I would greatly appreciate advise on whether my daughter needs more safeties and whether you think we have classified the rest of the schools correctly.
Stats/background: Hispanic female
3.96 UNW GPA, Taken most demanding course load available including Calc BC and Multivariable Calc
Trilingual - taken both AP Spanish and AP French
ACT 36 1st sitting
NHRP
SAT Subj tests -800 Math lev 2, 780 Span with listening, will take 1 or 2 more
Planning to apply undecided but interested in everything international
Full pay - blessed to not have cost constraints
EC/Awards:
Merit Scholarship Award (all of high school)
Piano (13 yrs) - High School Recognition Exam (A- & A)
Honor Committee Rep. (elected) (3 yrs)- developed and implemented a Student Hearing Board
Hispanic Affinity (4 yrs) Co-Leader for 2 years
Social Action Student Advisory Board - (2 yrs) Reflection leader
MOAS - Model Organization of American States (2 yrs) Co-Leader (1 yr)
Model UN
Challenger Baseball (3 yrs)
Best Buddies (3 yrs)
Operation Smile, Breast Cancer 5K…
Student Ambassador - (4yrs)
Tennis (4yrs) JV Team Captain and Coaches Award recipient
JV Softball - Awarded most improved players
Varsity Winter Indoor Track (2 yrs)
Mock Trial - 2 years
TedX logistics planning committee (2 yrs)
Summer Programs:
MMLA at Swarthmore - summer after Freshman year
Foreign Exchange: Spain - summer after Sophmore year
Yale’s Young Global Scholars - summer after Junior year
Safety: Tulane & University of Miami
Match: Georgetown (legacy) She loves it
Middlebury - only LAC she plans to apply to
Univ of Michigan, USCal, & UCLA
Reach: Penn (double legacy) - Huntsman program?
Vanderbilt - She was worried about diversity after visiting but hasn’t take it off her list yet.
Wash U - she really liked it. Will apply for a scholarship to show interest.
Northwestern & Duke
High Reach: Princeton - currently her favorite
Brown - really liked it when she visited
Columbia - she loves NYC
Stanford
She has not visited any of the California schools. We are on the east coast, and I do not want her to go to school on the other side of the country. She wants to go somewhere with challenging academics but a good social life and plenty of activities near campus. She will apply to one of the high reach schools early. She has visited many schools that she is not interested in applying to including: MIT, Tufts, Harvard, Yale, Boston College, Swarthmore. Any other suggestions?
You and Daughter have some decisions to make;
Did you run the net price calculators fir all of these schools?
Do you have a straight forward financial situation; not divorced,no step parents, you are not a business owner ,you only have your primary residence (as these factors can skew the (NPC)
Are you comfortable paying/borrowing your EFC?
Remember her advantage as a legacy to Penn will only serve her if she applies ED.
Wash U is notorious for wait listing/deferring students that they don’t get admitted ED
If you intend to veto the California schools, do so before applications. Do not let her down in April by letting her apply to USC, Stanford, etc. and then telling her that she cannot go no matter what if she is admitted.
Agree with #1 to figure out the financial aspects before application season. You do know that some private schools could be in the $70,000 per year range, right?
Tulane and Miami consider “level of applicant’s interest”, so they may not want to be used as low-choice safeties.
What state of residency? Could the state universities be used as lower cost safeties?
UChicago, with it’s core, is quite different than these except for maybe Columbia, and the intellectual life may appeal to her breadth. It has EA. Southwest to Midway makes it very accessible from the east coast.
Otherwise, it’s a great list for a great candidate.
I believe that Tulane has EA so if she doesn’t get in, it’s not a safety.
If she likes NYC, NYU is surely a safety.
Seriously though, this kid is not going to her safety. She probably has a good chance Princeton SCEA. In that case, she can’t apply to the other EA schools.
My D1 academic superstar used Wisconsin, with rolling admissions as her safety. That’s allowed under SCEA. She applied in September was admitted in mid-October and was quite relieved to have that out of the way. For your D with the 36, it’s practically automatic.
Wow! I will accept her! Please don’t take this the wrong way, because she has incredible stats anyway, but as a hispanic girl I think colleges might fall over themselves to get her to attend. Personally, I think her matches are reaches, and I only see one real safety, which I guess is U of Miami. IMO, nearly all of your colleges are reaches, though I am sure she will get into some of them. UCLA can only admit so many OOS students.
16 colleges is soooo many. Does she actually truly like all those schools, or is she going for prestige? Just bear in mind, she will have a LOT of work ahead of her, writing supplemental essays for all those colleges. Another poster said that most seniors don’t realize they will have a “hidden” class in their schedule: College essay writing! And many of those colleges will have a “why this college?” essay. She needs to find unique and credible reasons why she wants to attend each of them. They can spot the generic “why” essay a mile away. I think she needs another low match or safety school, just in case. The thing is, admissions to virtually all the schools you list are really unpredictable, and a school like Tulane might practice yield protection and deny because they think she won’t attend. She does need to express interest in her safety school. My D’s safety school denied people with even higher stats than hers (she was in the 93rd percentile at this safety), probably because they showed no interest. You don’t want to post a thread next April saying “my D didn’t get in anywhere.” There is currently a thread on the college admissions forum called “I applied to 17 schools and only got into 2.”
She is an incredible student, no doubt she will be very successful in the process. I think you need to really look at that list a little more carefully though, and err on the side of caution. You should consider eliminating a couple of schools, other than the “safeties” and add another one as I suggested. There is another thread going on the college admissions forum called “I applied to 16 colleges and it was terrible.” Have a look. Your D will need to keep up all her grades and activities and the applications are stressful, time-consuming and expensive. Plan it well, and she will do great. Good luck!
Note that Princeton SCEA says that the applicant should not apply EA to other private schools:
https://admission.princeton.edu/applyingforadmission/single-choice-early-action
Read SCEA rules carefully for each school to see what is restricted – they are not all the same.
Looks like from this year’s CC posts that Wisconsin no longer notifies on a rolling basis. Michigan is probably the best public that has EA. I think it’s good to guarantee an admission in hand before the Christmas crunch, so maybe consider Michigan.
Nice list. I agree that confirming your financial situation is important, as is showing interest in her safeties (visiting, solid & specific “why school X” essays if they are required).
Georgetown where she is a legacy is a match? And Penn where she is a double legacy is a reach? Not sure I understand the logic in that. I think both are the same level.
Can you pay the full cost of attendance at all of these schools? Some do not give merit aid, and some do not guarantee to meet full need.
If cost is a factor, I’m not sure you have a safety on this list since neither Tulane or University of Miamai guarantee to meet full need.
On another thread, you say her PSAT was 2300, I think…but she is not taking the SAT because she got a 36 on the ACT. If she has the NMF status, this could open some doors for her at some schools for significant aid. University of Southern California is one of those schools…and it’s on her list. I would have her take the SAT.
@thumper1
Penn only considers legacy for ED. OP’s D’s first choice is Princeton. Cannot ED to Penn. Therefore legacy has no weight at Penn, but still caries weight at Georgetown.
Thank you all very much for your feedback. Sybbie719, ucbalumnus, thumper1 - we can pay the full cost of attendance and will allow her to go wherever she decides even if it is on the West Coast. I wish she liked Penn more and would seriously consider applying ED there to take advantage of legacy status. Georgetown is a match based on her college counselors feedback and since she would love to go there she will probably not apply to all the reach schools she is currently considering. Frankly, I would not be surprised if she did not apply to Duke and Vanderbilt.
Classicrockerdad - she will not consider applying to UChicago because it is where fun goes to die. My DH cringes every time she says this but my attitude is that there are hundreds of colleges that would be a good fit for her - we just need help finding a couple more. I worry about Tulane not being a true safety because of yield management, but I have read that if you apply early it is possible to get an answer in October. NYU seems to come on and off her list.
Lindagaf - LOL - we wish being a Hispanic female would be very helpful but I think the reality is that admissions is looking for first generation and economically disadvantaged Hispanics. She is expecting many rejections if the early round doesn’t work out. She is not chasing prestige. Rather, she wants to attend somewhere where she is surrounded by kids who worked hard in high school. She doesn’t want to go anywhere that she perceives as being “nerdy.” Obviously, both of these criteria are very subjective and can really depend on what day you visit a campus. I absolutely do not want her to be that student that didn’t get in anywhere. I would love for her to apply somewhere with guaranteed admissions for her stats. I was really pushing the University of Alabama honors college but she took it off the list on Naviance.
Thank you all again for the feedback. Keep it coming.
@Ldoponce , just make sure she checks off the box that says “hispanic”
Also, please remember, that there are colleges of all tier levels with super hard working, high stats students. Many students need merit aid, and she may not be the smartest, most hardworking kid at even the safest safety. Just worth thinking about. I think Uni of Rochester would be a good school to add as a match, though there might be a nerd or two.
Just making sure that you know that “where fun goes to die” is a joke, but it’s a nerd joke and there is no question that UChicago is nerd nirvana.
If she applies to Princeton SCEA, then she can only apply to Michigan EA in hope of nailing an early safety before the RD deadline. She won’t be able to apply to Tulane EA. The other high reach schools in the east are ED which would eliminate her top choice which seems inadvisable.
Has she considered McGill or UToronto as a safety. Those are totally numbers based, and quite international. I don’t think the Canadian schools notify early, but at least you know they are numbers driven and zero risk. I still like Wisconsin as a safety with a cadre of top students. Ohio State Honors is a safety for her too.
I would suggest adding a few more matches or safeties. I’ve been told that you shouldn’t consider any school with an acceptance rate under 20% a match or safety regardless of how strong your application is.
Does she know what she wants to study or at least vaguely know?
Pitt could be a safety and it has rolling Admissions.
If you want to take a vacay to Chicago U of C and NWU wouldn’t be a bad visit and you can get a better idea of what U of C really is. It’s intense academically but I’m not sure I’d classify it extreme nerdy - more like super overachievers without the attitude.
Regarding Hispanic status there are some cynical points of view that your daughter is actually the kind of Hispanic they want. She checks a box but has no trouble fitting into the culture.
We toured a lot of the schools on your list last year and we all thought that the kids at U. Chicago seemed happy and engaged and interesting. Very much a “life of the mind” kind of school. It is also a beautiful campus. But you have plenty of reaches on your list and don’t really need another one. Having just finished the process with my D, I guess my two cents worth of unsolicited advice would be to consider whether you and your daughter want to go for an ED reach like Penn where she is a legacy and possibly be finished in December or go for the super reach like Princeton with a state school as a back up and if she is deferred or rejected from Princeton go through the process of writing/proofreading all those essays. Your daughter has competitive stats but so do a lot of kids so I think the essays as well as letters of recommendation become quite important. And some schools have several essays so it is A LOT of writing and in some cases research about the school. It also changes senior year as there is more pressure on getting all As through the end of January or February. My D went for the super reach EA and it all worked out for her in RD but there were some rough points in the process (like winter break when she revised all of her essays/) In terms of the “balanced list,” because she applied and was admitted to Michigan early, a school she would have been happy to attend, she ended up with a very reach heavy list for RD with only one real “likely.”
My only suggestion (and this is based on a number of recent threads here) is to think through and communicate ahead of time what you would do if it came down to full price at her #1 vs something close to a full ride scholarship at one of the others. If you are up for paying for Princeton even if she gets full ride at Wash U… that’s fine, but if not, you should be communicating that now or at least by fall rather than have her upset next spring.
If your DD is a FL resident, than UMiami could be a safety, including financial. With high stats, they give tuition based on combination of SAT scores and GPA.
@Lindagaf she won’t forget to put Hispanic - Spanish is her first language, and we speak Spanglish at home. She has a nerd or two in her high school, I would even say a friend or two, so she will deal. She is a very social kid, who always likes to be with people, and I predict will never live alone.
@Bookworm - I had never heard that about UM. I grew up on hurricane football, she is also a legacy, and my DD has spent a lot of time on the campus. Is UM like Tulane that if you apply really early you will hear back early? Yes Washgrad, we will pay for wherever she wants to go to college. We have been planning how to pay since she was a baby and I had a plan A, B, and C to do so. I believe an education is the only lasting gift I can give my kids.
@ClassicRockerDad I know the saying is a joke and considering that she loved the sound of the core curriculum at Columbia it is surprising she doesn’t want to look past it. She has plenty of reaches on her list as @uesmomof2 says though. My DH wants her to revisit her top 2 or 3 choices in the fall before she decides where to throw her hat in early. I have looked into McGill but did not like the fact that you have to live off campus after freshman year.
@Dolemite she plans to apply undecided but is jazzed by anything with the word international in it - affairs, policy, business… I wish there was more clarity into what schools actually wanted. If one knew hypothetically that Brown prefers the full pay but Yale wants the 1st generation Hispanics, it would make the decision so much easier.
@uesmomof2 if it was my choice she would be applying to the Huntsman program at Penn ED. At the same time, she would be applying EA to Tulane, UM, Michigan, and USCarolina (not even on her list.). Alas, I am not the one applying. I am glad it worked out well for your DD. I have told my DD that I expect the essays for 5 applications completed this summer. She has a very good friend who had 18 applications out the door when she heard back from her SCEA school. We plan to follow in those footsteps with a lower number of applications.
Thank you all for your advice! I will look at all the schools recommended.
OP,
U Miami offers many full tuition scholarships. Some add an “enrichment fund”. The Jenkins award extends to include kids from the surrounding states, including NC. The deadline is Nov. 1.