Regarding your son’s interest in classics, The American Journal of Philology was headquartered only once at a liberal arts college, when a current Hamilton professor was its editor. Hamilton’s flexible curriculum would also be excellent for your son’s tentative intention to deeply pursue dual academic interests. As something to go by, students with his SAT score recently gained admission to Hamilton at a 35% rate.
Being a strong middle of the pack applicant at a school with a 14% acceptance reach makes it a reach. Your kid should have 2 or 3 reaches, and the rest should be matches and safeties.
“Being a strong middle of the pack applicant at a school with a 14% acceptance reach makes it a reach.” That’s exactly the issue “safety/match/reach” issue which I don’t understand. As @privatebanker & you point out, it seems like he should be in the mix and a “strong middle” of the pack type…but with 25% or less acceptance at Haverford, JHU, Williams, Bowdoin, etc. those aren’t matches…it seems to me. So, does one just focus upon the 30%+ acceptance level schools?
No. You never know A good mix across the board. Just this year My d had a 1540 sat and 4.0 uw with 13 aps. And valedictorian of a really good school. Captain of a varsity sports team and academic decathlon solid ecs with leadership etc And a nice kid. Deferred at bowdoin ed and rejected at brown and Harvard. Got it I some great schools but just an illustration
Your son would find admission matches in the 50-100 range in a list such as this: https://amp.businessinsider.com/the-610-smartest-colleges-in-america-2015-9. As to where he should concentrate his reseach, that would seem to relate to a combination of both his admission prospects and his academic and personal requirements and preferences. Schools within the top 50, by general selectivity, would certainly be possible for him: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-50-smartest-colleges-in-america-2016-10
@privatebanker that seems just crazy!
Not sure how it works. But in the end it all works out. But a rough ride at times. She has 35 act too. Volunteers at a hospital and wants to be a doctor. But I see all over here students with different stats but interesting passions get in. But probably good life lesson and building resilience
I’m tried by it all now but it’s fun and exciting too.
Best of luck. I’m rooting for you.
Thanks
Sounds like you got a bit of a Renaissance man on your hands. While he may like LACs, I suspect that a lot of LACs will like him. Remember that middle of the pack in your home region can be a geographic boost at a peer school in a different part of the country.
One thing you might want to look at is colleges with strong science/bio programs that also have open or flexible curricula. Core curricula are about making sure a student takes a well rounded selection of courses but required courses like “Survey of Great Literature” or “Introduction to World History” don’t make sense for a kid like yours. Most colleges are flexible to some degree on this but it’s something to think about.
Determining safety/match/reach is tricky. There is only one acceptance rate in the guidebook, but there are really multiple acceptance rates for different circumstances such as early decision, athletes, students applying to specific majors or programs, gender, diversity, financial aid needed, etc. That’s part of the reason to make sure there’s a couple extra match and and safety schools on the list just in case.
Getting out of the northeast will help. Schools in what is derisively referred to as “flyover” country tend to be more predictable admissions-wise. Don’t get me wrong. Carleton is a tough admit, but if it were in the northeast, it would be Williams or Amherst-difficult.
Reaches for the OP’s son would be any school with a sub-30% admit rate. Just because one is smack dab in the middle-50% range for a typical student does not mean that the applicant’s chances are 50%. Nope. His chances are what the overall acceptance rate is (with some exceptions). Perhaps a school that is a perfect match, and the family has visited, and the student has shown interest could be considered a low match, especially if it’s outside the northeast, at a place like Grinnell perhaps. Still, admissions at very selective schools is wildly unpredictable. The other poster’s anecdote about the child deferred at Bowdoin and rejected at two Ivies is illustrative. Rejections from Ivies are to be expected, but even Bowdoin’s test-optional policy does not make it an easier admit.
@NewEngParent , you’ll figure out the landscape. Trust me. Also, if your focus is finding the right fit for your son, and not necessarily the highest ranked school, your son will have a lot of options. There are so many wonderful schools out there, from Whitman to St. Olaf, from Lawrence to Denison, from St. Lawrence to Kalamazoo. Go into this with the right mindset, and you’ll find that your son has a lot of choices, with likely merit money to boot!
Just to give random examples of reaches/matches/safeties. For your son, Bowdoin would be a reach (even if on paper it seems a match). The aforementioned Whitman would be a match. Beloit would be a safety.
Oh, and also, even though admissions to very selective schools is tougher than ever, this is a bit of a myth. The chances of getting into any single very selective school is harder, but getting into one school among many is not. This is why students/families cast the net wide and apply to lots of schools: 10 to 20. It is because, consciously or no, they’re aware of this. Finally, the vast majority of schools in this country accept more than 50% of students, so finding a safety or high match, I think, is crucial. Not only will it be a shoo-in for admissions, but it’s great for the self-esteem, and, as I mentioned before, there could be significant merit money. And you never know. There are students for whom the apparent safety school actually rises to the top as a preference.
Thanks @Hapworth, I was thinking that the number of strong applicants probably isn’t expanding as much as students are simply applying to more schools…common application, online apps, free application, etc…I think I applied to 4 colleges when I went. I got into 3, and picked 1. But it does seem like a nuke arms race out there, so I guess 10 to 20 doesn’t seem too crazy just not sure I’d like to pay $600 to $1,200 in application fees.
A thought just hit me, if it’s such an arms race with an element volume…does it matter to get just a little extra on a SAT?
Exactly. The number of actual high school students is down, especially in the midwest. There was a dip in the birth rate 18-20 years ago, and this was more pronounced in the midwest and south. Things are starting to recover, but it’s still going to be a few years before there’s a true increase in HS students. A lot of midwestern LACs, some very good ones, head into the summer still trying to build their classes for the fall, even though they might have received a record number of applications.
The decline in the birth rate is only part of it. A lot of this is because of the common application (often called the Common App), a single application form that one can send out to more than 500 participating colleges. Colleges can include their own supplemental material (usually essay prompts or short answer prompts), but there’s no doubt that being able to complete a single form, and then work on the individual supplements, is much easier than filling out ten or twenty different application forms from scratch. Students, hoping to have as many options as possible (and to nail a “reach” acceptance), apply to more schools than they truly need to, IMO.
But, yeah, I attended college twenty-four years ago, where 5-7 college applications was the norm. I applied to four. Today, that would be very low among those seeking admission to very selective colleges.
U Chicago (reach school) is very strong in classics. Not an LAC but something to look at if he’s considering other research universities.
@MA2012 I’ve heard that. I know nothing about UChicago. I’m guessing they know nothing about Maine kids. But maybe as others have said leaving New England for other parts could help his chances…but I’m guessing it’s still a big reach.
Is this a reasonable list?
Reach (long shot chance)
Princeton University (mid size w/ strong Latin & Chem/MoleB, precept + bridge year, out of NewEng)
Dartmouth (mid size w/ strong Chem/MoleB & Latin, D-plan, 5 year BioChem Masters)
Williams College (LAC w/ strong Latin & Chem, tutorials + Oxford/Exeter)
Bowdoin College (LAC w/ strong Chem/BioChem, local to us)
Target (50/50 chance)
Emory University (mid sized w/ strong Latin & Chem/BioChem, Oxford college LAC, out of NewEng)
Haverford College (LAC w/ strong Latin & Chem/MoleB, access to BM/Swat/Penn, out of NewEng)
Davidson College (LAC w/ strong Latin & Chem/BioChem, D1 sports, out of NewEng)
Oberlin College (LAC w/ strong Latin & Chem/BioChem, out of NewEng)
Hamilton College (LAC w/ strong Latin & good Chem)
Safety (very possible)
Case Western Reserve University (mid size w/ strong Chem, out of NewEng)
College of William & Mary (mid size w/ strong Latin & Chem, out of NE, Williamsburg)
Lafayette College (LAC w/ strong Latin & Chem/MoleB, out of NE)
College of the Holy Cross (LAC w/Chem & Latin - full scholarship award for Latin)
Dickinson College (LAC w/ strong Latin & Chem/MoleB, out of NE)
[Also looked at Rice, WashU, UChicago, NorthWestern, Amherst, Bates, JHU, Reed, Pomona, Wash & Lee - those all seem similar to the ones already here. Grinnell & Carleton sound great too but not sure if we can get to visit them.]
That’s a list of dream school safeties. More match
ok, so more like UMaine, College of the Atlantic, Rollins, Furham?