Wow! Lucky kid jym. I think the big romance is that there is one perfect school out there. Thankfully both my kids were bloom where planted types within reason at least.
She was ready to go to school # 2 on her list. Was even in the process of finding a roommate. She is one lucky lady!
@mathmom - I like how you qualified that to say that your kids were “bloom where planted types within reason”. I think that the virtue of blooming where planted no matter what is romanticized, even using that to mock those who do seek out ‘fit’ for a kid who might be more of a hot house flower.
Sometimes it seems that the early rising and cold shower crew don’t accept that some academic environments are just better (or worse) for some kids. There’s nothing wrong with knowing your kids and trying to give them the best chance to succeed with their goals and be happy in their lives. I’m not talking about fretting over the marginal differences of comparable LACs or an Indiana vs Purdue discussion but, say, telling an urban alternative kid that they should really take the good deal at Alabama or Montana State or whatever. If your kid would rather be eaten alive by scarabs than spend 4 years in a place that they consider to be a hell hole I think it’s OK to not plant them there and keep looking for a more hospitable environment. Some kids shrivel up and die where planted if not planted in the right spot.
Yes, I don’t think my oldest would have been happy at some big football college - but he all the intense STEM schools from tiny Caltech, to big publics like Berkley and he was prepared to hate Harvard and discovered there were plenty of comp sci/ board game nerds there too. Younger son also liked a variety of schools though he had more variables that factored into the final decision. We had an interesting discussion with him recently about jobs he’s had and how he enjoyed every single one of them - even though some had not sounded great on paper.
I might buy this if 10% (at each end) was replaced with maybe 1%. I think the idea that adcoms can tell whether the student wrote his own essay is an idea they promote, but I can’t see any reason that it should be true.
I don’t think adcoms can tell either, but I’m not convinced the average consultant or parent writes a better essay than the student would.
If they have suspicion can they request to read the kids SAT/ACT essay for comparison? I’d read somewhere that that happened, but cant recall where I saw that.
I don’t know why anyone would think a 20 minute essay written on a subject that may not be of any interest to you would bear any resemblance to a polished piece of writing one has spent weeks on.
Writing styles could be grossly inconsistent. A trained essay reader probably can spot that.
And FWIW. I hear the new SATr will now have a 45 minute essay. ACT’s is already close to that, IIRC.
There’s not really an issue with getting editorial help. But if the kid didn’t write it himself, the question is whether the person who did knows what the goal is. I’m not convinced most consultants do.
Can you clarify, LF? Hopefully someoen will not completely write an essay for a student. Thats unethical. What goal would the author or consultant not understand?
The idea of taking a gap year to improve one’s standing (especially when the student has been accepted to four-year colleges but just not the ‘right’ ones).
Jym, I agree it’s unethical for anyone to completely write for a kid. What I meant was, even if a consultant (or parent) does write the essay, they still have to understand what the goal of the essay is. It’s not just a writing assignment or chance to detail how awful the back story is. I can understand why someone would say only 10% are great.
At an admissions open house at our state flagship last spring, the admissions speaker said, “This year we had 26,000 applications. Of those, approximately 10,000 people wrote essays about a member of the family being a hero. 10,000 people wrote about how sports changed their lives. Apparently a lot of you are on State Championship caliber teams, because 1000 of the sports essays talked about winning or losing a state championship. My advice to you is to find something else to write about if you want to stand out at all.”
It’s unfortunately no longer an option on the Common Application, but an admissions officer at GW told us that he always liked it when the kids did the “Create your own prompt” because he knew it would be different.
It’s unfortunately no longer an option on the Common Application, but an admissions officer at GW told us that he always liked it when the kids did the “Create your own prompt” because he knew it would be different.