Bored mom here lol. I don’t think the info should be too identifying
White LGBTQ female junior
Top public high school Missouri
4.0 unweighted (school does not weight or rank)
36 ACT
9 AP classes (Euro, US history, Calc BC, ES, Lang, Lit, psych, bio, stats)
Intended major Environmental Studies (or science or analysis)
No hooks
Full pay
Awards
School award for character (less than 1% receive at her school)
2 national journalism awards for cowritten articles
ECs
4 years JV (with some varsity) pole vault
4 years head sound design tech theater
3 years teen volunteer at the zoo with 400-500 service hours, including working with partula snails and American burying beetles (Secretary 2 years)
2 years newspaper (most likely an editor senior year)
2 years mentor for freshman advisory
1 year field research program in environmental science through Tyson/Wash U
ESSYI environmental science summer program
WYSE environmental science summer program
2 years cross country
NHS
She is an excellent writer so I would think essays would be pretty good.
LOR from APES and Lang teacher should be very good
No cost restraints
Would like blue (possibly purple) states only
EA:
Lewis and Clark (later notification)
Macalester
St Olaf
University of Vermont
ED:
Amherst
RD:
Bates
Bowdoin
Carleton
Colby (possible ED II)
Middlebury
Mount Holyoke
Oberlin
Pitzer
Pomona
Scripps
Skidmore
Vassar
Williams
Right now the plan is to reassess after EA/ED decisions. Macalester is probably her 3rd choice so if she gets in EA she wouldn’t apply to many RD schools if she isn’t accepted at Amherst, possibly only Colby.
My question is if she is deferred/rejected from both Amherst and Macalester does she have enough safeties and target schools? Thanks.
I’d be surprised if she didn’t have St. Olaf, Vermont, and Macalester all as options before RD apps are due (particularly since you’re full pay), so I think your plan is sound. That was kind of our strategy this year…S had 2 EA decisions he was totally happy with (St. Olaf was one of them), so his RD apps were nearly all reaches. The only potential issue with that is the emotional toll of dealing with a lot of rejections all at once if that ends up happening. I spent a lot of time in January and February telling S to expect rejections…although with those stats/ECs I’d expect at least a couple of reaches to come through as well. My S was actually kind of bummed when he DID get acceptances from some big reaches, because he already had it in his head that he was going to decide between his EA schools, and more choices felt overwhelming at first. ETA: never mind about all the rejections; I reread and saw there’d be very few RD apps if EA goes well.
Your EA schools are all likely (show interest at Mac and StOlaf), and Mount Holyoke is a likely to low match so if she’s happy attending any of those, she’s good to go.
For someone with these stats (assuming AP scores are comparable) and a focus on environmental issues at the intersection of science and studies, who is a very strong writer, have you looked at courses like Oxford Geography?
She likes the open curriculum and the focus on academics and critical thinking. I think she might like the consortium too. Her notes from our visit say “open curriculum, no language requirements, summer research, research participation (not just a lab assistant), job center, one on one advisor starting before school starts, no normal minor (five college certificates), resources of other colleges, in the mountains, study abroad, housing guaranteed all four years”
I am a little surprised no Colorado College on that list which, I thought was quite well known for enviro. CO is pretty blue. (Not a safety though).
I think it is very unlikely you don’t have a number of choices with that list… 36 ACT and 4.0 is great, never a guarantee of course, but your list isn’t 100% <10% rates or anything…
Amherst is strong in nearly every field, including the sciences. I wouldn’t say it’s known for its environmental studies program, but with small colleges, the location, personality, resources, and academic and non-academic opportunities are equally important.
I looked at four different lists for best schools in ES and Amherst is on two of them. On her list only Colby, Middlebury, and Vermont are on all four. I think the no language requirement, consortium, and “focus on academics” makes her like Amherst more than Colby.
and you still have schools on the list the student didn’t like.