chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Hamilton College
1

<p>Pardon the interruption from someone who lives on the parent's side of town. D has got was she says is her final list. What are her chances at Hamilton?</p>

<p>D is a rising senior from a relatively small, relatively poor, rural district in Texas. </p>

<p>2160 New SAT, 730CR, 740Math, 690W (same sitting), 32 ACT w/ a 36 Math. Currently 1/140. 4.64w,4.0/4.0uw.</p>

<p>Toughest courseload available including several college level (and EPGY BC Calc). School only offers two AP's for junior year, 4 in Lit and a 5 in AB Calc. 7 best in school awards: for Math (3 times), English (2), Physics (1),and Chemistry (1). (all honors sections, or AP)</p>

<p>4 year Varsity Basketball starter, 2 year Co-captain on Area Championship Team. Extensive Summer Basketball experience every year.</p>

<p>Marching Band and Symphonic Band Section and Line Leader on State Ranked Band (2 years officer, member all 4), State Qualifier -UIL Solo and Ensemble as a Tuba Player in a Bass Quartet.</p>

<p>Girl's State delegate, and minor elected official.</p>

<p>Regional Sixth Place Math UIL Competition and Math Team Co-captain (2 years)- District Champion (1), 3rd place large Invitational Math Tournament. </p>

<p>Hospital Volunteer (100 hours), community volunteering , school volunteering including tutoring at risk kids and hearing impaired kids for several hundred hours.</p>

<p>Part-time work: Raises sheep and goats of her own for her spending money. Lives on a ranch and performs general ranchhand activities for additional pay.</p>

<p>Normal boring Student Government, club, or organization stuff that probably won't make it to the app.</p>

<p>Rec's should be very good to exceptional, essays will be good.</p>

<p>Thanks, 7 more to go.LOL</p>

2

<p>Don't mean to grab the mike from a kid, Curmudgeon, but I have an informed opinion here. She looks good to me. Demonstrated interest matters at Hamilton - visting campus seems to matter and follow up with any admissions office contact. I'm sure you know it's rural, so I think her background is a plus (also geographic diversity) - it's hard for a lot of suburban/urban kids to handle rural + cold. Unfortunately, they are not completely need blind - used to say that financial need was a factor in the last 10 percent of their admissions decisions (or some wording like that). Essays should help - it's a school that places a lot of emphasis on writing. Good luck.</p>

3

<p>lh of d, I think our final strategy was to look at schools she wanted to attend because of their character, campus, and kids. As F/A for her is a significant concern we are taking the gamble that a school where her stats are better than average might be more generous in the process, both need-based and the tiny bit of merit HC offers.</p>

4

<p>HC attracts many applicants from the New York area, and I think their applicant pool is strong. I don't have first hand knowledge of their merit winners so I don't know what their records were. Maybe it's not borne out by facts, but I would have guessed that their merit winners were "Ivy" eligible - that they use the merit money to attract the cream of the applicants. The kids I've know who applied/attended had very strong records but none were offered merit money and some reported finaid did not compare to other LACs they'd applied to. For some reason, I also know a couple students who transferred out of HC -because they didn't like rural location, in search of a program that better suited their major, and for financial reasons. Have you visited?</p>