Looks like a great final list! Several overlaps with schools my kids applied to - they all seem fantastic. It also must be nice to be so far along with essays. Good luck with the SAT scores. It will be fun to see where she ends up!
@homerdog Just curious why she dropped Dayton off the list? It’s on a tentative list as a safety for my S22 so just curious. My D20 applies to a couple of your D’a schools and my S is considering a couple of them so curious how it will all turn out for her.
Happy to see that she’s still got some warm weather places on her list since you said she might prefer a warmer climate. It’s not important to everyone, but it does make a difference to some people. I went to Davidson from the Upper Midwest and never looked back. It was less well-known outside the south in those days, but it was a great decision. I hope she has a chance to visit a few more campuses once she has her acceptances!
Congrats on having a final list! I cant’ remember your Ds stats but I seem to think they were higher than my D (senior at LMU). I think my D had a 27 or 29 ACT and a 3.8 or so GPA, and she got LMU merit, a good amount. Now this could have been due to her Theater major (she had a good resume heading in), but academically I’m feeling like LMU is more match for your daughter, hopefully! Maybe things have bumped up over the past couple of years?
I know you’ve discounted ELon but when you mentioned Communications school a while back I thought I’d throw it out…that is Elon’s star, their school of Communications. It is very impressive and if the academic vibe of Elon in general felt too low for her, the comm students seem to be a step up, especially Communications Fellows. I only bring this up because it would be a safety, and I’m not sure if you have a safety yet. But of course if she is sure she doesn’t want it, it isn’t a safety!
Its really sad that she can’t get on any campuses yet, and LMU specifically really isn’t letting people on campus (its gated, so they can do that). My D says that she’s not feeling great about spring on campus 
If you want to PM me, we can try to connect our Ds via email address, I know your D had social questions that we never got to. My D is roommates and friends with an admissions office guide, Sophie, if by any chance that is who your D met virtually!
Oh…I think you had a comment about a plane ride is a plane ride, something like that (regarding distance). In our experience, its true. The only sticky part is Thanksgiving…LMU had/has (disregarding this year) short breaks (Wed-Sun, Sunday is all day flying due to time change), so that’s a tough one. Other than that even with last spring’s craziness, having her in CA doesn’t feel much different than having the son driving distance away. Plus having a reason to visit CA as a midwesterner is pretty amazing, and LMU’s family weekend is in Feb which is a perfect escape.
@TS0104 Thank you so much! I will definitely be in touch if D wants to connect. That’s so nice of you!
I like your college list. You put a lot of effort into it.
Sorority input:
My two Ds attend Vanderbilt. My eldest D did rush and was asked to join all 3 of her Top 3 sororities. She chose her top one, but she was so busy with other pursuits and had so many friends outside her sorority, she could only attend 1 sorority function a year after her initial year. Sorority was such a tiny part of her Vanderbilt experience. My younger D, didn’t even bother rushing. Do they survive not being in a sorority? They say Vanderbilt University changed their life. Vandy is very challenging academically, but they love it and thrive academically and socially without sorority life.
It will take a while until the sorority stigma at southern schools meets reality. Yes, 85% of Vanderbilt’s female population was in a sorority in the 1960s. However, today the majority of students aren’t in Greek Life. According to 2021 US News, Vanderbilt’s sorority ratio has fallen to 43% vs a school you are very familiar with - Northwestern at 34%. For boys it is a similar story. According to US News the stats for fraternities are 27% at Vanderbilt and 27% at Northwestern. I am a Northwestern alum myself, so I naturally compare these two colleges.
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Be a little wary of extrapolating from the Class of 2024 waitlists:
Although Vanderbilt’s waitlist is a real waitlist and is not utilized as waitlist = ‘let the kids down gently’ rejection list, the larger number admitted from the waitlist in Spring 2020 is probably a one-off. On average 144 enroll each year from the waitlist in the past 5 years, but my guess is April - June 2020 lifted that number like Covid did for lifting the RD acceptance rate. Vanderbilt shut-down campus very abruptly and early in Covid and it made headlines. 90% of Vandy students are out-of-state and more than the usual number of acceptances from far-flung states and countries decided to take a gap year or enroll at universities closer to home. I would not guess that as high of a percentage from your high school will be admitted off the waitlist in future years.
From Vanderbilt’s website the acceptance rate for the Class of 2024 was 20.7% ED (includes ED I and ED II) vs only 9.0% RD. Yet, the Covid-effected Class of 2024 RD acceptance was nearly a 50% increase on the Class of 2023 RD acceptance rate of only 6.3%. I would expect the RD acceptance rate to fall again post-covid as well as those accepted off the waitlist.
Vanderbilt’s ED II deadline is January 1st, so there is a bit more time for that option if your D decides to change her mind and increase the odds.
Thanks for all of the detail. Weirdly enough, our S19 and a bunch (like ten) of kids at our high school were waitlisted in RD. S19 didn’t take the spot but most of them did and SIX of them got off the waitlist. I believe they were all full pay but they got off in the first round. (This was 2019 pre-Covid times). So I think maybe high school or full pay might matter on that front. D has never visited Vandy so she can’t pull the trigger on ED but I bet she would accept a waitlist spot for sure and see what happens.
Wow, that is an amazing hit rate at a high school. Let me know if your D plans a trip to Nashville. I can ask one of my two D’s to give her ‘the real tour’ with all the uncut good, any bad, and in-between of Vanderbilt University.
Wow! thank you!
Waitlist utilization at Vanderbilt is significant…averaging almost 10% of the incoming class over the last five years.
Yes, I wrote that. Avg is 144 of 1,600 incoming freshmen, but likely raised by Spring Covid year.
The last piece of the puzzle is in. D got all of her fall SAT scores back and, while her math score would be good to send, her EW just didn’t get there for her matches and reaches. So, she will send scores to her safer schools and go TO otherwise. Lately, we’ve both been watching a lot of virtual offerings from SCU, Denver, and LMU. Pretty impressed on all fronts and she could see herself at all of them.
EA apps include SCU, Denver, LMU and Richmond. It’s go time for those!
Her high school has a lot of AOs coming to “visit”. They usually come in person but she will get to meet reps from Lehigh, Richmond, Davidson, and Colgate virtually next week. It’s always interesting to see who else from her school goes to each of these Zoom meetings. She gets a little clue about who else might be applying. Last year, only one student applied to Richmond, two to Colgate, three to Lehigh and none to Davidson (out of 680!) so she may be alone in some of these meetings!
She had her Wake interview a couple of weeks ago. Felt good about it. After you interview, they offer you a tour of campus (can’t get a tour unless you’ve interviewed or sent in an app). We have a friend who interviewed and went on the tour last week and they were only able to walk around campus and couldn’t get anywhere near any buildings. She suggested it’s not worth it for us to fly down there for that so we won’t be visiting any schools until acceptances at this point. If she gets into LMU and/or SCU, then we will maybe go see them before RD decisions come out. Same with Denver. Anything to get out of dodge at this point! CA in Jan or Feb would be perfect.
Anyone think she should mention her four cancelled tests on her TO apps? I heard a podcast that suggested kids could put that into the “additional info” section, not the “Covid question section” of the Common App. If she did that, she would just write one sentence saying that she had a seat for the Feb, March, April, and June SATs but they were cancelled. I don’t see how that could hurt her if she put it in additional info but maybe it would already be assumed that she had some testing difficulties if she’s not sending a score and she doesn’t need to address it.
@MAmom111 Sorry! I just saw your post above. She dropped Dayton because we think it’s just too Catholic for her. We double checked with the kids who are there from our high school and it seemed like it was a fairly conservative place as well. She did more work on looking at the safer schools on her list and feels like she doesn’t need to keep it. She’s also applying to Denison (in OH obviously) so that will be her “closer to home” option.
I wouldn’t mention that her test dates were canceled as
schools are well aware and that is the reason they went test optional. And what if they realize that your state did have the school day SAT. They may think it’s disingenuous that she is trying to allude that testing wasn’t available when they may know she did have a test.
I would share that 4 dates were cancelled in the additional info section. Just a sentence. The whole prepping just to be cancelled, then doing that again and again is stressful, and demonstrates the student was trying.
WRT state mandated testing, at least in Illinois, seniors have the option of fall or spring dates to satisfy that requirement, so it doesn’t necessarily mean a student had taken a test yet.
@wisteria100 ok good point. But let’s be honest that getting one or two tests in the fall of senior year where they have to wear masks and are stressed that time is running out for them to get a good score is not ideal.
Well, I’d say anytime of year is perfect. Bring shorts. :grimace:
Interesting thought about mentioning cancelled tests in the additional info section. D21 had March, May, June, August, September and October SAT tests cancelled, but mentioning it, makes it sound like we’re entitled or something. :lol:
And D finally took a test at school this week. Obviously, if the score is high, then that negates the need to mention any canceled tests, but if the score is low(er), then going TO and then mentioning the canceled tests in the additional info section when others at her school will have likely report a score from the 10/14/20 SAT Test, may/will set off the AO alarm buzzers, like @wisteria100 mentions? Maybe those AO alarm buzzers go off anyway, even without mentioning canceled tests and going TO.
Any other thoughts?
@sushiritto I guess it depends. If the student is applying to a school where a lot of kids from their high school are applying and you think they are comparing kids, then I guess it’s an issue. The head of our guidance office told me that upwards of 50 percent of our seniors are going TO and she trusts that the schools on D’s list will truly read apps without test scores the same as apps with scores. I’ve listened to so many virtual meetings with AOs and they are so over this question. They think kids and parents need to stop stressing about this. If you have a score that is one you think matches or lifts up your app, send it. If not, then don’t and they cannot read anything into that. In our case, I suppose some of them will know that D had an option of taking an SAT at school in Sept. That doesn’t mean she took it. It could also mean she took it and it was her only SAT and she’s not happy with her score. I just can’t imagine her apps will hang on this decision for most of her schools.
I would totally mention she signed up for several dates and they were canceled. This signals you made an attempt. Might get some sympathy points also… Lol… After stating they were canceled then continue with something positive like, that didn’t deter her to continuing to do her best etc etc. Short one or two lines and no excuses.