<p>If UMass is some place she can enjoy going, you are set to look for a few matches, and reach for the sky. Does she want to stay on the East Coast?</p>
<p>I think she will go to the best school she gets into, no matter where it is.</p>
<p>The best school for her, best reputation, best reputation in her field of interest, best in terms of campus amenities, best in terms of professors, best in class size, best in cost/value ratio. Lots of bests. Which is best Vanderbilt, Emory or Tufts? It depends on the definition. We always try to pick the best school that fits the situation.</p>
<p>In my neck of the woods, kids who liked Penn also liked U MD, BU, NYU, Fordham for an urban vibe but easier to get into.</p>
<p>I'll second Fordham. </p>
<p>Also -- Northeastern, Tulane, University of Wisconsin, American. </p>
<p>Also look at Barnard -- it may be a reach, but not as high a one as some of the others, and she can cross the street and take advantage of all Columbia offers.</p>
<p>Please tell me more about Barnard vs Columbia. She is opposed to applying to all girls' schools but Barnard is a possibility. How entwined in Columbia is it, etc. Thanks.</p>
<p>I add to the recommendations of Rochester--if she has the stats (including test scores), it could be a good safety. Barnard is probably, along with Scripps (a very different school and not urban), one of the most integrated women's colleges. Barnard classes will be majority female, but she could take lots of Columbia classes and the social aspect is, of course, just NYC.</p>
<p>Barnard and Columbia are well integrated. There are Barnard dorms, but there really isn't a Barnard per se in terms of classes from what I could see when I visited a young lady who goes there. She is on a Columbia sports team as the sports are integrated, and takes courses without regard as to whether they are considered B or C.</p>
<p>BU is another match/safety.</p>
<p>Charliesmom, if you go to the Barnard forum here on CC, you'll find a few parents who regularly post there and more information.</p>
<p>After freshman year, Barnard students can live in Columbia dorms. From day one, they can take Columbia classes and participate in all Columbia extracurriculars. But they also benefit from the more personal liberal arts atmosphere at Barnard.</p>
<p>Well, if she wants a geographical advantage in the applicant pool, how about Pomona or Pepperdine?</p>
<p>Don't know about Pepperdine, but Pomona gets plenty of kids from the NE. I can't find the pie chart, but there is one showing distribution by region. No state preference is given--I asked.</p>
<p>I can't overemphasize the importance of starting the search with schools that have a high probabability of acceptance and then adding more selective schools from there. Penn is going to be a tough reach for your D, and Rochester is probably a match or slight-reach, depending on your definition. You might have a better idea after she gets her SAT scores.</p>
<p>Just to put things in perspective, your daughter's current ACT score of 30 is roughly an SAT of 1340. Penn has a 25/75th percentile C+R SAT of 1330/1540 and an acceptance rate of 17%. U Rochester has a 25/75th percentile SAT of 1300/1430 and an acceptance rate of 43%. (Sorry, I like playing with numbers:) )</p>
<p>I would suggest looking at Case Western (similar to Rochester in many ways), which has a 25/75th SAT of 1270/1410, but their acceptance rate is quite high, around 75%. They are strong in the sciences with empahsis on research and have a reputation for studiousness if not school spirit. They have non-binding EA (an early acceptance is the best safety!) and give good merit aid. (Full disclosure--my son goes to Case!)</p>
<p>Dado'2 is right. Nothing wrong with picking those reach school, but do be aware that they are reaches, and that where your D is likely to be accepted is at the match and safety schools. If she does not put her time in carefully picking those, it can be an issue. Most folks with the attitude that they will go the best school that accepts them are pretty cheery about going to any of the highly selective schools. They get grim faced when they realize that their choice is among of a bunch of schools they just threw on the list to take care of the safeties that the GC insisted they have.</p>
<p>My son's girlfriend who is a bright young lady, found herself in that situation. She did not really apply to any safety schools. She threw in an EA app for a school and was accepted and that took care of her safety requirement. She did not care much about the school and never thought she would be going there. She is there this year, love it there, but it was a tough go last year as she received denial after denial and waitlists that she did not clear. And her stats are higher than the OP's D. It was just a tough year for admissions to the most select schools.</p>
<p>I think this trend is going to continue. As the economy worsens and folks have less to spend for college, many families are going to refuse to pound salt to pay for those high prices unless they are getting some prestige for the money. I have heard several people say, that they would borrow and break out the savings for HPY, but they'll be danged if they'll pay that for Private U that does not have the name appeal. From what I understand, apps are up for these top schools. It's the midranged and lower tier schools with high price tags that are really suffering.</p>
<p>cptofthehouse...I am curious. Where does your son's girlfriend go?</p>
<p>I think fireandrain's list makes sense for someone who likes Penn, Duke, Tufts....</p>
<p>Similar schools that could be safe or are more matchy would include Tulane, Lehigh, American, UM-CP, Villanova maybe</p>
<p>I have more information now so I will repost. So far my D has visited and loved Penn. Wash U., Emory and Tufts. She likes the size, location, excellent academics and school spirit/social life. Her unweighted GPA is 3.8, she has a 5 on the AP bio test, a 720 on the Bio SAT and a 30 on the ACT. She has a 1390/1600 and 2040/2400 on her SATs. Do any colleges superscore the ACTs? If so, she has a 31. She is interested in Michigan and Rochester. Others that she is considering are NYU, Columbia, Barnard, Brown, Tulane, U. Mass (we are from MA), Cornell, Middlebury, UVM, Syracuse, Wesleyan. She is on vacation next week and I am trying to put together a four day driving trip to see some schools. We are thinking about going to Upstate NY or to CT and vermont. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.</p>
<p>Charliesmom - </p>
<p>Here is what we are worried about.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/47867-were-picking-up-pieces-but-what-went-wrong.html?highlight=picking+pieces+wrong[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/47867-were-picking-up-pieces-but-what-went-wrong.html?highlight=picking+pieces+wrong</a>
(It turned out all right for him after a year off)</p>
<p>This spring, National Merit Scholar claqu is in the midst of a similar experience, although we are getting student’s eye view rather than the parent’s eye view that Andi provided in 2005 and 2006.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/690561-any-schools-still-accepting-applications.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/690561-any-schools-still-accepting-applications.html</a></p>
<p>It is so important for your daughter to have a choice of colleges she’d love to attend next spring. She’ll probably have many great options, but it is good to try to be as sure as possible that she has more than one choice *or an early (rolling admission) acceptance to a school she’d be happy to attend. <a href=“Maybe%20U%20Mass%20will%20be%20just%20right%20for%20that.”>/i</a></p>
<p>Tulane, Syracuse, UVM and probably UMass would suffice as “matches” (possibly safeties for Tulane, UVM, UMASS if she applies earlyaction, Syracuse doesn’t have EA only ED/RD)…almost all others are reaches (for most people, but especially with SAT/ACT scores posted)</p>
<p>I know you don’t care about merit $$ but best chance for $$ on this list is Tulane; UMiami MAY be another possibility.</p>
<p>In my opinion, your list is very reach heavy except for the schools mentioned above.</p>
<p>She really needs to get her ACT and SAT scores up to be more competitive. Please have her look at Wake Forest as they do not require that either the SAT or ACT be submitted on her application. She does need to interview however and it will be evaluative-believe the website when they say this.
We also visited UNC-we all hated it but the atmosphere at Wake was totally different and even though my daughter just chose Vanderbilt last week I still think Wake was my favorite for her.
Has she checked out Tulane? It is another medium sized great school but I heard they were swamped with applications last year- over 41,000 for around 1400 seats, so it could be harder to get in than Vanderbilt was this year.</p>
<p>For an upstate NY trip, you might want to visit Syracuse, Rochester, and Cornell for the Likely, Match, and Reach categories, but if it were me I would skip Cornell in favor another TBD match school. Use the trip to get a feel for what different types of schools would be like–not just specific schools. Different sizes, student bodies, activities, locations, living options, etc.</p>
<p>I think her 1390/1600 and 3.8 UW make her a “match” for Rochester, but realize that “match” usually means something like 50/50 odds. I’ve seen red x’s on the Rochester scattergrams with higher stats. It is hard to predict what attributes your DD may have to make her one of the 43% of the applicants they would have accepted in last year’s crop. </p>
<p>At the risk of beating the dead horse, you need to spend the most time finding and visiting multiple matches and safeties that she could get (almost) as excited about as the long-shot reaches. By all means apply to the reaches, just don’t take the rejections personally.</p>
<p>Last year, Columbia accepted 11% of applicants. Brown 14%. Penn 17%. Cornell 21%. Wash U 22%. Wesleyen 27%. Barnard 28%. NYU 32%. These numbers probably include some groups that are accepted at higher rates than the rest of us: URMs, legacies, atheletes, development admits, early decision applicants, etc. If you don’t have a hook, your odds are much lower, even with 1500/3.95.</p>