<p>Thinking about college apps is what made me change my profile picture.</p>
<p>@ccprep,</p>
<p>Don’t you think you’d get more responses to your query on a thread titled: Boarding School Class of 2014?</p>
<p>Sudsie said:
Can you please post an update?</p>
<p>Someone in the National Merit forum is reporting that their school principal received notice from National Merit org that this year’s “Commended” cutoff is 201-- 2 points lower than last year’s 203 cutoff. It seems probable then that that NM Semi-Finalist state cuttoffs will also drop vs. last year. </p>
<p>@rosie19, the long awaited update! </p>
<p>First, it was lovely spending a week together. We actually got along pretty well. We visited with friends along the way, so it was pretty busy. </p>
<p>The challenge for D2 is that she has a “funky liberal arts college” personality mixed with being a geek (does theater and live action role play, likes various sci fi things like Dr. Who, Homestuck, etc) and wants to major in math or physics. As a quirky kid who has never had enough kindred spirits at school (although MUCH closer at BS than at home), we’d like her to find her “tribe” at school.</p>
<p>So–</p>
<p>Bard–totally fits personality wise, she really likes it–but the Math and Physics depts are quite small. However, it’s the kind of place where you could do a lot of stuff on your own with faculty mentoring. Needs further exploration, especially as it has the nonbinding immediate decision plan where she could find out whether she is admitted in November.</p>
<p>Smith–she didn’t feel she’d find her “tribe” there AND the Math/Physics depts are small–off the list!</p>
<p>Brandeis–really liked it (and I think could be a good safety for her if she shows the love appropriately). Strong math/physics, strong geek community, and she can live in a castle sophomore year!</p>
<p>MIT–too big and impersonal for her, and she’d rather have a more liberal arts curriculum. Funny story–she shadowed a student and went with her to a math class a couple of levels more advanced than what she is doing. D2 asked if she should introduce herself to the teacher and her student said not to bother. So of course the professor calls on her in class! She stammered out that she was a visitor and he replies–“well, weren’t you paying attention?!”</p>
<p>Brown–loved it, would be a good fit. I told her not to love it TOO much since getting in is such a crap shoot! Admissions counselor doing the presentation could have a 2nd career as a standup comic.</p>
<p>Wesleyan–thinks she likes it but they were on spring break so we’ll have to visit again when students are there.</p>
<p>We will visit Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore at the end of the month. She loves Harvey Mudd on paper, but we both agree will only visit if she is accepted unless she wants to apply ED. </p>
<p>I really think we need more match schools on the list but still sorting out which ones!</p>
<p>Just wanted to say, know senior at Deerfield with EXACTLY the same interests-- visited Harvey Mudd along with lots of others-- thought perfect fit, humanities plus math/science, theater, same type of kids. Applied ED, got in, is really excited. I know it’s far-- just saying worth a look (maybe a visit), since that combination IS hard to find.</p>
<p>Another vote for giving Harvey Mudd a closer look. Maybe a peek at Cal Tech or Reed College. </p>
<p>Those are the 3 west coast schools that made it on our initial list. All things being equal, D2 would prefer to be closer to home in the northeast (and so would I!). Caltech doesn’t have strong enough liberal arts. I think she should look at Reed but her initial research didn’t lead her to favor it over the east coast schools.</p>
<p>But @sudsie, aren’t you sick of the NE weather? I’ve only been here 13 years and I am! :)</p>
<p>This winter, yeah! Although the past 3 days have been absolutely gorgeous. </p>
<p>But there are advantages to being at a college fairly close to home–D1 is just over an hour away and it’s been easy for her to come home for a quick weekend, or for me to run down for the day. If D2 ended up across the country, that would be impossible. As always, there are tradeoffs…</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon is worth consideration - interesting combo of geek and art, and Pittsburgh is a great college town. It is just starting to get very popular. How about U Chicago? Case Western?</p>
<p>Thanks for the update, Sudsie. We have a Boston area trip on our to-do list for the summer. </p>
<p>We really liked Swarthmore, btw. And the AO there was phenomenal…there was a group there from a NYC program (not ABC or Prep for Prep, but similar?), and apparently he had worked for a boarding school previously and met some of them before — and remembered a few kids by face AND name, even remembering things they mentioned in interviews/application. Like “You’re the one with the sisters who like telenovelas, right?” I was in awe. Swarthmore is interesting because it’s a LAC with a fairly robust engineering program.</p>
<p>I’m a Swarthmore alum, so I’m biased–but it’s a very cool place. </p>
<p>Sudsie, Being an alum, you probably know if Swarthmore has a strong Economics program. What are your thoughts? What kind of students thrive at Swarthmore?</p>
<p>Curious about Swarthmore. …my daughter’s counselor put it on her list of schools to explore but I was concerned that it would be too small, that she might outgrow it, that it would be too much like prep school, etc. And even though naviance puts her in the right bubble, I want to limit the number of schools with less than 20% admit rate. </p>
<p>Here’s a question about admit rates…should I be considering the college’s published admit rates, her school’s specific admit history, our both? There are quite a few schools on her list where her school has admit rates at twice the national rates.</p>
<p>I’d really like to keep her list down to 10 schools. I have a FA safety for her (guaranteed full tuition and fees for set GPA and SAT scores), thank God. But ideally, I’d like to have two more very likely schools, 4 matches and 3 reaches. It’s just hard to determine which schools are reaches beyond the obvious.</p>
<p>And here’s a stupid thing. My d said that she won’t apply to Penn because they keep spamming her with the word Ivy in the subject line. “That school must have a serious inferiority complex if it feels the need to mention it’s in the ivy league.”</p>
<p>And why do schools like Harvard, Stanford and Brown need to send out these bulk emails? Do they really want to expand their applicant pool?</p>
<p>Race to the top. Oh your admit rate is 6%, we are only 5%.</p>
<p>Sometimes it may backfire. My d finds it off putting to get spam from schools that already have more applicants than they can handle and that every high achieving student already knows about. But I did tell her to save any that include offers of fee waivers. :D</p>
<p>
Isn’t that the school w Joe Paterno? 
</p>
<p>Being a Quaker (by school, not religious, affiliation), I feel moderately qualified to confirm that IMO, Penn does indeed have a slight inferiority complex with regard to the “trinity”.</p>
<p>I always get UPenn mixed up with Penn State… maybe that’s why! ;)</p>