In July, Skidmore and Connecticut College were recommended to you as “high matches or reasonable reaches”: Reverse chance me, please!. Since you haven’t heard back from these schools, you might see one or both of them as an option in April. Moving forward, you may want to reconsider the suggestion of Wheaton (MA), which accepts applications until 2/15.
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You have an acceptance to your safety. You still have pending applications.
And you claim you plan to apply to Marist (I suggest you do so before you miss their deadline).
Is the only SUNY school you applied to Bing?
Getting rejected is never fun, but you are in good company, many – most? – kids are rejected from their ED schools. What to do? See what happens in the RD round.
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Yes, getting turned down is never fun, but you’ve also expressed concerns about the affordability of no-merit schools like Bates. It’s great that you’re in a a safety you like, with a nice merit offer.
I’m also wondering if Bing is your only SUNY school. You never commented on the suggestion of the creative writing BFA program at Purchase; you could still apply there.
Note that the OP hasn’t exactly been rejected or turned down by Bates. His application there remains open through deferral to the RD round.
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I have just gotten around to the 250 word supplemental question at Marist. Once I get that finished, hopefully by tomorrow or Tuesday, I will submit my application.
Yep, all true. I will try my best to make known to Bates that I remain interested, and that they are my first choice.
I’ve applied to both, and given the deferral from Bates (which has a 12-14% admit rate) and the fact that I am full pay, I like to think I have a good shot at getting in. My school also sends a bunch of kids to both Skidmore and ConnColl, so while I’m not certain I will get in, I think I’ll have a solid shot.
Will take a look at Wheaton as well, thanks for that rec. Love that it’s in Mass.
It should be noted that I was deferred from Bates, so my application is still open. I had a great interview there that was supposed to last 45 minutes which ended up lasting 1h30m. I also have a letter of rec from a teacher of mine last year who attended Bates. I think my biggest issue with Hamilton was the lack of demonstrated interest… even though I applied ED, I simply didn’t think to interview, make an official visit through the school, or do any of the optional application material. Even though Bates is a harder school, showing additional interest couldn’t have hurt, as I got a better result there.
As for SUNY’s, I applied to Bing and will apply to New Paltz at the same time as Marist (this week). I don’t have much of an interest in Purchase anymore as I realized it is so damn close to the city, and will be even closer to our potential home in Connecticut (my parents have been strongly considering moving there lately).
Although my copy of U.S. News is a year out of date, note that the publication assigned a selectivity rank of 5 to Hamilton (tied with Williams and Swarthmore) and 23 to Bates (tied with Macalester and Bryn Mawr) in the Liberal Arts category. This gap arises from the difference in student profiles between these sets of schools. Nonetheless, by overall acceptance rates, Bates, most recently at 17.3%, and Hamilton, at 14.1%, do not tend to differ greatly from each other.
USNews most recently places Hamilton at an 18% acceptance rate and Bates at a 14% acceptance rate. Hamilton is ranked higher on their site. The schools don’t differ greatly, but Bates is indeed more selective while Hamilton is picking from a stronger applicant pool. The higher selectivity at Bates seems negated by Hamilton’s stronger pool and vice versa, so I’d consider them about equal.
I’m not totally sure where you found the selectivity ranking, but Bates is currently labeled “Most Selective” by USNews, and Hamilton earned the same label.
The selectivity ranks posted above are from the print edition of U.S. News; the acceptance rates are from these schools’ individual websites for the class of 2025.
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Overall, based on kids I know who have applied to both, Hamilton seems to put more emphasis on academic achievement. Bates seems more open to other expressions of good fit. But that is only based on kids I know. Bates would seem to be more likely to “hear the whole story”, which OP needs.
OP, do not assume because you were deferred you will get in. You may just as easily end up on a WL of 900. This I know from experience!
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I hope to get in, but don’t expect a WL. I expect rejection.
Hello all. There have been some updates to my college search in the last month which I’d like to fill you in on.
After deferring me, Bates asked for my third quarter grades and an expression of continued interest. My third quarter grades were not available at that point, but I could’ve certainly sent the LOCI. I had just won a competitive in-school history tournament, which would’ve been great to put down. But I had some second thoughts about going to Bates after the deferral. It’s very far, extremely ‘progressive’, and not in the nicest, safest area. Subconsciously, this is probably why I didn’t send an LOCI, and contributed to my ultimate rejection.
I also applied to Colby RD and went to a virtual event. They asked for more information about recent achievements/updates, and the deadline to send this was literally one day before I won the history tournament, which is a somewhat notable achievement. This was an unfortunate fortuity as there have been no other academic updates since applying. Still, this probably didn’t swing things, as Colby is about as competitive as they get for LAC’s. Yesterday, I was also rejected.
In better news, I received a $150k scholarship to Wheaton College, MA and a place in their Honors Program, in addition to the University of Hartford’s $120k scholarship and Honors College offer. Two days ago, I was also admitted to Skidmore—and this morning, Connecticut College admitted me with a $120k scholarship. This is the offer I am leaning towards, especially since it is a NESCAC school with great transfer options should I need to make use of them. But I can really see myself there for four great years.
That said, Binghamton and Marist remain the only schools outstanding, and as such I will make a final decision once they’ve made theirs!
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Congrats on the offers you have gotten, especially Skidmore and Conn College. It’s not that easy to get merit from Conn College - that’s a big score!!! Both of those schools have looked like good fits all along, to me - I’m glad they thought so too! At cost parity I could see a choice between the two going either way, but 30K/year in merit would nail the decision down for sure! Great news that you have such good options 
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Thanks! I’ve really appreciated your guidance along the way. My family decided to take a spur of the moment trip up to Connecticut to visit today, and we were blown away by the campus… and downtown New London was also quite nice. I can say now it is a near certainty that I will go to school here.
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Great to hear you have some awesome choices. Thanks for sharing your journey!
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Conn College is a beautiful school. Great academics, good policies, etc. What a great option! Happy Camel-dom!
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