I would add an early response (EA or rolling) safety school. You really don’t want to go past Dec 15th without an acceptance in hand.
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Which safeties meet those criteria? He was going to apply EA to Michigan, but it’s not a safety and they don’t let you know very early. Back in my day (lol), Michigan had rolling admissions. It looks like UIUC, Wisconsin, and Minnesota don’t let you know very early either.
My DS (a rising 2nd year at UChicago) used U of Alabama for this purpose. They have rolling admissions and a simple application. I think he had an acceptance in early October. Also, because he was a NMF, it was the ultimate financial safety. If the wheels had come off the family finances before May 1st, he would have still been able to go to college with no support financially from the family. Remember a safety is what you need when things go wrong. The application fee should be looked at like an insurance policy.
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U of Pittsburgh also has rolling admission.
My D used a regional school as her rolling safety. Also accepted in early October. Definitely takes a lot of pressure off.
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Iowa and Iowa state have rolling admissions and admission is based on a publicly available metric, the RAI.
I think he would be an automatic admit to Mizzou? I’m not really sure how that works.
State flagship makes sense as safety. or Case? Great list.
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Getting an early acceptance from your state’s flagship university is always a plus.
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Current updated list. I’m not sure how many schools he needs to apply to. For some reason he’s only really interested in Michigan on up on the list, but he needs a little bit of reality mixed in.
Brown
University of Chicago
Pomona
Harvey Mudd
Haverford
Swarthmore
Carleton
University of Michigan
Amherst
Carnegie Mellon
Yale
Harvard
Washington University
Macalester
University of Illinois
University of Missouri
A few reactions: Seems like a big cliff between the two publics and WashU… thinks you need to refine the 15 or so tippy tops based on size, location and culture fit. Too many, and risking lower quality of essays than required by those. Case Western might be good addition if you like CMU.
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Where do Michigan and Macalester fall in regards to Wash U and UIUC and Mizzou? If we took out CMU, Harvard, and Yale, and possibly Amherst, what would be more in between schools?
Carleton and Macalester would likely be more matches; I don’t really know much re publics but presumably you have those as safeties (check with your school, as we have been told that our spurt exclusive high school applicants turn down our flagship so often that it has started doing yield protection on our school); you definitely want a couple of safeties that do not yield-protect. On cutting down, I would never cut down Yale, unless you have weather issues. It’s just on a league of its own with Princeton on undergrad resources; no one can touch them in my view. To me having Swarthmore and WashU on the same list suggests that you have not focused enough on fit; those two places are totally different. I think you need to go see and feel the difference between the LACs and the research universities of medium and large size once classes restart; they are just very different service and culture bundles. That should guide what you cut.
Wash U is only on because they have been known to give merit aid to students at our high school. S22 would be happy to only apply to the following list, maybe adding Macalester and UIUC.
Brown
University of Chicago
Pomona
Harvey Mudd
Haverford
Swarthmore
Carleton
University of Michigan
I hope that you have University of Missouri (or some other safety) on the list.
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Mizzou is on the list, and he is an automatic admit. UIUC should be a safety too.
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“Only” calculus 3 is relatively advanced, so he would need to investigate if each math department has sufficient upper level (and possibly graduate level) math courses to keep him interested.
A college’s common data set, section F1, can give you an idea of what percentage of students join fraternities and sororities. Your list does not contain any of the more obvious fraternity / sorority heavy schools like Dartmouth, Washington & Lee, or Depauw.
University administrations that want to appeal to broad ranges of students (i.e. most of them, though there are some exceptions that focus on particular demographics) tend to be somewhat left-leaning on diversity matters, since they want to be perceived as welcoming to any student who may possibly apply. They do not want to get stuck in the trap that Washington & Lee may be in (minorities less interested due to reputation, but minorities not attending reinforces the reputation).
However, there will generally be a range of viewpoints among the students. The college student age range tends to be somewhat more left-leaning compared to the general adult population, but there is considerable variation between individuals and at different campuses.
Be aware that there can also be a difference between incidents of political activity on or near campus and the general attitudes in the college and surrounding community to the extent that they may affect one’s quality of life. A “White, cis, straight, male” may not be as likely to encounter such qualify of life issues as various minorities, but may find it unsavory to see his friends encounter such things.
So if this is the cut list, what should be added between Macalester and the publics?
Brown
University of Chicago
Pomona
Harvey Mudd
Haverford
Swarthmore
Carleton
Yale
University of Michigan
Macalester
University of Illinois
University of Missouri
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If you are ok with out-of-state publics and their prices, there are plenty with highly reputable math departments that may be less reachy than some of the privates on your list. E.g. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Rutgers, UCB, UCLA, Utah, …
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I have been using Niche, specifically the “students” and “campus life” sections to get a read on vibe. Unigo also has student reviews and student answers to questions which can be helpful in forming a picture.
We’ve considered UCB, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Hope do they compare to Michigan and Illinois? I’ve heard that for a large university, Michigan gives a good amount of attention to undergrads.