<p>DD has now received three deferral letters, and only has one school left to hear from. She got brave yesterday and called Northeastern, who indicated that her GPA was recalculated (we assume dropping nonacademic courses like Waterpolo) and her 3.1 was not competitive. </p>
<p>She will be calling the others, but in a nutshell we are beginning to think that she "shot too high" in her EA apps. Yes, she does have a few safeties, but didn't apply to any EA so won't know if she got in until March or April. (I know - she should have, but this is her process, and she didn't want to for what she thought were good reasons.) We are proud of her for keeping her chin up and moving forward, but if her last EA school says no, it will be a big blow.</p>
<p>So now, we are starting fresh, assuming a 3.1 instead of a 3.4, and looking for good schools between 3 and 20,000 students who have a strong on-campus culture (e.g. non-commuter) and are in her target states of Washington, Oregon, Colorado, California as long as it is at least an hour from Orange County, or the New England states. Her SATs are 2150 overall, and she is interested in living in or near a big and interesting city. The colleges that she had her heart set on that were deferrals were Boston University, Santa Clara, and Northeastern. Still waiting to hear from Seattle University, University of Washington, nad DePaul. Would love some recommendations - we spent a lot of time making her final list, and the idea of starting over at this point makes me want to throw up.</p>
<p>Forgot to say that she is undecided on a major, but is excellent with kids and is considering a major where she could combine business with working with kids. Also interested in history…</p>
<p>She can apply to a few schools with rolling admissions just to have a few safety acceptances in her hand. </p>
<p>I’m guessing that you must live in OC, since the school must be an hour away (I’m an OC native). </p>
<p>What about LMU (about an hour away), USD, (you seem to like Catholic schools), USF, and St. Marys California?</p>
<p>She should also look at UDayton and St. Joes ¶. Also maybe LeMoyne. Marist in NY…used to be Catholic, but still seems to have a Catholic presence). </p>
<p>What is your budget? some of these schools will be pricey and may not give great aid packages.</p>
<p>LMU will be tough with that GPA. It’s ramped up in recent years. I second the St. Mary’s idea. It’s an up-and-comer, nice community, good school, and she should be a strong candidate there.</p>
<p>I also suggest St Mary’s of CA. Beautiful campus in Moraga CA, a S.F. (east) bay area suburb. I’m fairly confident that she’ll get into St. Marys if she applies. They have a very good faculty, imo, but I’m prejudiced since my wife is a former professor there! You might also look at U of Pacific in Stockton CA, although it is more selective than St Marys.</p>
<p>Have you considered Mount Saint Marys Los Angeles close to UCLA , beautiful campus (they used it for filming the OC) , do have good business courses, and a great RN programe is she is interested in that. Offer some sort of merit aid to most students usually covers close to 1/4 of costs</p>
<p>With those strong SATs, even considering the lower GPA, I’m suprised. I’d suggest looking at smaller but still strong schools that have more time and inclination to review thoroughly and consider her essays and other materials. Also, take a look at those – is there any possibillity they are not as strong as they could be? </p>
<p>You might look at Hampshire, where she could talk about the interesting combination of business and youth – and which also has the five college consortium. (But not sure what kind of a person she is, and whether she wants a more ‘typical’ college setting than she might find at Hampshire.) </p>
<p>Other Northeast possibilities – Goucher (in Baltimore) in particular, and Clark (near Boston). Others that are not really near cities: Alfred, Union, Muhlenberg, Franklin & Marshal, Pitt.</p>
<p>Her GPA may be “lower” but her SATs are high and she presumably has other assets for a school able to look at the bigger picture.</p>
<p>Finally, congratulate her on pressing forward!</p>
<p>My older daughter goes to Redlands and loves it. It might be too close to Orange County for your taste, though; I don’t know California geography. (We live in Wisconsin.) Also, in Massachusetts, there are Emerson and Clark. Or how about a women’s college, like Smith or Mount Holyoke?</p>
<p>I’d suggest you look at the University of Denver. Her SATs are very competitive and it’s a great school in a great city. A slightly smaller option (less than 3000) is University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. According to NY Times choice blog, Northeastern accepted around 6,600 of 14,000 EA apps so she’s not alone. Santa Clara also had a large increase in EA apps.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your ideas! We must be on the same track, as many of the names you have mentioned are familiar to us, but some are BRAND new and we will investigate!!!</p>
<p>To answer your questions, budget is not a critical issue - she has the blessing of grandparents who funded a good portion of her education when she was a wee one. That said, the more she can choose a lower cost, the more she will have remaining for grad school or starting out in this economy! </p>
<p>If she gets into Seattle, we will be booking the next flight up there - she is very excited about what she has read and heard about their school. It is very similar to Santa Clara in many ways, and she loved Santa Clara’s entrepreneur program, enthusiasm for service oriented learning, respect for all types of religeous backgrounds but grounding in Christianity, and size. </p>
<p>^ yeah, worst year ever for applying EA, as more applicants than ever seem to be trying to get ahead of the game, which sort of makes EA WORSE than normal admissions this year. The problem is that schools might be deferring anyone outside their SURE ADMIT statistical range… allowing RD to take the time to get to know the person outside their SAT/GPA comfort zone because EA doesn’t have that time due to the huge increase in apps this year.</p>
<p>P.S. The one person I know at University of Portland absolutely loves it. 25/75 ave. SAT is 1195, well below your D’s scores. It’s worth a shot if she likes USeattle (i.e. can deal with the northwestern cold rain).</p>
<p>I just asked my daughter if she thought a 3.1 would get someone into Redlands, and she said yes. She said the school looks at the “whole student.” I think that’s true. Good luck. I have another daughter who is a senior in high school, and I’m finding the college app process to be highly stressful.</p>
<p>I just finished this process with the youngest of three last year. I remember how stressful it was… Ugh. Hang in there! It will be over soon. :-)</p>
<p>I just reported my last post as a problem post… hahah oops!~</p>
<p>Anyhow what I said was I just finished this with the youngest of my three last year. I remember how stressful it was. Hang in there. You are almost done!</p>
<p>OP, keep the faith and continue to have hope. While your daughter was not a good candidate for an EA admit at BU, Santa Clara, or NEU, remember that she was only deferred and not rejected; she may still get that acceptance letter next spring. And I do think her chances are better for early admits at Seattle U and DePaul. </p>
<p>I also second others’ recommendations to look into St. Mary’s, Fairfield, Clark, and possibly U Portland, as your daughter seems to fit the profile for those schools. They are all good schools. UPS, LMU, and USD may be more of a reach for her though.</p>
<p>Borderline students almost always get deferred, from what I’ve seen. Of course, she should apply to some safeties, but I’d bet she gets accepted to at least one of those in the regular round. Don’t freak out about deferrals too much. Some colleges seem to defer anyone who doesn’t have home run stats.</p>
<p>I second what people have been saying about U Portland…it’s a great school! My brother had a 3.1 GPA as well, had lower SAT scores (2040), and was accepted with a good financial package.</p>
<p>Amazing how one thick envelope can change the outlook! DD got into Seattle U with a nice chunck of scholarship money, so she can breathe again! We are scheduled to fly up in early February to check it out. If she likes it, she may just tell the others thanks but no thanks…</p>
<p>Thanks again for the encouragement and suggestions - I love this board!!!</p>