<p>Applying for colleges is probably the first major decision you make in your life. Use your parents as counsel but in the end, you’re the one living the decision (although the parents pay). I would step back and think hard on their suggestions. If you like a suggested school, apply. If you don’t like a suggested school, don’t apply. </p>
<p>As for Harvey Mudd, if you called, they said they were still accepting applications, and you want to go then just apply. The worst that can happen is they reject you for whatever reason.</p>
<p>BTW, don’t let the ED get you down and stop you from aiming high (or low). Consolation is right - you definitely won’t get in if you don’t apply. Just make sure you apply for the right reasons.</p>
<p>Exactly expatCanuck - ‘strongly encourage’. My D actually ‘decided’ on the first campus visit that we went on in October, well of course you have not decided on a school in October of your junior year but can you please look at some additional schools and if you LOVE this one of course you are welcome to attend. No conflict, lots of conversation.</p>
<p>I agree don’t sell yourself short, you may well be just as good an applicant as you thought, you just didn’t appeal to that particular admissions committee. My son who was waitlisted at Harvey Mudd got into Harvard and Carnegie Mellon’s school of computer science. I also agree that the schools your parents have urged you to consider are all great schools, but a little bit under the radar. I don’t think they are hoping for bragging rights.</p>
<p>The climate at all the schools you listed except for Harvey Mudd will require you to get thick clothes and boots at some point. Philadelphia is not as cold as Boston or Minneapolis but it still gets cold occasionally. I wouldn’t let the “polar vortex” (formerly known as a cold snap) be a deal breaker.</p>
<p>If you are anything like my D was, at this point you are tired of applications, but there is something to be said for firing off a couple more to high-match/reach schools. You don’t have to apply to 5, though. </p>
<p>Re Wellesley: If you are not interested at all, I wouldn’t recommend applying there. The people who end up unhappy there are those who went there because it was the highest-ranked place they got into, not because they appreciated the unique environment. It’s a great place, but it’s not for everyone, and if the fit is wrong, it’s really wrong.</p>
<p>I guess it is true that I am tired of applying to schools because I feel like I am not good enough. Also, my dad can be harsh. I heard my parents fighting a little while ago where my dad said I screwed up my SAT and my mom was telling him I did great and she would like him to try taking it now, it is much harder than it was when they took it. Dad will say my extracurriculars are dumb and a waste of time, while mom supports them. My dad will not even go to my concerts anymore because he says music is a waste of time and that I am wasting my time being in it. I am in varsity orchestra and city orchestra. Dad is the one who says I have to apply elsewhere and where I have gotten in is not good enough. Then mom says rankings do not matter that much, it is what I do with my degree. When I did not get in to my ED school, my dad blamed me, while my mom said it is a “crap shoot” for anyone at these top schools. The school was Rice. </p>
<p>I know I should not complain about my parents. They both can be great. I know I am lucky to have them. Anyway, that is all. I would actually love to go to Harvey Mudd. I would not love Wellesley. I know my dad will force it in the Wellesley thing if I get in there. I am working hard on the applications to a few schools. I don’t think I will get in though and this will just lead to my having to read online, again, that I did not get in, again. I know that rejection is a part of life, but knowing that does not change how bad it feels.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Do you have a safety school in your list?</p></li>
<li><p>If you apply to those schools and get admitted, will they force you to attend one of them? If so, will they pay without forcing you to go into heavy debt to attend?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>So more information is good, I just don’t want to tell you to go against your parents when you have a good attitude about what is a really touchy situation. Did you post SAT score (I must have missed them). I might just poke about and miss a deadline or two (ummm, Wellesley).</p>
<p>As a Wellesley alum, I would reassure you that it is not a convent. Nor are the majority of students lesbians, or whatever you may imagine. t is one of the best LACs in the country, with a formidable alumnae network. There is a lot to be said to being right outside Boston/Cambridge, perhaps the nation’s best college town–with a really diverse music scene–and there is cross-registration with MIT and other schools. </p>
<p>In any case, especially if you are interested in music, St. Olaf seems like a match for you. Carleton is a great place, albeit a more difficult admit. So are Swarthmore and Haverford. And if you really like HM, apply. That is one place where your gender will work in your favor. Rice is a great school…were you rejected or deferred?</p>
<p>The fact is that admissions can be quirky, to say the least. My S was admitted to Dartmouth and the U of C, amongst other places, but rejected at Georgetown, ostensibly a less selective school. A friend of his was admitted to Harvard and Princeton, but waitlisted at Dartmouth. Casting a wide net is always a good idea, IMHO.</p>
<p>Try to ignore your dad’s comments, listen to your mom, apply to Harvey Mudd ASAP, and look into the list of other schools, and be willing to at least consider that your parents may have some perspective or insight which you don’t. Accept that you really don’t have all that much information on these colleges and just go ahead and apply to some of them. You seem particularly anti-Wellesely, so just put you foot down on that one.</p>
<p>If you like Carleton and Harvey Mudd, then why not? Sure, they’re a long shot (Mudd is a really long shot for everybody!) . . . but, nothing ventured, nothing gained. And I’d agree that St. Olaf might be a nice fit for you, from what you’ve said. So, why not those three, of the six on your dad’s list?</p>
<p>Don’t feel bad about not being admitted to a ridiculously competitive school like Rice - the majority of the really qualified candidates who apply there don’t get in. That’s what those low admit rates mean - so it’s nothing to feel bad about.</p>
<p>Rice? My happy Carl got WL’d there! Rice’s loss, as are you.</p>
<p>Ignore your dad’s ridiculous comments and apply to a few more schools. As long as you have some matches and safeties on your list you’ll get in somewhere. (((Hugs))) to you, OP.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd was my parental prerogative school (mine) for my D2. I asked her to apply and visit if she got in, and said if she wasn’t interested after that I would not mention it again. You might try to extract that same commitment from you parents (apply, go to accepted student days if you get in, but they can’t bug you if you decide no after that). My D2, by the way, is at Mudd this year and LOVES it. But it is a very, very challenging school, so you want to be sure before making a final commitment there.</p>
<p>Also… don’t be so quick to say you aren’t interested in women’s colleges. Both my Ds thought that until they visited a couple, and both ended up liking a couple of them a lot. Mount Holyoke appealed to them more than Wellesley, and both applied and were accepted. It would be a good match for you, and they do offer merit aid. Not sure of their application date, though.</p>
<p>Last week’s weather was unusual in MN, but it is NOT unusual for it to get to -10 several times in a winter in MN. It’s cold. The first winter I lived there I woke up on Jan 3 to the radio station announcing “It’s 29 below and the chill factor is -59.” I’m sorry to say that wasn’t my last time hearing that.</p>
<p>I grew up in Wisconsin, and I don’t remember it ever being that cold. Minnesota is cold.</p>
<p>Depends where you are in Minnesota, and where you are in Wisconsin. Northern Minnesota is cold–and I mean deeply cold, for extended periods. Minneapolis-Saint Paul occasionally gets cold, but it’s not nearly as cold as northern Minnesota, and its cold spells tend to be relatively short. Parts of western Wisconsin are in the Twin Cities metro area and have exactly the same weather as Minneapolis-Saint Paul. Madison and Minneapolis-Saint Paul have generally similar weather–Madison slightly snowier, Minneapolis-Saint Paul slightly colder in winter (on average about 3 degrees colder), but Minneapolis-Saint Paul is on average 3-5 degrees warmer from late spring through summer and fall. On the whole, though, more similar than different.</p>
<p>Milwaukee, on the other hand, is considerably warmer than either Madison or Minneapolis-Saint Paul in the winter, but also snowier–all due to its proximity to Lake Michigan. But that also means Milwaukee has a colder and later spring and a chillier fall.</p>
<p>Oberlin also has a Jan. 15th deadline and a great conservatory. They offer dual majors too so if Dad is opposed to a music major, you can do something else also. It’s also liberal.</p>
<p>How many have you applied to? If you are in somewhere already by chance, it wouldnt hurt to send another one or two if they are schools you are interested in. Its a compromise.</p>
Nor are the majority of students lesbians, or whatever you may imagine. t is one of the best LACs in the country, with a formidable alumnae network. There is a lot to be said to being right outside Boston/Cambridge, perhaps the nation’s best college town–with a really diverse music scene–and there is cross-registration with MIT and other schools. </p>