Best of luck to your child and mine for April 6th. I hope the lottery ticket brings us some good news! We will know in 2 weeks about where our fate is taking us!
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Thank you! I understand that we have to be practical about reaches. She also understands, but the moment results come out, she gets emotional.
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My advice for any parents of juniors who will be going through this next year and are interested in California colleges, is to apply broadly and not just put all your eggs in the UC Basket! My son was accepted to UC Davis, but he also applied to several privates and several Cal State schools because we knew that things would be unpredictable this year. Especially with the schools either being test optional or as in the case of the UCās, not looking at test scores at all! So please donāt assume that just because your kid has amazing stats and EC etc, they will for sure get in to their dream UC of choiceā¦have plenty of back up options, and donāt overlook our amazing Cal Sates and community colleges which also can offer a great path forward to fulfilling their dreams. 
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Thank you! I hope so and canāt wait to know where she will decide to go!
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Thank you! The issue for D22 has been she wants a traditional experience and many CSUs are heavy commuter schools. She really likes SDSU though and she is thinking Chico for the true safety. Donāt know much about Long Beach.
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CA uses their colleges to import smart and wealthy people. That helps their budget and industries.
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D21 is at work, so I canāt ask her, but I thought you withdrew through the Common App.
Hi all, is it over yet?
I joined CC early in my D19ās process, read a lot, learned a lot, posted some. First learned about Harvey Mudd from parents here and my daughter is soooo happy there (less happy to be remote though she is in a learning pod with about 10 other Mudd sophomores in Tucson.)
I havenāt been here much for D21 because until 6 months ago she was still pretty set on pursuing professional ballet. Weāve always encouraged her not to close any doors so she has kept doing what she needs to do for college. We didnāt visit any colleges due to her thinking she wouldnāt go and then the pandemic quashed things by the time she was leaning a little more towards considering college for next year.
Since we didnāt visit, and likely still canāt, Iād love to hear your perceptions of these schools, especially if you visited.
Likely major: Astronomy/Physics depending on availability
Sheās been admitted to
Colby
St Olaf
Wheaton (IL)
Waitlisted
Grinnell
Kenyon
Wellesley
Rejected
Swarthmore
Carleton
Still waiting
Barnard
Pomona
Macalester
Harvard
Colby is the front runner so far because itās a great school and she loves the outdoorsy vibe but I canāt see any decent ballet classes unless she goes out to Portland. Canāt see her quitting cold turkey after 12 years of training for up to 25 hours a week. I also hear it has a major prep/rich kid vibe. My older D is one of very few she knows at Mudd who attended basic public high school but the kids are super down to earth and not preppy at all.
Iād love to hear your experience with Colby.
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Of course, Michiganās OOS Student population is 45% +/- of their freshman class. OOS yield in our CA publics is awful.
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Colby is very far from Portland. I donāt see your D going into Portland for ballet. S19 is at Bowdoin which is just 30 min from Portland and he and his friends never go there. They know some kids that would go during non-Covid time maybe once or twice a semester to hit up a restaurant or see music but thatās it. Colby is an hour and ten min drove or so into Portland.
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Yes, that is what I see as a concern. No feasible ballet classes. Iād love to hear something encouraging about what is offered on campus. She seems to think that if she has facilities she can take herself through her own ballet class and maybe start something on campus for a club or something promoting and performing classical ballet. I think she might be trying to ignore this gap in what she is looking for because it is the first/only top of her list acceptances.
We visited Colby with our D, and it was around a 90-minute drive to Portland, so Iām not sure that it would be realistic to think that your D would be able to train there. AFAIK Colby doesnāt run a shuttle to Portland and there isnāt a regular public transportation option either. I would reach out to her AO and see if they can connect her with students who dance as well as students who are pursuing her academic and EC interests. Colby has invested a huge amount of money in a new performing arts center and in the town of Waterville. They are definitely trying hard to expand beyond their outdated reputation as a school for New England preppies. We were impressed with Colby, but my D didnāt see herself there. Had in-person admitted students events not been canceled last fall, she may have come to a different conclusion.
Iām tagging some parents of current Colby students who are on CC and will be able to give you some insight @gardenstategal @CrazyCatMama @xyz123a.
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Thank you! The decisions came out this morning at 10:00 EDT, my daughter has been over the moon since. She wants to do BioChem at Wellesley and minor in engineering at Olin next door. Still have a couple of schools that will come out next week. We will be done with getting all the decisions by next Saturday and hopefully by the following weekend we can put the application process and the waiting game behind us!
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Chico will for sure give her that traditional college experienceā¦I grew up there so I know the campus and town well! 
You are right, many of the Cal States are commuter schools, so I understand the concern with that. I havenāt been to all of the Cal States but Iām guessing there are a few others that are not so heavy on commuters and would give that traditional experience also. I think with some research you could come up with a few. San Diego State is a great school and who can complain about the amazing weather and location! That would be an amazing place to attend! Best of luck to her next year!
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Our D danced ballet at a pre-pro studio through soph year and would like to get back to dance in college too. Itās not an easy task to find a school with strong dance that doesnāt require you to be a major. Iām sure you were finding that when making your list too. D has schools on her list where dance could still be a big part of her life (Richmond, Wake, others) and then schools she would be giving that up or would be the most experienced dancer by far. At some point, once you have all decisions in, your D will just have to prioritize and decide how important dance is to her. Our D will be doing the same.
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Colby does bring the local bus company on campus for runs to Portland and Logan (Boston) at breaks and there is regular service to both cities as well. I believe the bus line is Concord. My kid used this regularly.
Thereās also an active ride board.
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calling @gardenstategal for recent Colby experience!
Colby has gone through transformative change under the new President, there has been a significant drive to increasing diversity, including economic diversity. So its reputation of even ten years ago would not be especially relevant to an incoming studentās experience.
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Ok but a student isnāt going to be able to get a bus to and from Portland to get to ballet class a few times a week. Three hour round trip and bus wouldnāt take her to a studio.
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Honestly, the lessons learned are that this year is unusual and unpredictable. I hope that things are more understandable when your kid gears up for this wild ride. Right now we are just waiting out decisions and wait lists and trying to support each other. Check back in a month for tips!
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Word of advice to families considering UCs. Sign up for the admitted student webinars where there is chat Q&A. I just attended UCSC. The webinar was recorded but the hard questions were answered in the chat. I also heard here on CC that large classes at UCLA will be remote. SC classrooms will be only 50% capacity and housing 2/3 but the latter might improve. I asked if a freshman could end up with no in person classes or housing. They did not answer that directly. 
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