Barnard is not a safety or even a match any more for anyone, at least not RD. This year they accepted less than 14% of applicants. From what the OP posted I would consider both Barnard and Columbia to be high reaches. If the mom is thinking of Barnard as a backup for Columbia… those days are long gone.
@JDCCaliMom Becoming less of a safety by the day, but what about UMaryland College Park?
UMD was very competitive this cycle for engineering. Not sure about pre-med but I would consider that more of a match than a safety at this point.
I see UMD as a match… that doesn’t mean she won’t get in.
I agree that Temple may be a good likely to add.
I suggest University of Cincinnati as a safety. Great city campus. One of the top coop programs. Ohio is politically moderate and the cities are more liberal.
As for matches, University of Miami? It is in a suburb of Miami, but the city is easily accessible.
Give the U of A another look. It’s not in a conservative part of Arizona. In fact your daughter’s Congressional rep. there would be Raul Grijalva, co-chair of the Progressive Caucus. The mayor and the city council are all Democrats.
@Mimi2018 Have more than one safety (choices are good in the spring). Also, I saw tons of students this year from CA that apparently never considered adding a CSU to their list as a safety. I think CA students have to rethink that.
I think it is far better to dip down further than you might need to in ranking for a couple schools than. My last kid applied really widely — from the #4 university (at the time, I think) down to a LAC ranked in the 60s. She got in everyplace, with great merit at the lower ranked schools. But her safety selection wasn’t cursory. She had visited her safeties, and genuinely found aspects she liked about them. Like bring strong in her major and having EC options in trivia contests and beekeeping at her truest “safety”. And she’d visited some possible safeties that weren’t a fit.
I think it is more important to visit your safeties than your reaches, honestly. You are more likely to end up at a safety, and it can be harder to find a safety that you truly like.
Wonderful advise @intparent, thanks for taking time to answer my question.
@calmom, I had no idea Barnard acceptance rate had dropped that low. I know my D applied in 2014 and it was a match school for her at that time so it had to be in the high 20s or very receptive to the IB diploma (which in several cases had a different acceptance rate).
The more I read about the acceptance rates, the happier I am that D is almost done with college. It seems nearly impossible for even the “average-excellent” as noted by a poster some time ago to find the “match” options available five years ago.
My favorite safeties are the ones that accept you early. That’s why I like the suggestion of Pitt. With rolling admissions you get a good read early on as to how your application is being read. My older son knew before Thanksgiving he’d gotten into an excellent tech school. Younger son had the interesting experience of getting into a super reach early - he was able to drop a safety he hadn’t visited, but he did keep the other one - the application was already in and there was a good chance of merit aid.
Actually that safety he dropped might be worth a look - it was bigger than what he wanted, but that’s not an issue for your kid. It was Syracuse.
Wow you guys, THANK YOU so much for all the insightful posts. We had a really good family conversation last night. I want DD to be at a school that is good all around because she’s 15 right now…what she thinks she wants to do as a career could be dramatically different once she’s in college. We took a look online at a bunch of schools especially those mentioned here and I think based on her personality and what she likes, Temple or Fordham could be great choices for her. Temple in particular looks like it has a lot to offer and she loved, loved, loved Philly when she and hub visited there (he did a bunch of E Coast touring with her last summer.)
re: CSUs - we haven’t looked into them too much at all and among her peers (she’s at a super competitive large IB HS) these kids believe the CSUs are beneath them. Also as a parent I hear SO MANY horror stories about overcrowding, not getting classes toward your major etc. The one CSU she was interested in was Cal Poly SLO and she didn’t like it at all when we toured. Our local CSUs are SDSU or San Marcos and SDSU is too party for her and San Marcos is too much of a commuter school.
re: activities – it’s hard when these kids are busy. Her schedule this year is tough – every single class but one is weighted either AP or IB (her one nonweighted class is Chem.) It’s not like she does nothing, it just seems regular/average compared to everyone else. She has been in National Charity League since 7th grade (it’s a 6 year program) with officer positions 3 times and will be president her senior year. HS JV tennis 3 years (may or may not do V next year). Heavily involved with USY (United Synagogue Youth) youth group with officer positions (chapter this year and multi-state/regional next year). Teacher’s aide for Hebrew school doing one-on-one Hebrew language tutoring since 8th grade. She’ll graduate with 500+ hours volunteer/community service. She’s in a few other clubs on campus like Future Doctors, Make a Wish etc but no officer positions. She started a club in freshman year and did it for 2 yrs but stopped and doesn’t want to even put it on applications (Interfaith club.) —> are these ECs average, below average, or good? Hard to tell!
Thanks, you guys:-)
@JDCaliMom I would add that please make sure she doesn’t fall in love with any particular school or have a dream school. With acceptances the way they are, not many kids can get into their top choice match school, never mind a reach.
NEPats - too late - she is in love with BU and has been for at least 3 years. She is adamant she wants to apply early decision there. I do worry about how crushed she’ll be if she doesn’t get in there.
I think you need to work on that with her. Plus, a school you loved at age 12 isn’t necessarily what you want at 17. Heck, the change in what they want (and need) from junior year to spring of senior year can be large. My youngest thought she was going to be a bio major with the long term goal of researching (not med school). Then she got involved with robotics in junior year and took physics senior year — and by the time she was deciding between her college options, she was thinking physics major. I’d be pushing hard for her to have a full list of safeties/matches/reaches that she would be happy to attend. My kids both ended up with 8 schools on their list, but they sorted through a lot of options to get there. I’d try to pop that “dream school” bubble if you can.
Thanks, INTParent. I am so relieved that she really likes Philly because for awhile it seemed like she only wanted to look at Boston. Now she is saying New York, Boston, and Philly all check her boxes.
She really wants a major city with urban feel including good public transportation so AZ wouldn’t have that. (We do travel to AZ from time to time so she knows what it’s like.)
She wasn’t that taken with DC and can’t really articulate why. She’s been there 3 times and when I push her she just says it feels very different to her than NY, Boston and now Philly. She also doesn’t like the feel of PNW cities like Portland or Seattle and hasn’t ever been to the midwest - just not on the radar.
Her list now: UCLA, Cal, USC, (will visit/investigate LMU and Occidental), BU (early decision), Northeastern, NYU, Columbia (distant maybe Columbia/List JTS), Fordham, UPenn, Drexel, Temple.
I think Drexel, Fordham and Temple are in the comfort/safety zone for her.
Sorry to keep posting! We will be visiting/touring everywhere she applies. Definitely there is a NY/Philly trip in the cards for June.
Keep 'em coming – ideas for schools similar in profile to Drexel, Temple, etc. Thank you! Large student body, urban campus feel in a major liberal/LGBTQ-friendly city with good public transportation, strong in bio and the sciences but also a good general overall school in case of change of major/interests. THANK YOU!!
@JDCaliMom Visit visit visit the safety choices, your D may be pleasantly surprised once she actually visits. I did not expect my D to love or even like what became her safety but the campus visit changed that. We left there knowing that she would be happy there if it came down to her only option, which no one likes to think about but must in this climate. The merit offer alone kept it on the table for a long time. The ‘list’ came about after months of researching, visiting where we were able, and schools went on and came off the list until she had a good mix of options.
Find something to love at every school you apply to and only apply to those she could see herself. Put as much effort into the safety’s as you do to the “dream school” and it will show in the essays. No school wants to think they are your second choice…so many kids get rejected at the place they thought would ‘of course’ accept them so they put no effort into the application…there are just too many others who’s dream is your safety.
I agree that you need to get her to move away from having the one “dream school” and find many. BU had over 64,000 applications this year ( a 6% increase I believe from the previous year) and the acceptance rate dropped to 22% so while your overall stats may fit for a particular school there will be thousands of others who fit as well. She may get into her dream school but if she doesn’t she can be happy where she does land and thrive. There are many many great schools and you can find your perfect fit at so many if you allow yourself to.
I’m from DC. It is different. First hardly anyone is actually from DC. It’s a great place if you are interested in politics or international relations and of course it has fabulous museums so it ought to be a draw for future art historians. But it just doesn’t have the density or downtown of other major cities. I’m surprised she doesn’t like Seattle and Portland, but to each his or her own!
“But it just doesn’t have the density or downtown of other major cities.”
That’s what I actually love about DC. To me, it is so livable and I enjoy all the green. But yes, not the densely populated/tall building feel of Boston, Philly, NYC.
One benefit to Philly is its affordability relative to Boston/NYC/DC.