D22 also got an offer to apply for the Presidential scholarship at Agnes Scott. She won’t be doing it since her heart is fully given over to Warren Wilson, so there’s one more spot for your D22 @UCDProf !
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Warren Wilson is such a cool little school. I did not know a lot about it but looks like they make a very strong effort to be inclusive and affordable. Congratulations!
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Thanks. I think they do make an effort to be inclusive and affordable. D22 just felt like she had found the perfect place when she first stepped foot on campus. She hadn’t really been excited about college before that. Had some options that were fine and she felt fine about them, but WWC was the one that made her go, “I really wanna go here!” It’s an unconventional school for sure, but that is what she was looking for — somewhere unconventional and funky and cool.
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One possibility is to use U of Arizona as a backup (since she would be guaranteed great merit there) with the plan of spending a semester (or maybe a year, if allowed) abroad, since she doesn’t really like UA’s location. That way, she wouldn’t have to apply via ED2 to a school she doesn’t really like, while still hoping for an RD school she really does. My understanding is that if you are studying abroad via a university-sponsored program, your awards and financial aid travel with you, so it shouldn’t be any (much?) of an extra cost.
Or…maybe…taking a gap year and working and trying again next year with a better understanding of finances, merit, etc – plus money earned from working, if that’s what she chooses to do. Not for everyone, probably not for your daughter, but something to possibly consider.
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We’ve got a lot of things to consider including some of those. It’s not that she doesn’t like the ED2 schools she just doesn’t know them. Had we understood the situation really, we would have ignored the “ED is for the rich” and “you have to love your ED school” wisdom, which doesn’t apply to us, but definitely does apply to some, and realized like a few other families in our position have that ED makes total sense for us financially, and gone about visiting, no matter the cost, ED1 and ED2 candidates and have that all sorted out early. As it is, ED2 is still looking like the safe option except of course the lack of familiarity.
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Warren Wilson is still a (very) dark horse actually. Unlike with other colleges where we didn’t speak up front about financial concerns, in my daughters’ interview with the AO it was pretty frank about that and while nothing is promised and the NPC is not promising at all, it did sound like there was some give and take on that. WW would be a fantastic place for either of my kids for many reasons I won’t go into. A little troubling thinking of taking the full maximum of federal student debt, but there is still a way to rationalize it.
I’m thinking more like the Presidential Scholarship nomination at Agnes Scott really is bait for their admitted students pitch, which is good to know.
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Wishing you guys well. If it’s any help, my son (Covid application season) didn’t get to visit any of his colleges before he committed. The thought was that we would save money and just visit where he was accepted after that info came in. (He didn’t apply ED anywhere though, both because he wanted to weigh his options and because we couldn’t really commit without knowing financial aid info and we didn’t know we could ask about financial pre-reads. ) But Covid made even visiting post-acceptance difficult and he ended up choosing without visiting any at all.
Not ideal, but not horrible. Social environment wasn’t his most important criteria, as long as the school wasn’t totally Greek, so that helped.
We were thinking the same, but then when something scary like ED comes up, it’s hard. As our options are limited and covid for now is tamer, we’ll likely actually visit.
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I think that’s wonderful and a great idea. I visited several schools with my older son (pre-Covid) and not only did he learn a lot, the trips themselves were fun.
Wish we could have done so with my younger one, but all’s well that ends well!
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With authentic essays, passionate recommendations, strong ACT - 32, extracurriculars that she believed in, but only a 3.0 GPA due to some learning and Covid challenges (that she has overcome in her senior year, D22 was able to be accepted to a bunch of great LACS with merit scholarships.
Lawrence University - top choice
College of Wooster - top choice
Beloit
Allegheny
Wheaton (MA)
HWS
Juniata
Ohio Wesleyan
Washington College
She’s still waiting on Oberlin which is a big stretch, and may not be her top choice, regardless.
Always believe!
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Wooster is awesome place. Class of 92. Loved it.
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S is supposedly taking the day today to finish up the January apps. He is frozen with fear and doesn’t think anything he can write for his supplemental essays will be good enough. Last night he was so upset, he said he didn’t want to go to college anymore. I found out he had googled Why This College essays and found one for Penn which was literally a masterpiece of writing and the result of hours and hours of research. Sigh. I think we’ve talked him off the cliff and I’m hopeful today will be better. I am sympathetic because he didn’t even know he wanted to go to college until fall of this year and he’s only visited two campuses so far. He isn’t sure what he wants to study or even really what he wants in a college so it is tough to answer these questions.
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Congratulations! This is so encouraging and a great list of acceptances.
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Imo, It’s a bit of “ make believe”, to write an essay “why this college” for tippy top colleges. An essay for Penn is different than for less selective colleges.
Assuming one is not competing for scholarship or special major/program it may help to remember that there’s no wrong answer. A decent essay reinforces that one is prepared, understands a possible opportunity to pursue.
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Absolutely. He has been on the school’s live virtual tour and has ideas to share about it. I told him the school is looking for very different students from Penn. (It’s Bard LOL)
The other essays should hopefully be more fun — it’s the two short Lawrence ones and the Knox X factor.
He is back to wanting to record some auditions for music again. I’m beginning to see that he has a perfectionist streak that is preventing him from getting things done. Maybe this explains his GPA from the last several years haha.
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I’m sorry he’s second guessing himself! I agree with @Hippobirdy that there is no wrong answer. My D only had to do one “why this school” essay and the only thing I told her was make it specific to the school. You shouldn’t be able to swap school names in the essay and have it still make sense. But also truly even though it seems like it’s an essay about the school it’s really an opportunity to share more about yourself. If he’s not sure what he wants he’s allowed to say that, many schools love undecided students!!
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Ooh that Knox X factor essay was tough for my D! I don’t even remember what she ended up writing about but I know on my first read through it read like a “why Knox” essay and I had to tell her that isn’t what they are asking here. 🤦
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“Perfection is the enemy of progress.” Sometimes this college process can be paralyzing. But like others have said, there’s no one right answer to a lot of these supplemental essays - they want to get to know the student a little more. Not knowing what he wants to do, is not only very common, but I think what lots of college find exciting about the 4 years they offer young people! Particularly LACs. I bet every kid applying to college would say at some point in the process, they’ve felt exactly like your son in his moment of panic. Just take one step at a time. Good luck!
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Bard has by far given the best offer to my son, better than anything his sister got, who didn’t apply to Bard.
His why Bard essay was fairly off the cuff, veered in many directions, and broke into lists of things Bard at one point (not recommended to just drop in things, but he had already established that he knew a lot about Bard).
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These winning why Dartmouth essays, many of them at least, make me cringe (apologies to the kids who wrote them). They are certainly not literary masterpieces that would intimidate. You could substitute in details from any college and these could be like templates for how to write a why this college essay. Bard would be certainly open to something more creative.
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