Valid point. The binding commitment of ED practically eliminates any applicant who is cost sensitive.
I agree re St. Olaf, we visited and loved it. A very good school.
As for Kenyon and Macalester, we considered them targets for our daughter (along with Grinnell and Oberlin), but perhaps her situation was a bit different, with an ACT in the 99 percentile, strong GPA (which is also the OP’s case), and applying from a very rigorous and selective public school, well known to these colleges. Her high school guidance counselor even said Grinnell would be safety to her, given the history of the school, but we still treated it as a target. Of course, by calling them targets we didn’t assume she would get in but we knew it was realistic. She did get into all of them with nice merit. She applied to Knox and St. Olaf (and the state flagship) as safeties. Knox would be a good option, too, by the way.
It’s true, though, that things have gotten more competitive since 2019-20. Kenyon’s mean ACT rose from 31 to 32 last year, and I heard it was 33 this year, for example. And Macalester acceptance rate has dropped significantly in the last few years. Still, lots of good options suggested in this thread.
While it is a limited data set, my kid’s fairly well known Chicagoland public high school had substantially higher than average admissions to Carleton, Macalester, Grinnell, Denison, Kenyon, St Olaf’s, Depauw, Laurence, and Knox. Acceptance rates to these colleges was a lot higher than acceptance rates of students from the high school to almost all non-Midwestern LACs with similar average acceptance rates. In fact, acceptance rates to similar non-midwestern LACs was generally lower than the average of those colleges (sometimes much lower), though it’s difficult to actually say much, since so few apply to LACs outside of the Midwest (very few had more than 1-3 applications each year).
So I can say that, at least for my kid’s high school, there is a strong geographic component in both application rates and acceptance rates to LACs.
PS. For some reason few kids from the high school apply to Oberlin.
I would take DePauw off your list. We have had a few friends who had horrible experiences there. The new administration is even worse than the old.
It’s tough to categorize schools for you as your GPA is high, but we don’t know your rigor. Are advanced courses the same as honors at your school? Which subjects did you take the advanced classes in? Will you have four years of each of the five core subject areas (E, Math, Science, SS, FL)? What classes will you have senior year?
Lots of good school suggestions for you to research. Are you planning on applying ED to Colorado College? Are you thinking of Boulder as your safety (which by definition must also be affordable)?
No one has asked about your budget yet, is Colorado College affordable per their NPC? Net Price Calculator for Colorado College
Note NPCs might not be accurate if your parents are divorced, own a business, or own real estate beyond a primary residence…are any of those the case for you/your family?
I may PM you in the future to ask for more specifics, if you are willing, if DePauw comes up as a possibility among some friend’s kids’ lists.
I saw that you’ve made comments about Depauw on a few posts. Can you elaborate at all on what is wrong with the school? It was a top contender for my D although she ultimately chose another school so I am just curious.
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I would spend time doing some research at various sources including the student newspaper. DePauw’s enrollment is down about 25% over the last decade, and retention is down as well.
They do have a decent endowment, but eliminated some jobs/laid off some staff a couple of years ago: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/02/27/depauw-shrink-laying-dozens-staff-and-offering-buyouts-100-faculty-members
Discount rate has significantly increased as well over the last decade. In 2018 it was 68%, which is well above the average college discount rate of around 51% or so: Private College and University Tuition Discount Rates, 2010, 2014, and 2018
Hopefully someone else can weigh in on the school’s leadership.
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Interesting challenges, especially declining high school graduate enrollment in Indiana. They’ve grown international students as a % of mix from 13% in 2016-18 to 19% last year.
Meanwhile, Purdue increased its freshman class by about 20% over the last year or two.
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Their yield seems to be really low but their retention rates are way above the national averages so it appears that kids like the school once they enroll.
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