QOTD: Were we as picky back then?
Honest answer: It wasn’t that I wasn’t picky, it was mainly that I was lazy. I applied to UIUC engineering first (no essays!, no pesky asking for recs!) early action. I started applications to a safety, Bradley, and two reaches, Notre Dame and MIT. I got accepted by UIUC around December 15th and never bothered to finish the other apps.
Fortunately, the children got more of DW’s work ethic and conscientiousness.
Except for DS '20. I guess you reap what you sow.
Pickiness I wasn’t. All three of the schools I applied to were state U’s within a couple of hours of home, but I didn’t know I had so many choices! One of the things I’ve mentioned aloud to friends and even my children is that it’s a shame I didn’t even think about going to a completely different part of the country for college. At that time of life, you don’t need to remain where you have a job, where you can be close to your parents, where your children are in school, etc. If you can find a good financial and academic fit, why wouldn’t you broaden your horizons? My kids may have thrown this back in my face once or twice during college discussions. :))
QOTD: Not at all picky. I went to Texas A&M for the full ride. Pretty much the only way I could afford college other than going part time. I’d never heard of A&M, but someone told me after I’d accepted their offer that it was known for football and ROTC.
I got into Berkeley, and maybe my parents could have helped with tuition, but there’s didn’t seem to be any way to afford room and board. My parents didn’t see why I couldn’t just commute to Berkeley on BART from Fremont.
I got accepted to RPI and MIT, but those were going to be $8K/year after financial aid, so totally impossible. I never thought to call the financial aid office to ask if they could do any better.
**QOTD - “Back in the day…” ** Well back in the day applications had to be fill in by hand or type. You wanted info about a college you had to walk into a school office for pamflets, or mail away for information, or visit. It wasn’t as easy to get information about a universities. Plus these days there are way more students applying to the same top schools, making competition a lot stiffer. Price of university has skyrocketed. It used to be more acceptable to not go to college at all.
AP tests existed by weren’t as wide-spread. Student had more time to take electives in H.S. and took a LOT fewer AP tests. GPA’s were lower in general. The PSAT was the only practice test you took before you took the SAT, and it was virtually unheard of to take it the SAT more than twice. (ACT what was that? I know it existed but I went to H.S. on the east & west coast.) SAT prep existed but I knew of no one who had taken it, prepping was mostly opening a book a few weeks ahead & trying a few sample tests.
I think it depends on who you were. The kids I hung out with did worry extensively and applied to a LOT (5-7) schools. Many of these were top students who got into very elite schools. I knew students who poured over college brochures. And since every application had to be filled out by hand they took extensive care choosing where they applied.
I only applied to one school but that was because I had a harebrained idea that ended up working.
QOTD: Picky - I had to fight tooth and nail to be allowed to go away to college. Not only had I never seen the college I attended, I had never even been to the city. My dad was shocked when he saw boys walking into the dorm I was assigned to. I will never forget him asking at the registration desk - “Why are boys going into that building?” He did not like the answer that it was coed by floor. Dad wanted to take me home and have me postpone starting college until January.
Looks like QOTD is bringing lot of good memories 
In India, first preference is for commuter school (unless accepted to elite schools), so you can go from home and save on room and board and parents can make sure there are no peer pressure to party 
QOTD - "Back in the day…"
My 10th Geometry teacher was creating an SAT review course. He offered to tutor some of use for free, he just asked that we take before and after SAT exams and agree that he could use our scores to show the improvement his tutoring produced. I am sure he picked me because I was an underachiever. I took the SAT cold in Fall of my junior year to get a baseline. I also sent my score to four in-state schools (why not? It was free!).
To my amazement an in-state public offered me provisional acceptance in my junior year based on my SAT score (nothing special) and my coursework in HS so far (I took a lot of academic classes, but my GPA was a mess). They had me sent a transcript and told me what credits I had to complete by graduation and I was in. Good enough for me, no SAT tutoring, no more testing, no essay, cruise through senior year with only one academic class…
It does work like that anymore.
QOTD LOL, definitely not picky. I applied to 2 schools. I was offered a full ride to one. I turned it down. (Didn’t even mention it to my parents.) I followed my then boyfriend, now dh, to his school.
@whataboutcollege I wouldn’t attach the letter, but your daughter should contact whomever wrote it to see if they would write a supplemental recommendation if the school allows one. Your D can talk about the program in one of her essays…
Were we really this picky back in the day? Yes—but then, like now, I think this was highly regionally differentiated. (It may have spread to more places now, though.) I grew up within DC’s gravitational field, and even though I was the first in my family (and nearly the first in my entire extended family, including those who married into it) to go to college, for those who were college-bound, the prestige race (including the recognition by some that they wouldn’t qualify for the prestige schools and so have to settle for Salisbury or Frostburg State, the horror) was palpable.
Haven’t posted for some time, congrats to all the NMSF kids! We knew a long time ago my D would only be commended since just above cutoff and in CA. I think it is not such a thing at our HS, maybe since UCs and CSUs aren’t linked to any auto-scholarships. There are usually 4-5 SF per year, so I will be interested to see how many there are this year when the list is made public.
Yes, @VickiSoCal, my D will definitely be applying to SDSU honors. We liked the campus a lot!
QOTD: I was a little picky in that I wanted to leave VA. I only applied to UVA in-state and was accepted, but I was elated when I received an acceptance to Penn State in Oct of my Sr. year. I had an honors college scholarship of ½ in-state tuition, which wasn’t much, but my parents could afford to pay the rest. I never gave any thought to the lack of logic of paying more to attend an out of state public school! Nor did my parents I guess!
@curiositycat333, my memories are similar. People generally took the SAT 2X. I was a straight A student, but tanked my PSAT. I oddly remember one girl getting some exciting news about her PSAT so maybe she was NMSF, it just wasn’t a thing to most of us. We took the PSAT without any official prep. For the SAT, we were told to get familiar with the style of questions so that you didn’t waste time reading the instructions on test day. The PSAT and first SAT generally served as prep for hopefully getting your best score at 2nd taking. Then life moved on!
QOTD: I wasn’t picky at all. I went to a huge state university in FL. I was a recruited walk on to a non reveneue sport so I was just goiing to show up and play my sport and enjoy the warm weather. I ended up getting hurt and was not able to play. So I just stayed and enjoyed the weather. It was just as cheap for me to go out of state than to stay in New England. At the time, I did not know a lot of kids who went south for school, people were surprised. I was accepted early action in Sept of my senior year, and I think that the coach helped me. I was so happy not to worry my senior year in high school. My parents tried to convince me to go to school in Boston and there was no chance of me agreeing to that.
I had a great time in Florida and don’t have any regrets about my decision.
QOTD: I agree with @dfbdfb, it was like this in my area back when I was in school. I grew in the Baltimore suburbs, and I took the SAT 3 times, and I studied for both the SAT and PSAT. I was on a merit hunt, applied to 9 schools, and I am sure I’d have applied to more if something like the common app had been around. Applications were painstakingly typed, which limited the number. Prestige wasn’t important to my family, but there were some people at the high school who were horrified I turned down Rice to attend Michigan State. My mom has been threatening to dig out my college app. essay and show it to my S, because she still has it in a file somewhere.
@VickiSoCal That will probably be our safety too. ASU is tempting with free tuition, but he said he’d choose SDSU over ASU. SDSU gives out some merit scholarships to local kids, so maybe there is a possibility there too. Haven’t really looked at the honors college at SDSU, so I’ll have to check that out.
I took the SAT a whopping one time. My mom kept the scores in my school record book. I got a ~1250 out of 1600 in the late 70s. When I saw the score I quietly put it back in the book and didn’t share with the kids. I realize they have recentered the scores a couple of times since then, but I always had the idea that I did better than I actually did.
@LoveTheBard Thank you for the advise. That makes a lot of sense!
Ahhh…the walk down memory lane, flashing back to our own college application process.
As others commented, PSAT was taken Oct of Jr year, and generally blind, although a handful did prep for it. We all then took the SAT in May of Jr year and Oct of Sr year with Achievement tests in November or December, I think. I recall it being cold out as I waited outside for a ride. I registered to take three but decided I was finished after two, so waited outside for a ride for the last hour.
Some friends were very motivated and visited many schools, but I only visited one. I still applied to ten or so, using the Yale Insiders’ Guide for witty (?) commentary and Barrons’ for info.
Our SAT prep consisted of a voluntary class held at the HS on Saturday mornings during the same time slot as the SAT. I think the idea behind the timing was to get us used to being awake and functioning on Saturday mornings. My Latin teacher taught the verbal section. (She was also the French teacher and cheerleading coach.) And a math teacher must have taught the math section. I never used the prep books I bought, but there must have been some value of the four Saturday mornings spent reviewing content.
I hand wrote my applications but I had friends who typed them. I recall their hunt for ‘white out’ in the color of the application. I think Dartmouth’s app was green and many were beige/tan. I seem to recall going into the school office to use the phone to call for applications, but that must have been an exception b/c long distance calls were expensive then.
We had guidance counselors and they met with us either late Soph year or early Jr year to make sure we were on track with ECs. I believe this is what prompted a couple of us to become candy stripers, although truly, I did not need another EC. Was much more busy running the school than paying attention to classwork & studies. I don’t recall the GCs having a very active role in the process but they were there to help if we wanted help. I think we had scheduled appointments with them or perhaps I just dropped by.
My parents were not involved in the process as they did not grow up in this country. My father came over to attend college, but his experience was very different as a 25 year old applicant.
I loved high school and wish it did not have to be such a slog these days. We seemed to have time to participate in all kinds of clubs & activities, hold down a part time job, go out with friends, study, and still get to sleep at a reasonable hour. Admittedly the AP courses covered less material then, and the only ones offered were Calc AB & BC, APUSH & AP Euro.
Memory lane walk over.
@youcee the Freshman honors dorm looks quite nice. We may stop by this weekend and unofficially checkit out. I understand they have a preview day for honors kids after acceptance which would be more official.
@ACT2017 Look at Auburn as well. Good CS. H’s closest friend graduated CS from there and he is doing very well.
I wish I could get D to look at it but it is not near a city AND it’s in the super deep part of the south, so it’s a no-go for her.
@whataboutcollege I don’t feel like I have enough information to give you advice. If it were, like, Duke TiP and the eval was from one of the teachers in that summer program saying Duke would be a good fit, from what I understand Duke gives no weight to TiPsters at all, so that letter wouldn’t be helpful. On the other hand, if it’s something different, like possibly the MIT one and they’re all cozy with the admissions people, then maybe? D18 got a super-glowing recommendation from her criminal trial advocacy professor, who is actually a law professor at a similar-tier school to Duke during the year, but I don’t think we can use his recommendation for college anywhere.
QOTD: were we this picky? Oh hell no. My kids are ridiculously spoiled. I did it. I wanted them to have all the stuff I never got as a kid, and they have it. Now it’s all about trying how to figure out how to effectively parent them into resiliency and post-wantsy-of-stuff and ignoring prestige. That’s uncharted territory, but so far they’re navigating it fairly well.
I went to my college because my mother wanted me to go there, because she was competing with another (successful) artist in town who had sent her two kids there. I applied to two other totally rando schools that were out of state. I still shake my head at my idiocy. The GC was no help-she was like, oh, you’re a pretty girl, get an art history degree and find a husband at the local university. Blech.
H visited a ton of schools with his dad. He then applied to only ONE school, the school his best friend applied to. They both got in. He didn’t graduate from there because it was a terrible match (we were at the same school). We were dumb-dumbs. Seriously. We have the least straightforward path to degrees of anyone I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t recommend it.
I took the SAT twice, first time cold, and I got commended scholar for the PSAT with no prep. My math score on the SAT was ghastly, although I did manage to improve it by 100 points on the second go-round by buying a prep book and studying it.
@Collegecue can we switch kids? We’re in the southeast and D17 will only look at schools in the mid-atlantic and northeast, lol.
Since there’s a 50/50 chance we’ll relocate to Florida once D18 goes to college, I asked D17 if I could put UF on her list. She said ok, but when I looked at the “bible” it said only 4% were from out of state. Yikes. I need to do more research, but I’m thinking that might just be a big fat waste of time for her. If she did get in, but with no merit aid, we could ostensibly have her last two years of undergrad at an instate rate. I still feel like she does not have enough financial safeties. I have this recurring nightmare that all of the schools come back at MSRP. Ugh.
Congrats to your NMSF @TimEnchanter & I hope the wisdom teeth recovery goes smoothly - my DS iced a lot for 2 days, was careful to rinse 2-3x a day gently with hydrogen peroxide and saltwater and followed med Rxs and drs orders - his were impacted. After 3-4 days though much better. Good luck to them - at least they have company!!
Congrats to all the NMSF kids!!
DS starts school next week - had a visit to Case today and interview, sat in on a class etc. They have his areas of interest and some other attractive, fun things (e.g. Thinkbox) he would like. Will send an EA app!