Thank you for your input! I love every school I applied to so if I get into one I will be very happy!
thank you very much!
That you have a school you already love makes the rest icing on the cake.
Don’t forget, what you think you can afford isn’t necessarily what the schools will say you can. They may say more (or less).
Best of luck.
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If you might be curious with respect to an external source pertaining to the selectivity of your LAC choices, then you can view their “selectivity ranks” in the print edition of U.S. News. This is how they appeared in the context of rankings for other LACs (from the “2021” edition):
︎1. Pomona
︎2. Harvey Mudd
︎2. Haverford
︎4. Amherst
︎5. Hamilton
︎5. Swarthmore
︎5. Williams
︎8. Barnard
︎8. Bowdoin
︎10. Washington & Lee
︎11. Wellesley
︎12. Colorado College
︎12. Smith
︎12. Vassar
︎15. Carleton
︎16. Colby
︎17. Colgate
︎17. Davidson
︎19. Claremont McKenna
︎19. Grinnell
︎19. Middlebury
19. Wesleyan
︎23. Bates
︎23. Bryn Mawr
︎23. Macalester
︎26. Franklin & Marshall
︎26. Scripps
︎28. Denison
︎28. Kenyon
︎28. Mount Holyoke
︎28. URichmond
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Thank you!
Thank you! This is very insightful 
While being an IM is highly commendable, I don’t think it would qualify as a 1 on their EC criteria. For context, Harvard often rejects IMO Gold Medal winners, which is much rarer than being an IM in chess.
Also note that the admit percentage is for US applicants, not international students. At Harvard, the international students tend to be pretty exceptional compared to the rest of the student body.
If Harvard is your dream, by all means apply, but go in with realistic expectations.
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I generally prefer the list that is posted by the Adroit Journal, because it’s a literary journal, and it has a lot of stuff going on for training high school kids.
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That’s great that you have an acceptance that you’re happy with and that you can afford. I had never heard of Concourse (now bought by EAB). Very interesting model, but they don’t say which schools are participating in it. In any event, Wabash has a sufficient endowment to be financially stable, so as a safety, it’s great that you’ve already got this in the bag! Congratulations! You’re going to college in the US, no matter what results you get from the other schools.
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UT Dallas has a good chess team if you want to continue playing chess in college.
Thank you but please keep in mind how many IMO candidates there are compared to chess. What I think is rare is my ranking on chess.com and that I have a proven track record of beating notable GMs.
Thank you very much!
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I would love play chess in college however I would like to receive a liberal arts like education to prepare me for grad school
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One needn’t go to a LAC to prepare for grad school Many colleges offer a liberal arts experience.
but i suppose you can play chess anywhere.
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Yes I do agree but I really love the intimate and small college nature of LACs as I come from a rather small school
Among their other attributes, LACs tend to be highly recognized for the classroom experience they provide.
To be very candid, no one is going to put much stock in a chess.com rating due to the ability to cheat on that website.
You say you are an IM. That is a title granted by FIDE as a result of over the board play. Here is their criteria:
The international master (IM) title is the second most difficult title to attain. To earn this title, a player must reach an established classical or standard FIDE rating of 2400 and achieve three international master norms in international competition.
If you have earned this FIDE title, then my hat is off to you. Very difficult to achieve.
Having a 2400 rating on chess.com is not the same thing.
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Of topical note, the prominent chess player who admitted to online cheating said he did so specifically to improve his rating.
I know nothing about chess, my my nephew is a self described chess nerd. He wrote his college essay on how it was hard during Covid because his rankings dropped due to his refusal to cheat, but so much better when things went back to in person and he started doing very well again, his playing had really improved.