I’m aware that had her initial first choice worked out, she’d probably love it also. She’s pretty flexible. I was relating to her some frustrations a friend’s kid is having with classes, adviser, etc at former-first-choice and she texted me back “former-first-choice sucks!”
I thought it was funny and I’m thrilled that she is happy where she has landed 
My caution was more to not base an ED decision on the fact that it is the only school you’ve spent a lot of time at.
I agree with that. I do think that familiarity breeds it’s own kind of like but it also comes with it’s own pitfalls.
At Dartmouth there were a group of students who were part of a long running program at Dartmouth and apparently went there every summer. They’re familiarity with the campus and the program led them to act and believe that Dartmouth was a safety school because they were already so familiar with it. It really left a bad impression on admissions I think, and also fellow students who observed their almost entitled behavior, thinking that because Dartmouth hosted them each year, they were entitled to a place there. Dartmouth may not have minuscule acceptance rates but that’s due largely to the fact that they don’t play the same numbers game that a lot of schools. It’s no safety.
Questbridge is not-for-profit. It means the money they get from the partner colleges is used to pay the employees who get your applications and review them, to cover overhead and rent, to match students to summer programs, to organize summer scholar programs all over the country, to reach out to counselors, etc.
When you apply to the Match, you get to do 8 ED’s AND you get a boost just from being a Questbridge applicant. Plus with Summer Prep you’ve learned how to present your application and you’ve worked on your essays, two HUGE advantages many lower income kids never have.
One issue with the “Match” “mismatch” is that many lower income students have their family’s/community’s/neighborhood’s eyes on them, so they choose universities whose “brand” is known in the community/neighborhood, not necessarily the university where their odds are best or their best fit. The rule of thumb should be 4 universities, 4 LACs chosen for fit (ie., if you choose Brown, don’t pick W&L… and don’t have W&L and Vassar on the same list…)
If you can take one Saturday morning off, you can retake other Subject tests (or retake the Reasoning portion), that’d be 4 “free” scores sent for you in addition to the rest, and thus about $60 saved. Of course you probably make more than $60 in a morning of work, but it’s a strategy I’ve heard used by lower-income students who couldn’t send their scores to more colleges.
@MYOS1634 is there a reason why Vassar and Washington and Lee can;t be on the same list? I haven’t made any permanent decisions to apply or not but I am being hosted for a fly-in at both and I will decide from there I guess, I am just curious what you think.
I’m not so sure the large University vibe is a good fit for me. What I liked about Yale was how small a community it is but yet remains part of a larger resources school.
That’s a good idea on the test scores, I take another subject test to get more scores to send!
Once you’ve visited both you may be able to narrow down your list in other ways. I think they’re very different.
(I went to Vassar, have never been to W&L.)
@cowtownbrown : choose a subject you’re very good at, so that it’ll be an extra 740+ to add
33 is an INCREDIBLE score but even more so for a lower income applicant.
What colleges did you list for your 8?
Vassar is very liberal and bohemian, Washington&Lee is very conservative and buttoned up/well dressed. When you visit, you will notice the difference everywhere. Then you can decide which “vibe” you like best.
BTW, always choose based on who you are, not who you’d like to be on days you wish you were someone else.
I haven’t listed any yet, and I think I will probably EA at Yale and RD through Questbridge because I really don’t think I know enough about any of the other schools to commit to a binding decision and all of my fly-ins are after the ranking deadline…
I think I am probably too liberal for Washington and Lee and too conservative for Vassar. I did some research and I am by no means conservative, I’m a Gay Russian-Chechen refugee lol, but Vassar kind of brings a new level to the word liberal Which isn’t a bad thing it just may not be the best environment thing for me. I leave for Washington and Lee in morning and we will see how that goes !
Thanks for the support
@BrownParent: Yes, after I typed that this morning, I went looking for information and found a wonderful old piece from the blogs at the New York Times. Cleared up some things enough for me to consider having my daughter take a stab at an ED school:
http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/the-case-for-early-decision/?_r=0
OP, so glad that you are continuing to visit this thread. You are getting some good feedback, for example, not being overly concerned with “brand” and also paying attention to the different “vibe” of different schools.
I did want to echo two things you said. First, about how hard it is to manage all the fees. Fifteen bucks sounds like nothing but multiply that by all the schools and then add more fees and it really adds up. Our HS also charges a fee for sending out each transcript. We avoided this by attaching the transcript to the QB app for forwarding to partner schools.
The other thing is, definitely – being a low income kid in a low income neighborhood and school is so different. Class shock (like culture shock) is to be expected. That is why it is a good thing to find a setting that will be supportive. I am not saying to only go somewhere that everyone dresses or looks like you – I am saying find environments which are positive for you.
A few ways to cut down on costs
1° Check if guidance office includes test scores on transcripts. If they do, most universities will not request scores sent from the testing agency. if they don’t, suggest the guidance office do so now on, as I can"t imagine you’re the only lower-income student in the school.
2° Quite a few colleges charge no application fee. You can find them on CommonApp by clicking “member colleges” then “100 per page” then clicking on the “fee” column to have it start with 0.
3° You’re certainly eligible for application fee waivers. Top schools have designed them so that they’re pretty flexible - it’s not just for kids who live in public housing or are on reduced lunch. If your GC won’t do it, email the schools directly. Most tippy top schools really are flexible about it. They WANT lower income kids to apply and they want to remove undue barriers.
@cowtownbrown, what did you think of W&L after your visit?
Not really a good fit for me… Wednesday is party night but so is Thursday…and Friday… Quiet hours in the dorm are completely ignored and when people say it’s a white school, they really aren’t kidding. I’m an ethinic minority of Russia and I felt very uncomfortable. On my first night, I was introduced to a group of four who were in agreement both that Washington was the real traitor, not Lee and that the confederate flag was perfectly acceptable in all venues, public and private. I don’t want to go to a school where everyone agrees with me, because I think that’s kind of pointless, but at the same time I don’t want to go to a school that holds those kind of values in such high esteem without regard for the fact that it may have something to do with their predominantly white experiences and perspective.
They have great facilities and wonderful staff who are working very hard to make them more diverse but I did not find the students to be a good fit for me. Socially, I would not fit in very well there and there is definitely a reason why so few students of color choose to attend.
As an LGBT student there is also a LOT to be done there. They have no policy at all regarding transgender or gender queer students, no studies program and no clear and decisive way of discussing issues that may arise out of a student being openly LGBT on their campus. When asked about it, one of the top faculty there said “It’s better than it was in 2005” …
Regardless, I think that W and L has some serious trajectory. Their science center is unmatched and is competitive with those of Grad schools even and they have poured money into their campus. I was told that I could be the catalyst for the kids of social changes I want to see on campus but honestly, I have battled with ethnicity issues whole life, and I really don’t want to have to fight that battle in college also.
Thank you for reporting back.
When you visit Vassar, you’ll understand why it doesn’t belong to a match list alongside W&L.
Both have their place, but someone who’d fit at one, wouldn’t fit at the other, and vice versa.
When are you going to Vassar? Are you going to visit other schools?
There are a lot of other schools on the list, I’m headed for Vassar view October 25-26, I’m doing Colby’s fly out program too!
What made me saddest about W and L is that I actually liked the academic environment so much, the professors took time out to talk to us for hours during the program and they don’t necessarily support the same campus culture as the student body. I just wish that the student body was more diverse and more aware of race/ethnic/sexuality issues.
Also W and L’s honor system is the real deal, and I really felt ok leaving my things sitting around and I underestimated just how convenient that would be :). Nothing quite like getting settled at library table and getting all your stuff out and then having to pack it all up to use the bathroom.
There are Honors systems in other universities - prominently Haverford, which has the same faculty attention, Honors code, and general academic environment, but a different political vibe/level of student awareness.
Vassar and Colby are two very different environments too. I love Vassar’s library Colby is outdoorsy. Both have stunning campuses, accomplished students, attentive faculty. Have a great time during these two visits too.
Have you visited any other college?
I visited Dartmouth for Dartmouth Bound and I spent a lot of time at Yale. I liked both schools very much. My biggest complaint about Dartmouth was the location. It is very very remote and flying in and out requires a 3 hour bus trip. Yale was a really great experience and the only thing I didn’t like about it was the constant tourism by would be students. I know it’s unavoidable and I wish them all the best in applying but for the love of god I need to get to class ! I visited Harvard and was really turned off by it. Some of the students were very rude to non-English speaking parents and some Harvard students also came onto Yale’s campus to bait visitors while I was there too, and that made me VERY upset. They were very inconsiderate about the fact that some of these visitors had flown from around the world. I got the general impression that Harvard was kind of childish in a way and I did not like how limited the professors seemed to be in interactions as opposed to Yale or Dartmouth.
Wait. The downside of Yale is they allow students to visit (like YOU just did)?
@Erin’sDad
I was not visiting per se, I was there as part of the global scholars program. I don’t have a problem with visiting it’s just that sometimes the amount of students and families visiting is so high that it can be difficult to get where you need to go, I said that in jest because it’s literally the only thing downside I could think of. No need to be so accusatory, it’s really very rude.
Statements made in jest frequently don’t go over well in forums. That’s why they have emoticons available. 8-|