Congratulations to your daughter on her acceptance. I am jealous that her decision has been made and you can start making plans. Maybe we will see you on campus.
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Thank you for your response. Yes, Furman is the least diverse college on his list, but is very strong academically. Hopefully someone can give me their thoughts on some of the other schools.
Yes, Iām sure Furman is a very nice school in a lot of ways. I only mentioned the issue because you listed diversity as a desired quality.
We considered Furman for our daughter and it might have been fine. But she is Asian (adopted) and grew up in a mostly white, conservative community. Furman may have been welcoming and inclusive of her. Regardless, she understandably wanted to go to a school where she would feel a little less of an anomaly in her first real foray out into the world away from family. A school with a fair amount of racial diversity (and even more important, racial mixing of kids on campus) was important to her. Sheās adaptable (after all, she grew up in a white family)ā¦but itās high time she didnāt HAVE to stand out so much. I just looked at a bunch of group photos of kids on Furmanās website ā¦a tiny sprinkling of black students represented but Iām not sure I saw a single E. Asian young person in any of them. Not a criticism of the school (Furman may, in fact, want to increase diversity for all I know), but my D wanted to look around her and see some other faces like hers for a change instead of having to BE the change.
Furman may be awesome for your son, though. Good luck to him wherever he lands!
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My guess is Furman is making at least some small efforts to increase diversity. Last year, they repeatedly had minority students call and try to recruit my son. āRecruitā may not be the right word. He wasnāt an athlete or anything like that. But Furman called our home more than a dozen times it seems. They wanted to talk to my son, to me, over and over. They wanted to set up a tour. They offered to host him for a weekend or longer, so he could fully experience FC. It certainly felt like what recruiting must be like.
In the end, FC and small-town South Carolina would not have been a fit for him. He didnāt even want to do a weekend visit, because he said he had little interest as long as he had other options. Furman is a good school, but just not the place for S20.
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@Pnwfamily my S21 is considering Clark. We havenāt seen it yet but have spoken to reps at CTCL fairs and have an extended family member who attended (a number of years ago). I grew up in MA but havenāt lived there since the late 90s.
What my son likes about Clark so far (though he wonāt see it for the first time until next week)
- a diverse school,
- a focus on practical and hands on experiences coupled with a liberal arts curriculum (for example, he really likes the Problems of Practice classes - you may want to find out more about those to see if they appeal),
- access to both an urban environment and green spaces (it does seem as if Clark is integrated with the city - lots of students volunteering and interning nearby)ā¦some people really like the grit of the nearby neighborhood and others are put off by it.
- and an unusual major for a small college which happens to be one heās interested in (geography).
Clark does have some graduate programs (S21 mostly applied to schools with no grad school or very small grad programs as he preferred a school with a focus on the undergrad experience) and offers the chance for a 5th year with free tuition for a graduate degree (about 1/3 of students do this).
Our understanding is that S21 will fit in just fine as a quirky kid who is liberal and engaged in politics, likes hiking/outdoors, and is not athletic.
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This sounds exactly like my sons school! We are in the Sacramento area.
From twit ter drgravesuga:
Interesting data from the UGA freshman app pool, my thought is that adding Common App had biggest impact - (roughly 50/50 split test optional).
Mid 50% GPA range total apps: 3.57-4.07
Mid 50% GPA range use test apps: 3.72-4.17
Mid 50% GPA range test optional apps: 3.44-4.00
This is from the total application pool (39,500 or so).
(GPA data would not reflect the high school or rigor. Itās irksome that this data gives a false sense of standardization.)
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Thatās very surprising that the low-end GPA is lower for test-optional apps.
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I actually think it makes sense, kids were reaching for other schools. Also remember this is UGA GPA, not overall GPA, so it only looks at key classes (English, math, social studies, science, and foreign language).
Also, itās applicants instead of admits. Will be interesting to see if they release the same data but for admits.
They did for EA, Iām sure they will again.
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Clark is our sonās current front runner, though we are still waiting on 9 decisions. Have yet to tour but will before he commits. Going to plan a whirlwind road trip of his top choices after he gets all of his decisions.
Heās a physics major and the size of the department in a small school is really a draw for him.
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Thank you for your insight, it is very helpful to hear from other people making the same decisions. I would love to hear how your tour goes. We are eligible for our first vaccine March 22nd and are hoping to visit some schools after being fully vaccinated in April.
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Thank you so much for your input. We have been lucky in that my sonās HS is 51% diverse. It has really been a positive influence on the whole student body. I am also trying to factor in academics and cost, but the ultimate decision will be his. Congratulations to your daughter, I hope you find a great fit.
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Ohhh, itās applicants. Well that makes more sense now. The way I look at it, the kids who submit scores are the ones who were able to test and who probably got a pretty good score. The kids who went test optional were either kids who couldnāt take the test, or kids who did but didnāt score well and decided not to submit it. To the extent that scores loosely correlate with GPA, the score-submitting group would tend to have high GPAs. (Iām talking generally, obviously this wouldnāt apply to every applicant)
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I joke with D21 (we are Asian) that, if she wants to go to a college with significant presence of Asians, sheāll need to work hard and get into the T20s/UCs. Lol, itās true though. Asians account for <6% of US population and yet they make up 20%+ of the student pop at the Ivy+. So you can imagine how hard it has to be for other colleges to even match the 6% of US pop.
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Feels like we are coming around the bend into decision season for the next month or so. I dont remember sweating it out like this when I was applying to college. My S21 has a great profile and aimed high with his final list, but we knew that strategy would have its share of disappointment. I know its part of the process but it sure is tough to watch them deal with rejection.
Good luck everyone.
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More of D21ās decision dates are coming out now. Looks like all seven RD decisions will come in a five or six day spread. Crazy!
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I have to admit Iām obsessing a bit as we should be close to a couple of answers. 
I blew off working and did some cleaning with my nervous energy. So hard to focus. I better figure it out because we have like three more weeks of this. 
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Yes. I expect my D to get her first rejection tomorrow. A long shot from the start and deferred from EA. This one I think we will all be okay with and will help get her ready for the others that most likely come before April 1 (including her top). (Isnāt it interesting how a deferral can change a kidās whole outlook on a school? These kids need to feel the love too!) On the bright side, she has some great options in hand that she will be happy to attend. But no one likes to be rejected, no matter how much it is expected.
Honestly, CC should bring in the advertisers for āBetty Ford-type facilitiesā at this time of year!
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