I have visited Earlham and we all loved it! Same warm, welcoming vibe described by @proteo. I’ll also add that a disproportionate number of really kind, thoughtful, smart, and willing to trust their hearts folks I’ve met over the years have been Earlham alums.
DS didn’t choose it in the end and it was the one I felt saddest about saying goodbye to. I hope you’ll stick around, @proteo , and let us know how it plays out!
My daughter is finished.
Applied to EA/rolling to all schools. Accepted at all
wGPA final should be 4.7/ unweighted 3.9
ACT 30 (one time.Covid cancellations messed with the timeline)
9 APs.
Average but varied HS ECs (2 sport, 1 arts, several academic ECs)
Works 20+ hours/wk
Talented writer and interesting topic so essays were likely strong
No hooks. No special awards/honors beyond typically high school/regional stuff.
Looking for large University in a warmer/sunnier climate
Results:
University of South Carolina - $89,500 scholarship + Capstone Scholar $26,500/yr (attending)
West Virginia - $48,000 scholarship = $26,000/yr
Pitt - $8k (2,000/yr) scholarship =$32,000/yr (in-state)
University of Tennessee - $60k scholarship =$35,000/yr
FSU - $38,000
JMU - 5,500/yr for 2 years (?) award= 42,500/yr + higher in years 3/4
University of Florida - $45,000/yr
LSU -she stopped checking portal-slow communication so no idea if any merit $ - $45,000+/yr
Virginia Tech - $50,000/yr
All information is filtered through her so the numbers could be off a bit but the costs are from her spreadsheet and rounded up a bit. We do not have access to the portals and she basically stopped checking after hearing financials from UofSC.
South Carolina was her first choice from the beginning after visiting with older siblings’ college search/selection. She is very excited.
This is our final time around and it was very smooth. We did not expect her to get in at all places but we steered her to a very reasonable list of match schools so it is not completely surprising. It is nice when their first choice works out and is affordable. She chose by fit instead of ranking.
I think I posted but we have a decision so…
Top NE Boarding school for last 2 years, public for 9th and 10th. does not rank or weight, top quintile is all they will say. A average though. A few AP’s but BS doesn’t offer many- very high rigor though. About 180 students in her class.
ACT 36 in one sitting - submitted
LOR’s I think excellent based on report card comments.
EC’s - 20+ hrs a week of ballet prior to BS, then 7 days a week at BS. A couple of clubs and awards and a little volunteering etc prior to BS.
Admitted-
Alabama - Presidential plus
Pitt - full tuition TE
Colgate (need based FA below EFC)
Hamilton (adjusted their need based to be close to Colgate’s when we appealed)
St. Lawrence - $41k TE plus $9k additional merit
Wait Listed-
Syracuse (showed zero demonstrated interest)
Amherst College
Vassar
Rejected-
Wesleyan
Williams- (7 boys, 5 athletes from her school accepted ED)
Princeton-REA (4 athletes from her school accepted REA)
sent arts supplement where possible, did Princeton interview
Did not do any of Hamilton’s supplements- will be attending Hamilton!
D23 - hispanic female, applying as recruited athlete
UW GPA - 3.8 at well respect jesuit HS
7 of 11 APs offered, regular calc, AP environmental only AP science
30 ACT - (superscore, 35/36 in english and reading)
ECs all sports focused - state, regional, and national champion from top national level club; 1 year varsity athlete in recruited sport, 2 year varsity athlete in CC, school required volunteer hours (15 fresh, 20 soph, 20 junior, 30 senior), part time job at Starbucks
National Hispanic Recognition Award from college board
Essay and LOR i am sure were fine, i didn’t read
Political Science major and economics minor
positive pre reads from Stonehill, Grinnell, Macalester, Conn College, Assumption, Haverford, Kenyon, Brandeis, Clark, William and Smith
Had a positive pre read prior to applying, applied ED
attending Clark University in Worcester MA - $28,000 per year Traina scholarship, $25,535 per year institutional grant
Here is the final 2023 take-away for my daughter. She goes to a NYC public high school and is not an URM. Major: Political Science
I should note that the focus of our search was schools with a strong Jewish community – within driving distance of home (NYC). We used the Hillel College Guide for finding schools with a high percentage of Jewish students.
1470 SATs (submitted), 97.4/100 GPA weighted, 6 APs (her school only offers 7). No rank.
Lots of extracurriculars and a summer job as a camp counselor.
Accepted:
Brandeis (legacy) – 20.5K/yr merit a year and Humanities Fellowship - ATTENDING
George Washington – 20K/yr merit
American University – 20K/yr merit
Muhlenberg – 32K/yr merit and Dana Scholars program
Sarah Lawrence – 42K/yr merit
SUNY Binghamton – no merit aid but low in-state tuition
Waitlisted:
Barnard
Rejected:
University of Pennsylvania (legacy)
Tufts
NYU
It did. That post, and several others, have been deleted. Please stick to topic.
Since my college decision journey has wrapped up, I thought I’d share! I know many of you may have been following my thread, and I’m so grateful for all of the support I have received.
Asian-American female (identifies as nonbinary but did not mark on apps)
applied as a Bio major on the premed track w/a french minor (wants to be an MD-PhD as a pediatric rare disease geneticist)
from a well-known public HS in MA
UW GPA- 3.8
W GPA- 4.4
Top 10% of graduating class but did not report as school doesn’t officially rank
4 APs (APUSH, AP French, AP World History: Modern, AP Lang)
Test Optional
ECs- most relating in some way to major or aspirations, one major EC relating to major (work at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard), also a competitive equestrian (although riding time was limited due to external circumstances)
Essays + LORS were likely a 9/10, strong writer.
Accepted:
UMass Amherst [EA] (Honors College + BioTAP acceptance, Dean’s Award)
UVM [EA] (Trustee Scholarship + Henderson Scholarship, 50% ride)
Northeastern University [EA] (complicated circumstances but transferred to Boston campus for fall 2024)- ATTENDING in 2024!!
Waitlisted:
Case Western Reserve University [EA-> deferred, RD waitlisted]
GWU [RD]
Rejected (all RD unless stated)
Wesleyan University
Harvard
Cornell
UW Seattle
Tufts
BC [ED2 deferral, RD rejection]
Brown [ED1 rejection]
Middlebury
William and Mary
NYU
UNC Chapel HIll [EA rejection]
Amherst College
Williams College
University of Southern California [EA deferral, RD rejection]
I will be taking a gap year and pursuing what I love while allowing myself to rest a little mentally. Go Huskies '27!!!
Results for S23. Not URM, attends public HS in California that doesn’t weight GPA or rank.
National Merit Finalist, 4.0 gpa, approx 8 APs. Submitted ACT score when possible.
Major: Statistics (or Math if separate statistics major wasn’t available)
Fairly normal extracurriculars (imo) - longterm involvement in one sport w/ some coaching experience, a few clubs at school with some leadership in 11/12th
Target budget was ‘no more than instate UC’. Applied broadly OOS after I saw the unpredictability in the top instate options the last couple years.
Accepted
UCLA, UC Davis, UCSD, UCSB, Cal Poly SLO, San Diego State
U Minnesota (Honors, 25K yr/merit)
Rutgers (Honors, 20K yr/merit)
Maryland (Honors, 12.5K yr/merit)
Syracuse (30K/yr merit)
U Washington (7.2K/yr merit)
Illinois
Georgia Tech (after EA deferral)
Waitlisted
UC Irvine, Northeastern (after EA deferral)
Rejected
UC Berkeley, UNC, USC (after EA deferral)
Will be attending: UCLA
Note: DS applied very early to UMTC, had admission and merit in before November 1 and was content with that as his ‘safety’ so applied reach-heavy after that.
UMTC and Rutgers were the only OOS schools with enough merit to bring COA to instate levels (I wasn’t surprised with that, and DS was clear throughout the process what our budget was.)
updating here: I was just accepted to NEU Boston 2023, so it seems no gap year will be needed!!!
I’m 10/10 happy to hear this news! Congratulations!
Here are results for D23
Southern CA private, doesn’t rank but top 10%
4.6 weighted GPA / 3.95 UW
UC GPAs: 4.0 / 4.33 / 4.67
High rigor, 9 APs + all honors
ECS were good, but no hook
SAT 1530 (submitted at all)
Business/Finance or Econ major
Accepted:
Elon EA (7.5k merit)
Northeastern RD after EA deferral (7.5k merit)
Tulane EA (20k merit, honors)
UC Berkeley
UCLA
UC Santa Barbara
University of Miami EA(19k merit)
Wake Forest RD
Waitlist:
Georgetown RD
Tufts RD
Rejected:
Brown RD
Columbia RD
Duke RD
USC RD after EA deferral (legacy offered Trojan Transfer Plan)
Vanderbilt ED
Nice list. Where did she decide to attend?
at this moment-- leaning Wake Forest!
Wake put on a great admitted students day, did she get to attend?
Congratulations! I’m finding a lot of people not doing UC despite the incredible rankings and in-state cost. Our son is probably gonna be passing up all his UCs as well. I heard Wake Forest is a beautiful school. Wish we had checked it out.
yes, she did. it was really well done
Congrats! May I ask if you received any merit from Northeastern? Best of luck!
she thought long and hard about UCLA and the cost issue is a big one, but I agree–hearing more stories about in-state kids opting out of the huge UCs
D23 Results-
Applied for Public Health Major at most colleges, some Environmental Policy
Public HS in Northern Ca in Health Academy program
4.38 weighted GPA/4.0 UW
mix of IB, AP,honors classes and regular
Top 9% of class for UC
Extra curricular activities were strong- internship with public health, 100+ volunteer hours at hospital in NICU, 15 hrs a week pre-professional dance program, youth rep on city board, miscellaneous hours volunteering at heath clinics etc, Mock Trial
Strong letters of rec
Applied test optional
Accepted:
Cal Poly SLO- ACCEPTED OFFER
Scripps College
Lewis and Clark (with strong merit award)
UC Davis
UC Santa Cruz (early admit)
SDSU (early admit)
University of Oregon w/honors college (Stamps semifinalist and offered nice scholarship)
Colorado State- WUE
Western Washington- WUE
Chico State
Waitlisted
UC Berkeley
UC Irvine
UC San Diego
Smith College
Denied
Northeastern
UCLA
I did not! Unfortunately. But I am committed, so I look forward to being there in the fall! /warmly