The college counselors at friendlydaughter’s school definitely try to sell a message (that many don’t hear) that there are a lot of schools out there and you should keep an open mind.
With all the trouble that colleges are having these days with kids who have trouble adjusting to life away from the helicopter parent rotors, I can’t help but think that BS kids who have already demonstrated independence and coping schools have to be an attractive option for colleges.
Came across this great article and figured it may be appropriate here for those about to enter the upcoming college admissions cycle.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/06/09/college-is-not-a-commodity-stop-treating-it-like-one/
^^^ Very good, and, of course, terrific comments that follow. Will assume that those of us posting here can distinguish between a search for “job training”, and one for “the awakening of a human being”. The boarding schools our children have gone to have excelled at pushing that awakening into second or third or even fourth gear.
Any right coast families considering a trip to the Claremont colleges? Pomona and CMC have recently been introduced for discussion in our house, and I’m more than receptive to advice or suggestions about how to approach these and the need for a visit. On paper, look very attractive, even if fingers crossed that LA smog is less than in the past. ~O)
For us East Coasters with travel expenses as a consideration, we’ve ruled out WC schools for undergrad search. Also, using geography as a limiting factor did help narrow down the universe of possibilities!
^ I would comment that adding a college or two outside of the Northeast can add some diversification to your list. So many BS students stick to the same several dozen schools in the northeast. From my experience, it was easier to get into higher caliber schools in other geographic areas. Of course, expense and distance are a factor but just wanted to mention that benefit.
Thanks, @doschicos – sorry to be vague… to clarify, we are looking beyond the Northeast, both midwest and south, but not as far as the west coast 
@Charger78: We initially had Harvey Mudd (and less seriously, Deep Springs) on the list…but upon reflection of added complexity and cost of the west coast schools, crossed them off. 7D1 did have ASU on the final list…I was impressed by Barrett (their Honors College) and ASU is one of the schools that offers a Full-Tuition Scholarship for NMFs.
I’m in love with Scripps :x
I’m in love with NYU, but friendlydaughter is only mildly in like with it!
ChargerSon came away from spring break with University of Richmond near the top of the heap. Now, he’s struck off several of the ten schools that we saw in the last year, and he’s added a few new ones to see this summer. Yesterday, he seems to have fallen pretty heavily for Cornell. Not sure how the two referenced schools could both be jostling for the top positions when they’re so different!
Both beautiful campuses!
FWIW- IMHO If you can zero in on “The One” and throw everything at it plus the kitchen sink, I highly recommend that you apply to that college for ED . Don’t waste ED on a Reach ( just to see what happens ) because too many people do that and walk away empty handed. It’s a wasted opportunity in my book. ED is a beautiful thing ( when it works out well) because your kid will be able to enjoy his/her Senior year and everyone will have their sanity back before Christmas.
Obviously, all ED applicants ( including “sure thing” athletic recruits ) will still need a solid/ strategic Plan B ( and maybe C and D ) locked and loaded just in case their ED college doesn’t work out… but if your kid is able to zero in and give one ED app their all… I would encourage them to do it.
That said, I understand/ appreciate ED isn’t for everyone and some kids can’t or don’t want to zero in ( for many valid reasons) or they’d like to see how everything shakes out and keep their options open until the bitter end… I get that. 
Also- If your kid has a Dream College that’s tough or expensive to visit- move heaven and earth to get there and check it out. K2 loved one particular LAC since he was a wee lad but when we finally got there, I was trying to think of ways to get thrown off campus. ( I’m totally serious ) They had No Smoking signs all over campus and I actually contemplated smoking again ( quick run to the Mobil Station ) just so someone would ask us to leave- and I’ve been a dedicated ex- smoker for YEARS!
We ruled it out during the first thirty minutes but honored our appointments with the AO and Coach and hung in there for the better part of a day. Later when K2 spoke to his father over the phone he said his visit was like identifying the love of his life in a morgue after a bloody and horrific car accident. Even though it was a very expensive trip- it was (without question) worth the time, hassle and money just to rule it out. We can laugh about it now- Thank God.
Someday, I’ll share the entire story without identifying the LAC. This one was epic… and I’ve done countless college visits with three kids.
Thankfully, K2 bounced back quickly ( after a short period of mourning ) and another school ( his true one and only ) took center stage. He was done by mid December . All three kids applied ED and were finished roughly around the same time. It was awesome for them and for us.
@PhotographerMom - You’re such a tease. Share the story.
Maybe someday, @doschicos . It’s still too soon to relive the nightmare
Thought this might be helpful to those of you focusing on college admissions for the coming year. Below is info on college matriculation for the SPS Class of 2015. Themes of note: increased waitlist activity, which echoes what I’ve seen here on CC this application cycle; a wider array of colleges applied to and colleges in which students are matriculating, as students cast a wider net to insure a successful outcome in the face of ever increasing competition.
Form of 2015 Heads to College
6/17/2015
Members of the Form of 2015 will attend 74 different colleges and universities – the most of any previous form – indicating the focus on finding the right fit that has long been emphasized by the SPS Office of College Advising.
“Our goal is to use the college search experience as part of the educational process,” says Dean of College Advising Tim Pratt. “We want them to figure how they can be best prepared to succeed wherever they go.”
Eight members of the form will attend the University of Pennsylvania, Brown, and Georgetown, while seven will attend Boston College. With some uncertainty due to unusually active wait-list activity this spring, at least five form members will attend Harvard and Princeton, while five each are committed to Dartmouth and Northwestern. So far, 16 Sixth Formers – 10 percent of the form – have received wait-list offers, about twice as many as usual.
Thirty-nine of the students, says Pratt, will be the only member of the SPS Form of 2015 enrolled at their respective colleges. Only 19 colleges will enroll three or more members of the SPS Form of 2015, most of them large universities with wide offerings.
This year’s Sixth Formers Applied to more schools – 198 – than any previous form. Brown, Georgetown, UPenn, Columbia, Yale, BC, Berkeley, Dartmouth, Harvard, Stanford, NYU, UCLA, Cornell, Princeton, the University of Virginia, St. Andrew’s, and the University of Southern California each received at least 20 applications from St. Paul’s students for the Class of 2019.
College admissions remained ultra-competitive in 2014-15, with more than 30 schools completing the admissions cycle with acceptance rates below 20 percent. Those included Amherst (12%), Bowdoin (15%), Brown (8%), Claremont McKenna (10%), Columbia (6%), Cornell (15%), Dartmouth (10%), Duke (11%), Georgetown (16%), Harvard (5%), Johns Hopkins (12%), Middlebury (17%), MIT (8%), Northwestern (13%), Pitzer (13%), Pomona (10%), Princeton (7%), Rice (15%), Stanford (5%), Swarthmore (12%), Tufts (16%), UChicago (8%), UPenn (10%), USC (17%), Vanderbilt (11%), Williams (17%), and Yale (6%). At least a dozen others featured admit rates of less than 30 percent.
Pratt said this year, perhaps more than in recent years, cost was a significant factor in many Sixth Formers’ college decisions. Many SPS students earned merit scholarships to help fund their college educations. Pratt also noted a greater attention to program offerings at colleges in the decision-making process of the graduating form members. Personal choice, he says, continues to factor into decisions on college destination.
“We continue to stress the individuality of this process and work hard to help each student find a set of schools that will provide the very best match,” says Pratt. “Criteria can vary immensely from student to student and our list is, appropriately, growing more and more diverse. This year was one of the best in recent memory, by any measure, and our students are headed to a wide array of outstanding colleges and universities.”
Rising seniors’ scores/grades are now in Naviance for our school. I was a skeptic until I saw friendlydaughter in there but now I’m finding it more telling than I expected. Patterns of acceptance/rejection are very interesting - you can see where schools don’t take kids with top grades/SATs because they don’t expect good yield from them. Also nice to see very good ED outcomes at friendlydaughter’s current top choice school!
I agree, @friendlymom, that Naviance can be a useful and interesting tool. Definitely factor in that many data points with outlier results are due to some kind of hook. However, the patterns that you can see were fascinating. It was easy to see that some schools really liked graduates of that boarding school, resulting acceptance rates well above the national average, and at others it was a non-factor, with acceptance rates at or below the national average. It was also telling to notice schools where stats (gpas and test scores) were very important and holisitic, more subjective considerations seemed to be less valued. (in my timeframe, Princeton definitely stood out in terms of fitting that profile)
We have seen a lot of schools in the course of a year – nearly 20! DS is talking as if there is one school that is his top choice, and that leaves me pondering the @PhotographerMom comment above on the usefulness of ED. I’m totally on board with her advice if there’s a clear sense of it and diligence has been done.
Still, what constitutes a “reach”, in this ED context, that’s likely to be a “wasted opportunity”? Yes, if the student’s GPA/testing doesn’t hit the median/mean norms, that’s a reach. A general admission rate of under 20% is often said to be a “reach” for “everybody” without the slam-dunk hook. Smaller schools (LACs) are said to push a lot of their athletic recruits into the ED pool, which would tighten up available slots considerably. But what about a university admitting over a thousand ED at a rate twice its general admissions, to about 30%? Assuming a candidate at the mean, would you say that this was a “reach” not worth going for, or is this an opportunity you would take as it is, after all, the #1 choice? Any and all thoughts are appreciated!
No-- it that case, it’s not a waste-- it’s making it more likely (because of the higher admit rate for ED)-- as long as your kid fits in with the median and is clearly qualified. Otherwise, if you don’t apply ED, your kid will be considered in the bigger regular decision pool with lower admit rate-- so, no matter how qualified they are, chances of getting in are lower. The throw away case is when a kid applies ED but is really NOT qualified, just “to see.” Then admission is very unlikely, so it’s throwing away an opportunity to apply to a school to which they ARE qualified and have a real shot at admission. The problems in general with ED are that some kids really don’t know their first choice yet (or change their mind later), OR need a lot of FA and want to really compare awards across schools. For those kids, EA schools may be worth an application, but ED might not be a good idea.
As do Ivy League schools.