<p>Oh…and if you want to become a doctor, then knock yourself down a few rungs. The med school interviews aren’t only the “crazy test,” but they’re also the “we don’t want stuck up folks” test.</p>
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<p>On acceptance at an ED school, you don’t have to withdraw all your other applications until you confirm that the FA package is acceptable. So that logic is flawed.</p>
<p>Tufts is a very, very good school that is historically also full of Ivy rejects. On tour, I found them to be a very friendly, fun-loving bunch who don’t take themselves too seriously, and they do poke fun at the people down the hill. And OP, my reaction (and the whole family’s) to UPenn was exactly the same as yours. Yet we have a nephew who went to Wharton, and he’s perfectly fine.</p>
<p>As mentioned before, there are very few top LACs that are not in rural areas.</p>
<p>And for the record, there are no top schools without at least some degree of pretentiousness, except perhaps the military academies, where they break you freshman year and remove all trace of it, before reinserting it senior year, much to the annoyance of all the other non-Academy officers in the Armed Forces.</p>
<p>MBVLoveless – You should consider Oberlin in Ohio. Close to Cleveland. Around 3000 students, no frats and some of the nicest kids you would ever want to meet. Over 90% of the student body is from outside Ohio. Here are Oberlin’s College of Arts and Sciences’ class of 2017 middle of the class stats from its website:</p>
<p>Test Score Averages - Median 50 percent ranges
Class of 2017 in the College of Arts and Sciences
ACT 29-33
SAT critical reading 670-760
SAT mathematics 650-740
SAT writing 670-760
Class Rank
For first-year admitted students with rankings available
ranked in top 1% 22%
ranked in top 5% 59%
ranked in top 10% 76%
ranked in top 25% 96%</p>
<p>“On acceptance at an ED school, you don’t have to withdraw all your other applications until you confirm that the FA package is acceptable. So that logic is flawed.”</p>
<p>“If Brown is your first choice and you would definitely accept an offer of admission, you may choose our Early Decision plan. Under Early Decision, prospective students apply by November 1 and receive a decision by mid-December. We ask that you not submit an application to another Early Decision plan, or a single-choice Early Action plan. If you are admitted under our Early Decision plan you will need to withdraw all pending applications—including those you may have already submitted to Regular, Rolling, or (open) Early Action programs. If you are not comfortable making this level of commitment at such an early date, please feel free to wait and apply under our Regular Decision plan. This will allow you to consider other college options before making your final decision by May 1.” </p>
<p>“For applicants who have decided that the University of Pennsylvania is their first choice and who agree to matriculate if accepted, we encourage application under our Early Decision agreement. Children and grandchildren of alumni will receive the most consideration for their affiliation with the University during Early Decision. Early Decision applications are binding and represent a serious commitment to Penn. In signing the Early Decision agreement, a student agrees to withdraw applications from all other schools if admitted to Penn. Further, Early Decision applications supersede any non-binding Early Action applications. A student may apply Early Decision to only one institution. Accordingly, if a student applies Early Decision to the University of Pennsylvania and to another school, the Early Decision application to Penn will be withdrawn.”</p>
<p>Amen mom2collegekids - please let someone who wants to go there have the spot.</p>
<p>I always thought Oberlin was the definition of the school that thinks it’s so unpretentious it’s actually pretentious. </p>
<p>It is it’s own little world. A friend of D’s went to visit it with her mother to take a look at the writing program and they both despised it, but YMMV. Might be a great fit for OP, don’t go by our opinions, go by your own.</p>
<p>which you should know ahead of time based on the financial aid calculator which all top schools offer for transparency</p>
<p>Not really. There really isn’t transparency for many students at top schools. NPCs don’t work for students whose parents are divorced (and that’s huge chunk of kids) and they don’t work for students who have a parent who is self-employed or an independent contractor or who takes business deductions.</p>
<p>As soon as the ED results were in we started seeing posts from kids who didn’t get the aid that they expected because the NPCs didn’t work for them.</p>
<p>Read the fine print, rjkofnovi, no one is obligated to attend an ED school with an FA package they can’t afford. You’ll need to make that determination quickly, but there’s almost always a clause with that provision. In fact, I would advise students who have financial questions to not withdraw any applications until the FA package question is settled. It’s not like they’re going to check on you within two weeks anyway, there’s plenty of time to resolve the question.</p>
<p>^There was no “fine print” on those websites. It seems to imply to me that if you can’t afford to attend our school, do not apply ED. That is the height of pretentiousness.</p>
<p>Really interesting comments about ED. At my S’s school (Carnegie Mellon) a number of kids were able to attend because their financial aid package was really great on the ED. These were kids who would never have been able to afford CMU otherwise. My kid applied ED and got in with no financial aid (would never qualify) nor merit but certainly we are not wealthy. Just lived below our means, saved and almost always two incomes in professional jobs.</p>
<p>Look at Carlton, Macalester, WashU, Tulane, Emery</p>
<p>Occidental?</p>
<p>All schools that participate in the federal fa programs are required to offer NPC. I don’t think they always work - I plugged in numbers at a college in the south and got more FA than it fully cost to attend. Got pell and seog at another college (no way we are pell eligible, in the 8-10 k EFC range…)</p>
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<p>I believe the fine print is on the Common App ED agreement. This is from the Common App site:
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<p>Fair enough MrMom62. The common application wasn’t around when I attended college. I guess I’m just foolish enough to read a university website and assume it’s pretty accurate and complete.</p>
<p>It’s called Advertising. Since when has it ever been accurate or complete?</p>
<p>(But I agree that it should be. It just isn’t.)</p>
<p>Definitely look at Carleton. I wonder if you are a student at our local HS where roughly 100 apply to UMich out of a class of about 315. Largest app pool outside of the state of Michigan. My son is a Carl and while he works very hard he is happy as a clam.</p>
<p>Your list looks pretty elitist.</p>
<p>Additional ED rule on the common application:
How can it be any other way? A school won’t put itself in the business of somehow compelling attendance and then expelling when the bill can’t be paid.</p>
<p>one unforeseen consequence might be grad school however. turning down an ED offer and then later applying to the school would not look good - a lot of top privates ask if you’ve applied previously on grad school applications</p>