Parents of the HS Class of 2024 (Part 1)

[sbinaz]

@coastal2024

Good luck- don’t you have a cameo in this production??

Yes!

[spaceaquarium]

It’s just the most popular 3-4 CSUs that deny high stats kids. That is mostly because they give bonus points to local kids since CSUs are supposed to serve the local population.

And of course because everyone applies to the most popular 4 majors as well!

[NiceUnparticularMan]

@CFP

Some kids, even teachers at our school probably wondered why our D24 ED to Rice when she could have “better” options.

Yeah, I think Rice is definitely in that category of colleges where more people need to understand that even arbitrarily well-qualified applicants can reasonably consider them their top target. Rice is great, so this is really no big stretch in my view. But some people seem stuck on a more restricted sense of “top” or “better” colleges that is just not realistic today.

[Mom2024a]

We had a similar situation but S did not listen to anyone and applied ED to a school that his peers (He is in a ultra competitive, harsh grading school) thought was a bit “below” him. It’s also a school that gets a lot of ridicule overall due to it’s perceived “questionable” admissions tactics. None of this deterred him and he is very content with his decision.

[tsbna44]

Heck - my first kid wanted nothing to do with where he ended up - and only found it because they had “college visit” or “job shadow” day in HS - and some buddies invited him. Otherwise he’d have never stepped foot on campus at his low ranked school. Guess the trip was worth it!! But he was sort of one of those kids you describe although only had one rejection.

My other - had favorite in all levels and chose a low ranked one.

Guess we got lucky in our house in this regard.

The - Yale was my dream - or I applied ED to Brown and I wasted it because I didn’t get in and now my life is over -

OMG I couldn’t handle the stress. And I’m not sure why it exists.

[spaceaquarium]

My kid is at a UC and has had one online class, it’s mostly in person.

One other difference in CA is the public’s do not offer much in the way of merit scholarships. So we don’t need to spend as much energy ‘chasing merit’ by applying to a ton of schools.

[sbinaz]

@tsbna44

I think there are some schools that send notes about the essay. We’ve read stories on here about this exact thing - I believe it’s part of the marketing to give the student the warm and fuzzies.

UAH, with the Honors acceptance, wrote a note to my son about his essay - which was - what is your favorite word and why.

I have no doubt, that as individuals, people are caring.

But in general, I believe, this is just marketing…to put the school in the best light for hopes of being chosen.

D24 got a hand-written postcard from 1 LAC and a hand-written note from a 2nd LAC after she got admitted. And from the 3rd LAC, she got a letter from a graduate of the college, while us parents got a letter in the mail from a parent of a graduate. They’re definitely amping up their game in order to increase yield, I think. But that’s ok.

[NiceUnparticularMan]

@bcuzicare

The type of counseling that is in private, feeder schools are privy to information and connections that no matter how much a parent or student scours the forums, reddit and internet cannot compete with personal phone calls and emails directly. These counselors are on a first name basis with many AOs from top colleges.

So this is why I call our HS “feederish” and not “feeder”. I do think every once in a while, our counselors are on the phone discussing an individual applicant. But at least these days, the vast majority of our admits to top colleges are just a product of the kid being a good fit and writing a good application.

I understand there are true feeder schools where maybe things are different (although I hear more and more talk about how that is breaking down too). But that isn’t our HS.

That said, for sure generally the fact our college counselors are often former AOs, still attend events where they chat with AOs, and so on is important. But then when that becomes advice, that is the stuff that, say, I can just freely pass along here, as well as other parents. And in fact, these days so many AOs are participating in podcasts, recorded information sessions, and so on.

Again, I am not saying this is a substitute for individualized private calls and such. But for general information purposes, I really do think the information is mostly out there somewhere.

[CFP]

There’s a group of colleges that basically have the same high stat kids (4.0, 1550+ SAT) as most Ivies but don’t have the ECs that fit the schools’ “institutional priorities”.

We were actually pretty confident she’d get in because they don’t get that many applicants from New England, which sounds odd considering their admit rate is still only around 9-10%.

WUSTL is probably in the same category.

[isitmayyet]

I think my kid would have liked WUSTL, kind of regret not encouraging that.

[lkg4answers]

@bcuzicare

Here in CA, not counting the tippy top schools, I do know high stat kids who didn’t get accepted to CSUs. They typically don’t do yield protection but maybe assume the kid will be “fine” and that doesn’t seem right either. If they have the stats that you’re asking for, then why not admit.

It could be the major that the high stats students were applying into. Nursing is impacted at all CSUs. Many campuses are impacted for Criminal Justice, Graphic Design and Business.

All majors are impacted at SLO, SDSU, CSULB, CSULA, CSUF and SJSU. However, looking at the CSU Impacted Programs Matrix, you will find that there are many programs and campuses that are not impacted.

Many CSUs are still accepting applications. Check the dates and deadlines. Some applications close on 1/31/24.

[Thorsmom66]

The very few kids from our HS (in MA) that have applied to Rice or WashU ED have mostly been accepted.

[sarahbrown24]

Super curious as New England resident - which schools don’t get a ton of kids from this area? I think of WUSTL as getting a lot of NE kids…

[Alqbamine32]

@TonyGrace

In my personal experience it is not just a matter of want. With my 22 it was easier to find excellent outside the box alternatives, mostly involving a compromise in geography which everyone agreed was the easiest one to make. 24 we have struggled, not for the lack of trying

Similarly, D22 had an easier time identifying colleges (across the selectivity spectrum) that seemed like good matches for her interests and desires. D24, not so much. In her case, it is partially about a unicorn combo of features that she’d ideally like as well as a strong desire to stay close to home and a contradictory set of priorities. For example, most of the colleges that she thinks fit her personality best don’t actually have the majors that appeal to her most ( don’t ask, complicated kid). I think for both kids, their schools’ push to identify a list and put in early applications was detrimental to their process. They both needed more time to think, which is partly why I was so anti-ED (also the financial piece). I have wanted them to have choices at the end of senior year because some kids do change a lot. At the same time, it was hard to disregard the advice of the college advising office given their expertise in helping kids find and get into good fits. D24 didn’t even want to think about college junior year when all of her peers were already making plans and lists with their advisors’ help.

@TonyGrace

ETA - To make it clear, my bottom line is I HATE EVERY MINUTE OF THIS PROCESS AS IT STANDS NOW. Call it 3 kids in 4 (always shifting) years burn out! Thank you for listeni

My other kids are younger so I will be glad to have a break from all this for a few years. I can’t imagine 3 in 4 years. You must be exhausted. It has helped that my daughters’ boarding schools have done much of the heavy lifting. I’ve been stressed from afar but also pretty removed from the actual process.

[CFP]

@sarahbrown24

Super curious as New England resident - which schools don’t get a ton of kids from this area? I think of WUSTL as getting a lot of NE kids…

Rice, UT, a lot of the Texas schools.

[NiceUnparticularMan]

@CFP

There’s a group of colleges that basically have the same high stat kids (4.0, 1550+ SAT) as most Ivies but don’t have the ECs that fit the schools’ “institutional priorities”.

We were actually pretty confident she’d get in because they don’t get that many applicants from New England, which sounds odd considering their admit rate is still only around 9-10%.

Speaking of high end tools, I can see all this in SCOIR data for our HS.

In a certain high box of GPA/test combinations, for the very most selective colleges it might be like 1/3 admitted (which still ain’t bad). And then it starts moving up to more like 1/2, then 2/3. And then it is all or almost all admits. And these are still very good schools!

At the 1/3 level, that is probably still usually taking something special in addition to the numbers. But at 2/3 or higher, I am pretty sure that is now mostly kids with “normal” good ECs and such.

Then the really “fun” ones are the ones without enough data. I can make informed guesses based on analogies, but it is still an “exciting” amount of uncertainty.

Like, at one of my personal favorites S24 applied to, our HS is recently 5-0-1 (I am scoring the waitlisting with an unknown outcome as the tie). So, one “exciting” possibility is he is a virtual lock! Another “exciting” possibly is he will manage to be the first person rejected in many years!

Anyway, literally first world problems. But yes, part of why I am such a zealot for getting outside the most-popular-with-my-peers box is I can see how with schools like this, it actually does seem to help to maybe not have two gazillion kids from our HS apply every year.

Edit: Oh, and WUSTL is very popular in our HS (91 applications in my data set, which is a lot more than 6, to say the least). But it is sort of in that 1/2 to 2/3 category for our HS. Meaning if your numbers are good enough, it doesn’t appear to be quite a lock but also does not seem to require something extraordinary by our standards.

Same deal with Rice, but it is notably less popular at our HS (only 26 applications). Emory would be yet another in that category, and in between in popularity (64). And so on.

[Mom2024a]

Kids from our NE school who ED to WashU, Emory, CWRU, Pomona, UCSD (EA) usually get accepted.

[CFP]

At our school, about 5-10 kids every year apply to Rice and 10-20 kids apply to UT.

Our D was the first ever to get into Rice from our school because:

1. Very few people up here know about it.
2. Rice cares about demonstrated interest and don’t want random applications based on USNWR.
3. A lot of kids from New England dont want to go to Houston (or Texas).

They also don’t do any (that we’re aware of) direct mail or marketing.

It’s hilarious when they find out it’s a T20 school.

[Thorsmom66]

I’m in MA and we don’t have a lot of applicants to WUSTL or Rice (maybe 4-5 per year). UT Austin isn’t popular either (1-2 applicants per year). I’d assume other TX schools don’t get many applicants either. We send very few applicants to midwest LACs (Oberlin, Kenyon, Macalester, Carleton) - fewer than 1 per year apply. Almost all those who applied were accepted, though, so there is some lost opportunity for kids who are interested in LACs. Our classes are around 400 students every year (sometimes as big as 450).

[NiceUnparticularMan]

@CFP

Rice cares about demonstrated interest and don’t want random applications based on USNWR.

This is something that the college counselors warn people about. I am not in fact surprised that Rice is, say, less popular of an application at our HS than Emory, because I think kids are basically warned to only apply to Rice if it is a top 2-3ish school for them.

And then you ALSO need the numbers for Rice (unhooked). Fair enough.