Congrats to all whose kids have early acceptances! I’ll get back to all of you re: my S19 in about 7 months when he hears something . . . (this is assuming he gets some applications in).
@nukesmom My D16 is at Colorado State, but CU was never really an option for her (we’re OOS and the difference between CSU and CU was almost $20K). She actually liked the CSU campus more so that worked out!
@taverngirl Thank you!! Her stats are very similar!! 3.7w and 30 ACT so that is great to hear about Dickinson. Expected her to go ED, but she won’t.
Allegheny keeps bubbling up and that is on the list w/o a tour. HWS would be so far. I’m really hoping for Dickinson or a long shot acceptance of Lafayette. Why was Allegheny a top choice and do you think it would be a safety/fit w/o demonstrated interest? I’m tapped out from touring, but Allegheny sounds like a great match for my nerd. At the end of the day, Dickinson seems to be the best match and if I was confident about RD acceptance, I’d sleep better.
@eh1234 I feel your pain. It’s so hard. What will we do with our spare time next year?
@TwinMom2023 I have DD15 twins. One at Marist and one at Muhlenberg. The Marist point system isn’t just a social one. It’s also about grades and service so my introverted twin was fine with points. She did a couple of events that she felt comfortable with, got good grades and gave back. My third DD18 is also at Muhlenberg, but was accepted to Dickinson and that was high on her list. My suggestion is to show them a lot of love and interview there. She got good FA at Dickinson, but they weren’t as strong in her major and she got great merit at Muhlenberg. With our twins graduating this year, merit is important as our FA will probably go down.
ETA: her stats were 3.7 weighted, 1360 on her SATs, good theater ECs and a very good service EC.
@WWC4me Perfect. Thanks. She has been to the junior day (last year) and interviewed. I think on the way back from HWS, she should run by one last time? Can’t think of excuse though. She and my husband will literally drive past it. Food for thought! She won’t get any merit aid so paying full freight is scary. I think she’d get something at HWS and Fairfield, but who knows.
Great to hear about Marist too - maybe I should revisit the points.
How did you manage a third toddler!! 
@TwinMom2023 She could just drop by admissions and say she was passing through and couldn’t help stopping in because she loves it so. Their admissions department was one of my favorites. I couldn’t find a parking space and a passing admissions officer told me to park in a “campus official only” space and he’d handle it. I also loved their new president. What a dynamo!
Having a third toddler was interesting, but on the easy side as she was a very chill baby and grew up to be a chill teen too. We worked quite hard for those first three and then surprisingly had a fourth DD five years later. So I still have “the baby” at home. The baby is taller than all three “big girls!”
@TwinMom2023 my S17 was accepted at Allegheny with merit, a music scholarship based on an audio submission and then towards the end they upped the offer.
He did not visit until after acceptance, saw them at a CTCL event and that’s it. 3.47 UW with medium rigor and a 25 super-scored ACT.
On paper it was a match but really a safety I think. He loved loved loved the program, academically his favorite. However the music and theater program were weak (not that he’s doing either now!) and it wasn’t his tribe.
It has a very sporty, smart focused feel. Not in a cutthroat way, just focused. But for my crunchy hipster kid it was a bit short on the purple hair factor.
Best food of any visit we had!
@TwinMom2023 Dickinson was a last minute application, RD. She did interview at the campus visit however. She was waitlisted at Lafayette, another fav, but ultimately I don’t think it would’ve been a great fit. It seems more preppy/Greek than the other schools she applied to. To make you feel more confident about Dickinson, my daughter had a low uw gpa though she was classified highest rigor by her gc.
We were very impressed with Allegheny, and that’s saying a lot because we visited 31 campuses. The administration was wonderful (by the time accepted students day rolled around, my daughter knew the admissions rep so well they hugged goodbye), the professors were passionate about their subjects and took time to talk about different courses and programs, and the students were friendly and smart but down to earth. Nice campus - the environmental science building was drool worthy. My daughter received their max merit award (29k I believe) and was invited to the Honors Program, making her eligible for additional funds for research or study abroad, plus special mentoring, etc. I think it’s a safety for your daughter. My daughter visited and did a phone interview. Not sure where you live, but if you’re a distance, and she’s interested, I would at least try to do a phone interview. The biggest drawback for us was that it was about 8 hours away.
Please add me to the Most Appreciative of @eandesmom for her list squad!
D19 continues to work on school-specific portfolios (her major track is theatre tech) so she can get applications submitted. She will be applying to 12 schools – some BA and some BFA programs. Of these, she has already applied to three BA likely-match schools and two of them are rolling admissions. She has two hip-pocket BFA schools she will hold off applying to unless she has very few acceptances back by March. She may add one more BFA school to her list but we are going to revisit that question in November.
Managing the differing portfolio requirements and “regular” applications in conjunction with program applications is not easy. Hats off to the acting and musical theatre applicants who have even more complicated things to do in a much more competitive environment!
@WWC4me @taverngirl and @eandesmom Working on college stuff while it rains and rains. Thank you for your words of wisdom. I’ll have them drop by Dickinson on way home. It is really top notch and the GC surprised me with an email about Twin A after she wrote her LOC. It made me cry! Hopefully having a strong rec. will help. We are now trying to come up with a list of 8 schools that are fit with a real safety, not just clutter. Dickinson at six hours away with even a tiny bit of merit aid would be perfect!!
Meanwhile, my overachiever Twin B was deferred from her absolute number 1, which on paper was a total fit, not stretch by any means. Lots and lots of work to do now. Did not see that coming and thought she was a done deal.
Anyone have thoughts on University of Lynchburg (formerly Lynchburg College)?
D was accepted with nice merit and we attended a local meet and greet, but we haven’t seen campus. Reading reviews haven’t given us a real feel.
@TwinMom2023 I am so sorry about the deferral, that stinks.
@TwinMom2023, Twin A sounds a bit like my older daughter (now 5 years out of college). Two of her finalist schools were Earlham and Bennington. They might be too small for your daughter but I thought I’d mention them. (She ended up going to a wonderful, for her, school in southern California.)
I’m also sorry about the deferral.
@rosered55 Bennington sounds really different and so much like her crunchy HS. I wish we could tour it as well. It’s on the draft list. I know zero about Earlham and will research it tomorrow! Thx. Glad your daughter found her place. I bet college search seems like a bad dream from years ago.
Thanks for deferral sympathy. It was a shocker.
So sorry about the deferral for your daughter @Twinmom2023
@TwinMom2023 Deferral limbo is no fun. I am looking at two schools for backups in case EA does not pan out. Interestingly, both have a much higher chance of admission during RD. Unusual, I think, but that’s what the CDS says.
For those interested in contributing to this years data collection, PM me and I’ll send instructions on how to enter
@eandesmom - what exactly are we contributing and collecting? So are you simply compiling info for all students?
I tried looking back at your earlier posts and noted that many of the data points listed in 3.0-3.4 thread included kids with GPA significantly higher (i.e. jmek15’s S RD | GPA 3.75 UW, 32 ACT/33 superscored, stlarenas D17 (Rolling) Major: Undecided | GPA 3.7, no SAT, ACT 30 (31 superscored), smakl70 son EA Computer Science | GPA: 4.75/5, ACT: 25).
I would not go so far as to say many. I would say some. Stats only tell part of the story.
A student with what appears to be a high UW GPA, may have very low rigor
Another one may be lopsided with either high gpa and low test scores, or the reverse
Another may have been a 3.2 student when the parent got involved in this thread but has bumped up.
A student have been above the 3.4 threshold when the parent started looking on CC but had a disastrous junior year and a transcript that causes concern despite what the gpa might look like as a data point alone.
Or there may be other reasons such as LD’s (ADHD, HFA, Aspergers, Executive Functioning issues) that make a parent more comfortable on this thread because they are looking for “less” competitive schools.
My own boys hit some of the points above, though not the same points, both in 2017 and again in 2019
This has always been an all are welcome thread, with the focus on the B to B+ kid however one determines that. One can scroll through the data and determine what fits their own situation, or not.
And no, to be honest I cannot manage compiling all of the information solo again, it is simply too much work to manually enter data that is sent to me. For those interested in contributing I will provide additional instructions as to how to provide the data and once a month I will roll it up and post it here. If not enough are interested to contribute it won’t happen.
I’m happy to contribute, I just didn’t understand what you were doing as the GPA’s didn’t match the thread description. You can PM the details and I’ll help any way I can. This community can be very helpful.
S finally made some progress yesterday on the college application front. He started a common app account and all the factual type information has been filled in. He and I need to discuss what to do with ECs and he has to figure how to find out how to handle a couple school specific items but that’s pretty much it other than the essay. We also ordered SAT score reports to be sent to 5 schools. So far he has two reaches (Pitt and UMass Amherst), two matches (Temple and Duquesne), and one safety (URI). I’d like him to add another match and safety but this will do for now. I’m happy we got this far.