This is long, but I’m trying to answer the questions I know will be asked in the first page.
D21 background:
Just got her first B+ in AP Lit, which she thought was 3rd or 4th highest grade in the class of maybe 40 kids. The rest of her grades are split about 50/50 between A and A+. Will end up graduating with 10 AP’s, which is the max allowed by the school. Should graduate 1/400 class rank, she will have a better idea after the end of this year but I think even with the B+ it will hold. Certainly will be in top 10/400. Took PreACT cold and got 32, so I’m guessing with some prep ACT will be 33-35. Will take in the spring.
Solid but not outstanding EC’s. Travel soccer player year round and will be 4 year varsity letterwinner, but probably not playing in college. Golf, Student Council, FFA (agriculture projects). A few local leadership things, nothing state or national. I’m assuming will have good recs.
In other words, she is what is referred to here as your typical average exellent student. White girl but from an underrepresented state, fwiw.
Probably pre-med. Right now, 50% med school, 25% dental, 25% something else, and she has no idea what that something else might be. Definitely not a business major. Leaning towards majoring in either History or Math (still doing pre-med) if it is feasible.
She appreciates music and art, but has no talent and is aware of it. Doesn’t hang out with the theater crowd. She likes learning and reading for fun, but is pretty focused on moving forward towards goals and not just learning for learning’s sake. Her friend circle is mostly smart, motivated and athletic. She says she wants to be able to have some time to relax, and she can be a typical lazy 16 year old, but overall she’s kind of the “work hard, play hard” type. Pretty much always going 100 mph, whether on activities or school, or planning something with friends.
My financial situation is that I can probably swing any school that purports to be full need. I did a spreadsheet with NPC’s of several of them, and while there is quite a bit of variation overall it is doable. I can also do our in-state publics. OOS publics are probably not in the cards.
I’ll put my reviews of the recent tours we took up elsewhere because this is already too long. But here’s what I have gleaned out of D21’s visits to Hamilton, Rochester, Cornell, Bryn Mawr and Wash U in StL, with drivebys at U Penn, Haverford and Colgate, and familiarity with our state flagship and local diretional U.
Open(ish) curriculum is a high priority for her, probably her #1 priority. Otherwise I’m thinking a pre-med History major is going to be filling all of her electives with things like Organic Chem, and she wants to be able to explore more. Ideally a true open curriculum is great, but she is probably taking a smattering of everything so flexible distribution requirements are probably fine too. Rochester works great for her interests for example.
A bit leery of too big or too small. Cornell seemed too big, Bryn Mawr too small. Rochester seemed about right, although it sounds like still 200 kids in the pre-med classes. Bryn was apologetic that she may hit 40-50 in her pre-med classes.
Not really a fan of the rural locations. Weather was bad so no one was outside, but I still think Hamilton and Colgage really pushed her towards avoiding rural. Suburban is fine. I thought U Penn would turn her off, but she’s fine with urban too.
Maybe it was just our tour guide, but Bryn seems a bit too SJW for her. D is liberal, but lots of little things just seemed too over the top for her. I think in a bigger school like Brown it might be easier to meet the non-SJW types, but it seemed like they may dominate at Bryn. Not sure if that is accurate, but that was her impression.
She isn’t ruling out women’s colleges, but leaning against. Smith may still get an app because of the open curriculum.
She really liked Wash U, but it seems like a meat grinder for pre-meds. Rochester seems difficult, but not as much weeding out for the sake of weeding out. Please correct me if I am wrong about either one.
We are probably doing one more set of East Coast visits, not sure exactly when. Trying to hit Grinnell and Macalester at some point, they aren’t close to us but we are within driving distance occasionally so we will probably hit them too. But the reality is that she won’t be able to visit everywhere on her list.
Today if you asked her to pick a school, it’s Rochester. Or maybe Brown, even though we haven’t actually visited. I’m not sure who else should be on the list. Would love some guidance. Thanks.