My younger sister's starting the app process, but there's a lot of frustration on both of our ends. I think she has a fear-of-failure. She's not a very competitive applicant - middling to low GPA and test scores - but with extra curricular activities more typical of adult work experience. Like, she's had recruiters accidentally try to head hunt her on Linkedin.
I created a starter list of schools and asked her to look into them - she didn't. With summer nearing an end, I started researching myself and managed to excite her by finding a unique major and career path that fit her background and interests perfectly. She started doing some of the research and we compiled a spreadsheet of reputable, possible schools that had the major. Then she stopped being happy - she realized that these colleges weren't her ideal and were still *far* from guarantees. For examples, she was upset with UT Austin for being "in Texas" and RPI for a low M:F ratio and suburban setting, even though both would be great for her (or at least good enough to apply to).
Eventually I convinced her to start writing essays for the schools she *was* interested in. After procrastinating a while, she called me up and said she had nothing to write about. I sent her some links to essays online and information about her newly intended career. She pitched some decent ideas and I was happy she finally started.
Last night, she got half way through the first draft before realizing it wasn't turning out perfectly (as is normal). She deleted the essay and the spreadsheet of schools we worked on for days from google drive and told me she'd just be applying to the local California States, which don't require essays. These are terrible options for her - she'll get in, but they're poorly ranked commuter schools with weak programs and graduation rates below 10%.
I'm a college grad and know the value of reputable universities both academically and socially, but I can't get it through to her. I guess this is half a vent, half a request for advice and stories about other kids who struggled through the app process.
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