The time has come to get serious about D22’s college search list. Her online searches have been more scattered than with D20, primarily because she has different criteria and without any campus visits, she’s been unable to really refine her criteria. I’ve held off coming here for suggestions while she’s researched schools on her own, some she’s found herself and some I’ve suggested. I’m primarily looking for match and safety options that might ultimately be great fits for her, and I’d love to get feedback and suggestions from people who have had the luxury and benefit of visiting schools and can give a bit more information than what the virtual tours and guidebooks provide.
A bit about her:
4.0 UW; Top 3% in a suburban high school outside Houston; class size 690 or so
Good academic rigor with 3 AP’s sophomore year, 4 this year, and 5-6 next year though she did drop AP Bio this year to a regular science class because of issues with the online teaching and some non-covid medical issues in September.
She’s played 2 sports in high school but is not interested in pursuing in college at a competitive level.
Has had some good leadership experiences with several typical school clubs and one activity outside of school that also ties in to community service.
Started a part-time business last spring that took off during quarantine and over the summer, and it’s really become her main hobby or interest since then. She’s made and saved enough money to pay for her summer trip to Spain with CIEE to practice her language skills (if that happens) while still donating almost 50% of her profits to her chosen charity campaign.
She’s kind, curious, a bit quirky with her fashion (her business is related), independent, self-disciplined, and funny. Teachers have emailed to tell me they find her delightful, appreciate her love of learning and contributions to class, and consider her a leader, which was a bit of a surprise this year considering she’s been completely virtual. She’s not one to sit still and is constantly doing something, like between classes she’s usually packaging sold items to ship or something else for her business.
Despite her class rank and high A’s in most classes she sometimes talks about “the really smart kids” implying that she’s not one of them. I think she views herself as smart and diligent but not tippy top, and that’s ok. She does like to talk about what she’s learning though, and I’ve enjoyed having her at home this year so that she can spontaneously pop in to my office and excitedly share tidbits with me.
Academic interests are a bit all over the place but somewhat coming in to focus. She’s excelled in social sciences but her experience with her business has opened her up to other possibilities she might want to explore. She enjoys reading non-fiction books that I’d characterize as Behavioral Economics but recently finished a book called Walkable City that has sparked a genuine interest in urban planning. If she pursued business I don’t think she’d take a direct path through an undergraduate business school but I see her maybe studying psychology, economics, urban studies, or history and combining her interests.
Lastly, standardized testing is still an unknown. She had a horrible testing experience in October with the ACT where there was a boy who coughed and gagged almost the entire test and she was extremely distracted. Her scores were far below her practice tests. She’s retaking in a few weeks and is also taking the SAT in March but she may need to explore test optional schools.
What She’s Looking For:
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Really wants an urban location or close access to a city
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overall size of school doesn’t really matter but would prefer smaller classes with discussion
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If not in an urban location would like to be able to walk to grab boba tea or coffee or visit a museum
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Her current dream school is Barnard but dream schools are easy to find and we need help finding great match and safety schools.
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She has a little wiggle room for her class rank to drop and still be auto-admit to UT-Austin so it could be a safety, though it’s not currently a top choice. Most of the girls she sees from her high school who attend seem to rush a sorority and she doesn’t really see herself doing that. I’d like to encourage her to at least look at Plan II but that’s a huge reach for anyone so I hesitate. She needs good targets and Plan II isn’t a target.
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Merit isn’t necessary though it would always be appreciated.
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Seems drawn to places like Boston, NYC, DC, & Chicago
Finally, she’s currently ruled out Tulane because she doesn’t want to go to school in New Orleans (despite loving the city’s history and charm) and Reed (because she considers its graduation rate to be low so she thinks students drop or transfer for a reason and she says where there’s smoke there’s fire). I’ve never visited Reed but still think it would be a good option for her to consider given her independence and personality plus it’s test optional/blind but at this point it’s a no go.
So bring on your school visit knowledge of vibe, campus and surrounding area, student life, etc! My D20 only looked at LACs so my knowledge of schools larger than 3,000 students is minimal. Thank you for your help!
She’s worked hard, learned a lot, researched and considered things like ethical pricing because she’s primarily selling second-hand items in a unique way, and developed creative ways to market it–all on her own. I’m not sure what she’s grossed but her net profits have probably only been about $12K, so it’s not something that’s taking the world by storm. The lessons she’s learned have been invaluable to her, and she’s enjoying it, so I think it’s been a good activity and certainly is still worthwhile. I just wouldn’t want to characterize it as something so special that it’s a Stanford-level startup. Now if schools like Stanford are still test optional next year then it might be worth adding some other reaches but I don’t anticipate she’s going to end up in the 99th percentile of testing. Thank you for the encouragement though. 
