We haven’t visited Vanderbilt and D knows little about it. Her saying she’s not sure she’d like it is based on four students she knows from our school and how intense those students are. That’s hardly good reason, so it stays on the list.
I know a lot of kids don’t get to visit schools but our S did and that’s what sealed the deal so we know it can help when a student is deciding from a list of schools.
@merc81: Regarding your thoughts about overlap schools for the University of Richmond & for Davidson College:
Univ. of Richmond overlaps:
Univ. of Virginia, College of William & Mary, Boston College, Wake Forest, Georgetown, UNC, Villanova, & Notre Dame
Davidson College overlaps:
Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Wash & Lee, UNC, & Duke
Does this change your analysis ?
P.S. List of overlap schools is provided by each school to the editors of the Fiske Guide
Beyond simple yield, the draw rate—yield rate/admit rate—can be an interesting additional data point (although it’s more useful to the institution rather than the consumer). This blog post explains a little bit about it and has a look-up tool.
Honestly I’m not sure what “nice sized town” you’re referring to for SCU. San Francisco is a long way away, San Jose has some features of a major city (eg hockey and soccer teams) but I would never consider it a compelling destination for a night out. And Santa Clara has even less going for it than most other small towns on the peninsula (eg restaurants are better in Mountain View and Palo Alto, other towns like Redwood City and San Mateo have a decent movie theater as a downtown anchor). My feeling is that LMU would potentially win against SCU in terms of the nearby off-campus opportunities (especially given the beach) if either were under serious consideration, which it doesn’t sound like they are.
That’s helpful, but Fiske tends to favor “aspirational” overlaps rather than the full range of overlaps. With this being the case, it’s difficult to interpret which schools those accepted to Richmond and Davidson may have had as real options. With respect to my previous post, I considered that more first-year students at UR originated from Mid-Atlantic and New England states (44%) than from Virginia and the rest of the South (33%).
Most kids are happy wherever they go, and a student’s happiness at any school is largely up to them. A visit may or may not be representative of a college experience, which will often depend upon the vagaries of roommates, initial friend groups, and similarly random encounters. I am quite certain students respond differently when parents are around rather than just other students. All the choices are fine.
Overlap Schools are provided by the individual college or university to the Fiske Guide; Fiske Guide editors merely pass along the information to their readers.
From the Fiske Guide To Colleges:
“As a service to our readers, we ask each school to give us the names of the colleges or universities that they consider to be their closest peer institutions and those with which they share the most common applications , and these are listed in the “overlaps” section at the end of each write-up.”
I agree with this to a point but during the time of Covid, all bets are off. D20 attends one of homerdaughter’s choices, applied ED after several visits and her experience is the complete opposite of what she expected. She has a roommate who has barely spoken 50 words to her all year (spent the first semester trying mediation with res life with no success), has joined a few clubs (met no one in person as all events and meetings have been virtual despite fewer than 20 cases each semester), has had one in person walk with a prof and a handful of small group meetings with her advisor and one hour of in-person instruction per week that she still attends virtually because she has a class right after and can’t make it back to her room in time.
She started in the fall with the most optimistic and hopeful outlook and seriously questions her choice every day.
Her summary to me is “they promised me a community but I am alone in a lifeboat looking for some kind of anchor but all I see is more lifeboats with people as lost as me”. At this point, it seems like this feeling impacts both first and second year students who have not been able to make a connection yet and, if the school stays as strict next year, it will impact 3 out of 4 classes on campus. Just something to think about…
Why would your D’s school stay the same? Most schools have said campus will be very close to normal this fall, even Bowdoin and they were over the top strict this year.
I guess the school must be Colgate or Davidson.
The head of student health services has said as much in meetings with students. Plus, they do like to march to their own beat - in the same state, one can show a negative Covid test result or proof of vaccine and buy tickets to the NCAA hockey tournament at an arena with 10% occupancy while there are 0 fans allowed at the college’s outdoor athletic events even though they testing 50% of the community every week.
Where did your daughter apply? My daughter also looking for rigorous schools with fun factor.
Regarding Vanderbilt and the academic intensity of the students…
Vandy used to take many students from our HS, but in recent years they only accept 1 student during the ED round, and everybody else is either WL’d or rejected. Many are offered a spot off of the WL.
The students who are accepted ED are well off financially (ie both parents are in very high paying professions), quite social, smart…but not over the top, and not what I would call “academically intense.” Many of the kids who are WL are actually more “intense.”
I really think it’s about what they are looking for, and we don’t always know.
Someone in the administration has said things will remain the same next fall? I think that person didn’t know what they were talking about.
Readers may want to draw their own inferences, however. In the case of Davidson, for example, it’s likely not a coincidence that all six of the LACs listed as overlaps are ranked higher by U.S. News.
If you’re talking about Colgate, it seems they are at Gate 4 which looks even more open than Bowdoin to me. On their website, there’s also info on vaccines and statements saying that’s the way back to normal.
Again, our experience is not directly in line with what they “say”. The direction is that there can be in person events, they “say” that is the case but when you are involved in a group whose purpose is to plan things, the staff direction is that things still need to be virtual. The parent FB group was told there aren’t a lot of events because staff and professors can’t get vaccines because there is a shortage but DH and I were able to get vaccine appointments within an hour’s drive from the college (over 2 hours from home). We have underlying health conditions but they were in a higher priority group because of their jobs. I’m not saying everything is blowing smoke but often the official “word” doesn’t resemble the actual circumstances. Official communication states facts about something, kid calls/emails/asks and is told something else entirely (availability of private spaces for telemedicine appointments is an example that comes to mind but there are many others). You find these things everywhere, I know. In a time when one counts on accurate and truthful information, the information should be just that, not a glossy picture of what sounds good.
The CA schools are out. If anything here in “Cali” as the kids say, then LMU with the big merit award.
Really? Wow, did not know that!
@CollegeBoundBrit: I added a link, above.
Tulane, University if Miami, Sewanee, Middlebury, Washington and Lee, Eckerd and Montana State. Admitted early to first 3 and Montana and Eckerd (rolling) got a large scholarship to Sewanee and chose to commit and pull Midd, W and L. Wants environmental science with engineering option but wants to be able to have a couple of years of fun before undertaking engineering workload. Sewanee has a 3/2 engineering program with Wash U, RPI and Columbia so this is her planned major. Tulane was a close second for her but she is an avid outdoors women and once she saw ‘the domain’ at Sewanee all else was out.