I remember your post! Thank you for the encouragement to check out Brown, and thank you for the good wishes. So glad your son had such a wonderful time there and continues to be connected to his Brown community. Yes, my son did submit a music supplement. He also poured a lot of time and creativity into his video introduction. That was a fun component of the application!
3 Likes
Thank you! I’d seen that article and appreciate having that list of colleges with some of the same characteristics as Brown. Wesleyan was on my son’s list originally, but he had a bit of a negative response to it when we visited two summers ago. We really should have visited with more students there. It was a summer tour; the tour guide was not super engaging or knowledgeable vis a vis the questions we asked; and my son didn’t especially like Middletown. Also, he is left-leaning but not very politically active (I hope he’ll get more engaged as he moves into his adult life), so I wonder if what sounds to be intense social/political activism on Wesleyan’s campus might be off-putting for him. Brown has plenty of that as well, but because it’s bigger, it seems like there are a lot of different subcultures to be part of. I wonder about how he would feel about the social-political intensity at Oberlin as well, but Oberlin has the amazing music scene, which I know my son would love. Anyway, maybe he should send in an application to Wesleyan and if he gets in we could go to the accepted students day to get a better sense.
4 Likes
Thank you so much for this. Yes, I think you’re right that revisiting Wesleyan could really make sense given how my son’s preferences have evolved since the beginning of this process! If he weren’t so tired from all the visiting and application writing (not to mention school obligations), I would take him to visit again. I’ll talk with him about applying!
1 Like
Amazing music scene.
1 Like
Personally, I think it’s fair that if someone visited a college and didn’t like it, given the amount of colleges out there and the toll it takes that you’ve just described - they’d be better off putting their time and energy to others that they like.
He already has a negative connotation toward Wes. Why bother? If he applies, it won’t be with full interest, etc.
He’ll have enough to apply to schools he does feel positively about.
We all have biases.No reason to try and force change his when many others will work.
6 Likes
Good wisdom. Thank you.
1 Like
My artsy D, whom I thought would love Wesleyan, didn’t care for it when we toured early in her junior year. After being deferred by another NESCAC ED1, she agreed to apply RD since there was no supplement. FWIW, she ended up at a different NESCAC, neither the ED school nor Wes, but her theater and music friends who attended loved it.
4 Likes
I went to Wesleyan, neither of my kids loved it and both ended up at similar LACs in the Northeast.
2 Likes
Mine turned down my alma mater, also a non-NESCAC SLAC. She made the right decision and had a wonderful experience.
2 Likes
Thank you! That is good to know that there are no supplements. Also that her music friends loved it.
3 Likes
Wishing you good luck in the ED round.
3 Likes
Hi! I just wanted to share an update. My son ended up EDing to Brown. He heard a couple of days after the horrific shooting there that his application was deferred. He applied EA to St. Olaf, Macalester, and Oberlin. Still waiting to hear from Oberlin, but he got in with generous merit aid to both St. Olaf and Macalester. He also got into Pitt. He’s applied RD to way more schools than I thought he would, and most of them are reaches (other than University of Rochester and William and Mary, which may be targets). I will come back with results of the RD round. Wishing everyone well.
23 Likes
Good luck! According to the Brown website, they reject the majority of ED students and defer a much smaller number than many schools.
2 Likes
Congrats!
1 Like
Congrats! He already has some great landing spots. Hopefully you can relax a bit now while the other decisions come in.
1 Like
Thanks! Yes, he eventually felt OK about being deferred because he realized that, unlike at some other highly selective schools, the percentage of deferred applicants at Brown is pretty low.
Yes, thank you! He’s feeling much lighter now that everything is submitted. And he likes Macalester a lot, so that’s a nice acceptance to have.
7 Likes
He’s going to have a boatload of acceptances.
3 Likes
So kind of you. Thanks for all the encouragement.
That also justifies only applying RD to schools he would actually prefer to Macalester, regardless of what that means at this point for Likelies or Targets.
By the way, I also agreeing being deferred by Brown is an indication of a very strong application. There is no knowing what that means exactly, but again that is plenty of justification for taking his shots wherever he feels like he would thrive.
3 Likes