Highly Disappointed and Confused

<p>My daughter applied to 4 colleges this year. Dartmouth was her top choice, Middlebury, Bowdoin and a easy to get in school. She had a great interview at Dartmouth but she did not get in, not even wait listed. Middlebury and Bowdoin both wait listed her. Her fourth choice was a small Christian liberal arts college that she applied to so that her grandma would be happy. She's a top notch student, work, extra-curricular, 7 AP classes with 5's on the tests, straight A student, killer SAT scores. She's done all she can to contact the schools where she has been wait listed but realistically knows that odds are against her but does not want to attend her default choice. She received multiple merit scholarships at the default school but even with need based financial aid, she will have $14,000 to repay of loans from just the first year. We visited the college after we found out about the other schools and she did not like anything about it. She has done nothing but study and pack her resume for the past 4 years in order to get into a good school and now she feels she is left with no options but to attend the school with the 98% acceptance rate. She is looking for an academically challenging situation, but prospects look grim for the fall of 2011. Does anyone have any advice where to go from here?</p>

<p>Like your D, my D worked hard all through high school, did amazingly well, but didn’t get into her “reach” schools…it’s been a tough year all around. My D applied on a late whim to a small Univ. with rolling admissions, was accepted, and given amazing fin. aid. just a week ago, which we learned of yesterday! She had other acceptances to more well known schools, one of which was her first choice school in an exciting city, but would have cost us a lot more in loans over the course of her education. She is so thankful for the late whim, and we just paid her deposit today. Maybe your D should look into the list of rolling admissions schools. We thought there was no way our D would get enough fin. aid. so late in the game, but yet she actually got the most, allowing us to only pay 1.5 times our FAFSA EFC. The next closest school would have been over 3 times the EFC. If she is willing to try, go ahead. If she needs to take a gap year and try to apply again next year, there are worse things in life. Maybe she could work and travel for part of her gap year, allowing her some new experiences. People here have also mentioned that after May 1, a list is published of schools that did not meet their yields. If she isn’t happy with her choices at this point, you don’t have much to lose by trying the late application route! My D feels she has discovered a hidden gem. She will get the education to bring her to the same end result, just in an unexpected way! It’s kind of like finding buried treasure right now! Good luck to your D. Her hard work will serve her no matter what school she attends. My D is planning to be very, very successful at her school! We compared the major courses at her top choice, expensive school, and this smaller U, and you know what, the titles of the courses are going to read pretty close to identical on the transcript she will receive. If she does really well, pursues opportunities, and makes the most of her education, she will still accomplish her career goals. That is what matters most, after all.</p>

<p>Gap year yo</p>

<p>Dartmouth, Middlebury, and Bowdoin are all at a level where they have to reject MANY very intelligent applicants. They simply aren’t large enough to accept ALL of the really smart applicants. So you shouldn’t be surprised or insulted. </p>

<p>You simply should have applied to more top colleges in addition to some at the level below them, where your daughter would have had a better shot at being accepted.<br>
I agree with destinyhelp…take a year off, take a deep breath, regroup, do something interesting (work, travel, study) and try it all over again next year. Even if your daughter spends the year working for Burger King, your daughter will show up as a freshman without the usual wide-eyed freshman naivete. </p>

<p>Next year, apply to a bunch of tip-top colleges, but include some at the next lower level as a Plan B (Boston College, RPI, William and Mary, Michigan, NYU, Vanderbilt, Tufts, Wake Forest, Rochester, etc.), </p>

<p>Also include some of the dozens of colleges in the country that offer really good educations for even tip-top students at which your daughter would almost certainly be accepted. I’m thinking of U of Wisconsin, Fordham, SMU, Virginia Tech, Clemson, U of Pittsburgh, and Miami of Ohio. U of Iowa, Clark University, Connecticut College, Union College, and U of Colorado.</p>

<p>OP, it sounds like your D’s list of schools sadly didn’t include any matches or true safeties. A “true” safety is one that the student both likes (meaning, would be willing to attend) and that the family knows it can afford, even if no aid is forthcoming. For a high-stat kid like your D, that could also mean schools where her stats would guarantee her merit money that would make the school affordable. </p>

<p>Looking at schools still accepting applications, as posted above, should be the first step. She can remain on the waitlist. If she doesn’t come off the waitlist, or she does but there’s not enough aid, and she doesn’t like any schools with slots still available, I would suggest that she take a gap year. She can do something productive, and also come up with a better list of schools for the next round of applications. There’s lots of good advice about this situation on the parents forum (for starters, take a look at this oldie-but-goodie thread <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/192395-no-acceptances-one-kids-story-year-later.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/192395-no-acceptances-one-kids-story-year-later.html&lt;/a&gt;)</p>

<p>Taking out $14k of loans to attend a school she doesn’t like is unlikely to end happily. She will have the best shot at getting merit and/or need-based aid if she enters a school as a freshman, not a transfer.</p>

<p>I recommend a gap year if your daughter can come up with a good plan for some combination of work, travel, or other activity. Otherwise, she can attend community college or a rolling admission school, then transfer. This board can help her put together a better list of colleges for new applications in the fall.</p>

<p>If Middlebury and Bowdoin both wait-listed her, she should have many good choices among the top 30 or 40 liberal arts colleges similar to those two (but somewhat less selective). These might include women’s colleges (Smith, Bryn Mawr, Mt. Holyoke), Midwestern LACs (Oberlin, Macalester, Grinnell), or other New England LACs (like Bates, Colby, Colgate, or Hamilton). She can back these up with a less expensive public LAC like SUNY Geneseo or St. Mary’s College of MD, or with the honors college at your state flagship.</p>

<p>I second tk21769 on the part that she should go to commuity college for a year and apply next year. Prepare an extensive list this time and figure out which courses will transfer (so she will not waste any community college credits). I know that community colleges are generally not acdemically challenging however she can always join a Phi Theta Kappa chapter at the cc or some honors program and they will try to accomodate her academic needs. Trust me, for such a bright girl as your D, community college can teach her one very important thing: patience.</p>

<p>If she is a top notch student, take a look at Clemson’s “National Scholars Program” as it may be something she could qualify for. Also, public school honors programs can be a great place to look too.</p>

<p>Let me know if you have any particular questions about Clemson!</p>

<p>Tomhenry - did you know the admission rates at these schools before you put together the list containing 3 schools that are reaches for everybody and then one half-hearted leftover?</p>

<p>I’d suggest you search on CC for the story of Andison … who I believe was not admitted to any schools, took a gap year, retooled his list of schools to which he applied and had a great outcome the second year.</p>

<p>How is Tufts a lower/easier school to get into? The most recent USNWR has its acceptance rate tied with both Northwestern and U of Chicago (but if you exclude rounding Tufts up, it was harder to get into than both Northwestern and U of Chicago). Clearly, it’s a tough school to get into.</p>

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<p>A lot of parents and students who don’t frequent CC have little understanding of how competitive admissions are these days at the top 25 or so colleges. It seems that high school guidance counselors either aren’t doing their jobs properly or are using outdated statistics to make their recommendations.</p>

<p>Thank you all for your advice… it is really great to have a forum like this. I didn’t find this website until after my D had the disappointments. We really under-estimated the competition and field out there. My daughter was trying to save money and apply to only the colleges that she knew she wanted to attend (with the exception of the safety school that came highly recommended by her aunt and grandparents and that was a free application). We moved her this year from a highly competitive Wake county school in NC to a small Christian school in New England. The guidance counselors there were preparing the top kids to go to UNC and since she was ranked 5 in her class of over 600 kids she would have been a shoe in. She loved New England and had her heart set on going here so when we went on the campus tours of her schools and she loved them we naively thought the doors would open. Had I read these posts we would have approached things differently. Our guidance counselor felt that anyone who met her would take her in immediately. The school principle and guidance counselor have taken notice now and are trying to advise but the truth is, this Ivy world is a different world, one that we aren’t accustomed to! My husband and I both went to little Christian church colleges and didn’t give it any other thought. It’s been a huge eye opener. And Slitheytove, thanks for posting that link - read it with tears. My daughter is actually considering a gap year, but we are going to look into all our other options too to see if there is something she hasn’t considered yet that she might love. You all have been so helpful. Thanks</p>

<p>She could also attend the little Christian college and transfer next year (unless she really didn’t like that school).</p>

<p>My younger D transferred after her first year. It wasn’t her initial intention, but everything worked out just fine.</p>

<p><em>hugs</em></p>

<p>I think a gap year may be a better option than going to community college for a year and then transferring, because many merit scholarships are available only to freshmen applicants, not to transfer students. </p>

<p>If you repeat the application process next year, try to find Common Data Sets for the schools so you can see what the statistics of the enrolled freshman classes look like, or check out the admissions blogs of the schools to see what the accepted classes look like. For example, someone upstream suggested Vanderbilt as a “next tier down” admission group, but this year’s admission rate is 15%, and the mid-50 SAT range extends to 1590 (M + CR), I think. So, please be careful about including several schools that are likely admits for someone with your daughter’s record.</p>

<p>The guidance counselor needs to do some serious research into his/her field-- any parent on CC knows more than that alleged professional.</p>

<p>There are so many exciting gap year options, where she can work and volunteer and travel. I would think that would be far preferable to attending a little college that she does not want to be at, and where she will not be among her academic peers. </p>

<p>If she loves the New England/northeast school thing, there are so many great choices that are selective but not 7%-admissions-rate selective, and where she may get good money. Personal favorites from my hunt with my D are Connecticut, Skidmore, Colby, Brandeis, Clark, Dickinson, and Muhlenberg. Harder to get into, but still possibilities, are Vassar, Wesleyan, Boston College and Tufts. And there are plenty more. If she widens the search, she will find many options.</p>

<p>Might look at Holy Cross-very good LAC with beautiful campus and strong academics. HC is need blind for admissions and like Dartmouth has a very strong alumni network.</p>

<p>You can also look at this:
[America’s</a> 25 New Elite ‘Ivies’ - Newsweek](<a href=“http://www.newsweek.com/id/39401]America’s”>America's 25 New Elite 'Ivies')</p>

<p>Disagree about any type of transfer situation, transfers do not receive much in the way of financial aid. Make sure your daughter applies as a freshman, with no college courses taken! </p>

<p>Some schools these days are taking “Mid Year” admits but you would have to check the details out for each school. Usually on CC there is a thread at this time of the year for schools still taking applications.</p>

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<p>Another mother and I were comparing notes last night on guidance counselors at our schools (both “good” upper middle class Chicago suburban schools). We’ve come to the conclusion that they are essentially worthless. They know nothing about the world outside of Illinois, the only top school that they can think of to steer a bright student towards is Northwestern and maybe Notre Dame or WashU, they think that East Coast schools are looking for Chicago area kids (ha!) and in sum, their only usefulness is that they are needed to get pieces of paper from X to Y. Unfortunately, it’s all on the parent to do this all, and to be knowledgeable. Having said that – Even a quick peruse of USNWR as a starting point would have helped this father get a sense that he was talking about some very heavy-hitter, high-stat and low-acceptance rate schools for his daughter, which might have prompted him to start looking down the list. My best wishes to the OP and his daughter for a productive gap year!</p>