Does anyone know how selective these schools are? I have a general sense, but can’t quite put my finger on specifics. I have looked through Common Data Sets, but I feel they can be misleading.
The GPAs listed might be weighted, or partially weighted. Test optional means there is a selection bias, re: who submits scores. I have seen threads where people post they’ve been admitted, but sometimes these are low matches for students, so their stats don’t answer my question.
I know these schools use holistic admissions, but I’d love a sense (I realize this is aspirational) of where the line is between admission and WL, in terms of academics and scores.
D24 is not fully baked yet, re: GPA and SAT. She found her rhythm sophomore year, and will be taking 5 IB classes next year. We expect the same for senior year. So I don’t yet know where she will stand. I just want to provide some good guidance re: expectations/likelihood.
I think these colleges will be in the high target-low reach range for her, but I could be off-base.
Don’t worry, she’ll have safeties, etc, on her list. I’m just wondering how selective these particular schools are.
I think they all manage to reject >50% of their applicants so they’re obviously going to be selective for a lot of people. This is really a “chances” post without one key ingredient: the applicant’s stats.
The stats don’t really exist yet. I hear you. But at this point, I understand how selective Harvard is (she’s not going to bother). I understand how selective UVA is (we are in-state, and my mom friends can tell me the locally accepted GPAs). I understand how selective JMU is (she’s not interested, but she’d definitely get in).
I just don’t really know how selective these schools are, relative to other schools. Easier than Williams. Harder than St Olaf. I just don’t know how much harder/how much easier.
I was hoping someone could sort of tell me where these schools fall on the spectrum of selectivity. Our high school sends most top students to UVA/Michigan/etc, very few go private, so Naviance gives me nothing (literally, insufficient numbers in the past 10 years).
Skidmore is probably most selective of the three these days. You can Google the acceptance rate for any of them. Oberlin and Conn college are probably similar selectivity, but I think overall Oberlin is the most highly regarded of the three, but they are all respected. A Virginia student might hold more appeal for Oberlin than for Connecticut College. All will want to see interest. None are safeties, though they might be matches, depending on a student’s stats. Her stats exist. They may change by the time she applies.
They all use holistic admissions though. Back in the day, my daughter was waitlisted at Oberlin, which was a solid match for her. She was then admitted. She got into a couple of reaches too. If she likes these schools, she should apply. I’m not sure why it matters what their individual acceptance rates are.
My S21 was accepted to skidmore and oberlin, had a 3.5 unweighted and 4.2 weighted and 1420 SAT, had a theater supplement that may have been helpful (attends a conservatory for BFA acting). I think these schools are definitely selective but not highly selective.
Thank you for sharing their relative selectivity. I know the acceptance rates, but I also know that certain types of students tend to apply.
College Vine chancing says D24 has the same chance at Oberlin as she does at Brandeis (around 50%). OK. Meanwhile, they say she has the same chance at Connecticut as she does at Vassar (around 20%). I thought Vassar was much more selective, so I wondered if I was completely misjudging everything.
If Connecticut is actually like Vassar in selectivity, then I want to signal that to D24. We can only visit so many out of state schools, and I don’t want to mislead her.
I would say Vassar is considerably more selective than Conn College. Those chancing tools are definitely flawed though. Of Vassar and the three you mentioned, that school will almost certainly be the most selective.
Other factors come into play. Does her school have a relationship with Skidmore, for example? If they regularly accept kids from her school, she probably has a better chance. This could be true of any of these schools. There are a lot of variables. Is one of the colleges on a particular quest to enroll more first gen students? Is one of them on a mission to enroll more inner city students? Is the school trying to protect its endowment and admit more full pay kids? Institutional needs are beyond your control. The only thing I would say is certain is that none are safeties. Your daughter should apply if she likes them and you can afford them.
Anecdotally here in CT, Vassar is much much harder to get into (more like Wesleyan) than Connecticut College. All will need love shown. I was bored and ran naviance on these. Connecticut college has never rejected anyone from our (top private) school with an ACT of 25 or higher. Skidmore and Oberlin seem quite a bit harder to get into and pretty comparable to each other but quite a bit below Vassar which is quite selective. Bothe Skidmore and Oberlin seem to really value interest shown.
Thank you. Ok, so I’m not off base there. I’d say Vassar is a high reach, but not out of reach, for her (which means we’d realistically expect a rejection, but she could “shoot her shot” if she wants).
So maybe Connecticut is more low reach, give or take. We know all about institutional priorities, etc, so we know not to count on anything. Always a good reminder. She is unhooked from a large public that focuses more on graduating students and maybe getting them to VT. Zero focus on private schools, so not a lot of examples to follow. We will be full pay, and we’re trying to squeeze as many visits in as possible.
Show Conn a lot of love. All of them, actually. Interest is really important to the three in your title.
Skidmore considers interest as Important. Conn College says it’s Considered.
P.S. interestingly, Vassar says it doesn’t consider interest. That’s a pretty good indicator that it is selective enough that they can be sure of a pretty high yield rate.
I think you will have a better idea of her stats after first semester junior year. When d20 was looking she considered Vassar, Conn, and Skidmore but not Oberlin. Per her counselor (who was very knowledgeable imo), Conn and Skidmore were definitely “safer” than Vassar and Wesleyan as admits. I know it’s hard to to visit when there are so many schools to check out and you aren’t in the NE.
Collegevine correctly projected each of D22’s outcomes this year. I honestly think it’s the best available tool anywhere. They recently updated their logarithm and I think will be including 2022 data in the next few weeks. It’s all you need for now to manage expectations and visits, together with your HS CC. You are not going to get better info here without disclosing detailed stats, ECs etc. I am not affiliated with, or paid to say this by, Collegevine.
Skidmore was a bit of a wildcard for D22. She showed a ton of demonstrated interest—visited from Alaska, interviewed, followed all social media—and has the grades and scores, plus she’s a chemist and dancer. She was waitlisted. Her guidance counselor said that they seem to want very specific things each year.
No real harm was done. D22 was accepted RD to Barnard and is headed there. But Skidmore had been her first choice.
With selective schools, it is very hard to predict what will happen.
Note that male applicants recently were accepted to Connecticut College at a rate of 35%, a rate 10 percentage points lower than that for female applicants (45%).
“I have looked through Common Data Sets, but I feel they can be misleading.
The GPAs listed might be weighted, or partially weighted.”
The CDS is supposed be an open, standardized way to get this info and tries not to be misleading. But of course a lot depends on how the colleges fill them out. GPAs are from 4.0 down, meaning they’re unweighted. Anyway, I just looked at Skidmore’s and they don’t fill out any info on the GPA, but you do do know that 28% of enrolled students graduated in the top 10% of their class. You could compare that to others to get a sense of selectivity at least wrt GPAs.