Most consider any school with an admission rate below 20% a reach.
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I donāt know enough about Olin to comment, but IMO Mudd is a reach, not a target. Less than 10% of males who apply are accepted, and while geographic diversity may cut in your favor, IMO it would be overly optimistic to assume that it is target. That said, it is an excellent school, it gives access to the other Claremont schools, so it may be worth considering, provided you think the culture would be a good fit.
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Could you please explain this. Thank you.
Could you explain what data points are being talked about. I am not familiar with this. Thank you.
Could you please elaborate about the culture. Thank you.
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In my opinion, Olin would be a reach.
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I donāt have first hand experience, but my understanding is that it is quirky, diverse, academically rigorous, unabashedly nerdy, outside-the-box, known for pranks and large, crazy themed parties. Brutalist architecture. A high rate of students go on to get their Ph.Ds. Infamous for organizing votes at Mudd and the other Claremont campuses in order to win a Taylor Swift concert. My guess is that students who thrive there are committed to engineering/CS/math upon entering, not because it is lucrative, but because they truly love it. A student perspective . . .
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Lehigh is a University, not a LAC.
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A somewhat subjective rank is asked for in recommendations from counselors and teachers, so it is not hard to figure out if the recommenders answer.
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Some HSs use software like Naviance or Score to help manage the college admissions process and to track college admission results of their students.
Both of those programs provide scattergrams with GPA on the y axis and test scores on the x axis which show admissions results, by college, for every student who has applied over the last 5 years (or whatever time frame the school looks at).
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Correct. Some universities like Lehigh and Brandeis are probably better known for undergraduate teaching.
I value your perspective but disagree. I think if the common dataset says that class rank is important then it is unless the school changes policy. Case in point UNC vs NCSU. UNC does not pay a lot of attention to class rank but pays plenty of attention to rigor. NCSU on the other hand pays a lot of attention to rank.
What I hear time and time again is a student will be judged against his/her peers. I believe I linked a podcast from MITās dean of admissions a while back. As I see it, OP has crushed it among his peers even though his ACT could be better. Frankly, standardized tests mean less and less each year.
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For this kid, any school with opaque admission policies might well be a reach ($150K income with 3 kids in college). He has two solid safeties that I recommended. Others are based on his profile and what is available based on public info.
The admission game has changed a lot for kids that have aspirations. Honestly, you have true safeties and everything else is a reach if your budget is $25-35K. Just go through the list of class of 23 threads to see what I mean.
On the other hand, full or near full pay kids did just fine.
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Sounds like you are conflating a financial reach with an academic reach. Some can be both, of course, but when schools deny 80+ % of applicants (including many very qualified students) these schools are a reach for virtually everyone. Several of the top tier schools are need blind, so being full pay is a non issue (unless maybe they managed to bump up from the waitlist). Full pay is helpful for waitlisted kids.
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Rich schools and private counselors have access to databases that provide info on how a prior applicant from a school did at a certain college. So letās say 50 Thomas Jefferson HS kids applied to Harvard. The program will tell you how these kids fared based on GPA, scores, rank etc. It can be a useful tool when making a college list. Generally, it is of zero use to someone like you because I am willing to bet not many from your school apply to these colleges.
But for most mere mortals, these things are not even at play as I said in my post above.
You can listen to the privileged on here or just face reality. Your best bet is to apply to schools that are prestigious and do not see many applicants like you. Truth is kids that canāt pay full price are always at a disadvantage at private name brand schools.
You have two fine safeties that are in state. Donāt get too far down the rabbit hole. The number 1 hook in college admissions is your ability to pay, which is hugely underestimated by many parents and students. This assumes you have good enough grades to have a seat at the table.
The ones that can afford to hire essay writers, college counselors and pay $50k+ or full pay are not worried too much about getting into a name brand school.
I advised OP to be strategic based on what I know. If you have better school suggestions then by all means share with him.
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He has been given many great suggestions here in the almost 500 posts. Not sure he needs more suggestions, just accurate information.
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We have had a decent number of kids get into Ivy and top 10s in the last couple years.
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So I got a little more financial information out of my parents. They said that we do not have any assets. How would this impact financial aid?
Contradicts early statements that your parents owned multiple convenience stores. Not to make assumptions but is possible your parents have a ācomplicatedā relationship with the IRS which may complicate your FA but may explain their comments earlier not to worry about their ability to pay up for the ārightā schools.
Something doesnāt add up 400+ posts inš
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Yea that is what I was thinking. I donāt know what the exact relation is with the convenience stores. I know that they have to pay rent for the properties so I donāt know if that would help.
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