We are chasing merit at less selective colleges where D is in the high percentiles for SAT scores. She has a 4.0 with some rigor but not the highest, decent ECs with leadership, and community service. She tends to be the lone female in a male-dominated activity but I don’t think she would otherwise stand out.
Though we were really limiting our search, D’s guidance counselor recommended a couple reaches so I got to work.
I crunched a lot of numbers on the NPCs of many higher ranked schools and found a few where we’d get awesome FA. But I’m not sure how to characterize these schools with respect to D’s lopsided stats. And the admission rates at the FA schools are rather low in any case, but double digits.
At these colleges, she is almost always right around 75th percentile for reading–either a little below or a little above–and in or at least near the bottom quartile for math if she’s lucky enough to be in the mid-range.
What do you think? Is it completely unrealistic and a waste of time and money to apply to these schools or is it worth a shot?
Have you done multiple tries at the SAT? It might be worth a test prep course or tutor to get to the middle 50%. Or switching tests. FWIW, my rather mathy DD gave up on the SAT and is trying ACT in June.
Could you name some schools? That might make it easier to help you guess. Is the range of scores you’re talking about narrow or wide?
@AroundHere , Thanks for your reply.
She did very limited prep in math (a few weeks of Khan) and never prepped for the reading all prior to her one SAT. She’s going to take it again in June, and I’ve been mulling over having her take the ACT in June as well. There are things in her score report that make me hopeful for the ACT, but she works slowly in math and that will hurt her.
I set up a tutor that we share with another famiy, but there have been a lot of cancellations. Ironically, I decided in a tutor as a way to guarantee structured time for practice, but it hasn’t been ideal. So my expectations of improving the math are limited for now. This summer might be easier to fit in prep, so I’m planning on scheduling an August SAT.
The colleges with the great FA according to their NPCs are:
Colby
Hamilton
Davidson
Macalester
Meanwhile, D is afraid of being in a college where “everyone smarter” than her. I don’t really think that will be the case.
However, I worry about her not fitting in socially. Despite having some assets (that are set aside for our retirement and our younger children which hurt our FA chances), D has been raised in a simple and frugal lifestyle. I am concerned she won’t be able to keep up with social activities. She has dealt with that in high school already and doesn’t seem to mind but that’s because she also knows enough people who aren’t too different from us.
Sorry. I’m just working through all my own issues that have come up with the reach question.
I’m not sure what you mean by narrow or wide.
@AroundHere
I don’t think I was clear.
In math she is usually in the bottom 25%ile, and not usually making it into the middle range.
Her math and reading are 140 points apart.
My daughter got into Macalaster a year ago with SAT math and reading not quite 100 points apart (but the math still started with a 6). I think a math score starting with a 6 is probably required for the schools you mentioned above (but hard to tell, since there really isn’t multiyear data for the new SAT yet.)
The social fit thing will become more apparent as you visit schools. My kid visited a couple that she thought were rich kid schools, but she definitely saw a difference between “rich” and “rich and snooty about it.”
At some point in freshman year of college, I think they all feel “dumb.” It’s quite an adjustment being away from home and the pace and depth change from high school. For a kid who is starting out with a bit of insecurity, you should think about putting in an app to an early action or rolling admissions school early in the cycle. An acceptance letter really helps relieve some stress.
Good luck.
She might do better on the ACT - I know quite a few kids who had weak math scores on the SAT who ended up with a decent ACT composite score. But yes, the weak math score could be a challenge.
As for social fit, schools with good FA (and ones that take a lot of questbridge and posse scholars) have a mix of kids. Many have taken steps to make sure that the school doesn’t contribute to have/have not-ism by making all campus events free for students, paying students stipends for unpaid internships, unlimited swipe dining, funding study abroad, etc. You’ll have to look at this school by school. At most of the selective schools with good FA, their operating model depends on having roughly 50% of the student body being FP, so there will be some "normalized affluence " as well. While the overall vibe should be right, I wouldn’t let that concern get in the way.
There was a poster this yr, whose D also had lopsided scores, with math being the lower score. She got into Macalaster with merit as I recall. Think it was ED2 after being denied somewhere ED.
You can check the Common Data sets for those schools and they will show a % of the enrolled kids with math scores in various buckets.
^^ That’s right. @IBviolamom! Looking through her posting history could be helpful.
@MACmiracle – about the “everyone smarter than her” and “keep up with social activities” concerns:
I don’t know if the pressure to engage in expensive activities would be larger at an urban LAC, when people might go out to dinner more often or visit expensive night clubs or something… but at a rural LAC, most of the action is on campus and paid for by the college. At least in my experience, my friends and I did not often do activities that cost extra money. Of course, I don’t know if my personal experience (or my husband’s at another LAC) is representative.
Nearly everyone who goes to a college that attracts top students spends some time worrying that everyone else is smarter or that they will struggle. In my freshman entry (“entry” is Williams-speak for a dormitory unit), we once sat around and talked about that. Everyone was an A+ student in high school, so we all were discovering what it was like to feel average, or even below average, in certain areas (there will still be areas in which each person will shine or discover a new passion or talent). In my opinion, the opportunity to engage in intellectual conversations with peers who also loved ideas and learning was more valuable than being valedictorian (or similar) of my college would have been. Your daughter will decide which environment feels most comfortable for her… but she would be far from the only person at her college to experience some adjustment upon suddenly being with equally capable peers.
Thanks @AroundHere and @gardenstategal.
I appreciate all of your thoughts. From what you say, it will be a risk but not a complete impossibility.
@wisteria100 , I’ll try to look up @IBviolamom . Thanks for the tip! Funny, my D also plays a stringed instrument! I’m still not sure how to look up posting history. It could be I’m not seeing any options since I’m on my phone. Still a CC newbie.
In any case, we’ll consider it like playing a lottery. It would be great but we won’t count on it. And, of course, we’ll keep up the usual list which has a good number of rolling admissions and automatic merit colleges.
@TheGreyKing , you really captured my own thoughts. I guess the reach thing appeals to me because I’d like her to have more intellectual peers than she might otherwise have with the college search strategy I’m using. She does have an intellectual bent and I’d like her to be at a place where that can develop. We can try these reaches, but the middle road of an honors college at an in-state public or less selective school might work well, too, if the reaches don’t work.
And thankfully, she’s said clearly she’s not interested in a college in a city.
@MACmiracle , I don’t know how your DD feels about the women’s colleges, but they really hit a sweet spot for not being impossible to get into, being intellectual and academically challenging, and offering good merit/financial aid.
Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, etc. can be terrific places for “smart girls” (i.e., ones who want intellectual peers) and tend to have very welcoming communities. You might want to take a look at some of those. I know one young woman who had the same issue as your D with scores who ended up at BMC (and who also found the relationship with Haverford to make it feel more coed than she had expected. )
@gardenstategal , I think I ran the NPC on BMC and the result wasn’t as good as the ones I listed. And she usually prefers the company of boys. She has a tomboy edge.