College Mistakes - Redoing my application process?

College Search & Selection
41

Do you know any folk at Cuse you can talk to? I’m at Duke, a big sports school, and I’ve never watched a sports game in my life all the way through. Despite that disconnect of fit, however, I’m actually fairly happy with the opportunities Duke has offered me (and the $$$$). Is it a perfect fit? No. But could i find a community that is socially aware, academically-focused, and service focused? Yes.

When I went to visit day at Duke, I hated it the entire time-- all the way until I went to a smaller, arts/humanities focused event, and somebody at Duke out-and-out said to me “I go to Duke, and I don’t care about Duke sports.” I needed that to change my mindset at Duke, but it was invaluable. Is there an institutional culture disconnect between me and “Duke-as-an-image”? Absolutely. Do I have folks and a support system? Yes.

42

Why are you changing your mind now? Did you and the girl break up? Did she change her school so now you are changing your school? Is it someone new in the picture and now you want to be close to them. I’m asking because none of the issues you have with Syracuse University is new. You knew all this when you committed in January so what changed.

43

Broke up awhile ago. Changing my mind because as the OP said I never got to apply for other schools or fit myself anyhere. My initial experience with Cuse after visiting and the campus environment didn’t feel right. I wanted to try looking elsewhere and actually assert myself in the college selection process instead of riding a wave and going to a college I don’t know much about and chose out of ignorant impulse.

And purpleacorn, I think my issues of disconnect are much more amplified. Although Duke loves it’s sports and frats, it’s most identifiably a very academically rigorous and higher learning school at its core.

My interactions with the school, current and prospective students, and it’s general perception made me feel like the purposes of the university were different, centered around partying/frat life and sports at its core rather than rigorous academics.

Thanks for the responses.

44

If you care about rankings, Syracuse is #61 in the nation. That’s pretty darn good.

It’s graduate program ratings in political science and public affairs (#1) are even higher. That quality will trickle down to undergraduate offerings.

It’s a far cry from Podunk U. Great value for the money. It’s large enough that you will find your people.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/syracuse-university-196413/overall-rankings

45

In comment #38 you outlined your options. As has been pointed out, option 2 has some negatives, so you might want to eliminate it, or at least discount it. But these aren’t your only options. As someone just posted, the NACAC has recently posted its list of schools still looking for students for this coming fall:

http://www.nacacnet.org/research/research-data/College-Openings/Pages/College-Openings-Results.aspx

So you should look through that list and see if you like any of the schools listed, and if so, apply (soon). As people have said, there are often very good schools on this list. (I don’t know the financial aid considerations for applying to these schools now.)

Also, I note that this is pretty much the same set of options presented to you (and as summarized by me) in your earlier thread, almost a month ago. So it looks like you haven’t done much in that time (although you do seem more well informed now). I suggest it’s time to take action.

Have you already committed (i.e., sent in a deposit) to Syracuse? If not, are you sure you still have that spot? If yes, you have to decide whether you want to keep that spot. You can either do nothing (for now), tell them you’re not coming, or ask them if you can defer a year. But probably first you want to think about and decide for sure what you’re going to do, which option you’re choosing.

Taking a gap year is a big decision, and in some sense it does delay getting on with your life. But it may be an acceptable decision, perhaps even the best decision, under the circumstances.

And this doesn’t really say anything about your (possibly) having to get out of an ED commitment. My guess is that’s doable, but you’ll have to decide how best to handle that.

46

From the NACAC list of colleges with openings. The following look like they would be of great interest to you and meet some or all of your needs.

St John’s College is a “great books” college with one major, but it’s outstanding and given your interests is intellectual nirvana. THEY MEET FULL NEED and have campuses in Santa Fe NM and Annapolis, and you can move around within, I think.

Lawrence University is still open and looks like an excellent choice for you. In the past they have met full need, but what do you have to lose.

University of Minnesota-Morris is a public liberal arts college with a very low list price.

47

Lawrence University was a contender for my kid until some other options kicked in. It’s a CTCL school, and in the same ranking ballpark (for whatever that’s worth) as Syracuse. Really nice folks in the Admissions office, and generous with merit, too. (Though that ship might have sailed.) Give it a good look.

48

How can you mention these schools in the same sentence as Syracuse? I would go at least a semester to Cuse and give it a try. You don’t really have time living in Texas to go around and visit all if these liberal arts schools.

49

Cause OP doesn’t like Cuse. Get over it.

Lawrence is a more academic minded school.

50

Look these schools up on collegedata.com. You can see information about student faculty ratio, class size, test score distribution, etc. that may help sort out relative merits in terms of what you’re looking for.

51

I’m sorry, but I absolutely agree with Hardliner.

Guys, I’m looking to challenge myself. Syracuse was essentially an automatic admission and a lot of these colleges are frankly not going to give the academic environment of Syracuse (even if there is a lot of partying I am sure I could hunt the environment down.) I have Syracuse in my pocket if I must and it’s definitely a very viable option on the table that I will likely choose… I’m looking for colleges that are reach-ish to possibly look to transfer into or take a gap semester/year and apply like wildfire to. I’m also hunting for advice on the transfer process and whether or not schools will accept spring admissions as easily as fall admissions and whether or not they will meet full need.

Thanks for all your posts!

52

Reaches for the most part are not going to appear on the list of places that still have room left. But if you look at average scores, Lawrence, for example comes out on top of Syracuse. It may not be what you’re looking for. You may be better off just giving Syracuse a whirl. But if you’re looking for “more academic” you may find it there.

53

As I have said, I’m willing to gap to be able to reapply at a later time.

54

I don’t see why you think Syracuse with a lot of aid was an automatic admission and somehow beneath you. You aren’t valectorian or SAT2400, which is fine, but that means like most of your peers you may have to settle for the best school you can get in (and can afford). Syracuse is a fine school, you have a fine FA package, close to full need. You can work in summers for almost minimum wage or you can borrow money … $12K is a very affordable student loan note …

Finding a perfect college takes a lot of time, and I think in a way the perfect match idea is overrated. All colleges have pros and cons, and big schools have people of all ilks, including lots of people who aren’t interested in sports. It is a very varied student population, since they pull students from all over the country. Smaller schools could be a more awkward fit and also won’t offer you things that you don’t even know you would like … big schools have so many offerings.

Other than the odd factoid that you chose this school because of an ex, which would at best be an interesting three beer story and more likely forgotten after mid-September … I think this is a good deal.

Question: if Syracuse had sent you an unsolicited offer letter offering you this nice a financial package and being ranked #61 and all, and being worth close to $70K for many students … would you have been happy or sad ?

55

Foodoos you are certainly free to do what you want, but you are losing a year’s salary on the backend of your education because you don’t like your options on the front end. If that’s 8 years down the road, it’s still probably quite a bit of money. That’s not exactly logical given your financial position.

For an academically talented student like you, Lawrence or St John’s would probably provide you with a superior education to Syracuse, which is a decidedly pre-professional, rah rah party school. Such an education would be excellent preparation in critical thinking for a professional school like law school or a school of public policy.

56

There are a number of decent CTCL schools on the that list - like Knox, Juniata, Gonzaga, Ohio Wesleyan, as well as Lawrence. Financial and merit aid is likely to be more scarce this late in the season but they say it’s available. So if you wanted to roll the dice at one of them, have at it. If you want a smaller academic experience, keep an open mind and do some research.

Foodoos, nobody can predict if a substantially better deal is likely to come your way if you take a gap year. Will your GPA go up substantially as a result of your senior year grades? If not, the risk is that you reapply and end up with results no better (or perhaps worse) than what Syracuse is offering.

57

My last comment on this is my mom would pretty much make me try Syracuse since I made a commitment with ED. There is not going to be a better bang for the buck than the offer you received at Syracuse. It is not the school that creates your social-you have to get out and make friends and socialize on your own. You are intelligent but seem somewhat selfish and unrealistic about sitting out college for a year. You will be more isolated with all your high school friends off at college. The heat in Texas is awful so head north and give Cuse a real chance and don’t base a decision on one badly perceived weekend.

58

Yes, I am still interested at least giving Syracuse a shot, don’t get that wrong. I just don’t want to trap myself somewhere I
A) Can’t transfer out of and dislike.
B) Am not challenging myself to attend when I could easily wait 5 months and go somewhere I actually chose that could be much more enjoyable.

I appreciate everyone’s advice.

Back on the last and easily the most important topic question, what is aid like for spring entrance / transfer students, and is spring admission for spring 2017 plausible and actively done by HS seniors? Is it harder?

Once these questions are answered, I’m sure I’ll have a choice to make.

Thanks for guiding me through this difficult time.

59

I keep telling myself not to post again in this thread, because it really seems like the OP is not listening to the many good comments he’s received. But I’ll give it one more shot.

As many people have suggested, neither applying to start in the spring nor transferring are good options. I’ve actually never heard of anyone applying for the spring – I don’t know that it’s done (except maybe for some schools with rolling admissions). Here’s an article I found about it:

http://college.usatoday.com/2014/09/04/everything-you-need-to-know-about-applying-for-spring-admission/

So I guess it can be done. But there are disadvantages, and I suspect it can’t be done at most of the schools it sounds like you want to consider. With transferring, it’s much harder to get in, and there’s much less financial aid available. (By “financial aid”, I mean both need-based and merit-based aid; sometimes it’s only used to refer to need-based aid.) So you probably should downgrade both of these options considerably.

Otherwise, taking a gap year is a possibility – it might allow you to keep Syracuse (and it’s financial aid offer, which it sounds like is a good one) as an option and still allow you to apply to whatever other schools you discover. But, as @ClassicRockerDad states, that can have a real impact on your career earnings. And for all you know, you might not end up with a better offer than the one from Syracuse. (I suspect that you can get accepted at plenty of schools, but who knows what will happen regarding financial aid.)

Likewise, going to Syracuse next year is an option – but just realize that, while you can try to transfer after a year there and see what happens, you may not end up with any good/better alternatives (this is besides the fact that starting at a school already with a mindset that you’re going to transfer can be problematic).

Finally, the way you so cavalierly discount Lawrence and the entire NACAC list that was posted shows that you’re not really going about this seriously. Lawrence is clearly a better school academically than Syracuse. And there may be other schools on that list that are also clearly better – I didn’t look at it too closely. What would it take for you to go through that list more carefully and find such schools on it, and then send off applications to them now? You say you’re going to “apply like wildfire” – well, go ahead and get started on that.

Honestly, it does seem like there are some things here you’re not doing the necessary legwork yourself – questions you could find the answers for by searching online. It’s relatively easy to ask questions here and collect responses. But much of that you could do yourself. And at some point you’re going to have to decide what to do, and take care of it yourself.

60

Csdad, this is an extremely difficult decision with many variables. The advice I have received has been significant to my consideration. Just because I have not immediately decided what to do based on posts within this thread does not mean that I am not taking the posts into consideration. They have been extremely insightful. Also, I have definitely done my own work, but it’s not unreasonable to be intimidated by a giant list of colleges that are, for the most part, off the radar. Especially when ever you are already in a nationally-known and #61 college. But Lawrence univsersity has absolutely captured my attention and I am severely looking into the college.