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What is Davidson Looking for? High stats kid waitlisted
STEMFocus
39 replies3 threads Junior Member
Hello,
2nd attempt at post, 1st one disappeared? Apologies if shows up as repeat
Child #1 recently waitlisted for Davidson Class 2023, trying to decide if child #2 should apply for class 2024. Trying to figure out if good enough fit for Davidson and chance of merit aid (have looked at common dataset, including list of important factors considered)
Child #1: 4.0 UW, > 10 APs, top 10% Class (school ranks in deciles, informally top 2%), NMS, near perfect SAT, perfect SAT2’s, state and national level STEM awards, extensive STEM research experiences, long term STEM club involvement (including leadership roles), co captain of sport with sportsmanship award (not college recruit), very strong letters of rec, URM, male, upper middle class. No volunteer work outside of club activities. Made formal visit to Davidson and noted it in Why Davidson essay. Applied for Belk
Accepted at 2 top 5 liberal arts colleges (with fellowship enhancements for internships, travel, etc), 1 top 15 university, 4 OOS Flagships, all with honors, 3 with significant $. Only reject was top 3 Ivy (using USNWR rankings for convenience in description, rankings were not important factor in our college selection). Turned out did not want to go far away from home for the LA schools and ended up choosing OOS flagship. Might have selected Davidson if had been accepted. Child 1 happy with where going
Trying to figure out why waitlisted? Very surprised given well above 75% for Davidson stats (going in even thought had small chance for Belk, and some chance for other merit aid). Thinking 1) dearth of volunteer activities, 2) too STEM focused for Davidson’s preferences, or 3) possibly yield protection by Davidson-they didn’t think would attend?
Child #2 has essentially same stats and STEM focus, although also more interested in other areas than Child #1. Strongly wants to attend small, LA college.
Quandary is should child #2 apply to Davidson given so similar to child 1 who was waitlisted, and that affordability is very borderline without also win merit aid. Are they simply a poor fit for Davidson given lack of volunteer activities and strong STEM focus? Trying to limit # schools apply to 10 or less, most with merit aid possible and a few need aid only schools. Any input would be most welcome. Thank you.
Replies to: What is Davidson Looking for? High stats kid waitlisted
Does #2 love Davidson? I would follow his lead- loves it / applies, if not / does not
Unfortunately applying ED often means foregoing merit (since they don't need incentives to attract you) fortunately Belk requires early deadlines - November for the nomination, Dec3 for your application, but doesn't require an ED commitment.
What does your son want to do?
Also, though, where are you? Some areas have more than fierce competition and just have to be judicious in how many they take from there. It could be #1 was too focused, without balance, ex sports. You can always learn from that, fine tune with #2. Understand as much as you can about what different colleges do look for. That applies to the essay, too.
Good luck.
When it comes down to it, though, with holistic admissions there's a level of subjectivity/randomness so no way to pinpoint reasons on why candidate A got in over candidate B. I think that's if a top college is really your goal you have to play the numbers game and apply to at least 10 hoping the decision goes your way in at least 1 or 2 cases. (And, I'll add the standard CC advice: have a true safety where the student would be happy and can afford to attend.)
https://www.davidson.edu/admission-and-financial-aid/apply/admission-policies/application-selection-process
"Intellectual curiosity" is often a code for multiple interests, not just unilateral, and you'll see they mention service, as well as "depth and breadth."
You can find this sort of help on many colleges' own web sites. But note: when they rank, say, rigor over writing, it's not absolute. All pieces need to be there. In holistic, there really isn't any one factor that reigns over all others.
And about "subjective" reactions adcoms may have, remember that it's comparative. They see thousands of apps, have a deep understanding of what kids *can* do.
Last, don't have #2 apply too early. If an app gets mixed in with Early apps, it is not looked at until later. I can imagine too early has its own risks.
I agree with the above poster that your S should focus on the essays and show Davidson what he will bring to their community. And try to get in touch with the admissions officer if he can to show his true interest in the school.
Pure guessing here, in that Davidson does accept about half the class ED , and your son’s app was timed so that it got into this mix with RD being his thing. It was not a good place to be.
I would make sure that the essay really conveys a personality. That's often hard for good students to do and who are strong academic writers. But that's the place to be human, not an assembly of stats. And schools like Davidson admit people.
Child 1’s extreme STEM focus is simply who he is, his non stat related application aspects were arguably even stronger than his stats, but were definitely very narrow. Interestingly, that focus was specifically why he was accepted to several very high ranked schools he applied for. One top LAC offered him a $25K enhancement fellowship for research activities, and relayed to us at accepted student day that his research activities and extreme focus were why they offered him (his application conveyed who he was and they happened to want a student like him to round out that year’s class). That he didn’t get into Davidson simply seems to be a fit and perhaps some luck of the draw variance that you get with any very selective school, hence my thought I should have had Davidson as a reach. Also, applying RD in October was likely not helpful based on comments here.
Child 2 will be searching for merit to try and get into a small school, instead of primarily going the OOS merit route that child 1 decided on. Will be looking at strong smaller schools like Davidson, Richmond, Denison, maybe Wake Forest, maybe Wesleyan or Furman, with at least small chance of merit $ and good math/comp. sci.; a few OOS flagship safety schools with high probability of $, a couple top LAC need only schools, perhaps 1 ivy with strong need $.
One more thought. Homerdog, our kids applied to many of the same schools, your posts over past year were quite helpful. Best of luck to your son at Bowdoin, it’s a great school.
All that aside, anyone with such high stats still has a better than even shot at getting into Davidson. It just didn't go that way for your first child. But if your other still likes the school, it's worth definitely still worth trying. Good luck.