I doesn’t always. Some schools consider those with 1-15 (sometimes as many as 26) credits earned after hs graduation to still be considered a freshman for application. You have to ask at each school.
I’m glad to hear it! Their are other books on the authorship question, but Anderson really does the best job of showing how an authir’s life and his/her work are really inseparable.
Yes, writing about herself in the essay is the way to go. She sounds like a special girl and should have a lot to write about. Same for your son.
Do you have the Fiske Guide to Colleges? I wonder how your son might react to the descriptions of project based learning environments as are found at Olin and WPI.
DD sounds like a match for mid to top tier LAC. Would she be interested in a women’s college? Bryn Mawr, Smith, Mount Holyoke Scripps? I think they are all T50 and with “reasonable” acceptance rates and rigorous academics. Also they might appreciate eclectic interest and hobbies in lieu of traditional ECs.
Some others LACs that aren’t impossible: Oberlin, Occidental, Vassar, Macalester.
Look for need-blind schools for both kids. I have twins myself (HS Juniors). Totally different people, different interests, high academic achievers but in different ways. Oddly they are looking at many of the same schools which could be a disaster if one twin gets in everywhere and other doesn’t!
Hi Bill,
Thank you for calling my attention to Olin & WPI. DS hasn’t seen them yet, but I think he’d be excited about the project-based curriculum. (If he never had to write another essay, I suspect he’d be overjoyed.)
Thanks to you (and everyone here) for the kind words about my kids. I am new around here, and am really glad I found this place!
Cheers,
Kelly
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Hi Techno13,
Thanks for your suggestions. I guess “need-blind” means merit is the first priority, right? Those sure look like good schools. We did look at Bryn Mawr and some of the other females-only schools with an emphasis on scholarship excellence. Vassar, too, as well as Oberlin and Macalester. She said she’d be honored to even be considered at these sorts of places.
I know what you mean about twins, but I think my two are likely going to head in different directions – or different schools in the same city (Univ of Rochester & Rochester Institute of Technology). We are fiercely determined to visit schools and get the right fit - regardless of ranking. Our students have to be happy wherever they end up or this whole process is moot. It’s funny that AO’s talk about a “holistic” process - that is also what needs to happen for kids evaluating schools.
Take care and thanks again for your input,
Kelly
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p.s. my copy of Fiske 2022 just arrived in the mail. The old version (from library) had SATs/ACTs for each school (25%-75%), but this new one does not. Some, like Bryn Mawr, don’t even list acceptance rates, which is frustrating.
yes, and more specifically, they do not look at your financial need when making admissions decisions. Note this doesn’t mean any FA package would meet your full need. Very few schools meet full need and are also need-blind. Very important to run the calculator on each schools site to get the expected family contribution (EFC). If you can’t afford this, merit scholarships might help. Many of the schools mentioned are reasonably generous with merit.
Many need-blind schools don’t offer any merit, and at the ones that do, merit is typically highly competitive.
Need-blind simply means that one’s ability to pay is not a part of the admissions decision. Although there are people who don’t believe any need-blind school is fully and truly need-blind.
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Need blind has NOTHING to do with awarding of any kind of money. “Need Blind” means the college does not consider your financial need when evaluating your application for admission.
Nothing to do with merit or need based aid.
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okay, we will look carefully at each college’s NPC. I notice, too, that some schools state that 100% of need of admitted students is met, some say additionally that that 100% need is met without loans; others say that financial aid includes work-study, loans, etc. If my kids are fortunate enough to get into these sorts of places, they will have to look carefully at the fine print.
Kind regards,
Kelly
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Dear Mwfan1921,
Hmm, good to know. Some say you can just examine one’s zip code and figure out how impoverished the area is.
Kelly
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oh, okay. When I used the word “merit,” I meant that the person is being evaluated based on their academic credentials, not on anything else. “Merit” award is something different and, as others have pointed out, likely to be hard to obtain in any case.
Regards,
Kelly
It’s worth running some NPCs to see what the schools think your need is. A need-blind / meets need school will decide whether to admit the student and then (separately) calculate how much aid they think you need in order to be able to attend. That’s great- unless what they think that you can afford is different than what you think you can afford! Best to get a sense of where the numbers fall before you all get too far down the road.
You’re welcome. 
Hi Collegemom3717,
I think that’s wise advice – we don’t want to even apply to a school that the kids have no hope of entering.
Kelly
Kelly- I’d encourage you to keep an open mind on things like “are there safe spaces/school safety” and “we heard their understanding of what families can afford often doesn’t match reality”.
First of all, because sometimes the colleges with the 'worst" reputation on safety actually have the best safety protocols in place. We toured colleges in allegedly “safe” neighborhoods where the student newspapers were filled with stories about some terrible stuff- reality is that most campus crime is committed by students against other students. So yes, it’s terrible if your kid gets their backpack stolen by someone from the “neighborhood” but it’s horrific if your kid is a victim of a sex crime committed by another student. Keep an open mind. My kids all ended up at urban universities and we found the administration, campus police, and RA’s exceptionally conscientious. I tracked down the Dean of Student Life on Labor Day to complain about a broken window lock, in a non-campus owned apartment building (the landlord told my kid- “you don’t like it, move out”) who sent a university maintenance person to fix it, AND offered my kid the option of moving back on campus to an empty dorm room if the apartment felt unsafe in any other way.
Second, what you hear on financial aid is based on other people’s financial situation… which you don’t know enough about to evaluate. There are people with ordinary jobs with ginormous assets (family trust, inherited money, second home… their K-1 is bigger than their W2.) There are people with ordinary jobs who got a settlement long before you knew them for an accident, were paid a settlement for another type of lawsuit, and that money is sitting in a brokerage account generating income and capital gains every year.
You just don’t know. We have people who post on CC who are irate that they’ll have to sell their vacation house because “we got screwed by FAFSA”. Heck, who wouldn’t love the option of selling the vacation house?
My point is- you and your kids will need to assess each college individually for affordability and don’t hesitate because a neighbor or relative said the aid was chintzy. I know kids who have gotten MASSIVE scholarships from some of the chintzy schools- need, merit, or merit/need combined. There are too many variables to rely on someone else’s experience.
Your kids sound great!
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Okay, Blossom, thank you for your advice. It was eye-opening to learn how responsive your college was to your child’s safety concerns in an off-campus dwelling! Schools like NYU, Columbia, U of Chicago, CMU, any school in DC, etc., were all in this category, but perhaps we should re-think.
Kelly
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