@inthegarden , I’m not sure how accurate those stats are. I just copied what was on the site. However after you posted, I looked again and found something interesting.
When asked about individuals’ party affiliation, Lafayette had over twice as many R as D. However, when asked how each individual viewed the feel of the campus, 41% said Lafayette was “Liberal” or “Very Liberal”, while 8% said they thought the campus was “conservative” or “very conservative”.
F&M skewed much more D than R, than Lafayette. However, when asked about how the students viewed the campus wide feel, the response was 48% “Liberal” and “Very Liberal”, and 12% “Conservative” and “Libertarian”.
Putting aside the differences between “Very Conservative” and “Libertarian”, it seems students feel the campuses of Lafayette and F&M are similar in regards to Liberal or Conservative. Yet, many more students identify as GOP at Lafayette. I’ll leave it to others to suss that out.
Certainly, if your D is considering these schools and campus politics are important, you’ll have to find other sources of information. Good luck.
My D21 is done with common app and working on supplements. Her school started in person. She has the ACT composite of 35 and unweighted GPA of 4.0. The school doesn’t rank and give weighted GPA. She has only one SAT subject test (Bio-800). She has been planning to take other subject SATs that keeps getting cancelled. She is an Asian American (Indian heritage). I don’t know how to schedule interviews with the colleges or how important it is to have one? She is planning on applying to Ivy Leagues as well as other colleges in California and Texas. She is accepted into our local college Ole. Miss and University of Alabama.
Just got an email from school for Senior Families regarding dates and such…Graduation has been set for May 30th, 12:00 pm…and now I’m sniffling over a bowl of butter pecan ice cream ??
@Momof3B well at least you have a great and my personal favorite ice cream for comfort.
And GREAT news for anyone chasing AUTO merit but needing scores. University of Arizona has put out their 21/22 scholarships and they are based 100% on GPA, absolutely NO score required!!! This is fantastic and I hope other schools follow.
Some of the schools are already on D21’s list; I will crosscheck your suggestions with her list. We will not be able to visit any of the schools now; because we live in the HOT/Red zone; and DH doesn’t want us to fly; driving to any of the schools will take approximately a day … so … virtual is all we can do…
Anyone ever heard of or use the website College Kickstarter? came across it during research last year; and “found” it again a couple of days ago … any info will greatly be appreciated
@th03 we are using College Kickstart. I really like it for organizing deadlines and checking out how balanced a list you have created. Really you could gather the information on your own, but it’s a handy tool.
@anaray For many schools including the Ivys, your daughter will have the option to schedule an interview after her application has been submitted. For other schools, if they are offering interviews prior to application submission, she would find that on their website admission/application page. Interviews are not required at most schools and can either be evaluative or informative - that should be indicated on each colleges admission page too. They are a good way of showing interest and several schools we toured last year stated 90+% of applicants participated and had alumni interviews.
@inthegarden Feel free to PM me about Lafayette! My H went there, his sister, his father and his niece. Lafayette is a wonderful place. In terms of political spectrum, I think it is pretty balanced.
@anaray Wow, your daughter sounds great! At my older kid’s HS, they did not rank or weight GPA. At my younger’s they weight but do not rank. Every school provides a school report, a kind of one-page fact sheet, that will enable colleges to interpret your daughter’s performance and course rigor within the context of the entire school. The CA schools apply their own weighting system according to IB/AP/Honors.
Also, I would not worry about trying to take the subject tests. Few schools even recommend them these days and some are not even considering them at all. For example, Yale went test blind for subject tests this year, as well as Caltech and MIT (the latter two were headed in this direction pre-COVID).
@th03 We are hoping to visit schools during Spring Break of 2021. Most of the schools on my D’s list would take more than a day’s drive to reach by car. Thank goodness for YouTube.
There are 2 kinds of interviews. The ones done by admissions staff and ones done by alumni. The admissions interviews will most likely have an impact because they interviewer is trained and understands admissions. The alumni interviews rarely carry any weight because the alumni haven’t been vetted or trained.
We were sitting around last night with 2 other families with rising seniors last night enjoying a cocktail and discussing online school when the conversation turned to moving to another state or city to take advantage of a better HS situation or increase admissions odds. It was all in fun, but it did get us wondering. Does anyone know of people who have done this? I imagine there are a few new students at some Wyoming HS who are hoping to take advantage pf the geographic bump.
@DOTexe Chatham is a small but very pretty school located in the Shadyside area of Pittsburgh and a mile or so from both Pitt and CMU so there is a lot going on in that area.
Duquesne is about 3 or 4 miles away from that area and located more in the Downtown area of Pittsburgh. However they have a distinct campus. I went to law school there. They give a good deal of merit money. Have good school spirit. It has some good programs like Pharmacy, Music, nursing and business. It is Catholic but never thought it to be overly catholic.
You’re killing me. Lafayette was also on D21’s long list. Maybe we should look at it again. Because she really needs to add more schools to her already-long list. Ha!
@kanfly@homerdog Both my wife and I went to Lafayette. My wife’s uncle went there. His daughter and her husband both went there. Their oldest daughter is there now. I’m a big fan of the place. Unfortunately for me neither of my kids wanted small LAC. Not to mention they don’t want to go where mom and dad went.
The school is growing. When I went there there were 2000 students. They now have 2500 and plans to grow to just under 3000. To do so the school basically bought all the buildings across the street from the old entrance to the campus. Basically everyone lives on campus all for years so thats gives the place some nice community spirit. It has the good liberal arts vibe with the bonus of a very good engineering school.
The campus is beautiful. The location 1 hour from NYC, 1 hour from Philly, 1 hour to the Poconos and 2 hours to the Jersey shore is great as well.
@AlwaysMoving – Not to another state, but I know one family who ‘took it into account’ when they decided to move to a rural county here in NC and knew it would increase their kids’ likelihood of getting into UNC. It’s much harder for instate kids to get in from big suburban counties compared to rural locations.
Seems kinda dramatic to me overall. Generally, seems pretty disruptive to the kid! Unless maybe the kid is not thriving and is ready for a change anyway…
If you are in NC, I think a better option is to go to NCSSM for junior/senior years…of course it can be tough to get in, especially from Mecklenburg or the Raleigh-Durham area. Arguably though, odds of getting into a top college can be better at a rural NC school.
Re NCSSM, the residential class (half of it anyway) return in a weeks time…they seem to be doing a great job at communicating and having a good plan for the return. Fingers crossed all works out and they are able to continue f2f learning this semester.
