<p>I meant there is a need to hurry (if you haven't refreshed your browser).</p>
<p>thank you achat. That's a really good response. And yes Swat is the only place he wants to go; he can thus honestly say that and save face.<br>
Thanks again.
andi</p>
<p>I would chime in that the time is NOW to write, call, and have other information sent to Swarthmore. They will be studying this carefully as they anticipate May 1. I believe DD got her stuff to them the week after the waitlist news. If your son is not comfortable calling, he should write an powerful letter of interest. I do not recall anyone asking anything about her status at any other college . . .in fact I am sure they did not. All the best, Andi!</p>
<p>I agree with Achat! I think he needs to call, and to call asap. And her advice as to what to say if asked about his college plans is wonderful--honest, but not too much information. I'm glad you brought this up, Andi. It dawned on me that he needed to prepare for this question, but you asked about it before I could bring it up.</p>
<p>It's great to have this team -work going on here! </p>
<p>momofthree He's sent off his letter and some fantastic recs as well as the music. He was gearing up to call yesterday and when he stopped by to ask his GC what to say if that question popped up she said the call was "no big hurry!" Who in her right mind would ever utter those three words to a teenager :eek: However, I am greatly relieved that they didn't ask that question to your daughter. </p>
<p>Do you have any idea how they go about the process when they review the wait-list apps? Is there a day in May that they would inform students, or is it a gradual process? </p>
<p>searchingavalon thanks for the second vote of 'hurry up!' I will impress this upon my s when he returns home from school. I appreciate that you considered that he might need to be prepared for the question regarding other schools. It's not one that a person in his shoes would like to be asked and I think that having achat's answer in mind will make him feel a lot better.</p>
<p>Thanks all. I'll let you know what happens. I can't tell you how much it helps to have you all rooting for us!!! :) :) :)</p>
<p>Andi:</p>
<p>I am inclined to think that there is some hurry in trying to call the adcom. Sometime shortly after May 1st is the date when Swat will start going to the waitlist.</p>
<p>I can't evaluate what your GC is telling your son. Has she been able to provide any further information based on her conversation with Swarthmore? It's really a judgement call on your part whether the GC is a help or a hindrance at this point. If I hadn't gotten any good information, I'd really want to take control of the communication with the adcoms.</p>
<p>As for the question of the other schools: this is really a judgement call as well. I am inclined to think the best stance is one of honesty. Just have your son say that he screwed up his college list from the start, putting all his eggs in the HYP basket based on an over-reliance on test scores. Adcoms at a place like Swarthmore are certainly going to understand; it's not like it's an uncommon error. </p>
<p>Ideally, the GC should be playing the sympathy card for your son and taking care of the explanations, but I can't read how that advocacy is going.</p>
<p>Anyway, the phone call can be pretty simple: Just calling to confirm that you received my piano tape and to reinforce my strong desire to enroll at Swarthmore. Come up with an example or two of things that you have discovered about Swarthmore and why your interest is so high, etc.</p>
<p>The strategy of saying that your other options are right and that a gap year is a strong possibility if a Swat waitlist offer doesn't materialize may have some merit. Not being in your shoes, I hate to say, "yeah, I would definitely recommend that approach", but it sounds like it is worth considering.</p>
<p>The ideal time for a visit and to really push the issue is after the Ride to Tide open house -- say, during the last week of May.</p>
<p>About the visit, I think interesteddad meant the last week of April (not May).</p>
<p>Oops. Yeah. End of April.</p>
<p>with all due respect, i gotta wonder if maybe it's time for m. to back off a bit and let s. and g.c. deal with things from here on in. any admissions officer reading this thread -- and is a public forum -- could get the impression that m. is a tad overly invested in thisand that may not reflect too well on s.</p>
<p>mchs I appreciate your concern but for all intents I AM the GC. We're in a public school system where the GCs have way too many kids to begin with and s's GC just came to the school in September. The first time he ever met her was when he had to apply to college. She had probably met him once when she wrote his recommendation. As he wasn't accepted into any schools, I've had to take on this cause myself.
I realize this is a public forum but I don't think that any adcom would find fault with a person learning how to go about this.</p>
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<blockquote> <blockquote> <p>I don't think that any adcom would find fault with a person learning how to go about this<<<</p> </blockquote> </blockquote>
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<p>no, but i do think an adcom would be far more impressed by a kid who's doing that, not a parent. just something to think about in terms of "strategy"</p>
<p>mchs as I see you have only 6 posts on CC you likely don't know our situation. I really have to wonder why you would log on here simply to criticize a person when you have NO idea of what's going on. I'm here getting some help from some great people, if you can't contribute please don't participate.</p>
<p>Andi--Achat's advice sounds exactly right to me. I doubt if Swarthmore will ask about other schools, but if they do, it seems both honest and persuasive for your son to say that he's considering taking a gap year if he doesn't get into Swarthmore at this point. Is your son also planning to visit, and has he gotten in touch with someone in the music department?</p>
<p>I also agree he should make the call now; I can't imagine what the GC is thinking. (At a certain point we stopped asking my daughter's GC's advice because it had so often been wrong.) </p>
<p>Good luck--I keep thinking about you and your son, and hoping for good news soon.</p>
<p>Thanks for your support Editrix. It's great to hear from you. Thanks to the "CC guidance department," we've been doing everything we can possibly think of to do. Whatever happens in May at least we won't have the feeling that we didn't try!<br>
andi</p>
<p>Tomorrow, the 18th, is the last day to accept a position on the alternate list. Has anyone ever seen stats for the number of applicants who request to remain on the list? That would be a more helpful number to have than the number that are offered spots on the alternate list.</p>
<p>I have never seen that number published for Swarthmore. However, Williams expects to have 500 on its waiting list, so that probably gives you an order of magnitude.</p>
<p>It's kind of a meaningless number, however. They will be handpicking kids off that list to fill specific slots so the odds for any one student are impossible to predict.</p>
<p>Here's how it works. Let's say that they come up one pianist short come May 1st. They will probably call the next 5 pianists on the list and ask, "if we were to offer a spot, would you still be interested."</p>
<p>It is quite likely that the first person who says, "Interested, heck yeah, I'm interested. I've been tellin' you guys, I'd give my left arm to go to Swarthmore. Where do I wire the deposit?" will be offered that slot.</p>
<p>they told s's GC that there were 250-300 on the list, so I was just wondering how many would turn away the offer after that. However I suppose it doesn't really matter if they're looking for replacements the way you describe.</p>