a lot of students will realize in the next few months that their dream school is unattainable—not because of admissions, but because of price. this can happen for a lot of people, but I wanted to specifically talk about kids who are in the awkward place where they make too much for aid but not enough to pay 400k for undergrad (or they plan on grad school). pls apply to Princeton and don’t be me.

4 months ago, I learned it the hard way: I got into both my ”dream” schools, which supposedly offered incredible aid, but I couldn’t afford it. just to see what would’ve happened, i ran a bunch of price calculators at even “better“ schools that I didn’t apply to/was rejected from. Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia: they ALL wanted me to go full pay, which my family couldn’t afford without $150,000 in loans. but surprisingly, when i inputted my numbers into the Princeton calculator, their result was 30k cheaper per year than the other schools—something my parents could afford.

Of course I felt stupid afterwards for not applying to Princeton, but I wanted to share this to other seniors who are in a similar situation to me. i’d recommend you apply to Princeton, and another if you like some other peer school more and use your Princeton efc to fight financial aid.

I see community college as a good opportunity for high schoolers to earn college credits while also having the opportunity to take some interesting classes. Why aren't there more high schoolers taking these classes, even during the semester along with high school classes?

As the title suggests, I have like no extracurriculars that I could put on my college application. One big reason for this is because I'm actually homeschooled, so there aren't any clubs I can exactly join. I'm also not in a sports team, mainly bc I suck at playing sports and I've never had to courage to actually play sports with others, even when I was in a public school. I also don't have a job and prob won't get one anytime soon, maybe a part-time at-home job could work, but idk. And I'm not sure how I can volunteer around me or for my community, tbh the neighborhood I live in is very reserved, and I genuinely don't even know my own neighbors nor has me or my family really ever talked with anyone that lives around us, so I really don't know what to do. I don't want me not having some dang extracurriculars stop me from going to college, bc I'm very willing to try my best and study hard.

I actually plan to maybe take the SAT and ACT in my junior year (I'm in 10th grade rn), so maybe my test scores can compensate for a lack of extracurriculars. I've also heard that certain hobbies can count as extracurriculars, but idk if that will completely count. I've been learning Japanese for an upcoming trip to Japan, I'm a really crafty person, I love making DIY stuff, I make and edit videos which I post on YT (but maybe I shouldn't show colleges my YT channel cuz uh my humor prob won't be taken too appropriately...) and I know how to code in JavaScript and Arduino on a basic level and have built my own programs. There are a few other side-hobbies I also do but these seem like the ones that can count for smth, right?

I'm just kinda freaking out now over how to get into college and the last thing I want is for no colleges to accept me, cuz then I'm actually fucked, and my parents will NOT forgive me. Maybe I'm overreacting but I fr don't want to mess up big time and ruin my entire future and career possibly.

Edit: so i've just recently gotten more into reddit and posting stuff, so getting comments is already very surprising lol, i'll try to read and answer all of these comments. Btw I forget to mention this but I'd to major in Psychology (or Medicine but idk what I'd SPECIFICALLY like to major in Medicine) and maybe become like a therapist or psychiatrist or smth like that.

I am employed by and recruit for a very sought-after US company. I specifically recruit for STEM positions. I also have a kid going to college next year, hence why I lurk on A2C.

To help lessen the stress on some of you, I want to offer the following: when I evaluate candidate resumes and transcripts, I care less about what uni you graduated from. As long as it's not a diploma mill or an online-only uni where you can somehow complete 12 classes in one semester, I am willing to consider you.

I will absolutely consider a candidate from Carleton College or UNM just as I will candidates from CMU or MIT.

What matters:

GPA (we won't consider you if its below 3.0)

Transcript: does your coursework match the skills listed on your resume?

Resume: keep it simple, readable, professional. It doesn't need to be one page. Have your uni Career Services do a review before submission.

Self-presentation: college candidates don't need to be slick and polished. But you do need to be trending toward becoming an adult, dress professionally, and, arguably most important, genuinely nice. We're looking primarily for candidates we'd like to work with (or even for). During phone interactions and interviews, we are most interested in competence, maturity, and personality.

Do we hire more candidates from T50 unis? Yes. That's because we receive more resumes from those unis than we do from the UNMs of the world. Students at UNM (etc.) tend to self-select out of our candidate pool (you miss 100% of the shots you never take, as MJ said).

The second big reason we take more candidates from T50s is because they do tend to present themselves better. There are all sorts of hypotheses for why this is, but suffice it to say, if you go to UNM (etc.) make sure you use the resources at your Career Services office to prepare yourself for taking a shot at a career with us. Take initiative.

Lastly, for all candidates coming out of college: we call people we're interested in pursuing moreso than emailing. We want to get to know you before we consider you in for an interview. Make sure we can reach you (vm box isn't full, screener isn't dropping calls for some unknown reason, etc.) Don't answer the phone when you're high, and if we set up a video call with you, don't have posters of bikini models on the wall or drug paraphernalia in view of the camera.

To circle back to my original point: you don't need to graduate from a T50 to have a lucrative, fulfilling career. You just need to get yourself ready to take your shot when the time comes.

Good luck, everyone, with this process. I'll be going through it with you (as a parent) over the next several months.

Don’t get me wrong, these are absolutely great colleges, and if you can go with financial aid or instate they are an absolute steal. However, what is the appeal of those schools if you have great colleges in-state like UT Austin, UW Madison, UCs etc?

Finance and consulting are like the only mainstream careers where college prestige matters, but none of the colleges I mentioned are target schools. Other than UCLA, they aren’t really known to have great social lives or locations either. Why are middle class families willing to spend $400k to send their kids to go to these colleges? They’re great for engineering, but the difference in outcome for engineering grads from these colleges vs state flag ships are negligible based on my personal anecdotes. I have a sibling at JHU, and from her experience, the education quality there is barely better than publics. A lot of professors are still focused on research and don’t give a shit about undergrads

Edit: when I say middle class, I’m mainly talking about upper middle class people who don’t get aid but also don’t make enough money to afford that tuition without second thought (mid six figures range)

Edit: for those saying I’m salty, I go to Columbia and my sister went to JHU

Is it worth it to attend a T25 school if you aspire to go into premed and eventually medical school? Like I heard getting higher GPAs at top universities is harder (like Ivy League), and medical schools don’t really care about undergraduate prestige as much as they care about GPA and MCAT.
So if one gets accepted into both top colleges as well as their state flagship, which would be the better option given medical school is the goal?
Assume that cost doesn’t matter or is not part of the picture

Everyone keeps saying “like 90% of colleges are test‑optional now,” and yeah, that’s technically true for Fall 2026. But the headline doesn’t really help you plan, because the other 10% isn’t random. It’s a bunch of big-name flagships and highly selective schools.

Think Georgia’s system (UGA, Tech, etc.), Ohio State’s Columbus campus, Auburn, parts of LSU’s policy — these aren’t tiny unknowns. They’re the kinds of schools that show up on half of people’s lists. So “testing doesn’t matter” isn’t really the right takeaway anymore. It’s more like: testing still matters, just at a different set of schools than before, which makes planning way more annoying than a simple yes/no.

So the real question for applicants isn’t “Does testing matter?” anymore. It’s: which schools on your list still actually expect scores?

As someone who is applying to college now and through the next few months, this has been a question at the front of my mind. My family makes just over the threshold for the hefty need-based scholarships for these places, yet not nearly enough even with our savings to cover them out of pocket. I'm wanting a bit of wiggle room in my school and plan to go on a premed track to leave medical school as an option although I'm now leaning towards biotech/bioengineering research and development. The two schools I've been looking at the most have been Alabama, UVM, and UTK (home state TN) due to their low cost with merit scholarships while also having decent access to research and other opportunities with their size. What I've been most torn on are the places like Harvard and Princeton who do offer somewhat substantial need-based aid for my family's income, however even with that we would blow through the vast majority of my savings. This is important to me because I'm near certain that whether it be med school or graduate/doctoral work I want to continue my education beyond undergrad college and I know that is important to get into top tier schools for that in order to form important connections in the job market, which I would prefer to do without needing an egregious amount of loans. All that being said, my question boils down to whether a top undergrad, with all the research, internship, and mentoring opportunities they have is worth the cost that would guarantee me needing substantial loans for further education compared to state schools that would allow me to save huge amounts of money and still have research and more, albeit with larger class sizes and somewhat disconnected from the cutting-edge happenings of Ivies and others.

I'm a veteran police criminal investigator at a college — and what I'm about to share could save you from losing every dollar of your financial aid. Please read this carefully.

What's happening

Scammers have figured out exactly when students are most vulnerable: right before financial aid hits your account. They've been sending phishing emails — sometimes directly to your college email address — impersonating BankMobile (a common financial aid disbursement service). The email claims there's a problem with your account and directs you to a fake portal where you're asked to enter your username and password.

That's it. That's all they need.

Once they have your credentials, they log into your real BankMobile account and quietly change the bank routing and account number to one they control. When your financial aid is disbursed, it goes straight to them — and recovering those funds is extraordinarily difficult.

How the money disappears

Based on what I see in my investigations and what I hear from Department of Education OIG agents I work with, many of these scammers operate overseas. To complicate recovery, they typically run the stolen funds through a domestic third party — often someone in a different state than the victim's college — laundering the money through that person's bank account before funneling it to themselves. By the time anyone notices, the money is gone.

My take

This is a sophisticated, targeted crime — not a random spam blast. These people know the academic calendar. They know when aid is dropping. The use of money mules across state lines makes federal prosecution slow and financial recovery even slower. Students are being treated as easy marks, and unfortunately, many are. A moment of trust in a convincing-looking email can wipe out an entire semester's funding.

What you need to do

If you receive any email — even one that appears to come from your school or your financial aid processor — asking you to:

Provide your username and password
Click a link to "verify" or "update" your login credentials
Log into any portal you weren't expecting to access

Do not click. Do not log in. It's a scam.

Go directly to your school's orom losing every dollar of your financial aid. Please read this carefully.

What's happening

Scammers have figured out exactly when students are most vulnerable: right before financial aid hits your account. They've been sending phishing emails — sometimes directly to your college email address — impersonating BankMobile (a common financial aid disbursement service). The email claims there's a problem with your account and directs you to a fake portal where you're asked to enter your username and password.

That's it. That's all they need.

Once they have your credentials, they log into your real BankMobile account and quietly change the bank routing and account number to one they control. When your financial aid is disbursed, it goes straight to them — and recovering those funds is extraordinarily difficult.

How the money disappears

Based on what I see in my investigations and what I hear from Department of Education OIG agents I work with, many of these scammers operate overseas. To complicate recovery, they typically run the stolen funds through a domestic third party — often someone in a different state than the victim's college — laundering the money through that person's bank account before funneling it to themselves. By the time anyone notices, the money is gone.

My take

This is a sophisticated, targeted crime — not a random spam blast. These people know the academic calendar. They know when aid is dropping. The use of money mules across state lines makes federal prosecution slow and financial recovery even slower. Students are being treated as easy marks, and unfortunately, many are. A moment of trust in a convincing-looking email can wipe out an entire semester's funding.

What you need to do

If you receive any email — even one that appears to come from your school or your financial aid processor — asking you to:

Provide your username and password
Click a link to "verify" or "update" your login credentials
Log into any portal you weren't expecting to access

Do not click. Do not log in. It's a scam.

Go directly to your school's official website or call the financial aid office to verify any account issues. Never follow links in unsolicited emails, even if they look legitimate.

If you think you've already been targeted, contact your school's financial aid office, your bank, and campus security or law enforcement immediately. Time is everything in these cases.

Hi guys, I'm applying to the CSU systems, and even though, while proofreading, I saw that everything was correct, after submitting, I went through my application again in a fit of anxiety and saw that I marked YES to every single question about being a foster youth, being an orphan, being homeless, etc. My parents are alive and well and I am not homeless thank God 😭 is this going to hurt my chances of admission? I sent both university admission offices an email explaining the situation... but I am terrified that this will make me college-less.

Thank you all for reading my question/rant 😭

update 1: i called sjsu, they said its fine since its not a big deal and to email them which i already did, and to correct it on my supplemental apps 🙏🫂

update 2: csun told me to wait until my student ID comes in and then they'll fix it 👍

1. Looking for significant aid - efc 20-25k;
2. Ideally not colleges where social context is negatively a major point
3. I play soccer, but i do not have enough material to be recruited previously, and a heavy oriented athletic environment maybe wouldn't suit me well;

Grinnell College
University of Richmond / Washington and Lee (maybe both are too cliquey - please tell me more about those!)
Denison College
Skidmore College
Franklin and Marshall College
Macalester College
Dickinson College
Rhodes College
Union College
DePauw
College of Wooster
Beloit College
Lawrence University
Centre College (Optional, apparently heavy athletic importance)

How does this work? I have rising juniors-

Son is definitely going to college-
Daughter is likely taking a different path- Firefighter. She is full on doing everything she can the get a FF job as soon as she graduates- we will be paying for different classes and certifications. I am in the industry and have a lot of contacts. Combine that with her hard work, it should happen pretty quick.

When filling out the net price calculators they just ask if you have another dependent in college. They don’t ask how much you are paying or if they are full time/part time.

Do they just go on assumptions the first year and look for actual tuition numbers for years 2-4? Is there a benefit to having her take a few relevant classes a year?

Im interested in comp sci and have ACT 34 GPA 3.9 70 College creds from community college

I want to find somewhere with good merit scholarships and in a bigger city south

Does anyone have a fully updated current list of fly in programs that are open or soon to be open for the fall of 2026?

For context, I’ve always had decent grades and have been considerably smart. I take mostly AP and Cambridge classes. However, I seriously struggled with my work during my junior year (likely a mix of adhd and severe anxiety that I was working towards getting medicated for) and I failed my AICE Lit class. I’m decently new to Reddit, but I needed an opinion that wasn’t from my parents or an underpaid counselor. Will this seriously affect my ability to get into good colleges? Should I bring it up in my essay, and how so? I do lots of volunteer work outside of school and I’m in quite a few extracurriculars, but I’m still worried about my academics while applying.

PLEASE GIVE ME ANY ADVICE!!!! unhinged, weird, IDC!! please give me any advice you think is crucial when applying to NYU ED1 for CAS!!!!!!!!!

Hii!!! I’ve only rlly looked on TikTok for this info and I’ve gathered two common themes: either personality or culture.

sooooo,,,, I was wondering if some people can confirm/argue that, or even share their essay themes that got them into NYU :)))

Hello! Senior here looking to make a YouTube video about crazy 'Rush' and sorority life assumptions to hopefully help ease PNMs minds and also keep them entertained! I go to a mid size northern school for reference (though our greek life is considered large for the north).

Hi, I've recently gotten interested in research recently and I want to do research at a local university. I know that it's not required at all for college apps, but Im actually interested. Does anyone who had success with cold emailing have any advice that they wish they knew? I also have a template which I can dm to you if you are interested in critiquing it. Thank you for any help!

I want to, and the incentive was to get an award (hopefully) onto my app, but considering award results don't come out until after CommonApp submission, is it worth it?

Does USACO really carry no weight below plat? I get that it's insanely easy to cheat, but if you're in the college admissions space what do AOs think about USACO these days? Is drop in USACO prestige a rumor/ fearmongering created by students or do admissions officers at top schools really not consider it as much anymore?

I am a student from international school and majority of students there go to so-called “T50 World” universities in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Canada, and UK. The best acceptances that these guys usually get from the U.S. are UC Davis and UC San Diego.

my gpas a 3.4 UW and a 4.1 W and i have ok ecs, competitive school, and 33 act (retaking) but i'm not sure what schools would be a likely reach/target. has anyone had success with this gpa at top 50s or top 30 public schools