My regret right now is that S19 didn’t apply to more public schools closer to home. We didn’t look at the schools where some of his friends are ending up. His friends got some really amazing offers from Temple and University of Maryland. S19s thoughts about where he wanted to go to school and what he wanted to study have changed so much over the past year, and it would be nice for him to at least have an option right now of going somewhere closer as he now realizes how 6 hours in the car is a long time. We’re also a bit concerned about the lack of diversity and the academic atmosphere at his top contenders. But, it is what it is. I’m sure he will end up where he is supposed to be and hopefully he will take full advantage of what is on offer.
@SDCounty3Mom Congratulations! In all honesty, I don’t think that any “reaches” would have provided your D with a better education or experience than she’ll get at Scripps.
Regarding your lessons, they all provide excellent advice, however, I have a comments. I think that you are selling your self and your D short. Your D’s results are pretty good, and should be used as a recommendation for other parents/students in strategic application. You applied to colleges which were well matched to your D, correctly read the status of colleges for your D, as Reach/Match/Safety, and, as a result, your D had a good number of excellent choices.
There have been many students and parents who are really disappointed in the list of colleges to which they have been accepted. Most are in this situation because they did not apply in the same strategic manner as you and your D did, and evidently did NOT have a s clear an idea as to what constituted a Reach vs a Match. I am sure that many would have considered your Low Reaches to be Matches, and your Match/Target colleges to be Safeties. You read your D’s chances correctly, you identified colleges in which your D would be happy, and you ended up with an excellent set of acceptances.
PS. I think that if your D felt the need to do AP Stats instead of AP Calc, than she probably wouldn’t have been happy at any place in which this background is an important factor in acceptance. So I would not consider this a “mistake”.
@crknwk2000 We have a LOT of UCLA stuff that we don’t need anymore, LOL. My DH is an alum, but we moved out of California, so D did not get to apply there. We have always had always had plenty of UCLA stuff around for my girls to wear. Oh well, more hand me downs for me. DH doesn’t wear any of his stuff anyway. Congratulations!
@MWolf Thank you. I had D’s list organized as “high reach” (where she was 0 for 2), “low reach” (where she was 2 for 3 with the third a WL), “target/match” (3 for 4, the fourth a WL), and “safety” (2 for 2). I put Scripps in the “low reach” category, so getting in and being able to attend is a proud and happy outcome.
I agree that many people have these categories shifted toward favoring acceptance, due in part I think to looking at acceptance rates and selectivity stats from even just 3 years ago. A friend believed her D had a good chance at NYU and BU based on 2015 numbers, a big mistake. In the end I was screaming for joy for her daughter when she finally got a yes at a school that she had considered a safety! (It was not a safety – in reality her “safety” was a low reach, and it was her lone acceptance beyond one token hated safety).
Another lesson learned is that a “safety” is only a safety if you really and truly want to attend it and would be content going there. A random, silly, basically hated safety isn’t a safety at all then. This advice is often echoed here on CC.
And thank you, @MWolf , for that insightful note about the AP Stats or Calc route and where D would feel at home – I hadn’t thought of it that way, but that’s a lovely point. Thank you for that.
Well I won’t have to worry about buying cold weather gear, because my D is going to one of the hottest places in the country. We went to orientation last Friday, and it hit 100 degrees in Tempe, AZ! It was just a short heatwave, but just enough to remind us what to expect going forward.
It was a short but productive trip. My D met two of her roommates, and both of their moms. They were all very nice people so that’s a relief. D got a decent class schedule, so she’s feeling pretty good about it all.
Now that orientation is over with, I feel like the end of the school year is staring me straight in the face. Graduation party plans still not really finished, I still have some planning for our Italy trip to do, plus oodles of other things floating around in my head.
Congratulations to us all. Most of us have decisions, and survived the process!
I think the rule of increasing your odds if you are above 75th percentile for stats has gone completely out the window - at least for schools with acceptance rates below 30 or 40%.
And @SDCounty3Mom - I wouldn’t read too much into the math thing. My kid has fantastic math scores and it didn’t help him at his top choices.
Well, we finally have a decision, and it’s Vanderbilt! I’m so thankful and relieved. Thanks so much to the parents on this thread for creating a supportive and helpful community.
Also, S19’s tennis team made it to the Elite Eight of the state playoffs! He’s much more focused on that at the moment than college stuff.
@SDCounty3Mom Scripps has one of the most beautiful college campuses we have ever seen and the 5 Cs Consortium is great. We really enjoyed reading the writings of alumnae on the North Wall of the Rose Garden.
