<p>I think she will need to think a bit and get past the initial elation. She was not expecting Brown so she is quite high on it now, esp since feedback as it is highly desirable with friends at school. And she talks about its reputation of having happy and satisfied students. Waitlisted at Yale makes one dream on a bit, though. Somebody must have liked her, sigh.</p>
<p>It is weird that the schools are different, yet I can see her at each. I can't really defend her thought process. Certainly some just got on the radar at the right time. After the EA at Chicago she could pretty much keep just what she wanted. Thinking about it now, I'm sure that she, maybe unconciously, kept a variety of types because she really couldn't decide (wants it all, of course.) Being from CA you must do UC, so UCSD and UCB were favorites. Wellesley was on from the begining because I asked her to look closely at women's schools, but she really responded to some presentations at school on women's colleges, plus some HS alumni she was close to and worked with in Paleontology have gone. She was mainly thinking of LAC's at first, but didn't go that route entirely. In the end, she dropped them all from the short list, but added back Grinnell because she really thought she wanted the option to choose a small remote LAC--it was the favorite. Brown (Yale too) was something we didn't discuss too much as realistic, since uber reaches, but she was in range and has a terrific hook. She is thinking of the vibrant student body and the resources, breadth of great departments. Chicago is probably a very good school for her. She is talented in math/science and eng/lit and can handle the academic requirement for in-depth multiple core areas, plus the research ops are great.</p>
<p>In retrospect, I ID the main themes we discussed as a) intellectual student body b) strong science and math c) inter/multi disciplinary focus/ops d) access to research ops as an undergrad e) focus on undergrad education f) intense school community feel g) can participate in some kind of competitive sports h) can get involved with many and varied EC's i) interesting dorm choices/residential college system/houses etc. or just great dorms/food.</p>
<p>I guess you could say these things are present at many schools, but she felt these were exemplary in most of the above areas. (And fit a bit of a reach/match/safety, albeit at the top heavy end.)So I really think that she will spend some time putting herself in each of these places mentally, and hopefully she can do so in person, we will have to see. She is a very flexible, rise to the occasion type, so any of these schools will work out well. </p>
<p>No, we have not seen financial stuff yet. First, her packages are arriving at her boarding school, not home. Second, we had to revise stuff due to errors beyond my control, and a small error within control. So I don't know how that will go.</p>
<p>Hope that answers most questions.</p>