My daughter has a 4.0 unweighted and 4.45 weighted gpa at a rural, public school that offers few AP or honors classes. She’s taken them all, and she’s received an A for each of the 3 college classes she’s taken at decent liberal arts college in our community. She’s held several leadership positions and won awards for her involvement in science, her musical abilities and her creative writing. The downside is that her ACT composite score is a 30. I suppose it will help that she’s hispanic. She’s visited both Vassar and Wesleyan, and she really feels either would be a perfect fit. We’re wondering is she should take advantage of Wesleyan’s test optional policy. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Maybe she should try the SAT and see if she does better on that? Some students do better on one format than the other, although they are becoming somewhat more similar in format. My kid doesn’t like the time pressure of the ACT.
Both Wesleyan and Vassar do holistic admissions so I think she has a reasonable chance.
Good luck!
What were the breakdown in the scores? Any focal areas of weakness? Did she have enough time to finish? ACT is more about speed and raw knowledge.
SAT is good for kids who can figure things out.
Both Vassar and Wesleyan are quite selective LACs.
However given her great GPA, and her endeavor to take college classes to compensate for few AP classes in high school, she seems to be a good candidate.
I would try re-taking SAT/ACT just for better shots before resorting to test optional policy. The policy is meant to help the students who can’t take SAT/ACT due to, for example, money issue(there are many but can’t think of them now).
I don’t know how Wesleyan handles a student who opts in test-optional policy, but this is what I heard from Bowdoin:
“We do not discriminate students who do not have test scores, but test scores help us evaluate students more”.
The 30 would provide a substantiating data point. (That is, if not submitted, they may assume a lower score.)
Why Wesleyan and Vassar?
Thanks for all of the thoughtful replies so far. She’s going to try the SATs, and she will take the ACTs again. In her practice work, she always seems to do slightly better on the ACTs, and she feels more comfortable with that test. She’s a hardworking kid with a strong knowledge base. She is able to finish the exam on time. Her sub-scores were 33 reading, 32 English, 28 science, and 27 math. I can’t remember the writing score, but it was in line with the other scores. Currently, she’s putting a lot of time into memorizing formulas for the math section. Wesleyan and Vassar appeal to her for similar reasons. She’s attracted to the open curriculum and the left-leaning student body. They both have strong English and creative writings programs that interest her. She also loves biology, and both schools offer excellent research opportunities. Most of all, when she was there, she got the feeling that these were places populated by high-achieving students who were more interested in collaborating with each other than in competing with each other. She especially loved the students she met at Wesleyan. She’s not a partier, so she was happy by the absence of greek life.
At this point, I think I would focus exclusively on the ACT. The SAT is changing it’s format, and it seems unclear as to what the new results will mean to colleges.
She’s clearly a match (with some chance of denial) at Vassar and Wes – just consider her 4.0 and her leadership positions. For a fully open curriculum and an excellent creative writing program, also consider Hamilton. Ham’s campus atmosphere (less overtly artsy, with some – though non-residential – fraternity and sorority participation) would be to some degree different than that at her current picks, however. Just one more composite point on her ACT would be helpful to her for any of these schools.
We’re going to visit Hamilton later this spring, and my daughter is hopeful that she can add the school to her wish list. She’s really looking to find a place where the students are driven to learn and do good work, but she doesn’t want a pressure cooker. She doesn’t want to feel like she’s in a competition for the top spot. Anxiety is her enemy. You seem to know a lot about Hamilton. Do you think it has the kind of academic atmosphere she prefers?
She’ll get into both. She has a perfect GPA and a Hispanic ACT of 30 = a 32/33 for non URMs.
So she’s set.
She could get in both, get rejected by both or get in one or the other. She is below average for both and would have a below average chance. Hispanic females are URMs but not the most underrepresented.
A 30 is a very handsome score but many kids with much higher scores get rejected all the time.
You need to include schools where she is near or at the top 25%.
- Hamilton is relaxed, not a pressure cooker.
- The creative and fine arts are valued there, but the school would not accurately be characterized as having an artsy veneer as some other schools might be. Think more woodsy, sporty. Academically, the college is notable for its balance.
- Their current middle range ACT is 31-33 (from the CDS). Your daughter might have a little more confidence going into the process if she can edge hers up a bit, but the minor increase she would need is a typical junior-to-senior improvement anyway. Further preparation will help. She has a great GPA which should also help her confidence.
- One visit will tell her a lot. Junior Preview Days are good times to go. She can then contrast her experience to those which she had at Vassar and Wes. Hamilton is different enough from these two other schools that she should have some pretty clear thoughts at that time, one way or the other.
Thanks, once again, for all of the great info, wisdom and advice. The safer (though not entirely) schools on her list to visit are Oberlin and Kenyon. We live in western Pennsylvania, so we can visit those school with relative ease. From what I’m hearing, Oberlin feels closer to Wesleyan, while Kenyon might be more like Hamilton. We can find more reach schools of a similar nature within striking distance (Swarthmore, Haverford), but it’s harder to identify more safe and match schools that fit her desires and talents. Maybe Skidmore. Maybe Lafayette.
“Oberlin feels closer to Wesleyan, while Kenyon might be more like Hamilton”
Probably. Denison may also have some similarities to Hamilton.
Connecticut College and Wesleyan go together in some ways, so CC may be a school to look into depending on how your other visits go.
@Honito we have very similar daughters. She is a theatre kid. My daughter’s ED1 school was Middlebury and didn’t get in. She was deciding between Wesleyan and Hamilton for ED2. She truly believed that she would be happy at either one of them which was why she was willing to ED. She felt something on the Hamilton campus the very 1st time that she went there. I totally understood because I felt something, too. Though, I preferred Wes just because it was closer to home. She chose to ED2 to Hamilton and got in. After Wesleyan, Kenyon was her next choice on her list. It was beautiful and we loved it there. We also really liked Oberlin. The town is bigger than Kenyon so there should be more going on around campus. And, Lafayette was on her list as well.
Hamilton…she has loved every second that she has been on that campus. She has found a great group of friends and has done extremely well. The town is small, and you have to want all of your activity happening on campus. She has also loved the open curriculum at Hamilton.
Good luck to her!!!
Merc81, I’ll definitely take a look at Denison and CC. Bwaygril1, your daughter’s story is very helpful. Good to hear that she’s found a great place for her. Was she similar to my daughter in test scores and GPA as well (ACT 30, 4.45 weighted gpa, 4.0 unweighted)? Hamilton is beginning to sound like a real possibility. I’m excited for her. Originally, we were going to swing by Colgate, but she says it seems like a party school. Are we wrong? Also, we might head over to University of Rochester.
Colgate is regarded by some as . . stating it as fairly as possible . . . having some of the attributes of a party school.
URoch is a great school to visit.
A reliable match or even safety school for your daughter would generally be any school for which she is fully qualified and at which the acceptance rate is ~30% or higher. CC and Denison fall into this category. Schools that are more selective can be considered to be high matches or low reaches, depending on factors that will be apparent.
The colleges discussed on this thread will have overlapping qualities. Of these qualities, academics is the one that should be most heavily weighted.
At the right dormitory or off campus house, on right night, Hamilton is a party school too. Partying at all schools is the norm.
Don’t dismiss Colgate because of what is talked about on the internet.
My daughter did the SAT. Her CR + M was a 1430 which was about a 32, but your daughter’s gpa is higher.
My daughter looked at Colgate, but she thought Colgate seemed limited in the Arts. She was on campus twice and all anyone talked about was the sports. Both tour guides and the Admission person who interviewed her had limited info about the Arts. She decided to walk away and focus on schools that seemed to appreciate the Arts more. Colgate is a beautiful campus.