Help us pare down my daughter's list

College Search & Selection
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My daughter is a rising senior who is getting ready to put in her applications now because she’s going to Ecuador for the fall semester of her senior year and then finishing at community college in the spring (an unusual path which may hurt her chances at some schools.) She’s got a 97.5 unweighted GPA and has taken the AP and duel enrollment classes available to her (her school doesn’t offer that many). She’s gotten As in all those classes and 5s on the APs. Her ACT is 30, but she’s taking it again before she leaves for Ecuador.

She’s looking for a “progressive, quirky, nerd, vibe”. She wants peers and profs that will challenge her academically, but she doesn’t want cut throat competition. She wants small classes where the students can participate and discuss. She would like to continue to play both classical and folk on her viola (she’s both school orchestra and youth orchestra first chair in viola and I believe made it to All State Orchestra this year which is a big deal in NY). Her sports are swimming and horseback riding and she’d like to do one or the other depending on the team and coach. She’s not really a recruit in either sport but would be a contributor for either. She loves history and politics, art and science. She has volunteered for a political campaign and at the food bank and a little bit in a research lab (which she loved). She plans on majoring in science because her long-term goal is to be an equine veterinarian and she would like to have some research opportunities as an undergrad (she loves working in a lab). No Greek system, not a party school, but a place where hard work is balanced by good fun. She loves to do outdoors stuff (hike, bike, ski, etc.) and to contra dance.

This is her working list. Asterisk means she has visited. If she had to pick one school right now, it would be Carleton. If we weren’t concerned about the money, she would apply there ED. She LOVED everything about Carleton including the swim team (coach and the swimmers). She felt the orchestra wasn’t especially exciting, but would be fun.

“Reach” schools: Brown, Carleton, Haverford, Middlebury. “Good Fit” schools: Bryn Mawr, Colorado College, Grinnell, Kenyon, Oberlin, Smith, Whitman. “Safety” schools: College of the Atlantic, College of Wooster, Earlham, Mount Holyoke, Saint Olaf, Skidmore, SUNY Geneseo, Warren Wilson.

Thanks in advance.

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One more thing, food is important to her. Local, fresh, organic options are a big plus.

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Will UB be too big for her?

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UB? :slight_smile:

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Great list! It looks very well thought out! You might look at student retentions rate. I think Warren Wilson’s is abysmal , but I don’t know why.

Re: folk and contra dance
I think Brown has an old-time music scene (fiddle-banjo-guitar). They have a class in it and a folk festival. Probably some weekly jam sessions. http://www.brown.edu/academics/music/ensembles-and-lessons/old-time-string-band

I would be cautious about rushing applications to some of these schools. Is there any time to review and edit in Ecuador?

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Would she be taking the classes in CC after Ecuador as dual enrollment? If not then she might no longer be considered a freshman applicant. Except for the sports I was thinking of Reed college.

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I’m going to second Reed. After reading my immediate thought was Reed.

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@“Erin’s Dad” They won’t be dual enrollment, but she’s entering a program called “Accelerated Senior Year” through the community college and she will have to transfer one class to graduate from high school. She’ll still be enrolled officially in the high school but taking the classes off campus. The guidance counselor is making sure the registrar signs off on all this because no one has ever done this program before. Thanks for asking though. :slight_smile: (Have I mentioned that we seem to do everything the hard way in our house?).

@arwarw She won’t have access to internet etc. in Ecuador, but she’ll be back on 12/12. She at least needs to get the bulk of the work done now and will probably submit a couple before she leaves.

You’re right about retention rates. Warren Wilson’s is bad and College of the Altantic’s is worse. She loves the ideas of both those programs but is worried about too many flaky kids. I’m sure she would meet some peers at either place, but both are small schools. She doesn’t want to be the smartest kid in class, she’s had enough of that in high school (thus the reason she’s not returning for senior year).

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Argh, is there a way to edit my original post, I just caught the embarrassing typo.

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I would add Brandeis to the list. They don’t have horseback riding but they do have swimming.
I would think SUNY Geneseo would be a match, not a safety. Not sure about swimming or horseback riding but she might also apply to SUNY New Paltz.

Younger daughter’s close friend’s youngest sister is a freshman at SUNY Albany this year as she was rejected from SUNY Geneseo and I believe waitlisted with no waitlist movement at SUNY New Paltz which is now the hot SUNY school. Her EC’s were not as diverse as your daughter’s and her GPA less but she was in an IB program.

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You guys are great, we’re trying to pare down, not add schools. Sheesh :wink:
Reed is a great school. We had to stop somewhere! :slight_smile:

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I wouldn’t add anymore schools - you have a great list. You might print out and review all the supplemental prompts and that may help you eliminate some.

I would print out full final drafts of the applications, take them to Ecuador, ponder and redline and then submit in December. Contemplation can really improve an application IMO.

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Brandeis might be good, she’s always wanted to date a nice Jewish boy. My dad got his PhD there actually. :slight_smile: Again, we’re trying to pare down.

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You have a pretty good list of schools. However, I would just caution you that some of the schools you have listed as either a good fit or safety, are a bit more competitive than you probably realize given her current 30 ACT. As with hundreds of posts reflect right after college acceptance periods, is many parents/students did not do a sufficient job of making appropriate identification of true match and safety schools.

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Not sure if it applicable to your group of schools but both of my kids applied EA/rolling to some schools. Once they got in we could remove any schools below (in terms of preference) the ones they were accepted to from the list of where they applied.

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I wouldn’t put Skidmore in the safety category–it’s gotten much more competitive–but probably in the fit category. And with her interest in science, she should apply for one of the Porter scholarships.

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And I would not place Mt. Holyoke as a pure safety (although I think she does have a solid chance of obtaining admission). Its average ACT is about 30, the same as your daughter, but that also mean they are also rejecting a fair amount of students with that same score.

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I think you probably don’t need so many safeties. Does College of Wooster still do non-binding early action. Apply there before she leaves and you can leave off some of the other safeties (assuming that she likes Wooster more than some others.) Despite the ACT 30, I would expect her to get into a lot of her Match schools as well. She has a strong academic record and interesting ECs.

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OP, echoing @momofzag if you really want to pare down the list then scrape the safety list. There is no way in the world you should need eight of them. Why so many? What is appealing about each? How do those appealing attributes match up against what you and your D consider must haves?

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Agree with the last two posts. When my son applied, he had 6 reaches, 3 matches, and two safeties. He got both his safeties, 2 of the 3 matches (Case Western like to wait-list high-end kids), and one of his reaches. He took the reach and loves it. Also, I don’t see entirely how Bryn Mawr and and Haverford make the list – aren’t they in suburbs of Philadelphia? And I don’t know how their music is. Reed will have loads of fresh, local food I imagine, and while suburban, isn’t too far away from riding. The other outdoor activities are all over the Northwest. I don’t know how Reed’s music is either. I don’t know a lot about Vassar, but I believe their music and science are both good, and it is probably easier to ride in Poughkeepsie than Philadelphia.