<p>Oh, come on. What do you think our friend PCP is going to do? Tell his kid that he can’t apply to #35? “Well, son, it may be a great fit, but it’s not between #15 and #30, so forget about it.” Give me a break.</p>
<p>That’s one of the lovely things about this forum. If you make any kind of statement whatsoever, you can bet that someone will latch onto it, take it absolutely literally, and then criticize you for being unreasonable. All of us should realize by now that “top 20” or “top 40” are just shorthand for “schools with really good academic reputations”.</p>
<p>Chew on this: I’ve decided that school #7 is the school for my son. That’s the one he’s going to apply to. If next year’s US News ranking has a different school at #7, then my son will have to transfer, because I have decided that #7 is where he belongs. Sorry, but no 8th-ranked school is good enough for my kid. Nosirree. It’s #7 or bust.</p>
<p>My suggestion way back (50 pages ago) for PCP’s son, ED to Cornell and EA to Chicago. I think he is within range with Cornell, and ED would tip him over. Cornell is such a large university, it could offer him similar opportunities as MIT(I think PCP’s son is also interested in MIT, right?). The only down side is if he were to be accepted at Cornell, he would forego his dream school, but there is always the grad school.</p>
<p>I looked up the schools where I applied as a high schooler, and turns out I applied to (and got into) #4, #12, #12 and #23. Except one of the #12’s was my backup school – intended only as a desperate emergency that I did not want to go to, and would have much preferred #23 over it … and I wound up choosing the other #12 over #4. The horrors!</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, that’s a neat idea! I just looked up the undergrad schools that I applied to and found the following:</p>
<h1>53 - admitted with token scholarship</h1>
<h1>77 - admitted with no scholarship</h1>
<p>Tier 3 - admitted with full tuition (attended)
Tier 4 - admitted with full tuition</p>
<p>Of course, at the time I had no concept of rankings. I was first-generation and didn’t even realize there were colleges in states other than my own. Ah, if I had it to do over again…</p>
<p>Thank you Pizzagirl & mantori! I’m glad after 60+ pages of discussion and sharing, some parents here now understand me :). I take Dad’o’2 comment as an attempt at levity, not an attempt to draw line in the sand.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>oldfort - thanks for the thoughts! </p>
<p>Yes, his top choices are still MIT and Harvard, not because they are the most prestigious schools on his list, but because they are physically close to his research lab and they offer the best genetics programs anywhere. He is very familiar with the lay of land here. He told me that it took him a long time to into his current “circle” and that he’d have to rebuild all the connections again if he leaves the area. </p>
<p>This is the reason I wrote what I wrote on post #890. I know his chances at Cornell ED (ditto JHU) are good, but as you said he may have to forgo his dream school. I’m still struggling with this. It gnaws at me that he may be denied a seat at a top institution in his field of passion because he did not apply ED. Honestly, if it comes down to Cornell and Tufts, I don’t know what he’ll choose.</p>
<p>Btw, I’m very glad DS1 is not “limited to 6 applications”.</p>
<p>I applied to #1, #4 and #16. Interestingly it was #4 that was my safety and #16 was the match. When did Brown get to be less well regarded? Everyone loved Brown in my day!</p>
<p>I was accepted at all, but was made a Benjamin Franklin Scholar at Penn.</p>
<p>My apologies to PCP and everybody else for my ambiguous post–I was frustrated with the GC telling PCP’s DS not to even bother with Rochester. To me, she drew the line in the sand, to the detriment of the student.</p>
<p>He may very well get into several schools in the #15-30 range, but I happen to like Rochester (#35), Case (#41), and Rensselaer (#42) a lot, and I think that some of the schools in this class might be a better fit for any particular kid. I’m glad to see Mantori taking a shine to some of those as matches. Once you nail down some high-prob schools that actually fit your kid reasonably well, then have fun with the top of the list! </p>
<p>(I’m particularly sensitive since I used to snobbishly think schools in this range weren’t good enough for my first kid, who is now fitting in quite nicely at one of them. With my second kid, I’m trying to behave myself.)</p>
<p>
[QUOTE=Dad’o’2]
My apologies to PCP and everybody else for my ambiguous post
[/quote]
</p>
<p>And my apologies for using your post as the springboard for a rant about one of my pet peeves. I know you didn’t mean it quite the way I interpreted it.</p>
<p>As for Rochester, the more I talk to parents, students, and counselors, the more I wonder why it isn’t one of the official “top 20”. It sounds wonderful academically, and even socially considering it’s in Rochester!</p>
<p>Well Rochester did get named one of the “25 New Ivies” by Newsweek a few years ago. Someone has noticed. I’m curious is what Rochester is like if you aren’t in science - the presentation at our school emphasized that aspect instead of making it seem like a more well rounded place. Syracuse is twice as big and considerably easier to get into. </p>
<p>That’s funny Pizzagirl. I’m sure we would have enjoyed each other.</p>
<p>Syracuse is bigger, and much more sports-focused. It has a very well-respected Newhouse School of Public Communication, which is more selective to get into than the rest of the school. </p>
<p>S and I visited Syracuse as a potential safety school, but neither of us liked it very much, and I doubt he will apply. It just felt too big and rah-rah, and S prefers theater and mock trial to sports. At the info session, they showed a fancy long video with appearances by famous alumni, such as Bob Costas, and S and I thought we were watching an infomercial. </p>
<p>OTOH, a friend of his loves sports and is interested in broadcast journalism, and he loved Syracuse after visiting.</p>
<p>Rochester is more selective and higher ranked, and smaller. I regret that we didn’t visit it when we made our swing through upstate NY, but I had never even heard of it before CC. Why isn’t Rochester in the PR Best 368 Colleges book?</p>
<p>I do not want to rain on people’s parades, but this thread is interesting and a bit unnerving. Face it, your kid is special, and even more so to you. And, these kids that fall into this category are brighter than most – and by that I mean 90-95%. But, the brilliance of your child may be dim(mer) when compared to the uber children out there applying to the schools #4, #12 etc.</p>
<p>I hear you loud and clear about the schools that would be “reaches” and how that acceptance dream (although not impossible) would be wonderful. </p>
<p>I believe a more pertinent discussion would be a focus upon the very good schools that may be open to your student whose weakness in grades or whatever may deny he or she from the “name” schools. For instance, wouldn’t a look to a Grinnell (40+% admitted) be a nice contrast to the extremely competitive Amherst, Williams or Bowdoin? Or even a place with a better chance than a Carlton. </p>
<p>How about other diamonds which are either in the rough or in the obscure. Those schools that challenge as much as the best, have good acceptance percentages of very qualified kids, which may be better or only known regionally but unknown or little known in other geographic regions? This thread could open a lot of eyes to schools like Reed, Whitman, Rose-Hulman, Cooper Union, Davidson with more detailed analysis. The kids fitting into this category are the kids attending those LAC’s and engineering schools. For those of you who know people who have gone to those schools with comparably bright children, you can tell us more. Harvard and Penn need little more revelation. How many really know the answer to this question?: Rank these schools by attendance – Rose-Hulman, Davidson, Grinnell, Whitman and Rice? You may be surprised.</p>
<p>I don’t know whether this is true, but it is in a comment without a source. But probably not far off. I find it hard to believe an admissions office would make this public.</p>
<p>Regardless, I think everybody concedes it is extremely difficult to get into these schools. And then when you look at which state you come from, there would be even fewer spots proportionally for some states.</p>
<p>This is the one that stands out to me. 350 development cases. Maybe I’m naive, but at the stratospheric levels of wealth that I was envisioning development cases to be (families capable of giving seven figure donations on a recurring basis), I was only thinking that there were, oh, I don’t know, maybe 25-50 or so of them in a given year at a given college. A few titans of business, a few celebrity-children, a few political-figure children, a few quiet-wealthy-old-money types. Someone disabuse me of my notions, quick!</p>
<p>Oh never mind. I see it’s unsourced. (I thought those numbers were in the article themselves, not in the comments.) It could be totally made up. NVM as the young ones say.</p>