<p>Where are my manners?! Congrats to your D, Clarkalum.</p>
<p>Jrpar - my other hesitation with Northwestern is that I feel - ok, it’s reachy, but the one advantage we have, the legacy, is really only applicable / meaningful in ED status. In other words, “go big or go home.” </p>
<p>So, is it worth adding NU to the list as the ED if that pushes out a school that he likes better? I don’t think it is … in which case, if it’s just an RD school, doesn’t he have enough reaches as is and why add one to the pile where I’m not leveraging the slight “in” we do have? </p>
<p>I think I need a shrink over this :-)</p>
<p>PG, big congratulations on that 33 ACT. It should open many doors especially for a full paying student. </p>
<p>One tip: apply as many EA and rolling as possible. Makes the days before April much easier.</p>
<p>Looking forward to hearing of good news from you.</p>
<p>Pizza, don’t over-think the issue of how a rejection at some schools will sting more than at others. From what you’ve told us about your son, he’ll take a balanced attitude to the whole process and will understand that-</p>
<p>1- if you don’t apply your probability of acceptance is exactly zero.
2- if you do apply, your probability is going to vary tremendously according to lots of factors, some of which you can control (app quality, ED vs. RD, etc.) and some of which you can’t (being local, being male, not being a member of a racial minority). From your description, this won’t be a concept that will trouble him tremendously.
3- there is no sense avoiding schools which would be a good fit just because you think you are clogging his list with too many of a certain type of school at this juncture. Trust me- once it’s time to actually fill out the apps, many schools start to fall off the table because your S won’t think it’s worth the effort or hates the essay prompt or knows a loser from his HS who is applying there or whatever. So it pays to be as comprehensive as you can right now- build a really long list populated with lots of schools at every notch on the selectivity scale- and then pare it down next fall when you actually have to pay real money to apply.</p>
<p>I know too many kids who were scrambling in December when they felt their lists were skimpy or a GC suggested, “hey, your last set of scores were much higher than you expected and your recommendations are stellar- why don’t you have any reaches on your list?”</p>
<p>Fear of rejection is not a good sorting criteria right now unless your son would be devastated by a NO.</p>
<p>Thank you, Dad II, and continued good luck to your son.</p>
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<p>I think you’re absolutely correct. I worked at Clark for three years (not faculty–worked as writer/researcher for a special grant program and also in development). I got to know faculty members and administrators as well as students who worked for us. I think highly of the college–when I was there the psychology and geography departments were quite strong. (Don’t know if that’s still the case.) The husband of a good friend teaches in the Physics Department and their view is much like yours–if Clark were somewhere else it would be a hot school. Their kids can go to Clark for free–so far, the one who’s looking at colleges isn’t interested. Worcester is a dying city and despite efforts by the city fathers to change that–it hasn’t happened. It’s surprising too because there is a great deal of old money in the city. The area surrounding Clark IMO is especially depressing–think urban blight. I believe that a student interested in Clark should not only visit, but stay for an overnight.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, congrats to your S on the big uptick in scores! I know what you’re saying about NU – DH is a double legacy at Penn and neither kid would bite – not even S2 for Huntsman and football.</p>
<p>Here is where S2 sent apps – 2290 SAT, 3.56 UW at competitive admit IB program</p>
<p>UChicago (accepted EA)
Georgetown SFS (Deferred – not surprised, as it’s a tough admit and we are local, which makes it even tougher)
Tufts
URochester
Swarthmore
Carleton
Bowdoin
UMD-College Park</p>
<p>He dropped CMU, CMC, Macalester and W&M in December. He had been on the fence about Swat for months because he didn’t think he had a prayer (I have a sticky on my desk at work with the list of schools and Swat has been written down and crossed off multiple times!). After getting the Chicago nod, he decided to add it as a big reach and because he liked their bent. Sat in on a First Year Seminar last Jan. and LOVED it. He couldn’t muster enough enthusiasm about CMC’s essay prompts, which told him that his reservations about the school were legit. I thought he had a good shot at W&M (they like OOS guys and IB), but S said he couldn’t see picking it over Chicago. With Macalester, he felt their IR focus was more towards NGOs and he is more into strategic/security stuff, though he liked the school a lot.</p>
<p>I am convinced that I am going to meet Mathmom one of these days!!</p>
<p>Thanks. S is now making mutterings about Carleton and since we’re going to see Macalester anyway, might as well add Carleton, though I still am concerned we’re too reachy here. Too much CC = not enough confidence :-)</p>
<p>Pizzagirl - if you have a safety your kid likes a lot the rest of the list can be reachy. If your child gets in somewhere EA that they like, the rest of the list can be reachy. You don’t have to have 2 reaches, 2 matches and 2 safeties. Neither of my kids did.</p>
<p>I guess I’m so spooked out by CC I see nothing as being a safety other than our local community college :-)</p>
<p>PG, I somehow managed to miss both your twin posts. Congrats on PS’s ACT score. I think that score and his ~3.7 GPA will open many doors.</p>
<p>Re: NU</p>
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<p>Is this PS’s sentiment or PG’s? I’d say let him go for it. With his stats (and the triple legacies), he HAS a shot. He is old enough to take a rejection as a valuable learning experience if it comes to that. From what you wrote, it seems to me the fear of rejection is THE reason that he is not applying.</p>
<p>If NU is his top choice or close to being his top choice, apply ED to NU and EA to his other top choice schools and one safety/match school with EA options. I would not worry too much about not having enough schools at the low end right now. Investigate the safeties and matches, but don’t let these dominate your time, because you will have more time after the ED/EA results. S1 dropped almost all the safety/match schools after receiving his EA results. It freed up more time to focus on other RD reaches.
Given the above, you might want to look at U Chicago. I’ve heard they are a little kinder in their EA round ;).</p>
<p>With full-pay status, you may even want to consider Cal as an OOS. Berkeley was doing heavy OOS recruiting, looking for full-pay OOS applicants.</p>
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<p>It’s my sentiment, not his. But that’s really helpful, because I keep having to remind myself it’s not all about me :-).</p>
<p>Cal is a great school, but it’s probably far too liberal for my S. But thank you for the suggestion!</p>