153: your alumnae interview is hugely important in the acceptance process.
153a: that the interview is informational only, a one-way sales pitch, no one will ever know what the alum reaction was or consider it.
153b: You are on equal footing with the interviewer, so if the Starbucks they propose is one mile out of your way, feel free to insist it be moved to the venue most convenient for YOU. And expect him to work his work schedule around your extracurriculars.
153c: it matters so little that you can just ignore their contact (even repeated attempts to contact you) or let them know you’d rather go to the football game.
153d it doesn’t matter what you wear. They will understand that you are a HS student and not an IB.
153e: go ahead and tell them another college is your first choice, that you really don’t know that much about their alma mater, it just seems like a top college (or you heard it is.) Or tell them you heard it will increase your future professional shots.
153f tell them your grandparents are making you apply.
153g. Make no attempt to learn conventional social norms re clothes. If your interview is at 10 am on a Saturday at Starbucks in 90 degree weather, you won’t at all look dorky if you show up in a full wool business suit and tie. Likewise, if your interview is at 2 pm in an attorney’s downtown office, it’s ok to wear a tank top and pajama pants - it’s more important that you be you.
- Everyone should attend school in the Northeast. No one should bother attending school in the Southeast. Especially, no Northerner should ever bother with a Southern school. Because they all hate Northerners and are still bitter about the Civil
- New Jerseyans should all stay in-state to attend college, even if their OOS alternatives are better academically/fit-wise. Because *all* of their state schools are good, not just Rutgers/TCNJ/Rowan.
- New Jerseyans are so very different from the rest of the country - and so very important, too! - that they need special CC advice for them. (Get over it. There are 50 states, you are just one. And I was born in NJ)
- If you are a CA resident...you must go out of state to be far from home. Nonsense! It's a huge state. I mean really...Sacramento is a haul from San Diego.
- If you go to your state university you will run into only kids from YOUR high school.
160a. Georgetown is pretty much a secular college
160b. Georgetown will try to convert you to Catholicism.
@Pizzagirl um, was that directed towards my comment?
- Making more money will always make you happier.
- You cannot get an 800 (or 780 or 750 or whatever) on the SAT Subject Test if you do not take the AP course.
Summer semester pre-college programs are a waste of money.
- If I don't go to a college ranked in the top 50, I will never get a job.
- The reason I got rejected from an Ivy League college is because my spot was "stolen" by an URM with lower test scores than me. It couldn't possibly be the fact that Ivy League admissions are pretty much a crap shoot.
- That Ivy admissions is a crapshoot, because you had the stats and didn't get picked.
It’s fair to say that it can look like a crapshoot from an applicant POV, though it’s not from the college POV. Since we are applicants/parents of applicants here on this board, I think it’s fair use. Better than the alternatives, which are a) predictable and/or b) something I’m entitled to if I present X qualifications.
Treating it as a crapshoot is one thing. But the certainty it is one, a roll of the dice, is fallacy.