Has everyone received their financial aid yet?
@theboyoverthere yeah, they sent it to me in an email a couple days ago.
Is anyone going to Focus on Vassar?
Fin aid came a couple days ago – even better than net price calc, and very helpfully a short explanation of factors that might change (# siblings in undergrad, household size, # siblings in private school). Accepted Students days .
this Tuesday and also next Sunday. So exciting. Son is very fortunate to choose between two fantastic LACs, both of which have been nothing if not clear and up front and timely in their communication.
WIshing the best to all you students making your final decision ths month!
@nonameleft My DD got into Lafayette, Wesleyan, Grinnell, Macalester, Smith, and Centre (KY). Waitlisted at Vassar and denied at Bowdoin. Believe it or not, I think she is going to choose Centre + a gap year traveling internationally. Centre gave her excellent financial aid, so she really won’t have to borrow (essentially 50% of total tuition and fees), plus she really likes the small size and personal attention. And their stats for medical school acceptance top Smith’s! The downside is name recognition (not as important when you are planning grad school) and distance from home. Financial aid at all the other schools would have meant significant loans ($50-100K depending on the school.) We are still appealing, but not terribly optimistic. She got decent merit from Grinnell and Macalester, but not enough to make the difference.
@jlong88 Sorry for taking the thread off topic – but I just want to make a general comment that you need to be careful with medical school acceptance rates quoted by admissions (especially when comparing them between schools). It may sound obvious, but it is very important to understand exactly what goes into the numerator and denominator of the ratio as not all schools calculate med school acceptance rate in the same manner. For example:
–Some schools have more “weed out” classes than others reducing the number of students who continue on the pre-med path for four years (lowering the denominator).
–Certain colleges have committees which pre-screen and recommend med school applicants. These committees generally only recommend students who have the stats, experiences etc. to make them very strong candidates for med schools. Students who are not recommended are left out of the equation. In contrast, other colleges support all of the students who want to apply to med school. So while the schools with the pre-screening will have a higher acceptance rate (because of the lower denominator), a schools that support all students may be preferable.
–It is important to know what constitutes a med school acceptance for the med school acceptance rate. Some colleges just count US allopathic med school acceptances and other schools also include acceptances to DO, overseas med schools, podiatry etc. programs in the numerator leading to a higher med school acceptance rate.
This is not meant as a comment on any particular school, just more of a general statement.
@happy1 Thanks - got all your points about med school admission stats, and the schools are all pretty transparent. It was only US allopathic med schools, and they only considered students who they believed met qualifications (3.5 GPA or higher, requisite courses, etc.) The numbers were small at Centre (something like 14 students), but they only have a graduating class of 350 total. There may be some “weeding out” in terms of ability to do the work, but the criteria at Bowdoin and Smith were similar and the acceptance rates lower. That said, I would guess that more Bowdoin and Smith grads go to more prestigious med schools…if that matters to anyone.
@Jlong1220 can you tell me where you found the med school admission details for those schools? thank you!