I think this is common right now. They didn’t have a normal senior year or college visits. Easy for it to feel like a big leap of faith.
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Thank you for that! I have heard first year classes can be 1,000 students. Your comments make me feel better. I think part of it for her is Toronto itself, but also the ranking. I don’t know if she would say it was ranking, but it seems to bother her that few people have heard of Macalester. She is also keeping her spot on one WL, but as we all know- it would be good to forget about that and get excited about where she has accepted.
We didn’t get the Goldilocks ‘just right’ offer. S is still deciding between two…leaning to the larger one but regretting the smaller one which could be more social. After semi-isolation, there’s some regret not to go that route though he prefers the location and academics at the larger one.
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Yes, my kid is in that camp. Not super excited about her decision. I’m glad you asked this question because I was going to say we are in the “Not Thrilled about decision” bar. I think this is prevalent even more this year.
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A new bar is, just the thing! Thinking about ways to create a little excitement. I got her roses with school colors. Just the orange, not the blue;) it’s just hard as a parent, so much work and momentum and it’s winding down to this. Sigh.
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So many bars, so little time.
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What’s helping us a little is looking back pre Covid, that this was the school he wanted. I have a banner ordered for our front door. Hoping he can connect with some of the local kids over the summer from the Facebook group.
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If it means anything coming from a stranger, my D’s brilliant, wise, and wonderful advisor really liked Macalaster for her. She just couldn’t get past the weather (we’re from warm climes). I’ve heard fabulous things about the school. But as others said, a lot of us were flying blind this year. So, I think your D’s feelings are normal. Our D is still a bit attached to a school she didn’t pick. Visits probably would have given more of the “feeling” about a school being the right fit.
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That’s the thing - the teachers that live in my husband’s district are women married to men who work in NYC. A low 6-figure salary here (which you don’t get until 30 years in and at least a master’s degree) is not enough to live in that district (or most of the best school districts in NJ), especially when property taxes are a minimum of $10k on a modest house. Forget trying to pay $70k for college. I’m guessing it’s not cheap living in a Chicago suburb either. And again, those salaries are when people are approaching retirement age, not when they have young kids.
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@annegp, hope your D gets more excited about Macalester when she gets there. I only hear great things about it on this forum. So many other selective LACS, aren’t well-known by the general public but the people who need to know, know. It’s a fine school…more than fine if the fit is right.
We almost moved to St. Paul…my H had an interview for a job at St. Catherine’s 20+years ago. Even though I’m not a huge fan of winter, and we saw St. Paul at its worst (March, when it was full of dirty slush and not a daffodil to be seen) I loved the city,with its river park, funky little shops, international restaurants and cute residential neighborhoods. I could really see myself there and often wonder “what if”. I think it would be a fun place to be 18 years old.
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Thank you, I appreciate your comments. I feel like this group is a step up from strangers! It seems like the people that know about Mac have nothing but good things to say. And yes about the weather. We have already discussed the need for a good coat.
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International restaurants will be a plus! She’s wasian (white & asian) and loves Korean food. I told her I found a video on YouTube about Hmong food in the area and she seemed surprised and happy.
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I think my S is about to do this and I’ll see you at the bar. He is having a hard time putting his top waitlist school out of mind and had a lot of trade offs to consider 5/1. But I think being part of an online discussion / social media with other admitted students will help once he’s committed. I’m gearing up for a lot of toothpaste comments about Colgate. Nobody is familiar at all over here. 🪥
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From Jeff Selingo’s newsletter today:
"In general, my discussions with deans at about a dozen selective colleges over the last few weeks found that about half of their applicant pools applied without test scores.
- In every case I heard so far, students with test scores got accepted more often. In some cases, the admit rate was twice as high for students with test scores vs. those without.
- Emory: Admit rate 17% (with tests) vs. 8.6% (without tests)
- Colgate: 25% (w/tests) vs. 12% (w/o tests)
- Georgia Tech: 22% (w/tests) vs. 10% (w/o tests)
- Vanderbilt: 7.2% (w/tests) vs. 6% (w/o tests)"
Seems the moral of the story is that a strong score is an advantage. And, scores are still required for around 1/3 of 4 year colleges, notably the UF system.
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Completely agree about social media. Could help feel connected. My D is not active at all on social media, but she has been reading and not posting. She didn’t want a senior photo, but warmed to the idea and is doing that next week. Maybe then she’ll be open to posting, who knows.
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Not surprising but still disheartening. 80% of Rice admits had scores. But testing was much easier in Texas.
If I had a junior I would certainly encourage them to test. Though I think the pressure will be lessened next year to accept a higher TO %. But I think there is way more to the story than these few examples. Many more kids with potentially very low test scores were admitted to schools not mentioned in his update. From the surveys released and the fact that only half of applicants were supplying scores, it seems like the kids who really couldn’t test or more than once were far outnumbered by those omitting non-competitive scores.
What an unfortunate year to apply. I hope it’s more predictable for the unhooked juniors but they would be wise to apply broadly I think.
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@NWWrestlingmom, true! My H’s first college teaching job (non-tenured, 3-year-only contract) was in an affluent Chicago suburb. We were fortunate to be able to rent the upstairs of a house four blocks from the college. It was a near-idyllic place in some respects…the leafy little campus, the neighborhood full of grand Victorians and lovely bungalows, the riverwalk alongside downtown (those of you from that area know where I’m talking about) the Barnes and Noble and Williams Sonoma just a ten minute stroll from our place. BUT I had to drive 26 miles each way through Chicagoland traffic to my job (eventually I’m sure I could have gotten something closer) and, had my H’s contract position gotten funded for tenure, we would have never been able to afford a home in that neighborhood. With both of us working full-time we would have been able to buy, perhaps, a townhouse overlooking a parking lot In a development 15 miles away. The lowest-price house in our suburb (I checked) was a miserable little fixer-upper off of the kind of street that’s mostly full of fast-food restaurants and strip,malls, and was still over-budget for us…a couple with a Ph.D, a masters degree and no kids yet. No thanks! We chose to leave and live where we could purchase an 1880’s Victorian for less than half the price of the cheapest free-standing shack in our Chicago suburb. I do sometimes miss that Williams-Sonoma store for window-shopping, though 
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This is true that it isn’t the end of the world if you don’t get those residencies. You can be successful in anything you choose and I firmly believe most people do not go into medicine solely for the $, they go into it for helping people. In exact response to your point about not getting a derm residency. I have a friend who that’s what he wanted, so he could work with his father. He didn’t match. Instead went into radiology, loves it, is very successful and has moved up the ranks at his hospital. So, you never know where you might find your true happiness. Ultimately, it was probably meant to be and perhaps less pressure for him in the long run, not to be working with his father, so it really worked out.
It’s also interesting that teachers there start with a BA at 54k but top out at $103k. Here at a lot of places (Chicago suburbs) teachers start lower than that with a Bachelors but the top out is much higher. My MIL taught Kindergarten and in 2002 when she retired (she had 20 years in or so) she was over 100k. That was 20 years ago and in an elementary district. We don’t even have MA+90 Lanes. Most are MA+60 and then PHD if I recall. I haven’t looked at the pay charts lately.
@inthegarden Yes, many colleges don’t pay anywhere near what some teachers can make, and in most industries you’re better off going into private industry than in research or academia. Especially in the STEM fields. This is why there is going to be such a shortage of math and science teachers and even now if you are a math teacher it is much easier to find a job than if you are looking for a 3rd grade job.
You are also correct, that it equates to higher COL and much higher housing costs, but higher property taxes which is the killer. I want to downsize and downsizing right now will probably cost me more or the same as I can get for my house which is ridiculous. I’m not paying that to downsize. Land here is a premium. Property taxes are out the whazoo. But the problem with our teacher salaries and pensions is that the state pension system is a HUGE problem because of these ridiculous salaries. IL property taxes are some of the highest and our state income taxes while not zero like some states are not as high but it’s a flat tax and really should be progressive but that was just voted down. Our Supt for our elementary district makes 320k and he’s brand new. That IMO is an obscene amount and really irritating. Subs in neighboring districts are paid $200 or more per day. I just looked up some of the salaries of my kids former teachers. One of their prior PE teachers makes a base salary of 159k and extra benefits of 18k which would include things like sports he may coach, activities he sponsors, subbing in the district he may do, etc. It does not include insurance but many teachers do other things. Just looking at this partial list kind of makes me nauseous to be honest.
The district where I work is no different. If I wanted to work summer school which is only 4 hours a day for 6 weeks and no Fridays, the pay is $52/hr. Easy money. Homebound tutors they pay around $82/hr. Tutors however, especially for math and science make well over $100/hr. But even when I was in high school a math tutor was $75/hr. Great tutors will cost $150/hr here and teachers get it with no issue and that’s pure cash for them. That’s why the district has to pay more than $40/hr for homebound because they can’t get teachers to do it since they all private tutor for cash. I thought about tutoring only this fall just in my neighborhood for middle schoolers and having a pod for math (my specialization) but didn’t want to be bound by that. People were paying $50/hr per kid or more per day.
My son has 7 teachers of those teachers - I think 3 live in or near our suburb. There are a bunch that live in this area. The younger ones live in the city though and many want to live here because our district is so strong, but it’s also hard to raise your kids where you teach. The district I work in which is near where have teachers that work in our district but live here. I only know that because their kids are in this district. So some just go to neighboring districts.
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Macalester just announce vaccine mandate so that’s good news there as far as the expectation of having a full normal year.
Congrats to your daughter!
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