<p>Davidson is by far my top choice, and I recently found out I was waitlisted. Does anyone know the odds of getting off the waitlist? Is it worth my time or should i just give up and accept defeat?</p>
<p>--Other than sats, I don't know what else they want. I'm taking all APs (English, Gov, Bio, Calc, French V) as well as advanced studio art and an additional elective. Varsity A crew for two years with 4 golds and 2 silvers, National Honors Society, National French Contest (3rd in country), President of Art Gallery Committee, Peer Mediator, various other school clubs, girl scouts 9 yrs, organizer of religious retreat, member of communtiy emergency response team (i set up and ran a shelter single-handedly during a winter storm). My SATS are low, 2150 and I have a 3.8 at an extremely competitive high school.--</p>
<p>My one word of advice to those who were wait listed, write early and often. If you really want this school, nothing displays that emotion better than your begging, groveling, and knee bending where you plea for their acceptance.</p>
<p>Suck in some pride and beg and grovel. Start today. And, have the counselor and anyone else who can help you do the same -- IF THIS IS THE SCHOOL OF YOUR CHOICE.</p>
<p>They will listen, and you will probably see dividends from your efforts.</p>
<p>You are really a good candidate to get in, please do not give up. Don't let anyone tell you your SAT's are low either btw. On the old scale you got over a 1400 and ok thats not lights out but only about 10 schools currently have higher average sats than that - many including Davidson are working on it (stupid upperclassmen). I think if they open the waitlist you stand a heck of a chance, you might focus on finding and really using an identity outside of academics, good academics are a given here. You want the president to address your class at the start of the school year and say someone amoung you is (Bbby is talking about you now)"..." (either something truly unquie or nationally ranked something or other), and I think the emergency thing might fit the bill. </p>
<p>Ok so don't send doughnuts to admissions. Hehe I've heard some wierd stories about that. Anyhow, yes there is still a chance and you should do atleast 3 things. </p>
<p>1) Write them a letter saying of course you are still interested, that you WILL come if they accept you (this is unbelieveably important that they know), all with the pretense of updating them on the wonderful things you've been doing since your last correspondence - if there is nothing to write about do something you can write about - this is not the time to have 100% pure and unquestionable motives. In your leter you tell them to expect #2. </p>
<p>2) 1 additional superb reccomendation - must include (mix) not only academics but something else preferably independent of school - teacher you have for the first time this year who you have impressed but didn't really know them well enough when early/regular app was due, this teacher also knows about your involvement with Community Rescue Team and atleast can say how important it is to you. Don't be afraid to go outside of your school to get the rec so long as that person can speak towards something academically, such as some associate proffessor at a different school who knows their school would bend over backwards for you to come there. </p>
<p>3) You must have your college counselour / advisor / guidance counselour whatever title it is CALL them. you have to hope and pray this counselour knows what they are doing- most love making this call- they play all of their cards- your school's reputation - reccomending future top students - they brag about you - they don't hang up until the admission officer says "so if we were to accept mariellllll can you promise me s/he will come, is it a 100% gaurentee?" and your counselour has to be able to say instantly, without any hesitation "YES". Then they say "ok well it looks like we have a spot for mariellllll".
At this point your couselour isn't supposed to tell you s/he knows you are in but he/she might tell you anyway or after the fact. You'll get a call from the admissions officer who will brush around the bush, eventually they will ask you the same question "if we were to accept you would you come? - they will ask you if there is anything in the world that would stop you from coming if you were accepted, they'll have your aid package in front of them and they will share it with you, at this point you may say I'll have to think about it, which I wouldn't recomend but money is money, and when you finally say (or call them back) "yes I swear to you I will come if you accept me" then they will say "mariellllll, I have some good news for you." </p>
<p>OK so I hope I gave you some good advice, it's worked at least once recently. I also hope I gave you something to dream about because dreaming is important - try to dream - it will help you attack the other steps with ambition. You must keep fighting, being waitlisted is a compliment not a put down - consider yourself 95% of the way there - just because everyone else hands in their test 5 minutes before lunch doesn't mean you should also espeaially if you haven't answerd the last question! If you don't get in content yourself with the knowledge that we have the lamest fight song in the country-I'll send it to you if you like so you can have something to rip apart or more likely so you can start practicing..</p>
<p>Davidson College was my first choice. I am the valedictorian over the one of the largest high schools in North Carolina. I have a list of awards, clubs, and volunteer work 2 pages long. I've taken 13 AP classes, and my high school assured me that not only would I get into Davidson, I would receive a merit scholarship, based on past statistics. Another student in my county who goes to a school that does not have the prestige of my school, he had credentials not as great as myself and could only dream of the academic success that I have had. He will be attending Davidson College next fall on a full ride, while I was wait listed by Davidson. What does he have that I do not have? He plays football, and he's not a very good football player at that. It has been suggested to me that Davidson looks for smart athletes, not brilliant and hard working students who are committed to community service. Last year, when I was looking into Davidson, I heard horror stories of students who had made perfect scores on the SAT and were denied and people who had been denied by Davidson but were admitted to other prestigious colleges. I thought this was all b.s., but let the b.s. end right here! I will be attending Duke University next fall with a huge scholarship under my belt, yet I was not good enough for Davidson. Go figure. If you want in Davidson, do a sport that they value, and let them keep hiding behind the mask that they are searching for academic excellence.</p>
<p>The admissions person responsible for my area of North Carolina at Duke used to be Davidson's main admissions officer. He just got a better job at Duke.</p>
<p>While I cannot explain exactly why Davidson didn't accept you, I assure you Davidson does cherish community service and academics (I would include "more than Duke" but that is not the point here). I will offer one reason Davidson may not have accepted you that I think you will appreciate, namely that Davidson knew you would get into many other fantastic schools, with great packages, and if you didn't show a keen interest in coming to Davidson, why would Davidson offer you admission and hurt their yield? Admissions are about numbers, not about justice or pure merit. Davidson will say they are looking for a good fit which is the nice way of saying what I said above. If for example someone writes in their app that they are looking for a large business school and that they applied to Davidson so they could say they got in, then I assure you the person will not get in even if they are Albert Einstein. Don't sweat it, I personally think Davidson rocks, I also know there is nothing wrong with Duke. I'm sure you will be happy at Duke, the mere fact you applied there indicates your willingness to attend there. Here's the rub with your post, Davidson isn't seeking pure academic excellence, they want to build an orchestra, a community, and there can't be 25 first flutes and no drummers. The wonderful thing about Davidson is that everyone contributes in some way to campus life outside of academics, I'm sure you would have too, just saying once a college passes a certain level of academic excellence, other considerations, the all around growth of character in the student body becomes more important and Davidson works towards that.</p>
<p>candicesummitt, if you displayed some of the rather mean, arrogant, and resentful attitude in your essays or high schol life that seem to be coming through in your posting here, it is possible that a small school like Davidson would have been hesitant to accept you. In a very small community every person really does make a difference and you need not jsut outstanding contibutors in tangible areas but people who can hold everything together--peacemakers, unifiers, smile-all-the-times, whatever you want to call them. The CC and other academic worlds are filed with stories of people who got into Duke but not Williams, Yale but not Amherst, as well as the other way around. and as you know some people choose Davidson over Duke, as well as vice versa. It may be that Duke saw your many virtues but that Davidson was looking for other qualities that you do not seem to consider important (and I don't mean being on a varsity team in high school); that does not mean you should knock Davidson or people who get in to Davidson. It may have been somthing as simple as geography, or something as complicated or subtle as bad fit. Good luck at Duke and congratulations on your acceptance, but don't make the smaller school the villain jsut because you didn't happen to be what it was looking for this year. Sometimes niceness counts, too.</p>
<p>In all fairness, it is worth noting that because of its Divison I status and strong team following (read:alumni support), Davidson spends literally ten times on its sports programs as the average LAC of its size--also, apparently, at the expense of more generous need-based aid (awarding it to barely 35% of the student body--substantially less than other schools in its category). Under these circumstances, lots of top academic applicants are bound to lose out to athletes who are less qualified academically.</p>
<p>Oh please. And you really think every Williams football player etc has great academic statistics, DIII play notwithstanding? Every school has spots set aside for athletes who are not always quite up to the academic level of some of the other applicants. And sometimes every school gets lucky with applicants who are really good at a sport or an art as well as with great GPA and/or test scores. My point is that small schools really do have to fill more than one niche when they can, and that an applicant like the one I repsonded to, who might seem to have an uncomfortably strong sense of entitlement on the grounds of valedictory identiry, might have been a bad fit. It is not inconceivable that someone who had other talents and strengths but was not the val (or even sal) would do more for the college community in various ways, both measurable and not measurable.</p>
<p>Candace--I think the choice of Duke is splendid for you. After watching how the administration and faculty basically convicted their LAX team and trashed them with their own political correctness, I am confident you have made the right choice and belong there.</p>
<p>wow! prety lively chat! My D is WL at a west coast LAC. We are waiting anxiously for a call. Thank you orangelights for your all encompassing advise, we have done most of what you have stated. Now the wait (even consider delivering homemade cookies! lol) But it was good to here a positive, stay optimistic thread, because no one one else gives the waitlisters hope and hope is all we have. Thanks.</p>
<p>I believe that les_travelled was referring more to the role of financial aid in admissions decisions than football, per se.</p>
<p>Relative to other similarly selective colleges, Davidson budgets relatively little need-based aid. A very significant percentage of its total aid budget is allocated for athletic scholarships and merit-aid. These budgets are going to impact admissions decisions. Of course, there is no way to know whether aid budgets impacted a specific admissions decision, but on a macro-level, the admissions office must try to enroll a class that fits the aid budget.</p>