Full moon/stress high, should she now apply?

Parents Forum
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<p>A little Halloween cadence there!
The moon is full, the Red Sox won (WOW!) and the stress level at our house is high.
DD is considering whether to add another school to her list. She has (with the help of all you guys on CC) developed a good list, but for a number of reasons, her safeties are all relatively close to home. Going to college out of region is important to her, and she's wondering what are her chances of not being admitted to ANY of her preferred schools. I think her chances of striking out are low, but not non-existent, she has already been admitted to her financial safety (rolling admissions), and she has another safety that she would be happy to attend and is a good fit, but is a little closer to home than her dream.</p>

<p>Quick stats: 4.0 non-weighted, 1540 SAT, all 700+SatIIs (but no 800), 34 ACT, solid college prep curriculum that is hardest at her school, school doesn't rank (but she's top 5%,/142 and GC rec is written to put kids in best possible light without ranking), typical but not stellar ECs, some community service, some leadership, excellent recommendations (this should be a strength), serviceable essays (this has been difficult, not emphasized at her school, hard to judge adequacy). Not a URM, athlete or legacy, we live in Alabama.</p>

<p>LIst in no particular order, she would be equally ecstatic to get into any of these:
Amherst
Carleton
Davidson
Dartmouth
Swarthmore</p>

<p>She has done due diligence, the best she can, for interviews, interest etc. </p>

<p>I have pegged her chances at getting into NONE of these at less than 50-50, but, as she puts it, "There's a big difference in 10% and 30%". I think she should just go with what she has, the "faraway safeties" on her original list were all eliminated for good reasons, St. Olaf in Minn being the one that she might add back in.
I know no one really knows, but if we're way off base, she might fill out that last application.
Happy Halloween!</p>

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<p>Cangel:</p>

<p>She has good stats. I think she has a good chance of being admitted at all or nearly all of the colleges listed above, but sometimes, having peace of mind is worth spending another $65.
If she has already completed a Common Application, she might consider applying to another college that requires the Common App. Other good possibilities for her (I note that besides Davidson, most of the colleges are in cold climate areas) Bowdoin, Smith (if she likes being at a women's college). There aren't many applicants from Alabama at those colleges, she would surely stand out.</p>

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<p>Sounds like you've covered the bases. You've got a financial safety and a good fit safety, and after those, the rest is just gravy. So unless you want to add a safety further from home, you seem set to me. (and St. Olaf is a terrific place, and in some areas -- I'm thinking music and languages/foreign study - easily the peer/superior to the five on the ecstasy list. An interesting little sidenote is that St. Olaf has higher "future Ph.D. productivity" than any of the other schools except Swarthmore; corrected for entering SAT scores/selectivity, it probably has more "value-added" than all of them.)</p>

<p>What does she hope to study? (not that it really matters; more than 60% of the students at all of these places will change once they are there.)</p>

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<p>Bowdoin! I love it! (Laughs maniacally) Everyone, me, her guidance counselor, Joe Blow on the street, has suggested Bowdoin EXCEPT Dad (Mr. History Channel) - you realize that one of the presidents of Bowdoin in the 1800s was Josiah Chamberlain, the Hero of Little Round Top, who single handedly "turned the tide of the Civil War", or the "War of Northern Aggression" as some diehards call it. DH's only input to this whole process has been "No Tulane, no Bowdoin", by the way it looked like a great school and a good fit to me, the GC and Joe Blow, but what do we know?! Thanks for the words of encouragement.</p>

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<p>Doesn't really matter - Bowdoin is much the twin of Carleton (and about as difficult to get to.) Each one of the schools on the list has clones (Pomona to Amherst, etc.), but why bother? (If it were me, I'd go to Amherst of those 5, primarily because of the town and 5-college exchange, but then it isn't me, is it?)</p>

<p>Let's give Chamberlain some credit (or debit!), but let's remember than if the rebel commanders had walked up the hill three of four hours earlier, he wouldn't even have been there. (What has always struck me about Gettysburg, day after day, was the unrelievedly poor generalship on both sides.)</p>

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<p>Mini and Cangel:</p>

<p>Too bad about Bowdoin. But the point is that a student could get into one college but not into its clone. That's the beauty of the crapshoot system. And that's the reason why I thought of Bowdoin: because it is similar to Carleton.</p>

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<p>Mini, flexibility is an important criterion, she wants to go abroad, either to France or Italy, but her academics strengths are science, history, and French. She's more likely to do pre-med than PhD, but she'd make a great lawyer - your basic undecided BWRK.
I'm the choral music geek, I admit a soft spot for both Carleton and St. Olaf - just to have the opportunity to hear St. Olaf's magnificent choir in person one Christmas, would be grand.</p>

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<p>I'll bet she is in at Carleton and for sure St. Olaf. Different personalities for these schools, though. Have you visited? It will seem cold to her here. Olaf beautiful campus, Carleton seems to be all about quirky intellectuals. Know many Olaf alums...they remain tight forever!</p>

<p>St. Olaf highly regarded for study abroad.</p>

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<p>But just imagine (and all Rebs please forgive me - I could make fun of my fellow New Yorkers, too, who would have done equally poorly) how all her friends in Alabama would pronounce "Bowdoin" if that's where she went.</p>

<p>If she wants to go abroad to Italy, she should be doing Smith (which has the best, in my judgment, but that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish). Note that there is no Italian at Amherst - students there try to take it at Smith, but are often shut out, as Smith gives first priority to Smithies hoping to go JYA. As far as I remember, there is no Italian at Swarthmore or Carleton either (and I'm not sure there is any at St. Olaf, though I'd bet that languages generally speaking are stronger there than at Amherst or Swarthmore.)</p>

<p>Obviously, you have to make priorities - just note that some of these schools will close off that possibility.</p>

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<p>And Mini, if they had walked up the hill 3-4 hours earlier it might have been a different war, a different country, and a terrible outcome for South and North both!</p>

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<p>"Bowdoin" yeah, he's that guy that coaches for for Fla State, didn't know they named a college for him already, why is it in Maine?</p>

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<p>I'm not one of those people who on chances threads writes "You're in!", but I agree with Marite here. Your D's chances of getting into several, and perhaps even all, of the schools you list are pretty good. I wouldn't worry about any more safeties unless you really want to. Congratulations to your D on her fine high school record.</p>

<p>A couple of Bowdoin notes:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Joan Benoit, winner of the first women's Olympic Marathon gold medal in 1984, is a Bowdoin alumna.</p></li>
<li><p>I believe tha Gen. Chamberlain's first name was Joshua.</p></li>
</ol>

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<p>If she goes to Italy, it is more likely to be as a classics major, or Greek/Roman studies, that sort of thing rather than modern Italian or art history. Her French is good for just high school (state and national medals in the French competition each year), that's the one she would pursue if she goes in the direction of a modern language major. She has a smattering of Latin and Italian (her Dad, the History Channel guy, is the language buff, fluent in French, self taught Italian, Latin, a little German, a little Portugese, I can barely speak English). One of the most appealing things to her about D'mouth is the quarter system, where she can go for one quarter class, then travel the next quarter.
Of course if she attends Davidson, that's probably all out the window, they have this neat program where you go to Africa and work in a large hospital one summer... and so it goes.</p>

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<p>You caught me, Coureur, (this whole Bowdoin thing has become sort of a running family joke over the last year), I've used the wrong name so many times while tugging my husband's chain ;), that now I don't remember the correct name. You are exactly right, it's Joshua.</p>

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<p>Cangel:</p>

<p>She sounds more and more like a good fit for Smith to me!</p>

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<p>(I would have said the same - the Western European language thing at Smith is just better - deeper, with more opportunities - than any of the 5 ecstasy schools. But the others aren't chopped liver!)</p>

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<p>Bowdoin's former president came from Carleton - so it makes sense that Bowdoin and Carleton are very similar.</p>

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<p>I was going to mention that it was Joshua, too. The reason I know is that S has been a Civil War buff since he saw "Gettysburg". He's watched it about a billion times since (when he was nine, he would act out whole speeches from it, and his favorite book then was Killer Angels, of course). Joshua Chamberlain was his hero.</p>

<p>Anyway, I agree that it's extremely unlikely tht she won't get in any of these, esp. coming from Alabama. If she's not sure about St. Olaf, what about Macalester. Great school, but pretty good acceptance rate last I checked. Can't imagine them turning her down.</p>

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<p>Cangel, although I agree that your daughter's chance at success is very high, her preferred list would keep me up nights. I don't know anything about Davidson, but the others are a bit too selective for comfort. I'd recommend adding a safer safety. If one of the women's colleges appeals, like Smith or Holyoke, then that would do the trick. If she definitely wants coed and Northern, then take another look at Skidmore, Vassar, Bard, Hamilton, Kenyon, Connecticut, Sarah Lawrence, Colby.</p>

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<p>Chamberlain gets the glory these days for his courageous defense of the Little Round Top, but the key command came from Gen. Warren - commander of the engineers and a topographical genius, who saw that the undefended LRT was the key to whole battlefield and ordered the Mainers and other units to rush up and hold it at all costs.</p>