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30 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

You know, the process has made me realize what a cool juncture of life this is. She’s 18. She’s pure potential and promise. A world of options and opportunities - many of which she can’t even imagine right now - is in front of her. I’d forgotten being in that place in life. Of course, I was pretty focused on beer and ass at that stage, so my vision was different.

It's an incredible ride at that time...watching your child take the wheel in their life and trying to find that balance between being supportive and wanting to prevent missteps.

So many great things await them, and all of their hard work is going to pay off.   Hopefully...LOL.  "is my kid that good" ran through my head 5 or 10 thousand times at least on both of them.

Yes.  Yes they are.  Well done, sir!

Best of luck to her...  

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It's an incredible ride at that time...watching your child take the wheel in their life and trying to find that balance between being supportive and wanting to prevent missteps.
So many great things await them, and all of their hard work is going to pay off.   Hopefully...LOL.  "is my kid that good" ran through my head 5 or 10 thousand times at least on both of them.
Yes.  Yes they are.  Well done, sir!
Best of luck to her...  

We’ve already had the laughing conversation about how she’s going to fuck up....epically....numerous times. And she’ll have to work her way out of the jam by herself/with her friends and resources. And how awesome that will feel, and what great stories those moments will make later in life. I shared a few of my (milder) screwups back in the day, had her cracking up.
She’s such a great kid. And I’m surprised by how excited I am to watch her become...who she’s going to be. It’s like the anticipation waiting for next football season, or the next season of that epic show you love. What’s going to happen next?
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On 2/16/2019 at 4:20 PM, Brisketexan said:


You know, the process has made me realize what a cool juncture of life this is. She’s 18. She’s pure potential and promise. A world of options and opportunities - many of which she can’t even imagine right now - is in front of her. I’d forgotten being in that place in life. Of course, I was pretty focused on beer and ass at that stage, so my vision was different.

No worries - so are all her new school mates.

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  • 1 month later...

So, maybe a final update on this phase -- and really, it's just info for those of you in this process or facing it soon.

She got into what really were her top two choices -- McGill and Edinburgh.  She also was accepted at UMass, and they tossed some money at her.  Today, she heard from the other two places she applied -- Michigan and Georgetown.  They both said "so....thanks but no thanks."  Of course, by this point, it didn't upset her at all -- in fact, she chuckled and said to me "well, now we've BOTH been rejected by Georgetown" (they invited me to pursue my interests elsewhere back in the day -- fortunately, UT said come on in, and here's some cash).  So, as expected, Michigan and Georgetown were selective as shit, and she didn't make the cut.

Man, it's a bitch out there.  She's not valedictorian, but she's a strong-ass candidate.  Schools that have a rep for being hard to get into -- yeah, that's a deserved rep.

No skin off anyone's nose, she's thrilled with where she's going.  But thought it might be some interesting anecdotal info for folks to have.

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  • 1 month later...

Bumping for slightly related question:

Can any AISD (Austin) parents provide feedback on the calculation of grade point average and class rank for seniors to be?  I've tried hitting the website as well as calling the registrar and a half dozen minions -- crickets.  My daughter was told, "allegedly" by a counselor (via another student) that 1st semester junior year is the final calculation for reporting to colleges, which just seems incredibly unlikely, not to mention asinine.  My daughter is freaked out because she had a couple of pre-AP courses in middle school where she didn't score as high as what she's doing now (which is pretty much acing everything, including every AP course she can find).  She'll probably be on the hairy edge of auto-admit at UT but doesn't want to rely on it. 

Any knowledge out there, specifically about these claims that basically her GPA is now set in stone?

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On 3/30/2019 at 8:25 PM, Brisketexan said:

So, maybe a final update on this phase -- and really, it's just info for those of you in this process or facing it soon.

She got into what really were her top two choices -- McGill and Edinburgh.  She also was accepted at UMass, and they tossed some money at her.  Today, she heard from the other two places she applied -- Michigan and Georgetown.  They both said "so....thanks but no thanks."  Of course, by this point, it didn't upset her at all -- in fact, she chuckled and said to me "well, now we've BOTH been rejected by Georgetown" (they invited me to pursue my interests elsewhere back in the day -- fortunately, UT said come on in, and here's some cash).  So, as expected, Michigan and Georgetown were selective as shit, and she didn't make the cut.

Man, it's a bitch out there.  She's not valedictorian, but she's a strong-ass candidate.  Schools that have a rep for being hard to get into -- yeah, that's a deserved rep.

No skin off anyone's nose, she's thrilled with where she's going.  But thought it might be some interesting anecdotal info for folks to have.

Following up on this, she had over a 3.9, and a strong ACT (put her in the 96th percentile or so).  The competitive schools really are selective as hell, if you were wondering.

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Good luck to all those who are waiting to get into their dream school.

Just a few thoughts: community college is ok, a lot of the cool kids are doing it now. Don't go into $100's of thousands in debt for an undergraduate education. Especially if it's an RTF major. Just don't be stupid. Enjoy your college experience. You don't have to get into Harvard.

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5 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Following up on this, she had over a 3.9, and a strong ACT (put her in the 96th percentile or so).  The competitive schools really are selective as hell, if you were wondering.

Was she in the IB program?  Was that her weighted GPA?

To put a bow on my post a day ago -- I finally got a call back from one of the AISD registrars.  No, they don't stop calculating GPA and rank after semester 5.  In fact, they continue to update throughout senior year and will send out a final transcript automatically to the school you say you're attending, along with any others you care to have them send it to.  Also, final rank isn't determined until the end of June, and THEN they start working on current rank for those entering their senior, junior and sophomore years, in that order.

Basically, it was a stupid rumor, as I suspected.  I hate kids.

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32 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Was she in the IB program?  Was that her weighted GPA?

To put a bow on my post a day ago -- I finally got a call back from one of the AISD registrars.  No, they don't stop calculating GPA and rank after semester 5.  In fact, they continue to update throughout senior year and will send out a final transcript automatically to the school you say you're attending, along with any others you care to have them send it to.  Also, final rank isn't determined until the end of June, and THEN they start working on current rank for those entering their senior, junior and sophomore years, in that order.

Basically, it was a stupid rumor, as I suspected.  I hate kids.

She wasn't IB, she was LASA.  And that was her weighted GPA, but that's also what her college (McGill) was interested in.  LASA had 4 kids apply to McGill, 2 accepted (I don't know the grades/scores of those who didn't get in, of course).  But yeah, she just got her final GPA, and I presume they'd be calculating rank until the end.  She had to send her final transcript in to college -- you know, they want to make sure you didn't take the spring semester off, that sort of thing.

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On 3/30/2019 at 8:25 PM, Brisketexan said:

So, maybe a final update on this phase -- and really, it's just info for those of you in this process or facing it soon.

She got into what really were her top two choices -- McGill and Edinburgh.  She also was accepted at UMass, and they tossed some money at her.  Today, she heard from the other two places she applied -- Michigan and Georgetown.  They both said "so....thanks but no thanks."  Of course, by this point, it didn't upset her at all -- in fact, she chuckled and said to me "well, now we've BOTH been rejected by Georgetown" (they invited me to pursue my interests elsewhere back in the day -- fortunately, UT said come on in, and here's some cash).  So, as expected, Michigan and Georgetown were selective as shit, and she didn't make the cut.

Man, it's a bitch out there.  She's not valedictorian, but she's a strong-ass candidate.  Schools that have a rep for being hard to get into -- yeah, that's a deserved rep.

No skin off anyone's nose, she's thrilled with where she's going.  But thought it might be some interesting anecdotal info for folks to have.

The one piece of advice I'd give parents to keep from wasting time/money is those really selective schools aren't just selective -- they want to KNOW that if they admit you, you're going to enroll.  The aggregate measure of that (enrolled/admitted) is called "yield" and it's one of the top components of the USN&WR rankings.  So if you want to get into Johns Hopkins or Stanford or Georgetown or WashU, you not only need a 1500 SAT, but you should also do a campus visit and an interview with an admissions officer.  

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On 5/31/2019 at 9:50 AM, Asithappens said:

Good luck to all those who are waiting to get into their dream school.

Just a few thoughts: community college is ok, a lot of the cool kids are doing it now. Don't go into $100's of thousands in debt for an undergraduate education. Especially if it's an RTF major. Just don't be stupid. Enjoy your college experience. You don't have to get into Harvard.

 

Qué?

Edited by SimonBolivar
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21 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

The one piece of advice I'd give parents to keep from wasting time/money is those really selective schools aren't just selective -- they want to KNOW that if they admit you, you're going to enroll.  The aggregate measure of that (enrolled/admitted) is called "yield" and it's one of the top components of the USN&WR rankings.  So if you want to get into Johns Hopkins or Stanford or Georgetown or WashU, you not only need a 1500 SAT, but you should also do a campus visit and an interview with an admissions officer.  

I've heard anecdotes that schools will sometimes turn down qualified kids who might not consider such a school option #1, which could be a different way of saying the same thing.  I'm not exactly sure how this would be determined, other than a lack of an interview, etc. but I've had more than one Austin parent tell me that UT passed on their kid who was accepted into several top schools (including Stanford, GaTech, and Michigan).  Their theory is that some years an application can be TOO good for UT to be their favorite.  Ordinarily I'd scoff but I know for a fact that two such kids accepted their offers at Stanford and GaTech, so . . . hmmm.  I didn't ask if they interviewed, though.

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10 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I've heard anecdotes that schools will sometimes turn down qualified kids who might not consider such a school option #1, which could be a different way of saying the same thing.  I'm not exactly sure how this would be determined, other than a lack of an interview, etc. but I've had more than one Austin parent tell me that UT passed on their kid who was accepted into several top schools (including Stanford, GaTech, and Michigan).  Their theory is that some years an application can be TOO good for UT to be their favorite.  Ordinarily I'd scoff but I know for a fact that two such kids accepted their offers at Stanford and GaTech, so . . . hmmm.  I didn't ask if they interviewed, though.

One thing I read is that schools have access to the kid's entire FAFSA application, which shows all of the schools where the FAFSA report is going to.  So if your kid is sending it to 10 schools, that sends a signal to each school that the kid is less likely to accept an admissions offer than a kid who's only sending it to 3 schools.  That article said that you should list the schools on the FAFSA in alphabetical order, otherwise you're showing preference to the first school on the list.

Edited by Beau Vine
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On 5/31/2019 at 9:50 AM, Asithappens said:

 

Just a few thoughts: community college is ok, a lot of the cool kids are doing it now.

Somewhere along the line, community colleges turned into 13th and 14th grade.  Whenever I teach junior level classes, I can tell who's straight out of ACC because they have high student ID numbers. And as a group, those students tend to have no clue how much work they're going to have to do to succeed in my class. 

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15 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

Somewhere along the line, community colleges turned into 13th and 14th grade.  Whenever I teach junior level classes, I can tell who's straight out of ACC because they have high student ID numbers. And as a group, those students tend to have no clue how much work they're going to have to do to succeed in my class. 

So? One can make a lot of generalizations "as a group".

If a student works hard they can get a lot out of a cc. And save a lot of money.

I'm not saying that a cc is the best way to go, but it is a viable way. How the student handles it is up to them.

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26 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

One thing I read is that schools have access to the kid's entire FAFSA application, which shows all of the schools where the FAFSA report is going to.  So if your kid is sending it to 10 schools, that sends a signal to each school that the kid is less likely to accept an admissions offer than a kid who's only sending it to 3 schools.  That article said that you should list the schools on the FAFSA in alphabetical order, otherwise you're showing preference to the first school on the list.

Good tip, thanks.  (Now Alabama is gonna think they're #1 with a bullet when word gets out.)

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On 2/16/2019 at 7:17 AM, Grippe said:

Her career path of choice in this case is UX.  UT doesn't have an undergrad program in the specialty but they do have a masters - no problem right?  She can go to UT in any undergrad program then get her masters right? Negative, she wanted to first get her undergrad in UX then consider a masters later. /facepalm.  After some research (on her part) it came down to UC San Diego (ick), Berkeley (ick), Carnegie Mellon (I thought that was for pilots?), UDub in Seattle (nice), or MSOE (what?).  Turns out MSOE has a 100% placement rate for UX undergrads at a significantly higher starting salary, who knew?  She applied and was called the next day being told she's accepted with a scholarship offer that accounted for over 2/3's of her tuition (hey, this girl in STEM thing is for real).

 

27 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

"User eXperience".  Near as I can tell it involves working on the interface between gadgets and humans.

there's a whole concentration of study in this?  i've never heard of it but it sounds fascinating.

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On 5/30/2019 at 3:45 PM, jimmyjazz said:

She'll probably be on the hairy edge of auto-admit at UT but doesn't want to rely on it. 

If she doesn't make auto-admit at UT I would encourage her to apply to an "easier" school to get into within UT (if that is where she really wants to go). Or list one as a second choice.

If you aren't auto-admit UT will basically treat you as an out of state student and a lot of the time will PACE or CAP you (which is not a bad alternative - but say it happens and she's super miffed about missing the % - it can be easier to change majors than get a rejection letter). 

Source: had a near perfect SAT and barely missed % at UT and got PACEd for CS and Business. Had friends with weaker apps get in by selecting less competitive majors. Also, from the website:

How should I pick my first-choice major?

We encourage you to choose a first-choice major that is aligned with your interests and strengths, not just what you hope to do as a career. We will consider you for this major during our holistic review. 

Remember that your major won't necessarily determine your career later on, so we recommend reviewing the entire list of options on Wayfinder before you decide. 

If I don’t get admitted to my first-choice major, will you consider me for my second-choice?

You may be considered for your second-choice major if you qualify for automatic admission and are not admitted to your first-choice major.

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1 hour ago, ztejas said:

How should I pick my first-choice major?

We encourage you to choose a first-choice major that is aligned with your interests and strengths, not just what you hope to do as a career. We will consider you for this major during our holistic review. 

Remember that your major won't necessarily determine your career later on, so we recommend reviewing the entire list of options on Wayfinder before you decide. 

If I don’t get admitted to my first-choice major, will you consider me for my second-choice?

You may be considered for your second-choice major if you qualify for automatic admission and are not admitted to your first-choice major.

That's actually fairly telling once it's read in the correct light.  Thanks.

Basically, if you aren't auto-admitted, your only chance is holistic review for your first major.  Otherwise, you're out.

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30 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

That's actually fairly telling once it's read in the correct light.  Thanks.

Basically, if you aren't auto-admitted, your only chance is holistic review for your first major.  Otherwise, you're out.

Yep. Meaning that the first major you pick can have a significant impact on your acceptance. 

Again though - it's very tough if you aren't an auto-admit (and I'm assuming this is a white girl with an at least somewhat privileged background, which unfortunately factors as well). 

My first choice was UNC - and I got wait-listed then denied (can't remember for which major). UT didn't wait-list me, but they didn't straight up admit me either. Duke - no. Rice - no. Emory - no. Got into William and Mary, UWash, Richmond, Georgia and SMU. SMU was the only one that gave me money - and I was admitted honors business. Guess where my degree is from 😉

Had I particularly WANTED to attend UT I simply would have gunned a little harder for the % cutoff (or PACEd it). It's a tough practice that they implement - especially if you're at a good school - but there are ways around it. Including PACE - which is a very solid entry program and after 4 years it won't make a shit anyway. I think all you have to do is maintain a 3.0 taking ACC classes with a smattering of UT classes your first year. 

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Just now, gsoda3 said:

what are the hardest majors to get in to at UT?

Business, premed, anything STEM with high earnings potential. Probably with varying degrees of difficulty. 

Then you have stuff like Plan II. 

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7 hours ago, ztejas said:

If I don’t get admitted to my first-choice major, will you consider me for my second-choice?

You may be considered for your second-choice major if you qualify for automatic admission and are not admitted to your first-choice major.

This is a lie, which we found out when my daughter applied.  

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12 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Details?  Trying to wade through all this shit is exhausting.

She put biomedical as her first choice.  We knew that was really hard to get into, so we weren't surprised when she got turned down.  She put ME as her second choice and didn't get that either.  Wife was furious, called around and finally found someone on campus who told her that they don't consider second choices unless it's in a low-demand program.  34 ACT, 2nd in class, 6 varsity letters, drum major, NHS VP, all region band 4 years, a parent who donates to UT ever year, and Cockrell didn't admit her.  On the bright side, wife doesn't waste our money donating to UT any more.  

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Damn.  I remembered the biomed/ME angle, but I didn't remember Cockrell turned her down.  

That's almost Aggie-like in its fuckery, as in "let's make sure we don't admit stellar candidates on their second choice because hey, they could be trying to trick us".

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1 hour ago, Beau Vine said:

She put biomedical as her first choice.  We knew that was really hard to get into, so we weren't surprised when she got turned down.  She put ME as her second choice and didn't get that either.  Wife was furious, called around and finally found someone on campus who told her that they don't consider second choices unless it's in a low-demand program.  34 ACT, 2nd in class, 6 varsity letters, drum major, NHS VP, all region band 4 years, a parent who donates to UT ever year, and Cockrell didn't admit her.  On the bright side, wife doesn't waste our money donating to UT any more.  

That's absurd. I mean, the entire nationwide admissions process is absurd, but it's a shame that UT seems to have just as much of a lack of rhyme or reason as anyone else. 

Having your admissions based that heavily on what majors you put is ridiculous to begin with - what % of kids are switching majors after 1 or 2 years? It has to be close to 50%.

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Quick question about UT. Plan II isn’t a “major” or school that you apply too, right?  So if you apply to Plan II and don’t get in, you aren’t fucked. Do you apply to the school you want (my daughter would be Liberal Arts) then Plan II is separate/additional?

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2 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Damn.  I remembered the biomed/ME angle, but I didn't remember Cockrell turned her down.  

That's almost Aggie-like in its fuckery, as in "let's make sure we don't admit stellar candidates on their second choice because hey, they could be trying to trick us".

It's just fucking lazy is what it is.  

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The problem seems to be that the majors of the College of Engineering are and have been absurdly popular for 30+ years.  I think EE has been the most popular major, for freshmen (not by the time upper division rolled around, which is a key fact), at UT for most if not all of that time.  The popularity, though, is not driven by valid interest in the major and the profession, but by silly teenage ideas about how it sounds cool and has something to do with computers, and err'one gets hired because STEM!

That means that even if they are academically qualified, there remains a decent likelihood that they will lack the aptitude and interest in the major to complete the degree.  And the programs are very resource-intensive.

UT used to deal with that with a 2/3 attrition rate.  But that is no longer a good look, so they have to be ultra-selective in admissions.  I imagine they are using some obscure criteria to attempt to assess whether applicants have that aptitude and interest to complete the degree.

Edited by TwiceHorn
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3 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

She put biomedical as her first choice.  We knew that was really hard to get into, so we weren't surprised when she got turned down.  She put ME as her second choice and didn't get that either.  Wife was furious, called around and finally found someone on campus who told her that they don't consider second choices unless it's in a low-demand program.  34 ACT, 2nd in class, 6 varsity letters, drum major, NHS VP, all region band 4 years, a parent who donates to UT ever year, and Cockrell didn't admit her.  On the bright side, wife doesn't waste our money donating to UT any more.  

It's too bad she didn't get into a good school.  Having to settle for Mines is terrible. 

 

That is quite shitty that they do that, though.  

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53 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

 

UT used to deal with that with a 2/3 attrition rate.  But that is no longer a good look, so they have to be ultra-selective in admissions.  I imagine they are using some obscure criteria to attempt to assess whether applicants have that aptitude and interest to complete the degree.

???  Then wouldn't you think that this obscure criteria might consider not immediately denying admission to those applicants who applied to their most competitive major as their first choice and didn't get in?

Edited by Beau Vine
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10 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

It's too bad she didn't get into a good school.  Having to settle for Mines is terrible. 

 

That is quite shitty that they do that, though.  

Yeah, she only applied to UT because her mom (the alum) wanted her to, so it wasn't a big deal to anyone other than the wife.  

I literally could not be happier with the experience she's had at Mines.  There have been several times where I've walked into my department chair or dean's office and said "Here's what my daughter's school does... Can we do that?"

And she texted me this yesterday: 

Screenshot-2019-06-05-094428-resized.jpg

Fuck you, Cockrell.    

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1 minute ago, Beau Vine said:

Yeah, she only applied to UT because her mom (the alum) wanted her to, so it wasn't a big deal to anyone other than the wife.  

I literally could not be happier with the experience she's had at Mines.  There have been several times where I've walked into my department chair or dean's office and said "Here's what my daughter's school does... Can we do that?"

And she texted me this yesterday: 

Screenshot-2019-06-05-094428-resized.jpg

Fuck you, Cockrell.    

That's awesome.  Mines is a great school.  Never heard a bad thing about it from anyone.

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4 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

???  Then wouldn't you think that this obscure criteria might consider not immediately denying admission to those applicants who applied to their most competitive major as their first choice and didn't get in?

I wasn't responding to your post, the more general post questioning why they have different criteria for different majors.

I'm at a loss to explain your daughter's deal.  But if I had to guess it would be some really obscure criteria like "how many times rebuilt family lawnmower blindfolded" or "developed sidescan sonar fishfinder for aquarium."  Or, invented Photon push-pull radiation detector for use in chromatically selective cat flap control and 1000 megaton earth-orbital peace-keeping bomb

Edited by TwiceHorn
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1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

I've hired MEs out of UT in the recent past.  I guarantee several of them didn't have that kind of HS resume.  ME shouldn't be turning down students like that.

the only ME's ive worked with that kind of resume came out of rice 

i remember my first job. first project, it's me and two other new hires, ut petro e and ou petro e.  shooting the shit, i tell them - i figured you could get a better job than this lulz 

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Beau vine-  That sucks for your daughter, but hopefully she is happy where she is at now...

 

That process by the admissions is like ignoring a top free agent in sports because you weren't the first team they listed.  Their fucking talent is still their talent that is going to raise the level of performance of your team.

Galactically stupid flaw...and not 1 iota's worth of fault towards your daughter.

On a related note, my oldest son told me last night he is applying to GaTech for the Engineering Masters program.  Thinking of this thread, I just laughed and told him I hoped he got in...( when inside, I'm super pumped that he is going that way!)

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