That’s great! Nice to know.
Based on your daughter’s profile and stats, she may get a full ride scholarship at UMD too.
William and Mary only has ED 1 and ED 2. She may have a good chance at one of their few full scholarships called the 1693 Scholars.
That would be unreal and that is why it is on the list. I don’t think she realizes how good of a school it is. She wants to get away from home, which I totally get. She won’t apply to Georgetown because it is local.
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I was going to mention Lafayette in lieu of U of Richmond, thinking that it must be more diverse. However, upon googling, it isn’t. (Laf is about 25% POC – I’d figured it would be at least one-third…)
Still, it’s another solid “match/low match” probably, and it’s pretty close to Lehigh – one could easily visit, and spend plenty of time at, both in a day.
Based on your daughter’s interests, she may want to look into colleges with an available major in public policy. This interdisciplinary major relies on the fields of political science, economics and philosophy for its foundation, and emphasizes practical approaches to seemingly complex societal issues. If this concept appeals to your daughter, this site may offer her ideas for adding to and refining her college list:
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True - if you want an early admit, apply to Pitt (ok, you said too urban)- given that you want to be in a similar geography. Or an Arizona or Indiana - which is strong in Policy. Pitt is closest to mid size - but the point is, she’s looking for early moreso than size.
I get it UMD is also inexpensive - but so will be Arizona and to a lesser extent IU.
Just saying you’d get one on the board.
Nonetheless, I think you have good odds with your list - and if you’re looking for money, I know @momsearcheng daughter got a great scholarship at Gettysburg.
I’m assuming the 93 unweighted is like a 3.8-4.0 on a 4 point scale.
I honestly think - you have a very good sense of safety, match, and reach from your initial list so that as you adjust the list, you’ll still do a great job of identifying the buckets.
Best of luck.
@tsbna44 I think you might be right about IU. I have heard great things about it and it is probably close to the highest rate among the rolling admit. I suggested UofA and ASU to my wife but daughter does not want to think that far away. The 93 average at her school equates to exactly a 4.0 per the school profile. Weighted average after 10th was about 4.12 I beleive reflecting one honors class. Her one major draw back could be rigor.
Thanks for the thoughts.
If a kid came to me for help and said 'Yale is the dream" I’d be suggesting the following:
Barnard
Rochester
Brandeis
Wellesley
U Chicago
Swarthmore
Bryn Mawr
Wesleyan
No safeties in this group but some “much more likelies” than Yale. And I’d suggest exploring American and Holy Cross which are probably safeties even though nobody will say that.
Dartmouth seems to be an outlier on this list. Socially it doesn’t share much with Yale. I remember sitting through a presentation with two different kids in different years, different Adcom’s and both starting their spiel by saying 'If you love snow and winter sports, you’re going to love it here". And then a LOT of talk about winter sports and various festivities around snow.
Neither kid was interested in snow, frats, or were particularly big partiers, so the brief discussion on ways to get involved in the community, social activism, performing arts, etc. seemed extremely perfunctory. A lot has changed since then, but I still don’t think it’s a fantastic environment for an AA woman interested in politics/intersection with policy.
Your D sounds great!!!
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@merc81 thanks for this list. Public Policy is a great option and there are some great school on the list. We will likely add Cornell and UVA although we do seem to have enough reach schools. The toughest part about this is finding that sweet spot of “match” schools that offer what the kid wants and seems aspirational.
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That is very helpful re Dartmouth and we may replace it with Cornell after some feedback. We stopped by Swarthmore and my daughter loved the campus and it is obviously a great school.
Funny thing about UofC is that the Ad Director loves girls from my daughter’s school and they send about 3 girls a year there but we have heard the director is retiring. As a family we have not been to the midwest and therefore we have no midwest schools and that dissapoints me. UofW, UofM Northwestern while larger than ideal seem like excellent mixes of target/stretches to add.
AU is not an option even though Mom has three degrees and brother 2 from there. HC not an option because I went to BC(joking, kinda) and Worcester is a hell hole.
Just a thought- replace the words “not an option” with “I’ll suggest my daughter research that”.
You’ll be surprised by the number of kids in real life (not just on CC) who end up at a “not an option” college. Life can surprise you.
Swarthmore is a special place.
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Ohhhhh. She doesn’t have available rigor ? Yea that could hurt including at BC. If not avail is one thing.
U of A with a 4.0 is 30k off the $40k tuition. It’s large but not ASU large. The honors dorm is incredible. Dining hall at the bottom and gym adjacent.
Rigor can hurt but you said they don’t offer AP and if that’s the case it should not hurt.
If you’re looking at BC or Dartmouth, Arizona really isn’t much farther. Well by plane.
A lot on here recommmend Macalester for city access but not too urban. Not sure if that’s too far.
I still think you’re fine. Kalamazoo is a smaller Lac With open curriculum.
Looking forward to following your path.
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Cornell will be added to the list and I appreciate the ILR insight. They appear to have a very good public policy program. I personally could not take those winters.
Not an option was said tongue and cheek. My daughter desperately wants to get out of town. We will apply to UMD because it is EA, In State and the honors program and scholarship and intriguing to parents. AU is a great option for wonks, diplomats, law school but way too familiar to daughter. There’s also not a very active campus life. GU would be a top choice if we were not from DC area.
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The independent schools around DC approached the T20ish schools together and proposed dropping AP so that they could have more control over curriculum. We have been assured that it is not held against them. At my daughter’s school they have honors classes with a GPA bump and advanced classes for Sr year. Girls need approval to take honors before 10th grade. In 10th grade 2 is max school recommends(mine took had 2 but had to drop honors math because of high anxiety). She took 2 this year and next year is all advanced. It is a rigorous college prep school and most of her peers are bananas. Average SAT scores are like 1440 and 32 ACT.
Typically the median college acceptance is UVA.
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If your daughter might like to experience both of these types of environments, she may want to look into Hamilton, which offers long-established term-length programs in D.C. and NYC.
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I agree that Dartmouth is not like your other reaches. But why isn’t Harvard on her list? Harvard seems like the perfect high reach for her, with its strong public policy program. Maybe Penn as an additional RD?
If this admissions cycle is not affected by the anticipated Supreme Court decision, I think that your daughter has a chance anywhere, including Yale and Harvard. High grades at a very good high school, fantastic ACT, demonstrated leadership in her ECs. Only thing I’m wondering about is rigor as compared to others in her class - did she take almost all honors levels that were available to her?
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@parentologist She will likely apply to Harvard but Her school does not have the same track record as at other schools so it feels like more of a reach if that makes sense. You are correct on the rigor. The school discourages more honors classes but others in her class have certainly taken more rigorous. More rigor would have been better for her profile in retrospect but probably not better for her personally. There is a tight rope between doing more and staying sane in a pressure cooker. If she doesn’t get in to an ivy because of rigor then so be it. Re Penn, she just did not really like it when we visited.
We are anticipating that this admissions cycle will be impacted by SCOTUS but not sure to what extent. We think she is a qualified candidate regardless but so are almost every other applicant. We feel confident she will have good options and will be happy where she lands but there is only so much that is in her control.
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There no tight rope.
You’ve done what’s best for her. I’m glad she avoided the urge to overdo it.
If it’s Brandeis or Clark and not BC, life will go on - and she’ll have her sanity and a great education.
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You sound like a very sane parent. If she is interested in public policy, does it make sense to stay near DC? Georgetown, American, GW?