I assume her HS doesn’t use Naviance/Scoir or any of the programs with scattergrams of past HS admission results?
I agree with others who’ve said she’s competitive at any of these reaches, but it’s impossible to guess her chances of admission at the reach schools…she might hit one, none, or several.
I agree that Whitman is likely…would she be happy to attend there if that were her only option?
I second some of the other schools mentioned that would be targets for her like Lehigh, Lafayette, St. Olaf, Dickinson, Franklin and Marshall. Clark would be a near safety. Not sure if anyone suggested Wheaton College (Mass)…that’s would also be highly likely.
What happened to Conn College on her list? That would also be a target.
For the schools she feels confident about academic and social fit, is she reaching out to the ultimate coaches?
CV is really bad a selective schools IMO, not as bad at less selective ones and useless at looking at schools with huge variation in rates by major (for those that admit by major etc).
i have used ChatGPT to make a list for my 27 by really giving context, school matriculation lists etc
It’s really pretty helpful as it will take all factors into consideration - you do need to be really honest though
Has she visited any of the women’s colleges? Wellesley, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Mt. Holyoke?
Her profile seems VERY similar to that of the kids I know who have gotten into Tufts over the last few years- I think she’d find “her people” very quickly there.
And agree upthread with the Clark/safety suggestion.
Thanks all! This is helpful. @MYOS1634 Great - we’ll look at the schools with that framework in mind. @Mwfan1921 Great question about Whitman and what happened to the other schools we have mentioned, like Conn College. Here’s what happened: she loved Whitman more than any of us expected (we thought it would be too small for her). We visited Lehigh and Lafayette recently too and we all liked those as well as Conn College, but she felt very strongly at the end of all her visits that if she didn’t get into her other preferred schools that she would choose Whitman over some of these slightly more selective “target schools” (Lehigh, Lafayette, Clark, Conn College), so she doesn’t see the point of adding them to her list. But, it would be devastating to her if she didn’t get into any of the others on her list OR Whitman, so don’t know if we should push her to add more. As for contacting Ultimate coaches at the different schools - she did! She reached out to team captains prior to all of her college visits and got to join practice with the Ultimate teams at most of the schools we toured. We were really impressed with how welcoming they were, and it gave her another chance to check out culture and meet more students. @blossom Thank you for the ideas - unfortunately she isn’t interested in women’s colleges. Too bad! We see some incredible kids heading off to those schools.
It can be difficult to handle a lot of denials. I would encourage her to continue to think about that and maybe she will ultimately choose to send in a couple more apps to ensure she has a choice. With that said, I do think she is likely to have more acceptances than Whitman…but I also think it’s so important to have a choice in the end. I mean what if Conn (or any of the other target/likely schools) gave her huge merit and/or some other special scholar type opportunity?
I agree with blossom that your D sounds awesome. Good luck to her thru the process, and hope she gets some Ultimate attention from the coaches too…that could end up being a difference maker at some schools.
Below are my guesses as to your D’s chances for admission at the schools on her list. I will say that the fact that she’s the kind of Ultimate Frisbee player who could be on a top 5 team could definitely end up impacting things (and I did not account for that in my chancing). Depending on how the school treats the sport and whether the coach would have any pull, that could definitely be a factor.
If you’re looking for some other schools that would be likelier admits, there’s the forum favorite St. Olaf which is in the same town as Carleton, has a respectable Ultimate team, and I would describe as a likely admit for your D, if she shows interest. And since Occidental in sunny southern California made the list, she might want to consider Santa Clara, a Jesuit college that’s closer to Tufts in size with strong academics, an Ultimate team, and I have a sense that the student population might be pretty sympatico with some of the ones on her list. I think Santa Clara would be a likely admit for your D, if she shows interest. If she’s looking for some other extremely likely admits, then Fort Lewis in Colorado or Gonzaga in Spokane might be some other options that I think could appeal.
ETA: I forgot to check for Ultimate, and those two Extremely Likely schools aren’t ranked on the women’s top 222 UF rankings I shared upthread. Lewis & Clark (OR), U. of Puget Sound (WA), U. of Portland (OR), and Pacific Lutheran (WA) do have UF teams and might be worth investigating. I think all of them would be extremely likely admits for your D as well.
@Mwfan1921 Yes - good point that it might be worth casting a slightly wider net in order to have choices still if the reach options don’t work out. I’ll talk with DD about this. I don’t think she really has a good sense as to how unpredictable these admissions can be - we’ve been trying to strike a balance between helping her set realistic expectations without increasing anxiety too much with our messaging. @AustenNut Thank you! I think your categorizations will be helpful to share with DD. I actually never showed her the College Vine predictions because they seemed so inflated, but I think yours will present a useful and more realistic outlook for her. She may yet add some schools to her list that you mentioned including St. Olaf - we’ve discussed getting out to Macalester, St Olaf, and Carleton for a visit this fall but we’ve put that discussion on hold for now because she’s a little burned out on college tours after seeing fifteen colleges over the past month! Also, Macalester and Colorado College have EA, so maybe she should have a few schools in mind that she’ll add to her list if ED1 and EA options don’t work out.
A way to describe the admissions process without creating undo anxiety in my experience is to use a performing arts metaphor.
if you are forming a chamber music ensemble to play Bach, you aren’t adding an electric guitar player, no matter how gifted or famous. If you are casting for West Side Story, you don’t need the circus performers you need for Pippin; if you are- in fact- forming a circus, you’ll need trapeze artists and jugglers but Yo Yo Ma- as talented a cellist as he is- and as wonderful a performer as he is- probably won’t be in the troupe. Use whichever combination works for your D’s experiences.
At the smaller schools on her “reachy” list, the issue won’t be is she qualified, talented, can she do the work. It will be matching what she brings to the table with a hole the adcom’s need to plug. So maintaining a distance from it all-- depersonalizing it a bit- will help her see the need to bulk up the matchier part of the list. And as a prospective psychology major, she can see the value in having some ego-boosting admissions along with the disappointing “not going to happen” messages.