My son wants to study graphic design (visual communication) at a smallish liberal arts college where he can minor in music. We are finding that is not available many places especially in the northeast, Wesleyan being one.
He is a senior at a notably non prestigious public school in Vermont,
GPA 3.87/4, rank 12 of 190, 4 AP classes, SATs 750/780 (super scores to 1540)
He is a busy kid with music and drama: sings in 3 + choruses, lead roles in multiple school plays, plays lead guitar and sings in a little rock and roll band that performs around town, plays guitar at local nursing home, just joined the school’s jazz ensemble. Has done a little graphic design work for community organizations. He is not a leader but is a great collaborator.
I think he has a shot at Wesleyan but I know at this level of competition, luck plays a big role. (So far Skidmore is his second choice and we are about to look at Colby although there design program is not as strong looking as Skidmore and Wesleyan)
Any thoughts on increasing his chances? Would applying ED to Wesleyan help his chances?
Thank for your thoughts.
Well, the raw data suggests that it is helpful. The rate of acceptance for Wesleyan first-year applicants is twice as high in the EDI and EDII rounds as it is for those who are accepted during the RD round. The problem is that it is unlikely uniformly advantageous for hooked and unhooked candidates alike. Examples of hooked candidates would be athletes, legacies, URMs and, to some extent - women STEM majors. So, one has to perform a highly speculative mental calculus in order to ascertain how many unhooked places remain in the ED pool after all the others are eliminated. IMO, your chances are better at Wesleyan than say, Amherst or Pomona, because it has a larger class size (nearly 2x) to fill.