Injured Athlete/Dancer: Top-Heavy List, Need Matches / Safeties

Parents Corner
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<p>I am posting this on behalf of a friend with a senior D.</p>

<p>White suburban girl, top public school (Chicago suburb), sends lots of kids to Ivies etc.
ACT: 34 (30 on first try, 34 on second)
Full honors load, GPA 3.93 UW, 4.7 W, hardest courseload possible
I don't know her AP's and / or SAT II's, but will fill in when I get - will probably have 7-8 AP's by the time graduate.
Activities: Varsity tennis, ballroom dance (on a team that is in state competitions), school leader in service and different activities ... Peer group leader, Sr leader in PE ... Piano (local competitions), a cappella, highly involved in musicals (not music / dance major, but wants to participate in these in college). Natural leader "finger in every pie" type, will interview well and will get great recs from teachers, etc. </p>

<p>Desires in school:
Preferably size 3,000 - 7,000
Preferably more urban area, preferably not midwest (though will consider outside Chicago)
Social -- wants strong social life, likes Greek system / active social life
Financial aid not an issue
Unsure what wants to do -- possibly engineering, but for right now undecided.</p>

<p>List right now includes Yale, Penn, Princeton ... USC (legacy) ... Wash U (though concerned not social enough) ... Brown ... Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill ... Stanford, Pomona ... Vanderbilt (sister attends, they count sibling as legacy) ... Emory ... Boston U and Colby (neither fit criteria, not sure why on list) ... U of Illinois as safety, but not thrilled about. Northwestern would be a "usual suspect" but too close to home for her taste. Would not consider women's colleges despite being dragged to them and strong parental pushing :-).</p>

<p>Now, the kicker. Her activities this year are very strongly athletically related -- tennis, soccer, dancing at a high level. She was injured over the weekend and will likely need surgery which will put her out of tennis, soccer and ballroom dance -- essentially all her activities -- for at least the next 5 months -- and will require significant investment of time in phys therapy. Needless to say, she is devastated --- the things she'd hoped to put on her resume for her senior year are now dashed and she has to go down a different path. The stress of this severe injury plus the normal senior year stress is quite heavy. She had wanted to ED to Yale and the family is thinking ED in general a good strategy. </p>

<p>My friend supports her EDing to Yale, but asked for my honest opinion (we are close enough I can give!). I think her list is too top-heavy / reachy, and driven by "what the kids are all talking about" at this competitive high school. She needs some realism about her choices and some criteria to help her choose matches and safeties. GC's are suggesting the "same old same old" usual suspects. Fresh new choices / thoughts?</p>

<p>Welcome any and all. I'll be sharing this thread with my friend. Thanks in advance.</p>

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<p>What does she plan to major in?</p>

<p>IMO having a lot of reaches is fine provided you’ve got a well-developed list of matches and safeties. She needs to formalize and beef up that part of the list.</p>

<p>Injuries happen. She could write one of her essays about the injury and how it has changed her or how she is dealing with it. The essay could then also explain the lack of senior year athletic ECs.</p>

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<p>Right, that’s what I’m looking for (on behalf of my friend) – what are some good matches / safeties? Right now, her only safety is really U of I, which she doesn’t love. She considers Vandy a safety bc of legacy; I would not be that sanguine, myself. I think she needs something that has the “look and feel” of her favorite schools (currently Yale and Penn) but is matchier / safer.</p>

<p>Unsure – possibly engineering, but undecided. Wants to participate in music, a cappella, dance, theater (though not as a major).</p>

<p>Oh! Did not like Boston College (don’t know why), did not like Vassar upon visiting.</p>

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<p>You can’t ED Yale. It’s SCEA.</p>

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<p>Thank you; so, in other words, she can SCEA there and can’t ED elsewhere, but she is not bound if she does get in, correct?</p>

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<p>A couple of things…</p>

<p>Yale doesn’t have ED…it has Single Choice Early Action…no obligation to attend, not binding. </p>

<p>Agree with coureur about the injuries…can write about it and also find related activities…perhaps she organizes a performing arts event or some such. My daughter was severely injured in a car crash during her application year (going into musical theater) and was out of everything but unlike the girl in your post, it happened in March after the applications and auditions were over. She still choreographed for her tap troupe anyway! She was out of all shows and dances and so forth. </p>

<p>I think she has some good reach odds schools (not reaches for her stats but reaches due to low admit rates). </p>

<p>Match range may be: Tufts, Brandeis, Boston College, Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Haverford, Vassar</p>

<p>Safety range (may not match her size/location…sometimes you have to give in one thing to get another): Lehigh, Conn College, Skidmore, Dickinson, George Washington, American</p>

<p>Cross posted with a lot of others.
Vandy is not a safety.</p>

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<p>Her injury and revised senior schedule does not need to negatively impact her chances, unless she was planning to be admitted to these schools as a student athlete. But it doesn’t sound as if that was the plan. While her list is top-heavy, I agree with coureur that she just needs to add a few matches/safeties – mainly safeties, because I do think that some of the schools on her list (USC for example) are more matches than reaches for her. I would also encourage her to make sure that colleges on her list are those that she really wants to pursue vs what everyone else is talking about/is expected. Re: EDing Yale – makes sense if Yale is what she really wants – I see too many kids EDing to Ivies because they think it is expected/they have to/they will have a slightly better chance of getting in if they ED than if they don’t, vs what ED is really supposed to be – finding the one school that you really want to attend and pursuing that first.</p>

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<p>Rice would be a good match.</p>

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<p>No engineering at Colby, Pomona. If she wants the possibility of engineering she should seek that out.</p>

<p>Tufts?</p>

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<p>I don’t think the injury and inability to do her sports will matter a bit as far as admissions unless she hoped to be recruited. My son was a recruit who got injured before senior year and still listed his sport as his activity, even though his participation consisted of physical therapy and watching. He didn’t know he wouldn’t get better…
I know it is devastating for her, but she should concentrate on her recovery from the surgery and her college search. I think Vanderbilt sounds really good, and I expect that she will get in. With her stats, Bucknell would be a reasonable high match. They are big, but what about one of the southern state schools as a safety? UGA and Alabama Honors come to mind.</p>

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<p>Rice has no Greek scene.</p>

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<p>It sounds like she needs to think about her major first - if she decides on engineering, there is a lot of potential for a girl. Also, a school like Illinois could be more appealing to an engineering student than, say, one in the liberal arts school.</p>

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<p>Your instincts are good and it would be a very good idea to balance out that list abit with some more safer choices. Alittle unsure about the engineering. It feels to me like kids are either into engineering or not so these are totally random suggestions excluding the “engineering interest.” University of Denver, Rhodes, Tufts. There are probably dozens and dozens that are right around 3,000 but many are rural. Not sure why Colby is on the list either. Cool school, but not near an urban area and smaller than what she is saying.</p>

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<p>Rice, yes, forgot about Rice. Georgetown, yes, generally fits.</p>

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<p>If she wants to have engineering available and residential colleges Rice is the obvious suspect - not a safety, but could be a match. Rochester U. might be a good safety - it’s got engineering and urban location. GW has one of the few engineering schools that doesn’t need women. It’s sort of a love it or hate it campus though. American has engineering through U. of MD. as a 5 year program. It would also be a safety.</p>

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<p>Carnegie Mellon :slight_smile: , of course.
Everything she wants. For all of her interests, time would be a constraint.</p>

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<p>She needs at least one safety that she loves.</p>

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<p>Yes, I know she needs at least one safety that she loves. I’m looking for those suggestions! :slight_smile: I’m looking for a … “If you like the look and feel of Yale or Penn, but want something matchier / safer, you might like …” These are great suggestions upthread, please keep them coming. She has visited a lot of colleges already.</p>

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<p>In general, I don’t have a bad reaction to her list at all. Unless she planned to be recruited for her sport, her injury really doesn’t matter. Sure, there are a lot of reach schools on that list, but some are reachier than others, and I would be very surprised if a kid with this profile didn’t get accepted at two or more of Hopkins, Vanderbilt, and WashU, and probably at least one or two others. BU and Colby (yes, odd choice) are stone safeties. So if she likes these schools, for whatever reasons, she should have plenty to pick from.</p>

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<p>How about U Michigan or U Wisconsin as safeties?</p>