3.87 UW GPA 9 AP’s. SAT 1380 but went test optional most places. Marching Band and Orchestra section leader, Track and Cross Country but not a captain or stand out, National Honor Society officer, lots of volunteering well over 200 hours, Peer Writing Tutor, and work with children on the Autism Spectrum (wants to go into a mental health field).
She interviewed with Oxy, really researched the school, and put a lot of time into her supplements…. I really think that made the difference.
I really don’t think this can be correlated to UCLA. Completely different schools, student population, culture. A lot of this is random, luck of the draw.
My DS was admitted to Occidental with $20K/yr in merit (Presidential). We visited (he didn’t do an interview, but was in contact with his admissions officer). He has strong ECs, a rigorous courseload (15+ APs), and relatively high stats (3.96UW, 4.6W, 1490 SAT). He’s interested in Political Science, and Oxy is near the top of his list, so he’s pretty excited.
(I’m not sure where to post this, so I’m trying both here and the Loyola Marymount thread.) My daughter was admitted to both LMU and Oxy, and we’re going to do a whirlwind tour of schools in a couple of weeks for spring break. We’ll be visiting LMU and Oxy April 13–14, but they both have an Admitted Student Day on April 14. Any advice about which school’s admitted student event to attend?
Whichever one we miss, we’ll still visit on April 13 and do a tour and whatever else we can arrange. Of course we can decide based on which school she’s leaning toward, but I’m wondering if anyone has intel about whether one school’s event is especially useful or fun to attend.
Is there a schedule of activities available? Maybe one school’s program seems more useful than the other?
Oxy has a set day on 4/14 but also check out Tiger for a Day or whatever it’s called. It’s basically a build your own tour option on non Admitted Student Days. If LMU does not have similar, then maybe do the official day on 4/14 at LMU and a Tiger for a Day at Oxy on 4/13.
My son got in OXY. He is a science oriented kid. I am wondering whether the liberal arts school is a good choice for science focused kid. Anyone has any suggestions? Thanks
Liberal arts school has smaller class sizes and students can get involved in research with faculty members much easier than when there are many more students to compete with at bigger schools. Oxy also has good internship opportunities such as at JPL (NASA) which is what attracted my daughter to apply.
My DD is a first year at Oxy. She’s absolutely loving it. Advice: Go to accepted student days. She went to CalTech’s accepted student days absolutely assuming that she’d go to Caltech, but as long as we were in Cali anyway might as well go to Oxy’s too. Loved it. She’s a STEM kid btw, and what Cybnswam said is so true - our tour guide at the accepted students day had done research and got pub credit and was going to Stanford this year for her Ph.D.
We are trying to decide between Oxy and Oberlin, and it’s a tough decision for my daughter. If anyone’s interested in weighing in, I posted our pros & cons here:
I’d love any thoughts or insight!