<p>Thanks for everyone’s good wishes. It does feel really good that things are starting to happen.</p>
<p>MaryAnn - My son has 7 definite schools and will probably apply to the state flagship. We have several visits still planned. If he gets into the first school that he applied to then he will focus on schools that are a good fit that would be considered reaches due to his GPA.</p>
<p>Just got back from St. Joe’s. Unfortunately, is will not be added to my son’s list of schools. St. Joe’s has an 86% acceptance rate compared to Marist’s acceptance rate of 37.5% and Endicott’s acceptance rate of 48.6% and Stonehill’s acceptance rate of 45%. I would have felt better if he loved St. Joe’s!</p>
<p>Mary Ann - What did he dislike about the school that his other choices had?</p>
<p>I think it was Philadelphia (no other way to say it).</p>
<p>Sorry to hear it. Kids have their own unique reactions, which are hard to predict and understand, but need to be respected. The St Joe forum on CC has 2 recent raves. What did you think of the school?<br>
By “Philadelphia”, do you mean he did not like the part of Philly which borders the school on one side or just the idea of being near a large city?
Do you have other possible safeties to visit?</p>
<p>Whoot, whoot! S2 announced that he “had final list” and sent two rolling admission apps today that didn’t require an essay. Much relief. Still deciding if he wants to put in an app to Colby which is very much a reach for him, but he loves it and it would be his top choice of course (they do love those fearful reaches.) 2 safeties, 3 matches and a potential reach. He likes them all. Now I can breath again at least until finaid time.</p>
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<p>Bala Cynwyd is not Philadelphia and St. Joe’s is not Philadelphia. There’s your problem.</p>
<p>I can’t decide which will make me happier. Having my son’s college choices all finalized OR getting all these college mailers, apps, etc off of my kitchen counter!</p>
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getting all these college mailers, apps, etc off of my kitchen counter!
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<p>That too! BTW I’m totally amazed at the amount of unsolicited college catalogues, postcards, etc. we are getting. I tell my kids not to fill out all the stuff on the standardized tests, but the colleges still find the kids. We are hands down getting 3x the amount of mailings as three years ago when S1 went through the process. Both kids have virtually identical “stats.”</p>
<p>^^Same here^^
But I’m assuming that’s because S2’s projected major is more common than S1’s. He did fill out that portion of the info sections; but not the request for information mailings. They’ve found us anyways.</p>
<p>We have 2 HUGE plastic bins filled with marketing material. We throw out material for schools that we know he is not interested in and we save the rest. </p>
<p>Have you noticed a lot more paper applications being sent with view books, and priority applications being sent than your older child/children received? In all fairness, my son is looking for a different type of school than my older child. I do not know if that made a difference. Still, there is lots of mail from schools that we never contacted, and some in cases we have never even heard of these schools.</p>
<p>What’s been frustrating for us is the material being sent from top schools where S has no hope of matriculating. At one time, he was in love with the idea of William and Mary, and could never make it in there. Sure enough, he started getting e-mails from them and actually took the time to request that they take him of their list so I could see he was still upset about it.</p>
<p>In the mail yesterday he got an invite to some kind of panel discussion with admissions reps from University of Virginia and Northwestern…again, two schools out of his reach. I’m assuming that this mail is based on his SAT scores, unless it just gets sent to everyone and we’re being sensitive!</p>
<p>If you or your child ever contacted these schools (email, or phone), even if it was 2 years ago, they may have put you on their mailing list. It does not need to be through the CB.</p>
<p>We received the Northwestern mailing as well. Unless they really are looking at applicants “holistically”, there isn’t a chance that S2 would qualify.</p>
<p>RTR, we’ve gone through the same frustration. Yale and Stanford seem particularly eager to obtain an application from our son so that they can reject it. :)</p>
<p>What irks me is that, for all the beautiful pictures and platitudes in the mailings and emails, it is often hard to find the few crucial numbers: % of freshmen who come back; graduation rate within 4 years; 25th/75th percentile SATs; % of financial need covered; and anything relating to the typical workload.
Common Data Sets and NSEE reports, which are very helpful, are often very hard to find.
It is hard enough to find out about intangibles, such as kids leaving on weekends; substance abuse; friendliness; quality of teaching–the key numbers should be prominently displayed.</p>
<p>Most of the data you are looking for can be found here, including crime statistics for the past few years.</p>
<p>[College</a> Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/]College”>College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics)</p>
<p>I think that USNEWS is well worth the $15 investment. Lots of additional info there such as % of students involved with Greek life, % living off campus, # of apps. received and % accepted, female: male, and so much more. One can easily check off a few schools and compare some statistics of those schools, such as: ranking, cost, % of classes with fewer than 20 students, % with more than 50 students.</p>
<p>Thanks
It is interesting to note that despite the huge increase in required disclosures on investments and products in the past decade, there is no requirement that these crucial facts regarding what can be a $200,000 decision be disclosed.
A recent report by the American Enterprise Institute, noting many schools having graduation rates below 50%, argued that this akin to fraud.</p>
<p>I find the NSEE student survey data particularly helpful, as students describe their workloads and interactions with professors, among other things.</p>
<p>USNWR’s online is really great! I renewed it again! I do like seeing the percentages on males, females accepted etc & other types of stats you might not see elsewhere. Northeastmom is right-comparing up to 5 schools at once is very insightful. It is well worth the $15.00 for the year!</p>