S24's Journey (3.5, learning disabilities)

College Search & Selection
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We will be full pay. 59% of Conn students are receiving need-based aid. 90% of that is in grants, and the average amount is $50,800. I don’t think aid is as good at Skidmore, which may be because their endowment per student is not as high. But I’m also not sure that means anything for S24’s chances. Skidmore reported their acceptance rate for class of 2026 as 26%, whereas Conn reported 41% for class of 2025.

Skidmore does have what looks like a fun sailing team which includes anyone who wants to sail. S24 would be able to choose how much he wanted to travel/compete, which would be great, but we just didn’t think he had much of a chance at a school with a 26% acceptance rate.

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Skidmore is about 60% female so being a male could be a positive for his application. Same for Conn. College.
Agree that they are still reaches. ED could help if there is a clear top choice and finances work.

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I thought this would be true, but unfortunately for S24, the acceptance rate for men has been lower than it is for women at Conn since at least 2013. It’s been 10% lower for men since 2018. Conn’s yield is higher for men, and they have not evened out their male/female ratio, so I assume that their female applicants are stronger.

Skidmore’s acceptance used to be about 3% higher for men, but that shrunk until 2018, when acceptance was slightly higher for women. Now, it’s 4% higher for women. Wheaton is about 10% higher for women, and has gone as high as 13% higher. Maybe more men have discovered the benefits of LAC’s, or maybe colleges used to accept more men to keep ratios even?

Men still have higher acceptance rates at Vassar. Sarah Lawrence goes back and forth, favoring men by 3% on average.

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Wow…that is a turnaround from when my D applied to college. Apologies for the outdated information. Glad you are on top of the current situation.

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Well, I really wish you were right!

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S24 has been to W&M, alma mater of his mom, two aunts, and two sisters, many times. He has always liked it, but DH and I didn’t encourage him because the out-of-state acceptance rate is low, and it’s a medium sized school at 6,500 (he is leaning towards smaller).

We all went down for graduation last weekend. The weather was perfect, the traditions are beautiful, and D19 was so happy with her wonderful group of friends. D21 loves it there too, and would love to overlap a year with S24 (they are close, and have always shared friends and activities). I am torn. S24 does not need another reach school, but W&M’s acceptance rate is 10% higher for men. It’s hard to figure out what his chances would be if he applied ED…Legacy might help if he did. It is a really good match for him in personality/vibe/fit, and the history department is outstanding.

I will see if he’s motivated to go down there at the end of August, help D21 move in, and do a tour. (He’s never done an official visit). He is definitely leaning toward ED, so I will leave it up to him whether W&M is on the potential ED list. If we went down there, it would also be to visit other schools, such as the Virginia and Maryland schools.

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A quick update: S24 has interviews scheduled this summer at W&M and Conn College. We are also going to visit Wheaton (Mass) next week!

So far, we have not visited a match or safety that we are all totally excited about. I liked Elon, but S24 is not sure about the distance and NC. S24 liked Marist, but I’m not sure about the vibe and the lack of guaranteed housing. We will try to visit Mary Washington, St. Mary’s and/or Washington College when we go to W&M. Drew won’t be hard to visit in the fall.

I’ll report back after we see Wheaton! Fingers crossed for no wildfire smoke, and a good tour!

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The smoke seems to be completely bypassing MA.

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You have a good list. I wanted to suggest that Union (NY) might be a good fit. It’s like many you like but not rural PA and is quite student-centric. The schedule may be beneficial to someone with LDs. Can’t say what special supports they have.

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If your son really liked William & Mary, have you thought about Christopher Newport? It receives many students who liked W&M but weren’t able to get in, and it has a similar size, too. It would be an extremely likely admit for your son, I believe.

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@gardenstategal S24 has added Union to the list. Coincidentally, he has a cousin headed there next year. It’s one of the schools like Clark that DH jokingly disses because he doesn’t like Schenectady or Worcester (he thinks they have the negatives of cities without the positives of NYC and DC like museums, parks, theater etc). S24’s attitude is that every place has its charms, but for college, he doesn’t want very urban or very rural. Small cities fit that description, so he should see for himself. I just realized that Amtrak goes all the way to Schenectady in just over 3 hours! That would be an easy trip.

@AustenNut Thanks for the suggestion! I had kind of written off Christopher Newport because D19 knows quite a few kids at W&M who transferred from CNU, and mentions it every time CNU comes up :wink: . She thinks S24 wouldn’t like the vibe. However, I will suggest to S24 that we visit when we go down to Williamsburg for a tour and interview.

Both our girls are very proud of W&M and dearly love it, but we can’t be sure it would be right for S24. I think he only has a chance if he applies early, and he will need to decide for himself. It would be good to see a less rejective school nearby. While we are in VA, he is also going out sailing with a coach we know at ODU. Although ODU is not on his list (large & urban), it’s a great opportunity to learn about college sailing.

Coming soon: Wheaton Trip Report :blue_heart::lion: !

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I’m posting about this after the fact because summer is so busy! S24 and I had a great day at Wheaton. We took the train to Providence and then rented a car because we also had family visits and a certification class in Massachusetts.

We stayed at the Colonel Blackinton Inn in Attleboro, which turned out to have a nice restaurant. It was pouring rain, so we didn’t get a chance to explore that night, plus S24 was studying for his class. We were the only overnight guests, so it was cozy and quiet.

In the morning, S24 went for a long run around Norton to get the lay of the land. In fact his run stretched so long that I was worried we would be late to our tour…Thankfully, it finally dawned on him what time it was, so he sprinted back and got a very quick shower before we checked out of the inn. We had just enough time to pick up a great breakfast at Bagels and Cream as suggested by @nichols51 , before heading to campus.

Wheaton’s campus is much bigger than I was expecting! They have 400 acres for 1,700 students. We were comparing to other schools we’ve seen such as American University: 84 acres for 8,500 students, or Roger Williams: 140 acres for about 5,000 students. S24 likes the feel of the campuses with more space per person.

S24 also likes a historic feel, especially a bit colonial mixed with modern, which is Wheaton. Somehow, we hadn’t seen any photos with the pond, and it’s very picturesque. Also, contrary to our expectations when visiting the campus in June, it was not a ghost town at all because it was an orientation day for the incoming freshman. There were lots of students and OA’s all over campus, with lunch and games set up on the lawn.

It was easy to find admissions, and there were only two other students on our tour. Our tour guide is Syrian, but he grew up in Turkey. He said he loves how peaceful and open Wheaton is, as a break from the density of Ankara. He was remarkably humble for a clearly bright, accomplished and cosmopolitan person. Afterwards, S24 and I kept coming up with examples of self-deprecating things he said with good humor and a positive spin. Like how as a freshman, he was excited to get into a special design class with a brilliant professor, but then the drone he made didn’t fly, but it was okay because he is still working on it and has learned so much.

Due to gifts from a Wheaton alum who married an heir to the Mars (candy) family fortune, Wheaton has a beautiful, expanded arts and humanities building, and a light, spacious, eco-friendly, science and technology center. These buildings are surrounded by more classic-looking brick dorms, the chapel, the pretty and historic Mary Lyon Hall, etc.

Several points on the tour were especially appealing to S24:

  1. Computer Museum. A com sci professor started a computer museum with tech from the 1970s on up. They have hundreds of vintage video games students can play, and an IBM PC running DOS v1.1. Students are working with the professor to organize and display more donations. S24 was bummed to find it closed for the summer, but that kind of thing is right up his alley.

  2. Clear and easy availability of free peer tutoring.

  3. Wheaton Woods. This is a wooded area about a mile long and half a mile wide with several loops of trails, adjacent to campus.

After our tour, S24 wanted to eat on campus, so we wandered into Emerson dining hall. It was almost empty except for what looked like a group of administrators who had already finished eating their lunch. They welcomed us and asked if they could help us, and when we said we were wondering if there was an open dining hall, they said no, but that they had a buffet still set up in the other room and we should help ourselves! I normally wouldn’t do that, but they were so genuine and relaxed about it, so we did. It was really nice to be able to eat on campus with no hassle or charge. That gave us a nice feeling for the place and people! I think it reflects a vibe that is more like a community where things are personal and flexible, rather than an institution where people are more anonymous and rules are rules.

So, Wheaton is definitely on S24’s list! In other news, he finished junior year with straight A’s, the highest grades of his school career. He was typically quiet about it, but I can tell he feels good. It still worries me for admissions that he doesn’t have the rigor in math and science…Schools may not think he challenged himself enough, although two years of Spanish and APUSH were certainly a very high bar for a kid with dyslexia. I do know that lopsided students can be fine, as D21 did not have the highest rigor in math and science, but chose a school that was a great match for her strengths and personality, and got in ED. She had a solid SAT score, though.

Next up: a report on our VA trip! I hope y’all are having a peaceful, fun and relaxing summer!

Edited to add: S24 scored a 4 on the APUSH exam! :open_mouth: :tada: !!
Although I think he could have used a computer, he decided to handwrite his essays—concerning to me, but I didn’t say anything. His spelling is, to be generous, creative, to the point where he sometimes can’t decipher his own words. That is, if we can even read his handwriting. So, I am happily surprised!

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Thank you for such a wonderful and heart-warming post! The visit to Wheaton sounded wonderful and congrats to your son on his AP score with handwritten essays!

It would be great if you want to share your trip report on this thread: Colleges your child crossed off the list after visiting, schools that moved up on the list. Why?. It’s always so nice to have reports of schools that aren’t as commonly visited.

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College of Holy Cross has around an .80 acceptance rate in ED, is test optional and heavily weights demonstrated interest.

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Happy to hear about your Wheaton visit - glad the rain didn’t last throughout your visit and that your son was able to get a good feel for the place even in the summer.

And congratulations to your son for a great year and impressive APUSH score! :tada:

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We checked out College of the Holy Cross, and it looks like a great school. I didn’t know that their ED acceptance rate was that high (almost twice RD?). S24 likes that history is in the top five majors (unusual). However, he has said from the beginning that he wanted to start with schools that aren’t religiously affiliated. If he can find enough that he likes, then he won’t see the need to explore the Catholic schools. So far, he has two potential ED schools (Conn College and W&M) and plenty of other reaches, so unless a school is a likely admit, I don’t think he’ll add to the list.

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Thanks, @nichols51 ! We’re glad we went. I can tell now that S24 is going to have trouble letting go of schools whenever it comes down to decision time. He said he would like multiple lives to attend all of his favorites :smile: . He’s also been saying that non-college students should also get the choice to live on a walkable campus that includes their workplace, lots of green space, dining halls, friends, intramural sports, etc. But he doesn’t want to be a professor, I think because he can’t imagine getting through the PhD process.

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I’m still having a hard time letting go of some of my D’s favorites that were options for her in the end that she didn’t choose! :joy:

Love this.

Looking forward to hearing whether he goes for ED at Conn or W&M! He has a great list and seems to be very thoughtful about fit - I think he’ll end up somewhere he loves.

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Any updates on the college list? How was the trip to Virginia?

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Hi, y’all! I saw the request for an update. Our Virginia trip (in July) was steamy hot but great. Before we went, S24 had pretty much decided that W&M was his first choice in VA. He decided not to put any other VA schools on his final list because if not W&M, he’d rather be closer to home. Since he loved Wheaton, and really liked SUNY New Paltz, I feel like he has great close options with more reasonable acceptance rates.

When we got to VA, we went to Norfolk first for a sailing event at ODU. Their sailing facilities and coaches are top notch. ODU is too big for S24, so we spent the rest of our day at the Battleship Wisconsin and museum. Very cool!

Next, we headed to Newport News. We did a self tour of Christopher Newport University. The campus is beautiful, but the buildings felt a bit too grand for S24’s taste! The center of Newport News is quite pretty, with the fountain and shops/restaurants.

The next day, we went to the Mariners Museum and Park by Mariner’s Lake. It’s a good thing we got there early, because we stayed for four hours until S24 was too hungry to continue! They tell the story of how they searched for and discovered the wreck of the USS Monitor. They have artifacts from the wreck displayed—the lantern gave me chills. You can see where they are restoring the turret from the ship in their lab. Plus, they have tons of model boats, and a small-craft center with real sailboats from all over the world. And, there is a beautiful five mile trail around the lake. This was a big hit.

The next day, we headed towards Williamsburg with a stop at Yorktown. The park ranger who gave our talk at the battlefield held the attention of about 20 people of all ages in 90+ degree heat for 30 minutes, while standing in an empty field. He was good! S24 expressed interest in a park ranger career. Then, we drove the battlefield and surrounding area with a map and a podcast S24 had found. I never liked battlefields as a kid, but S24 makes it fun. He’s an avowed pacifist and always arguing with himself about whether war is ever just, what he would have done, etc.

S24 has been to Williamsburg many times, so our purpose for this visit was to go when neither of his sisters were there and evaluate the school as a potential place for him. He took a tour (I didn’t go), and the tour guide was a double major in history and psychology who S24 really liked. He chatted with the guide for a bit after. Then, he had his interview, which he thought went well, and we went to play mini golf (S24 suggested that or axe throwing :smile:). S24 is totally comfortable on the campus, and he was happy, but at that point, I wasn’t sure what he would decide to do application-wise.

Recently, he has let us know that he wants to apply ED to W&M and is working on their supplemental essays. He said that it checked all his boxes except for guaranteed housing. He thinks the bigger size of W&M compared to most of his schools is a safer bet to have more choices for professors, intramurals, clubs etc, and they have an excellent history department. However, the biggest reason he told me for ED was fit. He said that both of his sisters went there and loved it, and he is a lot like them. This is true. D19 and D21 are very social, but not partiers. They are serious about academics, but need to be engaged in other things too. They are wholesome and a little quirky. It’s hard to put into words, but W&M has been absolutely the right vibe for them.

I think S24 is realistic about his chances. He will apply test optional. His grades and ECs are very strong, but vigor not as high as his sisters (partially explained by dyslexia). He keeps reassuring me that it’s not his “dream school.” He’s thinking ED 2 at Conn College if he doesn’t get a yes, and he feels really good about the rest of his list. So, that’s where we are!

Best wishes to all of y’all who’ve come along on this journey :heart: :apple: !

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