Need Help

@emilybee Regarding the SUNY schools- really depends on the hs. At my d’s school in ny, very few apply to SUNY’s and it is rare for anyone to actually enroll

Maybe Seton Hill in PA could be another possible safety to look at, if she is still looking.

SUNY’s enrollment is approx 460,000 so plenty of New Yorker do apply and plenty do attend and I don’t believe there is a terrible stigma attached to going to a SUNY. Do you think someone at your D’s school would be looked down upon if they went to a SUNY?

I also know a lot if people in NY who go to the state part of Cornell, but if you ask them they just say Cornell so one has no idea if it’s the state part or not unless one is particularly nosy. My districts sends a ton of kids to Cornell to both the state part and the private part.

Most of the top students at our high school will have SUNY Binghamton as a safety, but none of them want to go there, and few do. Lots and lots of students just under the tippy top attend happily however. It’s a great deal and some of the SUNYs have excellent programs in specific areas.

My sister’s step son who went to Scarsdale, had a 34 Act and two parents who graduated from Bing ( and they read legacy apps separately) got rejected from Binghamton. He got into Vanderbilt ED.

My S also applied to Bing and was accepted. It was our financial safety.

emilybee, Cornell is Cornell regardless of the school. Outstanding faculty, great experience, great campus. SUNY is a different story but I don’t think stigma is the word to describe it. The differences between the SUNY centers and Cornell have nothing to do with stigma. The 4 university centers are large public universities that are somewhat generic. There is nothing wrong with them. I would call Cornell a world class university-land grant side or not. I would not say the same for the SUNY centers but they are respectable state schools. I don’t think they are particularly noteworthy but attending a SUNY isn’t associated with a bad “stigma”. It is simply a different kind of experience than attending a small liberal arts school, one of the competitive flagships or a top notch private university. But it costs a lot less too and that is what tends to drive the decision to attend. Do you want to sacrifice a lot to go to a private school or attend a SUNY. Many choose not to sacrifice or take out loans. These are individual choices. I see nothing wrong with choosing to attend a SUNY. What I have difficulty with is the idea that SUNY and a top private school or strong flagship are similar. They aren’t. But that does not mean there is any type of bad stigma about attending a SUNY.

“My sister’s step son who went to Scarsdale, had a 34 Act and two parents who graduated from Bing ( and they read legacy apps separately) got rejected from Binghamton. He got into Vanderbilt ED.”

Binghamton must have been fairly convinced that this student wasn’t going to accept a Binghamton offer. They didn’t want to be used for his safety. Because he comes from Scarsdale they knew he could afford to pay for a private school. With a 34 (and probably other great stats) he would get into a great school. They surely did not deny him admission because they didn’t think he was a strong enough student. They were simply protecting their yield. A student who gets into Vanderbilt is certainly strong enough to get an acceptance to Binghamton-unless Binghamton reads signs that the student has no intention of attending. His rejection from Binghamton is not an indication that Binghamton’s students are stronger than Vanderbilt’s. I bet they saw him as too strong for Binghamton.

But the OP was talking about the stigma of attending Rutgers and TCNJ for NJ kids and I don’t think the same can be said about SUNY. He mentioned that Siena doesn’t have a stigma. Personally, being quite familiar with Siena as it is local for me, there are much better SUNY schools than Siena. I dare say, both Rutgers and TCNJ are better schools then Siena, too.

Please. Just ecauze a person lives in Scarsdale doesn’t mean they aren’t living hand to mouth. Its not always what it seems on the surface.

*because. Ack typos.

@ScaredNJDad If she likes BC and Holy Cross, how about Providence College as a safety? Beautiful campus (personally, I think it’s a much nicer campus than HC but HC is stronger academically) and preppy atmosphere which sounds like it would appeal to your daughter.

Bing accepts a gazillion students. It wasn’t because they were trying to protect there yield. It was also right after the market crashed ( he was HS class of 'O9) and a lot of people in the wealthy Westchester towns were having their kids apply to state schools because of all the uncertainty. Also, with two parents who were alums and that Bing reads those apps separately, his rejection was a big shock.

There has to be a reason why this kid was not accepted to Bing- my daughter was accepted to the Scholars Program at Bing with a 34 ACT and we live in what many consider to be a wealthy area (I am not wealthy). I agree that living in Scarsdale does not necessarily mean that they have the money for an OOS public or private. We do not know how this family lives or what their circumstances are.

Most of the top top students in our town do not attend Bing, but like mathmom stated, a lot of kids just below the top will attend. I agree that Bing does not feel like a top private school or competitive flagship, but it will give you a solid education and it will get you where you need to be.

@ScaredNJDad

Umm…would you be interested in buying the Brooklyn Bridge?

Most LACs aren’t need blind. The admissions officers feel bad about that. They want to admit deserving kids who need financial aid. However, most of the LACs have a fixed amount of money available for financial aid.

Plus, each LAC wants to attract the best possible students. For most LACs , that means having to offer merit scholarships to attract students. But doing this means taking money away from need based fin aid.

So, there is a HUGE incentive to admit as many full pay students in the early round as possible. Only a small percentage of the students who apply early will ask for fin aid. Even if a LAC admits them, they have to decide whether to attend based on the fin aid package they are offered; they can’t compare offers. No parent will be calling the fin aid office and saying “Well, we prefer Old Widget, but Pretty White and Greek College is offering us $5,000 per year more.Will you match it?”

If they all applied in the same round, Old Widget would run the risk that not enough of the full pays would accept their offers and too many of the students who need fin aid–and will compare offers–and those offered merit aid would accept. So, the financial aid budget would not only be exhausted–and maybe would go into a deficit position.

So, by locking in as many full pay students in the first round, the LAC can be generous with both merit aid and fin aid in the regular round.

White or Asian students with 2 college educated parents from the local region where the LAC is located are overrepresented in the early round. They are also overrepresented in the RD round. But, in that round, the LAC will look for higher stat students, URMs, first generation, and other students who will diversify the student body and admit a lower percentage of the “typical” LAC applicants.

I’m sure there was a reason but what it was no one can figure out. i have heard it is harder to get into Bing if you live downstate as Bing doesnt want the whole student body to be downstaters.

I have some very wealthy friends whose kids have gone to Bing and they are now all in med school, dental school, law school, etc. They could have gone to top privates. But their parents are paying for their medical/dental/law schools. One of my friends is paying for all three kids medical schools ( two are twins so they have 3 in med school at the same time.)

There may have been a red flag in the Bing application, which didn’t appear on CommonApp? Could even have been a mistake…
Wow, paying for three med schools at the same time… I just can’t imagine being that wealthy. And how much money leaves the coffers each month. Wow.

I know and it doesn’t seem to have changed their lifestyle any. He’s an anesthesiologist who doesn’t even work full time anymore, only a few days a week, and she has never worked as long as I’ve know her which is 25 years.

“Please. Just ecauze a person lives in Scarsdale doesn’t mean they aren’t living hand to mouth. Its not always what it seems on the surface.”

Right it isn’t always what it seems-just mostly. The median income is $232.422. The median home value in Scarsdale is $1,425,700. The average list price is $1,977,746. And of course there are always kids in any school system that are eligible for free lunch right? Nope. exactly zero in Scarsdale. And zero are eligible for reduced lunch. And the student apparently could afford Vanderbilt. So the assumption was correct.

@ScaredNJDad

I just want to put this out there for your consideration: Be careful with this type of thinking. It’s not ONLY a numbers game. I know plenty of students/parents who thought this way about their safeties, and guess what? They were rejected. Your D needs to approach every school as if it were her first choice.

Here’s an example: Friend’s son with 2250 SAT, 3.85 UW GPA, two-sport varsity athlete, very competitive HS, multiple APs – rejected from Tulane, WL Colgate, WL Lehigh. He and his parents thought he was a shoo-in at Tulane and Lehigh, with an excellent chance at Colgate.

This exactly shows that is isnt just GPA and SATs, as many have been saying here all along.