D is NMF 18, GPA 4.65, ACT 33, SAT 1530, in research program with local hospital, internships, awards, leadership in EC’s. Major: Psychology/Biopsych
Rejected: Rice, Cornell
Waitlisted: UNC
Accepted: Texas A&M, University of Texas, UCLA, TCU (Dean’s scholarship)
Waiting on Berkeley today.
It was pretty discouraging for my NMF kid. 225 selection index, 4.4 gpa, 11 APs and everything else honors, all 5s on the 5 AP exams taken so far, 1550 SAT, leadership in extracurriculars, part-time job, good essays with humor, not applying for aid.
Results? 3 admits to very good state schools in honors programs. WL to 3 top-20 private universities, denied to 3 Ivies, denied to 5 top small LACs, admitted to one near-top small LACs with an enormous merit scholarship.
Note to parents of next-year’s top students: Let your kid apply to a LOT of schools if his or her top choices are small. Use EA a lot. Don’t waste a SCEA on an Ivy.
My NMF kid’s stat’s: 1460 SAT, 4.0 UW, 4.3W, 7 AP’s
Intended Major: Biomedical Engineering, but may switch to Human Biology
Rejected: UT Austin, UCLA, Berkeley
Wait List: Cal Poly SLO
Pending: Stanford
Accepted: USC, UCSD, UCSB, U of Arizona, Colorado, Colorado State, Baylor, Texas A&M, Washington.
Most likely going to USC w/ the Presidential 1/2 tuition scholarship. We like the smaller class sizes and the ability to change majors or double major if desired. It’s also close to home.
@prodesse - Totally agree. I would also not be afraid to scout high scholarship for NMF schools. My DS that only got accepted to 2 - UC Irvine and ASU, is going to ASU. They offer full tuition for NMF that covers any potential increases in tuition , plus two separate research grants. Plus, Barrett at ASU is a good Honors program. My oldest is graduating from there in May.
Final tally on NMF D (1530 SAT, 35 ACT, 4.0 UW, 4.6 W)
Rejected - Princeton, Berkeley
Waitlisted - Tulane
Accepted - UF Honors, Vanderbilt, Duke, Furman, Emory, Rhodes, UC San Diego
@Gatorjaw - Are you OOS for UCB?
Final tally for DS1 - NMF (1550 SAT, 35 ACT, 4.0 UW, 4.5 W)
Rejected - USC
Waitlisted - Michigan (LSA - applied for Ross)
Accepted - UCLA, Notre Dame, UC Irvine (Regents), ASU (Barrett)
@srk2017 OOS (Florida)
NMF daughter waitlisted at Rice. Didn’t show much demonstrated interest though (no visit since it was so far from us) but did have an alumni interview. In hindsight my daughter really knew it was not a realistic option (she would have had to get huge merit to make up for travel cost) and while it was a great fit for her, she partly applied because they offered her a free application— she thought why not see what happens? She was accepted everywhere else (Notre Dame being the most competitive other school she applied to.) My advice would be don’t discount the demonstrated interest factor for schools that consider it.
^^^^ I completely agree. I think demonstrated interest was lacking for some of my sons’ choices. A great piece of advice.
Both my twins are NMF. Both were rejected at 2 schools (I am secretly glad it was an equal number
Sorry, hit Post to soon!
Both had perfect ACTs and good to very good ECs. I am so happy about their choices - both the ones they made all throughout HS and the college choices they have now.
DS rejected at USC and MIT. Accepted at Notre Dame, Rice, UCLA, Berkeley, UNC, Maryland Honors, Ohio State Honors (waiting to hear about Eminence - fingers crossed), ASU Barrett, Michigan State Honors, Oklahoma Honors, Minnesota Honors. Deciding between Ohio State and ASU.
DD rejected at Yale and Johns Hopkins. Accepted at UChicago, Notre Dame, Rice, UNC, GWU, Emory, Syracuse Honors/Coronat, Oklahoma Honors, SLU Honors, Loyola Chi Honors. AGONIZING over UChicago (dream school/$10K merit scholarship and one-of-the-crowd) and Syracuse (full tuition scholarship and big fish).
@“Kathy V” - Wow great choices available to both.
My two cents on the decision process - individual fit is key. He’s my perspective. I am a West Point grad. I would love one of my kids to go there, but not at their detriment. I saw too many classmates struggle at West Point because of their “I am here because…” I went for personal motivations that I felt strongly about. Those I saw struggle were there out of family obligation or they thought it would make their parents happy. Worst two reasons in the world to choose a school. As has been cited many times on CC, the school you go to for undergrad is not critical for most majors. I think pre-med is the exception (my opinion). I suggest helping your twins with the decision process by asking questions. Is the prestige of UChicago critical? Do you like big city (Chicago) versus smaller city (Syracuse)? That kind of thing.
For your DS, please allow me to put in a plug for ASU. I have a son about to graduate from Barrett with a BS in Chemistry and a minor in Business. Barrett is pretty unique. I describe it as a 7,000 student community in a larger University setting. They have their own dorms, their own dining hall (best on campus) and some other benefits. For a NMF, he will get $26,000 per year for tuition. If tuition goes up, the scholarship goes up. They allow unlimited AP/IB credit. My son started with 32 credits, so essentially as a sophomore. Barrett gets guaranteed on campus housing all four years and priority class registration.
How much do we like it? On of my twins has decided to go there next year.
@usma87 Thanks so much for the input.
We are visiting UChicago for admitted student days on Thurs/Fri - the only other time she has been there was more than 2 years ago, so she wants to make sure it’s really “all that”. I do think it’s a good fit for her, though. She’s pretty intellectual and “nerdy”. She does NOT want to be part of the party scene in college - hence UChicago “where fun goes to die” 
On the other hand, it’s hard to pass up the deal she’s been offered at Syracuse.
As for my son - we will see. I went with him to Ohio State a couple weeks ago to interview for the Eminence scholarship (full cost of attendance!!) and was very impressed. If he gets that scholarship, he will DEFINITELY go there. If not, he might still go there because it’s a great school and he really likes it, plus he will still get a scholarship, just not full tuition or full ride. We should know this week whether he got the Eminence. As for ASU, we are visiting Barrett on Monday - have never been there, but from what I read, Barrett sounds pretty unique among Honors programs.
Question: Did your son have many Honors classes in his major, or was it mostly more general ed?
Not super relevant, but I hope parents of foreign students read this thread and realize that their children didn’t “fail” jut because they didn’t get into prestigious schools.
Our high stats D 1550 4.0 uw, 4.8w 12 APs all 5s one 4-Commended (missed by 1 point), tons of music ECs etc. Applied to 16 schools mainly LACS ranked 25-50ish (two in top 25) plus 2 Ivies. Rejected by Ivies, Accepted to all but one LAC which was a WL. All LACS gave merit awards…some of them huge. One was a full tuition ride which is where she is likely attending. I think I might be the only parent that was secretly hoping for an Ivy rejection because we are full pay. I’m pretty happy with the results. My D is as well.
My DD is a NMF, ACT 36 (after a few tries), 4.7 W, so far she has taken 6 AP exams and got 5 on all but 1. Applied regular decision and she was rejected by Stanford and Harvard, waitlisted by Vanderbilt, Tulane, Johns Hopkins, Wash U, and Colby. Accepted at Carleton College and University of Miami. Still waiting to hear from Reed. I think her decisions might have been different had she applied early action but she wanted Stanford really bad and they are restrictive early action. Then she fell short in time and didn’t even apply early action there. You can’t do it for them. It’s been hard to step back and let her own the process but I think she learned a tough lesson during it all and that is how the ball bounces!
@“Kathy V” - The Honors credit requirements are a total of 36 credits, no more than 18 lower division. The Thesis preparation will be 6 credits in senior year. Of the 30 remaining, he did the majority in his major. They were a combination of honors “sections” and honors contracts. The sections are reserved just for Barrett students. The student has the flexibility to get honors credits in almost any class. For one of the classes, O Chem II I think, the honors contract was a meeting every two weeks with the professor and other honors students to discuss recent studies published in professional journals like JAMA, Scientific American, etc. He really enjoyed that.
A funny thing happened on the way to the forum. DS only looked at USC and Texas A&M because of their NMF scholarships. In truth, mom and dad are the ones who suggested he look. They were fairly low on his list of 14.
Although he got in to some higher “rated” schools, he ended up falling in love with these two. We leave tonight to make our final visits before he makes his decision!
My NMF D (SI was 223), 4.0 UW, ACT 33 (SAT 1440 didn’t submit most places); 3 700+ SAT IIs she did submit, 8 APs ( three 5s and one 4 (Cal BC!) so far) plus took overloaded schedule by being an online student at highly selective statewide public STEM HS – took computational science, genetics, finite math etc. Lots of leadership and awards, blah, blah, XC all four years (incl. co-captain this year), sleepaway camp counselor in summer, Great essay and recs. She intends to major in bio / PhD track.
WL:
Barnard (this one stung)
Cornell (didn’t end up caring – decided she’d prefer UNC if she did a big school)
Rejected:
Colby (she showed zero demonstrated interest)
Duke (boo Dook; I think she would have gotten in ED but I’m her Mom. . . :))
To complete the picture:
Accepted:
NC State (IS)
UNC Honors (IS),
Scripps (largest merit they offer; 1/2 tuition)
Mt. Holyoke ($25k/yr merit)
Grinnell ($22k/yr merit)
Carleton ($2k/yr NMF merit plus $4k need grant – small package overall)
Davidson (no merit but some decent need aid, surprisingly)
St. Andrews for bio (Scotland)
I think she’s headed to Davidson and she is very happy. Decided a small LAC is for her so I think would have chosen it over Dook, anyway. Scripps, 5cs and the $$ is hard to turn down though. . . But Davidson is less expensive to start with and with the institutional grant they are not so far apart. . .Still, it’s the second most expensive on the table after Carleton.
Overall, she was chasing merit and did pretty well! Ironic then she might not take any of them, eh?