I have not been on College Confidential for a while, but I appreciate those who gave feedback on my original post.
That post was closed; I thought I might give an update as Senior Year kicks off soon:
Based on some of the advice on my other post, she expanded her list and it now includes too many I believe.
(SAT in prior post from last fall: 800m/770v )
Full pay, no hooks, still has a 4.0uw, still has a record of 3 As/rest A+.
8 APs are now completed and all resulted in 5s, including APChem, APphysicsC, AP literature, APUSH, BC calculus.
She received a regional award for a stem project and a school award for top academics and leadership (4 females and 4 males received awards, out of 150 kids).
She continues to work on independent science research with a phD(started last winter) and continues to dance.
She was nominated by her school and attended NC governor’s school in a core interest area, less than 12% acceptance to this program.
(safeties are in the state of NC college system and are not listed).
All have enough ballet/dance either as an EC or in the surrounding community, as well as majors in her fields of interest. No particular order; per details from her counselor based on school data, 7 of these are matches, the rest reaches.
Yale
Harvard
Princeton
Wake
Columbia
Washington University ST Louis
UChicago
Swarthmore
Vassar
Amherst
Stanford
U Southern California
Johns Hopkins
MIT
Northwestern
Carnegie Mellon
Her main essay is done, and many of her applications are officially started.
Daughter and I are grateful for the advice and support of this community.
As long as she would be happy attending her in-state safey I guess this list is OK. It just seems super reach heavy to me (despite her excellent HS record).
Great list but the real decision point will be where she plays her ED card or if she risks SCEA and regular admissions to others. I would guess she has a good shot at ED at the ED schools on the list in which case the length of the list becomes irrelevant.
She will be shooting her shot at one of the restricted EA schools, currently two are “tied”, as those really have the best balance of ballet and stem and they were her top after all of the visits(we have seen all of these in person and she has done a lot of online seesions as well) .
Seems reach heavy and a LOT of work, even though she got an early start. To me the outliers are Wake, USC, Amherst and Swarthmore. What does she lose if she knocks them out?
It sounds like she had visits - is there a reason why she knocked out Barnard with its dance program and access to Columbia courses (minus the core) - she sure looks like a Barnard student on paper? No need to reply - but hope she did t miss that one when visiting Columbia.
Interesting, thanks, maybe not much, as they all are in her “bottom half” based on the fit. However, one is a safety and 2 are matches, per her counselor, so that makes it harder to cut them.
If she’s already got a safety in the state system she’s happy with… no need to add yet another, right? Swarthmore and Amherst are both reaches; Wake and USC are matches (with Wake likely being a pretty safe match) but I’m not sure they really fit with what it seems like she’s looking for. And she’s creating a lot of extra work. I don’t know anyone who has gotten into Swarthmore without a compelling “here’s why the school fits me like a glove” type of application, and that takes time (and is a completely different application from MIT’s!)
Thank you for the advice. This is excellent food for thought. I will ask her to confirm but I believe Wake is preferred over the UNC-system safeties. They admit deep into the class from our school, and have not rejected a student near her range based on data, so it is a nice additional solid safety . I will have to pick her brain on the specifics of the others.
Both Swarthmore and Amherst had acceptance rates of 7% this past cycle so if neither are a solid match for OP’s daughter’s interests, maybe drop those reaches from her list?
Also if the kid wants to keep the option of engineering open I think neither Amherst or Swarthmore have that? The danger with this list is yield management- but it student seems well advised.
Overall the list is reachy, but I defer to your HS GC. Since your D will apply to one of the REA schools, looks like the rest will be in RD, with the exception of USC which has an EA round this year and U Chicago, so make those EA deadlines.
If rejected (or perhaps even deferred) REA she could consider applying ED2 to UChicago. It is possible some other schools on her list have it. My DS23 is very similar to your d (perhaps weaker as not as many APs and no dance or EC at similar level, though he has other things she doesn’t) and a similar college list though he is applying to one of the schools ED. REA as you know is a big gamble as you give up the ED card and have to take your chances in RD which is rife with yield management for the kids with top stats.