With increased apps, I think most of those acceptance rates will go down. Colgate had an increase of 100% in apps, BC’s apps up something like 35%, I don’t know the others off the top of my head.
I do think demonstrated interest makes a difference and, yes, D showed a ton to every school on her list except Midd and Denison. It was a lot of work. Back in June, she emailed all AOs to ask if their supplemental essays will remain the same as last year. They all responded at different times over the summer. She met with the AOs who came to our school (virtually this year). Many times she was the only one on the call and had one on one time. She attended multiple virtual events for each school. She interviewed when possible. And she did a lot of research into each school so that her supplements showed she knew the culture and had thought about how she would contribute on campus. She updated AOs with an email about her first semester grades.
For her more difficult admits so far (Colgate, Lehigh, and BC) her dot on Naviance with her GPA was either in the green zone or in a zone where decision could have gone either way. She didn’t send scores.
My D21 is in at Bates, Reed, and Scripps, in addition to a list of other schools which are not-so-small or not-so-LAC. She is also on FOUR waiting lists. What a year!
We had a terrific tour guide who was a dancer when we visited Bates in February 2019. If he’s still at Bates and works in admissions, you may want to try to connect with him. Congrats on your D’s acceptances.
Congrats! Such great news. Lots of great choices. From what she has so far I would go Colgate! Though not sure how the travel would be for you.
Wonderful news!
Decision four and it’s a WL from Wake. Pretty surprised. They knew her pretty well. Maybe they sensed she wouldn’t fit best there. All of those supplemental questions, interview, dance video submission. Lots of WL on the Wake thread too.
It’s all good though. Just three more to go and then time to start the work to figure it all out!
I don’t think ANY WL at any school this year is weird. So many qualified kids and they can’t take everyone. Any kid that takes the time to fill out Wake’s supplemental essays is obviously interested and would be a good fit. I imagine the competition is fierce and decisions are difficult to make!
Well I’ll tell you all a secret. Some off you all guessed correctly after our visit to Wake that she didn’t seem too enamored and this is correct so this doesn’t sting too much.
I’m 100 percent sure that Wake is amazing for the right student. The campus when we visited was such a ghost town, more quiet than a campus in summer. She had friends tell her how gorgeous it is so her expectations were (too) high. I’m sure it is beautiful when there are leaves on the trees and it’s bustling with kids but that’s not how we saw it.
We had a wonderful lunch with a student who loves the school and is a great ambassador for it. But she also talked to a friend’s sister who is there (from our high school) and that conversation made her feel like it was less of a match for her.
So all good!
@dwhite I don’t think it’s true that whoever fills out Wake’s app is a fit, especially this year without chances to visit before applying. It seems a fit for a very specific type of student, which isn’t a bad thing but certainly not a fit just because you answered the Wake questions.
@homerdog. I followed your D’s story last year and I am not at all surprised by this. As I recall, we have pretty similar kids (S18 at NESCAC, D20 at BC) and we had a very similar experience with Wake. We felt very strongly about the school on paper, but neither of my kids applied after visiting. It’s a great school, but was not a fit for my kids. Congrats on all of the great acceptances! Based on what I remember from last year, I don’t think BC was super high on your D’s list, and I know your D has friends at BC, but I am happy to provide a different perspective if it gets to that point. Good luck with the rest of the apps coming in. What great choices she already has!
Thank you! I will definitely reach out if D has questions! I like that she has a mix of options at this point. Sometimes kids change their minds over the course of the process - think they want one type of school and only apply to those and then feel like they aren’t as much of a fit by April of senior year. Between BC, Lehigh, Richmond, and Colgate, she already has a mix of options…and I’m not even counting those pesky CA schools that have no kids on campus to see or give tours!
We are getting close - Davidson in an hour or so and then only Vanderbilt left.
Well, I was going to wait to report on Middlebury until we also have the Davidson decision in an hour or so, but since you asked -
No.
Denied. And not surprised at all. I don’t remember if I shared why she applied to Midd. She really never had any interest. In October, I went through a list of schools that don’t require any extra essays. I chose Denver, Furman, and Midd and asked D if she was ok with me hitting send on her Common App to those three. She responded that, if she didn’t have to write anymore, it was fine by her. For those three schools, she showed zero demonstrated interest. She was even contacted for a Midd interview and told me she didn’t want to do it - it wasn’t her decision to apply there and she didn’t see it as a fit. So, she never responded to the email.
When we started this journey, test optional was an unknown thing. We had zero idea how this would end up so the list was longer and broader in scope than it probably needed to be looking back.
Edited to add: S19 with high scores and a higher GPA than D got WL at Midd after a two hour alumni interview so I wasn’t going to ask D to do it if she didn’t want to. If he couldn’t clear the bar, then we assumed that D would not either. She agreed to check the Feb box on this app thinking maybe that would be a bump but clearly doing an interview doesn’t move the needle so I let her off the hook.
What her outcomes here show, is that schools want see interest. What your D did reaching out to AO’s really helped. I made sure that both my kids attended the college fairs and always talked to the rep, and afterwards wrote thank you emails. This helped my oldest get into her number 1. (we were not going to ED with her, only EA).
Yes. Agreed. Even the WL at Wake seems unsurprising in this regard. She didn’t know the AO. She did reach out to her to ask if the supplements would be the same as last year, and the AO just answered yes and that’s it. No banter at all to respond to and she didn’t visit our high school. Most kids get WL from our school. Some do get admitted but only one student has enrolled each year for the last three years. Maybe that has something to do with D’s decision too.
She did show interest by applying for the dance scholarship and she did the interview but I think a lot of kids do the interview since Wake makes it clear that it’s important.
Congrats to your D. She has some super options on the table! Looking forward to hearing her choice. My top 3 picks for her would be Colgate, Lehigh, and Richmond (in no specific order).