Would she attend Brown if she got in ED, and have no regrets over the other choices?
If so, there’s no risk in applying ED there. At worst, she won’t get in and will still have her other choices. 
@MYOS1634 , I have discussed this with her ever since we first visited Brown. She won’t budge, even though she would be delighted to get into Brown. She is equally enamored of several of these colleges, and like I said, is a fatalist. If it were me, there is no question I would apply ED. I think Brown offers the best of everything the college experience is supposed to offer. She now is thinking she is going to add Whitman as a match. She is intrigued with Walla Walla!
@BadgerState Sorry, while there are certainly exceptions to the rule, I don’t think folks will ever consider MIT, UofChicago, Yale, JHU. CMU. WashU, Stanford to being kissing cousins of Arizona State, Penn State or similar schools. And while UVA is a top-flight public university…i have never seen where JMU has ever even cracked the top 25??
Update to this thread: well, she is all done, phew. At the last minute, William and Mary fell off the list, but Whitman went on about a month ago. One EA acceptance from Clark with a good scholarship of 20k a year. She has one more EA to hear from, fingers crossed.
Final list is:
Bates
Brown
Carleton
Clark Uni (accepted w/ 80k scholarship)
Dickinson
Kenyon
Oberlin
Franklin and Marshall
SUNY Geneseo (received what seems very like a “likely” letter. Thought only Ivy schools did that:-)
Uni of Rochester
Tufts
Whitman
She has no illusions about her chances at Brown, but she decided to “throw her hat in the ring”, otherwise she would always wonder. The essays she submitted were the best she has written. I am really proud of her for trying.
Interestingly, there are a couple of colleges that she has lost interest in since applying, even though she was genuinely interested before. I am not sure why. Her top choices are now very clear to her, of course mostly difficult to get into.
She has learned valuable lessons through this whole process, such as prioritizing what is important, interviewing skills, writing skills (every words counts when you only get 100!), and what she values in a college. This site has been tremendously helpful. Thanks to all of you who have provided great advice. Will update with a final decision in a few months. Wish her luck!
Thank you so much for the update. I’ll keep my fingers crossed!
Thanks @MYOS1634 . You have been one of the best sources of info:-)
BTW, any idea how long it takes to get an email from Tufts and Brown once the app has been submitted? She submitted a week ago and still no portal info. She doesn’t want to bug admissions yet.
I have been following this thread with interest as your daughter sounds a lot like my daughter, now a junior. Serious student, no interest in Greek life/partying. Our working list has a lot of overlap, including Brown as a top pick reach. Best of luck to your family as you navigate the process! Do keep us posted.
@mamaedefamilia , I have to laugh at post #14 of mine, way back on page 1. At least 8 of the colleges she has applied to are LACs out in the middle of nowhere! That cracks me up. I guess she realized over time that geography was the thing that had to be sacrificed in order for her to be at the kind of college she really wants. I suspect she will definitely end up in the middle of nowhere. In the beginning she was so insistent that she wanted easy access to a city. I think she realized, after lots of research and campus tours, that most of the time kids stay on campus, and these colleges offer so much great stuff to do.
Good luck to your daughter too. She should be open minded and focus on the most important qualities of a college. And yes, as other posters have said, EVERY campus has partiers, but is it at a level that she can tolerate? My D thinks that the kids at the colleges she is applying to will not heavily emphasize partying, even though she knows it happens at all of them. I highly recommend the web site college niche to your daughter. Lots of honest student reviews about all aspects of campus life, from food, to classes, to dating, to partying.
@Lindagaf Yep, my daughter initially had her heart set on New England and the PNW and now we’ve shifted to Ohio and Minnesota, partly due to money considerations. She’s not completely naive about partying; she’d just prefer that it not predominate within the student body. And, yes, niche is one of the better sites I’ve found regarding campus vibe. College counseling begins this week and hopefully the PSAT results REALLY will be released on the 7th! The process is kind of exciting when it’s not stressful and nerve-wracking.
These past few days offices were closed and officers on holiday, but things should be running again now. If you don’t hear back by the end of the week, contact them.
Hampshire, Reed, Stanford, Brown, Wesleyan. Most public schools should be avoided if partying is the top priority.
@okon2122 thanks. The original thread was started 18 months ago, and I just updated it with my daughter’s final application choices. Hopefully someone new will find your suggestions useful. All the colleges (except Stanford) that you mentioned were definitely mentioned earlier in this thread, so you have the right idea.
Mamaedefamilia, it is exciting, but it goes on forever!
@Lindagaf Thanks for this thread. I’ve enjoyed it very much. Many of the schools on your list are of interest. Would you mind telling me about Kenyon, Dickinson and Bates? What was it about them that your daughter found appealing? The people? The campus? Thanks and I wish your daughter all the best luck.
University of Oregon is definitely a party school…
Is there any large school with a 75% acceptance rate that isn’t?
@citymama9 those three colleges all appeal for different reasons. They are all small LACs, all a bit in the middle of nowhere, but they have their own character. Kenyon is very strong on writing, which is important to her. It is very good for her other interests too, such as art. It is the hardest of those three to get into, but probably one of the lowest on her list, though she does like it. We have not been able to visit the college, so all research has been via books and online. Dickinson is not quite a safety for her, but fingers crossed, she should get in. She likes it the best of all her match schools. Very small classes, excellent study abroad, good freshman seminar offerings. Bates is probably her top choice (tied with Carleton?) after Brown, and I really hope she gets in there. It has good art offerings, is excellent for English and Psych, which is probably what she will end up studying. It has all kinds of fun traditions (all of them do) and she loves the idea of the one month spring term, in which they seriously study something that’s “outside the box.”
All these colleges are recommended in _____ Recommendations for her areas of interest. All seem to have “quirky”, bright students, all have great professors, small classes (think Dickinson has the smallest, a plus) and the campuses are lovely. She genuinely likes every college she is applying to though. I would say the outliers on her list in terms of slightly different vibe are F & M, which is probably a little more sporty, Greeky than her ideal, and University of Rochester and Tufts, both of which feel very university-ish. All are cool though:-)
Another thought, she didn’t intially imagine she would end up applying to F &M and Rochester, but after visiting, realized they offered the educational environment she was after, as well as good vibe, smart kids, fun traditions, etc… So it is worth visiting a college if you are able, unless you are flat out not interested. It is important to be open minded, because finding the match and safety schools can be hard. Those schools are matches for her, btw, not safeties for sure.
@Lindagaf Thanks so much. Very, very helpful. I’m sure she will have some good choices. Your list looks great. Interesting that you said that Kenyon would be the hardest of the 3 to get into. I had always read that Bates had a smaller acceptance rate than Kenyon. Please keep us informed how this all turns out. I will bookmark this thread:)
@citymama9 my daughters stats are highest at Dickinson, high at Bates, and above average at Kenyon. Hence, for her, it will probably be harder to get into. That may not be true for other kids:-)
Bates is among the few to release regular decision stats. Last year it was an acceptance rate of 17.8%, AVG ACT of 32 and AVG SAT of about 2150.
For females, a good estimate of acceptance rate is 13 - 15% in regular decision.Yield was a bit over 40% for the class of 2019.
She has been accepted EA to Dickinson, with a 15k annual scholarship. We would have been very surprised if she hadn’t been accepted, but still it’s a relief. Of her match schools, she likes Dickinson the best, so it’s a good day for her. Wish she had been awarded a little more, but if she decides that’s the school for her, we will see if they can sweeten the offer.