I’m a rising senior that would like to attend an LAC, however my stats are pretty meh. I live in Texas, but am originally from North Jersey and the Hudson Valley, so the Northeast is my desired location.
SAT Superscore: 1520, UW: 3.73, W: 4.22 (10 AP’s, only 4’s and 5’s), Rank: Top 15% (Highly competitive HS).
At the moment, my top choices are Vassar, Wesleyan, and Swat. I am also considering William and Mary, Davidson, and Oxford (Emory). Could you please provide guidance? I’m planning to Vassar ED1 and Wes ED2.
Bump
It seems like you would have a pretty good chance at Vassar, especially ED. What are your interests and potential major?
You seem to have chosen your schools, and you appear well positioned, particularly as a male applicant, for admission to your ED1 choice. In what sense are you seeking guidance?
Yes – not sure what kind of guidance you would like. Other colleges? Safeties? If you’d like suggestions on other colleges it’d be helpful to know more of what you are looking for in a college, interests, potential majors, etc.
Are you male? If so, ED at Vassar with your stats looks really good
Davidson and William & Mary seem out of synch with Wes, Swat, and Vassar. And I don’t think your stats are meh. What about Dickinson (they have an EA round, so if you get in that is a nice thing to have an acceptance – you might even get some merit from them)?
Is money a factor?
Have you considered your “fit” for those schools? Your secondary list doesn’t have a lot in common with the first half of your list.
The fit is very important to Vassar, Wesleyan, and Swarthmore. They truly are wholistic in their admissions process. How is the rest of your resume? Extra curriculars and service consistent with your academic interests? But still demonstrate well-rounded student with some solid leadership traits. Any awards?
You set for your essay topic? Does it add something to your story? Do you have some solid recommenders who can and will speak to more than just your academic abilities?
If you get in ED, you will be done, of course, so no need for others.
But…if not:
If you like Vassar, Wesleyan, and Swat, you could consider Haverford, Grinnell, or Bates? Or maybe MacAlester?
Also: Why don’t you add a couple schools with similar characteristics that are going to be “safe.” (You never know, so…just in case.) If you really like those three schools, maybe try some schools that are very similar in outlook and identity, with equally great academics, but without stringent admissions requirements. Try Earlham or maybe Wooster or Kalamazoo.
@elena13 my potential major would be Political Science or International Relations and my interests include history, geography, public speaking, etc. My dream job (really weird) is to go into public service back in the Hudson Valley. I moved from there (45 minutes from Vassar’s campus, I know the area really well) in middle school, and never felt like I left. I struggled to fit in at my highly competitive hs in Texas (one of many factors for my giant soph year dip in gpa/rank). Although not related to the major, I would be interested in club sports, learning a “unique” foreign language in college, and joining a music group. My heart is set on Vassar, but it is super competitive and I don’t know what will happen.
@merc81 @AlmostThere2018 I am seeking guidance in the sense that I would like safeties and matches and what I should do to increase chances. My school profile does me no good, as the gpa distribution is outdated by like 7 years and shows that more than 50% have an uw gpa over 3.5, and I am top 15% and only have a 3.73. The naviance plot only shows three people applied and none of them got into Vassar.
@wisteria100 yes, I am male. I hope and pray Vassar/Wesleyan will accept me
@intparent I am applying to W&M and Davidson because I currently (but no offense, grudgingly) live in the South. The teacher writing my rec letter (AP WH Teacher was an alum at W&M). Also, would Lafayette be a good option? Money isn’t too much of a factor, and I’m not really a hooked applicant :(.
@BB Thanks for the advice! Will look into them
They seem like odd choices because they fall in the more conservative end of the LAC spectrum, while your other choices fall pretty far on the liberal end.
What about Skidmore as a less competitive option to Vassar? My S is at Lafayette and loves it. He is pretty liberal but is not politically active.
I grew up 15 minutes from Davidson, have supervised several Davidson students’ summer research projects over the years, and have always looked askance at people who consider the college conservative (conservative compared to Antioch, perhaps). It is certainly left of center, but people of all political stripes will feel comfortable on campus. On a somewhat related note, my Chicago alum interviewer years ago was a Davidson prof who pushed me to apply there and Swarthmore, which he considered to have two of the best and most rigorous undergraduate experiences in the country.
If you are seriously interested in geography, take a look at Clark in Massachusetts. I second the recommendation of Dickinson in PA for international studies.
There are plenty of good LAC options in the Northeast to pick from - Connecticut College, Franklin & Marshall, Allegheny, Trinity, Wheaton, Muhlenberg, Gettysburg, and so on. Your stats are pretty solid for most schools except the hyper selective LACs.
Middlebury is a good fit for your academic interests but is quite selective.
@intparent good point! My main thing is the liberal arts education and to some extent, in the Northeast (prefer the Tri-State/Hudson Valley, PA, and Southern New England (anything Mass, CT, and Rhody). This is why I could not consider Bates, Colby, Bowdoin, or Middlebury. I get sick because of the cold, but I really still want to be back in the Northeast. I will look into Dickinson, also is Haverford a good school? This might be a weird question, but we were visiting Swat and I really wanted to visit Haverford, and my family said no and said that there isn’t great links/alumni network or that its not that great. I went as a child for something can’t remember what, but I loved the H’ford campus.
@warblersrule what would my chances be for Vassar ED/Wesleyan ED? I am not dead set on which one I’m applying ED1 to, I just know I will ED to either one.
Haverford is a fine school. Less of a pressure cooker than Swat. I think you are too hooked on location. Students tend to not stray very far from their campus bubble, they are too busy.
With respect to relevant statistics, Vassar, as well as Wesleyan, accept more students from outside the top 10% of their HS classes (more than a quarter of enrolled students in both cases) than many similarly ranked colleges. In this sense, they’d be relatively good admissions prospects for you. (However, I wouldn’t particularly recommend you apply to Wesleyan ED2 should you be denied at Vassar ED1.) For a school similar to Vassar in some ways, but easier to get into, look into Bard. If you simply would like moderately selective colleges strong in political science, look into Trinity and Holy Cross. Drew would be a match for many of your preferences as well, though of a fully different general level than the other schools mentioned. Regarding Haverford, they take nearly all of their students from the top 10%, so it could be a very challenging admit for a student with your profile.
@gadeorade I understand your regional preference. And if a total stranger can offer you advice, I would say look at schools in other areas, too, if they have similar qualities.
One of my kids hates the cold and so refused Bowdoin on prinicple. But, Bowdoin was going to be a good fit for him, so I told him he should give himself the option of applying. He grudgingly did so. When he visited, he LOVED it. Then he got his first early-write from Bowdoin. By the time he visited all of his schools, he had reasons to reorganize his “wish list” priorities and… Bowdoin had gone from his last choice to his first. And, he just graduated from Bowdoin in May.
I think it is important to keep your options open. You can always stick with your Plan A. But I would say to give yourself a Plan B and a Plan C. And with your list of schools, maybe even a Plan Q , also. Lol. You are obviously a good student, but with these schools, you never know.
My son who went to Bowdoin was a Politics(Comparative and IR) and French double major with a minor in Arabic. He did his study abroad in
He got early writes from Bowdoin, Amherst, Oberlin, Earlham, and MacAlester. He also got accepted at Marquette, American, and Georgetown. But he got waitlisted at Swarthmore… and Tufts(lol…what???) .
But his next brother (a bio/field research guy) got early writes from Bowdoin, Earlham, Conn (plus Science Honors Program), and Wooster. He was also accepted accepted at Haverford, Bates, and Beloit . But… was waitlisted at Oberlin and Colorado College. Colorado had been his number one. Then Bowdoin took over. But after all of his visits, he ended up really loving Earlham, and chose to go there.
It just goes to show that you just really really can never know for sure where you will get in. You can look at GPA for accepted students, and test scores, and a school’s selectivity, but… Sometimes it is still unpredictable. A lot of it comes down to your “fit” for the school and where you fit in (or don’t) with that year’s cohort.
And you can make a solid list of possible schools, but it’s hard to know where where you will be happiest until you can visit.
I wish you best of luck, but I encourage you to keep your options open. I also encourage you to look at schools you might like, even if you aren’t sure that you want to be in that region. You can always decide not to go there, but it is hard to open a door once you have closed it. I also encourage you to put some high quality schools that might be “safer” bets in terms of admissions on the list, if you don’t get in to your ED choices.
Best of luck, though. Fingers crossed for you!
BTW - the first son (Bowdoin grad) I mentioned had similar interests to you, so you might consider some of his schools.
He made his initial list based on these things:
Strong poli sci programs
Strong International focus
Great language programs
Strong study abroad participation
Focus on Global Citizenship
Strong Service Identity
Service-Learning opportunities
Soccer
Also –
–He looked at the options for interdisciplinary majors or double majors, because he had a variety of interests (including PoliSci, Human Geography, International Studies, Culture Studies, and Languages)
–He checked course catalogs and looked at course names and descriptions and started schools that had the most interesting courses)
–He looked at semester-long study abroad programs that would allow him to continue taking courses in his major (that is how he managed to complete a double major and minor in 4 years)
And after he made his shortlist, he factored in his sport. And it was a factor for his final decisions, so his final ranking of the schools wasn’t based on that list alone but He did not consider soccer in making the list or use it for recruiting and admissions purposes. He waited until he was admitted and then he called the coaches of the schools he got into. In the end, he crossed off all the D1s, because they told him he couldn’t study abroad. And he crossed off Earlham because the team was just not good enough and he felt it would be too frustrating. So… He factored in some other things that were not on his “wish list,” also. But, in the end, it came down to where he felt happiest – and that was Bowdoin
But, based on what you have said about your interests, you might look at some of his schools. Especially I think Earlham might check a lot of your boxes, as a safety school, so take a look at that one, of needed. They had the most global-awareness of all of the schools on his list. And they had the strongest service orientation and service learning components as well. 70% of students study abroad and they offer a guaranteed expenses-paid internship, which can be international. They also have what is called “May term” which has international options. And they have incredible service learning and community engagement. Just incredible – my second son who is also very globally-minded and community-oriented absolutely loves it there.
Everytime I go out there, I just become more and more impressed with the place.
If you don’t get your ED, I think Earlham might be worth the trouble of looking into for you! My kids originally added it for “safety” purposes, but both ended up with high opinions of the place. (Obviously as one of them chose it over top-top schools like Bowdoin and Haverford…).
Here is a link: http://earlham.edu/
I’d be cautious about Earlham. Their new President has stepped down after only a year on the job, their financial situation looks shaky and substantial budget cuts are occurring there which may effect programs and teaching.
As for Vassar, you seem passionate about the school, so make sure that comes through in your application. While the overall acceptance rate is around 24%, it is around 35% for males, and while they don’t break out the male ED acceptance rate, that will give you even more of a boost. (Overall ED rate is 40% - make rate is undoubtably higher).
^^meant male rate, not make rate.