Wide Net Choices

<p>Hi All,
You gave me great advice before and along with my D, we have narrowed the list to 11 schools. I used Naviance to help guide me with admittance. I used CC to help guide me to schools that give good financial aid/merit.</p>

<p>Here are the stats:
A solid B student who lives in VA. SAT W-600, M-640, CR-610, ACT-26. Will take the SAT again in Oct.
Plays soccer (v), basketball (v), softball (v) all of which she doesn't want to play in college.
A year long entrepreneurial service learning project. Traveled to Zambia for 3 weeks for community service. An internship during the school year with political foundation. Summer before senior year, is working at a water park for the summer, first job. The private school does not rank or calculate GPA. URM is the only hook I could think of.</p>

<p>Can you let me know if these schools are good choices. I have 2 open slots that have not been confirmed. </p>

<ol>
<li>UVA (reach even though flagship)</li>
<li>George Mason</li>
<li>Howard</li>
<li>Spelman (or a diff women's college since I hear Spelman doesn't give alot of $$)</li>
<li>NC A & T</li>
<li>College of Wooster</li>
<li>GA Tech</li>
<li>GWU</li>
<li>---
10.---</li>
</ol>

<p>Looking at Southeastern Louisiana Univ, Louisiana State Uni, Ohio State Uni, Syracuse, Fordham, and Case Western Reserve to fill in last two open spaces.</p>

<p>Any info you can give me is greatly appreciated!! TIA!</p>

<p>Mount Holyoke?</p>

<p>Looking at this list I can’t figure out what your daughter is interested in. Big? Small? Urban? Rural? Strong science? International Relations? East Coast? Midwest? Historically Black College? Rah rah sports? Big Greek scene?</p>

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<p>thank you. Naviance doesn’t have enough history to give acceptance rates. I don’t know if that is good or bad.</p>

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<p>That is the problem. She will go in undecided but is leaning towards engineering. I know the list is all over, but that is what was suggested to me, cast a wide net, LOL.
Definitely not international relations.
Sports are important, she will play club sports, just not varsity.
Wants a huge school even though Im pushing for small. She would prefer big city, urban.
Interested in the Greek scene.</p>

<p>Case and Ohio State (Main campus) are as different as you can get except that both offer great opportunities for their students. Both are competitive for admissions but I think OSU might give you more financial aid for OOS and URM with average stats.</p>

<p>Register on Cappex for better admissions information. Someone will show up here and say “don’t trust that it’s self reported” except that it does no good for anyone to put that they are a 4.0 2300 SAT when they have a 3.0 and got 1500 SAT to see if they will be accepted at a school so I’m not really sure what difference it makes. Also, don’t put too much stock in the numbers for schools that look at applications holistically. Her mission trip might put her over a 4.0 2400 student, you just don’t know.</p>

<p>^try using the MHC thread here and there’s always info like that US News and a few others. My D looked at it and from the info session we sat in on, it seems your daughter is right in range. I believe they meet 100% of demonstrated need and have merit aid (if you qualify) which I cannot remember the details of. </p>

<p>I recall it had the highest acceptance rate of the schools my D was looking at - but don’t remember what they were.</p>

<p>It is a beautiful campus and has a very diverse and happy student body. Great academics as well. My D didn’t care for the coach so we dropped it, but otherwise, wonderful area as well with the 5 college consortium.</p>

<p>Good luck - wish I had more suggestions :)</p>

<p>

She will have to pay attention to the schools that require you to apply directly to their school of engineering as a first year student. It is often possible to transfer into engineering after a year in arts & sciences, but you will be behind your peers. Your ability to absorb this is often based on AP credit the student comes in with or taking summer courses. More often an extra semester(s) are needed to graduate on time as classes are based on sequence. Sometimes if students are unsure they apply to the e’school and then switch to A&S if they change their mind (a much easier transition at most schools).</p>

<p>Just my two cents.</p>

<p>Fordham is attractive if you don’t mind the 3-2 program. It sends you to Columbia so you wouldn’t have to leave friends behind and it gives her the big city. If she was surer about science and engineering some of the tech schools would find her very attractive as both of woman and a minority. Worcester Polytechnic for example - but it’s very small. It is part of a local college consortium.</p>

<p>What kind of engineering? Use the accreditation search at [ABET</a> -](<a href=“http://www.abet.org%5DABET”>http://www.abet.org) to see what kind of engineering each school offers.</p>

<p>If you reside in Virginia, what about Virginia Tech for engineering?</p>

<p>Try the net price calculator at each school to get a need-based financial aid estimate.</p>

<p>^ I thought about VT as well however based on grades/scores depending on where they are in the state this will also be a reach (VT admits are very regional). It is also rural so doesn’t meet the urban/city requirement. Finaid & merit also isn’t great, however their COA is lower then some other state schools (UVa & W&M).</p>

<p>My only advice is: Apply to more than 11 schools.</p>

<p>Admissions is becoming a lottery game.</p>

<p>Have you considered Bennett? It’s a tiny HBCU women’s college in Greensboro which offers a dual degree engineering program with NC A & T. Although D is looking at it for a non-engineering program, I understand Bennett and Spelman alone have produced more African American women Ph. D’s in the sciences than all Seven Sisters combined. </p>

<p>The dual program might give your D the best of both worlds- both women’s college and , coed college eexperiences, plus life at an HBCU, which seems to be important to her. Most HBCU’s have generous scholarships for students with even middling GPA’s and SCT/SAT scores in an effort to attract top students.</p>

<p>My H had the great fortune of meeting the most recent Bennett president Dr. Julianne Malveaux and was very impressed with her leadership of the school.</p>

<p>is Cappex the same thing as Naviance?</p>

<p>@Impersoanl. Wow, really, more than 11!!! Reading these threads, I understand what you are saying though. Students with stats higher than my D being rejected from schools! I never would have thought. I just have to find a good medium. Very hard list to compile.</p>

<p>Yes, more than 11. That was my personal experience.</p>

<p>The reason is that because of the Common App, many people are sending a large number of applications. Because of this, admission rates per application are necessarily falling.</p>

<p>A large number of applications can translate to a few admissions, whic also can translate to better fin aid/meri aid shopping.</p>

<p>For a related perspective on the already lottery-like nature of college admissions, see this thread: </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1370163-lotteries-college-admissions-one-atlantics-big-ideas-2012-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1370163-lotteries-college-admissions-one-atlantics-big-ideas-2012-a.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Cappex is sort of like Naviance except not specific to your school, and self reported.</p>

<p>I absolutely love the College of Wooster and it is generous with merit and need based aid, but it is very rural and quite small. Just want to be sure you know that :)</p>

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<p>thanks! yeah I have told her about the school. I found it from the CTCL site. Denison also sent us something in the mail. It is very hard trying to find the perfect school.</p>

<p>When you are talking Greek scene is she interested in African-American sororities (like AKA) or Panhellenic (like Tri Delt, Kappa Kappa Gamma) or multicultural? Unfortunately the smaller schools do not always offer the variety of African American sororities, but can be more diverse racially in general. There will often be a sorority presence within the town allowing for member of multiple schools to be in the same chapter. Not better or worse, just different. </p>

<p>We were on a merit aid hunt, so we ended up with 19 schools. Research for free applications when possible to get over the application sticker shock. </p>

<p>Also, Sweet Briar’s engineering program just became ABET-certified. They have special societies that are similar to traditional Greek life, as well as class-related big sis/little sis traditions.</p>