OT: College in the COVID era

[HuskyHawk]

They didn't give this to you back in the fall of her junior year? Private school slackers. E-mail the guidance counselor. They might not check their e-mails until September but they will at some point.

Not that I saw. I already sent the email.

 

[8893]

A friend suggests hiring someone to help navigate this process. I didn’t think we needed to do that, but now I am not sure. She also said to apply early, but is that really necessary?

As I've mentioned before, we hired a college consultant to work with our oldest daughter and us. It was more than I wanted to spend but it was worth it for us for at least a few reasons.

First and foremost, my daughter wanted it, and this made her responsible to the consultant instead of us. She took care of every deadline task and made sure it got done. It was probably worth it for the removal of that stress and drama alone.

The consultant also listened to what we wanted and what our daughter wanted and she helped steer her to schools that would satisfy all of us. The money we saved in tuition alone due to the merit aid more than made up for what we spent on the consultant.

The proprietary software program she gave us access to was also incredibly helpful for me. Like you, I like to do a lot of my own research. The program she had took all the Naviance information for our daughter and then classified any college we added to the list as a safety school, a target or a reach. And for each college there were several links to the various ratings and rankings for that school on several different websites, so you could compare and see if the comments and rankings were consistent enough to make judgments based on them.

Finally, the consultant also helped a lot with testing and the essays. She had tons of sample tests for her to practice on in simulated settings, which helped identify her strengths and weaknesses, and also made it easier to hire a tutor just for specific items that she wanted to shore up.

We started with the consultant in her junior year I believe.

As for applying early, yes for early acceptance; no for early decision, which is a binding contract, unless she has her heart set on one place in particular (and you're not worried about merit aid).

 

[HuskyHawk]

As I've mentioned before, we hired a college consultant to work with our oldest daughter and us. It was more than I wanted to spend but it was worth it for us for at least a few reasons.

First and foremost, my daughter wanted it, and this made her responsible to the consultant instead of us. She took care of every deadline task and made sure it got done. It was probably worth it for the removal of that stress and drama alone.

The consultant also listened to what we wanted and what our daughter wanted and she helped steer her to schools that would satisfy all of us. The money we saved in tuition alone due to the merit aid more than made up for what we spent on the consultant.

The proprietary software program she gave us access to was also incredibly helpful for me. Like you, I like to do a lot of my own research. The program she had took all the Naviance information for our daughter and then classified any college we added to the list as a safety school, a target or a reach. And for each college there were several links to the various ratings and rankings for that school on several different websites, so you could compare and see if the comments and rankings were consistent enough to make judgments based on them.

Finally, the consultant also helped a lot with testing and the essays. She had tons of sample tests for her to practice on in simulated settings, which helped identify her strengths and weaknesses, and also made it easier to hire a tutor just for specific items that she wanted to shore up.

We started with the consultant in her junior year I believe.

As for applying early, yes for early acceptance; no for early decision, which is a binding contract, unless she has her heart set on one place in particular (and you're not worried about merit aid).

Just talked to a fellow parent at this HS about this (she has a son who graduated in 2019) and another friend who is on here sometimes and think we should hire a consultant. I suppose it is a bit late, but we have done some legwork looking at schools. Now I need to quickly find one. I did get my Navigant info so I’m signed up now. Counselor said most parents don’t want their own account.

By the way, UConn admissions guy is one of the three panelists on this webinar I’m watching.

 

[8893]

Just talked to a fellow parent at this HS about this (she has a son who graduated in 2019) and another friend who is on here sometimes and think we should hire a consultant. I suppose it is a bit late, but we have done some legwork looking at schools. Now I need to quickly find one. I did get my Navigant info so I’m signed up now. Counselor said most parents don’t want their own account.

By the way, UConn admissions guy is one of the three panelists on this webinar I’m watching.

A bit late but definitely not too late to be helpful. The only issue may be finding one you want who has openings. They claim to limit the number they take on, but they should offer a range of a la carte services even if they don’t have full-service slots.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Statistics is fake math. Take it from an engineer

Bah. I know a lot of engineers. Predictive data analytics and modeling is huge right now. Stats is just an intro course to that stuff. One of the coolest majors I saw recently was at UConn (and it was eligible for the reduced tuition for MA residents), Cognitive Science. That is some really cool stuff.

That is true, there is quite a shift right now with a lot of people having collected a ton of data over the years now realizing they don't know what to do with the information.

Having even a basic understanding of a coding language like SQL, python, etc in your back pocket is becoming quite useful.

I would say it's more data management and data analysis more than statistics.
But maybe it's a distinction without a difference.
Data analysts and information assurance are killer career fields right now. No need to crunch numbers if you don't know if they are correct.

 

[Chin Diesel]

USA Today discussing how cash is king. Not just for enrollment but creating endowments, scholarships, curriculum, etc.

Public colleges hide donors who seek to influence students. Will COVID-19 make it worse?

The coronavirus may give private donors more say over public colleges' classes and professors, observers worry. Secrecy is the norm across the U.S.

www.usatoday.com

 

[Chin Diesel]

Going back to what kids are doing for work instead of college.
My son got a new phone in the spring. His old phone was an iphone 5 and if the battery still worked he would probably still use it.
He came home from work yesterday, asked mom how he owed on the phone. She looked it up and said $450. He opened his wallet and gave her the $450 cash. His wallet wasn't close to empty when he was done. Pizza delivery has been a good summer gig.

 

[Guapo]

Send your kids to UConn. What is wrong with you people?

 

[Edward Sargent]

I don't have kids or grandkids in colleges right now and so happy I don't. I did speak to a young man who is accepted at college but is deferring for a year. During that year he has a job/paid internship and he is setting up to do tutoring for local 9 and 10 year old boys, one of which is his younger brother. His brother is good friends with my twin grandsons and my daughter is over the top with this idea.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Send your kids to UConn. What is wrong with you people?

Visited. She didn't like it. It isn't the answer for everyone.

 

[HooperScooper]

Send your kids to UConn. What is wrong with you people?

As if it were that easy. Lol

 

[CL82]

Visited. She didn't like it. It isn't the answer for everyone.

 

[the Q]

Visited. She didn't like it. It isn't the answer for everyone.

Clearly She’s out of the will....

 

[HuskyHawk]

Clearly She’s out of the will....

Only child so no...but because I'll probably be paying for private college, it will be reduced.

 

[SubbaBub]

Colleges want your money. Visits can be had in the spring. Google exists as do plenty of uni specific forums. Take the lack of an SAT as a blessing if colleges are going to waive it, as most are.

The better question to ask is, should they apply at all for 2021. I assume things will be different by this time next year as their is a legitimate reason to think a vaccine will be available by then as opposed to the delusions that one will be available this year.

If so, no worries. If you think otherwise, I'd look at it as a chance to save some money. Take a gap year, work, take online courses, or stay local as opposed to shelling oir big dollars for a far away place that you won't be able to attend in person.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Colleges want your money. Visits can be had in the spring. Google exists as do plenty of uni specific forums. Take the lack of an SAT as a blessing if colleges are going to waive it, as most are.

The better question to ask is, should they apply at all for 2021. I assume things will be different by this time next year as their is a legitimate reason to think a vaccine will be available by then as opposed to the delusions that one will be available this year.

If so, no worries. If you think otherwise, I'd look at it as a chance to save some money. Take a gap year, work, take online courses, or stay local as opposed to shelling oir big dollars for a far away place that you won't be able to attend in person.

How does it help to visit in the spring if we have to accept or reject before spring? It's bad enough we may need to apply in the next month and a half before we can visit. Online visits are better than they were, but not a substitute really.

Lack of SAT is a blessing, but every tool we have to gauge where a kid can be accepted or not uses it. I've got scatter graphs of all the kids from her HS over the last five years and every school they applied to. It has GPA on a vertical axis and SAT on a horizontal axis. At every school she's interested in I can find kids accepted and rejected at her GPA level, depending on the SAT number. There is just no data to work with. Two years from now there will be.

Is that a problem? Only in the sense that what was somewhat difficult to predict before has become impossible. I can tell you she'd get in at UNH because 100% of kids from her school with a GPA like hers do. I can tell you she won't get in to Harvard because none of them do. Other than that? Kids with GPAs like hers from her school do get in to Brown (with great SATs) and do get rejected from UConn (with poor SATs). Admissions folks have a really tough task here.

 

[auror]

How does it help to visit in the spring if we have to accept or reject before spring? It's bad enough we may need to apply in the next month and a half before we can visit. Online visits are better than they were, but not a substitute really.

Lack of SAT is a blessing, but every tool we have to gauge where a kid can be accepted or not uses it. I've got scatter graphs of all the kids from her HS over the last five years and every school they applied to. It has GPA on a vertical axis and SAT on a horizontal axis. At every school she's interested in I can find kids accepted and rejected at her GPA level, depending on the SAT number. There is just no data to work with. Two years from now there will be.

Embrace the chaos. She'll be fine at any of the schools you've been talking about. Pray and spray the applications. Hedonic adaptation means she'll probably be basically just as happy anywhere.

And she can always transfer later (for happiness or to a better school). I know two different people that transferred and then transferred BACK to the original school of choice. One went on to earn a PhD and works for like NASA. The other just bought a house in downtown Boston worth a million in their late 20s.

At least for me, the areas around the schools were just as/more important than the school campus itself. And you can always drive around that without an official tour. Combine that with the online visits / virtual dorm room tours or whatever they're offering, and you should be fine. A classroom is a classroom. A better student union isn't making or breaking anyone's experience.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Embrace the chaos. She'll be fine at any of the schools you've been talking about. Pray and spray the applications. Hedonic adaptation means she'll probably be basically just as happy anywhere.

And she can always transfer later (for happiness or to a better school). I know two different people that transferred and then transferred BACK to the original school of choice. One went on to earn a PhD and works for like NASA. The other just bought a house in downtown Boston worth a million in their late 20s.

At least for me, the areas around the schools were just as/more important than the school campus itself. And you can always drive around that without an official tour. Combine that with the online visits / virtual dorm room tours or whatever they're offering, and you should be fine. A classroom is a classroom. A better student union isn't making or breaking anyone's experience.

You are spot on about the area around. Wife and daughter just walked through and around BC today. The tours are nice, but some kind of visit to the area is what you need.

 

[Chin Diesel]

How does it help to visit in the spring if we have to accept or reject before spring? It's bad enough we may need to apply in the next month and a half before we can visit. Online visits are better than they were, but not a substitute really.

Lack of SAT is a blessing, but every tool we have to gauge where a kid can be accepted or not uses it. I've got scatter graphs of all the kids from her HS over the last five years and every school they applied to. It has GPA on a vertical axis and SAT on a horizontal axis. At every school she's interested in I can find kids accepted and rejected at her GPA level, depending on the SAT number. There is just no data to work with. Two years from now there will be.

Is that a problem? Only in the sense that what was somewhat difficult to predict before has become impossible. I can tell you she'd get in at UNH because 100% of kids from her school with a GPA like hers do. I can tell you she won't get in to Harvard because none of them do. Other than that? Kids with GPAs like hers from her school do get in to Brown (with great SATs) and do get rejected from UConn (with poor SATs). Admissions folks have a really tough task here.

The experience my niece had during Spring 2020 can give you an example. She had her heart set on a state university for several years. She had decent grades and extra curriculars. Back in January she found out she was accepted to a satellite campus of the main university. If she did one semester at the satellite should could transfer to the main campus after that. I'm assuming the university has a fixed attrition ratio of freshmen. She was a bit irritated.
She had applied to a couple of NYC area private universities for fun. Her mom's alma mater was one of them and she got accepted to that school- No financial aid though. My sister had opened a university prepaid savings account years ago and state tuition was no problem. Private tuition with no aid? That was going to hurt.
After some negotiations my sister was able to get some grants and waiver for freshman year but no guarantees after that. While going through this whole process State U called to say she was accepted to the main campus for first semester. Thanks to COVID a higher rate of acceptees than normal had chosen not to go and they needed bodies on campus.

Too late. My niece is a legacy at her mom's university.

Not sure if there is a lesson to be learned, but if there were one, it would be, nothing is normal and be patient. Time is on your side and colleges are scrambling to get kids on campus.

 

[HooperScooper]

How does it help to visit in the spring if we have to accept or reject before spring? It's bad enough we may need to apply in the next month and a half before we can visit. Online visits are better than they were, but not a substitute really.

I think he means visit after she is accepted. Lots of kids apply to schools they never visited. If they get in and think they're interested then they go visit in April. All the schools talk about demonstrated interest, especially the smaller schools, but after going through this twice I think that's overstated. Lots of my son's friends at Hamilton either never visited or visited after being accepted. I'm sure your daughter has a sense of what she wants in a school and can probably do enough research online to have an idea if a school is a good fit. You can apply to as many as 20 schools. Most kids don't do that many visits before applying.

 

[huskiesNhoos]

You are spot on about the area around. Wife and daughter just walked through and around BC today. The tours are nice, but some kind of visit to the area is what you need.

My thoughts exactly when I visited Washington St Louis a while back when I was looking at schools. Was ready to go there and play soccer but area around in st Louis is a dump and coming from a cow town in CT I just couldn't do it

If she likes the city and you want a good surrounding area you can't do better than northwestern...in my opinion

 

[HooperScooper]

If she likes the city and you want a good surrounding area you can't do better than northwestern...in my opinion

But then you need to try to get accepted there. Lol.

 

[husky8273]

My thoughts exactly when I visited Washington St Louis a while back when I was looking at schools. Was ready to go there and play soccer but area around in st Louis is a dump and coming from a cow town in CT I just couldn't do it

If she likes the city and you want a good surrounding area you can't do better than northwestern...in my opinion

NW, Evanston & Chicago are a great combo

 

[HuskyHawk]

My thoughts exactly when I visited Washington St Louis a while back when I was looking at schools. Was ready to go there and play soccer but area around in st Louis is a dump and coming from a cow town in CT I just couldn't do it

If she likes the city and you want a good surrounding area you can't do better than northwestern...in my opinion

But then you need to try to get accepted there. Lol.

Yeah. Getting in is the problem. She’s been to Chicago. She likes it.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Article in USA Today with an analysis from economists at FRB New York saying taking a gap year can mean up to a $90k loss of earnings over a life time.

Delaying college in the pandemic could cost you: Study says students could lose $90,000 over their lifetime

Many students are considering a gap year, worried about the cost and quality of online instruction. But economists say that isn't a great idea.

www.usatoday.com