Sheds some interesting light on our flagship. 66% of the freshman in 2014 came from instate. 10% from CA, a whopping 14% are international and that leaves 9% for the REST OF THE COUNTRY!
Yikes. No wonderful people complain it’s hard to get into! makes you wonder what the yield is by those buckets (ok it makes me wonder lol)
For those of us looking out of state though, it’s fun to see where your whole state heads and it’s not always where I would have though!
I don’t think that’s an unusual distribution at all. Some flagships have a large OOS population (UVM) but most are above 50% and there really are quite a few above 80% instate. Take a look at Georgia and Georgia Tech. North Carolina has an OOS cap by law. It’s also common for students to still stay in the region, so it is not surprising that a big number come from California. The biggest percentage of OOS into Colorado is also from California.
@eandesmom that link is really interesting. It pretty much confirmed my feeling that kids here just pick a state school and go. Small percentage go out of state and even smaller go to more than one state over.
@twoinanddone I think what surprised me was the 14% international, not so much the CA part.
I was actually encouraged to see where our OOS kids do go, while CA is the largest, we hit every single state and some more than I would have thought. And the total number of OOS headed kids is pretty healthy at least to the extent that S isn’t alone but yet we still retain a lot. I was a bit surprised to see that University of Portland was the top choice in OR and Cal Poly in CA. The first because its private and the second simply as its competitive.
But given that I know kids at both I guess not really “that” surprising lol.
The other reason many come from CA. It’s it’s been getting more & more difficult for Californians to get into the top CA schools. The UC’s are impacted and students like my son are looking elsewhere. Plus CA schools have increased their OOS admits because they bring in money. There is a lot of politics that go into this decision. But despite the increase it’s still hard for those US OOS to get into UC, a large portion of OOS are international students, particularly from East Asia. Just looked it up, it’s gone as high as a 1/3 of the students are now OOS.
@eandesmom, yep that was me talking about not thinking the CU essay was terribly important.
Thoughts on essay importance: I’ve seen advice all over the place. I was just reading a thread asking AO’s about the worst essay they’d ever seen. Most of the respondents were actually student interns who shared summaries of “the essay everyone passes around the office for laughs.” One AO said that in actuality most bad essays aren’t bad in a ridiculous way, but just obviously written quickly with no thought, bad writing, very short, filled with errors. She said that as long as you don’t have something really bad that will remove points, it doesn’t matter. She did also share a summary of the best “pass around the office essay” she’d seen. A rich white kid from the 'burbs thought that many of the problems facing inner city kids could be solved by a sports program he’d come up with. The inner city kids would be bused out to the 'burbs and learn to play squash, lacrosse, and golf. I guess this was to help them fit in better with what this kid probably considered the “middle class” and, umm, well inner city problems solved, right?
But if you look at the CDS, there are many schools who mark the essay as “important” or “very important.” I can’t see any reason for them to lie. I added to the college table all the CDS data about how important the different app components are to each school. I’m a little behind, but I think half or more consider the essay to be at least “important.” I would have expected the essay to be less important to public’s, but that’s not what I saw in the actual data.
As @curiositycat333 and @kt1969 mentioned, special circumstances and reach schools also call for more attention to the essay (or essays). My D only has one real “Why this school?” supplement, which is WPI. They have a very unique program which appeals to her, so I think she won’t have too much problem answering it. I am not a fan of the OR State or VA Tech supplementals. They just come across to me as inviting cliched, blah answers.
I’m really sorry some of you are going through extra difficulty in the application process due to divorce. I’ve known a few kids who went through similar situations. I actually wrote a letter for one family we have been close to for years about how the mother had zero involvement in her daughter’s life, hadn’t seen her in several years, etc. I know her Dad had to put together a lot of paperwork so that the mother wouldn’t be included in calculations. Oldest D’s fiancee had a similar situation with his father (against whom he had a restraining order). It did work out for those two kids and I hope it will for you guys as well.
Just a quick edit to thank @eandesmom for that link – fascinating stuff. I think my D would be real geographic hook in Delaware which showed only 4 students from Colorado!
@snoozn same here in Delaware. Too bad UDel isn’t affordable lol.
I’m glad you commented on the “important, very important” etc. I’ve sort of looked at those things all along but had never added them to our spreadsheet. Very interesting!
rankings of very important or important
Rigor-All (though not all list it as “very” which is surprising)
GPA- All (though not all list it as “very” which surprises me)
Test Scores 8/13
Rank 5/13
LOR 7/13
Essay 10/13
Interview 3/13
Level of Interest 3/13
EC’s 7/13
Volunteer 5/13
Talent/Ability 7/13
Character/Personal Qualities 8/13
Work Experience 2/13
So…yeah. The essay seems important! At least for S’s list as it stands today
What does it all really mean in terms of admissions or merit offers??? Who knows!
On the positive side it makes me feel a bit better about demonstrated interest and interviews and S’s ability to do the ones that are needed remotely if they make the cut and where he is already at on demonstrated interest.
I actually KNOW two kids who went to Delaware from Colorado last year, so if those numbers are right I know half of the outgoing class. Both are athletes.
@snoozn Thanks for your insight to the essay question.
I do think in many situations the Essay is more a way to weed out the uninterested and those who couldn’t be bothered to write to the prompt nor have the essay edited. There is no way hundred’s of thousands of H.S. student each write unique and interesting essays off the same prompt.
What I’ve told S17 is that someone else MUST edit his essay. It has to go polished. I haven’t started the essay push, because I just know if I do all I’m going to do is get frustrated. DS writes well once he know what to write, but it can take days of agony to get to that point. (Don’t even get me started if it’s literary analysis.) And he does need to have his work edited for spelling & grammatical details. Deadlines really help his motivation. At this point his first deadline for the OSU insight essay (6 shorts answers of 100 words) is Nov 1st. (For EA) and then the UC insight essay by the end of the Nov.
I heard a presentation by the Dean of Admissions at USC (CA). He said that before he looks at the name, GPA, test scores or anything else on the application, he reads the essay. He said it gives him a feel of who the applicant is and what makes them tick.
Interesting day with S on college stuff. He met with the guy we are using to help him edit the essay, sounds lilke one more draft will do it. Which is in line with what I felt on the 2nd draft but far far better for our relationship for the outside party to provide that critique! He also claims to have not realized that the CA essay wasn’t the only essay that he’d have to write. Which just proves that I can talk till I’m blue in the face but it isn’t until an “official” professional tells him that he believes it. Sigh.
He questioned me a bit on due dates again and then quickly backtracked as we went through the timeline of things to complete to hit the 11/1 EA schools. The question was more related to why does he need to firm up the list now. My point was that for the EA schools he needs to give his LOR people enough time and you can’t do that if you haven’t picked the schools. Plus enough time to send transcripts and scores. I don’t want to nag about any of this the 1st 2 weeks of school but if it isn’t done then we will run short on notice for the LOR writers and that’s just rude. I did offer to let him only really review the 11/1 schools but he thought that was silly and we should look at all of them and get it over with. We did talk a bit about the weigting mentioned above and that being another reason. For schools that rank interest or interviews as important we need to figure out who those really are and plan/schedule accordingly.
Surprisingly, he is ok with still having an OSU tour in sept on his in-service day. I expected him to say no. On the flip side of that he is refusing to look at UPS again, feeling it’s not needed for him to decide. Which may be true, it’s not off the list and since interview and interest are only “considered” it may be ok. It is interesting through as their website “recommends” an interview. I did tell him I was adding an additional requirement to his list. He has to hae 2 schools that are in the PNW. On the off chance at the 11th hour the kid decides he does not want to go far away, I’d like him to know he has more than one nearby option.
We did get our first “test scores received” email today! 10 days from order to receipt on that one.
More insight on the essay review session. I really need to remember that S does not feel like talking right after these things but always comes and shares more after processing and decompressing, I his own time.
Reviewer actually told him it was good enough to submit now but could be even better. Which made him feel really good but motivated to make it better. I hope! The opening/intro is so well done the rest needs to keep the reader all the way through at the same level. It’s not bad but a bit of a let down after the strong opening.
Fingers crossed, it’s a transition issue/exercise in writing which is not his strong suit.
In other news we argued about whether to take the AP lit test. Out of the blue and the kid started it lol. My position was there is zero need to even discuss it now, wait until we have an idea where he is attending and see if it’s worth anything to take since many schools only give credit for one of the English tests. His position was nope no way no how, and he’s not taking 3 AP tests at the end of senior year. To which I replied that he’d already informed he he wouldn’t take the APES test and the same point in my mind (what is it worth credit wise) still applied.
Oh well. If nothing else we’ve agreed to table it till after 1st semester grades and admission status at that point in time. Oh and that taking the test for AP Calc was non negotiable. Lol!!!
@twoinanddone, indeed that is funny that you know an entire half of the CO --> DE cohort!
I’m so relieved to have all the LoR stuff done on D’s side. One of her teachers said she was only the third person who’d asked for a LoR and finished the Naviance LoR section. The form asked what date you’d like to have the LoR’s ready and she put down end of September. I think (hope!) they’ll be done earlier than that.
She’s also promised to have her essay done by the end of September. She has a good start, but it needs more content, followed by editing and then the final draft. I’ll feel better once she gets that WWU app in. I think if it’s early October, she’ll have no problem getting the WUE aid.
@eandesmom, I’ve looked every which way at flying in and out of Washington. Into Spokane and out of Bellingham or Seattle would be best, but in and out of Seattle (worst in terms of driving, naturally) is by far the cheapest option. Congrats to your S on being nearly done with the essay. My feeling with schools that recommend an interview is to at least do an alumni interview if possible. That’s what D will be doing for two of her schools.
@smoozn once we finalize the list we will figure out the interview aspect. It is a bit frustrating as S really isn’t convinced they make a difference but we will see. I completely agree with you however for some of those schools finding alumni here may be tricky. I won’t be surprised if he ends up with some phone interviews.
I had some good communication from both the new GC and the CC today. Turns out S’s GC is now the dean of students and new GC really seems to toss any questions to the college counselor. I am unclear who writes the counselor letter but will get some clarity. At any rate the naviance LOR is definitely under construction with some unexpected issues. She wants S to ask the teachers next week and just give them his list of schools and due dates for now (and resume) and when the system is ready will sync it all up. She’s thrilled S is on top of it for the EA dates and happy with me for letting her know about new EA at 2 schools that aren’t showing it in our Naviance yet.
I’d like S to finalize the list simply so we know which should want 0, 1, 2 or 3. I don’t think there are any that want 3 and for most the 2nd optional. Which means S has to pick.
Primary LOR is his USH teacher, who he really really bonded with and one who will flat out tell him up front if he will write a good or bad letter, but will not share it (nor should he). I can’t imagine it won’t be good though.
Secondary is a toss between precalc/alg 2 teacher (had for 2 years) or AP Physics teacher. Pros and cons to both, both write lots of letters and S has a good relationship with both. He’s known the math teacher longer so a bit of a deeper connection but the physics teacher really saw him work hard and improve so…not sure! It’s funny though as I had thought he wanted the math teacher for sure and today he tossed the AP physics one into the mix, kind of out of nowhere. Which was fabulous as it showed he’s really actually thinking about it lol.
He thinks both would write a good letter.
It’s a bummer that the Spokane legs have gotten pricey, it used to be über cheap. I had to book a work trip there in a couple of weeks and paid way too much (ok I didn’t pay but still). The good thing is if you are coming into Seattle you have ton of options from DEN. Your timeline sounds good for the WWU app,
LOL! Big MAC is an acronym someone came up with for Merit Chase. Not really sure what the “A” is in it but you get the idea.
S17 cut two schools today and moved 3 over to the applying to category! I feel he needs more to hedge some financial bets. 1 at a minimum but I’d probably prefer 3. We are now at:
Will Apply
[ul]Safeties: WWU, Goucher
Matches: UVM, UPS, Ursinus[/ul]
Still Evaluating
[ul]Safeties:
OSU: Size is the main concern followed by too close to home. He will visit in Sept and then decide. If it was common app it would be less of an issue
Matches:
Allegheny: Location is the concern, but arguably countered by a strong ENVS program.
Temple: Size is the only concern
Bradley: Location is the concern but he is intrigued by it still, needs to get his arms around this one[/ul]
Very much on the edge of the cliff of being knocked off
[ul]Safety: McDaniel (location / too remote via anything but a car)
Match: Ithaca (really not sure why on this one, he needs to look at it more, for whatever reason he can’t get his arms around this school
.[/ul]
I am still bummed a bit. While I like all of the official 5 and would be fine with them (assuming of course costs were equal and they will not be) I really really wish I could find an affordable reach school!
@snoozn it looks like I tagged smoozn thanks to my phone above. too funny.
Why? Do you not think he’ll be challenged at the schools he has selected?
I agree the McDaniel is a little far from the city, I don’t see Ithaca, UVT, or the PA schools being any easier to get to from Seattle. Even Goucher is on the other side of the city from the airport. I personally love Baltimore, but it is not everyone’s cup of tea.
Good question. There is a large part of him that wants something really really different (aka scrappy east coast urban) but I suspect Temple will fall off simply due to size. With the changes in their merit offerings (not announced yet but allegedly now mid September) it might not be doable anyway. He loves the city here, Portland, San Fran, and would like to be somewhere urban.
I think Ursinus is likely a better option for him to be able to “relatively” easily get to Philly but still have the campus environment he wants. It’s not around the corner of course but it’s not a million miles away either. He has spent a couple of weeks in NYC getting around by subway etc and has visited several other major cities so he’s not entirely naive and does have a healthy dose of street smarts but…It’s a HUGE school. It’s a tall order, find a lovely LAC ish type school, ideally above 2K at a minimum but make it be close via public transportation to a major urban area or cool college town, have it be affordable AND have it be a school he can get into (and not religious lol). It is going to be really hard for him to gauge on most of these without visiting, all he can do is apply and then wait and see. Personally I think I’d like Ithaca, Allegheny and Bradley to stay on the list. Allegheny is a free app too but it does have one extra short essay. Kind of ambivalent about OSU. The reality is it does have rolling admissions until 2/1 and could be a backup if needed. Applying early there is quite unlikely to change their $ offer, the only thing that will do that is a killer 1st semester report card. LOL!
but motivated to make it better. I hope! The opening/intro is so well done the rest needs to keep the reader all the way through at the same level. It’s not bad but a bit of a let down after the strong opening.
How sad!