<p>Ynotgo, and when you hit the engineering department at A&M, did you encounter any hazing? Get the “Howdy, da**-it” tee shirt?</p>
<p>I applied to three schools - the regional private college my sister attended, the more selective regional private where I enrolled, and a wild-card private 2000 miles away because they had a large merit scholarship. I filled out their application (in ink, including the essay with no rough draft) and was kind of insulted that I was offered admission but not the big scholarship! Ironically I now live 30 minutes from that school and my resentment has abated…
In the end it didn’t matter much because I transferred to the state U after my freshman year to be with my boyfriend ( now my husband of thirty-some years). </p>
<p>Oh, and we were advised that one couldn’t study for the SAT. No prep, no retaking among my classmates. My alma mater is now probably test-prep central for the Pacific NW. How times and people change.</p>
<p>Not so terribly different. Junior year my Mom and I did a college trip and saw Barnard, Tufts and Radcliffe. I took the SAT and the NMQT/PSAT (first year they were combined). Senior year retook SAT and took the subject tests. Ended up applying to Radcliffe, Brown and U Penn. (Reach, match, safety). I never visited Brown or Penn. I had a Radcliffe interview, but had the flu for my Brown interview and missed it. My recentered SAT scores are very good - especially the verbal. I took four APs senior year - Calc BC, European History, English and Art.</p>
<p>I recycled my essay for everyone. Considered applying to Yale, but they had weird questions that would have required totally new essays. I had to write my essay for Brown by hand, everyone else got typed essays. I got in everywhere, and U Penn gave me a Presidential Scholarship award.</p>
<p>My prep school’s college counseling was pretty lame. I remember they kept suggesting women’s colleges, and I wanted nothing of the sort after four years at a single sex institution. I applied to Radcliffe because my Dad had gone to Harvard and I figured it would probably be good at anything I might want to major in. </p>
<p>DH got a Presidential Scholarship, too, which was how UPenn was cheaper than in-state rates at Binghamton. Made his decision easy. His HS (selective NYC public) only allowed students to apply to five schools at that time. Will have to ask him where else he applied!</p>
<p>@dragonmom No hazing for me personally at A&M, perhaps because I started out in geophysics, not engineering. Perhaps also because I hung more with 2%er groups. The experience of being there did make me more liberal in many ways as a reaction to the overall conservatism of the place.</p>
<p>My own story is pretty conventional but I always loved my dad’s. Both my parents were first generation college students, neither of my grandmothers even graduated high school.</p>
<p>Dad was just out of the Air Force, married to my mom, and they had one baby and another on the way. Mom was 3 years older than him and would support him through school working as an RN. They decided to move back to her home state so her parents could help with the kids. </p>
<p>When he went to register at the local community college they found out he’d have to pay out of state tuition, so at the very last minute they drove over the border to where he was from and stopped at the first state school they found. He was able to register for classes, and my mom found a job-but they couldn’t find any housing–so they kept driving to the next college town and ended up at the state flagship. This time they found a place to live first, then went to register. Classes had already started but he registered, took a couple of placement tests and started class the same day. No application, no SAT’s or high school transcripts, just showed up, paid and started. Very different time indeed! </p>
<p>In the late 60s, I took a couple of college courses during the summer after junior year. The university was probably top 50 or 100 at the time, but I don’t know. I did okay in the courses, but didn’t knock it out of the park – iirc I got a B in Calc 2, but signing up for the course without any prerequisites (no Trig, no Precalc, no Calc 1) was more a testament to my teenaged cojones than my sense.</p>
<p>Life at home wasn’t going great; nothing dramatic, but typical teenager stuff. I had enjoyed my time away.</p>
<p>I went to an office (I guess it must have been the Admissions office) and spoke to someone about attending in the fall. I don’t remember my SAT scores, but my school handed back results in homeroom, and I remember the teacher’s eyebrows going up and saying “ooh, you can go anywhere you’d like with these scores.” The AO asked if it would be okay with my parents, I told them that I’m sure they’d be pleased, and I was accepted.</p>
<p>Since I had not yet fulfilled my HS graduation requirements, I was technically a HS dropout. For a while, my parents were contacted by someone (CPS?) until they finally convinced them that I hadn’t just fallen off the face of the earth.</p>
<p>So, I started at college, aged 16. Freshman year I had a great time socially, bad time academically. I got it together after that. On balance, it was probably a bad idea, but you know what they say about hindsight.</p>
<p>Different times for sure. I doubt that I’d get past the metal detectors in the Admissions Office today :-)</p>
<p>When we took D2 to visit Texas A & M, it was a first for all of us. It took us a few time hearing the “Howdy!” before we figured out it was “a thing.” Even the elevators say it. “Howdy! You’re on the 3rd floor!” D2 said, “what’s the deal with ‘Howdy’?” I said, “beats me.” </p>
<p>DH always has to pound a joke in until you want to scream, so for several months after that, every time D2 walked into a room he’d say “HOWDY!” </p>
<p>I applied to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and U.Va. The only reason I applied to any schools other than U.Va. was that a friend of mine had gone to Princeton the year before (probably the first ever from our high school to go to such a place), and my SAT was higher than his. The guidance counselor was clueless about the Ivy League schools, and my parents and I didn’t know much about them either. I think I hand-wrote my applications as well–I certainly didn’t know how to type at the time. I ended up at Yale.</p>
<p>When I applied to colleges, all of the state universities were admission safeties for my stats (though I did not know it until when I was in college). Now, someone with my stats (after recentering my SAT scores) would probably find some of them to be in the high match to reach range (depending on major/division) and several others to be something other than safeties (again sometimes depending on major/division).</p>
<p>Early 70’s, just as a lot of men’s schools started admitting women. First in family to go to college, so I was clueless, parents were pretty much as clueless, and the guidance counselor at the not-so-great high school was incompetent and kept suggesting junior college.</p>
<p>Visited University of Chicago – and when mom saw the actual campus location, that wasn’t going to fly. Harvey Mudd was trying to recruit women, but I’d never heard of it and kept throwing away the letters. Purdue stunk of cattle.</p>
<p>Luckily we lived in California. And back then, if you scored very highly on the SAT, you were automatically admitted to the UC campus of your preference. I never even graduated from high school. How times have changed. And how can you beat $212/quarter? Housing was an issue – those were peak times for baby boomers and returning Vietnam vets, and there wasn’t enough dorm space. </p>
<p>Mid 80s–applied to UMD, Georgetown, Duke, Northwestern, Yale and Brown. My high school transcript was all over the place as my father was transferred to England after sophomore year. Went to an English grammar school junior year and took O levels. Had to decide at that point whether to continue in the English system for 2 more years and get A levels or dorm at an American school a few hours away. Ended up at the American school; they somehow converted my grammar school grades into US equivalents and I ended up Salutatorian by graduation.</p>
<p>ECs were pitiful by today’s standards but I guess did show some level of commitment (only dance and theater, but for years). Took SAT once without prep (1300 out of 1800—that shows you how much times have changed, these days would a kid with that score even have a chance getting into the schools listed above?), 2 subject tests, maybe 3 APs total?</p>
<p>My parents helped a lot with the applications. I wrote all of my essays myself but they certainly gave suggestions and criticisms. I remember handwriting that Brown essay! Being overseas, I didn’t visit any campuses except I had driven through MD before, and been to Yale maybe a dozen times on the tour as I had family nearby and it was something to do. The rest were just photos in brochures. I had a terrible interview in London with a Georgetown alum (he had a gorgeous townhome though) and a good interview in my home with a Brown alum.</p>
<p>I remember we were on vacation the week acceptances came out (April 15 back then) and so when we got home there was a pile of envelopes, some big and some small. Rejected from Georgetown and Yale. Waitlist at Duke. Accepted UMD Honors, Northwestern and Brown. Brown was so cool, they actually sent a Western Union telegram to the house telling me I was accepted because they didn’t know when the official packet would reach me internationally!</p>
<p>At that point it came down to money. If I went to MD, I wouldn’t have to get a job or loans, and I could get a used car. At the other 2 I would have loans and a job and no car. Brown offered the better package so Northwestern was out. I chose Brown. These days, I don’t think I’d have a chance in heck of being accepted!</p>
<p>All: I am shaking my head at how familiar all this sounds, and wonder what I would have done differently had I had the knowledge I do today. Looking back on how poor we were and my stats (e.g., 4.0uw and an 800 on the Advanced Math SAT and leadership and sports activities) perhaps I too could have gone to a “better” school (although Ga Tech was one of the best for Engineering). I had no idea what my possibilities were and, like Hunt, the GC’s were great at local (Southeastern) schools, but clueless beyond that.</p>
<p>My own son had the stats and scores and leadership positions, etc. to go to a “much better” school than he did. BUT he fell in love with the school he attended (Honors Tutorial College at Ohio University), he got a merit scholarship that covered all but $3000 of the tuition, LOVED his time there, and is now happily employed in his profession (in LA - film industry). </p>
<p>I think kids (pardon) today are in great shape, with all the info available and the “ease” of applying via the Common App. But that ease also increases the competition as schools receive many, many times more applications than ever.</p>
<p>I don’t recall ever even considering going to anything but the state flagship. I applied to that school only. I remember taking the ACT with a slight hangover, but it was good enough for a full ride for 4 years. There were no prep courses that I knew of–we were just told to show up one Saturday. I even got scholarship money beyond the full ride so I had tons of spending money. </p>
<p>I will admit that I spent hours alone in my room with the Peterson’s Guide … wanting to apply to all the cool schools I found but not wanting to be accepted & have to say no due to finances (or lack thereof). I had the stats to go to an ivy, but I truly had no idea that my not-so-rich family with 4 kids in college at once might mean I could get aid. My GC was the school’s basketball coach, and he had about as much in his head as was in a basketball. When he asked (during the obligatory once-a-year chat) where I planned to go to school, his only comment was: But they don’t have a basketball team. </p>
<p>My NYC magnet allowed us to apply to 6 schools, one of which had to be our state school. I didn’t visit the two high reaches, figuring I would see what happened first (I didn’t get in). </p>
<p>I wrote what I realize now was a terrible admissions essay. I didn’t have anyone guiding me, as my parents hadn’t attended college and there was one guidance counselor for a large senior class.</p>
<p>One of my schools, Princeton, held the interview at an alumnus’ apartment, something that probably would never happen today. Although I’m female and my interviewer was male, it didn’t occur to my mother or me that this was a potentially dangerous situation, for a young girl to go alone up to a stranger’s apartment.</p>