Girlie AGDee's College Search Thread

[DubaiSis]

Yes, Munchkin, I think the applications thing is geographic and also societal. In the city where I grew up (think largish suburb, but no adjacent urb) we had very good public schools, and everyone who went to college went to one of the Iowa schools, or to one of the good Catholic schools fairly nearby, Notre Dame and Marquette. I bet there weren't 10 applications total out of the 380 in my graduating class to any of the schools listed in this thread. Some certainly would have been able to get into those schools (it wasn't completely uncommon for a kid to have a perfect ACT score), but it just never occurred to most of us. Perfectly acceptable, close by and relatively affordable was pretty much what we thought, and between 3 big state schools, pretty much every major would have been covered.

I think this whole process would be really exciting but soooo anxiety-inducing.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by southbymidwest

Not that I am aware of anymore- they will publish 25%-75% ACT/SAT spreads, GPA averages for the current freshman class, etc., but you can never be sure until you get the notification that you are in.

Ahh, found the term I was looking for regarding a university trying to figure out if they are of importance to an applicant-they look for "demonstrated interest" in the form of visits, requests for information, discussions with admissions officers, etc. They track this stuff. Read it in a "Chronicle of Higher Education" article a few years back, was also echoed by daughter's high school counselor.

Yes, and this may be why she was waitlisted at Wellesley. She decided, last minute, to apply there.. no visit, no demonstrated interest ahead of time. One of her best friends since kindergarten will be swimming for them and she the application was free. When she scratched U Chicago off of her list, she added Wellesley. She is hoping that this will be the difference with Barnard since she went there for their Young Women's Leadership Institute last summer.

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

I think this whole process would be really exciting but soooo anxiety-inducing.

It is.. both, totally.

College confidential's Northwestern board was going nuts last night because Northwestern didn't publish results on the 4th Thursday of the month for the first time in 4 years. These kids are going insane over these decisions.

The Barnard board is going crazy too. Some people have called the admissions office and were told that decisions were being mailed yesterday or today. Others called and were told late next week. However, international students receive an email and they haven't gotten their emails yet, so decisions have likely not been mailed yet. For the past 7 years, accepted students get a large express mail envelope. Rejected get a regular envelope, not express.

I am regretting that I didn't push hypoallergenic to apply to some of the state schools where she would have gotten free ride tuition scholarships. I'm trying to let her follow her dreams, but perhaps I didn't push for some more practical options too. More safeties would have been a good idea. She considered "target" schools to be safeties and the rest are definitely "reach" schools.

[Sciencewoman]

Originally Posted by AGDee

She is hoping that this will be the difference with Barnard since she went there for their Young Women's Leadership Institute last summer.

It is.. both, totally.

College confidential's Northwestern board was going nuts last night because Northwestern didn't publish results on the 4th Thursday of the month for the first time in 4 years. These kids are going insane over these decisions.

The Barnard board is going crazy too. Some people have called the admissions office and were told that decisions were being mailed yesterday or today. Others called and were told late next week. However, international students receive an email and they haven't gotten their emails yet, so decisions have likely not been mailed yet. For the past 7 years, accepted students get a large express mail envelope. Rejected get a regular envelope, not express.

I am regretting that I didn't push hypoallergenic to apply to some of the state schools where she would have gotten free ride tuition scholarships. I'm trying to let her follow her dreams, but perhaps I didn't push for some more practical options too. More safeties would have been a good idea. She considered "target" schools to be safeties and the rest are definitely "reach" schools.

I think attending the institute at Barnard has to help. My daughter attended summer programs at Northwestern for 3 years and took on-line classes there for another 3. If she gets in there, I'm thinking that this would be a factor. She did get a special invitation to apply, which was obviously sent to the kids who are in the summer program's database. I heard from our NU chapter president that they do track visits/calls, etc. there...another sister works in the admissions office and this is what she said. On the other hand, the Georgetown rep. told us they do not track visits, because that would discriminate against students who cannot afford the travel expense of making college visits. I've heard/read this about some other schools, as well. I'm taking some of this with a grain of salt...I think you'd have to get a more serious look if you show demonstrated interest and they know you'd really love to attend if you got in (as opposed to padding your application list with this school just to be on the safe side).

My daughter applied to one definite safety state school with a great Honors program...where nice merit was an additional lure, one target flagship state school (virtually no aid), and 5 private schools that range in the 6%-30% acceptance range. Of those, she's accepted to the state schools, received early action deferred decision from one private school, and is in with a full ride at another. The rest she is waiting on. I'm predicting that she'll get into 2 that are left, and not the other 2. It was amazing to me, though, that the deferred school and the full-ride school have the exact same admissions stats and very similar "rankings"...one obviously loved her and the other deferred her. I will say that the one that loved her is one she loves back, and they knew it. It really is a great fit, and that came through in her application, interviews, etc. Everything just seemed to go great at every stage. Last night an admission rep. called to talk to her and see if she had any additional questions.

I do think she's going to end up where she was meant to. I think your daughter will, too. Sometimes this whole process feels like a crap shoot, and sometimes it feels like these admissions officers know what they're doing and they can tell who would bit a good fit, likely accept, etc. Too late, I found out that a number of flagship, OOS schools offer big merit scholarships, unlike the Michigan flagship schools. If I had known that, I might have encouraged her to apply to some of those. But I don't know if any of them would have actually appealed to her, so it might have been a waste of time anyway. I just don't think I can second guess any more.

I am thinking about you and your daughter. The NU boards blow-up is really an indication of how much stress these kids are under when they put themselves out there and await judgment from the highly selective schools. I think your daughter is brave, and I think there are many valuable life lessons to have learned throughout this process...interviewing skills, reaching for challenges, setting goals, handling rejection, etc. I say good for our daughters for taking on a challenge, knowing there would be some rejection, because the process does involve taking risks. They deserve a pat on the back for putting themselves out there at this tender age.