There are at least counselors here on CC: Hanna, Jym626, soozievt.
Right now, it seems your list is good for reach schools. You do know Swathmore has a 9% admit rate, as one example.
You think all those schools are reach? I know Swarthmore certainly is but I don’t think Sarah Lawrence or Bryn Mawr necessarily are.
Bryn Mawr is AS competitive as Swat. Sarah Lawrence should not be viewed as a sure thing either.
BMC doesn’t give much, if any, merit aid. Any they do give would be HIGHLY competitive.
I guess that’s why I need a college consultant. What about Bard or Macalester?
I engaged this counselor when we moved overseas with D2. I wanted someone who was familiar with the US college process who would be available to D2 with any questions - kind of like a comprehensive wedding planner. The counselor assisted D2 with course selections at her international school, ECs she should be involved in (based on her interest), summer programs, testing, essays, application…the whole process. He had a group of ex-adcoms in the info bank who continuous evaluated D2’s stats to see if she was on track for the level of schools she was interested in. This counselor never told us he had any pulls with adcoms, but I knew he met with them often enough to know what those schools were looking for, and that helped with crafting of D1’s application and essays.
This counselor had an info bank, which was made up of ex-adcoms from top tier schools. As part of the service, they evaluated student’s profile from time to time and let the student know if he/she was on track for schools of interest or he/she needs to make some adjustments. For us, this was something other consulting didn’t offer and was very valuable to us.
D1 had such a bad college application process that I wanted to make sure D2 didn’t repeat the experience. I was very happy with the decision to hire a counselor and felt it was the money well spent. We met with the counselor when we visited the States during one of our home visits, but other than that we did everything via Skype. D2 also did all of her SAT tutoring via Skype. The cost was some where in between of the estimates OP received.
D1 recently got married and I also hired a wedding planner as soon as she got engaged instead of waiting until the month of (very happy with the planner and the outcome). No different than when hiring a private college counselor, if you are considering a private counselor it is better to do it earlier rather than later. There are different levels of counseling (just like wedding planner) and the cost is also commensurate with level of services.
Just a side note - I shadowed this counselor for few months after D2 was admitted to her first choice. I was doing it out of curiosity and was interested in going into business with him. I sat in on few consulting meetings and also saw some results. There were a lot of behind the scene stuff that’s not discussed on CC.
@ReelLife : Bryn Mawr is not as competitive as Swarthmore with respect to admissions.
Ask your daughter to consider Vassar College & Skidmore College. Both are in New York state.
Macalester is very liberal & accepting. Well regarded, but consider the journey. Bard has a lot of smokers according to recent visitors. Retention rate is not as high as at the others on your list–save for Sarah Lawrence.
Vassar College
Skidmore College
Grinnell College
Bryn Mawr
Smith College
Swarthmore is a reach, but I do not know enough about your daughter to offer a reasonable assessment.
Macalester–long journey though.
NYU–but will be expensive.
Barnard College should be considered (can take classes at adjoining Columbia University).
Great list. How about Wesleyan? Oberlin? Boston College? I don’t get the long journey comment—we’re coming from freakin Japan. Everything’s a long journey!
@oldfort Thanks for sharing that info; very relevant. Care to share name/contact info for the consultant?
Boston College is an interesting choice compared to your daughter’s other listed schools. BC is not as liberal as the others.
Oberlin’s financial state should be examined. Some think that political correctness has gone too far on this campus. The music conservatory is well regarded, however.
I am trying to encourage Boston since her brother will be there and we’re so far away. We’ve thought about Brandeis and Wellesley but she had mentioned USC (which I think is all wrong for her) but she thinks there are more Japanese speakers on the West coast and it has a great ballet program. So I thought well if you think you’d like SC, why not BC?
I would put Bryn Mawr as a match because of the IB. If she likes women’s colleges, she could look at Agnes Scott, Spellman, Mills, Scripps, etc. as safer matches. Reachier women’s college, but not impossible with her IB scores would be Mt Holyoke and Wellesley. I don’t have. Good sense of where Smith and Barnard fall these days.
Since you don’t mind being full pay, there are scads of places out there for her. What about your own alma mater or former home state public as a back-up?
Just a suggestion, but the money you spend on the consultant would pay for one or more trips back to the US to actually visit these places, which will be far more valuable for your daughter. I am surprised at the variation on your list-big, small, urban, rural, LAC, university. They are very different places, and unlikely to appeal to the same type of student. It is helpful to engage in self reflection as to what type of campus she wants.
Boston is a great city & being close to her brother creates obvious advantages for both of your kids as well as for convenience in traveling.
You are getting some odd recommendations, in my opinion. You may want to share some of your daughter’s interests.
The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music offers a well respected ballet program. Not near a major city, but Bloomington is one of the best college towns in the US & has about 32,000 full time students.
Does she want to major in dance? If not, she will find dance opportunities at many colleges.
@happymomof1 Our former home state public as well as my alma mater is Berkeley so she’ll apply but not so much a back-up. I think the way the UCs work is you rank your campus preference and so you get admitted into the system at a certain GPA and you get passed down the list until you get accepted to a campus.
@ReeliLife: You no longer rank the UC’s so you just apply to as many as you want. As a non-resident there is no guaranteed UC campus if do not get into your choice campus. Things have changed since you applied.
@thumper1 She wants to major in psychology and has a keen interest in mental health and would love to open a clinic in an under-served community. She will take ballet on the side. But she wants to go somewhere where she can study ballet more than just one or two days a week.
@roycroftmom She’s clear on her priorities 1)Strong academics 2) Commitment to social justice 3) Diversity. Being in a big city is a bonus.
I’m not sure what is meant by Macalester - long journey? Macalester is 15 minutes via uber/lyft/cab to an international airport. The airport is transit accessible if you have a bit more time. There are regular direct flights to Asian destinations. I’m not sure why it would a longer journey than east coast schools?
It’s an urban school. Not NYC/Manhattan urban, but still, nicely urban and accessible to city amenities/internship opportunities We live in close range.
@Gumbymom Clearly things have changed! I’m not sure what the residency requirements are for UCs. I still pay California state taxes so hopefully that means she could apply as a resident but I haven’t looked into it. Her interest in the UCs hasn’t manifested itself.