Hi, would love some input in my daughter’s chances of getting admitted and thoughts on ED.
3.7 weighted 3.6 unweighted
Honor roll award each year
AP history and Spanish IV and V
Advanced Child Development II & III
Internship at Preschool
EC-
founded Feminist Coalition club and co-president
Volunteer camp counselor
Volunteer at non profit helping 18-21 year old homeless young adults
Foreign Language director at Preschool
Art club
Volunteer women’s shelter Mexico
Summer conversational Spanish class
She will have superb teacher recommendations.
Not many AP classes as she did not test into them, not because she didn’t take them. Testing is her weakness, hence not submitting her ACT.
Essay-great writer topic will be on her passion for feminism and desire to work in women and children’s health sex/education
Additional notes: She is Hispanic and Native American ( my mother unknowingly signed away rights for me to be adopted.She is an indigenous woman from Nicaragua and we recently reconnected. This has impacted her interest in women’s rights internationally.
She founded her feminist coalition club in a top Missouri HS. She has the board of education listen to her and they reworded dress code policy due to her protest she organized.
She would be first generation for her to graduate.
Financial aid is a must.
Any thoughts?
My daughter was also an outspoken feminist with activist credentials. Very similar background–mixed race, teacher recommendations were wonderful. 3.8 weighted (similar). I think if your girl has good essays that display her wonderful experience base, she will do fine. Also, Smith will send a letter inviting you to write a parent recommendation letter. No other college did this and it seemed quite odd to us, but it turned out to be a wonderful opportunity to synthesize information which is spread out in student application forms and provide an overview of our daughter. Our daughter applied regular admission because we were concerned about comparing financial aid packages. Very early in March, we got a personal note from the dean of admissions (Maybe everybody gets this, I don’t know, but it sure was nice.) praising our daughter’s passion for social justice and saying “bring your passion to Smith!.”
In other words, I think your daughter is wonderful and will be recognized as such. Financial aid did not come across as friendly to our Midwestern sensibilities, and they really looked into our personal finance history in ways we had never considered. However, in the end they were incredibly generous. Be pleasant, but assertive.
A note about financial aid – they don’t do merit aid, but they meet 100% of need (as they calculate it). Use the aid calculator on their website to get an idea.
The head of financial aid gave a talk at their spring open house and said that their office is staffed with attorneys, and they’re very well equipped to understand complicated tax forms and needs, and that if you have special circumstances, they’ll work with you. Not work with you as in “I don’t want to sell my vacation home on the Vineyard because it’s been in the family, so can I have another 20k” but if you’ve had health bills that don’t have a spot on the financial aid form let them know.