<p>This reminds me of back when I was in college. I noticed a very cute guy, and over the course of several weeks made some assumptions about him because of printed t-shirts and shorts he wore (i.e. Kenyon College, Houston Jewish Center, a small town fire department, etc.)</p>
<p>After I got to know him, I found out that his favorite place to buy clothing was a screenprinting business that gave great deals on “mistake” custom-order merchandise that the firm had printed in the wrong color, size, etc. He didn’t care what was on the clothing, as long as it fit, was comfortable and was cheap.</p>
<p>My teenage nieces buy college t-shirts and hoodies at the thrift store for a dollar or two. They do not care what college it is from so long as they like the colors. They especially like UCLA with the yellow and purple (I think it is UCLA). And my son wears USC and UF stuff because he is a big fan of their football teams. He attends Stanford so there are some dirty looks when he wears the USC garb.</p>
<p>As of last Sunday, Harvard was out, Harvey Mudd was too small, UVA was the current choice, and getting off the Stanford waitlist was the ultimate goal. So I guess there won’t be closure until Stanford either taps him or announces that the waitlist is closed.</p>
<p>I think this time of the year would be a great time to find college sweatshirts on the cheap at thrift stores. All those applicants who didn’t get into XXX College will be offloading their gear.</p>
<p>My daughter was accepted to Wharton, MIT and UVA and chose UVA for the same reasons that poster’s son preferred Stanford and UVA over the other choices on his list – so he is not alone!! Stanford was her first choice but we did not allow her to apply to schools on the west coast - felt the distance and travel time was just too much and outweighed other considerations but of course that is a personal preference. (She did not apply to any other ivies as she didn’t want to go to any, though on paper had the stats to be competitive.)</p>
<p>So maybe they will meet and become friends at UVA?? !!</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, perhaps “leeching glory” was too strong a phrase. My point had more to do with the widespreaded fame of the colleges involved than the people wearing the sweatshirts. I was saying that Harvard is so famous for being #1 even among the folks who don’t know much about colleges, and admission to it is bestowed on such a tiny segment of the population, that when I see someone wearing a Harvard garment, I think it’s more likely that the person has no connection to it than when I see somebody wearing a Cornell, Stanford, or Amherst garment.</p>
<p>I don’t see anything AT ALL wrong with wearing a garment of a college with which one has no connection. And there seem to be a lot of reasons for doing so (they’re cheap, they’re conversation starters, etc.). I’m from Michigan, and it’s common for even brilliant kids here to finish high school with nobody (parents, guidance counselors, teachers) mentioning the concept of attending an out-of-state school. I’ve bought my kids a slew of tshirts and sweatshirts online from colleges I want to get them thinking about. This not only plants a seed about future educational options, it also ensures an awareness of things outside their usual local comfort zone. If they wear a Wake Forest t-shirt, for example, somebody at school will ask them about it, and they will have to know where it is and what it’s like.</p>
<p>When my D was about two she had a cute little 2-piece warmup suit that said Harvard. Well, we thought it was cute…other people might have thought it was obnoxious. I think we got it cause H was from Boston and it was the “hometown” school. :)</p>
<p>And our D was very smart, and still is…though she ended up going to Columbia.</p>
<p>I had suggested to my daughter that her high school’s senior class ought to have a college wear exchange. Everyone brings in all the t-shirts and sweatshirts for the schools they visited but will not be attending and then picks some items out of the pile for the school they will be attending. My D has sweatshirts from Elon, Lehigh, & Arizona and T-shirts from Delaware & TCNJ (probably more, but that is what I remember buying her) that she could swap out for some Bucknell garb.</p>
<p>Of course, anyone can wear garb from anywhere they want but I stick to those colleges I’ve got some relationship with (I went there or my kids go there or it’s the local school).</p>
<p>^What a great idea. It could even be made into a fund raising event for the high school. And the kids may especially want to get rid of t-shirts from colleges that rejected them. :)</p>
<p>The waitlist thread mentioned that there’s been some sniffing around by Stanford–calls made to some GCs asking what a waitlistee’s thoughts about attending Stanford were. No offers made yet, but it can’t be long.</p>
<p>Good luck to the waitlist members on this thread!</p>
<p>^^It may not be long till round one, but the waitlist daisy chain can easily keep running through July - as top dog school poaches a kid from second dog school, creating another vacancy for them, so they in turn poach from 3rd dog school and so on…</p>
<p>But Stanford is a top dog school, so probably it will hit the waitlist (if at all) early in the game. Good luck to OP’s son. Visiting there was a good move since now Stanford knows for sure he will accept an offer of admission.</p>
<p>It’s interesting to consider, however – at this point, let’s assume everyone on the Stanford waitlist is “acceptable.” From Stanford’s point of view, it’s how to maintain that allegedly “balanced class” all the top schools yelp about. If Stanford’s accepted tuba player turned down S for H and the OP’s son plays tuba, great. But if instead he plays french horn, too bad.</p>
<p>Not necessarily. It’s a top tier school, but in an absolute preference hierarchy Harvard often wins cross-admit battles with Stanford. Thus when Harvard goes to its waitlist (and rumors are that they will take about 85-100 from their waitlist this year), they could very well start poaching kids who have already sent their SIRs to Stanford - creating more openings for Stanford to fill. A specialty school like MIT might successfuuly poach math/science kids from Stanford as well. That’s why this waitlist process usually goes through several rounds before every school gets their incoming classes set.</p>
<p>Very Happy- you are right. The dean of admin at Princeton was just quoted on that exact point (only she used an oboe player). Harvard Crimson reports 85 expected to be taken from the waitlist.<br>
coureur- Perhaps “more” often. The data I have seen is old, from 2006. And I am not sure it the same statistics would apply in a WL setting due to many different factors that go into the decision. I truly do not believe Stanford worries much about losing students to the WLs of other colleges. Of course it depends on the student’s focus and objectives. But outside of the “top dog” schools, the likely and general direction of WL action is downward. I do not disagree that there will be more than one round of WL acceptances and it may well go to July. I think the colleges have acknowledged this. But it would take an extreme love of a college to keep waiting that long.</p>
<p>Op’s son should be hearing something as the Stanford WL boards are full of students reported email contact gauging their continued interest.</p>
<p>Hi so glad you didnt’ forget about me! A big smile crept across my face as I was so entertained by the fun conversation this thread has blossomed into! I love it…I needed a good laugh.
Well…as of now he is going to UVA BUT he has since heard (as of yesterday) from someone at Stanford, and he felt a bit (reserved judgment here) encouraged. Not a sure thing by any stretch and I cannot elaborate at this point as to not compromise his or anyone else’s situation but IF he is able to get off the list, I would think he will find out very soon. So he waits…he is quite content with UVA, but of course as I have expressed Stanford is his “dream school”. I am glad he opened up a spot at Harvard for someone who really really wants it. Funny thing happened, we only know a small handful of kids who attend H right now and we bumped into the mom of a kid he used to know who is a freshman at H, she told us without knowing anything about my son’s situation that her son is transferring out next year! He applied to Columbia, Yale and Cornell. She said he didn’t like the school at all, and found the freshman class to have egos better than he thought imaginable. It wasnt’ for him…haering this, my son I think felt some validation for his own feelings because I can’t tell you how many people’s mouths hang open when they find out he isn’t going though everyone knows he got in! The reactions are somewhat humorous if you know how to look at it…so will keep you posted.
Thanks for keeping this alive and thanks for caring. I told my s. he has a whole other “cyber” family out there rooting for him!</p>