<p>Marinmom-
If someone hasn't already caught it, Rice is a D1 not a D3 school</p>
<p>A female engineering major from Alaska with a 2200 SAT...shes into any school in the country...</p>
<p>If financial side is one of criteria for choosing school, ACT of 34 or 36 will result in considerably different Academic FA packages.</p>
<p>Something that hasn't been mentioned that is an issue at the reachiest schools is her HS curriculum. Has she taken the most challenging courses available in most/many/some subjects? If, for example, she has great grades in honors classes, but hasn't taken any of the APs available in those subjects, she's going to look somewhat less appealing to Ivies and their ilk. The SATIIs are an issue also. If she hasn't already, in October she should probably take MathIIC and at least one other; for example, whatever science subject she took this past year. </p>
<p>Being from Alaska has to be a significant plus for most private institutions, especially those on the east coast.</p>
<p>Can you say what schools were on her list before? It may be that all she needs to do is pick a few reaches to add to it.</p>
<p>first of all, congratlations to you and your for her overall accomplishment. </p>
<p>I sing a little different tone than some other people on this forum. With the stats your D has, I would say focus on top 20 (US News ranking) only - regard those top 5 as reaches, 6 - 15 as matches and 16 - 20 as safeties. . Our DD has stats lower than what your D has. She got in Stanford, Duke, Cornell etc.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP- you mean at the top universities that dont provide a ton of academic aid?</p>
<p>DadII, I think you are recommending a very risky approach. My son had 2230 SAT1, 2400 SAT2, top 1% of his class and he got rejected at MIT, Caltech, Stanford and waitlisted at Harvey Mudd. He got into Harvard, but he had the advantage of being a legacy. I think your daughter had great recommendations and great essays, that made the difference. In fact I think Mathson's essays and recommendations probably helped most at Carnegie Mellon where they were read by computer scientists more than at other schools where the admissions committees are generalists.</p>
<p>^^No. I am not familiar with top top, but at in-state ACT = 34 might mean full tuition and 36 might mean full ride which is significant difference. I am sure it is different from state to state and school to school.</p>
<p>"No reaches"</p>
<p>Don't be silly.</p>
<p>And Dad II, your advice is very dangerous.</p>
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I sing a little different tone than some other people on this forum. With the stats your D has, I would say focus on top 20 (US News ranking) only - regard those top 5 as reaches, 6 - 15 as matches and 16 - 20 as safeties. . Our DD has stats lower than what your D has. She got in Stanford, Duke, Cornell etc.
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<p>Dad II! Have you not learned ANYTHING from this forum?
First off, you don't pick colleges simply by going down the USNWR list. You pick them based on what personally appeals to you, what experiences you want to have, what programs might ring your bell. Which might include #3, #12 and #27. You don't just go #1, #2, #3 and use USNWR as your selection mode.<br>
Second, there is not a single top 20 school that is a match or a safety for ANYONE, unless the parents are donating a wing. They are all reaches. For everyone. No matter how perfect the scores or how impressive the extracurriculars. Period.</p>
<p>Actually, Smith, Wellesley, and MHC are matches for a female with top stats. You only have to compete with half the pool. Males don't come into the equation.</p>
<p>PG, to the contrast, I have learnt plenty from this forum. </p>
<p>What if USNEWS list is personally appealing to an applicant? What makes you the judge to say what is right or wrong. What I said was my opinion and OP could take it any way he/she likes to. </p>
<p>From where I am, I did not see even one top student failed to gain admission into at least one of the top 20 schools. It was complete waste of time and money for a top 0.5%tile student to apply school outside that range, unless one could not find any of those schools applealing.</p>
<p>Sounds like a good match for Notre Dame.</p>
<p>Seems to me that swimming changes the equation somewhat. The trick for a college athlete is to find a college where there is a good fit both academically and with the sport. If there is serious interest on both sides, then applying ED makes a lot of sense. Our county tends to produce swimmers, sailors, crew team members, and the occasional soccer player or distance runner. There are always several athletes accepted ED (or SCEA) at very selective colleges. While they tend also to be outstanding students, that's clearly not the whole story. The Ivies don't give sports scholarships, but coaches do have some influence with admissions, esp. for ED.</p>
<p>The best way to find that fit is to approach the coach at each school of interest. There may be a coach at a Div 1 school who is willing to be a "cheerleader" for the OP's daughter during the admissions process. My d found a coach like that - not that it probably had much effect on admissions, since it's a Div III school, but hey, she got in...</p>
<p>I agree that the ACT score by itself doesn't make a lot of difference, but an overall history of success in hs and good test scores, when combined with swimming, make the "reach" schools worth exploring. I also agree that if she hasn't taken any of the SAT II's she should this fall to keep her options open. And make sure that there are a couple of safeties on the list!</p>
<p>"She is fairly certain she will major in Engineering but doesn't really want a "traditional engineering school"."</p>
<p>She may be a good match for the Smith Picker Program.</p>
<p>Good match for Rice U - and there is an increasing amount of merit aid plus good financial aid. :)</p>
<p>Seems to me that swimming changes the equation somewhat. </p>
<p>Swimming Div. I takes about 6 hours/day of practice, including Sat. and a lot of travel time. She will get much better academic scholarship. Swimming is never full scholarship anyway. Most very talented competitive swimmers that I know from age group swimming, people who swam most of their childhood, quit college swimming within few weeks of starting practice. Of course, some of them still do either b/c of tremendous love for sport or scholarship. It is a huge commitment and locks you out of a lot of other opportunities like volunteering, research, social life outside of sport,.... We left swimming out of decision equation.</p>
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From where I am, I did not see even one top student failed to gain admission into at least one of the top 20 schools. It was complete waste of time and money for a top 0.5%tile student to apply school outside that range, unless one could not find any of those schools applealing.
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<p>I think you truly don't have an idea how much your dd hit the jackpot. Which is not to say that she wasn't eminently qualified or that you shouldn't be extremely proud of her, because you should. But she got into MULTIPLE top 20 schools. Do you understand that there are kids with stats like hers who indeed don't get into those schools? She truly hit this one out of the ballpark, Dad II, and it is not good advice to think that any student with similar stats will do the same.</p>
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I concur with others though that none of the top schools can be consider matches for anyone - they are still reaches. It's just that once you have those kind of scores and grades the matches kind of disappear!
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<p>Thank you for articulating this. You're exactly right. At the top level, there are only reaches and safeties. The admission rates are so low that there really can't be matches.</p>
<p>PG, let me repeat, "From where I am, I did not see even one top student failed to gain admission into at least one of the top 20 schools."</p>
<p>Could you find one example on CC that a student with stats similar to our DD (34 ACT, UW GPA 4.0, 10 AP, excellent E/C and very good recommendations) and applied to at least 5 of the top 20 schools that did not get into at least one of them?</p>
<p>While I am extremely proud of our DD, I don't think she hit a jackpot. From three merit $$ awarding schools - Duke, WashU and Vandy- she got in, she did not get one red penny of merit $$.</p>