D1 & S each used a state U as a safety. For D1 admission was a complete certainty; the school was giving free rides to National Merit semifinailsts even not from our own state. S, in a different state, applied to two state Us that were actually considered pretty good schools around here, but were pretty much shoo-ins for him by his school’s Naviance. He got into both, and actually attended one of them.
I just figure state u’s are better to use for safeties because they are less likely to yield-protect. You can be way over in stats but a school can still ding you if they don’t “feel the love”.
D2 didn’t need a safety, she was admitted ED. But IIRC for her safety, if she needed one, she was planning one of the schools that was good in her area of primary interest but was much easier for her to get into academically. A school that she had already visited and interviewed at, thereby demonstrating interest.She wanted a special program (dance/ballet) that the state Us here did not have much of. Most other schools don’t either. She wouldn’t have been applying to thousands of schools in any event, so maybe yield protection would be less of a concern among the few schools that had great programs in that area. But it never came up.
The thing with legacy , and I think this is common, is. they want that to mean your D is more likely to go there. Not that they are giving her leave to use them as a doormat.
My alma says they only give preference to legacies if they apply ED.
Whatever their stated policy is, the message in the application has to be: I’m reallly familiar with your school through Pops. and because of that I know this is the place for me. I cant wait to get there, again.
If instead, the message is: “My main interests are in theater and social justice. I’m applying to Oberlin, Wesleyan, Vassar, and Bard. And oh yeah, also Bucknell because I need a safety and I have legacy there- you guys don’t still have sororities there, do you? ewww…”
Then no, it would not be a good safety. Or match, Or anything.
But that level school doesn’t sound like a safety to me, for most kids.
On the many tours I’ve done with my kids I found that very few students pipe up and ask questions. So, I asked a bunch of questions which became a running joke with them and they pretended to be annoyed, but in the end the answers helped them form opinions over time in terms of what they wanted. Every kid is different, so maybe yours will ask lots of questions. If not, be prepared to pepper a few in there. If they find you annoying, slide on up next to the guide while walking between stops on the tour and quietly as the questions. Have fun!
“My alma says they only give preference to legacies if they apply ED.
Whatever their stated policy is, the message in the application has to be: I’m reallly familiar with your school through Pops. and because of that I know this is the place for me. I cant wait to get there, again.”
Legacy policies are all over the map. My alma does not use demonstrated interest at all in admissions and does not use ED. So they don’t care at all if the legacy kid applies EA or RD. But at other schools that rely heavily on ED, the legacy admissions are often tightly bundled into the workings of ED.
ED and legacy are each techniques that try to accomplish the same two things. 1. Increase yield. 2. Increase the number of full payors. So using the two of them together makes even more sense.
@Ohiodad51, dropping in during the summer without a reservation at many schools would mean no tour, as there are often only a handful of student tour guides working in admissions when school is not in session. No college would want to turn you away, but it’s quite possible that depending on the time of day you show up, there just might not be a tour available. Of course, it’s not the worst thing in the world to walk around campus by yourselves – and may sometimes be preferable
@Cheeringsection’s idea of booking ahead and canceling as needed would be the way to go IMHO. We could not have managed more than one visit a day, but I know lots of families who are more energetic!
I took my son on a college tour last summer. We had a more hectic schedule, two schools a day. The tour itself is not that informative in my opinion. You get to see how the campus looks like and the surrounding area. One of the most important benefits of the visit is that you left a record of visit, which indicates your interest in the school. But I don’t think New Haven dissuades my son from attending Yale a bit at all.
I think 4 schools is just right. That’s what we did for our daughter last year. We did 2 schools in Chicago, Notre Dame and U. Michigan - in 3 days. Seemed busy but worked for us.
New Haven is a disappointment. Be sure to request the crime report from schools and to read the student newspaper which will give you some insight into the campus life.
In FL, stats and a 500 word essay is what is needed for the flagship. GTech goes by stats, no LORs. UMiami lists the cost by SAT scores. So, UF and UMiami would have been safeties, with a cost of $0. I don’t know what cost of GTech would have been, as son applied to 1 safety.
We found that three schools in four days was the limit for our boys, YMMV. For S14 by the time we got to school 3 (all were in upstate NY) he was pretty tired and had already decided he liked school 2. Later (after he didn’t get in ED to school 2, which was Cornell by the way) he couldn’t remember which campus was which for school 1 and 3. In the end, he went to school 3 and is living happily ever after.
Even for a student with excellent stats there are some schools that must be considered reaches – I’d say anything with less than a 20 or 25% admission rate. They can take their pick from a large number of highly qualified applicants.
Cornell done right could take much longer than an average college visit, because it has separate info sessions for each college, for one thing, and a separate tour for the freshman dorm areas.
Besides, I like it there {insert smiley-face thing].
Unless your kid hates it at first sight, in which case any visit can be concluded in minutes.
How many total days will you be away from home? Just asking to help me plan a trip like this. My D’s list consists our state flagship as her safety and Stanford as her reach, that is it. I desperately need to broaden her horizons.
@ohiodad51, my PA geography is somewhat lacking, but if you end up near Philly, do stop at Haverford. The city/suburb/rural thing is hard to articulate. My son, who had only ever lived in mega-cities, thought he would like an urban or suburban campus, but when he was actually on campus – Williams, Hamilton, Kenyon – something about the natural beauty spoke to him, and the outdoorsy aspect of the culture defined the experience, so much so that he chose another rural environment (Cornell) for graduate school.
I know Williams is already on your list, The theater program is excellent with ample performance opportunities for non-majors and terrific facilities. The Williamstown Theater Festival is not technically part of the college, but the ambiance rubs off. Williams is selective, but ECs like theater and band, can impact admissions considerably…
@ohiodad51 - I drive from Ohio to NYC to take my kid to/from school- my advice (if you are using i80) is that unless you love fast food- plan to stop and eat before you leave Ohio- there isn’t much along the way. (There is an Applebee’s in Clarion PA about an hour into PA- but I don’t like to sit for that long on a driving trip, wastes time) We like to hit the last panera before you get into PA (in lovely Niles OH) carry out sandwiches and eat them a couple hours later.
@nw2this We will be gone a total of six days. The plan is to get up early and drive to NYC (8.5 hours). Spend that evening sight seeing/eating. The next day tour Fordham followed by a show and a drive to New Haven that evening (about 2 hours if I remember). Tour Yale the following day, maybe stop at Weselyan (30 minutes away) then drive to Vassar, maybe see a play there (another couple hours drive I think). Tour Vassar the following day, drive to Bucknell (3 hours or so). Tour Bucknell the next morning, and back home (6 hours).
@toowonderful. I did pretty much the same with my son on our trips last year. Only we stopped at the Chipotle instead of the Panera
@momrath, I would like her to see Haverford (and Swarthmore) if my assumption is correct and she turns out to like the small LACs. I don’t really know much about the theater scene there though. We are planning a separate trip towards Philly/DC, probably in the fall. A lot of the “Dad Master Plan” is subject to revision though based on what she likes out of this trip.
I think this is a pretty good plan. I like that you’ve built some fun activities into the schedule. I think you can certainly fit Wesleyan in, especially if there is an a.m. tour at Yale. I would suggest having lunch in New Haven before heading out.
I’m not really up on Fordham U these days, but if we’re talking about the Bronx campus (“Rose Hill”), FWIW you would be very close to:
NY Botanical Gardens
-Bronx Zoo
Arthur Avenue ( The Bronx’s answer to Little Italy)
and convenient to Yankee stadium, it they’re playing at home then
You also have the opportunity to conduct the definitive thin-crust pizza taste-off.
You could eat them all cold, in the car on the way home. Better than counting the cones on I-80.
A tip to surviving college road trips: A cooler in the car/trunk packed with healthy snacks of your choice and lots of bottled water and other drinks. It comes in handy when you are in a food wasteland area or if you are running to a campus visit and don’t have time to sit down and eat somewhere. Hungry teens (and parents!) doesn’t equal successful college visits.
You want to talk about coolers, you should have seen my car last summer when my son and I took about a ten day trip to attend various football camps. Juice, gatorade, muscle milk, ice packs, beef jerky, nuts, fruit, trail mix and of course the ever healthy oreos and Ritz crackers. It looked like a bomb went off in the back seat when we got home.
