Really, it’s all about planning. You have to start demonstrating interest and passion early. For example, I knew coming into High School that I wanted to get into Cornell, which would be a reach for me. Academically, I have always performed well, but not excellent. However, I researched Cornell pretty extensively prior to high school to find out about their approach, their different schools and where I might fit in. The CALS school seemed like a match (it offered science majors, placed a special emphasis on geographic location, as NYS residents are prioritized, and didn’t require me to take as many standardized tests, like the SAT lls which I knew I wouldn’t do as well on as the rest of the applicant pool, and looked for a “fit”). So what I spent the pretty much entirety of my high school career doing was choosing ECs and positions which showed I was a good fit for my intented major, and also applied for a major which has tradionally not been competitive. As this overweighed my lackluster ACT of 30 and rank of 10/133. Also, not applying from the “strong Island” area definitely helped. And I couldn’t agree with @Corbett more, I took the same approach to my “backups”, looking outside the usual area for LACs, Maine, Ohio, etc from WNY.
Oh, and I’ve been in contact with CALS every year for the last four
OP, agree with @Corbett that also looking beyond the domes of Mid-Atlantic and NE is important as there’s just too many perfect applicants to make even a match an acceptance - try not to anchor yourself to one school; yes, always can have a dream school, but need to have a mix of Target, Reach and Safety schools you would be happy and thrive at.
So, also look at the great similarly ranked schools in the Midwest - Carleton, in particular, is a top-10 LAC and has been ranked there for more than 50 years. If you apply to a mix of geographies you will likely end up with a lot of great choices - my DD’s did.
I can pm their stats, grades, EC’s (one was an athletic hook), and results if you would like more information as while they were denied/waitlisted from almost every top-10 LAC, except Carleton, and were denied from every Ivy, they ended up with a lot of top 10-25 choices.
Something to keep in mind is your high school’s success with particular colleges. If your school has naviance take a close look at that. There may be some great schools, that have a history of accepting kids from your high school in numbers higher than avg. For instance at my D’s school, there are two top 20 schools that have a huge contrast with the success rate of admits from our high school. One has a 16% admit rate, yet from our school the admit rate is 46%. The other has an admit rate of 13%, but from our school the admit rate is just 8%. So if you were a betting person you might want to take your chances with the first school but not the 2nd!
@wisteria100, we have found that relying on Naviance is tricky as it usually won’t allow a filter for Legacy or Athletes which can make a big difference at schools with a 20% or lower acceptance rate.
@chembiodad - you make a good point and usually the gc can give you an in depth look at those kinds of things, but it is a good place to start and obviously this top 20 school who admits a very high % of kids from our school, must like something about our school, vs the other top 20 school, who admits below avg proportionally.
Glad my daughter didn’t listen to the “seasoned posters.” She made her own club and got into her SCEA as unhooked ORM. Self-styled experts don’t know everything, imagine my shock!
@wisteria100, agree in that we know certain private high schools that have better relationships ( x 5 acceptance rates) as compared to other schools - usually it’s only 1-2 schools, sometimes 3.
It looks like they only admitted 32% URM and 22% First Gen, but there’s probably quite a bit of overlap there. Also overlap with athletic recruits, etc. Additionally, they will admit URMs at higher rate than anticipated matriculation since the yield for URMs will be much lower than average. A Williams student wrote his senior thesis on yield modeling for admissions at the College. http://ephblog.com/category/academic-life/theses/peter-nurnberg-09/
@keiekei - Thanks for posting that link - very sobering!
I feel the title to this thread is misleading. There are plenty of “good” colleges that have available spots. “Great” colleges? Not so much.
Going to a local State school is just fine, in most cases, as is going to a second or third tier private college. There are plenty of good teachers who want to teach, and the subject matter is often the same. Some students are more comfortable in, say, Madison than Boston, and will excel attending school at the former. They can also go to Boston, not feel comfortable, and flunk out.
I don’t know much about academia, but I do know something about working life. Where you went to school doesn’t matter much if you can’t get the job done, and employers will not be shy in letting you know that. Conversely, if you graduated from Iowa State, but get work done on time and with excellent quality, the sky is the limit.
It’s not that bloody important that you go a “name” school. Just like it isn’t that important that you marry a spouse with the “right” background. Or that you live in the “correct” neighbourhood, or join the “proper” club, etc.,etc., etc…
@keiekei, overlap would be difficult when speaking to total percentage of accepted students - I read it as an unprecedented outreach to students that here to for didn’t think schools like these were achievable goals. Swarthmore had a record 55%, so I think this will be a continuing trend.