I appreciate the thoughts and yes, some schools would probably be a better fit than others. My daughter asked her guidance counsellor to nominate her for an Olin visit; will have to check in to see how that’s going. Good reminder.
@eyemgh’s son’s list is a good one that probably skews similar to my kid’s; practical application of theory is interesting. That is a strong consideration; the problem is that other schools are near enough to training that my kid could still continue with their sport in some manner. She is too young to retire, really, and could try to work something out with school. Others in her sport have as well.
Small can be fine; big could work, too, once she finds her peeps within the larger school. My kid has had to be very flexible in her sport, and has dealt with an insane amount of rejection, along with some successes. Honestly, a lot of these schools, no matter how disparate, will be an adventure for her.
For example, suppose student X is admitted as frosh to Highly Selective University but then barely makes it to graduation with a 2.1 college GPA. Meanwhile students Y and Z are not admitted as frosh and start at another college (perhaps a community college). Student Y earns a 4.0 and is admitted as a transfer to Highly Selective University and eventually graduates with a 4.0. Student Z earns a 3.5 and is not admitted as a transfer to Highly Selective University and eventually graduates from another college with a 3.5.
Getting back to selective majors, in general, unless the frosh direct admit students are subject to weed-out requirements that are similar to admission to major for those who enter undeclared or in another major, the situation where some frosh direct admits have GPAs lower than all of the secondary admits is not surprising.