To (All) the Colleges That Rejected Me

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: MBS500
Originally Posted By: Gabe
FASFA is what annoyed me. Just because my parents make a lot of money doesn't mean they are giving it to me. It wasn't until graduate school that I was able to afford a full meal plan.
that made me mad too. Anyway, for past 2 years my work reimbursing me if As or [censored].


Yeah went through that too. My parents made enough, not a spectacular income, but enough that it was my scholarships (for real scholarly activity, not stupid athletic scholarships) that offset cost. Fortunately they always lived far below their means and footed the bill. Im eternally grateful, my wife had to incur loans.

And note that I get belittled for my anti-debt and living below means standing, despite being one of those horrid people who had things paid for and didnt have a job in college. What gives?




Only to those who are quite vocal about it. Those who are in agreement are busy setting our plans into motion!

I agree with quite a bit that logic, and the best part is that you don't miss that "stuff" as much once it is gone!

Mine is already in motion....working on grabbing that better job (does not have to be big time) to really get it going...

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: tom slick
Go to community college and get decent grades. Transfer as a junior and you've skipped all of the freshman admission requirements, saved a ton of money, and grown up a little. When you graduate with decent grades NOBODY cares where you spent your freshman and sophomore years.
That's how you get into a school that rejects 90% of applicants and doesn't even look at freshman applicants with less than a 3.7 GPA in High School.

Depends upon the major. If you're going in for history, business, psychology or some such thing, sure. Others that have a more distinct and building curriculum, for example every engineering program Ive dealt with (literally a hundred from all over the country) are set up so that if you're not in the right classes from day one, you're guaranteed a five year tenure. Nothing saved.

I studied pre engineering at a community college in Springfield Illinois, transferred to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign without problem(got some scholarships too). Got my [censored] in 4 years, 2 years at CC and 2 years at UIUC, without problem.

I think in-state transfer from community colleges to Universities is much easier than from out of state.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
Now, if you are talking ivy league, it could be different, but I believe ivy league schools are for snobs.


Yes, I was talking about ivy league. I think they have their places if you are the poorer students who go in via scholarship for exceptional academic achievement, usually in the graduate program or some exceptional undergraduate program (i.e. invented a real great technology or solved a fundamental mathematical problem that puzzled us for centuries, in high school). But for the rest of the people who got in because of family connections, yes, that's just old boy network.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
State schools tend to be more lenient to nearby kids than out of staters, who actually pay a lot of the university's budget. Not stating that as an implication of your daughter's abilities in any way, just a fact - by charter and design, they should be pushing to admit the locals with good grades and status. Early admission to a state school in the same state is the optimal way to work the admissions process IMO. Good for her.

I suspect it is also a billeted thing, with assignments to the desired demographics of the incoming students.


When I was apply for undergrad as an out of stater, they told me that 5% of the admissions are reserved for out of states and the rest for in states. So for famous campus like UC Berkeley or LA, the bar is a lot higher for out of stater.

Especially if you have test scores from foreign nations that are not watered down like our SAT / ACT and +1.0 GPA for honor classes. I've friends that have to go through the community college route just because she accidentally took those test and the admission require the score. She was a far better student than I was.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: tom slick
Go to community college and get decent grades. Transfer as a junior and you've skipped all of the freshman admission requirements, saved a ton of money, and grown up a little. When you graduate with decent grades NOBODY cares where you spent your freshman and sophomore years.
That's how you get into a school that rejects 90% of applicants and doesn't even look at freshman applicants with less than a 3.7 GPA in High School.



Depends upon the major. If youre going in for history, business, psychology or some such thing, sure. Others that have a more distinct and building curriculum, for example every engineering program Ive dealt with (literally a hundred from all over the country) are set up so that if youre not in the right classes from day one, youre guaranteed a five year tenure. Nothing saved.


Yes, every one of my classmates who transfer from a JC was behind for at least 1 year, and the classes were easier in JC and they had problem adjusting to the more demanding workload and background in the UC system. Lots of lost units and lots of course retake because they failed the first class after the transfer.

If you can get into the better 4 year school you want to graduate from, do it. You'll end up better off at the 3rd year, with better graduating GPA, and an easier time finding internship and jobs afterward.

 

[Astro14]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
Now, if you are talking ivy league, it could be different, but I believe ivy league schools are for snobs.


Yes, I was talking about ivy league. I think they have their places if you are the poorer students who go in via scholarship for exceptional academic achievement, usually in the graduate program or some exceptional undergraduate program (i.e. invented a real great technology or solved a fundamental mathematical problem that puzzled us for centuries, in high school). But for the rest of the people who got in because of family connections, yes, that's just old boy network.


Family connection counts for very little in Ivy league applications. It might be a tie breaker, but it won't make up for a less than stellar application.

As far as the Ivy League education, well, I am biased, I don't care for Harvard's approach, but I am a huge fan of Yale (go figure...). The tremendous opportunities, the incredible array of resources, the excellence in facilities and education make Yale, in particular, and the top-notch schools in general, a better foundation for the future.

The questions are: 1. can you get in? and 2. can you afford it? And those are important questions. From a value perspective, a school like UVA, at 35% of the price of an Ivy, with nearly the level of education and opportunity, is a compelling case.

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
Originally Posted By: Voltmaster
I never graduated high school because of bull [censored] like this.

In 2 years i will be offier in air force , have bachlores in enegineering , have 3 associate. and paid zero dollars on top of all that.


Not unless the USAF has seriously reduced their minimum writing proficiency standards.

 

[hattaresguy]

Originally Posted By: Astro14
I disagree PandaBear. It does not take fraudulent applications, obscure extracurricular activities, slickness or tricks to get into a good school.

It requires exceptional performance.

Unfortunately, every kid gets a trophy now, no matter how well they do, so they all think they're exceptional...when, by definition, only 1 kid in 100 is exceptional...

I'll give you an example of an exceptional high school student:
- National Merit finalist (by definition, 99.5 percentile)
- Great SAT and ACT scores (99th percentile in all)
- All AP classes, including Physics, Bio and Chemistry.
- Straight A average
- Valedictorian
- 1st chair flute in the Youth Orchestra
- Saxophone player in the H.S. Jazz band, Flute player in the H.S. band
- Varsity Field Hockey player
- Volunteer firefighter.

To do all that, to finish a full day of classes (no study periods because of band practice and science labs), go to Field Hockey practice, jazz band practice (or whatever was on for that day) grab dinner, go to firefighting practice (or call), and then do her homework, she would start on homework at 10:00 PM and work until it was done, often at 02:00 AM and then get up for the school bus the next morning and start the grind over again. Sleep was made up on Saturday morning, then homework on Saturday afternoon, homework on Sunday morning, Orchestra Practice on Sunday, Homework on Sunday night. She worked harder than anyone else in her class. She has talent, sure, and is very smart, but don't discount the work, the real thing that made her exceptional.

She is currently a sophomore at Yale.

No tricks, no fraud, no slickness (the interviewers see right through that) and no weird extracurricular activities. Just genuine drive to achieve excellence, rewarded with admission to schools like MIT and Yale.


My sister was just like your daughter, she was number two in here HS class missed the number one spot by like one point, it was down to the wire.

Got a full scholarship to a pretty good college with plans to transfer to an Ivy probably Yale or Harvard after a year or two to save herself a few bucks.

Got to her freshmen year, made it to Christmas than crashed and burned. Couldn't handle the pressure and the freedom that living away from home gave her for the first time in her life. It was kind of like she had spent most of her childhood in structured activities or at home studying, than like the frog in the well she stuck her head out a bit.

Doesn't work out for everyone.

 

[Mr Nice]

Interest rates on government student loans set to double this summer.


http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2013/04/0...his-summer?lite

 

[2Fast4U]

It's unfortunate that the girl who wrote the original qouted text has been in this "everyone is a winner" world. I say to that girl welcome to the real world. Suck it up and stop your crying.

 

[GreeCguy]

Originally Posted By: tom slick
Go to community college and get decent grades. Transfer as a junior and you've skipped all of the freshman admission requirements, saved a ton of money, and grown up a little. When you graduate with decent grades NOBODY cares where you spent your freshman and sophomore years.
That's how you get into a school that rejects 90% of applicants and doesn't even look at freshman applicants with less than a 3.7 GPA in High School.



This is the very route I took. I did horrible in High School for a number of reasons. Worked 40 hours a week my junior and senior years and really didn't care too much for school anyway. Most of my free time was spent hanging out with buddies. Graduated H.S. and kicked around for a while - parents told me either college or military. Thought about the Navy, but finally settled on community college. It was a great second chance and I knew it. Studied hard and after two years, transferred to university. Graduated with honors and went on to grad school. Ended up with a fist full of degrees including two master's degrees. A couple of years ago, went to my 30 year High School reunion, everyone was surprised I had actually amounted to something in life. I give the biggest credit to my profs in community college who believed in me and helped me get started.

 

[Brandon Gatz]

I graduated cum laude from the Chuck Norris Institute of Manliness & [censored]-Kickery