EDIT:
I hope this never happens to your kids. Beware of being penalized for trying. Is that a lesson you will teach your kids?
I'm not "bummed". Read my post with anger.
U of MN was not his first choice. It was _fallback_.
Try on some shoes.... Imagine putting 30 years of high taxes into a state as a high earner and business owner (that's me). Then imagine that your almamater doesn't accept your kid when your kid is, in fact, a lot smarter than you and has accomplished a lot more than you did by his age.
Then imagine being that kid and being taught by the State that, while you are in the top 95th (99th) percentile nationally on test scores there's just something not right about you. Is it your GPA? It can't be. You're on the A honor roll every time.
In the end you'll never know and that is fine because the school you might have attended has changed into something it was never intended to be.
Land grant university or something else? The Great Emancipator rolls in his grave.
On the plus side the U of MN gets billions of dollars in state funding and keeps the washout money too. Win-win.
Life is going to teach it one way or another, and Picard's words stand even more true as I enter my 30's as they were back when I was an angsty 14YO just trying to stay with my friends before Mom's job forces her out of state... again. Took me a while to realize I wasn't being punished for not studying enough and that this was simply a factor of life I had no control over.
Or rather in text form:
>"It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life"
But it sounds so much better coming from the captain's mouth.
Well, that's the whole point. The establishment doesn't want smart kids that will challenge their kids who got their papers and position through connections. They want someone who will be happy being rank-and-file for their entire life. Ideally, with no ambition to have a family and raise kids, so they can work for peanuts as well. This is frightening, but it seems to be the way America is headed.
That said, there are states that value small business owners more, and have policies aligning better with them. As the saying goes, you need to vote with your feet.
Similar thing happened to my kid at University of California this year where test scores are also not even considered.
Wasn't as bad - they got into a 2nd tier UC so we are at least thankful for that.
https://www.mnsaves.org/plan/details.shtml
(This is generally the case for most 529 plans.)
Try UIUC (my alma). Though I was in-state. It’s gotten more selective but a top one for CS. They admitted me into CE but it was easy to transfer after doing well in my first few CS classes.
Complete disaster for his future and really a shot to his otherwise happy and optimistic life. He's really upset as are we all.
All Ivy League schools are need blind; Most are free for those with family incomes <$100k. And my experience is that it really does open a lot of doors and make your life a little easier. I'm not saying you can't get a great education somewhere else; I'm saying money shouldn't be the main reason to not go for most people. The best buddy should at least ask for more aid due to need if they haven't already.
Anyways my point is that I think smart and capable people with hard work and persistence can end up at similar places when all is said and done even if they don’t start out at a “top” program.
Put yourself in my shoes. It's great that my kid got some college credit in high school but MN is not a great place to raise a family anymore nor is it safe or .... "Quality of life" isn't really a thing like it was.
And you see this from all sort of people here. Lots of people who grew up here are sick of it and want to leave or are in process of leaving.
For where I'm not sure.
I'm sorry but this is a bit over dramatic, no?
Your son still got into college. Just didn't get into the specific school he wanted.
I didn't get into the college I wanted either. I'm doing just fine.
Some of the best coworkers I've ever had went to a community college and transferred after a year or two.
I get it, it's okay to be bummed. But you're acting like his life is already over. Set a good example and instill the value that you can overcome barriers and failures in life, it's going to be okay.
Like others have said, he should re-apply / transfer. I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but this might actually be blessing in disguise because many kids don't get to experience setback in life until too late.
Yet, this one is something he can easily overcome because he's brilliant and has supportive family. He just got super unlucky. Just need to play the game one more time to win.
Best of luck.
THanks for your other comments though. Appreciated.
nah. if he really wants to challenge himself, he can probably get research experience pretty easily (much easier than a fancier institution) which then would set him up for a top-tier grad school or a great spot in industry. law and medicine really care about fancy brand names, but technology really only cares about accomplishment, skills, aptitude and attitude.
in my experience, most graduate TAs in STEM at fancy schools were previously superstars at state schools that didn't have crazy brand recognition.
for example: andrew grove went to the city college of new york in the 1960s, and then did a phd at uc berkeley. after that he worked in industry for a bit and then started a little company called intel.
Iowa State is quite a good school. BTW, it's the home of one of the first computers in history, the ABC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atanasoff%E2%80%93Berry_comput...) Surely he'll do well there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_old_man_lost_his_horse#Tra...
It depends. Imagine what if he got accepted only to be taught that his caring father (and the sole fact of having a father) is a "privilege" he should be ashamed of. And that his way of life should be culling his ambition and letting other less fortunate ones take his place.
All of this is a part of a bigger problem (switch from results to feelings and identities), and you cannot fix the symptoms without addressing the underlying cause.
Teach your son some business skills, maybe let him work for you for a while. He can then apply again next year being a bit more cynical about optimizing the KPIs.
Slightly less than 50k.
UMN app has no essay or anything like that. Your disbelief is your intuition which is that something here is wrong.
In the words of Principal Skinner, "It must be the children."
This is the worst. Do they do this for equity reasons or something else?
How many kids are getting a 4.0 GPA? Lots. How many valedictorians are there in a class? 1 or 50? I think 50. Maybe it's grade inflation.
So maybe if you are in a good school with lots of programs make sure you just phone it in for 4 years if you want to make sure you get in.
If you're saying I should prove that my son is on a math team and has asian friends who are going to the University of Minnesota with similar test scores and GPA? Yeah, I'll get right on that.
His sins: - a 35 ACT score (legit with no studying or ACT prep classes) - a 3.8 weighted GPA (because he took multiple AP classes and actually was in college for his junior and senior years through Minnesota's PSEO program) - leader on robotics team - lettered in 2 extra curriculars - etc etc
Why? Because U of MN doesn't consider weighted grades nor do they accept test scores anymore. So why even try hard?
The only upside is that we weren't stupid enough to put his college savings in a 529 tied to MN. We would be superscrewed if we'd done that.
35,000 applicants. 7,000 freshman admissions. My kid not even in top 1/5 of applicaents? Complete BS.
EDITs: 2021 UMN Twin Cities admission stats: https://admissions.tc.umn.edu/competitive-admission-rate (20%)
MN 529 plan 20 years ago was MN-only from what I remember. Honestly don't care.
[redacted] is "okay" school for CSci. However they have a 120MM budget and are facing 15MM shortfall for the college that hosts it. Out of state tuition for this school is 20k per year with max scholarships.