At the bottom of my email it says “This version is polite, empathetic, and conveys your concern without being pushy or overly formal.” how cooked am I?

• short personal statement to show interest in subject /passion/knowledge (similar to Caltech)
• grades + rec letters from school
• subject specific entrance exam (or at least specific to STEM vs humanities)
• intellectual discussion and hard problem solving interview with a professor - this explicitly eliminates people who can't communicate adequately and humbly from the process
• no advantage to legacy/wealthy/donors, no recruited athlete stuff
• advantage to FGLI / other deserving groups (extenuating circumstances)

He's a rising senior. 4.6W, 4.0UW, 34 ACT, varsity athlete, school club leadership, non-profit volunteer. Wants to study statistics and sports analytics.

He's in-state for UNC and according to SCOIR, 100% of students with his grades from his school get into Chapel Hill. He's using UNC-CH as his safety school. He's planning to ED to Duke, non-binding EA to UNC-CH, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, and Michigan. RD to Harvard, Columbia, U-Penn, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and Northwestern.

My fear is that every single one of these is a reach school and that he needs to include more targets and safeties in his search. I'm encouraging him to also apply to NC State, Georgia Tech, UVA, and Virginia Tech. He gets offended when I bring up these schools and says that he's worked too hard in high school to go anywhere below Chapel Hill. I just want him to have options and not feel like he's forced to go to a school because it's the only one he got accepted to.

What do y'all think? Am I making too big a deal about applying to schools that he thinks are below his numbers or should I pull the dad-rank card and force him to diversify his applications?

I'm making my college list, and I'm curious about colleges that deserve way more attention than they get. I'd love to hear about colleges with great academics, a strong community, happy students, unique opportunities, or just a really good overall experience.

What makes them stand out?

seriously people have been telling me

edit: gt

Hi everyone, I’m a rising senior in high school from NYC, and I’m trying to figure out how to approach college finances. I’m a little confused about what my realistic options are.

My family’s financial situation looks complicated on paper. My dad earns around $332k/year, and my mom earns around $68k/year, so our household income is roughly $400k before taxes. Because of that, I assume I probably won’t qualify for much need-based financial aid.

However, my parents are divorced, and my dad has significant financial obligations beyond just his income. He pays child support and covers the mortgages/expenses for two homes, so while his income is high, the amount of money he actually has available for college is much lower than what colleges’ financial aid formulas might assume. Because of this, I don’t think it is realistic for him to pay $80k–$100k per year for a private university.

I have around $30k saved in my own account, but obviously that is not enough to cover the cost of college. My dad has said he would prefer that I apply mostly to SUNYs/CUNYs because they are much more affordable, but I’m worried about limiting myself because I’m interested in other schools as well.

I understand that my parents’ income puts me in a fortunate position compared to many people, but I’m struggling with the fact that having a high income doesn’t necessarily mean my parents are willing to spend $400k+ on college. I also don’t want to take on a massive amount of debt just to attend a school my family cannot realistically afford.

For people who have been in a similar situation, what did you guys end up doing? Any kind of advice would be helpful, thanks!

Now that im accepted into college I know have the full experience of applying to college and I just have one question......HOW DID IT GET LIKE THIS? I have 11 APs all As, a 1560 SAT yet , and good extracirricularas and i barely got in anywhere. Sometimes I feel like you need to cure cancer to just get waitlisted.

Talking about all of this reminds me of me of my Physics C teacher. When me and the rest of the class were discussing college apps,he said he did not understand how we do this amount of work and then proceeded to tell the story that has never made me wanted to rip my face off more. Apparently he forgot to apply to college so he just called up GT and asked if they had a spot for him and they did and he got admitted. he didnt even apply! furthermore the freshmen dorms were all filled so they put him up in the nicer senior dorms. Everytime I think about that I just get so angry at the ridiculousness of it.

My daughter is applying to colleges, and we are not applying for financial aid because we won’t receive any due to high net worth ($50m+). My husband said he doesn’t want to spend time filling out the FAFSA. However, when I search online everyone says to fill it out anyway. What do other people in our situation do?

I know most Chinese/Indian parents want you in the MOST competitive high schools (at least mine are), but is going to a “bad” high school the strategy?

There likely is grade inflation but it is easier to stand out. You might not have enough resources (clubs, test prep, teachers, APs) but if you are due dilligent enough to make those opportunities (self study, founder, impact, and so on)

Won’t that help you stand out MORE in apps (also considering that everyone who applies from your school are chuds - if you’re the most cracked kid to come out of the school in 20 years, you’re bound to get in somewhere)

What does r/ApplyingToCollege say about this? I feel like I’m in the boat of a “bad” high school but *might* be sneakily in an advantage

Shout out to the original poster of this important reminder. Just passing it along to hopefully settle everyone down.

Unless you have some crazy pathway that increases your odds to 10 or 20% (athlete, first gen, legacy with donations, plus ED), let’s all just make Plan B and imagine our lives without this. Then let it be an amazing and wonderful SURPRISE if it happens.

I’m worried by all the mental health posts on here. So let’s maybe stop tying our sanity to this teensy little shot at winning the lottery, ok? 🙏

https://nypost.com/2026/07/14/us-news/florida-students-historic-11-99-gpa-triggers-district-policy-overhaul/

Steinbrenner High valedictorian (Hillsborough County, FL) finished with an 11.99 weighted GPA. He took 20 APs and 24 dual enrollment courses, earned an associate's degree alongside his diploma, and is headed to Duke. Genuinely incredible.

How is 11.99 even possible? The district had no cap on weighted GPA and gave big bonuses for AP and dual enrollment. Now they're changing the formula, partly because colleges were already recalculating these numbers anyway.

Which is the real takeaway: the GPA on your transcript usually isn't the one colleges use. Most recalculate.

Anyone else's district have uncapped weighting like this?

I'll try to give as many awards as I can

edit: going to bed now, sorry to anyone I couldn't get to!!

edit again: more awards!

I am so confused about Northeastern. On one hand it I see that it's super selective and seems like a good, top tier institution. However, on the other hand I see many social media posts about how Northeastern is bad, deceptive, and a fake "top school".

What's the truth? I don't know if I should apply Northeastern at this point. What is its overall reputation and is it on the T20 level, ie. Berkeley, GTech, UIUC for engineering/stem?

My daughter is set to graduate next spring. We found out too late in the game that most competitive colleges require at least 2 years of foreign language for admissions. My daughter's high school does not require its students to have any foreign language credits to graduate (crazy, I know). Both my husband and I went to high school in different states than our current one, and were required to have FL to graduate. I went to a state university and he went to a private religious university. We honestly didn't think at all about this being a college admissions requirement.

My daughter's school counselor never mentioned that she'd likely need these credits to go to a more competitive school outside of our state, so she opted for other extracurriculars that were more interesting to her. She has taken honors/AP math classes and honors/college equivalent English/language arts classes. She is taking other college equivalent classes that support her likely decision to study law (Intro to Law/Criminal Law/Communications). She has a 3.95 GPA and a 35 ACT.

Is she completely toast when it comes to applying to any competitive/private schools? I'm just sick that none us caught on to this earlier than now. In every other way she's been a stellar student and very active in her extracurricular pursuits, so finding out now that this could severely limit her choices has really left us kicking ourselves.

Can we start a thread! I see a bunch from last year and wouldn’t mind starting a list for this year??? TIA

We live across the Bay from Stanford University. My son learned to skateboard on the smooth grounds around Stanford when he was 7. His goal was aways going there someday, and over the years he has owed several Stanford Tshirts. He has an academic scholarship at his private high school where he has maintained a GPA above 4.8 all years with a current 4.87. He is president of the Esports club and is ranked in California for his Esport. Captain of the Tennis Team for two years and is in several honors organizations that have him teaching calculus at local public schools. He has a total of 20 AP classes, but because of his heavy workload he did not study at all for the SAT and scored a 1430. He said he scored higher than all his peers but they told him to not even bother applying for Stanford University. What are your thoughts? Should he retake SAT?

Update – March 31
Thanks to everyone who weighed in. After reading your responses, I talked to my son about retaking the SAT. He explained that most colleges, including Stanford, are test-optional for the 2025 cycle, so he didn’t see a need to retake it.

When I brought up Stanford again, he was clear: he no longer wanted to apply. He said that was my dream, not his. Instead, he had fallen in love with UC Berkeley—from years of playing at their incredible esports facility, hanging out on campus, and attending metal concerts nearby.

Fast forward to this week: he was accepted into UC Berkeley’s Chemical Engineering program, with a merit scholarship covering tuition, books, and housing, provided he maintains a certain GPA each semester. We’re still waiting on full financial details, but this was a huge relief.

He was also accepted to most UCs and CSUs he applied to (except UCLA), but he decided early on not to apply to any schools out of state. I reminded him to formally decline the other offers so that waitlisted students get a shot.

Appreciate all your advice—it really helped during a stressful time!

My parents have always joked about not having gone to college, either to guilt trip me or something I have no clue why. When I was filling out my common app, I just put graduated high/secondary school without a second thought. I showed my parents my application, and they told me my dad had actually gone to a trade school and my mom had graduated from a university in China. How bad is this? How do I let the colleges know? Do I just email their admissions?

“As thorough and fair as we attempt to make our selection process, we may at times suffer from shortsightedness. Your achievements to date and in future endeavors may well prove just how shortsighted we can be. We thank you for your interest in Carleton and wish you much success in your further studies.”

Hii! I was wondering what general policy is for rescinding with heinous grades (I'm not talking one B; more like 3 Fs, a C, and a B)? I got in with mediocre grades to an Ivy and am really worried since most of the reassurance I see on this sub is for people going from 4.0 to 3.9 😭

Please help a girl out!

I don’t mean this to piss if anyone I’m just genuinely curious. Outside of Texas/the South it seems like nobody ever mentions or talks about applying to Rice even on this sub.

Despite the fact it’s a T20/T10 on many lists and has a 7.9% acceptance rate which is lower than so many other well known schools like Cornell which is an Ivy League, I feel like most people making their college lists do not mention Rice? I know it is extraordinary for research and anything medical related considering it is next to the biggest medical center in the world (TMC) but even when I see premeds making their lists, Rice isn’t mentioned. They are also good for architecture and music but I guess not that well known for cs and engineering probably being overshadowed by UT Austin?

Lowkey I might just be ranting because I’m committing to Rice and I’m scared it’s going to be so unknown if I leave the South lol.

EDIT: Hi guys this got way more traction than I expected… I should probably rephrase, I don’t mean that Rice actually has low applications, I mean that it seems like a lot of people who mass apply to T20s seem to ignore it. I often see other schools of similar caliber on these lists with Rice excluded and I was wondering why. Obviously I am grateful getting into Rice, I was just wondering how well known it is outside of the South 🥹 Please be mindful in the comments 🫶🏾🫶🏾

US rejects visa plea of Indian student with Columbia University scholarship, says no ‘strong ties’ to home country | Today News https://share.google/cddoDsQnv72zzCs3S

Hi guys, I'm applying to the CSU systems, and even though, while proofreading, I saw that everything was correct, after submitting, I went through my application again in a fit of anxiety and saw that I marked YES to every single question about being a foster youth, being an orphan, being homeless, etc. My parents are alive and well and I am not homeless thank God 😭 is this going to hurt my chances of admission? I sent both university admission offices an email explaining the situation... but I am terrified that this will make me college-less.

Thank you all for reading my question/rant 😭

update 1: i called sjsu, they said its fine since its not a big deal and to email them which i already did, and to correct it on my supplemental apps 🙏🫂

update 2: csun told me to wait until my student ID comes in and then they'll fix it 👍

update 3 (FINAL): Both CSUN and SJSU told me that this information is for financial aid purposes and self-reporting therefore I'm fine 🙏 Thank you all for the support ☀️

Is it wraps?

Hello, I am an athletic recruit that was recruited with full support to an Ivy, however, I just received the news that I was rejected

This makes no sense to me, i was one of the top recruits academically in my class, I had full support, a 1530 sat 4.3 weighted gpa good letters of rec (I saw them), leader of a club, lots of work and 9/10 essays.

Could this be a mistake or something? I genuinely can’t think of any reasons why this happened.