@Reebtoor I have the opposite problem- this year was relatively stress free since ED worked out for D19. My D20 doesn’t test well, has some learning differences, and yet has VERY specific wants/needs. Her process stresses me out already.
I probably need some distance from this process before I have some helpful reflection. This has been a wild ride and a lot of it is unpredictable. We have two great flagship schools for which I am very thankful, but the rest of the list needed to be reach schools due to finances (dad has not contributed at all to college costs for D and won’t be doing so for S). As stated above, sometimes the attempt to get into selective schools has more to do with money than prestige. However, I also felt that the colleges on the list would also have a lot of benefits to S academically.
S19 was resistant to a lot of the useful suggestions mentioned above. He did very minimal test prep on his own for the ACT but is a good test taker. Yes, he had good grades and a very rigorous schedule but he did not have all 5s on APs and did not have the top SAT2 scores. He wouldn’t write his essays over the summer despite my pleading and we didn’t have any outside person review them but he was willing to write many essays and many of them were good (in my opinion). Since we didn’t visit schools, he wasn’t able to be as specific on his Why xxx essays but he made do. I do think letters are very important but again, my son wasn’t willing to be pushy and ask the lang teacher who I wanted him to ask, and I know one of his letter writers did not write a stellar letter. That teacher likes my son a lot and thinks he’s a great student but is not used to writing strong letters and doesn’t know what it takes to get into some super reach schools. We did ask a coach to write an extra letter for those schools who would accept one (he’d given S a big leadership award during junior year). While I do think S has a number of strengths as an applicant and did write some good essays, he had no major awards and definitely no hooks. So, I had to have very low expectations for the outcomes at these reach schools.
I mentioned a number of his wait lists already (Amherst, Williams, Colby, Carleton) and then he got one at Rice this week which was the first one I was kind of bummed about. Then the big surprise and the one I always hoped the most for… he got into Vanderbilt last night! That was super exciting and a huge relief as the financial aid looks good. So, that took the pressure off for the remaining decisions. We actually had planned a dinner out tonight to celebrate being done and were in the car when the remaining decisions came out. S checked them in the car and it was pretty funny and not at all what we expected. Rejected by Yale (after being deferred EA), Wait list at Dartmouth, and accepted at Brown!
We’re still considering Georgia Tech, Oxford/Emory, and Colgate as well. Can’t believe we are finally at this place. I’m wondering if I will be able to get son to do any visits.
I very much appreciate this thread in particular for a place to vent, get support and learn a lot.
@elena13 Congrats to your son! Awesome results!
Well it’s all over. S19 denied at Dartmouth today. I think it’s for the best. I honestly think the schools that accepted him are the best fits and it feels good to him to be wanted. So here’s the final tally
Dickinson -accepted with $20k
Grinnell -accepted with $22k
Kenyon -accepted with $25k
W&M -accepted Monroe Scholar
Bowdoin -accepted Faculty Scholar
Carleton -accepted
Hamilton-accepted
Davidson -accepted
Middlebury -waitlisted
Vanderbilt -waitlisted
Williams, Amherst, Dartmouth -denied
Hope this list doesn’t offend anyone. (Insert eyeroll!). I love hearing everyone’s journey!
Visiting Bowdoin and Davidson in April. Already did a admitted student day at Grinnell in March. Will choose between those three unless s19 doesn’t feel it at Bowdoin or Davidson and then may go to Carleton and W&M again. Not accepting waitlist spots. Exciting times!
@elena13 Congrats and good job! You were quiet this week. So glad things ended on such a high note. His acceptances are well deserved.
Still pinching ourselves over here, D is going to Amherst.
Thanks so much @wisteria100 and @peachActuary73! So glad to be done with that part.
Congrats @homerdog! Such a great list of schools that seem to fit so well what your son is looking for. It’s been fun being along this ride with you.
@elena13 Your son doesn’t seem like the effusive type, but what was his reaction to Vanderbilt? Does he have a front runner?
So pleased for you that he has a variety of terrific options and an FA package that looks good!
“Wild ride” is right! D19 and I got off early, but I had already had enough of riding the roller coaster blindfolded. Congrats to everyone for surviving!
@wisteria100 - Wonderful news! Congrats!
@gallentjill - There is a 13 year gap between my S19s and their nearest sibling, and college costs have doubled in that time, so your projections are highly possible. Twin B was accepted to the Clive Davis Institute/Tisch NYU today, and is pretty happy. Twin A in at Pratt for architecture - so they could both end up in NY. Who knows
I’ll note that some of the apparent focus on hyperselectives may also be because there’s a companion 3.0–3.4 group to this one, and that siphons off some of the discussion of non- to mildly-selective schools.
Nice to catch up on the thread and find out where everyone’s kids got in (or did not, alas) and on decisions being made. I look forward to hearing reports of accepted student days. I did those with D17 over her spring break and it was a fun and special time. S19 applied ED and he’ll skip the accepted student days since it is on the other side of the country and is geared to RD students who are making up their minds.
I’m starting to feel like August will be here very soon! Which is kind of scary, however, I am looking forward to one part of fall—I have been postponing getting a new dog until S19 leaves for college. Our last dog died (of old age) last summer and we just couldn’t bear to replace her. But I think fall (15 months out) will be about the right time.
I was blocked out of this thread in the last 6 hours because of the following reasons:
- I kept receiving notifications from UCLA, UCB, UCSD, UCSB,... decision threads. I already unsubscribed most of them but I am still receiving. Probably there is some CC bug. I did not have this problem before.
- I did not have decision results from my D. She came back from work at 8 PM. I waited for her to finish her homework and dinner to ask her about results.
Final result: Accepted to UC Berkeley Engineering. This for sure makes she feels better over UCLA waitlisting.
Rejected: Yale, Columbia
Waitlisted: MIT (she did not tell me anything about this one until tonight).
I feel a lot better.
Congrats to all lucky kids and parents!
so puzzled with my son’s experience. he is my my super-achiever, who started planning and stressing about everything years in advance, ensured perfect grades, all 5s in 12 APs, 1570 SAT, 800/800 subject SATs, 3.89/4.68 GPA. I never had to push him, encourage him, do anything. I didn’t even want him to go to any fancy school and tried to convince him that local university of Maryland is perfect! it didn’t work, he wanted top school. He wrote essays over summer, all by himself, he had no tutors, counselors, no prep courses, worked every summer as a research assistant at well-known organizations, had all the sports, leadership, academic achievements, was/is enrolled concurrently at the University of Maryland during his sr year and already has sophomore standing there, applied to 33 schools and got not very far… I am grateful he has at least Georgia Tech, UCLA and UT Austin (and 6 more not in consideration) but I am not comprehending how he managed not to get into any other schools. First bummer was Carnegie Mellon ED rejection, MIT EA deferral and it went down from there. Flood of rejections today, he hoped for UC Berkeley so badly … wait-listed for Dartmouth, Cornell and UPenn. Is it his CS major, which is most competitive? his essays? I am not a native speaker so can’t help much. or maybe some undisclosed recommendation, I don’t know … Everyone who knows him is shocked - this was a kid know in the community as someone who will go to MIT or alike. Kids he coached and tutored are accepted and he is not.
He is devastated and thinking of not going to college at all (I’m sure that will change).
And I have to start liking his choices and hopefully he will like them too, eventually
@wb176220 Tell your son don’t feel bad. There is no difference between UCLA and UCB. My daughter has similar stats but she is waitlisted by UCLA. It’s a crapshoot.
Probably applying to 33 schools is too many. He probably did not have much time to craft the essays.
Congratulation, @elena13!!! That’s great!
Big congrats to @wisteria100 , too!
Big congrats to your D, @coolweather!! UCB engineering is a truly tippy top engineering school, which is ranked higher than either Yale or Columbia for engineering. You D’s waitlist at MIT shows that it wasn’t a fluke, but that it was 100% earned. Yale and Columbia just lost an amazing engineer.
Sorry, @homerdog, about Dartmouth, but your S has some great acceptances, and Darmouth was his only downright rejection. I, personally, am not surprised about your S’s wall of "accepted"s. Now he just has to choose between so many amazing options.
@wb176220 It sucks, but his acceptances are all amazing schools in CS, GTech is a T-10 school in CS, UT Austin is a T-20 in CS, as is UCLA. It does not matter at all how many rejections he got, or from which schools he was rejected. He got into three colleges which are at the very top of every list of CS schools. Neither Dartmouth, Cornell or UPenn are better CS schools than GTech. The only schools on that list which are better than GTech are MIT and CMU. Have your son repeat this phrase " I only needed to be accepted to ONE top college, and I was" 20 times in front of a mirror. I mean seriously, how would 25 more acceptances have helped him? Your kid got into GTech for CS, there is absolutely NO reason for him to be devastated.
Let him mourn MIT and CMU for a day, and then tell him that he is being ridiculous. Refusing to go to college because he didn’t get his favorite school is entitled and childish.
Unexpected end to the search - D2 got into Dartmouth. I’ve never seen her so excited. Based on so many things, we didn’t think she really had a chance.
Our applied to list feels very presumptuous writing. She applied to 17 schools with the thought that the more apps, the better chance of one lucky yes. In our case it worked. My heart goes out to @wb176220 and your son. We so easily could have been in the same place.
Dartmouth and Wesleyan are top choices and we’ll fly in to visit both in a couple of weeks. We’re trying to tell her to be open to either based on fit - but unless Dartmouth somehow disappoints (unlikely), it’ll be her choice.
Accepted - Dartmouth, Wesleyan, Grinnell, Whitman
Waitlist - Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin, Pomona, Davidson, Rice, U Penn
Rejected - Oberlin, Harvard, Yale (Deferred ED), Cornell (Legacy), Vanderbilt, Tufts
1530 SAT, 4.0 UW / 4.5 W, Ranked 1/206, 4 APs (2-3s & 2-5s), Submitted Art Portfolio, No SAT II, Minimal ECs (Tennis Captain). No other hooks except maybe that we’re from Idaho.
@homerdog - Seems like we overlapped on many of the same colleges applied - but only Grinnell was a common result. Seems like Admissions are really looking for the intangible fit. Congrats for some great choices…
@rmsdad Congrats to your D!! Great news. She’ll find lots to like at both Dartmouth and Wesleyan.
And man is this process unpredictable- your very well qualified D rejected at Cornell with a legacy hook, but in at Dartmouth with no hook. Go figure that one. Keep us posted on the visits
@dfbdfb yes there is another group 3.0-3.4. It was started after this one. Before that group started , this group was much more inclusive. Unfortunately, that’s not the case any longer. Each year these groups become more divisive. I remain close friends with many of the 2016 parents, have met quite a few in person. These are parents who have children who attend UVA, Princeton, Amherst, Harvard, Yale, UCLA, USC, MIT as well as Mizzou, University of Arizona, Marquette, U of SC Honors, UNC Chapel Hill Robertson scholar, Northeastern, University of Florida, Pitt, Christopher Newport, OU , Delaware and Fisk. We are all extremely supportive of one another as parents. We have faced health crises with our children, celebrated accomplishments, and supported adversities. We’re just parents, where our children attend school is secondary. I was hoping for a similar situation with the 2019 parents. Many of these parents have 2019 children , but no longer participate in forums on CC because of the shift in focus from inclusion.
Of course it’s not very inclusive. That started before the other thread was created and parents with high stats kids were fairly consistently being shamed for talking about their kids high stats. And then hearing how other parents couldn’t wait until they had their own thread, hopefully it will start soon, etc. Great to see that shaming has continued and parents who have kids who got into highly selective schools shouldn’t be talking about that either. Is it ok if I talk about my kid’s journey that got her into a less selective school? Or is it ok to talk about Cornell anyway since I get to read all over CC about how it’s a “lower Ivy” and not as good as XYZ school?