@singingbear just as another data point Duke is 14.4 percent Asian. So you are correct that being Asian would not help with admission there.
Thanks a lot for your good words @homerdog ! 
I agree with @homerdog – early admission means she a top recruit and they want to give her (and you) more time to plan to visit. The last two weeks of March are such a flurry that colleges know sometimes it’s good to share the good news early!
I hope the financial aid award brings good news too!
@AlmostThere2018 I do think it’s a bummer that their Admitted Student Days are the first weekend in April. That’s so early and only gives admits two weeks to make travel plans. We don’t have any other schools on the list with such early ASD.
Last year I remember they had a few options. My D didn’t do Decision Day – she did something else that was mostly for the students and not the parents. It was during the week, involved an overnight with a student, attending a class or two, and a couple of panel discussions with students. One panel was called "Seniors to Seniors’ – it was the seniors in HS talking with seniors in college. I thought that was clever – high schoolers getting insights from students almost done with college.
My husband was in town with her but there was less for parents – which I think is different from Decision Day which has more programming for parents and is prolly best for families who haven’t visited and want/need to learn a lot about Davidson overall. Since you have visited, though, I think the other option that my D did would work well for your S b/c it’s basically ‘a day in the life of a student’ which I think is what helps best for figuring out vibe and fit.
And, of course, I’m pretty sure any college will arrange a nice visit any day a student can get to campus.
I also seem to recall there were two Decision Days? But I’m not positive. And of course they change things up I’m sure.
We did Decision Davidson (can’t recall if it was called that back then) three years ago. It’s certainly worth it if you haven’t toured the school and are considering accepting, which was the case for my son at the time. It’s elective if you already have visited. It was nice, just not essential. The highlight for me was when we checked in and the admission office for his region, who wasn’t even the one checking us in, overheard my son announce his name and he immediately recognized it and came over the introduce himself, knowing his school by memory, and express enthusiasm that he had come. Loved that personal attention, that made you feel like they had really taken the time to know him during the admission process.
There were a bunch of speeches and panel discussions in their PAC. The students could “sit in” on classes but my son was annoyed because it wasn’t a real session of the class but something staged for the event where a professor gave a lecture specifically with it being for a bunch of prospective students filling the audience. He would have preferred to be observe a real class with current students. In that sense, you’d probably be better off arranging that during a normal visit not tied to this event. There was a huge line (out the door and around the corner) at the cafeteria because of all the visiting students and parents, though the food was good.
The president of the college cited a lot of the admission stats during her speech which was the first I had heard them before they showed up in press releases or posted here, etc. And one of the panel discussions had current students, alum and some Charlotte area business people discussing internship and career opportunities.
@citivas Thanks a lot for sharing your experience!! Decision Davidson is supposed to be an event for student+family? Did your family stayed at the dorm or hotel? Davidson supported some costs of visit?
@singingbear We didn’t seek to have any costs supported so no idea if they would have – they didn’t offer. We stayed at a hotel a couple miles away – Homewood Suites I think. Near the water. There’s only a couple places in town, though there’s others in nearby adjacent towns. Davidson itself has a small B&B on campus called the Carriage House or something like that. You might still be in luck if you tried it first – I’m sure it will fill up instantly once 3/20 rolls around. our son did not choose to stay overnight in a dorm so he stayed with us at the hotel. In our case we did this back-to-back with also visiting W&M – both places he had applied RD sight unseen and was visiting after acceptances.
@singingbear Davidson doesn’t normally pay for kids to go to Decision Davidson. At most admitted students days, kids either go alone and stay in a dorm or parents go along and stay in a hotel. Then, the student can stay with them or stay in the dorm. The only reason I mentioned Davidson paying for your D’s trip is because the email said something like “be our guest” but I’m not sure if I’m reading into that. I expect us to be paying for all of our travel expenses for admitted students days. We may be taking many trips depending on the outcomes of S19’s decisions.
@citivas so your S is at Davidson then?
He chose Bowdoin in the end. He liked Davidson though.
Thanks a lot @citivas & @homerdog ! We live in the mountain area, west side of country. Visiting all the way to the east coast is not an easy thing, especially visiting only one school. (We used to fly once and drive several school.) I will hear what Davidson says!
by the way, so far D got early writes from Davidson, Grinnell and W&L (even though she is still waiting for notifications from her dream schools). To us they look very similar … great schools … so if she needs to choose one from them, we have no idea … Would anyone share any thought like “Davidson is over other two” … something like that?
Those are all great choices and congrats to your D!
My D was also accepted to Grinnell (as well as Carleton, Scripps, and other top LACs – and some larger schools) She didn’t apply to W&L and the only New England LAC she applied to was Mt. Holyoke known for good for merit. For her, she didn’t like the ‘prep school’ vibe she got from small New England LACs, plus she was chasing merit money which they pretty much don’t offer.
She was fortunate to have a number of great options in the end, including 1/2 tuition merit offers from Grinnell, Scripps and Mt. Holyoke.
She narrowed her final choices to Davidson, Scripps, Carleton and UNC Honors.
First, she decided she did want a small college so that eliminated UNC. She took Carleton off the list (and for that matter Grinnell which is very similar) b/c she prefers Davidson’s weather (warmer) and location (not far from the mountains – she’s an avid hiker). Davidson also offered her some need-based financial aid which was a surprise and made it $8k a year less than Carleton and w/o any loans which was a big deal to her.
She came very close to choosing Scripps which would have been less expensive to us b/c of the scholarship, but then after an overnight at Davidson she changed her mind, and we supported her decision.
She’s a biology major and they have a brand new amazing science building and real strengths in that area. Her bio professor last Fall got a big national undergraduate teaching award.
She likes that Davidson is not a super liberal bubble – even though she’s liberal – b/c she values diverse intellectual discourse. Finally, she really clicked with the sense of community during her admitted students visit. She was happy to find such a well regarded and rigorous school where students also seem by and large very happy.
Finally, Davidson has all the bells and whistles too like study abroad and research grants, excellent alumni network, etc.
Congrats again to your D and keep us posted on what she decides!
@AlmostThere2018 Thank you so much! Hearing someone else’s experience is really helpful! Like your nickname says we are almost there! My wife and I came to US to study and then have been living here. The process for going to college has been overwhelming. Also, the cost for the college is unbelievably high. We have kept two lists, one for my D wants to go, which are Reach schools for everyone, and the other is what I want her to go, which are the great schools usually offering merit scholarships (even if they are extremely competitive). My list includes small LACs like Davidson, W&L and Grinnell and bigger universities like UNC, WashU and Vandy. Honestly I was optimistic for my D to get a good scholarship from the bigger schools, but NONE. I’ve been so surprised and amazed by the ‘exceptional’ excellent students out there. I have no idea how they’ve achieved all at high school age! She failed to make to be a finalist for Belk (Davidson), Morehead-Cane (UNC) and CV (Vandy) … only one left is W&L Johnson. She visited their campus to compete as a finalist and the result will come out soon. I’m nervously waiting (, but my D doesn’t care ) Yes! We are almost there and the next two weeks will be very exciting!!
Now that it’s 2019 my nickname seems a little ill advised, lol!
Good luck to your D, esp. with the Johnson scholarship, and keep us posted!
A friend of mine who is a RD applicant got an acceptance email today. I am also a RD applicant and though I know we aren’t supposed to hear until Wednesday I can’t help but feel like I should be nervous and that all acceptance are sent out early. Should I be bracing for the worst or am I being irrational?
@Nervousprospy did your friend enter any of the scholarship competitions? Belk? Pepper art or the others? Our S just got an email saying he didn’t get the Pepper Art Scholarship. I’m not surprised. They only give one. My point is that they are offering admission now to scholarship kids and maybe some URMs. Wednesday can’t come soon enough over here. Chin up!
@homerdog I just got an email saying I wasn’t a semifinalist for the Dobson-Neely Latin Scholarship.