Results – this will be a long post - my apologies
Trying to provide useful information for future applicants.
Happy to answer questions - we are really happy with these results. My daughter has a pretty unusual high school path -so we really were not sure how colleges would view this. Because of this and financial need, she applied to a lot of places.
Student Profile:
Female (white)
Kansas Resident
No hooks
3.79 unweighted, 4.59 weighted
No AP classes, but did take community college courses during junior/senior year (counted as dual listed so not a transfer student)
Test optional
Major: Biology – Ecological/Organismal Biology when available
Details on Extracurriculars below
School district:
Medium sized public school in good but not exceptional school district – majority (95+%) of college bound students go in-state public colleges or adjacent state public colleges with exchange agreements
Access to district-wide program that permits students to conduct research with college faculty
Financial Need:
Budget at 30K or less (Middle class income, with close to zero actual financial assets – this becomes important at schools that use CSS)
Extracurricular:
800+ hours conducting research at R1 institution, very interesting research topic – mentored other students
Won multiple poster awards, presentations at national, state, and local level, won at national-level conference in her research field (Biology focused topic)
350+ hours volunteering, at least 225 of volunteering hours at one location with increasing responsibility over 4 years. Competitive admission to volunteer program, in 4th year served on Student Advisory Council for the program (STEM related)
Results -amounts listed are COA
Bolded schools are Top 4; visits planned
High Reach (20% or less admit rate)
Wellesley – WL – wrote LOCI
Colorado College -accepted! 18K
Emory – rejected
Bates – WL -wrote LOCI
Middlebury – rejected
Tulane -rejected
Colby – WL – wrote LOCI, accepted off of wait list
Northeastern – Defer (EA) then WL, wrote LOCI
Reach (21 -34% admit rates)
Trinity -accepted, 23K
Oberlin -rejected
Skidmore – WL, declined waitlist spot
Scripps – WL – wrote LOCI
Kenyon – WL, declined waitlist spot
Macalester – Defer then Accepted, 22K - ATTENDING!
Denison - accepted 19K
Reed – waitlisted – declined waitlist spot
Target (35% - 69% admit rate)
Hobart and William Smith – accepted, 36K above budget
WPI -accepted, 36K, above budget
Bard – accepted
Syracuse – Waitlist, declined waitlist spot
Furman – accepted 25K
Union – accepted (after deferral)
St Olaf – accepted 21K
Brandeis – deferred then waitlisted -declined waitlist spot
Occidental College – accepted, 23K
SDSU – accepted, 55K above budget
Likely (70-90% admit rate)
Miami University (Oxford) – accepted 28K
University of Rhode Island -accepted 38K (not affordable),
Roger Williams -accepted, not affordable, 38K
Willamette – accepted, not affordable 38K
Wheaton – accepted, 30K
Safety (>90% admit rate)
University of Kansas (in-state safety), accepted
Central Michigan – accepted, 29K
(Edited by Moderator at the request of the OP to included final results.)