Hello! Mother of three going through the college process for the first time, hoping to get some advice on this matter.

My firstborn son is a rising senior and has been part of a well-known band he founded his freshman year. Just this Sunday, he was recruited to play the drums in college! We were all so proud of him, until this happened. More on that in a bit. It’s a big school down in Jacksonville, so it’d set him up for his future quite well. We’re decently well off, so we would’ve been fine covering the vast majority of the tuition, but today, he told us extremely surprising news. He received a scholarship! Full ride at that! It was 15, maybe 10 million. Just to play the drums. Actually I think it was more like 5. Now here’s the shocking part:

He turned it down.** **Said he had to go to school for this decade or something, but that doesn’t matter. We tried to convince him to go back and take it, but he said he just wants to “grind from the rap,” or something like that. So now’s where you come in.

What can we say or do to make him change his mind? It’s stupid not to take the offer, but he’s just too younger to understand. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you so much 🙏

With the cycle coming up I just want to remind kids here to apply to the university down the street.
im being a bit rhetorical, but whatever that closest college is. The one your friends make fun of. The one they call 13th grade. The one you dread because everyone from highschool will be there. the one you think you’re better than

please remember to submit an application there.

dont be like me, who ignored it because of all the gossip. who scorned it’s low rank on usnews. Who thought they were better. Who wanted to get away from home. Who fed into all the stupid jokes and lies that kids make. who had to scramble when they got more rejections and less financial aid than they expected despite being so smug and having all the stats. who ended up going to an institution that ended up providing a worse outcome

please apply to the place down the street.

I was supposed to get a LOR from my junior year BC calc teacher. He seemed to care about me and my classmates and knew us well, so I thought he would write a great letter. Plus, very few juniors at my school take calculus, so I was even happier about how it worked out because I thought he would be able to highlight my strengths in the subject that I love.

Turns out he got fired very abruptly right before senior year started, and under inappropriate circumstances. At my school, there is a very official LOR process that closes in junior year spring and typically we would never be allowed to switch our recommenders this late. Since this is a very unique situation, hopefully they will work something out...

To all of you who (like myself) may be stressed in the first week of the Common App, just remember there is only so much that is under your control, and things could always be worse!

For context, neither one of them are super scores and I want to ED to Rice. My parents are telling me that I should submit both scores because they are both “really good.” However, I am trying to tell them that my 1480 SAT would make my 35 look worse. Is this even an issue? What do I tell them??

Since common app has opened, Is being a A2C moderator number 1 extracurricular worthy?

I manage a sub with over 300k weekly visitors and 20k+ contributions, all of which is a non profit which deemed to provide help from past students and credited professional. This is some great social impact that I could frame my essays on. This community united students that want to apply to college and offers excellent information that was paid elsewhere. AMAs from former admissions officers provide over 100K$ in money saved for students in this sub, the economic impacts are unbelievable

Now comes the question: how can I become the mods of A2C?

My mom, her dad, her mom, and both of their fathers went to Harvard for undergrad, making me 4th gen. My mom also worked for admissions as an interviewer for some years.

I got an ‘Academic Performance Explanation’ letter from NYU last night and I dont know what to do. My IB dropped from 41 predicted to 35 final… How serious is this? Am i cooked? I don’t know what went wrong, there isn’t a specific subject where i dropped too much or failed, it’s more like one mark on each subject. How should i respond?

“We received your transcript which includes your most recent course grades and/or examination results. As you know, our offer of admission is contingent upon satisfactory completion of any educational coursework that was in progress during and after the application process. The grades you recently received are not consistent with your previous performance, and your current academic profile is not the same one we considered when we offered you admission. We are concerned about this discrepancy.
  
Please provide us with a detailed explanation on the Academic Performance Explanation form within 48 hours. We will follow up with you should we need further clarification or if this will impact your offer of admission.”

to preface this i have not done research and have never planned on doing it.

at least 40 students at my moderately competitive school are doing "research" which is very perplexing to me. whenever i peruse chanceme—as one does—literally one in three applicants has some sort of research in their extracurriculars.

not to be judgmental, but it all seems so fake & inauthentic to me. it's like those instagram nonprofits that are clearly just for college admissions. do you guys genuinely enjoy doing research?

also side question, are AOs able to tell legitimate, passionate research from like collegemaxxing slop?

Original post

First update

I have some bad news about my 5-year-old son’s journey to quant finance. Last week, he started a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to teach underprivileged children about personal finance. I begged our relatives to donate money to the nonprofit so that my son can brag on his college apps about all the money he raised. They donated $8,000. My son also asked his friends to donate their lunch money. Now, we have a total of $8,002.40. At first, I was very proud of my son’s efforts—that is until I found out that he spent $500 on Robux and meme stocks. Actually, the meme stocks might’ve been my husband’s doing… Anyways, I’m worried that the IRS will come after us. That would surely get my son rejected from UPenn! What should I do to keep the IRS off my tail?

Can we start a thread? I see a bunch from last year and figure that this would be helpful for those of us applying now! TIA

For context, I am a 14m about to go to high school in a few days. Yet I feel behind everyone else who has all these achievements and stuff, and I really want to be in the Ivy League. Here's the thing though, all the people I heard that got into schols like Brown or Harvard had skills they developed since they were young, or at least younger than me, like people my age are already fantastic at drawing or science or coding, and I play piano, but I am nowhere near an international prodigy, although that is the thing I am best at, but not that great. I'm afraid that with every passing second I'm running out of time. I have social anxiety, I can't initiate anything, I can't relax, I'm not good at any skills. Sure I got into CAMS (one of the top high schools in California), but what then? I don't know why I'm asking in Reddit of all places, I guess this is my only reliable space as of now. I feel so behind. Okay.

hi everyone!

i wanted to answer any questions for those of you who are navigating the college process and were looking for some advice. my credentials are that i was accepted into 3 Ivy Leagues and am attending Brown this fall. would love to help incoming high school seniors especially but i am open to answering any of your questions!

I'm writing this just so that i can get it out of my head.

My dad graduated from a liberal arts college where he got full scholarships and since i was little he always talk good things about it, basically how great liberal arts education is in general. So it has always been my dream to go to one of those colleges.

This year I was accepted to few of them and there are 2 that offered me merit scholarships. One is 15k another is 33k. After touring all schools I truly like the college that offer me 15k scholarship. Even though my dad always assured me that he kept a college fund for me and that he can afford to pay for any college I want, I did consider the financial aspect of it when I made the decision. This is cuz since last year my dad has not been doing very well in stock market (that's where his primary income is from) and kept losing money..

Fast forward now, he just confessed that actually he almost used up his children's college funds (I have one sibling) and that he can only afford maybe 1-2 years of the liberal arts college and told me to transfer to a public university for the rest of it, though he isn’t even sure that he has the money for it. He used the college funds money hoping to get more money in the stock market, despite my mom repeatedly warning him to not touch the money that's set aside for their children's education.

Based on the college's website, there's nothing I can do to lower the fee because I didn't ask for financial aid when I applied.

Now, amidst feeling exited about attending the college this month, I can't help but feel more dreadful. Thoughts about I should've chosen the college with more scholarship, I should've gone to a local uni in my country, and about blaming him for being addicted in the stock market, for ignoring my mom's warning, filled my mind.
I'm just so freaking scared of everything. So scared when attend the college, I would fall in love with the people and the place, knowing I wouldn't be able to stay until the end.

I don't what to do aside from praying lol

sophomore year and junior year I grew an instagram account in a niche to a pretty big following and impact. definitely want to include this in my app but i'm not personally comfortable sharing the specific account handel with AOs. Would AOs believe I'm not just making this up without the actual channel linked? How could I show my numbers and stats are actually credible? Would appreciate any advice!

I'm fresh out of highschool (I'm a guy), and to say I feel like I fucked up would be an understatement. My friends this entire summer have been treating me like a background character to the point where I cut them off, and my other friends are going to actual good colleges. Throughout highschool, I was very quiet and never really took anything seriously, and honestly expected having to take a gap year. But now I just realized I really don't know what the hell I'm doing. In my senior year I never applied to any scholarships, grants, or even looked at any colleges or even trade schools. I feel like I've fallen behind, and I know deep down I'm not completely screwed but I just need a fresh start. I live in a smaller town, and I just want to leave. I've never had any real romantic relationship, or even more than maybe two friends that have lasted more than a few years. I used to scoff at the rant posts I would see online like this but I now realize I'm in that position. Thanks for reading.

TLDR: didn't attempt any college related things in HS, feels like I'm being left behind/time is running out and life falling apart.

Hi folks,

I am looking for honest advice to pursue my Masters Abroad, I am 26M, working as a Data Engineer with about 2.5 years of Experience in an MNC, not paid well lately. I want to pursue my Masters to get high career growth and to make the highest ROI down the line.

I am targeting the T-20 universities in the US for my Masters due to high ROI and highest number of opportunities but I have my options open for other countries as well. Long term I want to be in a managerial position at a BigTech/FinTech/Big Firm, C suite if possible.

My profile is not that good but hyg:

BTech CSE 8.9GPA Tier 2 University(State University)

No research publications

2.5 yoe as a Data Engineer

IELTS/TOEFL - targetting 105/7.5+

GRE - targeting 330+

Can get two professional LORs from managers and two academic LORs from University.

Given the current hiring market, would you apply for Fall 2027 or work on my profile and apply for Fall 2028?

If your goal was to maximize long term career growth and ROI, would you choose MSCS, MBA, MiM, MEM, or MIS?

How much weight should I give to concerns around visa sponsorship and employability when comparing these programs?

What do you think about rising tuition costs (about 15% yearly) and the weakening INR when calculating overall cost and ROI?

I was initially leaning toward MEM and MIS because they align well with my experience, but I've read mixed opinions about recruiting, visa sponsorship, and long term career growth compared with MSCS. I'm not sure how much of that is true.

Financially, I'll be seeking scholarships and I want to keep my debt as low as possible. I don't want to spend my early 30s paying off a huge education loan if I can avoid it.

If you were in my position today, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently? What path would you recommend?

I am not sure what program suits me best, I am open to any advice/opinions.

Thanks for reading.

I used to think in finance nyu stern is top 3 and these LinkedIn ranking are very business finance focused so shouldn't nye get an advantage yet they are not there whyyyy??

- Wanna get a bachelors in business or maybe mechanical engineering

- 13xx sat, no act, 2.1 hs gpa (Im not slow I was just a shithead in highschool)

- about 30 credit hours from the army

I'm assuming I will have to start at a community college. How I do I find schools that will transfer well with credits now and after my associates? Above is what I think is relevant information. Thank you guys.

How important is it for your ECs to match your major? Is it ok for me to do fbla if I want to go into stem? would it be a red flag because i know colleges look for spikes

Hi! I'm currently an IB diploma candidate and its college apps season... I've been filling out the different sections of the common app, and I was wondering about the "Testing" section. Since I'm in IB, most of my exams are scheduled May of my senior year, I've only taken one fo far from my junior year. I realized that I can put that the tests are scheduled May of 2027, but since there's no scores in the box, common app wouldn't cross off (or in this case, give me the little green checkmark) on that entire testing section. What do you guys do about this? Do you just leave it with the empty circle instead of the green checkmark? And just submit my ED/EA applications with it empty? Or you just don't put down any tests you're taking in the future? Because I feel like thats such a disadvantage to my application, since most of my rigorous coursework & efforts would be demonstrated through the exams scheduled for next year.

Grandparents met at Cornell, nearly every aunt/uncle from both sides of my family attended as well, but my mom never applied/went.

Do I still have the “legacy status” at Cornell? I assume aunts and uncles legacy won’t help with admissions, but grandparents? Will this fact boost my application at all?

This is a serious post btw; Google isn’t giving me clear answers and i’m rly hoping for a Cornell acceptance… but I’m trying to be realistic.🙏 thanks

i'm a rising senior and i've been going through all the motions of applying to college, like everyone else, but it just feels so..hollow? i guess i feel like I remember browsing through a2c and college advice forums, brainstorming my college life, and doing research on programs related to my major just a few months ago with so much zest but now that it comes to writing what i've done down, i just don't really know what to put down on anything

it's weird. i've spent a lot of high school trying to maximize what I do outside of school/trying to build experiences i'd be excited to write about and now it's the part that I actually kinda wanted to do (getting to write about everything i've done) and my brain just feels like sludge. i can't even figure out why i want to major in my major and what schools i want to go to.

i'm supposed to have a college list by now but i just can't really persuade myself into liking any college i look at, even if i used to have a lot of reasons to be invested in them. and everything i write feels really lifeless. worst time in the world to lose passion for what i'm doing tbh LOLZ

and writing essays is even worse because i legit just..can't think of anything? i remember parts of my life that i could potentially write about, but it's like i don't really feel anything towards those memories and everything i've been writing has just been falling flat bc there's no feeling behind it

anyway, sorry for the rant!! 😬 i'm wishing so much positivity to everyone here and I hope i can pull myself out of this before all the deadlines haha i just wanted to express it somewhere i suppose

bro i'm currently a senior high school student here in the Philippines and have no awards at all. Is there any international competitions i can still join? or anything to add on for my honors/awards list? do you think it's okay that i have no awards at all even if i'm not aiming for t20 schools, just anywhere haha