Can more graduating/graduated seniors do "actual results" threads?

90UW/92W average. Large, suburban public upstate NY high school, does not rank. No test scores. Captain of two varsity sports, recruited athlete for one, had mid-major DI offers but is going DIII. HOBY ambassador and JIF, NHS, handful of honors classes, 15 college credits-1 SUNY OCC, 2 SUNY Oswego, 1 SUPA (Syracuse University),1 AP. Solid essay and LOR. No need based aid anywhere.
Accepted EA:
-SUNY Fredonia, $2500 merit total COA $22k
-SUNY Oswego, $2500 merit total COA $23k
-SUNY Cortland, total COA $25k
-SUNY Buffalo (UB not Buff State) total COA $28k
-SUNY Stony Brook total COA $30k

Deferred EA to RD then accepted guaranteed for Fall 2026, (then also accepted study abroad Fall 2025 then start main campus Fall 2026)
-SUNY Binghamton total COA $31k (study abroad option more)

ENROLLED SUNY CORTLAND! Go Red Dragons! :heart:

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More of a reader than a poster, but I’ve learned a lot from these boards. Here’s my son’s results.

  • Major: Astronomy or Physics, depending on school

  • Large public urban high school (no in-depth college counseling)

  • GPA: 3.94 unweighted (school doesn’t weight)

  • ACT: 31 (took once, significantly higher than school’s average so didn’t do again; submitted everywhere)

  • Rank: school doesn’t rank

  • APs: 9 – Seminar: 3, Lang: 4, Human Geo: 5, US History: 5, Calc AB: 5, World History: 5. Projected to have two more 5s (Calc BC, US Gov) and one 4 (Lit) with this year’s tests. Known scores submitted.

  • DE: 4 (mostly science focused)

  • Honors: 2 (school doesn’t really offer)

  • Language: 3 years

  • Awards: several congressional certificates, one regional math competition win, AP scholar with distinction, AP African American Recognition, among other honors

  • ECs: Not a lot for reasons detailed in app/essays; significant, multi-year leadership in one club; quirky/unusual job, same for volunteerism.

  • Essays: quirky and interesting, no professional help

  • Recommendations: Saw one after the fact, disappointingly mundane from a teacher he has a good relationship with and has had for two years. With that, the other two may have been on par.

  • Financial aid: yes

  • First generation: no

Safety
Oregon State: Accepted into Honors College, $20k in scholarships and grants

Target
University of Washington (in-state): Accepted, waitlisted for Honors College, $26k in grants and scholarships (would cover full tuition and housing)

Whitman College (in-state): Accepted, scholarships: $30k merit/$31k need (would almost cover full tuition)

St. Olaf: Accepted, Presidential Scholar with $31k scholarship, housing scholarship with $3k

Reach

Bates (RD): Waitlist

Grinnell (RD): Waitlist

Kenyon (RD): Waitlist → Accepted, President’s Scholar with $25k, $34k need

Middlebury (RD): Accepted, $58k institutional grants

Vassar (RD): Accepted, $76k need scholarship (covers full tuition) COMMITTED

Rejected: Stanford, Yale, Columbia, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Amherst, Williams

Interviews: Swarthmore, Stanford, Bowdoin (all voluntary)

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Whoops, can’t seem to edit my original post anymore, but D25 applied RD everywhere, not ED (duh). :laughing:

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This thread has been so helpful to me & I’m excited to finally add to it:

S25, public urban exam school in the northeast
3.9 UW, 1510 SAT, NMF, 9 APs in all core subjects, likely social science major
Solid but not extraordinary ECs (debate, theater, music, community service)
Summer camp counselor job, youth coach job during the school year
Good writer with thoughtful essays

He wanted a small liberal arts school close to home, but we needed to keep the cost below $45k & hopefully lower (parents are both teachers–he received financial aid at about half of these schools, & amounts varied wildly).

Accepted & Affordable:
UMass Amherst (no merit, accepted off waitlist for honors college)
UMaine ($30k merit, honors college)
UVM ($25k merit, accepted off waitlist for honors college)
Wheaton College (MA) ($46k merit, honors program)
Clark University ($36k merit after appeal, honors program)
St. Olaf ($35k merit)
Dickinson ($45k merit)
Skidmore (affordable after financial aid appeal)
Colby (initially waitlisted, accepted on May 2)
Bowdoin ($1000 for NMF, affordable after financial aid appeal)–ATTENDING

Accepted but Unaffordable:
Fordham ($12k merit)
Bates
Conn College ($38k merit)
Oberlin
Vassar

Waitlisted:
Haverford
Wesleyan
Williams

Rejected:
Amherst

Takeaways:
Since cost was a driving factor, applying to so many schools turned out to be the right call for him. The merit aid landscape changes VERY quickly & it was good to have a range of options in the end. If we’d done more pre-acceptance visiting, we could have shortened this list, though.

NPCs & merit estimators were mostly accurate, but not entirely! He applied to several schools where we knew the NPC was $5-7k too high for us–this was good, since some of the prices turned out to be soft. He got $5k more than UVM’s calculator predicted. Oberlin offered less aid than their NPC. Bates offered a little more than NPC & Colby offered a lot more. Skidmore & Bowdoin both gave him game-changing $ on appeal; Vassar denied his aid appeal completely. In the end, the difference between his best need-based package (Colby) and his worst (Vassar) was $25k.

He applied to a lot of reaches, which also feels worth it in hindsight. When all the results were in, he had schools that felt like social fits, schools that were academic fits, schools that were financial fits, but they weren’t the same school. Of his reach schools, the ones that felt like the best social fits for him (Vassar, Wesleyan, Haverford) weren’t viable choices in the end. If we were full pay we could have cut his list way down, but applying to more reaches was worth the extra essay-writing for him.

He’s very excited about Bowdoin, as are we. Thanks so much to this community for all your help!

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TX Resident
Large public HS outside of the big 4 metros
1510/4.0/top 8%/political science
10APs
Course rigor concerns (did not take extra STEM classes like many of the top students at my school, 3 years of history, 2 of FL, Calc AB and then AP Stats)
National-level (ish) clarinetist, debate, other community ECs, internships for local politicians
Interesting and unique essays, Strong LORs

Accepted
Various schools as safeties that I never seriously considered over TAMU (UMinn, Alabama, Drake, etc.)
TAMU (honors)
SMU (honors, 30k merit)
UGA (honors)
Trinity (33k merit)
Macalester (20k merit)
Richmond (20k merit)
Northeastern (Oakland)
Gettysburg (52k and Eisenhower Scholar)
Colby
Wesleyan
W&L
Denison (30k)
Oberlin (26k)
Kenyon (30k)
UT-Austin (LBJ School, committed!)

WL
WashU
Grinnell

Rejected
Brown
Georgetown (Defer->reject)

The decision came down to Wesleyan or UT, and we decided on UT–it was cheaper, much closer to home, and there were some other personal reasons that influenced it. The LBJ school is well-resourced and right in the middle of one of the top public policy hubs in the country.

I wanted the small environment of an LAC; that appealed to me a lot. I think my choice combines the best of a small school (the LBJ School enrolls 90 students/class) with all the opportunities of a large university. When we weighed that against Colby/Wes, we found UT came slightly on top.

I wish I had shot a bit higher. Applying to as many safeties as I did, especially with my admission to TAMU coming in September, was unwise. I think I would have liked to give myself a shot at a few of Northwestern, Rice, maybe Columbia?

We’re really thankful, though. These results were very lucky and I’m super excited for UT in the fall. Hook 'em!

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S25
Los Angeles private school
3.75 UW GPA
1440 SAT (730 M, 710 EBRW) - selectively submitted
9 APs (5 in progress) - submitted APUSH (5), AP Euro (4) AP English Lang (4)
ECs - Focused on exercise science; created original training app; 2nd place junior nationals in niche event; 3 sport varsity co-captain
Strong essays
Applied for Financial Aid

Majors: Computer Science / Kinesiology / Business

Accepted
UC Berkeley
Davidson (Mauze Family Scholar)
Middlebury (TO) legacy
Texas-Austin (OOS)
Colgate (TO)
U Richmond (TO)
Bucknell
Wisconsin-Madison
George Washington
Santa Clara
SMU (Cox + Hilltop Scholars Program)
IU (Kelly)
UC Santa Cruz

Waitlisted
Washington & Lee, Wake Forest - ED1 deferred to RD (TO), Villanova (VSB) (TO), UCSD, UC Irvine, UGA, U Miami

Denied
Vanderbilt - ED2 (TO), Williams (TO), WashU (TO), USC, UCLA, UCSB, UC Davis

Attending: UC Berkeley

This was my second go-round utilizing CC to help guide my sons’ application processes. The challenge of S25 compared to S22 was a significantly weaker academic record (5 B’s vs 0 and -100 in SAT) which meant more uncertainty going in. Also, S25 indicated a preference for larger universities with big-time sports and Greek life, whereas mom, dad and brother attended/attend NESCAC LAC’s which made us more familiar with that experience. We also had a firm budget and applied for financial aid.

When all the results were in, S25’s acceptances exceeded our expectations with so many wonderful options for which we are extremely grateful. His final three were UC Berkeley, Middlebury and Davidson and he chose Berkeley. As the last decision to arrive, we’re happy it gave him the option of attending a school that fit his lifestyle preferences while also being academically rigorous and within our budget, which were our top criteria.

Lessons learned along the way that I want to pass forward:

  1. Don’t fall in love with one or two schools - love your entire slate;
  2. Review your high school’s historical acceptance data to find colleges where students from your school consistently over perform or underperform. This can have a significant impact on your own chances at these schools;
  3. Look for matches outside your preferred region or where kids from your school don’t typically apply. You may get a geographic boost or garner interest from AO’s looking to build relationships with your school, especially ones that come to visit;
  4. If you have high stats, add better predictability to your outcomes by including colleges that weigh academics comparatively higher than holistic factors (for S22, St. Andrews and UGA fit that bill);
  5. Research what each college believes distinguishes them / makes them feel special / gives them pride and incorporate this into your supplementals. Your AO’s will respond positively if you can connect this to your story in an authentic way;
  6. Analogous to my first point above, love every school you apply to - show interest, work hard on demonstrating fit, and don’t take any school for granted. At the end of the day, the process is unpredictable and your goal should NOT be to get into your first choice or even a reach, but instead earn yourself a couple of great options that you’d be happy attending;
  7. Finally, if you have a budget, take care completing each school’s Net Price Calculator religiously and revisit it from time to time as estimates can change, sometimes dramatically! Most importantly, do this before you start down the path of any college that will possibly cause you or your parents disappointment or tension over an unaffordable acceptance.

Thank you, College Confidential.

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D24 enjoys Berkeley. Your son has done well!

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