@foosondaughter It seems like you just assume all athletes are stupid or something.
My high school’s football team was the top football players in oregon, and they also had 3.8+GPA with AP classes and above average SAT scores. For example, when I was a junior, my senior friend, who was a football player AND a top scoring student in Calc 2 got in to MIT. It seems many people fail to realize that athletes put time and efforts in sport like other students do in studying, except it requires much more commitment and tenacity because they literally practice, practice, and practice EVERY HOUR, EVERY DAY. For the college athletes, particularly in D1, they don’t have much free time like other students do.
Not only that, athlete students in college are in danger of losing scholarship if they get injured to the point they can’t play. I actually saw one student not going to college because of that.
I hate admissions departments of large state schools that say they read every single one of the 25,000 applications. I simply don’t believe it. Too much effort to be worthwhile. A lot of it is simply a numbers game and requires no human intervention.
(1) Being from a white girl from a small town but still in California so I’m up against a lot of “better” applicants with more opportunities.
(2) My family makes less then 100,000 but they own some property for retirement (my dad is 71 and he’s gotten in a near-death accident before so we don’t know how long he’ll be around) so colleges are like “lawl sell all your land to pay for colleges no aid for you even though selling your land and using a bunch of your income for college will kill your family.”
(3) The only colleges that WILL give aid even though my family has some property are the colleges that are really hard to get into.
(4) College application fees. Because colleges expect you to pay money in order to be able to apply for the chance to pay them more money.
GMTplus7, I think it is unfortunate that many parents focus their children on the things they think colleges want rather than encouraging their children to be fully involved in high school. The focus is on grades rather than on learning and using the material. They encourage their kids to participate in sports and other ECs that they think will enhance their children’s chances to get into certain schools instead of encouraging their children to be fully involved in activities they enjoy or find meaningful to them. I don’t think it makes much sense to consider high school as only prep for college. It is also 4 very important years in a child’s life. They should be meaningful too.
Given how time-consuming the college application process is, I think the interview component is a ridiculous waste of everyone’s time. It is a piece of information that they don’t even use to evaluate your student! In our case before his interviewer even had a chance to submit her report to the college, my son had received a likely letter from them, thereby proving that the interview had served no purpose! Plus since they tell you that not everyone can be interviewed, and they don’t hold the lack of interview against you, that makes it even more clear that it can count for nothing since they can’t count it for my student if they can’t count it for yours. Why make everyone bother then?
@b1ggreenca You fail to see why the school interviewed your son, even though he was a LL holder. At that point, they were trying to sell HIM the school, not to evaluate him. You can bet the coordinator sent a very good representative to meet your kiddo, too. Sure, +90% of other interviewees are to be rejected, but if they spot one they really want, they’ll use everything they have at hand. There’s no inconsistency here whatsoever. Your son had a golden ticket. You fail to see that 98% of other applicants will never see a LL.
And to be frank – this made you “ridiculously angry” ??? Talk about a first world problem…SMH
b1greena… I agree with respect to increasing the admission chances. Vandy set up an interview between son and an attorney alum who basically stated that S was as sharp, well-rounded, and pleasant of an interview as he had ever performed. However, he said despite your great stats, don’t be optimistic. The school says that it has no effect on whether student will be admitted. Not sure why alums agree to do these interviews. The positive was that S had a great interview experience and I’m sure it helped his confidence. S was wait listed.
I don’t think that an interview will necessarily help an applicant, but I can’t help suspecting (regardless of what everyone says) that a student who doesn’t bother with interviews, when they’re available, could be seen as lacking sufficient interest. Every college understands that many students won’t be able to attend an interview, and the most qualified applicants are the ones who are likeliest to have conflicts, but I still recommend that a student communicate with regional reps for any college he or she is genuinely interested in. I think a college like Vanderbilt does pay attention to demonstrated interest when it comes to weeding out “shotgunners.” A good interview with an alumna/us won’t get a student accepted, but I strongly suspect that a bad, or non-existent (minus valid excuse), interview can get a student rejected in a competitive situation.
Everyone in America thinks that THEIR kid is meant to attend an Ivy League / similar institution. I’m sure your child is very brilliant in their given areas, but the fact that pursuing admission to HYPSM has become the end-all goal for most parents and their equally ambitious children is all wrong. The truth will always remain that colleges are businesses that now have to deal with the absurd rise in applications (way too many students over-valuing themselves).
My high school class was unprecedented in that we (an under-performing high school) sent multiple students to Harvard, Stanford. UPenn Wharton, Brown, Bowdoin, Middlebury, USC, NYU, etc. Some of those students did indeed come from very affluent families, but I can attest that they all deserved their acceptances. **** From what I’ve witnessed firsthand, the students who get into the top institutions nowadays are the TRULY brilliant ones who are challenging themselves to create a real difference in the world around them. That may sound vague, but the point is that these students weren’t overly concerned with getting into a particular university; THEY WERE OVERLY CONCERNED WITH BETTERING THEMSELVES AND BECOMING THE BEST PERSON THEY COULD POSSIBLY BE IN HIGH SCHOOL. NO STRINGS ATTACHED… well, the ones I know also happen to be brilliant in terms of intelligence. Just remember that it’s okay if your kid isn’t meant to be at the top of their generation.
Also, please don’t fight AA by overlooking how it serves a vital purpose: the idea that higher learning should be an environment of students coming from varying racial/socioeconomic backgrounds. AA makes sure that there is diversity among those accepted, when those who apply are not diverse at all (Whites and Asians). If AA was not a thing, then I can GUARANTEE you that all elite American universities would become inundated by Asian students who have superior grades/scores/preparation from tiger moms (I can speak from experience here). Whether you like the idea of that or not, I will always support AA for the role it serves in keeping campuses as diverse as possible.
TLDR; Your child may be special, but ask yourself, honestly… how special? Colleges now deal with an insane amount of applications due to overzealous students/their parents. The students that get into the top schools are the ones who are genuinely brilliant and understand that it’s not about aiming for Harvard. AA serves a purpose and if you can’t see that, then just take a look at how unbalanced college demographics already are. Encourage your children to focus on what makes them happy and productive as a person… while keeping in mind that it may in fact have no correlation to higher education in the long run. Don’t sweat it so much folks
Having just gone through 6 years of FAFSA applications for two children, I can tell you that what you get the first year is NOT what you will get each year. Each year’s award is based mostly on the income you report on the previous year’s tax return, but there are other factors like number of children in college, how much money your children made during the summer, etc.
What is a little infuriating is that what one college gives is not necessarily what you will get from another. Last year, we had a 10k discrepancy in packages with the same FAFSA. Schools with larger endowments will give you more financial aid.
Jacob4815162342, hope that isn’t your phone number. But anyway, " Colleges now deal with an insane amount of applications due to overzealous students/their parents" and is factually incorrect because you imply that the colleges are somehow forced to deal with huge numbers of applications when they’d prefer fewer that were more appropriate. Many of the schools are out there beating the bushes to get more applicants. And, they target students they know won’t even be considered. That increases the ratings on US News ratings, making it seem like their school is more competitive and therefore (for some odd reason) ore desirable.
Chinese nationals who cheat to get into US colleges
Affirmative action
Shitty College counselors at expensive prep schools
Boston University, rejection and then a promise of a guaranteed transfer - slimy
Study Point - $7000. and my kid’s score went down 50 points
The College Board - a monopoly that has a strangle hold on all college admissions
Colleges who believe their rankings
Parents who think where their kid is applying is a state secret, we know
Parents who have their kids apply to 24 schools and don’t say “no thank you” when their kid is accepted at a school they have no intention of attending
People who think a $5000. paid philanthropy trip will get their kid into Harvard, “it changed my life” LOL
Girls who wear short shorts, tank tops and high heels on college tours, yikes!
Boys who leave their hats on and sit with their legs spread in the admission office
Parents who walk at the head of the tour group with the guide and monopolize the conversation so the kids can’t ask questions
Kids and adults who ask questions during info sessions, not to get an answer but to show off, “Do the honor college dorms have electricity?”
Lawd, I could go on! The good news? All worked out, DD is at an awesome school having the time of her life! Bad news? I have to do this 3 more times (that’s why God made tequila!) LOL
Jacob, as someone else stated, colleges deal with gobs of apps so the can report a lower acceptance rate to the USNW college rating group. Otherwise, keep drinking the Kool Aid and don’t lose your rose tinted glasses.
When we were at info session at a selective college, admissions dean says that they like to see “upward trends” in grades and obnoxious kid in front row raises his hand and asks “yeah, but what if you get all A’s in honors and AP classes”?
Also, when we were at Northwestern info session, it’s laughable how many kids walk in with Harvard, Stanford and Yale sweatshirts on. Is that supposed to be intimidating or something? Give me a break. My D and I just rolled our eyes.
Costs of putting my kids through college, while they have to compete with OOS students, who haven't paid one dime into the system, believing they are entitled to not pay OOS fees.
Every kid thinking he merits entry into the HYPS schools then being upset at not being admitted. DUH!
International kids, who arrogantly think that American kids lack the intelligence to admitted to American schools, such that full funding should go to people outside of the US. Then being upset that they can't fill out FAFSA forms!
Every person thinking that my URM kids got into their schools by URM status and got money from URM sources. All of my kids intentionally went to schools that couldn't take URM status into consideration, and my children were able to get into their own schools on merit, high SAT/GPA scores, EC's and sports. Not one penny in URM scholarships was received by any of my URM kids.
@“aunt bea” are there actually foreign kids in CC who are THAT arrogant?
I, too, was devastated when I was rejected from all but one schools due to financial situation(thank god I got full tuition from UA) but I always thought it is righteous for American schools to prioritize AMERICAN kids for both admission and FA purposes. In short, quoting GMTplus7, “many foreign kids forget that schools in US are not run by United Nations”.
Hmmmmmm. OOS students (assume parents) haven’t contributed to the system so those families shouldn’t be upset with the OOS rates. I beg to differ.
I Googled and according to American Council on Education, winter 2012, they say that states contribute 34% ($104Billion) of the $304,000,000,000 spent on higher education in 2010. As the states’ portions continue to drop, most of the rest comes from increasing tuition, the Fed, and endowments/donations deductible for income tax purposes. While I have no idea from what state this comment originates, I assure you that many parents on this board have sent many dimes to the applicable state university. It wouldn’t surprise me if some OOS students’ families are actually leading donors to your state university thanks to U S Gov. wealth redistribution. I therefore will loudly complain if I want to. Not sure what the issue is re having to compete with OOS/foreign kids.
How white and asian kids from middle/upper class families get screwed just because their parents did well in life. Test scores have to be higher, grades have to be higher, absolutely no non-automatic scholarships, all because of factors beyond the kids’ control. Did they choose their race? No. Did they make their parents do well in life? No. Why should they be penalized for it?
