@milgymfam I’m an ELCA Lutheran in California and we are (mostly) a pretty liberal bunch. Can’t speak for all of the Cal Lu kids but the ones I’ve known are either liberal or at least “California-moderate”. I’d give the school a look at least (it was on my oldest’s list a few years ago, although she ended up going somewhere else).
A little bit of levity this morning:
My husband presented last evening’s school mail to son and asked, “How about Sarah Lawrence?”
Son replied, in good humor, “Is she cute?”
@Waiting2exhale, much needed levity!
@milgymfam, Cal Lutheran was my S10’s safety and he was admitted RD in December. It was nice to have something in the pocket before the admissions season. It will also be on my D’s list. She has participated in programs on campus. It is a nice environment and my kids are not religious. I would call them to talk about your D’s needs.
@chb088 my d20 fits that description and we have been trying to manage the try for what you want but realize you are going to get some no’s. Getting a little scared, hearing from the 2019 girls at our school and there are some great gets this year for Ivies. Worried that they are “taking the spots for next year”. It really, but they seem to go in cycles at our school.
@KKreis my D20 fits that description as well. She’s unhooked however, not a URM or low income, so very unlikely to get into an Ivy. We are targeting State schools with good honors programs, and maybe a couple of reaches. And she’s not going to apply to 20+ schools either. I think she has 7-8 on her list.
Maybe instead of having your kid have a ‘few safeties’ on their list…why not fill the list with numerous safeties and low matches? My D17 is very involved at her large state school, and in the top 2% of students, academically. She is very involved in ECs, has been doing research since freshman year, is on two boards for her Honors College. She has been nominated for a national scholarship based on her research involvement. She loves big sports. She is surrounded by super-smart kids in her LLC and HC. It’s really the best of the best for her, and would recommend it for those kids who like to be the ‘smart kid’, who like to pick from lots of opportunities, or who may have too much anxiety to be thrown in with an entire class of smart kids (which has its own advantages).
Since safeties are harder to find, and most seem to jump at the chance to attend any elite school they can get in, I would spend more time finding those safeties/low matches, if your kid is open to it.
My D20 is applying to all safeties (D17 got into NU and Emory, but passed), so it’s already a given she will attend her safety.
@Happy4u @chb088 @bigmacbeth
DS is a good stat student and a competitive swimmer, but he is not fast enough for D1 and the “hook” for selective D3 schools does not have nearly as strong a hold as that of D1. We are also full-pay.
The scary thing I see is as more and more kids are applying to more schools, safeties and matches of today might become reaches of tomorrow. At the same time, the true safeties might look at high stat kids with suspicion- thinking they are using the schools as safety and won’t really go if accepted. Sort of a double whammy.
My hope (and experience with S18) is that by applying to honors colleges at the safeties, they won’t pass her by thinking she’d never attend. Plus she has visited all of them. This strategy worked for my S18, he got in almost everywhere.
@makemesmart I don’t think we are to the point that a good state public school (think #85-#200 USNWR) actually is thinking about yield protection. Many admit purely based on stats. I do agree the trend is in the way you describe, but I think we have a way to go. Maybe your definition is different than mine, but my D17 goes to a Top 100 school that she is a top student, but there are probably more top students at her school than many elites, just due to the sheer size of the school.
All of this is predicated on what you consider a safety for your C. My sights might be set a bit lower than yours. Also, consider ‘full pay’ as your hook. It’s worth something to many schools.
Our experience with our kids as well. They have had wonderful groups of friends.
@bigmacbeth that is exactly my kid’s thinking with some of the schools she is looking at. She wants somewhere she can get in easily, get all the classes she wants, and shine.
Another family here living on the love the safety and merit train! My DD17 is loving the ride and going places. My DS20 has only toured state schools with honors college and big merit opportunities (except Virginia Tech which has some other special factors appealing to him/us).
Mine doesn’t want an honors college with extra requirements and all that. She wants to do what she wants to do.
Mine will not be applying to any ivies but HC at huge state schools also do not yet appeal to her. She likes that 10-30k size best right now which means OOS and hunting for merit. She is a bit discouraged with what we have found thus far so the criteria may become a bit more realistic. The search continues.
@VickiSoCal Yes, there is some of that with honors colleges. They are so different. I don’t buy all that crap about: Honors courses aren’t ‘harder’ they just go into more depth. That is code for ‘harder’. But, it is more than made up for by the benefits that some have: early registration (especially for impacted or crowded majors, and early years), leadership and research opportunities (the latter being less important for non-researchy majors), scheduled social activities, and most importantly, built-in friend groups. At least that’s been our experience.
The other thing to keep in mind, if you can get early registration, then quit the HC after sophomore year when it doesn’t matter as much as far as getting desired classes.
@milgymfam - another 19 and 20 kid family! I think there are a few of us!
We are a merit-chasing family as well. Regarding safeties - our S19 applied based on merit opportunities and was admitted to 7/7. Looking back, he really only wanted to apply to three. His true safety that he absolutely loved and two schools that were safeties for admissions but reaches for full ride merit. The others were “mom” choices - 2 in-state options and 2 extra NMF schools. Although my reasons for requesting them were valid, in the end the extra 4 were not worth the work.
For S20, the list will be all safeties as well but hope to fine tune the list to limit unnecessary stress. I have encouraged him to knock out any and all work possible this summer so he can focus on having a hardworking but fun-filled senior year.
Well, no one asked but since we drove 2200 miles here a few impressions of our spring trip.
Stop one was in Buffalo, New York for Canisius College. DS 20 is trying to get recruited for a sport and this was an “unofficial visit”. We arrived on Friday evening and had a bit of time to explore downtown. I did not know it but Buffalo has a bit of a reputation as a foodie town. We found a brewpub, The Big Ditch Brewing Company, for dinner. Good food and beer.
Saturday morning, we attended the game. Weather was cold and clear, about 30 degrees. There was a decent friendly crowd who spoke to us. After the game, we got a tour of the campus given by someone affiliated with the athletic department. The campus is small and the main buildings are all connected by tunnels, helpful during Buffalo winters. Academically, Canisius is strong smaller Jesuit College. They are regionally known for their business school. They are proud of the highest CPA pass rate in NY state. Students were on spring break, so we didn’t really get reading on the energy of the place. DS really liked it. One concern that I had was the high percentage of part-time faculty.
We then got a tour of the athletic facilities. Canisius is a D1 school, so they were nice as expected. The coaches were extremely nice and very upfront about “D1 life”.
We finished the day with a few hours at Niagra Falls, an early dinner at Sinatras, a very nice Italian restaurant, and a bed-time snack of the original Buffalo Chicken Wings from Duffs. If you are an Anchor Bar aficionado, apologies, we had to pick one.
We then drove to CT to visit DS14. While there, we walked around Quinnipiac. I think it is well know for its health science programs, OT, PT, and PA. DS 20 is currently interested in “business, or maybe a science”. Quinnipiac has 3 campuses, but we only saw the Mount Carmel Campus. Now it’s not really fair since we didn’t do a formal admissions tour, but we all got kind of a strange vibe from this campus. Classes were in session, and after a class we noted a large exodus to the parking lot. Maybe it is not accurate, but I got a commuter school kind of vibe at that moment.
Final stop on the way home was at Denison University. We did an official admissions info session, tour, meeting with a coach, and lunch with a team member. Denison is a liberal arts college so there is no business school, but economics is one of the most popular majors. Now, I’m pretty jaded, but I was kind of blown away with this visit. Everything on campus is very nice. The coach was very nice and extremely down to earth. The player from the team was a great kid and very friendly. The athletic facilities were excellent too. DS is not a swimmer, but their men’s swimming team had just won the D3 national championship. The downside is cost. DS 20 would need some merit aid to make this possible. We discussed this with the coach and he said that we could get the equivalent of a “pre-read” when junior year grades are available.
@Dave_N Thanks so much for the descriptive reviews. That was a lot of driving!
We were impressed by Denison too when we toured it 2 years ago for D18. Headed up there again in a couple of weeks for D20. Thanks for the detailed reviews!
I am a little jealous of you all planning/doing school visits. Our spring break is coming up in a couple of weeks, I have not been successful in persuading S20 to go see any schools, near or far:(