Last year I asked for advice on my S’s college list here and the advice was extremely helpful.
Now D is starting her application process so I’m hoping for advice on round two. Thank goodness we’ll be all done after her (until grad school)!
Any feedback much appreciated!
D’s stats
UW GPA 3.95 ish
SAT: 1500 (one sitting) Math 770 Writing 730 Essay 20 (7, 6, 7)
AP Macro/Micro /World (5s) Comp Sci/Lang (4s)
SAT World 800
Top 5% of 360
Senior course load: 5 APs Lit, Gov, CalcBC, Psych, APES. Spanish honors.
ECs good, Recs good, Essays good
No hooks. No major awards. Asian. Dual citizen (Aus)
Public school. Northeast.
Intended major: Political Science or Economics.
SAFETY
Umass Amherst (EA)
American
MATCHES
Boston College (EA)
Northeastern (EA)
Georgetown (EA)
Tufts (S is a freshman)
Brandeis (Legacy through DH)
Wellesley
Barnard
REACHES
Brown
Cornell
Harvard (D is hesitant to apply. I tell her it’s just a good school in Boston like BC or Tufts, so why not)
(We will probably take a few colleges off this list to get it down to ten or less.)
Would you add or remove anything on her list? Also we’ve been discussing applying ED to Brown (her dream school) instead of EA to BC/Northeastern/Georgetown. She would like to have some acceptances in December but I would like her to try early with Brown since she does like it best(of course she has the final say).
American University considers “level of applicant’s interest” to be “very important”, according to http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=475 . Presumably, they do not like to admit “overqualified” applicants who are using them as a “safety” behind Georgetown and/or George Washington, since they may assume that such an applicant is unlikely to attend. It looks like your daughter fits that profile, so she would have to do something to convince American that she could choose it over Georgetown and other more selective schools.
Northeastern builds its curriculum around co-ops, and is obviously very pre-professionally focused. Is that her preference?
Barnard’s acceptance rate: 16.7%
Gerogetown’s: 16.4%
Tufts’: 14%
These are all reaches. Funny that you categorize Cornell as a reach (14.2% acceptance) and not Tufts when it has a lower acceptance rate and the same average ACT score (33).
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, we know none of them are actually safetys…I moved the low Reaches to Matches to simplify the list. There is no college on this list that she would not be happy to attend. I would be really happy if D landed at Tufts and we had two Jumbos.
On American interest: We visited American and she really liked it so I think that will show in the interest area. None of the other places she’s applying are shoo inns so it’s good to have a safety she’d love to go to.
On EA: Northeastern has EA (unrestricted) as well as ED. Georgetown and BC both have EA. We thought UMass, BC, Georgetown, Northeastern are all colleges she likes a lot so it would be good to act on them early. The Coop program is wonderful and one of the reasons she chose it over BU. The internship she did over the summer had kids from Northeastern Coop in it and she got a good sense of the program from them.
I’m not sure Cornell/Harvard/Wellesley will stay on the list. We’re visiting Cornell in a couple of weeks, so we’ll see.
Brown is unlikely. Harvard is unlikely. GTown is a reach. Cornell is possible. Would leave the EA schools and skip ED Brown since so unlikely and getting in EA to BC, NE, and U Mass would be a weight off her shoulders. And if she gets into GTown EA that’s great! If for some reason she doesn’t get into some of these EA then better to find out in December and have a back up list ready to go!
If I had to cut a school off the list it would be Harvard since time consuming application and so unlikely with no special EC or hook. Maybe complete the Harvard application last after the realistic options are in. The rest of the list looks well balanced. I am sure she will have lots of options!!!
Thanks for the advice @naviance That sounds sensible. I think her options are:
A) The four EAs and then ED2 Tufts if G’town hasn’t come through (or even if it has). I know she’ll withdraw from all others including Cornell for Tufts. But that leaves Brown…and she loves Brown (which has the additional attraction of not having her brother on campus).
B) ED Brown. Unlikely, yes. But what’s life without shooting for your dreams. She can EA UMass at the same time, since it’s a state school. RD everything else so she can choose between G’town and Tufts should she be lucky enough. If not then choose between other acceptances…I think she should have some from that list, and she’s good with all.
Good point @suzy100 ! Yes! Brown ED Decision comes out mid Dec. Umass mid-Dec to mid-Jan. And ED2 Tufts deadline is Dec 30.
She’ll also have to send in all other regular decision apps at the same time in case Tufts is a no and be ready to withdraw them all (including G’town) in Feb if Tufts ED2 is a yes.
(If any of this timeline seems wrong please let me know…)
I know you aren’t looking for more schools, but kids I know who loved Brown have also loved the following:
Wesleyan
Skidmore
Conn College
Lawrence
Bowdoin
CMU (either CS or artsy/performance folks)
All of these are easier admits than Brown. For sure- she should apply to where her heart tells her she belongs, but depending on what appeals to her about Brown, there are a lot of Brown-like places (not Harvard or Northeastern which I think are the anti-Brown in many ways) that might appeal for the match/safety slots. W and Barnard are great Brown-like places-- what about Bryn Mawr?
just fyi, there is not early bump for Georgetown- they mostly use EA to id and woo people that they really want. Also they ‘strongly’ urge 3 subject tests & I only see one here. If she won’t take Georgetown if she doesn’t get EA, I’d cut it.
Agreeing that I would not take American for granted as a safety, but she also has UMass Amherst, which should be.
@collegemom3717 She is taking two more SAT IIs on Oct 7th. Thanks for the input into Georgetown’s process…I did not know that about them!
@blossom Some of these, Wesleyan especially, have been on her list but we haven’t been able to visit any of them. Good to have those to mull over with D. I was surprised she liked Northeastern too. Maybe because it’s so close to Back Bay which she loves and still feels campus like.
There is also no admission advantage for applying EA to BC. Not sure about Northeastern.
It seems the only advantage to applying EA for your child is the early notification and, in the case of an acceptance, a weight off the shoulders. But since the EA notifications are not all that early anyway, I would advise adding a rolling admission school (would she consider Pitt?)
Then, based on what you have said about her preferences, I would ED Brown, EA UMass, and in case of a rejection from Brown, ED2 Tufts and RD the rest.
I don’t think you need to remove any of these from your list–my view is that when you have a reachy list, as this one is, it makes sense to have more schools, not fewer, as long as you can do justice to all the apps. I do think you might consider replacing Harvard (which is a super-reach) with something more Brown-like, such as Wesleyan.
