D26 said that this morning was PSAT time for grades 9-11, so while everybody else was taking the PSAT, the seniors did an activity with the 2 college counselors. It was like a case study, where they got into small groups and had to review 3 students’ applications to Haverford College. They had to choose to admit 1, waitlist 1, and deny 1. D26 really enjoyed it, felt she learned a lot from it. After each group explained which student they admitted, waitlisted, and denied, the counselors then gave them the actual results and they all discussed it. Pretty cool stuff.
D26 said she’s almost ready to hit the ‘submit’ button on her applications. I think that will happen by the end of the week.
She’s meeting 1-on-1 w/1 of the counselors after school on Friday to talk about counselor LOR stuff.
I love this kind of activity. Our school does something similar for juniors, but it’s always been on a weekend, and neither of my girls opted to participate.
But when D22 was in high school, it was open to parents, so another mom and I went even though our kids didn’t, lol. An admissions officer from Bowdoin was there leading it. And it was eye opening!
I don’t want to derail other threads but the discussion about UT Austin on the other thread makes me think C26 was absolutely right to limit their geographical options, regardless of what the vibe on an individual campus might be.
What’s been interesting to me is thinking about the ramifications of various state elections. What happens when a party changes power in various states and how will it impact those state’s universities? I note that we’re in New Jersey and have an election coming up. What might a new governor dramatically change in our state universities? Not something I had ever contemplated until this year.
It is starting to remind me of apartheid South Africa, where I went to undergrad. There was a clear split between the English and (then) Afrikaans universities. The English ones (at least by the time I went, I am sure it wasn’t always that way) all had some kind of statement about the university supporting equal rights and rejecting apartheid. The Afrikaans ones just toed the state line.
I had to go find the thread – I hadn’t seen it. Ugh, I feel for that OP. But I hope they take the advice and leave the application alone – I don’t think an email is going to help.
Since we live in the south, and since I have a kid in school in Texas, this sort of stuff weighs on me.
It’s interesting, before this year, the big discussion was about how many northern kids are heading south for college – there was a huge thread about the WSJ article that came out Sept 2024, I think.
I’ll be curious to see the stats after this season and next.
Let me add one point about the whole northern kids going to south for college discussion. I generally stay away from posting on these issues, but I think this group is pretty open and welcoming. Look at the racial diversity of the northern kids going to south(we all know they are mainly talking about University of Alabama). It is majority white kids. I am not putting any negative connotations here, and they are getting great education at a pretty good tuition discount. Just stating one fact that most people choose to ignore when having this conversation.
I think USC is another big target school. As I recall, a lot of the “push” came from people who were uncomfortable with the campus protests up north. Without wanting to be political, I think generally as a demographic those students are perhaps less likely to be put off by some of the more overt changes in college policy in the south we may be seeing. What my husband and I observed as immigrants is, I think, also true of university students -the US is huge and varied, and whatever your particular brand /combination of politics and lifestyle preference is, and yes factoring in the cost of living (or in this case, tuition), there will be places to find where you will feel at home.
Oh wait…I think figured it out. I’m a little slow on the uptake today.
Edited to add:
In the arena of “Where should you go to college?” there are many flavors of ice cream. If you don’t quite like a specific college, don’t attend. Apply somewhere else that will be a better fit for you.
so my one point of reference is Auburn EA1. In the last few years, results were released 2nd Friday in Oct. As of now, no decisions yet. The Exec Director of admissions mentioned at an event Monday they were already at 30,0000 applications (unprecedented for Auburn at this time). Last year about 59,000 total compared to 18,000 in 2020. So it’s looking like at least for Auburn that trend continues. Anxiously awaiting a blog from UGA to see their EA numbers (deadline was yesterday).
So I’ve totally been a lurker on this thread for a while now, but thought I’d hop in. Based on what I’ve heard from a number of others here in my little neck of the Northeast, I think the “applying south” trend continues. A lot of it is about the $$. The southern schools offer so much more merit money in general (and are already cheaper to start with). It’s hard to turn that down. But, I’ve definitely heard of more people (us included) who are opting NOT to apply to southern schools because we - both my daughter and my husband and I - have concerns about her going south for school at this time. We’re sticking with schools in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Upper Midwest.
That’s a fair point. I just got sucked into reading half the thread from last year again, lol – and yes, even though the reasons for heading south might span lower cost and lifestyle and weather and fewer campus protests, it’s not a stretch to assume the majority of these students are those who are least likely to be affected by political policies in the south.
Wow. I know Clemson has seen an astronomical rise like that in applications in the last few years, too. Which is interesting, because my perception is that both Auburn and Clemson have a higher cost of attendance than other southern publics for OOS students – but I haven’t looked at the numbers, so I don’t actually know that.
I’m curious to hear about UGA’s numbers, too – every year at my kids’ private school there is an outcry over how many kids got deferred, lol. I used to follow the blog closely when D22 was applying, and I love how transparent they are. I haven’t read it in a long time, though.
This is what I’m wondering, if more and more people will feel this way, and if it will affect the overall numbers – maybe not this year, but next?
ETA – was just discussing this with DH, and he said he gets it, but it would be a shame because we NEED an influx of differing political ideologies in our southern schools.
It could affect their yield rates this year as well, if not their application rates. Just hard to say how much the lower costs weigh in as a general rule.
I agree that we need differing political ideologies in ALL schools, northern, southern, wherever. But in our case at least, the schools themselves are not the primary concern. It’s the laws of the states that they’re in that worry us.
D26 said today that she’s “this close” to being ready to submit some applications. Just needs final review from counselor of her common app personal statement.
She sent an email 2 wk ago to UT-Dallas’s admissions dept & the School of Economic, Political, & Policy Sciences because their website mentioned that they’re offering a new cyber security major starting in Fall 2026. D26 was looking for info like what the required courses are, is there a major map listed, etc. And they had a link to the course catalog, but there’s nothing in the course catalog about it. Well, it’s been 2 weeks and there’s been zero response from anybody at that school. D26 said, “Yeah, doesn’t speak very highly of how easy it would be to be a student there. Lots of roadblocks and no answers.”
Does this mean she’s going to NOT apply to UTD? No. She’s still going to apply. What the heck, child? That’s $50-75 of mine down the drain. I tried again today to convince her to scratch it off the list but no.
I decided to start researching how the different colleges on her list handle new student orientation. For a couple of them, it’s all online/virtual. For one, it’s all in person over move-in weekend for 3 days prior to the start of classes (this is how D24’s college does it). Don’t know yet how the last 2 handle it. A couple of the colleges have parent orientation stuff, some do not. When the time comes, I mostly want/need to know if we’ll have to budget for making an extra trip to a college in the middle of the summer before move in happens in August. It’s interesting how widely different colleges are from each other on this.
I was today years old when I learned that U Chicago has an ED0. I googled it, and my first reaction was “shenanigans!” Seems a shady racket driving summer school revenue with a special admissions process.
I tried again today to convince her to scratch it off the list but no.