University of Vermont? Lots of snow and mountains. And guaranteed merit aid for OOS students with the required stats, which I think your daughter has.
maybe this thread answers your question
@ScaredNJDad Even though your daughter attends private school you should be able to obtain the public school Naviance data for your local school. Just call the school and tell them you are a tax payer and ask for an access code.
Simmons , Lesley, and Wheaton, if she wants Ma.
MaterS, we get a 5 year report from the school that shows all the schools applied to with the outcomes, corresponding stats, merit awards and whether sports were involved. What the report shows is that she has little to no chance of rejection from Lehigh, Lafayette and Villanova. There is not much data on the New England schools or Hamilton, which is not surprising. Elon applications have risen along with other southern schools. She is well above the kids getting accepted.
We had an odd experience with Lafayette. One reason our D applied was that a good amount of merit aid looked like a strong probability with her grades and scores (2250 SAT etc) and according to the ranges on their site. However to our great surprise she was waitlisted. I don’t know if it was Tufts syndrome and they could tell it wasn’t one of her top choices or what. We never followed it up since she had many other good acceptances.
Our D graduated from an all-girls Catholic in NY and Elon has become a popular destination among the kids there.
It is often difficult to figure out how these schools will “behave.” My daughter’s friend was accepted to Lafayette with a 34 ACT and a 4.3 and he got a lot of merit aid. But this was one of his top choices…
@ScaredNJDad “It was good she wasn’t there.”
Do people really meet with their child’s guidance counselor without the high school senior? She’s seventeen or eighteen, almost an adult.
Agreed… I suppose we could have requested a meeting without our kid, but all the ones the school suggested had the kid for sure. I know my kid met with the GC without me, too. I helped my kids a lot, but in the end she is the one who has to live with the decision. She needs to buy into pretty much all the schools on her list, or you will take the blame if she ends up unhappy next year. The one exception might be asking her to keep one “parent’s choice” on the list, and visiting if she gets in. With the promise you will never mention it again if she decides against it.
I feel like I jumped into this thread too late and I didn’t read 6 pages, but… can I recommend Rhodes College in Memphis? It has a beautiful campus and a great IS program.
@ScaredNJDad - Speaking as a Lehigh parent of a junior D in the College of Business and Economics:
IMHO, if your D really wants to attend Lehigh, her best shot is the Early Decision rounds. A large part of Lehigh’s freshman class is filled in the ED rounds, making the RD round more competitive. Demonstrated interest means a lot to Lehigh, i.e. attending the on campus events, interviewing, starting a dialogue with her admissions counselor, etc. are all things the school looks for.
@ClassicRockerDad wrote this excellent post giving his take on the type of student Lehigh looks for. I believe it is the most accurate profile I have seen to date and one I have pointed many a prospective student towards. It should also give you some idea of what she needs to stress in her application.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18323797/#Comment_18323797 - in fact, read the whole thread.
If your D sees herself in this description, she would probably be a good fit for the school. In short, Lehigh is looking for risk takers, kids who have demonstrated, through their application, how they took a risk academically, socially, artistically, etc. and what happened when they did. Whether or not it paid off means less than taking the risk in the first place.
Of course, all those risk takers on one campus have a definite effect on the culture of the school. IMHO, Lehigh is the epitome of a “work hard, play hard” school (#11 on the Princeton Review Party school list). It is academically demanding - not much grade inflation there, and when they are done studying the students do like to blow off steam. Greek life is big there with the fraternities controlling much of the party scene. The administration realizes this and is trying to make changes but it is slow going. Lehigh is not for every student. My D loves it, my S, who graduated from a California school this spring, would not have been as happy there.
I wish you and your D the best of luck in this arduous, stressful process. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions about Lehigh.
ETA: I know you put a lot of stock in the admissions data report prepared by your high school but be aware that things change from year to year. For example, Lehigh has a larger than usual freshmen class this year because more students accepted their offer of admission than the school expected. It would not surprise me at all if fewer acceptances were sent during this next admission cycle. Again, if Lehigh is your D’s first choice, ED makes the most sense.
@SyrAlum Agree with you that chances increase with ED at Lehigh as they do fill about half their class with ED applicants. But the same can be said for many of the schools on ScaredNJ Dad’s list. Many of the LACS use ED to get qualified kids to commit early and manage their yield from both a practical pov (so they reduce chances of over-enrollment) and a ‘spin’ pov (so their yield % looks higher in rankings) On ScaredDad lists, majority of those schools with the exception of Villanova and BC (and don’t know about TCNJ) would be accepting a good portion of the class ED
@OspreyCV22
The answer is yes, parents do meet with gcs without the kids present. It depends of course on the school, the size, the radio of counselors to students etc. At my school there is one required meeting between the gc and parents in jr yr and then you are free to schedule more if desired. Students are also meeting with gcs on their own. ScaredNJDad’s daughter attends a private school. It is fairly typical at private schools for parents to have a GC meeting with child not present. Though, I do think GCs conveys the same message on chances to the students, but parents sometimes need the explanation more!
Our school has studied ED and finds little to no benefit. In fact, the ED pool can have higher stat competition.
I also think that data taken 5 years ago may not be as accurate- at our school it is not. Date taken over the past 2 years would be more accurate. Five years ago the data showed my daughter getting into Vanderbilt with possible merit. This year she was wait listed despite the fact that my daughter was at the very top of her class and Vanderbilt knows our HS. Five years ago kids just like her from our school became Emory Scholars. This year she was accepted, but was not an Emory Scholar. Colleges look for different things as the years go on, and coming from the northeast tri-state area can be seen as a negative at many of these schools. My daughter blended in at Vanderbilt; hence the wait list. Is there a way to filter out the last 2 years?
I agree 100% with the above comments made about Lehigh. My daughter was accepted to the scholars program during the RD round with a half tuition scholarship. It was always one of her top choices. We visited twice, went to two local events, and she was on a first name basis with her admissions counselor. Her essays were unique and very specific to the school. In the end she did not go because the Greek life scared her away. She does not want a school with big Greek life (something we did not really think about initially). The decision not to attend was not made lightly- we both love Lehigh. There was a lot of crying on my living room floor.
I think it was mentioned that money is not a concern. If this is true, I would apply ED to a school- but only if she loves the school and is 100% sure she wants to attend. I don’t think ED is for everybody- lots of kids change their minds. They may love a certain school in November but change their mind by May (that is what happened to my daughter regarding Lehigh).
I think ScaredNJ Dad’s updated list is very good as long as there are some safety schools that his daughter likes, and there are. I am sure she will get into some of her match and reach schools, but which schools are anybody’s guess. There are no guarantees.
Two girls, the data isn’t five years old, the report covers the last 5 years with last year separate.
ScardNJDad- that is perfect.
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Our school has studied ED and finds little to no benefit. In fact, the ED pool can have higher stat competition. <<
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Almost everything I have seen and read from college admissions and on CC says the opposite. Going ED is a proven way of upping your chances of admission. Many LACs fill up to half their class with ED applicants; we were told by several colleges to have my S apply ED if he wanted to improve his chances of acceptance.
Surfcity, the common notion doesn’t seem to be true. In the case of LACs, the early decision pool is legacy, athletes and diversity students largely, so preselects. Our school found little to no difference comparing students of similar stats over a large selection of schools.
If schools had no ED, those preselects would claim the same seats in RD.
One benefit, is getting the process done before the holidays and not having to wonder over the whole winter.
It certainly benefits the schools.
OP, I think your D has a very good list now. Good luck to her!!
S was also at small Catholic prep school and we met GC without S. But one thing to remember is at private schools the students are constantly meeting with GC about college. At my son’s school they even have a class starting in Jan of jr year which runs through Nov of senior year run by the GC, dedicated to getting into college. The work on their lists, essays, resume, etc. Our private meeting with GC was in Jan of his junior year just as kids were starting their get into college class. The meeting was more to discuss our philosophy re college and for him to explain what his is, For example, he told us there is no such thing as a “good” college or a “bad” college and they stress looking for the right school(s) for their students. He also asked us about our budget for college as this helps him help the students to craft their lists.
The whole app process was pretty easy for us . We didn’t have to do a thing except take him on tours and give credit card # for app fee. The kids actually submit all apps from GC office so GC makes sure all the I are dotted and t’s are crossed. Deadlines for submitting all apps to GC was a month earlier than the colleges deadlines.