<p>@threesdad–I hope your daughter is feeling better, and happy 17th birthday to your D!</p>
<p>@dustypig, I spent too much time this spring reading the UC threads on cc. Because the state has opted to limit in state enrollment as far as it legally can, in favor of out of state and international full payers, there were a lot of really odd and disappointing results. It really depends on the major and whether it’s “impacted.” My D is a would be comp sci major–not a good thing.</p>
<p>Here’s an example of a UCSB candidate:</p>
<p>Denied
UC GPA - 3.4 ACT 35
MAJOR -CS alternate major Computer engineering
SAT 2-MATH 800, PHYSICS 800, CHEM-730
GOOD EC’S
Also rejected at UCD, UCSD
Accepted at -UCSC and UCR
Nothing on UCI portal, so not much hope there either.
National merit commended
6 AP’s with all 5’s and 1 AP with 4</p>
<p>Congrats to those who got it. Except for GPA I think I was a good applicant. Looks like only low tier UCs are interested in considering me!</p>
<p>Dejected !! </p>
<p>It seems like more and more of the big state U’s are becoming more competitive and denying high stats kids. Makes me nervous for D15, but even more so for S18.</p>
<p>This is very scary and I do not know what to make of it. I have to assume that somewhere in this country is a school that wants my kid that comes in at a price that I can pay. </p>
<p>@dustypig , can’t wait to hear about your adventures in the northwest!</p>
<p>@3girls3cats, thanks for your reply. I suppose we just all have to see what happens. I just keep on reminding myself that whatever happens to my D1, also happens to all other kids who share her stats, so it’s not like she’d be the only one shut out of a school we might have thought she was a match for. And thankfully, D1 is not hankering after prestige – she likes UCSC better than either UCD or UCSD, even though it’s less prestigious, because the campus feels more intimate and friendly and because of the greater emphasis on the humanities and social science subjects that she’s interested in. </p>
<p>Anyway, let’s talk about the schools we saw today, which were Reed and Lewis & Clark. Verdict on Reed: if you like schools where the student body is totally nerdy but also totally creative and cool, this is the school for you. Beautiful campus, rigorous academics, and a fire-dancing group called the Weapons of Mass Distraction. Also you can take juggling to satisfy your PE requirement.</p>
<p>Lewis & Clark: the study-abroad program is the big selling point here. Also a beautiful campus.</p>
<p>D1 liked them both but prefers Reed. Even the description of the year-long senior thesis project, at the end of which you have to defend your thesis before a panel of professors like you’re a doctoral candidate, sounded to her like great fun. </p>
<p>dustypig, my ds is only considering one UC, UCI for the CS game design program. I think the UCs are just too big. We visited and I thought it was ok, but not great. DS didn’t say much except he thought one EC activity sounded cool. The best thing I can say about UCI is that it’s within two hours driving distance. LOL!</p>
<p>UCSC has a game design program as well, though I don’t know how it compares with Irvine’s. And Irvine’s reputation as the most conservative UC has turned my D1 off to it! She also probably won’t consider UCSB because of the partying reputation. </p>
<p>Ha-ha, and UCSC’s liberal reputation wouldn’t fit well with my son. 
However, on our tour, UCI seemed anything but conservative. I think the only thing that might be slightly conservative is the surrounding community. UCI seemed as liberal as most UCs, though I suppose UCSC has more of a reputation for being liberal. UCI had President Obama give their commencement speech, so that should tell you a little bit about the school. :-)</p>
<p>D has already ramp up on “I Just wish it was May already,so I know where I’ll be.” D is a planner (worse than me if that’s possible) I am glad we will be doing some rolling admission, or this child will have a miserable senior year.</p>
<p>Thanks to CC I would have been blind and followed the crowd of EA and Regular decision. So if the plan works in our favor and the admission god looks favorable on my child we should have all results by Christmas. She then can start planning for orientation for the spring…</p>
<p>@Hoosier96, I wish we could be done by the end of December, but a number of schools on BHG’s list does not release decisions until March/April. I hope our application strategy provides decisions almost monthly until the end, and positive news only until March and April.</p>
<p>I think it is really a great idea to get “one under the belt” with a early application or rolling admission. Just helps take the edge off. With my d13 she had all of hers by Christmas - but didn’t decide until April! But at least the ball was in her court for those extra months! </p>
<p>sbjdorlo, I wouldn’t assume that a university’s choice of commencement speaker makes a statement about the political mindset of a student body or campus as a whole. I had Reagan’s secretary of state at my graduation, and although I was sort of surprised and disappointed it didn’t make me think “wow, I have been attending a really conservative school all these years.” My experience was that there were a wide variety of positions expressed on campus, and people were generally very tolerant of others’ views.</p>
<p>There are a lot of threads on this topic, though, if you are really concerned about the political climate at any particular school. And of course, for a lot of our kids college is the first time they can go outside their comfort zone and learn how to deal with people of different backgrounds and opinions. I certainly wouldn’t rule out an otherwise viable option on the basis of a first impression unless it was a really extreme environment.</p>
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<p>@3girls3cats: I didn’t see anything particularly surprising about this nor do I think it’s a cause for general concern. Putting on my admissions officer hat, my first impression of this set of stats is that the kid is very bright but lazy. And, keep in mind that the #1 predictor of college success is HS GPA, not test scores. </p>
<p>Anyone who can put up those kind of test scores and come through on the APs in the crunch ought to be running at least a 3.8 in HS, even with minimal effort. To me, the 3.4 is a giant red flag that the kid is either a slacker or some sort of special snowflake who puts forth effort only when he deems it worthy of his time. Neither quality meshes well with a prospective major in CS or engineering, where you need to DO THE DAMNED PROBLEM SETS in order to learn the material adequately. I’d rather take my chances on a kid with a 32 on the ACT and a 3.8 GPA. Besides, the kid still got into Santa Cruz and Riverside, both of which are good schools. </p>
<p>@SOG - that was my thought too. Sounds like a kid who delivers on testing days but not fully engaged when school’s in session. </p>
<p>We don’t know his ECs, just says they are good, but if he is involved in time consuming activities or sports in addition to 6 AP classes that require coursework in addition to a test, then I don’t find him lazy. State schools used to be where kids knew if they had a 3.0 or better they could get in. That’s quickly going away in many states and too many kids can’t afford $50k to $60k a year schools when their state U doesn’t take them.</p>
<p>SOG I actually just told a family member with a kid like the one used as an example there with his GPA he shouldn’t try and increase his scores on the SAT since it would stick out like a sore thumb. </p>
<p>He is a slacker in school but not in life if that makes any sense. Some kids are like that-he isn’t lazy at all he just does not care about school enough I guess-he is going to be the C student I end up working for. :)</p>
<p>I have '16 S who does well in the classes that he likes the others just enough to never get below a B. He blows away the competition in the subjects he enjoys.
He will definitely be my college kid getting to take the courses he will chose instead of the other way around.
Now I just have to find a college who wants a kid like that 
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<p>@jennie11: And that’s still true. The kid got into two of the nine UCs – which I gather are all supposed to be more prestigious than the 23 CSU campuses. But I’ve got no issue whatsoever with state flagship campuses looking for better students than a 3.4. FWIW, I doubt a kid with this profile would get into University of Maryland, absent some well-explained extraordinary circumstance, and I suspect he’d be toast at UVA, UNC, or Michigan, too. </p>