Good point, on the other hand in the UK once you picked your major there is no switching. But you finish in 3 years. Gotta say the entire process is far more complicated and time consuming than when I did it. Back then we just applied to schools our friends applied to then most of us went to the state school.
Yep, thatâs the system I did university in. It has pros and cons (you can switch, but then it likely adds on an extra year, or more if itâs a completely unrelated subject). On balance I like the US approach to undergrad moreâŠwhich absolutely does not mean I like the US approach to college admissions more.
My neighbor went to Stanford. When I started to say something about that she cut me off with âoh, everyone around here went to Stanford or Berklely back then, it wasnât like nowâ. (I donât know how factual it is, but thatâs what she said)
I donât know about Stanford but I have a lot of family who went to UCSB and back then it was considered a cake walk and a big party school. A cousin had some wild stories about partying there, itâs changed a lot in the last 20+ years.
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Iâm a little late responding to this, but I wanted to offer some perspective. My D25 did NSLI-Y in Morocco. It was a great experience, but itâs not a true hook. Sheâs applying now and has very good grades, test scores, ECs etc but NSLI isnât getting her in anywhere she wouldnât have gotten in without it. (Weâve had some disappointments in our application âjourneyâ, as everyone does.)
Your daughter is exactly enough for the place sheâll be happy pursuing her dreams. One activity, EC or grade isnât going to change her outcome, no matter how special it seems. 
Sheâll get to Korea one day, one way or another.
I always recommend reading Who Gets In and Why by Jeff Selingo. I found it eye opening. All the best to you and your daughter!
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If your son is completely fine with attending CC as his backup plan should he not get into those reaches and UCs he will be applying to, a short list of schools makes sense. I would of course encourage a mixture of a few safeties, targets, and reaches of preferred colleges heâd like to attend, but it really doesnât matter too much if CC is the fallback plan.
If he does want to go to a four year college but is not sure where or the size, then he may want to cast a wider net to allow him options, of course.
My dad went to UCSB in the 60s⊠then partied his way right out 
Landed in the army for a few years then finished undergrad at Berkeley.
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Over the break I borrowed âWho gets in and whyâ by Jeff Sellngo from our local library and it was eye opening. In case like me you always found the acceptance process opaque this is a good behind the scene book which is easy to read.
We also took a trip down to socal to visit the UCs. I had never set food on any of their campuses and S26 wanted to get a feel for what they were like. Hereâs a quick recap.
UCLA - He loved it, and itâs his top choice now, unfortunately the acceptance rate from our school to UCLA is 8% so itâs unlikely heâd get in. I was surprised how full the campus was during a break, how big the campus store was and how many people were walking around in UCLA branded gear.
Harvey Mudd - Man was this out of town, a friend who attended the school scared S26 by talking about how hard it was and how much time he had to spend studying. Plus the far out location this might be off the list now.
UCI - He loved the mascot but hated the architecture, said it looked like Russia. They had some fancy dorms we walked by and he thought it would be great to be right in the middle of campus until he found out those dorms are 4 to a room.
UCSD - 2nd choice now, beating out UCSB. Location was great, they are building new dorms that will open this year. He said if he gets in UCB and UCSD it would be tough. In general he loved socal and is ready to be near a beach. There is a trolley going from campus to downtown San Diego which was nice.
USC - Wasnât really planning on visiting but thought hey we are here anyways. Man is the area outside campus rough. We had to give our ID to pass by security. The campus is gorgeous and it def feels like itâs for the 0.1%. Only campus store that had jewelry on sale or a tailor to customize your clothings. Unless he gets some type of major merit aid the 95k/year price tags is way outside our budget.
So now we have visited every UC except Merced or Riverside. Weâll take a trip to the east coast over the summer to visit family and check out some of the east coast schools.
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Sounds like you are doing well with college visits goid job!! We struggle finding time to fit them in. I might have to read that book it comes up as a recommendation quite often. What was your biggest âtakeâ from the book?
Thanks for sharing your sonâs impressions of the campuses. Itâd be great if you add them to this thread:
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Within my immediate family, we have attended 5 of the 9 UCs and USC. My student who went to USC did so on a scholarship that brought the net price cheaper than a UC. Otherwise it would not have been an option.
USC created the closed campus this year not because of the surrounding area, but because of problems they have had with non students protesting on campus.
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Iâve read that book! Really enjoyed it.
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The TL;DR from the book. You never know what the school needs. They have multiple priorities. Start with the alumni specially for the Ivy League schools so you have legacies, then you add in sports finally the children of the school employees and whoever else they feel they need (math wiz, large donor kid, orchestra etc). Dartmouth for example has 1100 students and about 200-250 student athletes. So take those seats away and you are already dealing with a very small class size.
So now a chunk of the class is full, schools donât want to look like they are just a social club for white rich alumni so they look for first gen, minority high stat kids specially in EA so they can shape the class to be somewhat representative of society.
After EA, they are fighting over high stat kids who have applied to multiple schools. Schools donât want to admit a student who will turn them down, this lowers their yield rate and can affect their rankings. Applicants get about 8-10 minutes by 1 or 2 people then depending on the school a full committee might spend 1-2 min reviewing their applications.
Schools really care about rankings, Northeastern a school I had never heard of when I was in high school focused a lot on rankings and is now considered a top school able to turn down 90% of applicants. This was made possible by a relentless focus on what was taken into account in school rankings. Schools will try and âstealâ kids from higher ranked schools by giving them merit aid. But you have to check if the aid continues on after the 1st year. Also schools that give a lot of merit aid then canât compete on facilities/counselors/teachers because they have less money.
The ED2/ED3/EA system is designed to get students to commit as early as possible to a school. Often this is done by scaring the students. Tulane was mentioned multiple times as they send out emails encouraging students to commit after Ivy rejection letters go out. This is good for the school and bad for the kid but since schools try and fill up the class in those rounds you are better off doing EA if you have a top choice school.
Last since schools care a lot about yield itâs important for students to attend college visits by counselors of schools they are interested in. Schools want to have a low acceptance rate (for rankings) they will try and get as many applicants as they can . Even if said students have no chance of acceptance their rejection makes the school look more exclusive.
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A good friend of mine who works in tech got a full ride to go there while UCLA only covered 50% of his cost. His choice was easy of course this was 25-30 years ago. Heâs doing well now but even for him paying full cost is hard to swallow.
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Nice synopsis!
Thanks
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I just ordered the book for my Kindle!
I hope everyoneâs kids are adjusting to being back in school after break. We traveled internationally to visit my S22 in Europe, so itâs been an adjustment. Plus, we have some weird scheduling this year. Yesterday, D26 returned for one week of classes â followed by first semester finals next week. Finals are going to be critical in a few of Dâs classes that are currently sitting in the 90-91 range (with 10% of the grade determined by the final exam score). If everything falls her way (i.e., grades stay where they are), then it will be a good semester with only one B in AP Physics/Dual Enrollment. But given her study habits, I am preparing myself for another B or twoâŠ
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We visited UCLA, UCSD, all the Claremont schools and USC with our D26 in the past year. UCLA is the clear favorite, followed by UCSD. She felt meh about USC.
Heading into end of semester next week. Back to survival mode after winter break.
I really donât know how these kids do it. High school and the college admissions process didnât seem nearly as competitive 30 years ago. Between 5 AP classes, sports (trying to get recruited), test prep, work, volunteering, clubs participation, college visits, etc, there just doesnât seem to be enough time to fit it all in.
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My D22 is a 3rd year at UCLA and is having a terrific experience. It is as fun as it looks, and even on slow days, there always seems to be something happening that brings students out and about. (Edited to add: she called me last night while walking home from class and she was detoured around a huge outdoor tap dance class.) There are annoyancesâregistration can be tough, the lines for food can be long, some clubs are very competitive, but as far as the overall experience, we are all very happy with it, and it feels like an excellent investment for an in-state student. As far as getting admitted, I think itâs a good idea to spend time on the PIQsâthey really do read them and UCLA likes to see creativity and leadership.
I think UCSD is a very different social experience⊠maybe thatâs changing but one of its nicknames is UC Socially Dead, and my own experience going to SDSU and having a boyfriend at UCSD aligned with that take. My boyfriend always wanted to party with me. 
gorgeous location though!
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ahhh thatâs good to know itâs the type of stuff that you wonât find out from walking around a mostly empty campus.
Very proud of my S26, who got his first semester report card today. He got 6 As and one B+ (3 honors classes and 1 AP). The B+ (89 percent, so close!) is in honors physics and his teacher has said heâll change the grade to an A- if he gets a solid A this semester.
He had me sweating a bitâa few of those As were teetering as he headed into the last couple of weeks of the semester and finals. He started a new high school this year, which was a big transition for him. But itâs been such a positive moveâhe now has a group of friends and a girlfriend⊠and good grades!
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Practice AP exam season at school is starting tomorrow. Our HS requires students taking an AP class to take a practice AP exam on specific Saturdays in Jan & Feb. Then the teacher scores the tests & sits down w/each kid for a few min to review how you did, what areas to work on, & whether or not they recommend you to take the actual exam. So tomorrowâs is for AP English Lit.
D26 said on the way home from school yesterday that for AP Calculus AB, theyâve now covered all of the content for the school year, so for the rest of the year up until AP exam day in May (which counts as their final exam also), itâll basically be review. 
I was surprised because when D24 took AP Calculus AB, they didnât get through the material that quicklyâŠbut that year, there was a teacher change mid-year AND there was about 6 weeks when there was a substitute in between the old teacher & new one (and during the 6 week sub period, the students basically taught themselves & learned nothing new). It was a small miracle that D24 got a 3 on the Calculus AB exam at the end of the year.
Planning on taking D26 to tour U of A (Arizona, not Alabama) next month. Probably will visit Embry-Riddle University (in Prescott, not Daytona) in March or April. Still planning on visiting Univ of Tulsa in early April.
D26 really doesnât want to attend either of the 2 other in-state public universities here (ASU, NAU), so she wonât be applying to those. D26 doesnât like Flagstaff at all. And she doesnât like ASU because it âfeels too big and too corporate.â
I think that Embry-Riddle will end up being too expensive for us AND I think that D26 will find the social scene there too limiting, but weâre going to go visit/tour it anyway to confirm my suspicions.
At one point, Univ of Alabama-Huntsville was on the list, but D26 thinks that itâs too far away + itâs kind of hard to get to an airport to fly home from there, especially if you wonât have a car. I think D26 would fit in well with all of the nerdy kids who go there, but for the distance/travel factors, it wonât go on the list.
D26 has given a firm no to the colleges in NM (which are cheap for us). All CA schools are out because of cost + D26 said that she definitely doesnât want to live in CA. Any colleges in the northern half of the US are out because âitâs too cold.â
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