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Surly kids who can't get into UT


texasdago

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On 12/16/2024 at 9:57 AM, South Austin said:

If you do, let me know what you find out.  My daughter is a freshman at Oregon, and has a healthy merit scholarship that's taken a very nice dent out of the nonresident tuition.  If the lack of a FAFSA jeopardizes that, then I'll suck it up and do it.

Fill it out.  We are.

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On 12/20/2024 at 12:53 PM, South Austin said:

Nice work!  If she got into Mines and some of the others I recall from her list, she should get into Boulder.  Merit aid at that school, however, is a different issue, as I've heard CU is very stingy with aid because so many nonresidents want to go there.  

The “Prime Effect” according to current students. Lots more OOS applicants.

On 12/27/2024 at 10:00 PM, sasquatch69 said:

My oldest has decided on Arkansas, and got into the honors college as well. We came to F’ville over the break and had a blast - it’s gorgeous up here and the town has a lot of options for good food and drink. I know Surly loves to tray the ‘Hogs - but I’m pretty stoked about being a UArk parent for a few years. 

 

On 12/28/2024 at 10:25 AM, South Austin said:

As a historical athletic rival, sure. But lots of us are high on Arkansas as a college option for our kids. Congrats to yours!

Pig offers bribes.

 

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So far - daughter is a senior at Westlake.

- Deferred at UGA. She feels good about getting in off deferral.
-Accepted at Utenn with a nice 15k/year scholarship
-Accepted at Kentucky with a 22k/year scholarship

-Waiting on UT. She really wants it but the numbers are absurd this year. She wrote great essays imo but I'm not sure how they are going to read 90k of them.

This kid wants to be a teacher. Secretly I'm thinking she should go for the best deal but it's her choice.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/29/2024 at 10:00 PM, Gardner Barnes said:

So far - daughter is a senior at Westlake.

- Deferred at UGA. She feels good about getting in off deferral.
-Accepted at Utenn with a nice 15k/year scholarship
-Accepted at Kentucky with a 22k/year scholarship

-Waiting on UT. She really wants it but the numbers are absurd this year. She wrote great essays imo but I'm not sure how they are going to read 90k of them.

This kid wants to be a teacher. Secretly I'm thinking she should go for the best deal but it's her choice.

There weren’t many that came off deferral last year at UGA from what admissions put out. They have a high acceptance rate of offers because of the amount of in state kids they pull and the fact it’s damn near free for a lot of them. Daughter is a freshman there and her best friends turned down UVA, Vandy, and a lot of top tier schools because coming out of Atlanta they are going to UGA for nothing. Coming from out of state, we’re on the write them a big ass check tuition plan but it’s what she wanted and we agreed it was the right decision.

TN - housing is a bitch to forewarn you. Most of her friends there that aren’t getting hand me down housing from seniors are having a hard time working out housing anywhere within reason of campus. There are some new developments coming online downtown, but they are pricey.

UK - great area to be in.

Teacher - take the best deal that offers the best experience for the money. Our youngest is leaning that direction and we’re pushing her to Ark/Mizzou because as neighboring states she can get solid money from them.

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12 hours ago, Brew said:

Our youngest is leaning that direction and we’re pushing her to Ark/Mizzou because as neighboring states she can get solid money from them.

Where do you live?  Oklahoma and Tennessee are the only states that border both Missouri and Arkansas, right?

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14 hours ago, Brew said:

Daughter is a freshman there and her best friends turned down UVA, Vandy, and a lot of top tier schools because coming out of Atlanta they are going to UGA for nothing. 

One of my best friends did this. Grew up in Sandy Springs area, always aspired to go to Vandy or even Northwestern, got in....but parents sat him down and showed him the math on going to Vanderbilt vs basically free UGA and did UGA. Worked out well though because Big 4 and finance (banks, pe's, etc.) recruiters will recruit from UGA even as a non-target if you do well there and he's done really well even without having to get a better name MBA.

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3 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Where do you live?  Oklahoma and Tennessee are the only states that border both Missouri and Arkansas, right?

TN. Mizzou has really solid scholarship’s for neighboring states, similar to Arkansas but even better than them. They also have really good opportunities for anyone with decent GPA/test scores, but the neighboring state discounts require lower scores. The second kid hasn’t put in the effort our first kid did, but still wants a big school experience. We were surprised by the numbers with Mizzou and are touring there soon.

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1 minute ago, Brew said:

TN. Mizzou has really solid scholarship’s for neighboring states, similar to Arkansas but even better than them. They also have really good opportunities for anyone with decent GPA/test scores, but the neighboring state discounts require lower scores. The second kid hasn’t put in the effort our first kid did, but still wants a big school experience. We were surprised by the numbers with Mizzou and are touring there soon.

I did my undergrad at the UM engineering campus about 95 miles south of Columbia.  I spent a lot of time up there because the engineering school was basically a sausage fest.  Mizzou is underrated.

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We have always spent quite a bit of time in St Louis (split season tickets to the Cards), wife went to SEMO, older daughter looked hard at Washington, she wants to end up in Chicago, so it would work well for us/her. We’ll see what direction she goes. I prefer Mizzou over Ark, but am good with whatever as long as it doesn’t come with full boat out of state tuition.

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Aside from class rank and SAT, how much consideration is given students with extra curricular activities?  I’ve got a Freshman who’ll play sports most of HS, does that help at all with admissions (not playing in college)?  Will probably work a number of jobs too in HS. Does anyone believe extra curriculars helped with the admissions, or really it’s class rank and SAT?

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TN. Mizzou has really solid scholarship’s for neighboring states, similar to Arkansas but even better than them. They also have really good opportunities for anyone with decent GPA/test scores, but the neighboring state discounts require lower scores. The second kid hasn’t put in the effort our first kid did, but still wants a big school experience. We were surprised by the numbers with Mizzou and are touring there soon.

My cousin turned down Stanford for Mizzou because of a full scholly (plus Journalism school is top notch).
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40 minutes ago, 4thgenhorn said:

Aside from class rank and SAT, how much consideration is given students with extra curricular activities?  I’ve got a Freshman who’ll play sports most of HS, does that help at all with admissions (not playing in college)?  Will probably work a number of jobs too in HS. Does anyone believe extra curriculars helped with the admissions, or really it’s class rank and SAT?

I'm not sure anyone truly knows the answer to these questions.  For one thing, it seems to vary by school.  Even within a given school, the admit/reject cases can sometimes confound.

I continue to recommend applying to a bunch of schools, given the relative ease these days with the electronic systems.  Apply to a few dream schools, some happy-to-attend schools, and some safety schools.  At maybe $60 a pop, who cares?  Yeah, the essays can be a drag.  Other than that, there really doesn't seem to be a clear rhyme or reason as to admissions.

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48 minutes ago, 4thgenhorn said:

Aside from class rank and SAT, how much consideration is given students with extra curricular activities?  I’ve got a Freshman who’ll play sports most of HS, does that help at all with admissions (not playing in college)?  Will probably work a number of jobs too in HS. Does anyone believe extra curriculars helped with the admissions, or really it’s class rank and SAT?

 

5 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I'm not sure anyone truly knows the answer to these questions.  For one thing, it seems to vary by school.  Even within a given school, the admit/reject cases can sometimes confound.

Yeah, who the fuck really knows.  I think some basic principals to follow are:  (1) yes, some extra-curricular activity on top of your grades and SAT/ACT is needed, unless they blow the roof off with their numbers; (2) don't let your kid pile on a bunch of extra-curricular activities, as the prevailing thought seems to be that showing a focus and attention to 2-3 activities as opposed to resume padding by joining every fucking club in school is preferable; (3) if your kid wants a more competitive major like engineering, it's very helpful to have a school activity or summer-camp-like experiences that are tied to that major and show a genuine pursuit interest; (4) having a job in high school seems to be given more weight than it was years ago.

Where sports fits into that if you're kid isn't going to be playing in college, I'm really not sure.  I've been told that a lot of college admissions folks really like band kids, because they generally are known to work their ass off.

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Aside from class rank and SAT, how much consideration is given students with extra curricular activities?  I’ve got a Freshman who’ll play sports most of HS, does that help at all with admissions (not playing in college)?  Will probably work a number of jobs too in HS. Does anyone believe extra curriculars helped with the admissions, or really it’s class rank and SAT?

Sports don’t mean shit because they are the differentiator for athletic scholarships and lessened admissions standards for recruited athletes.

Having a job matters more especially if they get promoted while working. Community service and extracurriculars related to their major are valuable.

But to be honest, for 99% of colleges none of it matters that much. AP course load is supposedly the biggest indicator of college success and if they take the most rigorous offering for each class and have good grades, they’ll do well. For that 1% (Harvard, etc) You better be in the top 1% in grades, test scores, and cured cancer in an extracurricular you founded.
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3 hours ago, 4thgenhorn said:

Aside from class rank and SAT, how much consideration is given students with extra curricular activities?  I’ve got a Freshman who’ll play sports most of HS, does that help at all with admissions (not playing in college)?  Will probably work a number of jobs too in HS. Does anyone believe extra curriculars helped with the admissions, or really it’s class rank and SAT?

I can tell you specifically for my daughter, involvement had to make some difference. She got into the colleges she got into over kids with much better standardized test scores and grades. She took 5 AP classes and a full honors load so that wasn’t even a big number, but she scored 4/5 on all of them. She was really involved (including leadership positions) in school activities, volunteered heavily, never worked, etc and got into schools with an ACT score 4 points below others. She also applied as an English major which isn’t high demand and went 34/35 on reading/English on the ACT but was terrible in math/science. I would also bet her essays were well ahead of average as well.

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3 minutes ago, Brew said:

I would also bet her essays were well ahead of average as well.

I have a feeling this is heavily weighted, at least at UT.  I had no thoughts that my son could get into UT, and I honestly didn't put much effort into helping him craft that essay, other than some grammar/syntax advice.  As a result, it was very clearly written by a 17 YO guy.  The thing was, it was heartfelt and it spoke to experience he had in high level select soccer, including references to learning to deal with kids who didn't speak English in building teamwork, etc.  It's the only explanation I have for him being at UT now, because his grades and scores didn't work, at all.

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2 hours ago, South Austin said:

 

Yeah, who the fuck really knows.  I think some basic principals to follow are:  (1) yes, some extra-curricular activity on top of your grades and SAT/ACT is needed, unless they blow the roof off with their numbers; (2) don't let your kid pile on a bunch of extra-curricular activities, as the prevailing thought seems to be that showing a focus and attention to 2-3 activities as opposed to resume padding by joining every fucking club in school is preferable; (3) if your kid wants a more competitive major like engineering, it's very helpful to have a school activity or summer-camp-like experiences that are tied to that major and show a genuine pursuit interest; (4) having a job in high school seems to be given more weight than it was years ago.

Where sports fits into that if you're kid isn't going to be playing in college, I'm really not sure.  I've been told that a lot of college admissions folks really like band kids, because they generally are known to work their ass off.

This was what I did with my son. 4 year varsity swimmer, but not interested in swimming in college. I encouraged him to stick it out for 4 years because it shows you can stick with something for 4 years. (maybe it helps, who TF knows). Also, his swim coach teaches several AP STEM classes and has been great about finding volunteer opportunities for the team. 

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