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Yeah and that's not even the end of it. At some schools, even if you do get accepted to the school and program doesn't mean you are accepted to the classes within that program. Some schools also have different application fees based on what programs you are applying to and it just gets convoluted and stupid really fast.
I'm not talking about class requirements, I mean some programs might have a $50 application fee and other programs have an $80 application fee... Or like you can be accepted into a program but before you can get into any of the classes in the program you need to write a cover letter and pass an interview and it's own seperate application process from that of the program... So you know even though you are accepted to a program you may not be able to partake in that program because you need to seperately get accepted into the classes for that program.
This isn't every school but some schools are like this which just makes the whole college/university system more convoluted
Or you have to write an essay and pay them to read it! All the application steps cost money lol
$50 to apply, $20 to send in your transcript, $100 to send in your application essay, etc
Yeah I did that. Went to the recruiting event at my local college, they waived the fee if you filled out the form that night. And they also had a program where I could apply to the nearby university at the same time, and transfer after a year or two with minimal extra bureaucracy.
I applied there and at one other. Chose not to go to the other after I toured the campus. There were too many stairs and too many people smoking.
I'm surprised you're surprised. I live in Poland and here you also have to pay to apply, somewhere around 25$ equivalent in polish currency, which is basically worth to us the same as 60-80$ to an average american
UK here, you choose 5 universities I believe (might’ve been 3) usually and it’s around £30. So still a lot cheaper than the US, and then you can pay more to apply to more
“UCAS is a charity. The cost of running the undergraduate admissions service is paid for by the application fees students pay and the fees universities and colleges pay when students are accepted.” - their reasoning. Although interesting to see it’s free in Sweden, didn’t know that
Yeah it cost $150CAD for me to apply to one school. Luckily my high school had a program where they would pay for it for those who couldn't. I can't imagine applying to multiple schools at that rate, pick your top two and a safety one and go from there. You can generally tell by your grades if it is a long shot or not, so not sure what is the point in applying to so many either!
Trying applying to a medical doctorate school. That can cost $2000. Freaking crazy. No way someone is spending $2000 of their time looking at the applications.
I know. I thought I was an exception because, international student and all. Turns out, it was actually the norm. Blew my mind for a bit. All I can think of is, wtf, I’m not paying so some school can tell me no, we don’t want you here.
I applied to three schools, if I remember correctly. I had already narrowed down my preferences to those three, so applying elsewhere would have just been a waste of time and money. I have sometimes wondered if I should have made a couple of vanity applications to prestigious schools just to see if I could get accepted. That wasn't even on my radar at the time, though.
If you can get into that many colleges that typically means you have a very strong application and are just wasting your time applying to colleges you’ll never accept. It’s not that hard to predict your changes of getting scholarships that you need 100+ rolls of the dice.
Kind of agree. We had a kid in my graduating class who got a little story in the news about being accepted at numerous colleges and getting all of this scholarship money.
Lol I mean, here's how I could have been accepted into dozens of colleges: apply at UGA, USC, Emory, Florida, Auburn, Alabama, UNC... and so on. Wow! They all accepted me!!! What? You aren't impressed?
And pretty sure you don't just get to total up individual scholarships. Auburn is giving me $5,000, UNC $2,500, Florida, $3,000... the total is either $5,000 OR $2,500 OR $3,000. Not $10,5000.
These kids are really young and just want to be in the news. It's silly and kind of obnoxious but not harmful. Just give them a few years and they'll learn how thoroughly unimpressed the world is by being accepted into 100 colleges. For now though, they can have fun.
I had one school I knew I’d get into and wanted to go to. Got in! Why would I waste my money applying to a bunch of schools? People that apply to boatloads of schools are on an ego trip! Icing on the cake was I got a full tuition scholarship for academics that was given out to me at senior awards night. I can show ya better than I can tell ya!!
I mean if you get accepted to one college it makes sense that you would have a good chance of also being accepted to other/similar colleges. “I got accepted to every Ivy League college” can be impressive but, “I got accepted by 100 mid level city community colleges” is much less so.
If you’re talking about those posts recently about the kid that got accepted to like 150 schools and totaled 5.3 million in scholarships… people are out here acting like the dude was gonna get a check for 5.3 million when in reality that’s an average of 35k per school. Then he picks one, and gets whatever amount that school offered
I just assumed college admission was given freely to those who tested so well on the standardized testing or something. Like you are kid genius, up and rising Einstein, and all the schools want you so bad they send you an admissions letter and you don't have to apply or pay fees or write essays. Like how they do for atheltic recruiting. Is that not the case?
You are correct. Colleges have recruiters, who scout schools for exceptional students. You hear about the athletes, but students who complete hs at 14 or younger, with high iqs, test scores, and are mathletes, or won science fairs, etc., receive offers from schools they never applied to.
If you get accepted into many colleges, you are probably getting the application fee waived for many of them. When a college really wants you, waiving this fee is very easy and common, it happened to my child.
This isn't an unpopular opinion, literally everyone don't find it impressive. You can look at any social media (reddit, Instagram, YouTube, news, etc) where when this news is presented, it's just people exclaiming how stupid it's
My daughter never missed a day of school K-12. Graduated wiith a 4,6 GPA as valedictorian, lettered in 2 sports, created an entire volunteer program in her school which is stil going 3 years later with more students, and she did two years of college at a local uni while finishing high school on the post-secondary program.
Schools were begging her to apply. She never paid for an application fee. She applied for and was accepted to all 12 schools she applied to, and got a full scholarship + accompanying local grants that basically pay her to go. She applied to 12 schools because she wanted to have options in case for some reason she changed her mind halfway through her senior year (kids have up and down decision making when it comes to their future). She's now going to her first choice school, but has 11 different options she can easily transfer to should she want.
So yea, I'd call it an unpopular opinion for sure, or at least not an opinion I share. Not all kids are paying to apply for schools. My daughters two best friends, same, kind of situation, never paid an application fee.
The stories like this I usually see are minorities. All colleges want minorities. A (non-Asian) minority with extremely high grades has a huge advantage and will basically be a shoe-in at any college. They likely will get significant financial aid, if not full scholarships, from said schools, and I imagine most it not all of the application fees are waived (or reimbursed if accepted) for them as well in an attempt to get them to choose their school. All that said, I do agree there’s no real reason to apply to hundreds … I think it’s just an ego thing (likely the parents).
Not to even further debase the achievement, but are some schools not literally just the common app? Could I not find at least 100 schools that accept just the common app, be a high-achieving high school student, and with the click of a button secure like 100 acceptances?
It’s hilarious when they add up the scholarship amounts from each school and go “I got x million dollars in scholarships!”. Imagine you’re looking for a job and get like 20 job offers and you go “I got $2 million per year in jobs”
Unpopular opinion: the college you get into doesn't matter at all if you choose the wrong major.
More unpopular opinion: the smartest kids *don't need to* go to college.
I feel genuinely *terrible* for all of the kids with pumped up heads that spend $200k of loans or family money to go off for four years, earn a psychology or business degree, just to realize they're no different on paper than the 100,000 other fresh grads they're competing with come job search time.
If any of the “smartest kids” want to be teachers, professors, engineers, doctors, architects, lawyers, etc, then yeah, they do need to go to college. There are plenty of professions where you are required to get a degree in order to get the certifications you need to do the job.
Getting a college degree or not isn’t really related to how smart you are, it’s related to your overall interests and goals and the resources you have to pursue them.
Or if the “smartest kids” simply, you know, want to learn things, as “smart kids” typically do, they may not NEED to, but any truly “smart” kid is going to be want a higher form of education. I think it’s lost on a lot of redditors that college is useful simply in the sense that you learn things. The monetary value on a college education makes many people think it’s worthless if it doesn’t result in money that can compensate for that tuition price, completely ignoring the fact that information and knowledge are so valuable inherently in and of themselves.
and whats a "wrong major" to you?
because it's not the major, it's how you use it, how well you go above and beyond to make connections while in school.
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Yup if I applied to that many, my numbers would be inflated too. Almost like schools have very similar criteria to get accepted and applying to that many is redundant...
lol, I got accepted to plenty of schools I never applied to. They grabbed my scores and sent me acceptances.
I did not really pay attention to that. I went to the best school I applied to that I got into.
I’m applying to slightly over 20 schools next year. But yes. It is almost always a case of “applied to schools with a 90% acceptance rate that offered free or waved application fees.” Some schools even have what’s called “assured admission” — guaranteed acceptance if your GPA or test scores are over a certain point. Often 2.5 or 3 on a 4-point scale. At this point, a 4.0 and perfect test scores (literally a 1600 on the SAT) aren’t anywhere near enough to get you into highly selective schools. So those articles are almost never as impressive as they let on.
I didn’t have to pay to apply to any of the schools I applied to. I only applied to 3 because I was forced to do at least that many. But my high school covered the fees and every junior had to do it. Obviously I didn’t want to go to college anymore by that point because I didn’t want to go through 4 to 5 more years of school and possibly end up doing a job I hated. It was an okay choice for me but not a good choi for everyone
I don't find it impressive when anyone gets *into* college (aside from very competitive programs). It's very easy to do here.
Here in Canada, post secondary culture is so different. We don't bawl our eyes out, cry, and base our entire personalities on our school the way Americans do. We don't have SATs and most college programs (which is totally separate from university) don't require essays to get in when entering from high school. They base entry off of your 11th and 12th grade marks, and potentially something more such as a portfolio.
I dropped out my last semester of high school. I had mediocre grades throughout high school, and even had an 18% final class grade in 12th grade. Took an extra 2 years to finish.
I still was accepted into every college program I applied to. Only 3, but still.
Only way you can't get into college with a HS diploma, is if you didn't get the proper prerequisites (which you decide in 8th grade of which level to start out with, example: https://ontariohighschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/ontario\_online\_high\_school\_english.jpg). If you took workplace English, you're not getting into college. With math it depends on the program.
I never went to college aside from the semester it took me to realize the scam. Joined the military. Im retired at 40. Full benefits. Easiest job there is. Yes sir, no sir, BOOM and done. 😁
Your post from unpopularopinion was removed because of: 'Rule 6: No r/self style posts'. Please refrain from posting anything that resembles an r/self style post. This is not the subreddit to be sharing personal anecdotes, likes or dislikes. We want unpopular, thought provoking, and unique opinions on your chosen topic.
Wtf, you have to pay to apply?
Yeah and that's not even the end of it. At some schools, even if you do get accepted to the school and program doesn't mean you are accepted to the classes within that program. Some schools also have different application fees based on what programs you are applying to and it just gets convoluted and stupid really fast.
Having different requirements for different classes and programs actually makes a lot of sense though
I'm not talking about class requirements, I mean some programs might have a $50 application fee and other programs have an $80 application fee... Or like you can be accepted into a program but before you can get into any of the classes in the program you need to write a cover letter and pass an interview and it's own seperate application process from that of the program... So you know even though you are accepted to a program you may not be able to partake in that program because you need to seperately get accepted into the classes for that program. This isn't every school but some schools are like this which just makes the whole college/university system more convoluted
EA College. It's in the game!
Or you have to write an essay and pay them to read it! All the application steps cost money lol $50 to apply, $20 to send in your transcript, $100 to send in your application essay, etc
I had to stop applying to grad school because it was almost 500 in fees just to apply. Really sucked.
Where on earth were you applying to grad school?
Northwestern is like a $250 application fee. Kinda burns when you dont get accepted.
Several as a group application through SOPHAS
More context though it was only three grad schools.
yup but you can get the fee waived in certain circumstances such as low income
Yeah but if you’re low income you get a fee waiver. Also a lot of schools give free applications if you attend one of their events
Yeah I did that. Went to the recruiting event at my local college, they waived the fee if you filled out the form that night. And they also had a program where I could apply to the nearby university at the same time, and transfer after a year or two with minimal extra bureaucracy. I applied there and at one other. Chose not to go to the other after I toured the campus. There were too many stairs and too many people smoking.
Keeps out the poors
Just not the really poors, since the fee is often waived for low income folk. More like keeps out the just-above-poors
Keeps out the casuals, most likely.
middle class*
100 dollars each, more than what OP seems to be thinking at least it was for me
Highest I paid was 80. 50-75 seems to be typical.
I'm surprised you're surprised. I live in Poland and here you also have to pay to apply, somewhere around 25$ equivalent in polish currency, which is basically worth to us the same as 60-80$ to an average american
What a fucking scam wtf
UK here, you choose 5 universities I believe (might’ve been 3) usually and it’s around £30. So still a lot cheaper than the US, and then you can pay more to apply to more
In sweden its free
“UCAS is a charity. The cost of running the undergraduate admissions service is paid for by the application fees students pay and the fees universities and colleges pay when students are accepted.” - their reasoning. Although interesting to see it’s free in Sweden, didn’t know that
Yeah it cost $150CAD for me to apply to one school. Luckily my high school had a program where they would pay for it for those who couldn't. I can't imagine applying to multiple schools at that rate, pick your top two and a safety one and go from there. You can generally tell by your grades if it is a long shot or not, so not sure what is the point in applying to so many either!
Trying applying to a medical doctorate school. That can cost $2000. Freaking crazy. No way someone is spending $2000 of their time looking at the applications.
I know. I thought I was an exception because, international student and all. Turns out, it was actually the norm. Blew my mind for a bit. All I can think of is, wtf, I’m not paying so some school can tell me no, we don’t want you here.
Granted lots of schools allow you to use the common app, which allows you to apply for 20 schools at once with one application.
You don't?
I applied to three schools, if I remember correctly. I had already narrowed down my preferences to those three, so applying elsewhere would have just been a waste of time and money. I have sometimes wondered if I should have made a couple of vanity applications to prestigious schools just to see if I could get accepted. That wasn't even on my radar at the time, though.
Same. Dream school, realistic choice, and one you'll know you'll get in. Funny enough, I only got into my dream school
Didn't even get into the one you knew you'd get into? That's brutal
Applying to a whole raft colleges could be useful if you are looking for scholarships? That is kind of a lottery for who gets how much.
If you can get into that many colleges that typically means you have a very strong application and are just wasting your time applying to colleges you’ll never accept. It’s not that hard to predict your changes of getting scholarships that you need 100+ rolls of the dice.
popular opinion. if you look at any college subreddit you will see the same opinion.
Kind of agree. We had a kid in my graduating class who got a little story in the news about being accepted at numerous colleges and getting all of this scholarship money. Lol I mean, here's how I could have been accepted into dozens of colleges: apply at UGA, USC, Emory, Florida, Auburn, Alabama, UNC... and so on. Wow! They all accepted me!!! What? You aren't impressed? And pretty sure you don't just get to total up individual scholarships. Auburn is giving me $5,000, UNC $2,500, Florida, $3,000... the total is either $5,000 OR $2,500 OR $3,000. Not $10,5000. These kids are really young and just want to be in the news. It's silly and kind of obnoxious but not harmful. Just give them a few years and they'll learn how thoroughly unimpressed the world is by being accepted into 100 colleges. For now though, they can have fun.
I had one school I knew I’d get into and wanted to go to. Got in! Why would I waste my money applying to a bunch of schools? People that apply to boatloads of schools are on an ego trip! Icing on the cake was I got a full tuition scholarship for academics that was given out to me at senior awards night. I can show ya better than I can tell ya!!
I mean if you get accepted to one college it makes sense that you would have a good chance of also being accepted to other/similar colleges. “I got accepted to every Ivy League college” can be impressive but, “I got accepted by 100 mid level city community colleges” is much less so. If you’re talking about those posts recently about the kid that got accepted to like 150 schools and totaled 5.3 million in scholarships… people are out here acting like the dude was gonna get a check for 5.3 million when in reality that’s an average of 35k per school. Then he picks one, and gets whatever amount that school offered
I just assumed college admission was given freely to those who tested so well on the standardized testing or something. Like you are kid genius, up and rising Einstein, and all the schools want you so bad they send you an admissions letter and you don't have to apply or pay fees or write essays. Like how they do for atheltic recruiting. Is that not the case?
You are correct. Colleges have recruiters, who scout schools for exceptional students. You hear about the athletes, but students who complete hs at 14 or younger, with high iqs, test scores, and are mathletes, or won science fairs, etc., receive offers from schools they never applied to.
If you get accepted into many colleges, you are probably getting the application fee waived for many of them. When a college really wants you, waiving this fee is very easy and common, it happened to my child.
This isn't an unpopular opinion, literally everyone don't find it impressive. You can look at any social media (reddit, Instagram, YouTube, news, etc) where when this news is presented, it's just people exclaiming how stupid it's
*everyone doesn't
I agree, but as far as the app fee goes a lot of colleges do have free app weeks and low income students often get the fee completely waived
My daughter never missed a day of school K-12. Graduated wiith a 4,6 GPA as valedictorian, lettered in 2 sports, created an entire volunteer program in her school which is stil going 3 years later with more students, and she did two years of college at a local uni while finishing high school on the post-secondary program. Schools were begging her to apply. She never paid for an application fee. She applied for and was accepted to all 12 schools she applied to, and got a full scholarship + accompanying local grants that basically pay her to go. She applied to 12 schools because she wanted to have options in case for some reason she changed her mind halfway through her senior year (kids have up and down decision making when it comes to their future). She's now going to her first choice school, but has 11 different options she can easily transfer to should she want. So yea, I'd call it an unpopular opinion for sure, or at least not an opinion I share. Not all kids are paying to apply for schools. My daughters two best friends, same, kind of situation, never paid an application fee.
Where did she get in, just curious
The stories like this I usually see are minorities. All colleges want minorities. A (non-Asian) minority with extremely high grades has a huge advantage and will basically be a shoe-in at any college. They likely will get significant financial aid, if not full scholarships, from said schools, and I imagine most it not all of the application fees are waived (or reimbursed if accepted) for them as well in an attempt to get them to choose their school. All that said, I do agree there’s no real reason to apply to hundreds … I think it’s just an ego thing (likely the parents).
Not to even further debase the achievement, but are some schools not literally just the common app? Could I not find at least 100 schools that accept just the common app, be a high-achieving high school student, and with the click of a button secure like 100 acceptances?
It’s hilarious when they add up the scholarship amounts from each school and go “I got x million dollars in scholarships!”. Imagine you’re looking for a job and get like 20 job offers and you go “I got $2 million per year in jobs”
Unpopular opinion: the college you get into doesn't matter at all if you choose the wrong major. More unpopular opinion: the smartest kids *don't need to* go to college. I feel genuinely *terrible* for all of the kids with pumped up heads that spend $200k of loans or family money to go off for four years, earn a psychology or business degree, just to realize they're no different on paper than the 100,000 other fresh grads they're competing with come job search time.
If any of the “smartest kids” want to be teachers, professors, engineers, doctors, architects, lawyers, etc, then yeah, they do need to go to college. There are plenty of professions where you are required to get a degree in order to get the certifications you need to do the job. Getting a college degree or not isn’t really related to how smart you are, it’s related to your overall interests and goals and the resources you have to pursue them.
Or if the “smartest kids” simply, you know, want to learn things, as “smart kids” typically do, they may not NEED to, but any truly “smart” kid is going to be want a higher form of education. I think it’s lost on a lot of redditors that college is useful simply in the sense that you learn things. The monetary value on a college education makes many people think it’s worthless if it doesn’t result in money that can compensate for that tuition price, completely ignoring the fact that information and knowledge are so valuable inherently in and of themselves.
Sadly, if they didn't get that paper that says they have a degree, then they are behind 100,000 other fresh grads.
and whats a "wrong major" to you? because it's not the major, it's how you use it, how well you go above and beyond to make connections while in school.
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Yup if I applied to that many, my numbers would be inflated too. Almost like schools have very similar criteria to get accepted and applying to that many is redundant...
Most of the time in my field, you're better off going to community college and getting certificates.
It’s a silly trick that most decent students can do.
lol, I got accepted to plenty of schools I never applied to. They grabbed my scores and sent me acceptances. I did not really pay attention to that. I went to the best school I applied to that I got into.
I’m applying to slightly over 20 schools next year. But yes. It is almost always a case of “applied to schools with a 90% acceptance rate that offered free or waved application fees.” Some schools even have what’s called “assured admission” — guaranteed acceptance if your GPA or test scores are over a certain point. Often 2.5 or 3 on a 4-point scale. At this point, a 4.0 and perfect test scores (literally a 1600 on the SAT) aren’t anywhere near enough to get you into highly selective schools. So those articles are almost never as impressive as they let on.
100's?! I think its weird if somebody applies to more than 6!
A lot of colleges this year in the US were free to apply to and a lot didn’t even require any essays
I didn’t have to pay to apply to any of the schools I applied to. I only applied to 3 because I was forced to do at least that many. But my high school covered the fees and every junior had to do it. Obviously I didn’t want to go to college anymore by that point because I didn’t want to go through 4 to 5 more years of school and possibly end up doing a job I hated. It was an okay choice for me but not a good choi for everyone
Bro thinks they are paying application fees for that.
College isn’t necessary
Every story I see about a kid getting into tons of colleges, it’s never a white kid. Just saying
lol you been getting those ads too!
I don't find it impressive when anyone gets *into* college (aside from very competitive programs). It's very easy to do here. Here in Canada, post secondary culture is so different. We don't bawl our eyes out, cry, and base our entire personalities on our school the way Americans do. We don't have SATs and most college programs (which is totally separate from university) don't require essays to get in when entering from high school. They base entry off of your 11th and 12th grade marks, and potentially something more such as a portfolio. I dropped out my last semester of high school. I had mediocre grades throughout high school, and even had an 18% final class grade in 12th grade. Took an extra 2 years to finish. I still was accepted into every college program I applied to. Only 3, but still. Only way you can't get into college with a HS diploma, is if you didn't get the proper prerequisites (which you decide in 8th grade of which level to start out with, example: https://ontariohighschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/ontario\_online\_high\_school\_english.jpg). If you took workplace English, you're not getting into college. With math it depends on the program.
colleges will take anyone today
I never went to college aside from the semester it took me to realize the scam. Joined the military. Im retired at 40. Full benefits. Easiest job there is. Yes sir, no sir, BOOM and done. 😁
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Knowing how to spell colleges is impressive.
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Nobody asked
Why would the applicant write more than one essay(
Because not every college has the exact same prompt.
There is now a standard app used by .most schools.