<p>Yes, I considered virtually all the fencing schools, exept for the ivy’s. Penn State (yes) but I fenced there and didn’t feel that was a fit. Ohio State…still waiting. It is such a huge place and I’m not sure that is for me. It is actually hard to get in there out-of-state, too. They only accept 14-15% of their student body from out-of-state.</p>
<p>I didn’t apply to Northwestern because I didn’t want to be in Chicago and I just didn’t see myself there. Notre Dame is nice, but I’m not of their faith, which I thought could be an issue. But I love their fencing room.</p>
<p>I’ve also fenced at Air Force Academy, but after three summers of marching and drills at Culver, I know I don’t want to go Air Force. </p>
<p>The only other fencing school I thought might be a good fit was North Carolina Chapel Hill. My physicians daughter went there, and one of my good friends from Culver fences there. But it’s virtually impossible to get in there unless you are from NC. They turn away tons of people with 4.0’s and perfect scores. So does Duke.</p>
<p>I applied to Wellesley because my mom had dreamed of going there many years ago, and my guardian in Texas (who went to Agnes Scott) said I’d be perfect for a women’s college. My professor who taught Shakespeare (PhD from Wash U) also thought Wellesley would be best all-round. I guess, concensus of opinion doesn’t always make the answer right.</p>
<p>It is a shame more universities don’t have NCAA fencing. Even Rice doesn’t have a team and now it is rumored that Stanford is stopping their NCAA team.</p>
<p>You know, it is a little weird being the only rejected person who is having a conversation. Maybe I was supposed to skulk off and hide under a rock…:)</p>
<p>Hey 90210…my mom used to live in Beverley Hills when she worked in Los Angeles. She lived in Edward G. Robinson’s house in the flats of Beverly Hills. Small world.</p>
<p>Maybe you’d get better response posting this in the thread for people with a likely acceptance - or start a new thread on financial aid.</p>
<p>wg90210 and x501: I was admitted to Wellesley early decision this year ( or December of last year if you want to get technical) so I can answer your questions. My family didn’t expect to receive any financial aid from Wellesley because I applied early and because we’re upper middle class, but Wellesley ended up giving us an extremely generous package considering the circumstances. And I know a lot of other people who also received great packages. So, to answer your questions, Wellesley gives great financial aid packages! :)</p>
<p>JZho - Thank you very much for the reassuring response! I really hope Wellesley will give me really (really) good finaid too because without aid, there will be no way I’ll be able to attend Wellesley (my dream school!), and I’ll have to settle for my state university… But I <em>really</em> hope I will see you in the fall! :)*</p>
<p>No problem The people in Wellesley’s financial aid office are really nice, so if you have any more questions, feel free to call! I wish you the best of luck and hopefully I’ll see you next year!</p>
<p>I’m really sorry about Wellesley, I got rejected too. I knew it was a reach but I really was hoping that my personal challenges and my high level of success for my last two years of highschool and other achievements might have helped me. I visited the campus and my tour guide was so impressed and was saying that I really had a shot. Then, two days later, I get my early evaluation and see “unlikely.”</p>
<p>I was totally devastated, but I’m getting over it. The thing to remember is that the people that apply are extremely strong applicants. I’m super sorry for you guys but you’ll end up somewhere great, will be very successful, and can tell Wellesley to kiss that. </p>
<p>I had a similar experience - what I thought was a great campus visit. We flew to Boston and stayed a few days. I bought Wellesley clothes. My interviewer took pages of notes and told me how Wellesley could use someone with my multi-faceted abilities. The interviewer acted surprised that I knew the founder of the Russian program (Nabokov) wrote Lolita. Then, the greater insult of everyone I know saying I’d be a great fit there, including the fencing coach saying they could use someone like me. It’s hard to reflect on things that turn out to be untrue, even if the school was a stretch.</p>
<p>The most bitter statement though was posted here; “We couldn’t offer you a fencing scholarship.” Lately I’ve been thinking about that comment. I didn’t ask for a fencing scholarship. So, what happened to being need blind? </p>
<p>I’ve consoled myself with reading, lately Dreiser “An American Tragedy” and “Sister Carrie”. Also I found a great compilation of Russian fairy tales, a book on the prehistorical development of the brain, and a history of the free masons. </p>
<p>Now I am hoping for free tuition, but the school is even more selective than Wellesley…so who knows. I didn’t apply to many schools because the way I looked at it, if I couldn’t go to Wellesley, I might as well try to be debt-free when I graduate. </p>
<p>Maybe the unlikely gals should post where they end up.</p>
<p>if you havent already, you should read turgenev’s “fathers and sons,” dostoyevsky’s notes from the underground," and chekov’s “the bet.” they are my favorite collection of short stories.</p>
<p>unlikely isnt really FINAL. it seems you really like wellesley, so it might do you good to write a letter of intent describing your positive experiences during the visit. don’t despair!</p>
<p>Well my top two schools are Mount Holyoke and Boston University. I was just accepted to the University of Georgia which was great, so that’s now my third choice. I’ll be sure to post my results once I know where I am going for sure. I hope you do the same!</p>
<p>wg90210 - thanks for the reading recs. I will go shopping and look for those, too. So many books, so little time. </p>
<p>Given that welles10 said I wouldn’t fit in there or something like that (I’m not sure how they figure that out?), I’m not sure it would help, but maybe I will write them a nice positive letter telling them how much I loved Wellesley. And for sure I’ll always love my hoodie.</p>
<p>This whole experience has definitely caused me to assess what I really want.</p>
<p>One the very positive side, I have tuition benefits that port with me. My mom is strongly suggesting next year in Russia, Egypt or something like this. Since I already have 37 hours of college work finished after this spring, maybe that is something to consider if the other options aren’t pleasing. It just seems so late to be looking into things like this…</p>
<p>This is my 1st post as a F of a D who is “possible.” It occurred to me caolila that, unless I misunderstood your last post, the very fact you have completed so many college courses may have caused the selection committee to hesitate in allowing some “outside” college education to have an influence on their academic agenda. They may not have wanted to “unleash” you on fresh high schoolers arriving for their “Wellesley” experience.</p>
<p>When students transfer in from another school, they are at lease sophomores, so there is less of a chance that what they bring will have much of an impact on the sophomores already finished with 1 year at Wellesley. I have been an educator and that might be my thinking.</p>
<p>The long and short is you were probably penalized for those extra courses. You might be disappointed but you would be wrong to put much of the blame on your credentials. Nevertheless, I’m certain those courses will help you in your future and you’ll find a right fit and forum for their use.</p>
<p>Counsel, that is a very good point that I did not think of before. When I was applying to colleges, I had about a semester’s worth of college-level credit on top of credits from AP/SAT II exams. Looking back, those probably did hurt my chances at some schools; certain places prefer students who are clean slate, who can absorb all that that school has to offer. Granted, Wellesley has a policy (as of Fall 2006) that you can only receive up to 4 units of credit for any work completed pre-matriculation, so over half of my credits didn’t count in terms of units toward graduation (I was able to use them for placement though).</p>
<p>It also depends where you took those credits – I did a lot of “pre-college” sort of things that were aimed at high-schoolers. Caolila, if you were basically a full time student at a local college, you may have been considered as a transfer student by some admissions committees. You could call admissions and ask to talk about your application and what can be approved before final decisions come out. I was able to talk to the dean of admissions and at a school I was waitlisted at. </p>
<p>To your point about me saying you may not be a good fit at Wellesley… once you’ve been at a school long enough, you start to see what sorts of people generally come to certain colleges. Granted I’m not the admissions committee and have no bearings whatsoever on their decisions, but based on your athletic (among other) motivations, I feel that there could be other schools that may be a better fit for you. I know when I was applying to colleges (looking back after the admissions process was over), I just applied all over and didn’t consider the individual schools themselves; and I definitely would not have been a good fit at a fair number of the schools I applied to…</p>
<p>Thank you for your kind support and comments. Honestly, I really didn’t even know I had 37 hours of credit until I added it up the other day. 9 of those hours are AP. The bulk of the rest are from a University. They are definitely above high school level - that is why I chose to do this instead of returning to our local high school this year. After being at a school in Texas which was so much more difficult, I just wanted to take classes that were of interest (more humanities) and challenging.</p>
<p>I guess one could say that if you attend a school you learn ‘their ways’ but my application was so ‘non traditional’ the whole thing probably worked against me. And I just made a lot of mistakes in my application- failing to convey who I really am. I was just so proud of my fencing accomplishments, I allowed that to dominate my application (Your fencing coach could tell you how hard it is to go from an “E” to a “B”, in two years and win a medal at summer nationals). On reflection, I now see why you think I am some super athlete, instead of a scholar. Welles10- fencers on the whole tend to be super students. It’s a highly intellectual sport where your mental state (strategy, mental quickness) affects your performance. It’s physical chess.</p>
<p>I grew up essentially without television. I should have talked about that and how it led me to read all of the classics! Or, I should have disscussed what it was like to get a drivers license in a megalopolis! </p>
<p>Heraclitus said you can never step into the same river twice, but I will talk to my mom about your suggestions. </p>
<p>PS. I’m really enjoying the literary element on this thread. wg90210, have you read Solzhenitsyn’s “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”? It might not be as interesting as the short stories you suggest, but I enjoyed it.</p>
<p>Welles10- fencers on the whole tend to be super students. It’s a highly intellectual sport where your mental state (strategy, mental quickness) affects your performance. It’s physical chess.</p>
<p>Fencers are awesome!! Everyone I know on the Wellesley fencing team and on other fencing teams are all very very smart people. I wasn’t very aware of the sport of fencing until mid-way through high school (it’s not very popular where I grew up), but it seems like a really great sport. And if you’re good at it, props to you!</p>
<p>If you appreciate Solzhenitsyn, Checkov and the master Dostoyesky, also investigate Kafka, Camus, Sartre, Mann, et al. They are not Russsian but capture a similar essence.</p>
<p>On the issue of contacting the administration, I would do it. What to lose? You might at least convince them to waitlist you and then…</p>
The people in Wellesley’s financial aid office are really nice, so if you have any more questions, feel free to call! I wish you the best of luck and hopefully I’ll see you next year!</p>
My interviewer took pages of notes and told me how Wellesley could use someone with my multi-faceted abilities. The interviewer acted surprised that I knew the founder of the Russian program (Nabokov) wrote Lolita. Then, the greater insult of everyone I know saying I’d be a great fit there, including the fencing coach saying they could use someone like me. It’s hard to reflect on things that turn out to be untrue, even if the school was a stretch.</p>