Congratulations. Lots of great options. D21 at Miami of Ohio. Great value, beautiful campus. Good size 17K or so. A great thing at Miami is the price you pay freshman is the price you pay all four years. No 3-4% increases every year. PM if you want more specific information.
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I never said a school had to be exclusive to provide a great experience. But, I usually see the comment about attending for grad school directed at students who were rejected from selective schools. And Iām saying the experience is not the same. As someone who also attended a large public flagship, there was none of the social engineering to create class cohesiveness that Iāve seen at my Dās selective college. Itās more than just ācamaraderie and new experiences.ā Itās the intentional creation of a lifelong cohort.
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As a Lafayette alumni I am of course partial. Not sure what he wants to study. But IMHO the location of Lafayette for potential jobs and activities off campusā¦ Lafayette is really geographically superior to the Ohio schools. Easton is in the Lehigh Valley the 3rd largest population center in PA. 70 minutes from Philly and NYC, 45 minutes from the Poconos and maybe 2 hours to the Jersey shore. The campus itself is were nice and set on hill surprising named ā¦wait for itā¦ āCollege Hillā
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Thereās a lot to like about Lafayette. I know a number of alums and they enjoyed their time there. Both Lafayette and Denison have pretty campuses on a hill and similar size endowments, but I think Denison is much more generous with funding scholarships, including to students from Columbus, Boston and Chicago schools for more socioeconomic diversity. I know some very wealthy people that attended Lafayette. Denison has more geographic diversity. Over half of Lafayetteās students are from NJ, NY and PA while Denison has 25% from Ohio and I think 20% international and a broader mix of American students. Columbus is the second largest city in the Midwest after Chicago and the 14th largest city in the US, so thereās plenty to do 30 minutes from campus with shuttles from campus. All of the choices are good but there are differences.
I wonder if data or evidence supports the assertions made by the colleges (Stanford, in this case) that these āholisticā factors (race, legacy, etc) are āmerely consideredā. The data from Harvard seems to indicate otherwise, despite the claim that these are merely slight ātipsā or ātie-breakersā.
Data breakdown by races/ethnicities and academic deciles
Similarly, substantial ātipā on the scale for ALDC applicants based on this Duke study http://public.econ.duke.edu/~psarcidi/legacyathlete.pdf
Personally, I wouldnāt trust the āxā marks in a CDS table unless they are backed up by numbers.
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Fwiw, I graduated in the early ā80s and took AP classes, took an SAT prep class, completed the FAFSA, played a sport, and had a job.
Neithe of my kids took an SAT class, played a sport, or worked in HS.
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The assertion was that academic excellence has been watered down. The Duke report provides evidence that athlete passes, legacy admits, etc., provide āaffirmative actionā for predominantly white studentsāand are nothing new. Anyway, I donāt think we are going to break any ground here. I just donāt see that the āeliteā schools have recently watered down their academic excellence.
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Very interesting data, thanks for sharing. I knew, but at the same timeā¦wow.
Not sure what is new here? These practices have been going on for decades. What has made it tough is all the grade inflation over the past number of years. Back in my day, getting a 4.0 at a rigorous private high school (4-5 hours of homework/night) was one heck of an achievement. And, you were rewarded for that handsomely!
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Very interested in what is decided. We are taking my D23 to visit Denison and Kenyon next weekend since they are on her short list of possible apps this fall.
Iām not sure the academic excellence has been watered down at these elite schools, but rather that itās hard to distinguish students when they all have the same stats. There are kids with perfect scores and gpas who were rejected from all the top schools and even their state flagships, while some students with the same numbers were accepted at multiple T10s. What is the difference between these students? They all have 4.0/4.8, 1550+ SATs. They are all presidents of this and captains of that, founded companies and nonprofits. How is it that some students have multiple T10 options while seemingly identical students were completely shut out?
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I do alumni interviewing for a tippy top school, and āfounded companiesā?? Thatās a bit much, and when I see that, I quiz them extensively. Invariably, it amounts to a lot of BSā¦ You have to live and breath a company, and make it your life. There simply are not enough hours in the day to do that AND be an incredible student, let alone all of the sophistication, maturity, and experience required to be successful. Sorry, Iām not convincedā¦
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May be because of their essays and recs?
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Iāll report back. In the meantime, my daughter is a junior at Kenyon. Loves it! Iād be happy to answer any questions I can!
Ya agreed. Iām not saying everything that appears on these applications is the same, even if it goes by the same title. Others have pointed out that ācaptain of the teamā has many different meanings. I suppose itās the job of the admissions folks to figure that outāand also to recognize that all 4.0s are not the same. Like many of my generation commenting here, almost no one in my high school ever had a 4.0, while my kidsā school graduates 30-50 of them every year.
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It would be useful to see if the essays and recs of the kids with multiple admissions to T20s are markedly different in some way from rejected students with same numbers. That may well be the difference, who knows?
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LORs with vivid anecdotes are what sells. Now, not everyone gets to know their teachers that wellā¦
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Ok IMHO essays and recs might have definitely added up and be one of the deal breakers but I feel admissions want to see the passion that kids have in a said field. One of Dās friend got admitted into Stanford REA for CS. She started doing an independent CS research at the age of 12 and she continued being in advanced math (pure). Her Stanford essays talked about how she wants to pursue something with pure math and CS (which only stanford has). She exhibited her passion to CS and pure math in every EC she did, be it her research or be it her intership under a very popular universityās CS professor. Her essays talked it out just touching about every one of her ECs and how she developed this whole CS passion and how she thinks sheās a great fit for Stanford.
This student is admitted to 2 top schools (both in California) and didnāt have great results with others. Definitely mileage may vary. My Dās story is all around math, she was just into it. She applied everywhere as CS major and talked about how sheā'll apply math and algorithms to solve some global issues (Sheās into some stuff which is probably going to be her future). Essays and ECs have played a major role in T10 admissions as far as I can say.
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I used to teach in an elite independent school. Two observations: so many of the kids I taught were superb students - I had very high standards and the workload was intense and I still gave out plenty of A grades. They really did earn them. It never felt like grade inflation.
And also, I wrote tremendously good letters. It helped that I had already written one or two-paragraph quarterly grade reports for each kid so I had plenty of material to work with. Then I met with each student for at least an hour to talk about where they were applying and learning about anything I needed to emphasize. I packed my letters with colorful anecdotes about specific moments in class where the student had shone. (And in classes with 16 students max, there was plenty of room to shine, unlike trying to stand out among the 35 kids who are in my own kidsā classes) Sometimes I had been on out-of-state trips with students and I could talk about that. What Iām saying is that most independent school kids get letters that are in a whole different league than public school kids. I have to believe it makes a difference in admissions.
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Completely agree on both counts. My senior does extremely complex work and works really hard. I see no grade inflation. He is taking college courses that are harder than anything I took in college - and still getting Aās. Maybe itās all those baby Einstein videos paying off 
but somehow this one is much smarter than ANY kid was in my day.
Also, my child goes to a school with 3800 of his closest friends. As exceptional as he is, and as much as his teachers like him, these teachers are swarmed with kids looking for letters every fall. That is why I disagree with a LOR being a major factor in admissions- my kid cannot possibly compete with private or elite schools on teachers having the time or desire to write outstanding letters, but his academics sure can. Itās like references in hiring; I donāt even bother asking for them- they are only going to say good things and/or things the candidate prepped them to say so itās unlikely to provide real insight.
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