She applied to schools where her scores were at or above the 75th percentile SAT score. She applied to schools her guidance councilors also thought appropriate. Schools are ranked by some
Organizations. I apologize for referring to school ranking, however. We looked for fit. Size. Offerings. Location.
@GingerLand
I suggest your DD take a gap year and reapply to different colleges more strategically next year.
And NO, she should not reapply to any of the same colleges that rejected her this year.
Please read these two threads- both written by andi- from a while ago- the lessons learned are as as relevant now as they were then for hi stats kids.
and this one from 2016
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1876770-what-did-i-do-wrong-p1.html
OP, please try to stay positive and let your daughter know how incredibly fortunate she has. It is up to HER to make something out of her college education.
And believe me, you have no idea how much more “unfair” things could be for your child. I know.
@menloparkmom Just read those. Thank you. Can only say, OMG. I know we will get through this. And I know she is the same kid that wows us. It helps to know she is not alone. And she does have a safety in MHO if we can deal with the lack of merit money.
She has acceptances, that is the important thing to focus on. She CAN bloom where she is planted!
@GingerLand (editing because I missed a page)
OP, your daughter sounds amazing. It strikes me that being original on top of perfect is what they are looking for. It’s an obnoxious requirement. You guys have a right to be frustrated.
@MaineLonghorn I do know things can be unfair. And I am protective of my child because of her quite unfair diagnosis. And proud that she has done what she has with a burden most kids don’t have. I know I should not write when things are fresh. I’m bound to come off strident. But we are a family that gets the notion of unfair. Diseases are unfair. Unemployment is unfair. The list goes on.
@momofsenior1 this is my new mantra
I’m so sorry that you are struggling with this crazy process. I know you know this already, but the work and effort she put into all those accomplishments are not lost. They are the building blocks that will propel her to a wonderful future, success in college and career and beyond. I also hope that most of them were ends in themselves, that she did them out of love or passion or interest and that she enjoyed doing them. The awards and inventions and teaching are not really meant to be stepping stones. They are achievements that are their own rewards.
So many are in the same boat that your daughter will undoubtedly find herself amongst a group of highly accomplished, and possibly more capable group of kids than she would have otherwise.
@gallentjill I agree that most of her activities were done because she loves them and loves being booked and busy. But the art and the invention/coding she would not have taken the time to jump through hoops and enter competitions with except for colleges. If this is awful, I’m sorry. But she is mostly self taught in art and thought entering a competition could establish for college application purposes her skill. The same with the coding invention. But the hectic schedule she has also means she did not submit video supplements for colleges. I’m not sure that would have helped someone with no hooks any way.
@gingerland It isn’t awful. Its honest. Those of us with younger kids will have to decide whether its worth it to put on that kind of pressure. Personally, I don’t think it is. We may be at some kind of tipping point where parents and students just throw up their hands and stop participating in this craziness. The kids will do what they enjoy and what they love and go to the colleges that want them. I’m not saying that kids shouldn’t stretch themselves and try to excel, but it can’t be with the hope of some elite college. Thankfully, you have some great choices including Union. My D will be going there in the fall.
That is such a total bummer!!! I’m so sorry to hear this! It’s not fair! Yes, colleges do feel like businesses! And these super competitive colleges… who knows what they want???
Your daughter’s hard work will not go to waste! She sounds extremely bright and very accomplished! She is going places! She’ll get there! Good luck!!
FWIW, I love Union. They have gotten so much right there! A kid with your D’s talents could have an amazing experience there.
I appreciate that going through the process is a lousy way to figure it all out, but she’ll take her rock star qualities with her wherever she goes.
Did she apply to Case EA?
my advice to you is to focus on the schools remaining and figure out if she likes any of them enough to attend this year or if she really wants to do a gap year.
Also what were your EA results? if there was something wrong with the app you should have gotten some questionable results back in December. I don’t think the answer is to plan a 30 schools or go ED (we personally can’t afford ED) but I think it’s a good idea to have at least three EA schools so you can get an idea about your app in the fall. Matches and safeties.
My my oldest had the same stats as your D, but our focus was finding him a safety that he would actually like that offered merit. He heard back from Marist and Fordham in the fall and was like I could go to either of these and be happy. Then the RD apps should only be to affordable matches and reaches. No need for 30 apps, just some good EAs.
If you are concerned about something wrong with her app you might ask some of the counselor experts here to take a look.
This all seems strange to me. Did she waive her FERPA? Not doing that could cause a problem I suppose. If she did, I would ask her counselor if s/he can review the letters and see if s/he sees something something that would be a red flag - or something else in the application. I know that there are occasional statistical surprises, but this sounds like something else may be at play.
You said all students who applied from her school were waitlisted at Case. Did the GC reach out to the admission officer on that? How many kids applied?
@GingerLand I’m so sorry about the disappointment your family is dealing with — I can totally relate. My DD sounds very similar to yours (not as high stat, but her school list last year was full of supposed matches). An AO from one of the the schools where she was waitlisted honestly shared the fact that it’s hard for her demographic to stand out in many NE schools, especially as a psych major. These accomplished, yet “unhooked” girls are the most over represented group at many schools.
A year later my DD is thriving at her chosen school. As so many others have said — take the day to grieve, then move on to the schools that want her. She should look for opportunities & communities where she can explore her passions (some she may not have discovered yet) and maybe be the big fish in a big pond!
@GingerLand - I wish we could get together over a bottle of wine and commiserate. I feel very much the way you do right now. My kid has some good options, but I’m not feeling so great about the whole process. We have waitlists from a reach school as well as schools where he was well above the 75th % for stats. I wish I had gotten him to apply to Union - sounds like he would have been in great company there! But he thought it would be too much of a party school for him. Anyway, it has been a really stressful year and a rough week. I will never, ever, ever go through this again. Next kid is going to apply to all public schools or apply ED to a match. Really, the only reason I’m reluctant to send S19 to Penn State Main Campus (to which he was admitted immediately) is I think he’ll get lost in the sea of students without a little more direction. I think he’ll go nuts if he’s in huge lecture halls all day - he needs that back and forth intellectual discourse. Also, he needs a writing boot camp. He’s got the potential to be a phenomenal writer, but I feel like our public school has failed him a bit in that regard. Anyway, as of now, it’s kind of looking like this might be Hobart & William Smith’s gain. That is, unless I can get him to say yes to St. Lawrence, which is an even bigger bargain, and save his money for grad school.
OK, so, regarding Case - yes, I believe that they did accept too many kids last year. But didn’t their email say that they were expecting to take 300 kids off the wait-list this year? I would assume that means they learned their lesson and accepted less students this time around.
Have her revisit the schools where she has been admitted especially if they have an admitted students event. Deposit at one school and then wait to see what happens at her waitlist schools. There is also a list of schools that don’t fill their slots that comes out after May 1. There are usually some good schools on this list. Maybe one will be a fit for her.
If she decides to take a gap year, she can focus on dance and/or work to save money for college expenses. She can apply to a different list of schools and use ED/EA. There are lots of schools that offer automatic full ride merit for someone with her scores. University of Alabama for example. There are many threads on CC that discuss the good merit schools. Perhaps a session with a private college admissions counselor could bring clarity to the situation.