in black and white. perhaps like a lego construction. Totally overlooked the other bits and the myriad shades of grey. </p>
<p>another question though: is it the way forward to apply to a large number of schools? H kept saying i was going overboard. but now it seems is not the case. I am trying to nail the process down for D2 and at least get a get a grip on some things!!!</p>
<p>@cptofthehouse: thank you for the deatails. Is the methodology by Momfromtexas on this thread? I will start combing it.
D2 is not going have the STATS D1 did and the EC scene is very different in India. NONE more like it.
I have to start thinking long and plan deep for her. </p>
<p>thanks again!!</p>
<p>@Vossron@poetgrl: thank you :)</p>
<p>Safeties will not mean much going and will need to apply to rolling i suppose. i am making notes of all these “things to keep in mind”</p>
<p>"… what I’ve found this year …</p>
<p>Well, okay, but this view is voiced every year…</p>
<p>…is you can still be rejected by safeties because they don’t want to accept kids who are using them as safeties (they want to protect their yield). D was dinged by schools where she was at or above their 90th percentile."</p>
<p>How do the schools know which kids at or above their 90th percentiles are doing this? Clearly they don’t reject all such kids. Is it random? Do essays betray the safety purpose?</p>
<p>“another question though: is it the way forward to apply to a large number of schools? H kept saying i was going overboard. but now it seems is not the case. I am trying to nail the process down for D2 and at least get a get a grip on some things!!!”</p>
<p>I know I’ll get grief from someone here if I just say yes - but I think that somewhere between 6 and 12 is about right, depending on your financial aid needs. For our S, “academic safeties” did not prove to offer up enough merit aid to be “financial” safeties, somewhat to our surprise. High-ranked LAC matches with big endowments was the key. We added one in the last week of December 2009, and it turned out to be one of his finalists. He was fortunate to be accepted at several such schools that had the resources to make the financial aid work.</p>
<p>Basically, some of our guesses were right, others not so much. Every kid is different, so I expect we’ll put just as much work into helping our daughter figure it out in a few years.</p>
<p>8-12 is the target. It’s hard to do much more than 12 given all the essays required for admission and then more essays for scholarship competion and then going to schools 2 or 3 day scholarship competition. Eliminate schools who’s max merit award would leave too much left to pay for your budget. 20K scholarship when COA is 55K+ may mean it’s not an option, so why waste the time.</p>
<p>Excellent point, Vossron. You look at the posts on CC and clearly
- Plenty of kids get into their safeties.
- Plenty of kids wind up going to their safeties and thrive.</p>
<p>In fact, “safeties,” even if they “know” they are being treated as safeties, also know that a bunch of their applicants either aren’t going to get in to their “reaches” or aren’t going to get the kind of aid at the reach that will allow them to go. If a school, even a safety, wants you, they’re going to admit you. If they don’t want you, they won’t. </p>
<p>Personally, I think the whole “I need an explanation for why X school didn’t admit me.” is completely unproductive–particularly when the explanation is that it’s not me, it’s them. </p>
<p>I know it is hard for the kid being rejected to believe, but this is not a referendum on your worth as an individual. College is a means, not an end. The fact that Harvard, or Amherst or your safety didn’t admit you doesn’t mean that can’t do fabulous things. The college experience happens where you make it happen, not where you happen to get admitted. </p>
<p>I think the important thing in this whole admission process is to have options. That means be realistic, and apply to a lot more “matches” than “reaches.” My D was applying last year. She got turned down at all her “reaches,” and that was fine. She also got turned down/waitlisted at several “matches.” However, she had some great options and is now a happy second semester freshman.</p>
<p>Getting into Harvard does not automatically make you a superstar. As others have said, What makes you a superstar is “how you bloom where you’re planted.”</p>
<p>I am still having trouble finding matches. Seems like schools she seems to match academically are reaches because of their selectivity. If a school doesn’t appear as selective, they then tend to have lower stats academically. Huh. Go figure.</p>