2 girls from her HS were admitted with considerably lower stats etc, and are attending. the top students from her HS never apply there (I know this from the Naviance scatterplot). She only did because of a scholarship opportunity. They figured she really wasn’t interested I guess (which was in fact the case).
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My daughter attended UNC - OOS - and I find that their acceptance pattern varies depending on the HS.
She had the opportunity to see the notes that were written on her application. All of them had to do with her activities.
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Great intel !!
My daughter was turned down last year. 3.95, 4.5 weighted. 32 act. Lots of activities, work, and leadership. I know she had two or three essays…whether good or not one never knows. But one she used at 8 or 10 schools.
Completely untrue. There are many kids who want to study biology or physics or any number of STEM subjects who attend Williams/Amherst. Some folks think the only part of STEM is the E, but there are fine math students at both those schools as well as at many LACs.
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Yes, I was surprised that she got this information!
I think some of the posters were really hard on Northeastern. While I have no connection and it isn’t a fit for my kids, I have seen people do really well there. The co-op opportunities are amazing. Decades ago I worked at a top company and the NEU co-ops got jobs that was at a much higher level than someone normally would get at 22-25 years of age. The Co-ops break up studying which is good for a kid who knows they need to attend college but honestly doesn’t love studying. And the co-ops teach kids practical skills which can be applied in the classroom and vice versa.
If someone doesn’t like NEU than don’t apply. But to denigrate it is crazy as it offers some great opportunities. People I know who have attended decades ago and more recently have all done really well.
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It’s hard to overstate the importance of nailing down a safety: admissions, finances, major and activities worked for my son at a State U that he would have been happy to attend. He was able to keep his list of schools manageable, and it took the edge off the anxiety during the applications process.
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I second this, I know a girl who got accepted to both Williams and MIT, and she chose Williams, biology.
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Your experience could be different. I haven’t seen any seriously stem kids from our school go to Williams. Clearly, I suppose, I have non-bio stem in mind. I don’t know about the bio kids. We looked very closely at the Swarthmore CS curriculum this cycle, and found it very limited. I am sure they do whatever they do very well. It’s just that they don’t do enough.
My son’s close friend went to Amherst. He was very disappointed with his peer group, considered transfering, but stayed on because he found good community on the swim team.
STEM is broad especially when you include neuroscience or kids who want to combine majors. And many think solely of X or Y as being STEM. Your experience at one high school defining if Williams/Ameherst is a logical choice would likely be VERY limited even if the school is large. Tiny data points don’t usually show the entire set.
Some of the top LAC’s have outstanding faculty especially in some subjects. Kids need to check it out but it’s pretty rare that they will be limited. Also in the case of Williams and Amherst, they likely could cross register at other schools ( I believe there are various consortiums). Thinking that you need to go to a major U, if you want STEM is a very narrow viewpoint. I have STEM kids and think that approach is based on the individual. YMMV. In some cases, kids will thrive and win national awards because they are at top LACs often tiny with outstanding faculty and support and lots of teamwork and interaction.
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You may be right. I don’t know. Both my kids didn’t even think about Williams. One of them was quasi math – I mean he was undecided about math until end of freshman year. He would think Williams would be missing both in breadth and depth. That’s just his perception. After being in college a few years, he was looking at the Williams math curriculum recently (because I asked him to review it for my younger son), and he listed all the things they were missing in the curriculum. They cover the first layer material very well, but they wouldn’t have courses at the next level of specialization. For example, they would have a course on Algebra, and a course on Number theory, but not one on Algebraic Number Theory. Different strokes for different people :-).
I’ve known a few kids who have gone to Northeastern in recent years - I wouldn’t describe them as kids who “don’t love studying”. Many are very serious students going into STEM majors including engineering & CS – it’s a popular “match” school for kids who are also shooting for top 25’s.
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STEM is a convenient acronym, but it encompasses some dramatically different fields. Some STEM fields are popular and high quality at Williams. Others are far more limited. For example, Williams has very limited engineering options. They do offer 3+2 and 2+1+1+1 type 5 year programs that partner with another school, but in general, I expect extremely few HS kids focused on engineering are going to be thinking about Williams However, science is a different story.
The specific percentages of majors in different fields, as listed in IPEDS are below. I compared Williams to Harvard as a reference. Williams has a larger portion of science and econ majors than Harvard. However, Harvard has more Math and Engineering. STEM majors compose a good portion of kids at both schools – slightly more than half. Note that I am counting econ as STEM due to the US government reclassification of econ at STEM a few years ago. This classification is used by both of the listed colleges when providing STEM totals.
Biological Science – Williams = 11%, Harvard = 12%
Physical Science – Williams = 10%, Harvard = 7%
CS – Williams = 10%, Harvard = 10%,
Engineering – Williams = 0%, Harvard = 5%
Math / Stats – Williams = 5%, Harvard = 11%
Economics – Williams = 16% , Harvard = 12%
= =================================
Total STEM – Williams = 52%, Harvard = 57%
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That is interesting. Although I wonder how Williams math compares with Harvard math which is stellar. Thank you.
Your D sounds amazing!
UNC and UVA only accept 1-2 students from our HS, and UNC doesn’t accept every year. Both schools are predictable in who they accept…. acceptances (if they happen) always seem to fit a certain profile. Some other OOS schools (Fla) seem to have more yearly acceptances.
I don’t really know what was meant by “considerably lower,” as all of my daughter’s friends were excellent students who accomplished a lot during college.
So it seems that the admissions and rejection were exactly as they should have been. Call it yield protection, but the school got it right.
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A college admits kids who really want to be there… is this newsworthy?
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A college rejects a kid who doesn’t want to be there…is this yield protection?
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Your daughter sounds phenomenal. Pre-pro ballerina on top of everything else is well something else!
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You make a fair point that the US system is bewildering to those who didn’t grow up in the US but I’d submit that it is equally perplexing to lots of us who did grow up here but stepped away until our kids were about to apply to college.
It’s really an out of control system for selective colleges - EA/REA/ED/ED1-2/RD, yield management/protection, schools tracking whether emails are opened and which webpages visited, proliferation of research/publications/non-profits from high schoolers, double-digit APs/dual enrollment, Calc 1/2/3, re-taking SAT if < 1550, being advised by AOs not to submit ~1500 SAT scores (IIRC), unweighted/weighted/capped GPA, 4.0 UW applicants being a dime a dozen, etc. You are probably a lot smarter than me but I am baffled by it all!
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