@Mom2124
Got my final two decisions this morning: rejected by UMich and waitlisted at Wake Forest. I have 3 choices: Belmont, Elon, and Richmond. Not 100% sure where I will be going yet. Do you have any insights? Thanks again (:
3 Likes
Those are such fabulous choices! Congratulations!
As to advice, I can only share my impressions.
I was not fond of Richmond, but those who are say such good things about it. Listen to them more than me. The students choosing UR from my area were class valedictorians, well-rounded IB students who did not get into Duke. UR is more highly ranked than your other choices. If ranking and prestige are important to you, choose Richmond. (By the way, it is perfectly reasonable for rank to factor into your decision. It is not a shallow criterion. This isn’t dating; it is okay to look at some seemingly superficial statistics).
The independent college counselors in my city love Elon. The students in our area who attend Elon are politically liberal and highly engaged in social justice work but not as academically committed as those who considered UR. I have not visited because it did not make my student’s final list. I like Elon’s ”vibe” from afar, but that is meaningless, really.
I know less than nothing about Belmont. The music students at our high school apply there, so… maybe music is Belmont’s strength? I cannot advise at all.
I suggest:
- Determine which and how many credits you will earn for IB/AP/DE classes.
- Compare costs for the number of semester hours you need to earn a degree at each school. For example, I know a young man headed to VA Tech whose out-of-pocket cost is 40k/ year, but he only needs 3 years to complete the degree because of credits earned. 40k discount, right there.
- Look at the curriculum for your possible majors. Perhaps one appeals to you more than the others.
- Join the Instagram pages for admitted students to see if you feel one group is a better fit than the others.
Good luck!!!
5 Likes
You’re incredible! I appreciate your advice and insightful remarks. I am leaning away from Belmont, but between Richmond and Elon, I think Elon is more oriented towards physical therapy. Do you know if prestige factors into graduate school admissions? I am planning to go onto Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) school after my undergraduate studies. I am hoping to get into top/competitive programs like WashU. My thinking is that achieving a high GPA, especially in prereq classes, and building a strong network should help. Is prestige> or <GPA in terms of graduate admissions? Would it be more helpful to have a 3.9+ at Elon or a slightly lower GPA at Richmond?
Also, is there grade deflation at Richmond? Is it hard to do well there?
Thank you again for all your help. Sorry guys for taking up so much space on the Richmond thread. @Mom2124 if it’s easier, you can PM me instead.
2 Likes
I feel like I can answer your grad school questions as a current grad school applicant. From what I have seen, prestige does help to an extent, but the biggest factors are LORs (letters of rec) and alignment/quality of research. If your end-goal is to get a PhD, try to figure out a rough idea of what kind of research you want to do, and try to get into it as soon as possible. If you don’t know exactly what you want to study at the graduate level, pick a school that has several professors doing something close to what you care about. I have no idea what the physical therapy kids here are doing (pre-med bio?), so if Elon has a department for it, maybe that’s a better idea.
UR grade deflation isn’t really a thing imo. Like, I’ve had friends fail classes and all, but I’d say it’s pretty easy to get an A/B. I’m probably biased, though. I know some people who have sub-3.0 (and a few sub-2.0) GPAs - some of whom wanted to do grad school but likely won’t be able to - so I guess not everybody can get a good grade. But I’m not sure how bad it actually is compared to any other school. On the topic of grad school admissions, GPA for grad schools is mostly just something to get you past the min qual wall; you might get some perk for having a 3.9-4.0, but not much more than if you had a 3.6. However, a sub-3.6 will start weeding you out of some choice programs, so you gotta try to do better than that. Everything goes back to good LORs, good program, and good (and a lot of) research. Also, maybe having a famous recommender in the field you care about would help. My honors research professor said that if I wanted to do research in his field for a PhD, I would have likely gotten into some of the best programs for the topic. Sucks for me, because I didn’t want to do that topic. (still got into a great program, tho)
2 Likes
Thank you. From what I’m hearing, UR prestige + a good GPA can get me into a strong DPT program, as long as I have strong LORs. I am still struggling with this decision though. I will PM you.
2 Likes
My D just denies the acceptance (Business major), so good luck to whoever on the waitlist!