I don’t like how schools are allowed to essentially lie about accepted student information. For average GPA in USNews, a school only needs to submit up to 51% of data. Silly.
The required non-custodial CSS profile. I have to jump through hoops to get waivers at each school and it feels like I’m being punished for having a difficult family situation/growing up with a single parent.
There is no good part about college admissions aside from being accepted
Having to rely on the overworked/understaffed people in D’s huge public high school (over 800 seniors) to get their parts done on time. D has done all her parts on time, but then the apps just sit there stagnant for over a month while D tries patiently time and time again to get the HS to send in things. It’s enough to make you want to pull your hair out.
Totally agree about the 80’s comment, which is when I was in high school. I barely remember taking the SAT, though I know I did. My mom and I went to visit a few schools, low-key, no pressure. I ended up going to a good state school far from home. I loved it, but looking back I probably should have been at a stronger liberal arts program (was a total liberal arts-oriented kid).
Today it’s extremely stressful, begins before 9th grade, and when junior and senior year hits you feel like you’re doing the Gilded Age version of The Grand Tour. 
I saw an article somewhere that said that and thought - “so true!”
I hate how schools super score the SAT.
Super scoring inflates the profile of how competitive a uni’s applicants are compared to using the single best score on a particular date.
It makes makes the kid who scores 2300+ in one sitting look equivalent to one who takes the test 2-3 times and superscores to 2300+.
In effect, if one works very hard to achieve a good single sitting score, then super scoring nullifies the effect of that effort and makes scoring well on the SAT an “everyman” achievement.
I also resent that students have to pay for the privilege of applying to highly competitive, well-endowed private universities.
If even the best applicants have only a 5% chance of acceptance, they are essentially throwing money away by applying.
Even Vegas has better odds!
How about the fact that some schools have an unimaginable amount of money and absolutely nothing to do with the vast majority of it, yet they still require application fees. Those schools could probably give everyone free tuition until the end of time
Let’s not forget admission offices spend all years dealing with reading and evaluating applications…
Why are SAT Subject Tests still necessary? I can see if you are just taking typical high school courses (which are only graded internally) but if you are taking AP, IB, A Levels, etc, shouldn’t that be a good substitute to demonstrate higher level knowledge? Thanks, Londondad
Months and months of working on, stressing out about, and tweaking applications come down to the 10-15 minutes admissions officers actually spend reading applications.
@Nerdyparent : Hey, that kind of takes the wind out of my sails, when thinking of it that way. I will mull this over.
While I’ve read some posts relating to AA, I decided to make an account to share my personal experience. What makes me angry is that as a half-White, half-Asian male, I have basically three negative strikes on the “diversity” checklist, and whenever I point this out to peers, I am almost always blasted for not being tolerant and progressive enough, and that I should check my privilege. I wish I could, but I haven’t been “privileged” from my background at all thus far in my life. Also, the fact that actual numerical data such as SATs and GPA are being regarded as “not fully representative of a student’s potential,” or whatever, in favor of things like athletics, so that the “right” minorities as determined by social justice warriors have better chances of getting in. I don’t think judging applicants based off of objective data should even be controversial, and the fact that it is shows that our society has serious problems with double standards and reverse racism.
@londondad In my opinion, if you’re doing well in AP classes and the like, you should be able to ace the subject tests.
@BigB0ss Soooo much truth in that statement. Schools feel obligated to meet diversity quotas; they should pick the best applicants and not the most diverse. If the best happen to be the most diverse, so be it, but I find it insane to pass by plenty of qualified majority applicants to increase diversity.
Stop talking about aa unless you want the thread to be closed
Yeah, it’s a tad pathetic. People blaming their race on why they didn’t make it into a school with a 7% acceptance rate.
Now what makes me a bit angry are all the costs related to applying to college, be it transcripts, application forms, gas money, et cetera. It adds up!
Umm no where do these schools say that they’re simply trying to create the smartest class (I.e: those with the highest stats). So it’s extremely hard to claim mistreatment. And I don’t see these same people complaining about athletes and legacies in many cases. I guess minorities are an easier scapegoat.
It really comes off as extremely whiny to complain about aa, no matter how trendy it is for kids that don’t understand institutionalized/localized racism or parents on cc looking to justify why their kids didn’t get in. Private colleges are NOT altruistic, nor are the meritocracies. They set their own values and acquire students based on what “they” think their purpose is. And in their minds, their purpose isn’t just to educate kids based on a transcript. Anyway, AA is likely being curtailed greatly next year under Fisher v. Texas and the only benefit I see is that it will greatly reduce the amount of race-whining on CC.
@Nerdyparent @TheWaffleMan149 @Nedcone I commented on application fees much earlier in this thread. Harvard processed about 34K applications last year. What would happen if the cost was free? They’d get 200K applications. And guidance counselors in armed rebellion.
The fee is a make the applicant have some skin in the game. You honestly don’t think it’s worth it for your darling kiddo with the 3.6 GPA to apply? No gun to your head. Don’t indulge him.
Well I understand that, but they could certainly put that money into kids’ tuition. Beyond “demonstrated need.”