<p>My advice, if she really wants to go to a top notch school like her reach schools, is to go to Northeastern and take the Arts and sciences courses. If she can really do well in them, she would have a better than average chance for transfer by giving the reason for transfer that she picked the wrong kind of colleges to provide true in depth studies in the liberal arts, and for a more traditional campus based environment. She should then hone in on the luscious offerings that schools like Cornell, Duke, whatever on her list have that are lacking that she so seeks. </p>
<p>When schools look at transfers, though they will also look at the high school transcript and the test scores, what is counted most heavily are college grades and reason for transfer. The most prized reason is when a student is at a school that limits growth and offerings in the field of interest and a solid non fault reason for not liking the place. Northeaster is ripe for that. It’s a very different school and it’s understandable why a kid from Europe looking for a regular US college atmosphere might not find it a match. Also it’s liberal arts offerings are not as strong as many schools as that is not where its strengths and focuses are. </p>
<p>With BU, it’s going to be a tough sell as to why she would want to leave there as the academics are very much those at her reach schools. Not much at all she’d lose out going there. Though she might hone in on the lack of campus and again look for what’s missing there as opposed to those other schools. That’s what makes for a great transfer app… Of course you also need to pick a school that has some transfer spots. Don’t fish where there aren’t any. </p>
<p>I think she’s good transfer material. I think difficulty of her curriculum (did she submit SAT2 scores–were they good, no IB, too few APs, school profile not so strong?) might have be part of the issue but really she was not there in terms of those reach schools. MAYBE for Michigan and BC, had those things been beefed up, they would have been a go, and if she applied early, EA for BC and I don’t know if M has EA or is still rolling. I’ll find out as my son is looking there too.</p>
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<p>I note that OP thinks his daughter would do best in an intimate setting, yet applied to no schools where that would happen. And it wouldn’t happen at Duke either. Sounds like you never looked at the LAC route, which would give you the small intimate classes and relationships with professors - but the LAC name brands are obscure to the general public and it seems like you concentrated on big name national universities. Only problem is, there often isn’t much merit-based aid at top LACs. You’ll need to be under $150K per year with one college student to get need-based aid. And given your daughter’s history of attending boarding schools, a LAC might be the exact right route. </p>
<p>If you were to do a gap year, you might consider going an entirely different direction and tour some LACs. There a certainly plenty of highly regarded ones in the New England area, and once you get off the top ones, more merit based aid is possible, especially for high test scores. And if she’s used to a single-sex boarding school (just assuming), that may open up the women’s LACs to her, and some of them are very impressive with nice merit aid.</p>
<p>Finally, regarding the Honors program at BU, it’s tiny, and with 5000 freshmen, exceedingly difficult to get in. Since they only take 80 students out of 5000, that makes it more selective than any Ivy.</p>
<p>^Good advice too. </p>
<p>cluelessly, what’s your college budget? Transfers do not get merit aid (or very little, but not at schools like your daughter’s reach schools) </p>
<p>@MrMom62 It was a bit of a struggle to come with the college list. I was hoping for a place like Georgetown or Duke in the best possible situation of course. And according to her school naviance she seemed to be more than qualified. She is in an international school with a different mix of kids who were able to get in with lower scores than she got. At this point I attribute it to the fact that although she was in that setting she was considered an American student competing against kids like your kids from American schools and that was not in her favor. LAC were not on the radar at all and we did not tour any schools which is a big mistake.
sSATs were 730-760 in math, biology and English. Not stellar but not bad either.</p>
<p>It is too late to reconsider Northeastern now for a transfer since the deadline passes. Most likely we will have to pay for the full tuition if she got in a top college that she likes. But if she is in the middle tier I think it will be best to try to get scholarships to offset the cost a little bit.</p>
<p>Her ACT will put her in the running for just about any LAC, though the very top ones will be unlikely, as they are for everyone. But those in the 10-30 range on the US News list should be good candidates.</p>
<p>If you are anywhere in the Boston-Washington corridor, there are tons of Top 30 LACs to go visit on easy daytrips. When your daughter comes back to the States, I suggest you go visit a few over the summer and see what she thinks. Have her (and you) do some online research before she gets back, something may start to click and perhaps a gap year will start to seem like not such a bad thing if she has some schools she’ll truly love coming up next year. You’ll be shocked how much personal attention you can get at these places in “off-season”, especially if you go during the week - it’s not the cattle call you get at the Ivies. And you can get any environment you want, from super-urban Barnard to super-rural Middlebury and everything in-between. (Though to be fair, urban is much rarer than rural/small town.)</p>
<p>You are not the first person to fall into the Test Score-Name Brand trap. Even people who have been through the process before get caught up when they see 35 or 36 on the ACT and think it’s an autoadmit to HYPSM or equivalent. I have friends who were caught in that trap, and they had already done the college things before, but fortunately their son got into a very prestigious non-Ivy program that suits him, but not before getting a lot of unexpected reject letters. Learn from your mistakes and perhaps this was really a blessing in disguise, a much happier result may await.</p>
<p>Very inspiring post. I would love an outcome like this for my daughter. If she ends up in a place that she feels passionate about we would all be happy. Her one passion has always been U Michigan and it is devastating for her that she did not get an acceptance from there. I know it is so different from a liberal art college or a small college but she just loves that place even though she never visited. I am thinking to take her there if she decides on the gap year so she knows at least what is it she is missing or whether she wants to apply again.</p>
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<p>Taking college courses after high school graduation can disqualify a student from applying as frosh. Different colleges have different thresholds as to what the disqualification for frosh application is, so check carefully if she is considering taking any college courses after high school graduation.</p>
<p>Realistically, if any of the four schools that she has been admitted to has the academics she wants and is affordable, why not just attend? She was obviously interested enough to apply to them, so they should be fine for her. Getting shut out of reach and match schools is not unusual; that is what safety schools are for, and many students attend their safeties and succeed.</p>
<p>I am inclined to agree with Ucbalumnus. It’s not as though the OP’s DD did not accepted anywhere or in places that are truly not suited. Her outcome is really quite typical these days. Yes, on the low end for stats, but given the schools, it’s not a totally outrageous spread. UB, NE, UVermont, UMass are not bad choices. Did UMass give any merit? I know a number of kids at UB, top flight kids, doing very well there. Boston is a great place for college kids. She’s moving forward going on to college, and let send out the transfer apps at the end of the year, if she wants something NOT at BU. She might end up liking it there.</p>
<p>You do this all again, she could well end up still not getting into the schools she wants. I do want to warn that I’ve not seen kids getting into school that rejected them first round except through transfers. </p>
<p>My very close friend went through this with her DD. Only she did not have choices as good as the OP’s. She went to one of the schools, aced her courses and applied to a bunch of top schools as transfer and got into them. She even was a bit sad about leaving the college she started out with . There were advantages to staying there</p>
<p>OP, what is your daughter’s unweighted GPA (and what was it when she applied?). Many colleges only use the unweighted, and it’s important that people recommending schools and whether or not to take a gap year have this info. </p>
<p>I am not sure what it is now. It was 3.6 when she applied and it went up to 3.8 most recent report</p>
<p>Are you sure about that GPA? Doing a quick calculation a 3.6 after junior year can only get to about a 3.7.</p>
<p>I will double check with her. I am not 100% sure.</p>
<p>You had said before that that was her weighted GPA. Are you clear on the difference between weighted and unweighted?</p>
<p>I could not calculate it if you ask me to. So I am not. I know it is impacted by AP courses grades but not sure how. I should look it up .</p>
<p>Unweighted is the straight GPA. Generally 4.0 is an A, 3.0 is a B, etc. while weighted gives extra for honors or AP classes. 3.8 unweighted is pretty strong while 3.8 weighted is less so. It’s important to figure out which. </p>
<p>And you may already know this but colleges may re-weigh for their own purposes. </p>
<p>I’m guessing that since she wasn’t invited to honors programs at UMASS or Vermont, that her grades were not look upon that favorably. </p>
<p>I think that BU is totally and appropriate school, and I think that trying again next year it unlikely to drastically change the results. </p>
<p>Honestly, she should just go to BU. If it’s not working, she can transfer out. </p>
<p>^I disagree. I think that in this case, a gap year makes sense: more information from the parents, better choices from the students, would likely results in several choices she’s happy with. Since she’s full pay at the moment anyway, it’s not like she’s got anything to lose. She may not get into a higher-ranked school but she will have gone through the process thoughtfully and with her eyes open this time and the outcome is likely to be much more satisfying for all involved.</p>
<p>(I agree BU is a fine school but I don’t think that’s the problem here.)</p>