My D24 is applying to Vassar ED but just found out that someone from her school committed (thru sports).
Is a school as small as Vassar likely to accept 2 people from 1 school ED?
The kids have very different profiles and interests- but I am still worried as her heart is set on VC. He is an athlete interested in STEM and has done well in school but not top 10%.
She is predicted to be valedictorian (1/267); 4.0 UW (4.9 w), 1590 SAT, 12 APs (5s in all but CompSci & French (4 in both), NMSF, Governor’s Honors summer program, lots of ECs related to her community and supporting her interests in Theatre & English.
Now I am worried that in addition to the ‘you just never know’ factor, is the 2 kids from a school in GA issue.
hmmm - I wouldn’t worry about that - for one, you can’t control it and #2, you’re making an assumption you don’t know to be the case.
The part that I’m worried about is this:.
“I am still worried as her heart is set on VC.”
She seems wonderful and extremely qualified for Vassar but you never know who they take and why. I personally would not worry about who else is applying though. Wouldn’t bother me in the least. I wouldn’t think it will impact her chances whatsoever but I don’t know and honestly, if it doesn’t happen for her, you’ll never know why.
Vassar may be a wonderful school for her but if it doesn’t happen, no doubt there are many other wonderful schools out there for her too. It’s not the only “right” school out there, I assure you.
Best of luck. It sounds like any school, including Vassar, would be lucky to get your daughter.
That’s what I am most concerned about too - her little heart is so set on Vassar. Of course, she has other schools for RD and it will all work out in the end, but I just want her to not have to deal with disappointment.
Your daughter is a very strong applicant. This may be the first time in her life where she really has no control. It’s tough as a parent but a good lesson.
There are many, many terrific schools and I have no doubt she will end up at one.
I can’t answer this specifically for Vassar, but I highly doubt they have a policy or quota that would prevent them from taking an otherwise excellent candidate from any particular school
We are in Georgia as well. Anecdotally,from our small private school, I can tell you in recent years we have had more than one student headed off to similar schools like Swarthmore, Bowdoin and Amherst. All of these are schools that in most years no one from our school applies.
When I try to think about it logically, my gut winds up telling me that a recruited athlete is on a separate track than the rest of the kids from the same h/s. The recruits are being judged against other recruits, and the coach is the real factor.
I wouldn’t worry about it. Just because an athlete is going doesn’t preclude your daughter from being accepted. I don’t think most schools have that kind of quota. She seems like a very strong applicant with a lot going for her. Obviously, there are no guarantees so she should have other schools she is interested in - I’m not a big believer in “dream” schools as it is hard for the actual experience to live up to your imagination.
–Nobody here (that I know of) works for Vassar admissions so nobody can answer your concerns with certainty.
–IN GENERAL, I don’t think an athletic recruit from the HS will change another applicant’s chances of admission. Your D has strong qualifications and I expect each application will be viewed on its own merits. I have not heard of a college that has a quota of how many students they will accept from a given HS.
–Don’t stress about things you cannot control or change. Your (and D’s) time and energy are better spent elsewhere.
–As a general rule, I don’t think it is a great idea for any student to have his/her “heart set” on any one college – especially one with such a low acceptance rate. Be sure your D understands that there are many great colleges out there if Vassar doesn’t work out (I hope it does.)
5 students from my daughter’s Georgia HS were accepted to the same highly selective small college in Massachusetts. I really don’t think there are quotas from high schools.
Just as one datapoint (AKA “anecdote”): last year my D23 applied ED1 to a similar LAC in the area as an athletic recruit and got in. Another student from her high school (large, public school across the country) applied ED1 and got in. And then a 3rd student applied RD and got in. All three are attending. I also heard rumors of a 4th student who applied RD and didn’t get in.
Vassar is a reach for everyone (not counting students for whom it is out of reach).
There is no rule against accepting two students from the same high school. 2,400 students spread across four years implies roughly 600 per class. With 35,000 high schools in the US (including public and private schools) and 600 places to fill getting two students from any one particular high school is just statistically unlikely.
I think that your daughter just sends in her application, makes sure that she also applies to safeties, you make sure that you can afford to pay for it, then all of you just wait and see what happens.
The high school that I attended had only sent one single student to MIT in the entire history of the high school. The year that I graduated two of us went to MIT. You just never know.
Exactly. I would have said “a school” rather than “the school” since there are a lot of very good colleges and universities.
Schools at the level of Vassar are looking for students who will be a good fit for them. They get it right quite often. Your daughter is clearly a very strong student who is likely to do very well wherever she ends up. I think that you just need to relax and wait and see how this plays out.
At our feedersish HS, we regularly get multiple admits to the same highly selective colleges, and generally the conventional wisdom is recruited athletes are on a different track anyway (except maybe at MIT, which is more an issue for the recruited athletes to consider, not so much the others).
Of course in a way that being normal for our HS is what makes it feederish, but I really doubt at many, if any, colleges that is because we are on some special list. I think it is just because we have a lot of strong applicants and we often have multiple strong applicants who are good fits for various highly selective colleges.
So personally, I would assume that even if this doesn’t happen as often at every HS, if any HS did have multiple strong applicants who were good fits for a certain highly selective college, very likely that college would go ahead and admit them both.
And for what it is worth, I do not recall hearing any AO for these colleges ever suggesting otherwise, on the scattered occasions it came up.
Finally, I agree with everyone else. Vassar seems like a really cool college, it is on my own kid’s list, and I could see him loving it there.
But it is just a college. These are all just colleges. And while I think it is perfectly fine to love the college you end up attending, it is very, very true that for any given kid, there are undoubtedly many colleges they could love.
I am a Vassar alum and while it is decades past I was the recruited athlete amongst 3 people who attended Vassar from my prep school. They clearly didn’t have a limit.
I had over the years been involved with VC and am aware of 2 sets of twins attending, and in one case two unrelated same year teammates who had attended the same HS. So once again no hard and fast rules.
Vassar is very much about fit. I will say it again she seems very deserving! I strongly suspect that if she doesn’t get in it will have nothing to do with her classmates recruitment. With that said I very much hope she has a chance to join the Brewer community.
FYI I loved my years at Vassar but there are lots of school that would likely be just as good an experience for your kid if you have to go to plan B.
My D22 is at Vassar. I know from Naviance that in some years Vassar has admitted more than one person from her Midwest public high school. Also, the next-door neighbor in her dorm last year was from LA and the neighbor had 4 other kids from their high school graduating class also at Vassar.
Vassar is definitely a fit school. I suspect they concentrate more on fit than on any quota.
Good luck! Your daughter sounds amazing!
Males are often in a different pool than females at LACs, especially Vassar that used to be a women’s college. And the other student is also an athlete, so another pool.