<p>I have a firstyear daughter at Grinnell. Grinnell accepted 33% of its applicants last year (for class of 2012). They overenrolled by about 60 students with 2012 (more folks decided to come than usual yield of 1/3 of those offered spots) and I have heard that they will accept fewer students this year in order to avoid the overenrollment. Grinnell accepted no one off the wait list for 2012 and, if you go to the Grinnell boards, you will see that they turned away legacy applicants with much higher stats.</p>
<p>I suggest you consider some other strong LACs that are similar to Grinnell. Hendrix (since you are from Arkansas), Whitman, Lewis and Clarke, Earlham, Eckherd are a few that come to mind that might be work looking at and accept students with stats similar to yours.</p>
<p>If your heart is set on Grinnell, consider attending a local college, pull stellar grades and apply as a transfer. I don’t want to seem gloom and doom but I hate seeing students spend $$$ of tough reaches. Good luck!</p>
<p>I still think you have a good shot at Grinnell, especially because you are showing that it’s really where you want to be by applying ED.
I think St. Olaf could be a good match for you.
So would Case Western.
You’re on the right track</p>
<p>but grinnell isn’t too much of a reach for you!!!
it’s a pretty good target/reach school that you have a solid chance at
don’t apply ED to a school that’s your second choice, make sure that your ED school is absolutely you #1 choice!!! it increases your chances there so it’s not a waste of time, GO FOR IT!!!</p>
<p>St Olaf has over enrolled the past two years. I would think that they are going to need to admit fewer students this year and make up any difference using the waitlist. Can you check the Common Data set to see what % of freshman had come from doing ED?</p>
<p>I can’t remember if Grinnell had over enrolled last year. Perhaps some one over at the Grinnell thread can remember. Check their data set too to see if it helps.</p>
<p>Are you not from Minnesota/Iowa/Wisc? That may help with the geographic diversity aspect. Do you have family ties to St. Olaf?</p>
<p>I just took a quick look at the Common Data Sets for the class entering fall of 2007. (2008 must not be available yet) Seems that for either of the schools, applying early increases your chances. Both have more females than males.</p>
<p>So, it is little more of a gamble at Grinnell than at St. Olaf. Your other choices are good too if you need to go to RD. </p>
<p>but grinnell isn’t too much of a reach for you!!!
it’s a pretty good target/reach school that you have a solid chance at
don’t apply ED to a school that’s your second choice, make sure that your ED school is absolutely you #1 choice!!! it increases your chances there so it’s not a waste of time, GO FOR IT!!!</p>
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<p>Are you sure you’re not just saying that to make me ‘feel better’?</p>
<p>Maybe I’m being to pessimistic, but the posts on the first page of this thread have kind of scared me away from Grinnell. I will still apply at least regular decision, but I’m definitely looking at my chances differently — and that’s not a bad thing, because knowing the truth is what’s important.</p>
<p>Again, though, you (and about four others in this thread, I think) may be right that I have a reasonable chance, as far as reaches go.</p>
<p>I suspect that Grinnell will be a reach for you, especially since you missed the ED deadline. St. Olaf is getting much more selective as well. Olaf had a 50% increase in ED applications this year. </p>
<p>I don’t think I’d look at Grinnell or St. Olaf for engineering. Have you thought about Rose-Hulman?</p>
<p>Your grades aren’t abysmal, just not stellar. since you didn’t work much in HS, are you sure you would be happy at a rigorous college with lots of homework? Just something to think about.</p>
<p>Here’s a link to the Grinnell website with data on the class of 2012 (this year’s first year students): [Incoming</a> Class Profile, Statistics - Grinnell College](<a href=“http://www.grinnell.edu/admission/explore/glance/profile/]Incoming”>http://www.grinnell.edu/admission/explore/glance/profile/). As you can see, the 50% admissions is a thing of the past. A lot of stats from schools in the guides are several years out of date. As someone else suggested, go to the common data sets from each school rather than rely on the guides for accurate statistics.
My son has a 3.7 (W) and a 3.2 (uw) and an SAT of 2010. He’s not applying to Grinnell due to his stats (even though his more academic sister is already at Grinnell and is excelling at Grinnell). He is a good musician with a not so popular instrument (double bass) and has done a lot of community service. We are from the south, but my son is real borderline, if that, for schools like Grinnell or St.Olaf. His chances would increase if he would run XC or swim but he isn’t interested in sports any longer. Maybe you could go that route if you have a sport that you were involved in throughout high school.</p>
<p>As I mentioned there are a number of good schools that would give a fine experience and might offer a scholarship to boot. We are looking at Hendrix, Earlham, Whitman, Cornell College, Bard, College of Wooster and a few others for our son. My advice is to choose schools to apply to where your stats are right in the middle and only pick one of the reach schools you have listed so far.</p>
<p>I still think you could get in at both, but with a slightly less chance at Grinnell. </p>
<p>My gut feeling about the increase in St Olaf’s ED is that the word is getting out in Minn that St O is harder to get into. There are a lot of families that have attending St Olaf as a family tradition, and these kids are starting to get shut out. The kids whose grandparents and parents are Oles, but only have a 26ACT, are worried.</p>
<p>As I mentioned there are a number of good schools that would give a fine experience and might offer a scholarship to boot. We are looking at Hendrix, Earlham, Whitman, Cornell College, Bard, College of Wooster and a few others for our son. My advice is to choose schools to apply to where your stats are right in the middle and only pick one of the reach schools you have listed so far.</p>
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<p>“…only pick one of the reach schools you have listed so far.”</p>
<p>But, lol, I thought I’ve only listed one reach so far: Grinnell. I originally had St. Olaf pegged as a ‘match-reach’ type of school, but I guess not…perhaps it is a full reach. I also originally thought Depauw would be a match-reach as well, closer to a match than St. Olaf. </p>
<p>On a side note, I’ve gone through the colleges you all have recommended, and I think Case Western and Lafayette College are my favorites. Here is my updated list of colleges:</p>
<p>Case Western
Grinnell College
Lafayette College
Depauw University
Hendrix College
St. Olaf College
Va Tech
Purdue (Engineering school)
University of Wisconsin - Madison</p>
<hr>
<p>I added Case Western, Lafayette College, and I dropped George Mason.</p>
<p>Bard is much easier to get into than Grinnell. Grinnell “self-selects” meaning that it has no mass appeal to a wide range of students. More people apply to Bard as it is in a nice location, on the east coast and is not as academically demanding as Grinnell. The lower admit rate of Grinnell can fool you as Grinnell simply gets fewer applicants but with higher overall stats. D has a friend that got into Bard with a D in AP US and 4-5 C’s and a good, but not outstanding SAT.</p>
<p>Grinnell is in the middle of nowhere and is academically very demanding. The community is small and tight. For many students, this can seem very confining thus the lower number of applications and higher rate of admissions.</p>
<p>All of the other schools you have listed good possibilities. You may want to explore Case Western’s common data set more to get a good sense of the stats. Case also has a bit of self-selection as many folks don’t care to be in Cleveland . The engineering school can be tough to get into so you might want to apply as a humanities major and then transfer in once you are there (if you are accepted and chose this school). Case gives a lot of money. D was offered a $26K scholarship.</p>
<p>If you are national merit or have a really high SAT (with only 1-2 takes, no super scoring), you may have a good shot at Case’s engineering and, perhaps, particularly if you also have some 5’s on AP tests, Grinnell or St Olaf’s could be in range. Sometimes the schools will forgive a slightly lower GPA for impressive test scores.</p>
<p>Good Luck. The application process is agonizing. You will get into a good school where you can thrive. All of the match schools you have listed have great reputations.</p>
<p>Depauw, Lafayette, Hendrix look like very good matches,Va tech a bit harder (if you are looking at engineering-you should be fine for entering a BA program), Case-a bit harder than Tech and Wisconsin (Madison) the most challenging (since you would be OOS).</p>
<p>I hope you don’t find my realism offensive. I am going through a similar process with my son . My daughter was quite successful in matching schools and got in everywhere she applied (she applied only where her stats were in the top 25%, with my son we are going for top 50%). Why did we do this? Thick envelopes are more fun and you are more likely to earn some scholarship money when you are in the top. D has a friend going to Hendrix on a nice scholarship who was a merit semi-finalist and going for much less than one of our state schools. She chose Hendrix because she felt she would get a quality education that could prepare her for grad school. Hendrix is a good school and the girl’s choice will leave more parental money for summer internships, a semester abroad or graduate school.</p>