Maybe I could have worded the title better. I have been looking at full need colleges after running the College Abacus online NPC and trying to find a few that accept smart students without amazing hooks and ECs but the RD acceptance threads seem to list students my son couldn’t compete with for spots. Students who are performing in their local orchestras, worked in impoverished countries, won 20 awards etc.
I thought there might be a difference between the students accepted at Harvard and Yale with their miniscule acceptance rates and the very good colleges with higher acceptance rates of 15-20% but looking at the threads they appear to be the same type of students to me.
Do I need to look at the 30% acceptance rate colleges and up to find ones with a decent chance for my son to get entrance into? He has a 2310 SAT (not a superscore), 3.95 GPA but only did some volunteering, lead in a few plays, and band for ECs.
I am looking at full need colleges (yes I know that doesn’t always mean a lot which is why I was using College Abacus to tease out the financials) for schools he may be able to afford, but I don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars applying to schools at which he has no chance.
At what acceptance rate do you think the “average” academically high achieving student can get accepted.?
He may have add automatic merit scholarship schools for safeties, since most good-financial-aid schools are highly selective. Depending on your state of residency, there may be in-state publics with good financial aid (or in-state merit scholarships) but are less selective enough to be possible safeties.
Thanks- yes I am already looking at that on other threads here on CC since he should (hopefully) end up as a NMF. Also looking at competitive scholarships but trying to cover all bases financially, so in addition I’d like to find if possible a very good school that we might be able to afford for him to attend.
I’d say that at the schools with a 40%-50% acceptance rate, he’d have a good shot so long as he shows interest (if he doesn’t, they’d still deny him for yield protection). Below 30% and it becomes more of a crapshoot or require more stuff besides just being smart.
The good news is that some good schools that meet full need have above 30% acceptance rates in ED. The bad news is that you may only apply to one of those schools.
I know kids with SAT scores in the 2200s, 3.9s and good but not world class ECs and no hooks who got into top schools (the ones with under 10% admit rates). The idea is to have a list that has a few of those, a few of the 25 to 50% admit rates and 1 or 2 schools with higher admit rates (state schools). Those kids are NOT posting on College Confidential because they have better things to do with their limited free time.
@uesmomof2, kids like you described most definitely do get in to single-digit admit rate schools. However, many kids like you described get rejected from those schools as well. Agree that a balanced application list makes sense for someone in OP’s situtation.
The acceptance rates keep dropping which concerns me. Kenyon looked like a decent possibility with a 38% rate, now this year it’s down to 25%. They are looking for more international students according to an article I just read. It’s getting harder to find full need met colleges with acceptance rates above 30%.
While you definitely should build the list from the bottom up, don’t write off the sub-20% schools completely. Contrary to what’s seen on CC, not all the admitted students at these schools have super-amazing ECs. You write that your kid has some leads in school plays. I think that’s a terrific EC, and combined with his great academics, he may get into a very selective school. So long as he has some matches and safeties, include some reaches too.
Your son sounds a lot like mine. He applied to ND, Northwestern, MIT, Stanford, UChicago, Swarthmore, Amherst and Washington & Lee. He got into Northwestern and Amherst, wait listed or rejected at the rest. I wish I could tell you we had a strategy or some indication why the decisions turned out that way.
I do think that demonstrated interest and well-crafted, targeted essays probably help. My son didn’t really have much interest in Swarthmore or W&L and it probably showed in his essays.
Your son sounds a lot like mine too. Grades, tests, ECs, all were more than good, but not super amazing. He mostly applied to schools with admit rates in the 30s, except for Carnegie Mellon (CIT). He was accepted everywhere except CMU, which waitlisted him. But that could easily have gone the other way (I think).
So, yours should apply to a range, just like they say! But do include some of the more competitive ones because you never know.
My son is in that same category too. Definitely a top student, but with no real stand-out hooks. What we did was to apply to a number of schools at which he would be in the running for great merit aid (full-tuition or full-ride). There are lots of really good schools that offer merit scholarships, but some are competitive. So research them and then apply to as many as you are comfortable with. Schools that meet need are another great route to go, if your EFC is low. Be sure to include one or two true safeties that your son likes. This is key, since too many kids don’t really like their safety schools, and can subsequently feel horrible if they end up there. My son also applied to three Ivies and Stanford, but was shut out of all. For us everything worked out in the end because he was offered a fantastic full-ride scholarship at a great school. Actually, he ended up with five affordable offers, all at good schools, and he was able to pick his top choice from among those. (Luckily for me, his top choice also happened to be the full-ride school!) So my advice is to pick schools where you have a great shot at financial help, whether it’s meeting need or merit scholarships, have one or two really solid safeties, and let him go ahead and apply to a few Ivies if he likes, but above all, be realistic and have some realistic options.
You will read on here again and again about kids with 4.0 GPA’s, 2300+ SATs, and a plethora of EC’s/community service that get rejected or waitlisted at top 20 schools.
I am going to save my younger children a lot of time and money by encouraging them to bypass applying to so-called “elite” schools and just apply for honors programs at state schools.
What seems obvious to me now in retrospect - if you are going to apply ED or SCEA to one super elite, pick one with a fairly big freshman class. More seats = more chances.
Otherwise, if not ED try to apply early or rolling as much as possible.
My son has a 4.0 and a 30 ACT, solid ECs and recommendations. He applied to 14 schools, accepted with merit scholarships to 5, accepted to three other top LACs and was rejected/waitlisted by the rest. He cast a wide net and as a result is going to a top twenty LAC. No aid unfortunately (we don’t qualify for need-based aid and a lot of top tier schools don’t offer merit aid)but he’s very happy. My advice: cast a wide net(many schools offer free early action apps…we took advantage of several such offers) and keep an open mind.
@Nerdyparent, lots with that profile get rejected but lots get in somewhere as well.
Ultimately, it’s the kid’s decision. So long as he/she understands the odds, the time spent is their time and the money isn’t a lot (and you don’t have to apply to a huge number of reaches; just some).
Thanks everyone. I guess I will stick with my tri-part strategy of some NMF full ride (or close to fr) schools, some competitive scholarship schools and a few full need top schools which will probably bring us to around the 14 school number kibbles applied to.