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My brother and his wife don't make that much, but their house value has skyrocketed (SF suburb). My niece got into Barnard and really wanted to go...but because of the house value, they ended up qualifying for bupkis financial aid there, so she went in-state instead. This is all just insanity.
Colleges ask that you do not do this because many municipalities do not assess homes for their full market value.
I think I am going to put Zillow value minus commissions for sale of my house, cost of fixing up my house for sale, cost of renting a one bedroom apartment since I just sold my house to get all the equity out to pay for college, and cost of a divorce attorney.NewlyRetired said:
I agree with bigbottom on the legacy question.
I don’t know of a list of the kind you are seeking, but schools provide what’s called a common data set that provides a lot of data, including admissions data. There are admissions statistics broken down between men and women, but most of the data sets I’ve reviewed haven’t broken it down by majors (engineering, business, etc.). However, I did find this data digest for Purdue University that allows you to sort by engineering applicants. Purdue isn’t a highly selective institution like some others, and 61% of their students are from the state of Indiana, but since it offers one of the best engineering programs in the country, the data may be instructive for you.
Right so they can stick it to you. If there is a documented value and that’s the assessment Id have no issues putting that. Also they are asking for the value of your house. If they want to split hairs there is a house value and land value. But I wouldn’t go that route. Thought about it but couldn’t.NewlyRetired said:
Can't believe he was turned down. Definitely agree that an investigation is in order. Perhaps you can get them to change their minds.
Assuming your description is accurate it seems rather odd that he was turned down. NHS is based on 4 criteria...scholarship, leadership, service, and character. I have certainly seen people rejected on the basis of being weak in just one area. Service is one of the primary areas where I have seen kids fall short. I know at our school, it is not simply about checking off a specific number of hours...it is more about sustained/continued service. It is much more favorable for a student to show a pattern of commitment over time to a particular cause than it is to accumulate random hours. I have seen other kids get torpedoed by a character issue. You claim he had phenomenal teacher recommendations. How would you know that? You should not be able to see teacher ratings/recs. Again, sounds pretty fishy if the situation you describe is accurate.
Don’t lose sleep over it. Just on the application, highlight his academic prowess, community service, leadership and character.Anarchy99 said:
The story they gave us last year was that he didn’t have enough community service hours. We asked if there were any other issues and they said no. Since then, he volunteered at a local food kitchen / pantry and accumulated quadruple the hours they require just from that. He had plenty of other stuff on top of that including church projects, animal shelter, work he did for the town rec sports program, etc.
Plenty of people have already given him glowing recommendations for multiple reasons including college apps, other honor societies, etc. Those folks included coaches, AP teachers, places he volunteered for, etc. Those were included in his NHS application. His teachers this year were shocked he didn’t get in last year, and they even mentioned that in their recommendations for him for this year. They pointed out that he far exceeds the NHS standards and said he should be on their short list of top candidates for this year.
As Steel Curtain mentioned, NHS requirements are set locally by the school. I will say, however, that my son’s chapter requires prior service hours for admission. I don’t think that requirement is nuts at all. Galileo explained above that service is one of the four primary criteria for admission, and the one where applicants often fall short. So last year’s decision makes sense. This year seems inexplicable unless, as you suspect, they just don’t consider seniors who have been previously denied.
My son took it on Oct 16th. He said it was easy. Ha ha. I hope he did well. I am confident rocked the math portion. The reading and writing...well, I will just wait and see on that.
I was the first National Merit Scholar at my school in at least ten years. I didn't get into NHS as a junior (when I had been a PITA my sophomore year) and then didn't my senior year (when I had an exemplary junior year). My mom was on the school board and raised hell. NHS wasn't allowed in the school for the rest of her term.
fascinating! And thank you for explaining everything you found out.
Anyone that has read anything from me over the years knows I am not the scorched earth type. My wife is the one that when rubbed the wrong way wants to burn s*** to the ground. The two universes or alternate realities here is so bizarre to me. For example, today our son got picked to represent the school as part of a sports management program at another school so they drove him two hours away for a conference and they even took him out to lunch at a restaurant. His AP Calc teacher sent my wife a note saying how well he is doing this year and he has yet to get a problem wrong on any test or in class and has been instrumental in helping the other kids learn how to do the problems. He's been tutoring math and science kids for free multiple days after school, which one would think he wouldn't be doing if were such a monster.NewlyRetired said:
Do the two people who you spoke with at the school actually know your son? If not, I'd think about how to verify that there isn't some kind of mix up or mistake. We've had three or four times that my daughter got inexplicably bad test results (some in class, some on standardized tests) and were always able to determine (and prove) that it was a complete error...a page of answers didn't get added to her score, her score was swapped with another student's, etc. Seems like there's a very slight chance that something like this could be happening here.
I got more out of them than I expected, mostly because I wasn't banging the drum that they had to take my kid into NHS. I said I wanted to better understand the process and figure out some reasons why he didn't get in. They tried to give me the line that there are 4 pillars and he didn't meet them. I indicated I thought I knew about the process, went over what I knew, and then asked them to go line item to review what happened. I told them I didn't want them to disclose any anonymous or confidential information, but could they summarize what some of the feedback was.
The two people I met with never had my son in one of their classes and don't know him at all. I asked them if either one of them ever gave a 1 or a 2 on a NHS evaluation and they said no. I asked if they felt inclined to give a student a score that low, would they have contacted the parents of that student because there would have to be a pretty major issue leading to a score that low. They agreed that both of them would have contacted the parents. They also said they had rarely seen one student get MULTIPLE scores that low . . . to which I again asked then why didn't someone from the school reach out to us last year or this year when the evaluations came in. Once they figured out that I backed them into a corner, they basically said thanks for coming in but they really didn't have anything else to add.
very very very well said.
Yeah, I see it, but it's very faint. My kid just found out that he won't make varsity soccer this year, so his high school soccer career is done (seniors don't play on JV). That was a real bummer, but not a big surprise. His school is extremely competitive in soccer (and athletics generally - this is the school with the high school sprinter who broke all the HS records last year), and they recruit players from all over the city. Coach said he just missed the cut. On the applications we submitted thus far, we indicated that he was trying out for varsity, but now, we'll have no HS soccer listed for his senior year. Hopefully that won't make a huge difference. He's still playing Club, though he's been sidelined for the past 4 weeks due to injury (which may have played a role in the cut from the HS team). He seems to be handling it okay, but it's hard to tell with this kid - he shows very little emotion. He did say that he wants to play rugby. It's a no cut sport and he has some buddies on the team. Just have to convince the wife that he won't get murdered out there.
We’re in Texas, so football pretty much owns the fall. School soccer is a winter sport here. Club soccer is fall and spring.
In general, the upper tier colleges really watch the levels of courses kids take, as much as the grades themselves. Because the GPA's are through the roof across the country for high school kids, colleges are trying to find any differentiation they can.
I’m not 100% sure, as my son’s math curriculum differs slightly (advanced track at his school is Geometry/Trig - Advanced Algebra 2/Trig - Advanced Pre-Calc - AP Calculus BC) but it’s my understanding that AP Calculus AB is Calc 1, and AP Calculus BC is Calc 1 and Calc 2 combined. If that is the case for your school, then you may find this article from PrepScholarBlog informative as you and your son consider Calc 1 vs Calc 2:
