@kittymom1102, exactly, and that is why I am sure you realize that your comments about your child’s achievements do not fall within what most anyone would consider the “norm”. Clearly well above average, even on the CC scale.
Perhaps it should be clarified that this is normal or regular for someone who wants to be considered for schools like MIT or Caltech.
Wow. That is all terrific, and daunting ,for sure. Thanks for sharing.
Really? My MIT child sounds very much like hers, and I did not believe him when he told us he was accepted into MIT. I mean, don’t they take superstars?
Wow, 145 messages since I’ve been on here. I’ve been extremely busy with the beginning of the school year. Looks like all of our stress levels are starting to go up as college app season rolls around. S got enrolled into the one class he didn’t want, AP Bio and currently has the lowest grade he has had since 9th grade with the same Bio teacher. I asked her if he should start rewriting his Valedictorian speech and she just laughed and said he would be fine. As it turns out, I have her daughter in my class.
As for applying, we are going with schools below 10% and 10-20%, S got one acceptance with fully paid tuition from a Cal State last year, so if worse comes to worse, that is his safety.
Unfortunately he still has one SAT subject test to take on October 3rd, after that he will start on his essays. Our school actually is holding essay workshops in the next few weeks so I hope that helps. Also, planned S graduation party today and it got all over school so it looks like it is going to be pretty “turnt” as the kids say.
@NYDad513 - What does “all the prejudice” mean when your daughter says it? Are you willing to forego the visit weekends that are low-cost ($50 - excluding travel of course) during the application stage?
@Mysonsdad : Did your S got accepted in Cal State while he was in 11th grade ? This is really great.
@indsfolax yes, he got accepted in 11th grade for being in the top 1% of students academically in our county. The acceptance with the full tuition scholarship is based on the student remaining in the top 1 percent.
@Waiting2exhale I asked my daughter to visit the schools she was thinking but she declined to visit. What she care are small class size and proximity from home at the moment.
Hi everyone, I’ve been away forever due to life (i.e., non-college) issues. Dipping my toe back in with what is probably a stupid question. Daughter is just starting to focus on applying. We noticed that colleges are all over the place with interviews. Some don’t offer them, some require them, and for most an interview is “optional,” in which case either the applicant expresses interest in an interview when submitting the application, or the college lets the applicant know if an interview is offered after they receive it. Here’s my question (probably a dumb one): some colleges say on their websites that a student can request an interview after they have “started” their application to that college, even if they haven’t yet submitted it. It will be a long time before Daughter is ready to hit that “submit” button. How does a college know she has “started” an application to them if she hasn’t yet submitted it? Can you “submit” an incomplete Common App and then keep adding to/changing it until the deadline? I hope this question makes sense… On another topic, unfortunately we made the mistake of touring a lottery school, and she really, really liked it; she may even ED/SCEA it. (She’s on the borderline of their stats, so she has a chance, but not a super one. And from her high school, the difference in acceptances between applying early versus regular is meaningful.) Any tips for dialing down the expectations welcomed. It’s tricky: when I try to suggest the odds aren’t high, she says I’m not being enouraging… Can’t wait for this process to be over.
@Smilla my D’s first real college tour was Columbia. She loved it, loved NY. But she knows the odds are poor, so hasn’t set her heart. We just let her see the stats on admission to keep her realistic. It sure is discouraging though. If she asked to apply there ED, we’d say no–we are letting her apply, but doubt we can afford it even if she can get in. (If we didn’t have the financial issue, I’d let her do it I guess.)
I have no idea about the interview or common app questions. I’m still trying to get my head around the common app generally.
@Smilla – Welcome. Someone who’s farther along on the Common App than us may be able to answer your question better, but . . I do know from our first run through this that (at least then) you can’t click submit and submit a partial app. Or if you can, you don’t want to. But I do think that towards the end of the CA you may be able to add schools, but not yet submit the application. The schools may then be notified. The simplest solution would be to call the admissions dept of the schools in question. You won’t have to identify yourself, and I’m sure that they’ll be happy to answer the question.
This may be controversial here, but: At our fancy-pants private high school the college counselors in general strongly dissuade the kids from doing ‘optional’ interviews. Obviously there are different levels of ‘optional’, but they feel that alumni interviews in particular are a bad idea. Their reasoning is that if the alumnus loves you, it still doesn’t count for anything, as many alumni love many of their interviewees. But if somehow the alumnus and applicant don’t hit it off, it could be detrimental. So, not much upside, but with a considerable downside risk.
Adding to @AsleepAtTheWheel’s mention regarding optional interview, I heard that a reason for interview is showing demonstrated interest in specific schools. Most of the top schools assume every application means demonstrated interest.
I think interview might be beneficial if kids interview well. If not, it might be a bad idea for optional schools. I would think that speech and debate kids should interview well, student council, etc.
There are a few on CC who are quite vocal about not attending alum interviews too since the there seems to be little weightage to them in lottery schools these days (and negative ones probably count for sure).
MIT is an exception since they provide statistics about interviewed vs not and there is a huge gulf in terms not-interviewed being admitted.
I attended a session at North westrn last year where a person presenting for one of the schools mentioned throwing out input from their alums because sometimes they were too harsh. One of the explanations was that the alums felt that in their day they climbed uphill both ways to the hill and these kids can’t make the cut! However, I doubt an admission officer would ever admit to ignoring the input since they don’t want to turn off the donor base.
@NYDad513 : Well, you are obviously following her lead, and have confidence in that.
That being said, my son would not have visited schools early, but trusted in the returns to signal a potential good fit, and then visited during accepted student visit days. So, his approach sounds very much like your daughter’s. (New Generation Approach? Impact of the Internet?)
The only visit that was a real game changer for him, a campus visit that I encouraged him to take, was to Carnegie Mellon. The older students there were the best ever to him, letting him know about the bridge program, and the way to absolutely keep his feet in the world of both science and the arts. He was beaming when he stepped back into the car after his visit (sans parents).
Success to you both on this journey.
A started but not completed application can also include test scores that have been sent. The school will start a file on a student when they receive the first piece of information. Often times they will have an ACT or SAT score before anything else. That makes it a started application.
@kittymom1102 : I think you need to walk the campus at MIT and talk to some of the kids. Honestly, I don’t know how much of what you’ve written (above - not elsewhere) can genuinely be digested as wholly without guile.
Per comment by texaspg, your son is not a shot in the dark. And while nothing is guaranteed, what could make you think he is NOT in the inner ring?
Interesting and breathtaking conversation I had with a woman last month: her son did not get into the local colleges, the southern small college he’d applied to, and had no backups other than the ONE school to which he applied on a dare: Princeton (yes, that Princeton). Guess where he has matriculated?
My standard is to tell S “You have as good a chance as anyone at this point, but nobody has a really good chance. You may well get turned down because there are a bazillion people applying, and they can only take so many. But it won’t be because you’re a poor candidate.”
He has a couple of lottery schools on his list, and I do think he has a better than average chance at one of those-- but who knows, really?
Well, my D16 has now submitted 8 of her college apps, with one EA admissions offer resulting.
We’re encountering problems with these items not arriving at the colleges yet: 1) the ordered ACT score reports, and 2) the ordered h.s. transcripts.
I’ll tell you, it’s really frustrating. There’s no way to check the chain of custody – was the report sent, when, to whom, is it received but awaiting posting to the app? Sigh.
We just have to keep waiting, I suppose. But, you think the kid is applying “early” yet these delays in completing the app with score reports and transcripts is dragging our the process. Seems it’s tacking on a 4-week wait!
So, FYI, make sure your DC is monitoring that these elements actually arrive and are posted to their app file.