<p>Hi, everyone. My daughter is a junior. She has singled out UChicago and CMU as her dream schools. My concern is that she is setting herself up for extreme disappointment; she's fantastic, really, but she's been dealing with personal health issues throughout high school and has never found her niche or passion. I need guidance for this situation. </p>
<p>She hasn't taken the SAT yet, but she scored 203 on the PSAT. 3.8 GPA, 5 APs. Tests aren't her forte, and she is very worried come May (maybe worrying runs in the family!). As far as ECs go, she works about 15 hours each week and volunteer tutors three children with disabilities. Never had any interest in the school club politics or competitions. She also self-published a novel that has sold fairly well, but I'm not sure if that's even relevant to her applications. I really think her essays are her big draw - this kid has had teachers, author friends, etc oohing and ahhing over her writing since kindergarten. She is extremely eloquent and creative. She's also very good at interviews; her personality really shines through in one-on-one interaction. It seems like the interview and the essays are the least important parts in most schools.</p>
<p>She truly believes she would thrive in these schools, and I agree. They both seem to fit her like a glove; she's nerdy, loves the city, wants a small university. How do you handle a kid who loves schools that are not very realistic for her? What schools are safer bets?</p>
<p>Consider Univ of Rochester. The kids are smart, not supposed to be a competitive environment. The curriculum is an open cluster one so students take classes in 3 separate areas. Small school under 5K undergrad. Essays and interviews are a big part of the admission process. They are the only school that asked for an additional family/friend recommendation. Admit rate is 40% so still selective but could be easier to get in than the two you have started with.</p>
<p>And absolutely, the novel she wrote is very relevant to her application.</p>
<p>I was recently accepted to CMU myself. And to be honest, I did not think I was going to get in. My parents knew how hard I worked throughout high school, but they also knew what I was up against. Do not rule anything out too soon! I think my essays were my ticket in. I showed my passion for the school and how much I wanted to become a Tartan. I also suggest an interview where your daughter shows her interest. They seem to weight that very heavily! I cannot speak for UChicago. But that is my experience with CMU. Good luck to your daughter. :)</p>
<p>Don’t rule out UChicago – she sounds like a good candidate. Writing is valued there. I wonder if she would consider Brandeis? – it has a little bit of the UChicago vibe, IMO, and is close to a wonderful city. There seems to be a fair amount of friendly nerdy types there. I have a daughter there who is loving it. (Also had a son graduate from UChicago.)</p>
<p>Please encourage your daughter to follow her dreams – but also to line up some good safeties and backups. My daughter got into several reach schools, so you never know. </p>
<p>I do think the success of your daughter’s novel would be something of a hook, and definely something to be mentioned in her college application. </p>
<p>I’ve got a bias here (parent of alum), but your daughter also sounds like a good fit for Barnard – urban, small college within a big university/big city environment, highly values its writers. (Not a safety, but very holistic in its admissions practices)</p>
<p>Sounds like your daughter is on the right track for CMU. 203 is a good score too. And females get a plus in admissions to tech schools like carnegie mellon (unless she is applying to the fine arts or humanities school there). U chicago places significant emphasis on the essays, so i think your daughter has at least a decent shot at u chicago. But make sure she doesn’t rule out any other schools too.</p>
<p>I’ll tell you that the more emotionally detached your daughter is about this process, the better emotionally she will be. That’s how I am getting through this process.</p>
<p>Some schools in CMU are easier to get into than others, so she should look into that. If she goes into Humanities, it’ll be much easier to get in than if she wants to go into computers, which is very selective.</p>
<p>College admissions does set a lot of kids up for extreme disappointment. It almost can’t be helped. </p>
<p>Ideally, she should try not to fall in love with a school until she gets accepted. She needs to find a range of schools with varying degrees of difficulty where she can thrive. Most kids end up happy with where they end up. And why not, college is great fun!</p>
<p>I’ve been estimating her probability of admissions for my junior from Naviance to the nearest tenth so that she knows not to look at schools whose probability of admissions rounds down to 0, and knows not to fall in love with schools whose probability of admissions is small. Will it prevent extreme disappointment? I don’t know. So far she only really likes one school that she’s not likely to get into, but she’s seen some that she can live with that are safeties, so I think we’ll be ok.</p>
<p>It’s easy to find schools that are reaches. Spend at least twice as much time and energy focused on finding a school that she is pretty sure that she can get into, that she loves, and that you can afford. Once you’ve done that, you’re in a position for happy surprises. (and she may end up, like thousands of other students, deciding she likes the safety better than the reach.)</p>
<p>Smaller universities (or colleges) in medium-to-big cities include George Washington, American, Boston College, University of Pittsburgh, Emory, University of San Francisco, Washington U., University of San Diego, Fordham University, University of Portland, University of Richmond, and that’s just scratching the surface.</p>
<p>It is important to go into this with an open mind. There is no one or two schools that are the only good fit for any child, in my opinion.</p>
<p>She can and will be happy, successful and well educated at a whole host of schools. Start believing that mantra yourself, so you can help her believe it as well.</p>
<p>Has your D had a chance to visit those schools? </p>
<p>For what it’s worth, S had an idea of the type of school he wanted, but as he started visiting, changed his mind. The schools that rose to the top were not even on his radar a year ago. While he had a clear favorite, (where he was admitted ED) he also had several other great schools he would have been happy to attend. Thankfully a few of them were also schools where he should have been admitted easily (not super reaches) and were also affordable.</p>
<p>I agree with what most other folks said, and I love seeing all the great suggestions for her! It is dangerous to have all your eggs in one emotional basket, so to speak, and you’re absolutely right to encourage her to look at lots of possibilities. There are no guarantees in life, and even admission to her first choice school won’t assure a lifetime of happiness after all…most students can find satisfaction wherever they end up. Just read this blog post yesterday, and it’s absolutely true. </p>
<p>The one part of your post that made me want to respond, though, is to your statement that “tests aren’t her forte.” I’m a test prep tutor, and I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard “my child doesn’t test well!” There probably is a student every once while that that’s true, but they’re few and far between. Most of the time, it really means tests stress you out more than they should. You describe yourself as a worrywart, and the fruit often doesn’t fall far from the tree Believe me, the quickest cures for not testing well are feeling completely prepared for the test and adjusting one’s expectations about what the test means. Of course she’s going to feel tense about taking the test if she’s pressuring herself that the only place she’ll be happy is a reach school for which she needs killer scores. You’ll be helping her immensely when test day in May rolls around by helping her be more open to other options and therefore reducing the pressure. She might be surprised to find when her results come back that she’s a little closer to those reach schools than before (just don’t tell her that ahead of time!). The idea is to set herself up for success, not failure, and when your expectations are realistic, you’ll almost always succeed. Hoping for only good things for you and your daughter. Good luck!</p>
<p>Have you considered, if it is not too late, applying for tbe summer programs at either/both of the schools? CMU, at least, will offer admission to outstanding students from the 6-week summer program. We got such an offer. I do not know if Chicago does so also, but it would be worth checking out. I know of a couple Chicago first years who did attend a summer program in 2011.</p>
Believe me, the quickest cures for not testing well are feeling completely prepared for the test and adjusting one’s expectations about what the test means. Of course she’s going to feel tense about taking the test if she’s pressuring herself that the only place she’ll be happy is a reach school for which she needs killer scores. You’ll be helping her immensely when test day in May rolls around by helping her be more open to other options and therefore reducing the pressure. She might be surprised to find when her results come back that she’s a little closer to those reach schools than before (just don’t tell her that ahead of time!). The idea is to set herself up for success, not failure, and when your expectations are realistic, you’ll almost always succeed. Hoping for only good things for you and your daughter. Good luck!</p>