Yup, my daughter has gotten a few acceptances so far. Of course, the one deferral is in-state (she has gotten into another in-state school she likes, at least). The big reaches are still to come.
Probably you hear a lot Jews Against Jesus stuff from my incessant posting about it.
Itās really striking how much of an advantage kids have when they come from families who are familiar with the college application process (or who are willing to do the work to become familiar with it).
Thereās the obvious stuff like taking the SAT/ACT and potentially getting study guides or taking classes for it. And you can hire consultants to advise on which schools to apply to and what topics to choose for their essays.
But the thing that I only recently became aware of (and I am in this business!) was the whole early action/early decision/regular decision application groups. For those who donāt know:
- Early action: Apply early to the college, get an early decision from the school, but donāt have to make a decision to commit until the regular deadline.
- Early decision: Apply early to the college, and itās a binding commitment - if you are accepted you are committed to enroll regardless of financial aid packages. Obviously you can only apply early decision to a single school, and if you are accepted, you must withdraw your applications to all other schools. (I donāt know what the consequences would be for backing out of an early decision acceptance. A quick google suggests that the legal/financial consequences arenāt likely to be material, but the school can inform other schools, which could lead to the withdrawal of acceptances at those other schools.)
The acceptance rate for early action may be higher than for regular applications. But the acceptance rate for early decision is almost certainly higher than regular decision. So if you have a definite top choice, it can make a lot of sense to use early decision. (Yes, the pool of applicants choosing early decision is different from the rest of the pool, but Iām still confident that an apples-to-apples comparison would still result in higher acceptance for early decision.) Iām not sure how many families understand how this works.
We took the early decision route for Northwestern. When we visited last fall, our kid loved it and itās been his consistent top choice, so it seemed like an obvious thing to do. The ballpark numbers, as far as I can tell, are that Northwesternās acceptance rate is about 7-9%. I believe thatās for the overall pool of applicants. But they admitted ~half of their entering class through early decision, so back of the envelope math puts the early decision acceptance rate around 19%. No idea if he would have gotten in under the regular application process, or which other schools he might have gotten in, but with hindsight I think early decision was the right call, and everyone in the house is pretty thrilled with this outcome.
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What kind of scholarships do you expect your kid to get?
$90k/yr is steep if youāre coming out of pocket for it all.
What does your kid expect to study?
Congrats, man! Thatās a great result!
My mindset has been that Iām expecting no scholarship money. I didnāt want to be in a position where we committed to a school that we couldnāt afford. Obviously weāre hoping for as much as possible. Here are the averages:
Maybe it means that Iāll end up working a year or two more than I would have expected, but fortunately my job is both secure and pretty tolerable.
As of now, math. But heās got a pretty diverse set of interests, so weāll see if he sticks with that.
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Hereās the weird thing: going to a great high school can work against you just as much as it can work for you.
My kids go to one of the best high schools in Georgia (public). Itās very large and full of high achievers. From what weāve been told, schools, particularly those in-state, donāt want to take too many kids from one school, even if they all deserve to get in.
My daughterās (senior) class is over 700 students. Something like half or more apply to UGA. Less than half of those get in and itās not because they arenāt qualified. Itās great going to a fantastic school, but the competition is ROUGH.
My daughter applied to 10 schools, all early action. Sheās heard from six. Five acceptances, all of which were expected - one of them was in-state. Sheās very interested in one of them, but of course it is pricey if they donāt give her money. She has a good friend at the in-state school and would be ok going there with the goal of transferring.
UGA was the only non-acceptance so far - she was deferred to the regular deadline. We also expected that. Her test scores were a little below the insanely high average range nowadays, though they were still good. Grades are excellent, AP classes, etc., but they donāt jump off the page like lots of kidsā do. And the early applicant pool is generally going to be the all-stars.
The remaining four schools weāre waiting for are all some degree of reach, but I wouldnāt be surprised if she got into one of them. There are two Iād be shocked if she was accepted, but you never know.
I think sheāll get into UGA, but I wouldnāt bet the house on it. Itās finals week and sheās on track to possibly get straight Aās, so hopefully that will be a little boost to her application.
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I started the thread from the beginning. Amazing to see some of yāall start by noting a pregnancy and now youāre living the dream with little ones.
@freddbird it is a real pleasure to see you go from squat king to baby daddy.
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Hard to retain that throne after baby daddying - at least if you want to be a good dad. But itās theoretically possible!
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What are your children planning on studying at college? Iām seriously concerned about the future of white collar jobs in America with AI + offshoring and now Elon calling for more H1B visas.
Immigration and technological advances generally increase the number of high-paying jobs, so I donāt think thereās much to be concerned about.
With Texasās top 10% automatically get accepted some angle shooters will intentionally transfer to a poor school and hope their extra effort, self created extra curriculars, etc outweigh the lack of opportunities that an A+ school might have
Right now, my daughter wants to get into physical therapy. She had a bulging disc that kept her out of gymnastics her freshman year and was inspired by her therapist.
My son, a sophomore, who knows. Heās passionate about music and would love to do something with that in college, but he also knows there isnāt much you can do with that career-wise. His problem is going to be getting into schools. Heās really smart, but not an academic. No AP classes, grades are good (Aās and Bās), but not outstanding, no extracurriculars so far except various school band things. Much of that is by design because of mental health issues (which have improved), but heās also the kind of kid that just wants to do his thing - heās not a joiner. Iām guessing that if he goes to college, heāll end up at a lesser state school and go from there.
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School integration/bussing
Your Sophomoreās path sounds a lot like my Juniorās.
Grades arent his thing. He is smart and killing it in his comp sci classes, but his ADHD is strong and he cant get himself to care about grades so its going to lock him out of big name schools.
But like I said, hes smart. He gets two years of free CC here in CA and it guarantees placement at any Cal state school, so why not go that route. He also knows that we make enough money to fuck him on getting much aid, but also not near enough to be able to save a lot for college, so he is keeping costs very much at the front of his mind as he heads off to college. If he stays on the comp sci track, being able to show your skills out of college can be just as important as having a big name degree so he is focusing on building projects and showing progression in his git.
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Maybe see if he is interested in any of the trades?
Iāve made like $80-$120k the years my kids have been at UC and theyāve gotten lots of financial aid. Itās covered the vast majority of their school and living expenses.
Is financial aid loans or just cash/discounts. The former is easy, the latter not so much.
So, like an AI but it replaces CEOs? Using his description at least.