She also needs to consider whether spots in the front ensemble are available to anyone who want to join, or if they are competitive. If competitive, she might find she has made many friends during band camp, only to be cut from the band, and then the new friends don’t have much free time to spend with her, because a large chunk of their “free time” is devoted to rehearsals and performance.
@zozoty - It seems really riskly to apply to only three schools.
UMass does have early action - https://www.umass.edu/admissions/apply/dates-and-deadlines. They say Admission decisions will be communicated beginning in mid-December but in our experience they trickle out through January. Two other notes about UMass - first, the Honors College has become extremely competitive and difficult to predict but if your D can get her SAT up a little she would probably have an excellent chance. Secondly, UMass does tend to offer OOS accepted students more merit than other state schools. Their rationale is that even with merit the OOS students are still paying more than in-state. This worked against us (as MA residents) but should work in your favor if you live OOS. Neither of my kids decided to attend UMass but we know many who attend and they love it.
A lot of schools on your potential list were on my D15’s. UMBC offered excellent merit aid but the reputation as a commuter school wasn’t appealing. SUNY Stonybrook campus also lacked appeal, but they had some great programs for women in STEM. I think it could be a really good fit.
URochester was a high contender but they are very expensive and didn’t offer as much merit as other schools. D15 really liked their curriculum, which is very different and allows a lot of exploration. The kids we met on our two visits (and she did an overnight) were smart, very interesting and down to earth, but the extreme cold during winters was a deal-breaker.
I agree with others about weather in Blacksburg./VT. It’s beautiful in the mountains. Remote, but beautiful. My S17 looked seriously at VT and I know a few kids who attend. It has a wonderful “vibe” with super friendly people. If you are not far from NYC I believe there is a train, as well as direct flights, to Roanoke.
I don’t think the 3 that are picked make the list risky. If she wants to try for some merit money with no pit band pick two more. But she sounds like she has a clear vision of a passion she wants to keep doing so I wouldn’t be concerned if I were the parent.
@zozoty, I think I’d focus more on the pit requirement than on the neuroscience major. In just a few months, your daughter has shifted her intended major from pre-med to neuroscience. This is very normal, and she may very well change what she wants to do again, as she takes courses and makes new discoveries. But the band sounds like a passion, so if you can find a school that has that and also offers a broad range of science majors, she will probably find something she loves to do.
One of my daughter’s high school classmates went to WPI and loved it. He worked in a lab at Harvard for two summers while he was at WPI, and is now a doctoral student in chemistry at Cornell.
Rutgers is in central NJ, @ 1 hr from NYC and @1 hr from Philly. There are 3 different parts to the “Rutgers-New Brunswick” campus – 1. College Ave, an urban campus in the city of New Brunswick.
2. Busch/Livingston campuses in Piscataway (Engineering, Pharmacy, some sciences, etc). Haven’t seen it in a while so not sure where it sits on the urban/suburban spectrum. Definitely less urban than College Ave. Football stadium over there. And 3. Cook/Douglass campuses that are located together, outside of the city and are completely suburban, loads of green space.
If your D wants biological sciences, biochemistry, genetics, etc. I think that’s on Cook Campus, at the School of Environmental & Biological Sciences (SEBS). If she wants neuroscience specifically, I think that might be over on Busch/Livingston. But the Cook/Douglass campus is suburban and very nice, if you want to google it and look at some pics. Going to SEBS (or Cook College as it was formerly known) is akin to going to a school of 2-3,000 kids on a suburban campus. It is not the typical big state school/urban school experience you’re thinking of. I can’t really speak for the Busch/Livingston campus, as I’m not as familiar with the dorm/class building set up over there. If you’re on Cook/Douglass, the city and the football games are nearby if you want them, but you’re not in the middle of them if you don’t want them. Plus RWJ Univ Hospital and Bristol-Myers-Squibb Children’s Hospital are right there for research/internship opportunities.
I’m not sure why so many people in NJ don’t appreciate Rutgers. I have long thought many take it for granted because it’s in-state. But there is a lot of history to the school. It’s the 8th oldest univ in the country, founded in 1766. One of the nine “colonial colleges” chartered pre-Rev War, along with the Ivy League schools (sans Cornell) and William & Mary. In terms of rankings (for those who believe in them at all), it holds it’s own with your D’s top 3
Rutgers 69 USNWR/136 Forbes
UConn 56/144
UDel 81/150
UMass-Amherst 75/183
Thank you everyone! It is very helpful to get some outside perspectives on all of this, as like I said, the guidance office at her school is overwhelmed and not super helpful.
@jmek15 - thank you for letting me know about UMass Early action - I swear someone asked during our info session we visited and they said they didn’t have it. That is good to know! When we were there, they said the honors program admissions went by major – basically they took the top whatever percentage of applicants to each major. So some majors (like Comp Sci and Engineering) required much higher stats than others. I’m hoping that works in her favor a bit. What school did your D15 end up at?
@Massmom, @Waitingmomia @cameo43, @mom2and and @KatMT Thanks for the info re: WPI, Rutgers, JMU, Pitt and URochester. Since it is unlikely that we can visit, all of your perspectives are helpful in deciding where to apply.
@cnp55 - thanks for the info about UConn. When you say “Collegetown” what are you referring to? The only businesses we saw were in what I think was called Storrs Center, where there was a CVS, a few restaurants, and a Barnes & Noble along with some apartments above. We did not have a ton of time to drive around the area though, so maybe there’s something huge that we missed. We did stay in Mansfield and to me, 25 minutes is hugely far to have to drive for college kids - I was just astounded that there weren’t more local businesses competing for the patronage of what is basically a captive audience. (That’s pretty much all the town of State College, PA is!)
@hatchette - thanks for letting me know about the merit grid for Miami. It looks like the score ranges came down a bit since last year’s – it was a 1480 for Fall 2018 admission, which was one of the main reason D19 decided to take the SAT again this August. She was annoyed that she was 30 points shy of the top merit range. Still hoping she gets her scores up a bit but I’m glad she seems to be in range for this year’s cycle.
@mathmom - when you say a true safety, what exactly do you mean? I honestly am not sure how to define something as a safety because I know that each year, admissions gets more competitive and there’s always those freak denials. But when I look at the naviance scatterplot for UDel for her high school, she is near the tippy top of kids and there’s a ton of admissions for kids with stats lower than hers. Our school doesn’t do that many apps to UConn or UMass, but she is also well at the top of those (admittedly less data-filled) plots. We can make the finances work for any of them even without merit though merit is of course preferred. Am I wrong for considering them more-or-less safeties, at least where admissions is concerned?
@CTScoutmom - that is a factor to consider. I’m not too worried about that for UConn and UDel as we met with the band directors at both and they reassured us that she may not get the exact instrument she wants, but she’ll get some kind of mallet instrument and a spot in the front ensemble as they don’t typically cut people from there. UMass is a little more competitive I think - we did not meet with the band director himself and I’d want to at least speak to him about how hard it is to get into the front ensemble before she accepted there. Usually you can send them video auditions and they can give you a good idea of where you’ll stand based on just watching the video.
@compmom - her medical condition is part of the reason she wants a single, but there’s really no absolutely reason medically that she needs to have one - her medical condition doesn’t require any ongoing treatment other than some dietary changes and hoping she’ll eventually grow out of it. It does make her fatigued and she tends to need a lot more sleep than most kids (and she has a hard time getting deep sleep as well) and so she’s worried about having a roomie who stays up late or makes noise or otherwise makes it hard for her to stick to her sleep schedule. But I’m not sure the disability office would see it that way - lots of kids need to learn to bend their sleep schedules around their roommates. I guess it would depend on how the doctor phrased whatever medical note we submitted. That’s actually something I need to research, I guess.
Thanks again to everyone who replied - I’m sorry if I missed acknowledging you by name!
If your daughter applies to the UD honors program, she will likely know a little earlier. If she is interested in that (it was absolutely amazing for my D and she was involved as a GA while in grad school, as well), the best thing to do is to give her admission application and essay for the honors program some real thought and attention. They love very specific, personal essays. The honors dorms are also quieter.
A true safety is a school that admits solely by stats or where the odds are overwhelmingly in her favor. If there are no red dots anywhere near her stats for U of Del, whe’s probably fine. The other true safety is the school that accepts you early enough that you can reconsider your list if you don’t get in. Rolling admissions or EA can both work. My older son did a priority application at RPI (it was invitational - I think based on PSAT score). He knew before Thanksgiving he was in. So that worked as a safety for him. Younger son had a safety according to Naviance (I’ve learned since that some kids don’t demonstrate enough interest at this school and get rejected, but that didn’t happen to him.) His other safety ended up being one of his reachiest schools - U of Chicago - which unexpectedly accepted him EA. When that acceptance came in he dropped the other school that was going to be a safety.
Pitt has rolling admissions. Apply NOW if she’s at all interested. You have better odds for merit/honors by applying early, and it’s a great acceptance to have early on in the game. We have friends whose kids went there and loved it. She’s in range for the honors program, too – https://oafa.pitt.edu/explore/pitthonors/
URochester is very clear that they want to feel loved. Get an interview, whether on-campus or with an alum.
As others have mentioned I would not get too hung up on Neuroscience and especially specific areas. Even if she majors in Biology/Psychology she’ll be able to put together a plan of study and hopefully find research so as to attend a graduate school in Neuroscience and then find her focus.
I’d highly recommend applying to Pitt NOW and most likely getting a decision in the next 6-8 weeks. It’s a quick application. She has a chance for merit (an especially good chance if her SAT makes it to 1500+). It’d be a great school academically and she could consider their Bachelor of Philosophy option in which the student will have to do original research and produce a Thesis and defend it to a multiple institution panel. https://www.honorscollege.pitt.edu/bphil-degree
It’s a great option to have in your back pocket even if you eventually go elsewhere.
@CountingDown Cross posted with you but looks like we had the exact same thought.
“”“When you say “Collegetown” what are you referring to? The only businesses we saw were in what I think was called Storrs Center, where there was a CVS, a few restaurants, and a Barnes & Noble along with some apartments above. We did not have a ton of time to drive around the area though, so maybe there’s something huge that we missed. We did stay in Mansfield and to me, 25 minutes is hugely far to have to drive for college kids - I was just astounded that there weren’t more local businesses competing for the patronage of what is basically a captive audience. (That’s pretty much all the town of State College, PA is!)”""
Yeah, maybe they are calling it Storrs Center. As a grad from the 70s it seemed absolutely HUGE to me and my roommate. Seemed to be several places to eat, cute places to shop, plus essential services. Did you stay in MansFIELD (which Storrs is a part of) or ManCHESTER which is a suburb of Hartford off I-84? Not much in Mansfield … Manchester has absolutely everything. There is a small mall in Willimantic which is just down 195 from the university with a Kohls and not sure what else. It’s next to a big (and newer) supermarket. As a college student we would take very short hops off campus for pizza or ice cream or the occasional fancy dinner. Some of those places are apparently gone, but I’m sure there are others to take their place.
I have not tried to go from UConn to Mohegan Sun, but it can’t be more than 30 minutes or so and there’s a ton of shopping dining and (ahem) casino-ing to be had there.