@momofsenior1 We didn’t just rely on Naviance, but yes I think you are right. And yes, I think he may be disadvantaged being from NE. Thanks for the hugs. Need them right now.
My D20 looks very similar to your S on paper, just substitute baseball for another sport and replace theater and MUN with all of the orchestra-related offerings you can think of. Our school calculates gpa on an unweighted 100-point scale, our list of schools has a lot of overlap with yours and we had a fair amount of financial need, too.
I am sorry you are disappointed by the responses he has received and I understand trying to second guess what went “wrong”. I agree with Naviance not offering a full picture, admissions being more holistic than the 2 stats tracked on it, and it is hard for us to understand why everyone doesn’t love our kid. I’m not sure when the RD decisions come out from his deferred schools but if it’s not too late, he could reach out and reinforce his interest in attending.
Hang in there!
It likely isnt “him” but more so that very few get accepted to a theater major (even a non BFA). It could be more preferred major than anything else. It appears he chose very selective colleges as well with most having 30% or less acceptance. So your son isnt “not special”, he just might be along the 70% of applicants who get denied.
I hope he finds a great school that works for all.
@helpingmom40 Thank you for understanding. That means a lot. He has reached out to all the deferrals and revisited his first choice as well. Did you D end up somewhere she loves? I truly hope so!
@Charlie2772, please don’t think he is not good enough. It is just that there are more qualified students than there are open spots. Who knows what specific profile the admission folks are looking for at any given time. He sounds like a great kid with varied interests who will bloom wherever he is planted. Hang in there, I know the waiting is not easy!
She identified her clear favorite (not one you mentioned) very early on, pursued it relentlessly, and bet the house on an ED application. It meets 100% of need, has an acceptance rate of 22-25% depending on the year, and I have no idea how she managed to do it but she did. I think it is a combination of luck and the “pursued it relentlessly” part and we are well aware it could have gone either way. She would have also been quite happy at several of the schools on your list. Just know it isn’t “him”. He is obviously an accomplished young man who is well prepared and he will accomplish great things wherever he ends up. All of your research has helped him to find schools he sees great things in and all you need is for a couple to see the great things in him (he can only attend one anyway)!
I have a little bit of a different take. He must have applied to A LOT of these schools RD, correct? Because a lot of these schools don’t have EA, and you can only apply to ONE school ED1 and ONE school ED2 at most.
In light of this, I feel like it is WAY too early to feel dejected. OF COURSE your son stands a chance with a 1460 SAT and that stellar list of extracurriculars! I am a faculty member at a college that is a rival of Muhlenberg, and I think he stands an excellent chance there. I also think he stands a very good chance of hitting some of these other liberal arts colleges, especially since a few of them get more applications from women than men and try to keep the ratio no more skewed than 60-40. I’m not saying he’s going to get all of them, but he doesn’t need all of them. If he winds up with four solid options, he should feel fabulous about himself.
My guess is that in addition to UMASS, he gets offers a minimum of 3-4 others…and possibly quite a few more. Some of the most likely ones, statistically, are:
Muhlenberg (62% acceptance rate)(student body 61% female)
Union College (39% acceptance rate)
College of the Holy Cross (38% acceptance rate)(student body 52% female)
Trinity College (34% acceptance rate)
*Acceptance rates as of 2018, according to US News.
But given that it is only March 12th, there is no reason to think there isn’t a nice juicy acceptance coming for him even from one of his reach schools. I think it’s hard to feel upbeat at this tense time, especially when also getting a deluge of bad news about school and extracurriculars being cancelled due to COVID 19. (I’m assuming this is happening to many of our seniors. It certainly is happening to my daughter.) Keep hope alive!
And make sure to report back when you get good news. I really think it’s going to happen.
Update:
Accepted:
Muhlenberg (embarrassing about of merit, plus need)
Trinity (no award yet, will meet full need when awarded)
Conn College (almost embarrassing amount of merit, plus need)
Union (merit award, full need)
UMass (some need)
Waitlisted:
Bates
BC
Holy Cross
Babson (not a fit, but way above stats wise)
Lafayette
@Booklver You were very close!!