<p>@anxiousmom - Talk about a charmed life!</p>
<p>My college applications looked very similar to today in terms of classes, ECs, etc. I was very busy with sports, ballet and music and jobs. I was in undergrad in the mid-seventies. But we didn’t have these “weekend” teams back then, if you participated in your sport all 4 seasons it was all private. Biggest difference was I only took the ACT and the SAT one time. My “group” in HS were called “college track” and we took the prescribed courses so had the 4 years of math, science, foreign language, English etc. and I was invited to a small group with what is now called zero hour for Great Books. I graduated at the top of my high school class, applied to 4 places, visited all of them and was accepted at all 4.I definitely remember not being concerned that I would be rejected by anyone which today seems odd although I think if I took my same transcript and ECs etc I would probably have a pretty good outcome. Picked one of the four that my parents approved of and that was it. No anxiety, no stress other than the parents would not approve the college I really wanted to attend - Middlebury., they thought it was too far away. I don’t recall my classmates getting too concerned about where they were going - we all went somewhere (at least those of us in the college track.) My parents were full pay and did not fill out financial aid forms. I remember asking them if we needed to do that and I remember them saying no. Our whole class just had a reunion this year and we are all over the country doing all sorts of things in life. I think the far-away award went to one guy that went to Texas for college and wanted to work in the oil and gas industry. The year we went off everyone and their brother was heading for Texas and the bumper stickers was “Last one leaving Michigan turn out the lights.” </p>
<p>I applied to one school (University of Michigan). The only reason I applied was that the university recruited my high school boyfriend to play football. (Football was big in my working class high school–two other football players went to Notre Dame on football scholarships). I broke up with the boyfriend my sophomore year.</p>
<p>I took the ACT once and didn’t have any AP classes–my high school didn’t offer them. There was an honors track and I was in that. Never visited any colleges–my folks thought it was a waste of money. Luckily when I applied (1970) tuition at Michigan was quite reasonable, even for out-of-state. I had some scholarships–can’t even remember what they were. While I didn’t go through the same process as my kids, I was lucky and got a good education.</p>
<p>Most of my high school class didn’t go to college. Those that did went to instate publics or community college. The top two students (valedictorian and salutatorian) in my hs class were women; one went to Vassar and the other went to Smith. They were the only people who left the midwest. I went to my high school reunion a few years ago and was surprised that almost all of my classmates (about 150 showed up–our class had 210 grads) still lived in the midwest–a few people had gone to FL or AZ. The valedictorian and I were the only people who lived in the northeast. </p>
<p>I applied to 1 college. Took the ACT one time. Never even thought about scholarships and didn’t care about my GPA. I was on the “college prep” track because I took advanced algebra and “senior math” now known as trig. lol I also took adv chemistry which meant I had to go to college lol I know we didnt have AP or honors classes and I dont remember a single person that took the ACT more than once much less studied for it. I think we all piled into a car, drove out to the nearest city that offered it (which was also the nearest mall … and the same city we were at til 2 am the night before at a Beach Boys concert) took the ACT and then we all went to the mall afterwards and ate in the food court. Then it was off to the beach. We filled out our ACT packet with a pencil and mailed it in. Same with college applications. Well we may have used a pen for those, but it was all hand written and mailed in. Then you waited for months to get the results. But, never even gave it a second thought. You found out when you found out. The only reason I visited campus my senior year was because my older sister was a freshman there and I stayed with her one weekend. I was introduced to college life and sorority life and knew that was the place for me. The next year I was a freshman at Ole Miss and followed my sisters footsteps to the same sorority…most of my friends went to junior college (now called community college). They lived on campus and went home on the weekends. I went home 3 times all year. I called rarely because it was long distance. I didnt have my own car and was dropped off at college (gasp)!! I had to leave my car at home for my younger sister … just as my older sister had done before me. There were no computers or cell phones. Life was good. That was 1988. 
</p>
<p>I was first generation for college in my family and got no direction from them. They just didn’t know and they didn’t have the money to send me. I went to a Junior College in Phoenix at night for the first year while working and then to ASU for a BS in Accounting. My application process was filling out the paperwork. I was a B student. This story really does not matter on this site as all of you (and my kid) are much more accomplished than I was. I had not a clue. When I turned my attention to BSchool, I got serious and took a flyer by applying to Wharton. Yep, I got in and it changed my life. Moral of the story is the you make more a difference in your outcome in life than you undergrad school. good luck!!</p>
<p>@MarkIrwin “Moral of the story is the you make more a difference in your outcome in life than you undergrad school.”</p>
<p>Students need to know this.</p>
<ol>
<li>Political refugee. Only 3 years in U.S. No permanent residency status. Surviving thanks to the goodness of the American government. Applied to Yale (COA $4.5k/year) only because my cousin was the secretary of the person that did the interviews in our area, and the State Flagship.($2k/year). Both sight unseen. Working in HS saved enough to pay for one year at Flagship. Anybody remember Calvin Hill at Yale? He was the poster boy of their brochure. I was impressed even though at the time I didn’t know a down from a safety. I still have a copy of my essay. No financial help from father since he was trying to revalidate his MD credentials (2 years into, at the time, a 5 year process because he couldn’t practice until he became a U.S. citizen), so he was basically a student at age 55. Waitlisted at Yale, then denied. Accepted to Flagship with a $1k/year loan from the government. Family finances got better as the years went by and I was able to graduate with a professional degree in '77 with manageable debt. Obviously my children’s experience has been quite different and I am happy to say that they both greatly appreciate the effort. They will both graduate college with no debt. The good will of the generous people of this great country we live in has accumulated through the years and it has been transferred down the line. I can’t thank America enough.</li>
</ol>
<p>I was working on my application for Harvard business school and they asked for your THREE greatest accomplishments. I got about halfway through the app and realized it was not going to be successful (I was 27 and did not have THREE) so I just stopped and never applied to Harvard. I think lots of applicants should be more realistic about where they apply. Wharton only asked for one accomplishment, so that application worked. </p>
<p>@J’adoube</p>
<p>I’m proud to call you a fellow American! </p>
<p>Mid-70’s. I chose a major that wasn’t offered at a lot of schools and applied to everywhere that offered it. Didn’t get accepted to MIT because, as the interviewer told my mother, this wasn’t the major for a girl (if I changed to engineering they’d accept me), but got accepted everywhere else. My SAT and GPA weren’t amazing, but I had a high ACT and that must have made a big difference. I chose Rice, but got cold feet mid-summer and ended up going to the state flagship with my high school friends. I don’t remember my parents reacting negatively to the switch, but I know that if one of my kids had done that I would not have been happy at all! </p>
<p>I remember that the Rice application had a square, about 2" x 2", that I needed to put something in. I did some little graphic arts thing, but I was disappointed to see that my kids’ apps were all essay-based and not as creative.</p>
<p>What “wasn’t the major for a girl”?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Architecture.</p>
<p>I remember I only took the SAT because a friend mentioned I would need it for college. There was no prep of any kind and I didn’t really pay much attention to the results (although I recently found my scores at my Mom’s house and I did well) I applied to only one school without ever looking at it and was accepted. The tuition for Cal Poly SLO was around $63 / quarter in the early 70’s. I was one of just a few women in the Engineering program and met my husband in my final quarter - he was my partner in an EE lab. </p>
<p>I took the SAT’s one time after working all night as a bus boy followed by going out with the crew for pizza and beer. You could drink at 18 in NJ then, Which meant 16 and 17 were good to go too.
I applied to a University of Dayton because they took UCLA into overtime or maybe 3 OT’s I forget. Was accepted but could not go. I also applied to a State school because a friend was going. He dropped out and is now a mult, multi millionaire selling cheap meat to bodaga’s and low end stores.
The school I went to became the hot school through marketing and admission tricks but from what I can tell nothing in the classroom had changed.</p>
<p>I should post this- the SAT is useless in my opinion based on my anecdotal experience. My math SAT score was higher than both my wife and D who both had all A’s through calculus. I barely made it out of Alegbra 2 Even my total score was higher than both of their’s My wife went on to be scholar athlete at a major university and had a 4.0 in grad school. My D graduated college with a 3.85. I did fine in college ending with a 3.0 but it was mostly because I knew how to work the system not because I was killing it academically.</p>
<p>As I get older I wish I could of had a do over. I think there are a significant number of men that look back at academics that way. College and fun was great though…</p>
<p>I was very fortunate as a high schooler in that my father worked with the DOD education system which included University of Maryland for college. As a result, I got free tuition there. And there was a satellite campus overseas where I could take classes commuting or another one at bargain room/board prices in Munich. I lived in Germany then, and had no in state privileges for college since my parents had cut their bonds with any state. </p>
<p>But the very idea of commuting to a building not even as big and full of amenities as my high school was a horror to me. I also put my nose up to going to the Munich campus. My parents were oblivious to all of this. They just felt I was very lucky to have those options and were proud to have provided this for me and my siblings. They did not have the money to pay for room and board for 4 years for me. Figured they could swing 2 years, so that the idea was that I would commute for 2 years and then transfer in. I did get a scholarship that made the Munich option possible too. I didn’t even bother to apply to the main campus of UMD, my disdain was so great to the very idea of going there–such is the folly of youth. I would have likely gotten some good merit, given my stats and status.</p>
<p>I applied to reach schools instead and was accepted to them all with about half the cost covered by financial aid, still too much of a gap for my parents to pay, and with full rides to two schools due to merit. With outside scholarships and the fact that layering awards was permitted those days, I ended up at a top college with money in my pocket those first couple of years. </p>
<p>I undershot my college list As a female with highest math scores, I was likely a viable candidate for HPY, but I applied to none of them, just one ivy. Was accepted to MIT as well. I had a varied list and focused on schools around major cities. DIdn’t want to be out in the middle of nowhere. Wanted a city. </p>
<p>A classmate a year later did get into Harvard, and turned it down, as I did MIT for the same reason. Need based aid only covered about half the cost, and he went for the full ride. His family would have been hard put to pay what their expected contributions were. So he took the full ride. I saw him last year–he’s done very well, is a top gun at a top university. That he went to a school without anywhere the prestige of Harvard, didn’t seem to hurt him much as he could not be happier with the work he’s doing and where he is. Just lost the lustre of a college degree on his CV. </p>
<p>My husband, undershot, IMO, in his list too. Neither of us had much parental or GC help in picking schools, , and we actually stretched beyond what their suggestions were by quite a bit, but were too intimadated to go further. The outreach that the schools are doing these days, with the mailings and emails would have helped us, encouraged us to apply to schools we just were too scared to give a go. Don’t know if he’d have gotten in, assessing his stats with what I know, but I think I’d have had a shot as my numbers were very, very good.</p>