Middlebury Vs. Williams

@puzzlepieces98 - Some advice on ED. You and your parent have to sign an ED agreement, that you will attend, if admitted. The agreement states that it is binding. Since you need so much aid, (just finished posting on your other thread about finding schools) you really should not file ED. You can withdraw for financial reasons, but you have to provide some explanation for them to release you.

You have a good GPA, and hopefully will have good test scores, but don’t go by the 2015 PSAT. My B average S17 took it and came out w/ in the 99th percentile. From all I hear it was an easier test than you can expect to take on the “real” SAT or the ACT, so use the Khan Academy online materials and other free resources to do plenty of prep before the bid day. You clearly a planner, so make sure you have time to take the tests more than once, to account for differences in the set of questions you get with each test day, varying curves, etc. I definitely recommend taking the ACT too. With all the changes to the SAT, there are just too many variables to make it a reliable test. that demonstrates your abilities. My S16 took both the ACT and the old SAT 3 times (one ACT was mandated by our state, and free, and the 3rd SAT, in Oct 2015, was also free because College Board messed up the test booklets on the June 2015 test.) Esp since you are shooting for such selective schools, you’ll need to be in that top 99% - 34+ on the ACT, and the 1480+ on the new SAT. Hopefully you also have some very good EC’s and volunteer work, as schools like Middlebury and Williams are looking for well-rounded applicants. I don’t want to sound discouraging, just want you to be realistic. Middlebury has a 17.2% acceptance rate, and Williams has a 16.8% acceptance rate. Most all the applicants to these schools have a something close to 4.0, and over 80% of them are turned away.

See how you do on the new SAT, study your little heart out! and start comparing your stats to the admitted students at the school you are interested in: http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/

As mentioned above, run the Net Price Calculators for Middlebury, Williams and others schools, using your and your mom’s best estimates, and see what the schools are expecting you to pay. Keep your options open and research some of the great, slightly less selective, schools mentioned above. I’m sure, by the end of March 2017, you’ll have many wonderful choices. And don’t forget about applying to as many outside scholarships as possible:
FinAid.org and ■■■■■■■■■■ are good sources for ideas. Some schools will take away their aid, if you get outside aid, but other will not. You will have to contact the Financial Aid office of each school to find out. Also, check out the “Colleges that Change Lives” book by Loren Pope, to read about schools you may not have heard of, but who would probably love to welcome a strong student, such as yourself, with good financial and merit aid.

Best of luck!

You should definitely apply for the Windows on Williams (WOW), Discovery Middlebury, and other visit programs for URM and low-income applicants. While you may already have visited, being accepted to these programs gives you a good idea whether you’re the type of applicant they’re looking for (acceptance rates for the attendees tend to be 75% to 90%). Many other top 10-15 LACs also offer similar programs, although some are reserved only for URMs.

These schools are excellent schools that are just a little easier to get into than Williams or Middlebury and with similar characteristics:
If you care most about international relations: Macalester and Dickinson are standouts among small liberal arts colleges (or check out the slightly larger Brandeis, Tufts, Johns Hopkins-- all great international relations programs). Macalester and Dickinson are very internationally focused.
If you want schools in a similar environment and ambience to Williams and Middlebury: Colby, Colgate, Hamilton, Carleton, Grinnell

The top NESCAC schools are much harder to get into than most people think, or that the admit rate % would suggest.

For ED, the athletes, legacies and URMs take a huge chunk. And even they have high number, for example, the average admit at Williams ED had a 32 ACT, with half the admits being athletes and/or legacies.

If you’re a recruited, pre-read athlete applying ED Williams/Amherst/Midd the admit rate is basically 100%. But if you’re not, the admit rate really plummets.

On top of that, the applicant pool at those schools is self selecting and very deep. The average applicant ACT is 31, for example. There’s not as much “fat” in their applicant pools as there are in pretty much everyone else’s, including Ivy.

To get in unhooked, on just academic strengths, you really have to be off the charts strong.

For example, for unhooked, nonathlete, nonlegacy nonURM at Williams and Amherst, IMO you need to have a 2300 or 34/35 and a 3.9+UW to have a real shot.