Suggestions for what I can suggest to my rising senior regarding colleges

Parents Forum
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<p>I've been in denial that this moment would ever really come. Can't I homeschool for college???</p>

<p>Sending the youngest one off is hard. She has visited a grand total of three schools - Columbia (liked), Harvard (older siblings alma mater) and Swarthmore (lukewarm). </p>

<p>Her stats maker her sort of borderline, theoretically she can be viable anywhere but a slam dunk no where and quite possibly rejected across the board if she only applies to elites, ie, 2340 super score (2 sittings), 35 ACT, top five percent probably of very competitive private school that sends ridiculous numbers to HYPS, but many of whom are legacy and/or athletes (she's neither).</p>

<p>So the good thing is that she's worried about fit and location over prestige. Wants to stay close (Northeast) and wants a school with lots of smart people to enjoy and where she can launch herself in the direction she has in mind. Her fantasy career is to be a social scientist in academics, noodling over interesting ideas all day with interesting people. But she is planning on also fulfilling the premed reqs. </p>

<p>She is a good writer (National Gold Key) and lots of teacher praise. The application essays will read extremely well. She somehow managed to get selected for one of the prestigious summer programs for rising seniors on the the strength mostly of her writing and interview. </p>

<p>Our public U is not a UVA or UT Austin type public U. It would be okay and she will apply, off course. I think her best fit among elite schools would be Yale but I will lobby hard for her NOT to apply SCEA. We are very ignorant about LACs. So far the two that I think would be good for her are on the West Coast (Reed and Pomona). </p>

<p>Her SAT IIs came in mixed -- 800 US History, 740 Math II, 720 Physics. Five APs completed, all 5's.</p>

<p>I'm just beating the bushes here, looking for ideas and trying to get a college visit itinerary in place for August. I think the big question is what SCEA or ED, if any.</p>

<p>Any suggestions most appreciated.</p>

<p>ps</p>

<p>Merit would be a beautiful thing, but we could manage without</p>

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<p>If she liked Columbia, she would like University of Chicago. The curriculum is very similar. And, they have EA.</p>

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<p>sew - This is one of the more difficult “fit” threads I’ve seen. Most kids with a 2340/35 have stronger feelings about what they want. Absence of a public Ivy makes choosing a safety considerably more difficult. And “wants a school with smart people” can mean most anything. (Cooper Union? Smart people there. No huh …) Basically, you have too many variables. Schools that s-e-e-m to be a match are Wellesley, Bowdoin, and Middlebury … once you’ve ruled out the Ivy’s of course.</p>

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<p>“Her fantasy career is to be a social scientist in academics, noodling over interesting ideas all day with interesting people. But she is planning on also fulfilling the premed reqs.” </p>

<p>U of Chicago should be a no brainer EA application for her, especially since she likes Columbia. Add Wash U, Dartmouth, Carleton, and Rice to her list. I realize she wants to be close to the NE, but she needs to cast a wider geographic net in order to include other intellectually vibrant colleges.</p>

<p>since merit would be a wonderful thing, as you say, may I strongly suggest she add USC[ Southern Calif, USNWR # 25] as a financial safety? If her PSAT scores are above NMF numbers for your state, she WILL receive a 1/2 tuition scholarship if accepted at USC. [ Just be SURE she submits her complete application no later than Dec 1 for Full scholarship consideration- she will still be able to apply EA or even SCEA to other colleges] DS was accepted at all the colleges I suggested above, plus many more,[ he was also a intellectual non legacy, non athlete everywhere he was accepted] but chose USC after being awarded a full Tuition Trustee scholarship. He had stats very similar to your DD’s, and his HS sends dozens of kids to S and other top colleges each year. He just graduated from USC and will be starting at Cal Tech [ his dream graduate school] for his PhD this Sept. There is more than one way to skin a cat…</p>

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<p>menloparkmom,</p>

<p>Thank you very much. That’s why I went ahead with this thread - I really needed ideas. It’s hard to think straight about your own kid, isn’t it?</p>

<p>I love the idea of USC. It’s a long distance but a great school. Have known some very fine students who went there and were very well launched in their lives following undergraduate work.</p>

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<p>Sewhappy,
Just wanted you to know that when I was helping DS find colleges to apply to, USC was the LAST place I EVER thought he would end up at! [ we were ALL sure he would be accepted at Stanford, his Dad’s alma mater… didn’t happen] 5 yrs later, he has absolutely NO regrets that he went to USC. He found a great number of highly intelligent kids in the Honors Science program, which your D would attend as a premed- small classes, and the best profs teach the classes] and of all his good friends from HS who attended more “prestigious” UG colleges and U’s, he alone was accepted at the most selective grad school programs[ including Stanford!] .</p>

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<p>For LAC elites in the NE there are Amherst and Williams. Other “intellectual” schools that might be less reachy would include Wesleyan, Vassar and Tufts. All are strong in the social sciences. Alll are a bit Reed and Pomona like. Middlebury and Bowdoin are both very strong writing programs, and also highly, highly selective. A little more conservative or “preppy”.</p>

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<p>I know WashU isn’t all that well known in the NE, but my son absolutely loves it. Your daughter sounds a lot like him: great stats/premed/good writer/easy-going kid who wanted a school with strong academics, but not bent on “prestige”, etc. My son had never heard of WashU, but I did and strongly urged him to go visit. He went there for a weekend a few Septembers ago and texted me to say “WashU is awesome”. Even after he took a look at all the other wonderful schools he got into, he was certain this was “the” school. We actually never saw it until move-in day. It’s a beautiful campus too.</p>

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<p>limabeans,</p>

<p>She has two friends who were seniors this year who applied ED at WashU and were waitlisted then rejected. That really scared off my DD. Her high school doesn’t seem to get many kids into Wash U. </p>

<p>But you’re right. It’s like a U Chicago but a little more nurturing, is my take.</p>

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<p>Would it be a safety for both admissions and cost purposes?</p>

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<p>I think the more you know (since you’ve obviously done this before), the worse it is. She sounds like a terrific kid who isn’t swayed by the big name schools.</p>

<p>Many good ideas already. Did she consider Brown yet as an ED possibility? Or Northwestern for regular admissions? Does she have a preference for urban vs rural or it doesn’t matter if the fit is good?</p>

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<p>Absolutely. It’s Rutgers. She’d probably live at home. </p>

<p>Don’t even let me go down that road – would love that too much!</p>

<p>We’re new to NJ so don’t know Rutgers too well. It’s huge and vibrant and I feel confident has a lot of really fine students. She’d no doubt encounter plenty of challenge there. And she’s liable to choose that – she is annoyed by a lot of the angst over admissions. Her brother went to the ultimate trophy school (Harvard) and she knows first hand that he’s a mere mortal.</p>

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<p>If you can afford out-of-state tuition and your daughter doesn’t mind really big schools, Penn State might be a good safety school. It doesn’t have higher standards for out-of-state applicants than in-state ones, and in general, people seem to like it better than Rutgers. (Of course, there are exceptions.) </p>

<p>The nice thing about Penn State is that it’s one of the few schools in the East with rolling admissions. If you apply early, you hear early, but you don’t have to respond until spring. A student can have one school in the bag before Thanksgiving and still be free to go anywhere she wants when the other decisions come in. Penn State also has a well-regarded honors program, for which your daughter would probably qualify.</p>

<p>Also, has your daughter looked at Cornell? I suggest it because it isn’t on the radar screens of a lot of private school kids, and this could work to your daughter’s advantage. Not everybody likes Cornell; it’s quite far from any major cities, it’s big, and it seems best suited for students with an independent streak, rather than those who like a lot of nurturing. But it has a lot to offer academically, and it’s easier to get into than Columbia or Yale.</p>

<p>(Full disclosure: Cornell is my alma mater and my daughter’s.)</p>

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<p>I would have her apply to McGill. Much cheaper than USA colleges, pretty good for premed. Rolling admission.</p>

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<p>If she’s looking for a safety type school that is a bit further away…and money isn’t an issue, you might want to look at U of Delaware. Also UMD College Park does offer merit aid to high achievers from OOS and I would think your daughter would fit that criteria.</p>

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<p>How about Barnard?</p>

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<p>I think Barnard is extremely cool but she wants to go to a school that is coed. Very adamant about that. </p>

<p>We have very strong admiration for Penn State and have met so many people who have done extremely well professionally from Penn State. That is a good suggestion for rolling admission. I’m not as familiar with U Maryland or U Delaware. Will research.</p>

<p>I visited the Williams web site today. Oh my. That is quite an enticing college. It looks as hard to crack as HYPS, though. But I thought the curriculum and living arrangements sound wonderful.</p>

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<p>I also immediately thought U of Chicago. It’s the only far away school my younger son applied to and the only one that stayed on his list. I am thinking she likes medium size and more urban than suburban and because she’s basically good at everything a school that’s good across the board. That’s still most schools, but maybe not the DC schools which I think are ideal for policy wonks but less so for historians that might become doctors. I think she should also look at Tufts. It’s a bit less of the life of the mind than Chicago, but it’s full of serious students. My son thought Vassar was almost big enough, but the huge campus with not enough people just didn’t give him the right feeling in the end. It felt more arty than intellectual to us, but definitely worth checking out. I also agree Wash U is worth checking out. For another safer school, how about Brandeis? or Vanderbilt which told our school they were seeking out NYers. (NJ should be close enough right?)</p>

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<p>If she liked Columbia, she should also apply to Barnard. Easier to get into, similar experience even though it is a woman’s college. She can take many classes at Columbia–even live in Columbia dorms, but it is truly not a poor step child, rather an excellent school for very bright women in its own right.</p>

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<p>^^ sorry missed the second page about Barnard…even though it still gets my vote. lol</p>