<p>I’ve made a few mistakes helping my son with college entrance. I wish there had been a “no-no’s” list on what I should have known. I thought I’d add this thread to help others with things parents/kids don’t realize would hurt the chances of getting into a college or possibly getting offered some type of aid from colleges. Please join in and add what mistakes you learned by trial and error. I’ll start…</p>
<p>No matter how much your child says they only prefer one college, DO NOT let them apply to only one or two.</p>
<p>Never, never let the personal statement in the application talk about how much that is the school they have “always dreamed of going to”.</p>
<p>Pay your admission fee, but not TOO FAST. Overzealous lets them know they don’t have to TRY to get you with financial aid.</p>
<p>Actually, your “mistakes” only matter if financial aid is crucial for your family.</p>
<p>We have always expected to pay full sticker price college, and we can afford it. </p>
<p>My son applied to only two colleges – the one he wanted and a safety. He was willing to work for a year and try again if he got turned down at the safety. He didn’t have the grades for merit aid at the school he preferred, and as I mentioned, we don’t have financial need. He got into the school he wanted and had a good experience there. </p>
<p>My daughter wanted to apply Early Decision to her first-choice college (which does not offer merit scholarships). We let her do so, she was admitted, and she’s attending that school now. She actually did have the grades to make her a reasonably candidate for merit scholarships at significantly less selective colleges, but it was not necessarily, financially, for us to ask her to go that route.</p>
<p>One person’s mistake may be another one’s perfectly reasonable strategy.</p>
<p>I think my biggest mistake was not working harder with my kids to find constructive summer activities during high school. I think they missed out on worthwhile experiences because of it.</p>
<p>Encourage your child to be an individual, have a passion and follow that path. A ton of activities to build a “college resume” is not what admission offices are seeking.</p>
<p>I agree that the things you’ve listed are only mistakes if you are trying to get money from the school. If you have one dream school and another school that is a safety you’d be perfectly happy to attend, there’s no reason to apply to more. I can’t imagine that telling a school it’s your “dream” school hurts from an admissions standpoint, and accepting early gets you a better shot at the housing you want at many schools. From a merit scholarship/financial aid point of view, playing the “hard to get” game might make sense, but looking just at admissions, you didn’t make any mistakes. If a kid isn’t going to qualify for merit aid and the parents aren’t looking for money, there’s no problem with any of those things.</p>
<p>Not to pile on, but the first and last bits of advice would definitely not work in my situation, and I have twins.</p>
<p>Both twins applied to their respective first choices, and only those [two] schools. Both were admitted. What could have been $1,000 in application fees and SAT reportings amounted to only $100 total for the two of them.</p>
<p>Item #2 I have no experience with, but a personal statement that talks about a dream school seems a really ho-hum yawner, if you ask me. So I guess I agree with you on that one, although perhaps for a different reason.</p>
<p>If financial aid is out of the question (we’re the savers, remember?), then being zealous by sending in your deposit pronto can’t harm you, and in fact, if housing is an issue, can actually help you.</p>
<p>My advice is a bird in the hand is messy when you squeeze; don’t do it. ;)</p>
<p>Never, never let the personal statement in the application talk about how much that is the school they have “always dreamed of going to”.</p>
<p>Student’s personal statements should be their personal statements. Parents can offer guidance, but if the student wants to write their statement without parental help, that’s fine, too.</p>
<p>Maybe it depends on a university, but in our case D. applied to only one (it was her first and really safe choice) university. We paid the admission fee on the next day she got admittance letter; and she got all known and unknown (by us) merit scholarships from there. I think she mentioned in her application to the Honor College that it was the only school she applied for, at least what she told me.</p>
<p>don’t know why people are arguing with the point that applying to only 2 schools is a mistake. Of course there are exceptions, but why take the chance? Is saving $500 really worth the risk? For the majority out there, there are a ton of schools between the reach school and the safety that would be better than the safety.</p>
<p>S applied to only 2 schools, and got into both. One was a safety, the other a match. I know lots of students who did that, and things worked out fine. They had the stats to know they’d get into their safeties, which typically were public schools that made admissions decisions based on stats and state of residence.</p>
<p>We’re not arguing because two schools isn’t always a mistake. Not every kid wants to go to the most exclusive school that will take them. If my oldest had gotten into one of his two EA schools he’d have done.</p>
<p>My D only applied as a transfer to one school. She planned to do more but things got in the way & it never happened. She was accepted & is very happily attending the one school she chose, tho we are paying full freight (as we expected & no aid or scholarships have been applied for).</p>
<p>We made the mistake of not thinking about the requirements for scholarship and honors applications when making the list of schools to apply to.</p>
<p>My DS had initial interest in eight schools and, not wanting to narrow down the list, asked if he could apply to all eight. No problem, I thought. After the initial applications were done, though, and it was time to write essays and go back to the teachers with more forms to fill out for honors and scholarship applications, he was really burned out and really hated to bother the teachers and his counselor. It would have been much smarter for him to limit the list and have the energy to put into all of the applications.</p>
<p>With its visitors’ center closed, I’m surprised that Dinosaur National Monument is so high on the list–it was a wonderful visitors’ center…</p>
<p>As for mistakes, perhaps I wouldn’t have been so quick to pay application fees, since she ended up withdrawing her applications after getting in EA. I had this thought that it “showed interest,” but that was probably silly.</p>
<p>Not that it matters but it all worked out. Dream school, full ride, stayed on the deans list all the way thru and graduated with honors, and no loans. My advice didn’t matter after all.</p>
<p>Hmm. If I could do it over, I’d probably be LESS involved in S’ college app process. I think if he had driven the process, he might have made different choices (he is transferring now, after frosh year).</p>
<p>Apply to the school you want to go to. If you don’t get in, go to CC and transfer to the school you want to. Unless we’re talking about the HYPSM-type student (who might apply to HYPSM+University of their state) it makes sense.</p>
<p>One mistake involves students starting to attend a very expensive school with a high out of pocket price their freshman year that they will not be able to afford for 4 years. They blow their savings and their debt capacity in the first year, and then have to transfer to a cheap school for the last few years. For many (but not all), they would be better off starting at the college with a lower net price, and then transferring to the more prestigious school for the last couple years to receive their degree. </p>
<p>The less expensive college may actually provide smaller classes for freshmen than the larger more prestigious college. The people teaching the freshman courses at the less expensive colleges may even be better at teaching (vs. being research-oriented). </p>
<p>Of course, there are many caveats. If the expensive school provides a large amount of aid to incoming freshmen, it can be cheaper to attend the more expensive school for all 4 years. Colleges that emphasize merit aid typically provide little aid to transfer students. Many of the most selective schools accept few transfers.</p>
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<p>Also, be very very careful about financial aid deadlines. Many colleges require that you submit financial aid applications before you are accepted. Different colleges require different information, so start the process early to be sure you can be done in time. At my son’s university, if you are late with the application, you are out of luck, unless you can prove there was a severe family crisis.</p>
My advice didn’t matter after all.</p>