<p>@MrMom62 if you don’t mind me asking, how were your daughters extracurriculars? I feel as though that is a strong point in my application. Like your daughter, i am struggling to decide whether or not to do ED II as being accepted to that school and my EDI school would be a bummer. If I do EDII it will likely be at Bowdoin though. Damn not having any hooks!</p>
<p>I don’t know how to gauge what are or aren’t good ECs. She’s a regional VP of her youth group (7 state area) and has been appointed as one of 5 North American delegates to an international conference for her youth group in 2015. (Total North American participation is 8500 members.) That’s probably her strongest EC.</p>
<p>Everything else is pretty standard, she participates in sports, but is not good enough to play in college. She does theater, both on and off stage and is part of an improv group, all of which she would like to continue in college. Yada, yada, yada…</p>
<p>She got in Case today with a merit scholarship, which really helped take out the sting. She’ll likely do the ED2 now, as she’s now remembering why she nearly made it her ED1 school, unless we somehow hear Bowdoin sent her the wrong e-mail.</p>
<p>While Bowdoin is SAT optional, I think it is very, very difficult to get admitted without submitting scores unless your application demonstrates that you are likely to make an extra-ordinary contribution to college community. Students admitted early on the basis of academic merit will have NMS level test scores. For everyone else, Good, solid EC’s are not enough. You need to have something which is ‘magical’, such as a national-level talent or something else which captures the imagination of the admissions officers and presages a great contribution by the student if they are offered a spot.</p>
<p>Athletes, Legacies and urms, as we all know, are in another category, but there is competition of a different kind which those admits face in order to earn their spot via a so-called tip.</p>
<p>What is considered urm?</p>
<p>On CC, URM is usually AA, Hispanic, or Native American, but can also be whatever is under-represented for a particular school, e.g. socio-economic or geographic diversity, women in engineering etc.</p>
<p>Just saw this on another post and it worth reading. I learned a great deal in the past 2 years–son #1 had a RD struggle while similar son#2 is 5/5/ Read this : Admissions Messages vs. Admissions Realities</p>
<p>Nevedoctor, do you know a link to the article that is free? Everything i’ve found requires a credit card.</p>
<p>[Reed</a> College | Admission](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/apply/news_and_articles/admission_messages.html]Reed”>http://www.reed.edu/apply/news_and_articles/admission_messages.html)</p>