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None of this is a disrespect for or a praise of Binghamton or any other school. It is just a reflection of how admissions and decision making works.

[quote]
Yes there are probably exceptions. I don’t know all who attended these three schools but there are definitely reliable acceptance patterns-and declining Brown for Binghamton isn’t one of them. [/quote[
That’s not what I said. What I said was that after first taking OOS students and then spreading admission across the state, there are many more qualified downstate candidates than possible spots in Binghamton, so there are plenty of kids who would seem a sure-bet who don’t get admitted to Binghamton since the financial crisis.

"For those of you who can’t figure out why a student with a 36 would be rejected from Binghamton but get into Vanderbilt, there are some “must reads” for you. "

For the purpose of accuracy he had a 34 not a 36.

He didn’t think he was going to get into Vandy which is why he applied ED. He also had a hook for Vandy as they were still pushing hard to get Jewish students from the northeast to go to Vandy.

His second choice was U of Wisconsin. He was nowhere near the tippy top of Scarsdale High applicants.

Binghamton accepts about 12500 students for 2602 slots. Nearly 9000 turn Binghamton down. That is an amazing number. But not surprisingly, it is a safety school for the overwhelming majority of applicants. So while there are good students who apply and are declined, a lot more are accepted who go elsewhere. And I would guess that for the strong students, most who would go are given an offer. In terms of numbers, there are obviously simply more students-good and bad-downstate. Not more proportionately from any particular area although I suppose arguments could be made for accepting a larger proportion from upstate where the school is located.

In terms of the “Vandy” student, 34 or 36, he wasn’t going to Binghamton. That hardly seems like a controversial point right. He applied ED to Vanderbilt, seemingly supporting my point. Am I missing something? It was this student’s safety. And, I’m sure admissions knew he was an unlikely candidate. Most students accepted to both Vanderbilt and Binghamton would choose Vanderbilt. Again, I urge all those arguing otherwise to read the papers I suggested in earlier posts. Relying on ones own experience and those of students you hear about does not provide as good an understanding of the process as would reading the studies.

mom2mom- thanks for the lecture. I don’t have any idea why you think that was a post directed at you, it wasnt.
It’s become tiresome to read time and time again a top state school posted as if it were some kind of disappointment.
If you go back a few pages thats exactly the impression some have given as if somehow a Scrasdale resident is entitled to more or should expect more.(for the record there are many other zip codes just as affluent) Fact is often times for the BRIGHTEST students a Bing or TCNJ is by far the most intelligent choice. And that’s not just talk, or just trying to talk up state . There are several programs in both schools that are incredible and difficult to get into. Seriously, there is a reason TCNJ is in the top 75 most competitive schools in the nation as per Barrons.

Having been to Binghamton, TCNJ is much nicer.

What is it that your daughter does not like about TCNJ? The two students I know who attend are very happy.

Instate…

"In terms of the “Vandy” student, 34 or 36, he wasn’t going to Binghamton. That hardly seems like a controversial point right. He applied ED to Vanderbilt, seemingly supporting my point. "

He applied to Vandy ED because his parents believed it would give him a boost. It was in no way a sure thing. He applied EA to Bing because many kids apply to a few schools EA to get an early acceptances under their belt. Except for Wisconsin, I don’t have any idea what other schools he was going to apply to if he hadn’t gotten in to Vandy.

And as you pointed out, Bing accepts a bazillion students every year who choose another school, so they know thousands and thousand of accepted students choose another school. I don’t believe they turn down high stat students because they might choose another school.

Now, this thread has been derailed enough so I’m not going to engage anymore on this specific incidence.

Fourteen pages of discussion and I’m struggling to find the real “issue” here. By OP’s own account, daughter is an excellent student with excellent, but not exceptional test scores. He is willing to pay whatever the costs for daughter to go to a great school. Daughter would probably have no trouble getting admitted to some great instate schools, but both OP and daughter are opposed to this. GC has informed Dad that daughter’s chances at the schools they find acceptable aren’t so good. OP and daughter naturally find this upsetting. I guess OP would like us to tell him GC is wrong, and daughter will be accepted to many fine schools come Spring. But we cannot, because we all know that college admissions at some of the schools they prefer is basically a “crapshoot.” Luckily GC has opened OP’s eyes to this fact and now they can do some re-evaluation and planning BEFORE its too late. CC is full of stories of kids who applied to all “reach” schools and were shut out in the Spring.
Seems to me the usual CC advice is most prudent here. Find some safety schools you love and make sure they are on the list. Then apply to those schools as well as the reach schools you love and hope for the best. It’s hard to be told at age 17 that all your hard work isn’t good enough to get into the school of your dreams. It’s a hard reality at any age,but the sooner OP and his daughter realize this, the easier it will be to deal with any unpleasant news that comes around in the spring.
I truly hope, (and believe) that OP’s daughter will be accepted at one of her top choices, but if she’s not, she will survive and thrive, I bet, at one of her safety schools! Good luck, OP! Let us know what happens in the Spring.

The story at the moment is mostly that a person whose kid went to an upscale private secondary school is exercised about justifying the fact that his kid went to a perfectly good state school.

The OP has taken in the excellent advice of the GC and the posters here and his D has amended his list. I’m sure she will have some good choices in the spring.

Actual fact: It’s generally considered that the major “research” universities consist of the following members:

http://www.aau.edu/about/default.aspx?id=5476

Binghampton is not one of them.

RE: #204: which I assumed was directed at me. You called us dolts. I took that as something of an insult, whether it was directly at my post or not.

I can understand why a kid from NJ that can afford a different experience would not want to go to TCNJ. A fine school, but not a research university and with limited majors and limited options on changing majors. And it is in a very suburban area with limited access to other places without a car. While it is no longer a suitcase school, there are still kids that leave most weekends. And it is virtually all kids from Jersey (with a few from the surrounding states). Many kids want a different experience for college than the suburban life they have lived up to that point.

@mom2and Her unwillingness to embrace TCNJ has nothing to do with the points you mentioned, which are largely untrue.

Pure and simple, it is instate. This is how many NJ kids feel. She would be perfectly happy in a very rural school with even fewer students and hours and hours from a major city compared to TCNJ which is 15 minutes from Princeton and an hour from NY or Philly.

Has nothing to do with research either, the latest buzzword.

Her top choices are Middlebury and Bates, as of last night.

I think many want to just dismiss GC’s as not being knowledgeable and of course some aren’t but for the smaller private schools I think they have a much better feel for the schools in their region where many students apply every year. They may know of a number of students with higher stats and such who are applying to those schools that don’t feel like reaches. We have one “bad” GC at our school who does not understand admissions for top schools at all. A friend’s daughter applied to 12 schools and only got in her 2 safety schools 1 of which she wouldn’t even consider so she had no choice of schools. She was a wonderful girl with high grades and decent scores who was a varsity athlete but our school offers 30+ AP classes and she took 3. A decent counselor would have known she had no chance at places like Emory, Vanderbilt, UVA, and Stanford even though her gpa and scores were just a bit out of range. I would run the new list back by the GC to make sure he feels you’ve got good matches, safeties, and reaches now.

I get that, it’s how my D felt too. Travel costs aren’t a huge part of the overall expense of going to college, why not experience a somewhat different part of the country for four years?

My D chose a school an 11 hour drive/3 hour flight(s) away.

I get so confused when people say they don’t want “instate” Does that mean they do not want a STATE school? Or they want to go out of the state they live in?

If it’s the latter, that confuses me because if I live in Philly, I could go to UPitt or CMU and still be “in state” but I could go much close to LoyolaMD or Rutgers and be “out of state.”

Well obviously a kid from San Diego can go to Humboldt and be further from home than a kid in Philly going to Rutgers. I took it to mean “not very close to home”. Maybe the OP meant it as “state schools”, which in NJ seem to be far less popular than the ones in my state.

I did not read all of the posts but we live in NJ and my oldest graduated from TCNJ and my next one is graduating this year from Middlebury. My third is filling out application now for ED at Midd so this topic is very interesting to me.
Your daughters grades for Midd are borderline without any hooks to put you over the top. I would suggest then to Apply ED and to also check off the box that you would be willing to go in as a Feb applicant.If this is really her top choice then try and do whatever you can to make it happen.
Make sure that you have a stellar essay, attach a well written resume into the box that asks for other info.
deadline is nov1
good luck

For my D’16 it was that she does not want to be, physically, in the state of Texas. Specifically, she did not want to be within driving distance of home. One of her short answer essays…I don’t want to be down the dorm hall from a high school classmate, or a car ride away from a home cooked meal. I want to challenge myself, be independent and experience life beyond my suburban Texas environment.