We are at the end of this long journey, thought I would summarize my DD results in case it helps other TO kids in the future. With Covid, she had one awful SAT experience (middling results) that she decided was not worth stressing and focusing on to retake. So, TO it was. She has a 3.9UW GPA, lots of leadership ECs, varsity captain, rigorous schedule etc. etc. & we were told great LORs and strong essays.
Applied to 14 schools on advice of college counselors-8 acceptances, 5 WL, 1 rejection:
Cornell Hotel School ED - deferred and now waitlisted - accepted her spot on WL
Michigan EA- postponed and now WL - accepted her spot, not sure will stay on it
UVA EA - deferred and now WL - accepted her spot, not sure will stay on it
Tulane- EA - deferred to Waitlist - did not accept spot on WL -not enough demo interest
William & Mary - RD - waitlist with spring admit option (they offer to all WL) -did not accept spot
UW-Madison - EA- Accepted - LOVES it after admitted student events and visits - Commit
UMD - EA - Accepted - Honors - did not love school as much as others
UMass Isenberg B-school- EA - accepted with $15K merit per year
GWU - RD- Accepted with $25K Presidential Merit for 5 years
VATech- EA - Accepted
Clemson - EA - Accepted
Elon - EA - Accepted $7,500 Presidential Scholarship, chose not to pursue Honors apps
U Arizona- Rolling - Accepted Sept 3rd (which was nice stress relief) $30K merit
WashU - RD- reject - did no demo interest and was a last minute add with a fee waiver
For some schools, TO may have meant the difference between an acceptance and a WL. For the Cornell Hotel School, it did NOT because they are TEST BLIND.
The information that we have received from AOs and college counselors is that the sheer numbers of applications this year coupled with many schools over enrolling last year meant fewer straight admits and more WLs. They expect WL movement because of this, but not sure how much. . .
DD has gotten very excited by Wisconsin and is now only keeping on the Cornell waitlist since it is such a specialized school in a field she loves. Otherwise, she is thrilled to be a Badger even though it is not where she expected this all to end up.
Thanks to all of the parents out there sharing their wisdom and venting along with me- what a crazy ride!!! (only 3 more year till DD25 gets to do it again-lol).
Good luck to all of you!!!