<p>Ariadne, your guidance counselor is a moron…About 45+ percent of enrolled freshmen had a high school GPA lower than yours. Most were not recruited athletes. SAT’s are important. Your scores are very impressive and above the mid 50 percent (2000-2190) of all scores. You are aware that you also have to submit two SAT subject tests? Or, you can submit the ACT/w writing</p>
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<p>Another guidance counselor adage? The average GPA of enrolled freshman is 3.8. Somewhere in there is a whole lot of B’s, and I know for a fact some C’s as well</p>
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<p>Probably. Vassar admits scholar-athletes. Some were even IB diploma recipients. Go figger.</p>
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<p>No one suggested or intimated that all the students get along famously. They don’t. </p>
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<p>You shouldn’t underestimate your talent. </p>
<p>Ariadne, I honestly hope that you decide to apply and are accepted and elect to enroll. After you’ve become acquainted with a number athletes, please return to this thread and acknowledge that your perception of Vassar athletes was misguided. ;)</p>
<p>“Three Liberty League men’s swimming and diving teams were named Scholar All-America teams: Vassar College (3.56 team GPA - third highest in the nation among Division III programs)…”
2012-2013 season - see Liberty League website for full article.</p>
<p>I also hope you reconsider and apply to Vassar.</p>
<p>That’s not true. I have no pony in this game; I’m not an alum nor do I have any close ties to Vassar. But, I don’t think you’ll find a better reach school, Reed notwithstanding.</p>
<p>My GC is being realistic. My school is huge and super competitive. My GC spends a lot of time trying to explain that we probably won’t get into a top college unless we are at or above the 75th-percentile mark for the college. We might still not get in. Vassar does not care about SAT scores. They want high GPAs. Several students from my school usually apply to Vassar every year, and Vassar chooses the best ones. These students usually turn Vassar down for Brown or some other Ivy or higher ranked LAC. In the last 5 years, no ones gotten in with less than a 3.85. It gets harder each year.</p>
<p>I can avoid the jock culture by going to Reed or Wellesley. I think I have an excellent chance at Reed, and about a 50/50 chance at Wellesley. They are very different schools, and I dont even know which one I would choose. I don’t really want an all-women’s college, but it might be my best chance to attend an academic heavy weight school on the east coast. I visited Vassar and loved it, but I didn’t talk to lots of students. I think Vassar is trying to turn into a jock school as a way to attract guys. When you look at W’s athletic page, it says that the mission of W athletics is to “foster a culture of fitness.” If you scroll down, there are 3 links from which to choose. The first is physical education, the second is recreation, and the third and last one is athletics (varsity athletics). Vassars athletic home page is all about jocks. It turns me off.</p>
<p>I cannot imagine my life without music, but I dont want to do it professionally. Its too hard.</p>
<p>Yes, and it’s obvious from my school’s stats. I was so surprised when I found out that the average SAT scores are the same for both colleges. I think it’s easier to get into Vassar if you are an athlete, and there are fewer spots left over when the admissions committee is deciding on all the other applications. It becomes much harder at that point for other applicants to get in.</p>
<p>Ariadne, it sounds like you and your guidance counsellor are still trying to nail down match schools. None of the colleges mentioned so far (Vassar, Reed, Wellesley) are slam-dunks and you seem willing to make some drastic adjustments in order to obtain marginally different odds. Be that as it may, now that you’ve opened the door to single-sex colleges, have you considered Bryn Mawr? It has a 40% admissions rate.</p>
<p>I would like to respond to the OP about the environment at Vassar and whether you will “fit” in. My D is there and loves it. However, she comes from a very liberal town and a very diverse high school. Vassar is very liberal, both politically and socially. If my D were to go to a conservative, less diverse and more “Christian” school, I don’t think she would like it/fit in. I just wonder if Vassar is a good fit for someone like you.</p>
<p>OP, for you especially, going to a college like Vassar will expose you to new ideas and people. You will find people who are conservative or moderate and also people who are just the opposite. The experience will help you understand how different people think. Some people want to go to colleges where everyone is like them Others, like you, want to expand and try to understand differing points of view. It may not always be comfortable for you, but you have a strong value system in the way you were brought up and you will always have that to fall back on. You will always be a ‘Christian’, you are simply deciding to live in an environment different than what you are used to. Most people are fundamentally good, it doesn’t matter what their religious or political beliefs are. You will see that at Vassar. Kudos to you (and your parents) for being open to a broadening experience for your 4 years at college.</p>
<p>To Crewdad: Vassar has about twice the number of sports teams as Wellesley, because Vassar is coed and Wellesley is not. Vassar probably recruits more athletes to fill these teams. Maybe that explains why Wellesley doesn’t screw over excellent applicants from my high school the way Vassar does. Anyone know how many athletes are recruited for each team each year? Vassar says lots of players are walk-ons, but even if only one or two players are recruited each year for each sports team, that’s a lot of spots. Athletes aren’t the only “special” applicants each year, just one of the least defensible, IMO. Guys, we are talking about education here. What does it have to do with sports? In the past, athletics were used by the Ivies to keep Jews out. Who are the colleges trying to keep out today?</p>
<p>I resent that the OP already seemed to know that she (maybe he) could definitely go to V if that’s her choice long before ED announcements are even made.</p>
<p>Um, think about that for a moment: which school ultimately winds up discriminating against more people? The single-sex college or the co-ed college?</p>
<p>Ariadne2014: Best of luck in applying to whichever choices your GC, your family & you decide. Ultimately, you’ll find the “right choice & fit.”</p>
<p>You may want to save what you’ve written here in a file to read after you’ve received your degree in the Class of 2018. Your opinion may or may not have changed in 4+ years, but your prespective, appreciation for alternate opionions and overall thougth process will certainly be different. Matriculating to and graduating from college tends to do this.</p>
<p>Chemusic: Lots of team players at Vassar and other LACS are walk-ons. Maybe the walk-ons bring up the average GPA of the Vassar teams. Even if not, why should I have to face a lottery in admissions but athletes don’t? Are athletes special?</p>
<p>Circuitrider: Um. Girls outperform boys in K-12 education, but colleges want 50/50 ratios. Wellesley discriminates against guys, but guys have it easier at other top LACs. Bet you knew this before you posted.</p>
<p>I decided to look through your posts. (What’s fair is fair.) How does your D feel about your posts? </p>
<p>I saw the thread about the article, “The Case Against High-School Sports”. You said that graduates of your D’s small private school currently play their sports at an Ivy, Amherst, and a Seven Sister school. Did you read the article? The author talks about why the president of Spelman College (Dr. Beverly Tatum) shut down the athletics program. She wants to use the facilities to help a larger number of students achieve physical fitness goals. In addition, the author explains that in a financially struggling public school district in Texas, the cost of supporting the football team interfered with funding for math and music programs.</p>
<p>Um. Educated adults like Dr. Tatum and other school officials (who have been to college, have presumably had their thought processes and perspectives changed by the experience, and have been exposed to a diversity of opinions) have thought about the damage done when we glorify high school and college athletics and athletes, and have taken action. I wish other college presidents had Dr. Tatum’s courage.</p>
<p>^^However, Dr. Tatum herself graduated from a co-ed college within one of the most competitive athletic conferences in the country. But, I bet you knew that before you posted.</p>
<p>My mother recommended that I read “The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College”, by Jacques Sternberg last summer. She thought reading it might help me understand how colleges might approach my application. In case you are not familiar with it, in 1999, the author of the book spent a lot of time following around an admissions officer from Wesleyan University, which is Dr. Tatum’s alma mater. It was at that time (1999) that Wesleyan began to actively recruit athletes. They had not been recruiting in a major way until then. Changing their policies to recruit more athletes was a topic of discussion at committee meetings that year, and the author talked about it. By 1999, Dr. Tatum had long since graduated. Dr. Tatum’s Wesleyan University was a different place than it is today.</p>
<p>You imply that athletics was a big deal at Wesleyan in Dr. Tatum’s day, and that is not correct. You also imply that I know that Wesleyan is in one of the most competitive athletic conferences in the country, and the truth is that I had no idea and don’t care either!</p>
<p>I just thought that someone who tries to give as much advice on CC as you do would know that it’s harder for girls to get into top colleges because more girls than guys apply and would not try to trick me into thinking, oh, girls have it easier because they can also apply to Wellesley. Guys are not discriminated against in the college application process at LACs just because they are guys.</p>
<p>Anyway, I don’t understand your argument. Even if athletics had been a big deal at Wesleyan back when Dr. Tatum was a student, so what? How does that change what she does at Spelman?</p>
<p>^^I think what this illustrates is that you have a propensity for making sweeping statements on subjects about which you know nothing (and based on extremely superficial readings of otherwise marvellous books.) This is what Threesdad was suggesting when he posted that perhaps - just perhaps - you may look upon this thread in a different light after four years of college.</p>
<p>Ariadne2014, you have completely hijacked the OP’s thread. Why not make your own?</p>
<p>Mind you, I am no fan whatsoever of college athletics, and my daughter (h.s. senior) is a musician, not an athlete. </p>
<p>We have a friend, a Vassar student, who got into Vassar via Questbridge. She walked onto (is that the terminology?) the rugby team–a sport she had never played before, and she’s now a senior and a star of the Vassar rugby team. She couldn’t decide whether to apply to law school or medical school, so she took a position with a community service organization in Poughkeepsie and will decide next year.</p>