Parents of the HS Class of 2019 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
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Ah, I feel myself slipping into a bit of denial that this all is happening now. It feels like such a big undertaking. I’ve been wanting to make a spreadsheet for a while now so we can have a good visual of the list, all the deadlines, supplementals, etc. I have some desire to get D’s list pared down but it keeps persisting with too many schools. Could be worse but it still feels unwieldy. Just have to cover all the categories. How does this compare to what others are thinking? I know this shape isn’t quite right so I’m hoping it moves over the summer a bit.

Right now we have:

High reach (3)
Low reach/high match (4)
Match (2)
Likely admit; hoping for merit offers (4)
Token Univ of California applications to appease DH (2)

The list seems to have a brain of its own. For example, I really wanted her to have more matches and fewer high reaches, but we all keep feeling like we want to try those reaches. Darn reach schools…they’re like a drug. I do want to try to investigate more schools for the Match category, but everything I research ends up really belonging to the low reach/high match category instead, where she already has four schools.

Our high school seemed to be a wasteland of really not-great admissions news this year. Brilliant male vocalist in D’s choir denied widely and planning on a not-selective out of state public instead, incredibly conscientious young woman with a heart of gold trapped in wait-list hell, S’s golf teammate stuck with limited options, etc etc etc. But then D reported Tuesday that her classmate in AP Spanish is going to Amherst, so that was the first reach-admit we’d heard of. Last year S’s Boy Scout troop had a kid accepted early at Princeton. So it can be done…it’s just SO unclear what the difference is between those who get the golden tickets and those who don’t.

I can tell I’m feeling burned out on this school year and need a getaway weekend for myself before we really dive into all this, because lately I think about all this stuff and want to go pffffttt. I need a reboot…!

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@SDCounty3Mom I hear you about the low reach/high match schools. For S19, he has seven in that category because he’s above the 25th percentile but the acceptance rates are around 20% for RD candidates. What’s throwing me a little off is that his GC seems to be sure he will get into at least three of those but I’m just so skittish about being too sure. After that, he’s got two safeties and five reaches. He’s above the 25th percentile for the reaches as well but their RD acceptance rates are even more dismal than the low reach/high match group. I did start a spreadsheet and it’s crazy helpful to see everything in one place. For better or worse, it makes me want to add more schools though. Sigh.

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@SDCounty3Mom fwiw, all of my kids had to write “college app essays” in English Junior year, and none of them used the same topic for their real apps. So your DS might just think of it as a practice opportunity for writing in the style of a college app. For my older 2 kids, the topic for their essays arose during the summer before senior year, and for my DS19, he doesn’t know what he will write about, but didn’t have anything good when they did it in English class this year, so he wrote a “throw-away” essay.

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One of the many “applying to college” info sites I have come across and saved, this one gave a free pre-made college app spreadsheet. I tried to compile my own, but after I saw this one, I ditched mine and went with this free one. This blogger has several other spreadsheets, including some for seeking athletic scholarships. You can buy some, costs are reasonable, but for now I’m just trying to plug in info into the free spreadsheet.
http://www.diycollegerankings.com/free-college-application-checklist/

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Can someone help out with how to define each category - reach(high, low), match, safety, etc. Is there some combination of acceptance rate and middle 50% SAT/GPA scores that sets the parameters for each? I know there are other variables in play but just curious how others are defining each category.

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@jellybean5 - thank you for the spreadsheet link. I have one that I used for D15 and while it was very helpful, it was a little cumbersome because of the way I had it laid out. This one is much more organized so I will be switching. Thanks again!

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@DCNatFan I’m defining safeties as schools where my kid’s scores are comfortably above the 75% level, matches are schools where my kid is close to or equal to the 75% level, and reaches where my kid falls in the middle 50. Any school with an acceptance rate below 10% counts as a super-reach for me, despite what the common data set scores might suggest.

I’ve been keeping my own spreadsheet and it’s more or less like the one linked above. I like that one better than mine, but transferring all of the info would be so cumbersome… I will probably end up keeping my homegrown version.

I got curious and went to the Common App to make myself a test account, and lo and behold I apparently made a test account some months ago and forgot that it existed. It only had 1 school active so I obviously didn’t get very far. It was fun to see how it’s laid out. I feel a bit less intimidated now that I’ve seen the tool itself. It looks like it will help guide us through the process.

I was pretty annoyed by the common app password requirements. 10 characters, mixed case, special characters, bah. Luckily it’s not too hard to recover your password.

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@ninakatarina Totally right about the password. More restrictions than my bank. hmmn…
My safety/match/reach categories are more “holistic”. lol

@SDCounty3Mom Thanks for sharing. Makes me feel better. The list was supposed to be max 10 by now. Frankly, the first set of school visits helped more to rank colleges rather than eliminate. We’re only down to 16. If we don’t knock some more off, we’ll tier submissions. Hopefully, a couple of early admits with solid cost understanding will eliminate the need to apply to some 2nd tier. But what if the early news isn’t good?

1 State Flagship (match admit / financial safety)
1 State Tech (low reach or high match admit/ financial safety) - but she’s not enthused
2 OOS Public (safety)
2 OOS Public (match)
2 OOS Public (reach)
3 Private (low reach/high match)
3 Private (super reach lottery)
2 Private (super reach lottery / financial safety) - only because non-custodial parent info is not required

For us, because the State Tech school makes so much sense academically and would be so affordable if admitted, it is going to be very hard to choose a MUCH more expensive school. Two of the OOS Public’s have enough automatic merit to make them justifiable. Those reaches got added after attending a couple of those multi-school hotel info sessions. Would be very funny if after all is said and done, she ends up at UGA (state flagship).

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I wouldn’t be forcing the kid to prune the list at this point, @peachActuary73 , it’s possible that the list will prune itself after she applies to one or two or three. It’s actual work to complete each application, after all, and set up the portals and link the resumes. You might also be a bit stingy about when you hand over the credit card for application fees - “I can only afford two apps this paycheck, pick your next favorite two and save the rest for next paycheck”. I plan to be using that phrase a few times.

And if she wants to apply to more on her own dime, that’s perfectly fine to my mind.

Many of the super reach lottery schools require writing supplements, which is mental work. She may not want to put in that effort when the time actually comes, especially if she has a busy senior year schedule.

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@DCNatFan I’ve done some research on SAT scores and admission statistics on the CDS, as well on a couple schools (Hamilton and MIT) who’ve published summary data on admission statistics by test score. (See for example MIT’s: http://mitadmissions.org/apply/process/stats) My (very, very) rough rule of thumb based on the MIT/Hamilton stats is that scoring at the 75% percentile boosts the admission chances 50%, between 50% and 75% has a boost that fades to zero as one approaches the median, and being below the 50% percentile further reduces it proportionately. It’s a totally made-up formula, but one that has some truth in it and gives me some made-up sense of control over an inherently uncontrollable process. 8-}

In any case, given that I now have these percentages for D19 based on her SAT scores, I’ve generally sort of been thinking of schools that generate percentages in this formula by the percentages, recognizing gradations by the numbers rather than broad categories. That may be a mistake on my part.

Anyway, I’d probably consider results in my formula that are above 75% as safeties. This could mean being at the 50th percentile at a school that admits 75% of its students, or at/above the 75% percentile at a school that admits 50% of its students. Schools between maybe 40% and 75% are matches. But by implication that means there are some matches that I think D19 would have less than a 50% shot of being admitted to. The schools in the 40%-74% band generally are schools where D19 is at or above the median – in some cases above the 75th percentile, but the admission rate is low – sub-50% generally. And then anything below 40% is a reach. Sometimes it’s a reach because D19’s scores are low – they’re 25th percentile, and sometimes it’s a reach because the admission rate is low. Harvey Mudd and Pomona, for example, currently have the same (very low) chance of admission according to my formula, the former due to D19’s scores, the latter due to crazy-low admission rates.

To repeat what I’ve said before, I know this is a somewhat silly formula. And I know that it presumes that application portfolio quality is directly proportional to test scores, which is a big assumption. And there are schools where this might be less accurate – women’s colleges and other schools with more unique personalities (Reed, for example) value fit more highly so that even someone with test scores well in excess of the 75th percentile could be rejected.

But it also emphasizes that in some cases test scores just won’t matter much. My D could get a perfect score on the SAT, and I think she’d still have less than a 15% chance of getting in at Pomona. But if she took that score a five minutes’ walk north to Harvey Mudd, her chances improve to something within shouting distance of a match, recognizing again that some matches have less than 50% shots.

FWIW, based on these definitions, D19 has 2 safeties, 2 matches, and 4 reaches. All else being equal, I’d prefer her to have more match/safeties, but since she has said she’d be satisfied attending any of her schools (including the safeties), I’m not going to insist much. Of the 4 reaches, I think 3 are lottery tickets in that her scores are at or above the 50th percentile but the admission rates are 20% or less; the fourth is a reach due to scores, but would pretty much be a lottery ticket even if her scores came up to around the 50th percentile.

Also edited to add: We are in the meets-need world. Her current 8 schools are all financial matches (with one of the academic safeties, our state flagship, also being a financial safety). We are not chasing merit, which would make these categorizations much more difficult.

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@peachActuary73 - That’s what I’m thinking too! We’re going to go to all of this trouble, stress, and the cost of all the applications, test reports, fighting about getting essays done, and then UGA could be the only or best option for S! I’m hoping he comes around to liking UGA because I think it’s a great school, especially with the honors program, but I’m not sure that will happen.

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@elena13, not saying this is the right way to go for your S, but if it is, remember that there is no shame at all—no matter what some on CC seem to believe!—to be in-state public, one and done.

After all, even leaving aside the ED cases, the majority of college-going seniors apply to precisely one (generally in-state public) college and go there.

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@SDCounty3Mom

I agree with others who have said not to bother pruning the list yet with the following caveats. ALL the schools on the list should be financially viable. A good friend of the family had the difficult task of telling her daughter that she couldn’t attend her dream school because they had an unrealistic idea of how much it would cost.

Make sure the high reaches are on the list because your daughter really loves them and not just because they are prestigious.

All matches and safeties are treated “as if” they were far more important than the reaches because in fact, they are. They get visits, thank you letters, shows of interest AND those applications get done first so there is no chance that they will suffer from burn out. High Reaches get done last. There are many threads on these boards by students who were unexpectedly rejected from schools that should have been matches. We can never know for sure why, but it seems that those schools are getting wind of kids using them as safeties and they don’t like it.

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@elena13 I feel your pain. We’ve got three schools on the list that would be the only three schools on the list if we felt like he could definitely get in. His counselor seems pretty sure he will. Yet, they are NOT safeties in the true sense and so we’ve got this long list with other schools that need visits and interviews and essays. I’m 100 percent sure that, in the end, I will feel like he did way more work than he needed to do. With admissions so unsure these days, though, I don’t see any way around that.

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@homerdog - Yes, I do agree that you will likely do way more work than needed, but I guess it has to be done. I think your son will end up with many great choices though.
So many on CC say to “love your safety” and “make sure your child has a safety that he/she will be happy to attend”. That’s easier said than done. As with many other topics where teenagers think they know more than parents, you can talk up all the merits of a school but that doesn’t mean they are going to buy it. S will make the best of any situation and he knows he can’t get his heart set on any school due to finances and selectivity. However, he’s not on board yet with UGA (there is still time!).
@dfbdfb - That would be so lovely if we could be one and done. The next year would be so much less stressful!
I think my S would definitely be more excited about GT than UGA. It’s not the best academic fit for him, but they do have a lot to offer and the price is amazing. However, even though he is a good candidate for getting accepted, there are no guarantees!

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We still don’t even have a list. D seems to change her mind about what she wants every time we talk about schools. She had pretty much ruled out places that are religious, are too cold and are city schools. Then after visiting some schools semi in the middle of nowhere she said, “maybe when we go to MA this summer we could look at BC and BU.” Umm - that is a combo of cold, city and religious! :-?

The other day she said she just isn’t excited about any school and doesn’t think she will be even when it is this time next year and she is making her decision. I asked if she would want to take a gap year and she said no, she just thinks she will never be excited about it. Now she has always been that way - doesn’t get excited when opening presents even if it is exactly what she asked for, doesn’t like surprises, doesn’t get super excited about things like sports or school spirit week. I’m hoping this will change as we get closer of course but as of now I can’t really put anything on the list for sure.

Maybe she will be less stressed after APUSH tomorrow!

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I just looked and quite a few schools my son is considering applying to take both the Coalition and Common app.
That is interesting. When son17 applied I think the Coalition app was just taking off, and only a few schools accepted it, none of the schools on his list did.

Son19 doesn’t really have a list and like @momtogkc I have kids that have been genuinely unexcited about the whole college search process. I guess it’s an OK attitude to have, they don’t really have “dream schools” or anything.

I think son19 has a favorite at the moment, and then there are few that are lumped into another bucket, and then he has some match/safety schools on his non list, and he is neither excited or concerned about them.

He hasn’t really talked about college stuff at all lately, too much other stuff going on.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say son19 will end up talking with a coach as soon as school gets out, submit some early paperwork, work on his app over summer, submit it ED as soon as possible and be done with it. That’s just the feeling I get. I think he just wants to get it over with and if it’s a school he likes then even better. One and done.

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@gallentjill Yes good reminders all. My D does not chase prestige. She’s a double legacy at Stanford, has therefore been to that campus multiple times throughout her childhood, has lived in a house with two framed degrees staring down at her when she’s at our desktop, thumbs through the Stanford magazine, has accompanied our various Stanford grad friends to events and basketball games, has worn Stanford gear since her infancy, and is not applying there despite her stats being at least in contention. I just know it’s not a good fit for her (honestly folks schools like that are much better for graduate school and/or academic careers as a faculty member), and I also do not have a sense of what they’re looking for either – but my hunch is that D doesn’t have it. The lottery top-prestige schools bring undergraduates lifelong bragging rights and an enduring sense of accomplishment at having been admitted in the first place, a good alumni network, exemplary classmates who are very motivated and well resourced, and occasionally breathing the same air as some of the world’s most brilliant academic minds. That’s a great set of four things. But my D is going to love being mentored, having the tiny classes, and the joy of learning in a supportive, eyes-on-you environment. One of her high reaches is Carleton College, which no one in our school district has half a clue about. :wink:

I’m planning to take D to visit two of her high reaches, one low reach and one match school this summer. I expect that will produce some further clarity for her.

@elena13 @homerdog I agree about the huge appeal of a streamlined process, if that were achievable. I’m on about my 6th 180 on whether to have D apply ED to her top choice. We can do it financially, but “can” and “should” are two different things, and I have three children. But I do think ED may literally be her only chance at her favorite high-reach, so it’s either we do ED and she gets a 15%-ish percent chance or we wait for RD and she, with all her demographic limitations, gets about a 1% chance. I’m currently on the go-for-it side but give me another week and I’m sure I’ll flip back…

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@SDCounty3Mom S19 loves Carleton and it’s one of the three at the top of the list. Spent 45 minutes talking to some alumni at our latest college fair and he’s visited and sat in on classes. Our next door neighbor went there and graduated a few years back. She has nothing but glowing things to say. But it is cold in the winter! They are on quarters so the winter break is four weeks long. If you live somewhere warmer, it also gives the kids a break from the cold. :slight_smile:

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I feel like my head is going to explode reading all this. I guess I’m still trying to figure out how we’re going to tackle things. S19 doesn’t really know what he wants to study - at one point, he was saying engineering, now it’s just a more generic STEM or math direction. His Dad and I think he needs to at least explore architecture. He’s never had a job. He’s not even 17 yet. How the heck is he supposed to make such a big decision? I wouldn’t be so concerned about it if tuition at the small LACs weren’t so ridiculously high. With the divorce and our vastly different financial situations, it’s like feast or famine, depending on what the school looks at. I know it’s absolutely crazy to bank on it, but I do let myself dream that he’ll get an ED acceptance to U Chicago and we’ll be done in November. Short of that, I don’t know. I think there’s a good chance we’ll end up at Penn State.