@Sweetgum the Agnes Scott application is crazy! My D submitted it last weekend and so far we have not encountered another school with that many supplemental questions. Since they have a high admit rate I found it a bit odd.
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Yep totally agree on the "extra"ness of the ASC app. My D did not enjoy that one and it was probably good sheâd finished it before we visited because I can totally see her leaving it off after she decided it wasnât her favorite. I still absolutely love the school and wish it was a better fit for her 
. Youâre right @Sweetgum that sheâs a creative writing kid too. It ended up that she decided that schools needed to be within 1, preferably short, flight from DFW. So hollins fell off and other more eastern choices did as well. I believe the distance did factor into her feelings about Agnes Scott despite the ease of travel between the two cities. All her favorites are under 2 hrs flying and in the same time zone as home.
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Yeah, thatâs how it ended up for my D22 too. She was seriously looking very far afield at first (really interested in the UK this time last year), but as she got more serious she decided to stick closer to home and just fell hard for Warren Wilson. Iâm confident that sheâll get accepted there, but hope the merit $$ are favorable for us. I think she will end up at WWC, but would like her to have a few options in case something changes before next spring.
She still has it on her list of schools to apply to, but if she doesnât love it after this event that app may go by the wayside. At least they are short questions!
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Nice job getting the costs under control! And, congrats to your child for some great merit awards!
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Congratulations, and thank you for so openly sharing the merit awards your daughter received. Super helpful to see real numbers. Canât wait to hear which school she chooses; when all you have is great choices it can hard to pick the best one!
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We went to a Gonzaga Preview Day today. It was very well run - 9-2 with breakfast/introduction, tour (they put parents and students on separate tours, which I though was a great idea), lunch, several breakout sessions based on interest (nursing, engineering, business, education, arts&sciences). We went to education break out and thereâs was lots of energy in the room. Great questions from students and nice presentation by engaging staff. Writing here instead of tour string because I wanted to share with this group that over lunch one of the admissions staff told me they have seen a 12% increase in applications over last year at this time. Applications arenât due until December 1. I just thought that was an interesting tidbit - caused me to wonder whether to adjust expectations in terms of likelihood of acceptance. Of course I donât know if last year they received way fewer applications than usual or how many years this person has had the job. I should have asked more questions. Anyway, interesting fact. It remains Dâs #1.
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Super helpful. Thanks! Glad it was a great visit! A bit scared s23 wont get in and/or wont get FACHEX but I think it will still be high on his list.
thanks! Thatâs three of my sons top colleges too. Heâs really into Knox. Heâs getting in his EA to Hendrix and Cornell, but holding back on the Knox, which has been hard to do.
My daughter is also applying to Hendrix. Itâs a fine school academically and quite rigorous actually. It was my favorite for a while but that was before my kids took enough interest to form their own opinion. My son seemed to perk up when I mentioned they party a lot there, and I took note. Heâs never even drank a coffee yet.
My daughter is TO with a 4.0 uw #1 rank at a small school with almost no APs available, very great recs (we happen to know) and an at least good-ish essay as far as I can tell. She got 28k from Hollins with a ton of DI and great relations with the AOs. The minimum granted to everyone is 24k, so weâre not taking that as a great sign of how seriously the colleges are taking my kidsâ school.
A little on edge here now. Need more data!
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Gonzaga is a great school and has an amazing basketball team and tons of school spirit. Spokane has been fixed up quite a bit and lovely hotel for parents to stay at downtown, The Davenport. And skiing, good skiing, nearby. Iâve known lots of smart, talented Zags.
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This is super helpful. Cornell College recently came onto my sonâs radar because of the block plan and having Div 3 wrestling. We were in Iowa this summer but didnât have it on the list to visit darn it. If he applies regular decision, wonder if he will have to wait until December to hear back.
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My son will be challenged with it not having a football team as that is his sport of choice. My son isnt a big basketball fan. But I do think the school spirit could make up for it I hope.
Huge worry about him not only getting accepted, but more so we couldnt afford it if he doesnât get FACHEX award (free/discounted tuition for Jesuit employees). Due to the popularity of the school, he isnât guaranteed the award and his gpa may end up only 3.4 or 3.5.
I posted this in the college visit thread, but wanted to share it here too.
We just visited Agnes Scott College in Decatur (Atlanta). It is a truly gorgeous campus. D22 is definitely planning to apply and said the visit made her more interested in it. It didnât knock off her #1, Warren Wilson, but it moved up into a tie for second.
She liked the supportive rather than competitive vibe and liked some aspects of their Summit curriculum including everybody gets to study abroad in their first year at no added costs.
They are doing a lot of work around inclusivity and affordability and have a class ring and special ceremony that is included at no extra cost too. They seem to want to lift everyone up equally. It is an inclusive womenâs college (only exclude males who were born male, all flavors of trans and non-binary folk are welcome to attend). There is no majority race. It is about 62% people of color and less than 40% white.
The vibe was studious but not stressful, sisterly, fun.
It is walking distance to downtown Decatur which is full of funky shops and eateries. All that Atlanta has to offer is easily accessible with a Marta stop nearby or a shuttle from campus or a drive in a car (first years are allowed to have cars).
The library reading room looked like something out of Harry Potter with a working fire place that had a fire in it which was nice since it was a chilly day.
Here are a few photos.
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So glad you and your D enjoyed your visit to Agnes Scott! I still feel like itâs âthe one that got awayâ from my girls. That library is my favorite 
. The dining hall has a similar open beam / cathedral style ceilings if I recall from my visit with my older D. Looks like you had great weather too!
@UCDProf I gotta admit this: âwhen I mentioned they party a lot thereâ made me pause. Because I honestly havenât come across that when looking at the school 
. But sure enough their niche party scene score is A-, higher than the others. A bit surprising, but then again, they do have an entire organization that is for putting on âevents that are more low key for introverts and those who donât like big partiesâ and I have seen at least once a month some big party type activity put on by one org or another. They seem to stay busy and entertained. 
@Chinookpass I wrote up a summary of our visit to Cornell over on the forum for the school, itâs a nice campus in a tiny town. Theyâll have a brand new fitness/athletic center complete by next fall. I do think they are rolling with their admissions so hopefully your son hears back soon after he applies!
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I watch a lot of YouTube videos with searches like âmy year college xâ or just âmy college xâ or âlife college xâ to get a sense of vibe. VERY iffy methodology. Iâm looking for student run videos recounting their life and memories. It kind of depends on the student (and sometimes there is only one in the whole school) and what they like to do of course, but itâs not like the things seen there arenât really there. You get to see not only what they are doing but what they think is fun, how they act with each other, mannerisms, all kinds of things, including what my kids would call âbasic-ness.â
Unfortunately, and it could just be bad luck of the youtuber draw, there are some Hendrix compilation videos that I canât un-see.
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I do that sometimes, but I think it is inherently flawed methodology. My D22 is a book nerd non-partying type and she would never post a YouTube video of her book nerd non-partying life anywhere. She doesnât have TikTok and deletes Instagram. Mainly keeps up with friends via group chats. I think the kids who post those âday in the life at my collegeâ videos are a self-selecting bunch and not at all representative of the college. Sometimes you do get to see the inside of the dorm rooms and that can be helpful, though.
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We did have great weather and Agnes Scott has a truly gorgeous campus. I think D22 could find her place there, and we had good fun in Atlanta, but her heart still belongs to Warren Wilson and the mountains 
. It was a fun trip. I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in an inclusive womenâs college.
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yeah I get that but I think you see a bit more. Itâs not like what you see isnât there. It is. Itâs just a question of to what degree it is representative.
I just find that once I see something, I canât unsee it.
I noticed the Hendrix videos I saw are gone now. Instead I found a 2012 video of an I-guess-is-kind-of cute tradition of shirttails dance: hundreds of white boys, dancing to rap. Very awkwardly.
By contrast, check out videos by Gabe Reyes at Lawrence (off the top of my head), not an introvert though, but elsewhere there are countless nerdy types speaking to the camera. There are plenty of introverts who make confessionals, kids who might in every way be similar to a someone who would never make social media except in regards to this one tick that they have in reaching out this way.
I think thatâs a good reason not to look at those videos too much unless itâs a âlet me show you around my dorm roomâ video. They are just representative of one personâs experience and if that person likes to party then thatâs what you see but that doesnât mean the whole campus is like that.
saying that I canât âunseeâ something is taking into account and admitting itâs undue influence.
I still think that you can see things in these videos that are real and that they canât be totally, completely dismissed.
It helps if you can corroborate elsewhere what you see, which is usually possible.
The partying at Hendrix doesnât seem to lead to have led to any less rigor or value in the education and hasnât prevented the students from doing very well later in life.
Honestly I think this is true, and itâs true whether what you see (or read in a review) is positive or negative. In the end, everything we find online is anecdotal and we have to do the best we can to figure out what is representative and what is outlier, and fill in the gaps. Itâs an imperfect process, and you have to go into it knowing that you may see or read things that may be squirm inducing but shouldnât necessarily put you off the school completely. I fully expect partying to happen on any campus she selects. But what I look for is beyond the partying, are there kids doing other things, are there more low key activities happening regularly that a quiet kid like my D would enjoy? I believe so in the case of the schools she is looking at, including Hendrix.
I think the real challenge is seeing beyond that âundue influenceâ, whether it is positive or negative.
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