Honestly, it would have been better to start with matches and safeties. Many people spend far too much of their search energy and money on reach schools, and not enough on schools at the level the student is most likely to be accepted to. It often puts them in a position where most of their acceptances are to schools they have never visited. Or they don’t get accepted to them because they haven’t seemed interested. It is very stressful to try to visit and evaluate schools you have never seen before in that one month after acceptances and before May 1.
I think others have mentioned Whitman, but it also sounds like a potential fit.
-intparent: agreed. We have looked at many match schools. Match meaning his stats and a higher acceptance rate.
From GW, American, Boston University, American, Occidental, U of WA, BC (kinda reachy?), Lewis and Clark, Pepperdine, none of them excites him and is what he wants. Granted when we started this process he wanted East or West Coast and no where in between, city not rural. Mid-size to small. It took us a while and many schools to have him realize he truly feels most comfortable in a smaller environment. His parameters have changed. So we continue to look.
However, I think it is likely going to be a school much closer to home if he doesn’t get into one of the reachy schools. We will be full pay, so there will be a weighing and balancing of benefits to cost. One consideration is sending him across the country and being full pay to a school he is luke warm about. A couple of good matches as options further away is all he needs. Based on his school Naviance and stats i’m fairly confident he will get into Whitman and possibly, hopefully get a little merit money.
I should add that he hasn’t visited Whitman yet. That is coming up soon. I’m assuming he will like it there.
Oh, he has also looked at Santa Clara, Berkeley and Stanford. Meh, Big, Big (and REACH)
Your S sounds like my D. She is at Beloit College in WI. She has definitely found her people there. All of adjectives you used fit with Beloit. And, with that ACT score, and assuming his grades are comparable, your S will certainly get a very nice merit aid award.
How about Willamette, U Puget Sound for a step below Whitman in competitiveness?
His scores are excellent and won’t be a barrier any place he applies.
He might want to clarify whether he prefers a more nerdy/quirky vibe, or a more preppy vibe. The suggestions given so far cover the spectrum in that regard. For example, Beloit and to a lesser extent Macalester are on the quirky end, whereas Kenyon and College of William and Mary are on the preppy non-quirky end. All fine schools, but with different vibes.
I’ve never seen anything about W&M being preppy and non-quirky, UVA, yes.
I have the slightly preppy/ conservative view of W&M also. It does not have a rep as quirky, either (think Reed, Hampshire, Bard, Oberlin).
Interestingly, the boys I know at W&M are quite preppy, the girls not so much.
My younger son thought W & M looked too preppy just from the website a few years ago. I didn’t get nearly that vibe looking at it just now.
Tufts University.
It is small and has access to Fletcher school, one of the best in IR.
You didn’t say, but it sounds as though you are based in the West? It also sounds like money is no object, but you wouldn’t turn away merit aid? You might want to look at smaller universities in the WUE consortium like Western Washington. If he likes skiing, Colorado College might be a very nice option. Non-skiing: Willamette, U of Puget Sound and Whitman. These last three also offer merit scholarships.
Personality-wise your son sounds a bit like my daughter! - quirky, somewhat introverted, not interested in partying. Small, competitive, independent school with no APs by choice. So I’m sharing our current LAC long short list with you, many of which have been mentioned previously. We are in the Mountain West but she wants to go to a different region of the US (midwest or northeast), hence the geographical bias. Reaches: Bowdoin, Vassar, Tufts (all of which we have visited). Matches: Oberlin, Macalester (club XC ski team), Kenyon, Dickinson. Safeties: College of Wooster, Ohio Wesleyan, Muhlenberg, possibly Lawrence.
Good luck with your search!
Sometimes it’s the little things that make or break a school. My son crossed Vassar off his list citing the significant accumulation of cigarette butts spotted in the melting snowbanks. He said something like “what kind of person throws their cigarette butts on the ground”? He’s almost too happily ensconced at Haverford this year.
Thanks again everyone for your input! It’s really starting to feel down to the wire now as far as making a list and figuruing out strategy for ED or if ED.
I’m a little confused by the nerdy/preppy comments. I don’t know. Some might call him both at times. LOL. Okay…but this is by west coast preppy standards, a far cry from east coast. At a typical high school (football, rah rah, dances etc- he would definitely be on the nerdy side. But I really dislike that term. I think he is perfect and nerdy just makes it seem like something is wrong with him.
Okay…onwards. Here’s what we are thinking. He is really feeling like a Haverford or Carleton (smart, motivated, collaborative, friendly) are good places for him. He is in a great postion from his HS stats for these schools- esp if he were to apply ED. Here is our current thinking:
We will be full pay- whether we want to be or not. Yes it would be great to get merit, but if DS finds a great fit school we will pay for it. It will hurt. It will change our life style, but we value education over vacation, libation and virtually all other ‘ations’. ;0) Assuming he is okay with extracurriculars and is a ‘good fit’ for them, tell me what your thoughts are on strategy.
Haverford and Carleton:
ED- Very good change he would get in ED with his stats, based on his HS data/convo with counselor.
RD- Slight reach due to gpa, solid on test scores
Bowdoin and Middlebury:
Reach- best chance for sure is ED esp. with full pay.
Let’s assume he loves all these schools and has no first choice. Would it be a mistake to pursue B or M, ED1 and then if he doesn’t get in ED11 to Carelton? I don’t think Haverford has ED11 which may mean choosing Haverford ED1 or risk regular decision.
Epeemom: I agree! I think that is what ‘did in’ Pitzer for my son. Equally, I think that is what made Tufts standout- one student who approached him and was an enthusiatic proponent of the school.
Thanks!
Hi All-
Okay, i’m going off topic but I desperately need some advice and don’t want to start another thread. Call it paranoia but I want to bury this in case someone from our school lurks on CC. I know. I know.
Today I got a fairly impersonal email that the school was terribly sorry, but one of the two teachers my son selected, spoke to and had a committment from last April/May to write his letter of recommendation can not do so due to surgery next week. This teacher retired at he end of last year. This teacher really understood him. (Introvert…etc). and her comments on report cards were amazing. Hands down we were expected her to write the best recommendation of any of his teachers at school. (She said something like- “He knew more than I did”. He wrote an 18 page paper for her on a fairly obscure topic and she could speak to the depth of research and quality of writing. UGH! Most importantly this teacher inspired him. I believe his love for current events / politics was due to her amazing ability as a teacher.
I’m not going to lie. I’m pretty devastated for him. And don’t get me wrong. I truly am so sad to hear she is having health issues and I certainly hope for her speedy recovery. But applications are due in one month for ED. Stress level is high as he hasn’t even figured out what schools to apply to.
I don’t think there is anything that can be done. But thanks for giving me a place to vent my frustration at the situation.
Couldn’t all of this been avoided if the school had set an earlier date for recommendations to be complete? Am I wrong to be frustrated that this has all transpired one month before ED? UGH UGH UGH.
I honestly don’t blame the school. Very few high schools would require the letters before now (if any). It is just bad luck, although maybe there is a lesson here about hoping for teachers that are retiring or leaving after junior year to write them – a lot of things can go wrong. Hopefully he can find another teacher, and his GC can help smooth the request process in case the new teacher isn’t aware of what happened and why your son needs a new recommender.
Regarding your previous post, I think of Carleton as on par with Midd & Bowdoin for difficulty of admission, although I admit I am not Googling the stats. Haverford is slightly below. Has he visited all the schools he is considering for ED? I see he has not visited Carleton for sure. It is NOT a good idea to ED a school he has not visited. Don’t panic and go the ED route if he is not very familiar with his ED choices and confident that they are his top choices.
I was looking back for his unweighted GPA, but I don’t think you told us. His test scores make those ED schools look like matches – admission rates are low to call them matches, but he is male, which helps in the LAC world, and you are full pay for the schools that are not need blind (Carleton is not, would have to look up for the others).
You mention that one of his best qualities is his true love of learning. This is a quality colleges are itching to find – there are so many “ticket punching” students these days, it can be hard for them to identify these students. One of my kids has that genuine love of learning, and used it to excellent effect in her admissions process. If he can present that in a unified way in his essays, ECs, and recommendations, it could really help him.
intparent: Thank you! I needed to be talked off the ledge and your words did so. I certainly do not fault the poor teacher and feel so selfish being upset at the situation. I actually did have concerns about having a retiring teacher write the rec for him, but I assumed if she was willing and counseling office agreed it would be fine. And in the end, it has nothing to do with her retirement. Thanks for your input.
His gpa scale is one of those unusual ones and does not get reported on the transcript. That’s why i’ve been vague about grades. His school doesn’t rank, doesn’t give honors. His grades from his school are consistent in Naviance for Haverford and Carleton, but low for B and M.
So the college will need to find some way to translate his GPA to the standard 4.0 unweighted scale. Sometimes a high school puts this info into their high school profile which is available to colleges. It would be a good idea to try to figure this out. It can be risky to just count on Naviance – data that is a few years old might not reflect admission realities today. And you can’t tell if someone was hooked from the Naviance dots. He is probably fine, but it is good to know.