Chance me, junior looking at top LACs [NC residnet, 4.0 UW, 1520]

Chance Me / Match Me
21

I agree - they noted other schools they were culling for the Haverford of the worlds.

The reason I pushed to hopefully find a budget is - if you get app overload, now you have to prioritize. Do you go low cost or no merit. Many of the high merit likely are easy apps.

The other thing is and hopefully OP will comment - have they been to any of these? It’s easy to say - Ill go to Hamilton. How do you get there? Where do you fly? What if you like to be int he city.

So they can cull more that way - by ensuring they pick schools in the right environment, and there will be full pay and high merit in all environments.

In the end, hopefully they can visit - that’s always best.

There are schools in VA/NC they can use as proxies for some of these, from a location type - is W&L too rural? Then Hamilton likely doesn’t work. Is Davidson, nice suburbia right, maybe a Mac works. Do they like the grittiness of VCU? It’s not small but location wise, etc.

All I’m saying.

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I get what you are saying and I will stop clogging OP’s responses with my back and forth with you after this. OP is only in Jan of junior year. In many ways they are ahead of the game with their very thoughtful list at this stage. Most kids have no real list at this point and if they do, it is name brand only. This kid has from Harvard (which they asked about whether they are legacy. Sophisticated question) to Agnes Scott and St Olaf on the LAC front. They have named a preference for LACs. They are in the exploratory phase where you start to narrow your list based in part on many of the things you describe. But, having not visited many places (or many on your list), by Jan of junior year is perfectly normal. Having a much larger list than one will ultimately apply to (and it not being properly balanced yet is perfectly normal). For context, my D26 had 36 schools on her list at this stage and had visited zero of the ones she ultimately applied to at this stage. OP is in great shape as of now and can narrow considering all of the feedback they asked for here plus more.

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I cannot chance you other than to state that you are well qualified with respect to academics and as to ECs. Volunteering is an important and respected EC.

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I’ve asked my parents this many times, and I asked them again recently. They can’t give a number, because they say they just don’t know right now. I don’t want to push it. Our financial situation might change or something. I think that $60k a year would be a lot of money for us. I don’t know much beyond that.

I’m not sure I really care about calendar systems. I’ve also thought about urban vs. rural stuff, and I don’t know that either. I see the positives and negatives to both, which is why I have a mix. I am trying to visit some of these schools. I’ve only visited a few of the ones in my state so far. It’s hard to visit them because they are so far away and my one of my parents would have to come or we’d have to figure something out with my little siblings.

I already have an email that colleges spam. It’s meant to be a personal email, but since I used it for taking the SAT and stuff colleges have sent stuff to it. Is there a way to redirect those emails to a different email solely for college admissions?

I know about demonstrated interest, and I’ve been starting to make a plan around that.

I don’t mind religious stuff, as long as it isn’t Liberty or something. I know my dad would love it if I went to a Jesuit school, but none of them really seem right for me so far. St. Olaf seems like they care about science and evolution and stuff, so I think it’s okay.

Thank you for recommending me College of Charleston. I’ll check it out. I don’t think I would be super picky when it comes to a school. I would mostly like a tight-knit community, the ability to have close relationships with professors, and kind classmates. I don’t want to go to a party school. I’d like a school where people’s idea of fun is having a small get together with friends where we play games or watch a movie or something. I also think it would be fun to go somewhere where it snows, but none of those places are near home. I’ve tried to cross of schools that don’t seem like they fit the types of stuff I like, but I’m still working on it.

I’ll look into Kalamazoo more. I’ve heard some about it, but not much.

Thank you so much for all the information and advice you gave. I’m grateful you took the time to write this.

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I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be stupid about the legacy thing. I know I might be one in name, but I’m mostly wondering if it will actually mean anything, especially since my mom doesn’t donate, interview, etc.

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Oh, I was not implying you were being stupid about it. I was suggesting the exact opposite. You knew your mom went to Harvard, but were trying to suss out what that means when she does not donate. That is a sophisticated question. Not stupid at all!

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You should REA Harvard. It’s a free shot and you will get some feedback on the quality of your app – you even may get in! I would only not REA Harvard if you think there will be some positive event post REA app deadline.

Your list is appropriate unless you need to chase merit. That’s a conversation to have with your parents. If anything, I would cut down on the total number of schools since it sounds like you have affordable safeties. Focus your app energy among no more than 6 to 10 schools.

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Hi – you’ll be an excellent candidate for any school you apply to, which is not to chance you for the highly selective ones – those are reaches for everyone. A couple of things to keep in mind:

  1. If you pursue a Ph.D., that will likely be funded, so (counter-intuitively) you wouldn’t have to worry about costs as much as you do with undergrad (except for the opportunity cost of delaying the start of your career and spending years as a grad student on a stipend). However, most professional degree programs and Master’s programs will be on you, and you’ll typically cover the shortfall with loans you take out in your name.

  2. There are some fantastic LACs that offer merit, including some you already have on your list. These include Grinnell, St. Olaf, Macalester, Oberlin, Beloit, Connecticut College, Mount Holyoke, Dickinson, and Bryn Mawr. (I know there are others – this is just a partial list.) If you want to give yourself options that include schools with merit, consider some of these.

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They are academic. They are not for the purpose of promoting doctrine, but rather for the purpose of exploring the role of religion in communities, everyday life, politics, history, and so on.

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Oh, I thought you were being sarcastic. Sorry lol

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31

Texas is a huge state and it’s hard to call it underrepresented at the NESCACs. For example, this graph shows that Texans comprise over 3% of the student body at Wesleyan:

image
image1259×1062 138 KB

(collegefactual.com)

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I mostly meant the city I was from in Texas. It’s an accomplishment to go to community college there basically, unless one is in private school.

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If you want a quick first look at how robust the merit program at a college might be, you can look it up here:

https://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/dataverse/merit-aid

What they did was just scrape some relevant information from the college’s Common Data Sets. There are a lot of details missing so you ultimately need to check out the school merit aid webpages, but this can help identify promising leads.

Like, that information will quickly confirm Kalamazoo is well worth checking out if you are chasing merit. It has both a relatively high award–particularly relative to its full COA–AND a good percentage getting aid.

College of Wooster is another like that.

Connecticut College is a bit farther down the list in terms of average award, with a pretty high COA as well, but it actually has a really high percentage getting aid. So it still might be a good one to consider, depending on your ultimate budget target.

Rhodes is back to having a pretty favorable average award in light of their COA, and also is quite high in terms of percentage getting aid.

So basically–yes! If you like LACs, have great numbers, and are chasing merit, these are all well worth considering. Whether they should replace some currently on your list is a different question, but you have plenty of time to make cuts to your list before applying. So for now I think you could more focus on finding some favorites among these sorts of colleges.

Edit: Oh, sorry, Grinnell is one where eventually you really need to look at their aid policies. They have a standard $20K merit award if you apply ED, which is great if that works for you, but outside of that program their merit is more limited. Not non-existent, though, so you can still check them out even if you would not be thinking ED.

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You are a legacy at Harvard. Since you don’t want to apply anywhere ED, I would recommend applying REA to Harvard as long as none of your other privates have EA (you can still apply to publics EA, but with REA you can not generally apply to any other privates EA.) I believe the REA round is where they take legacy into account. You are a strong applicant but a lot of the reach LACs you listed take a big portion of their class through ED, so it is a lot more challenging getting in RD. Good luck!

P.S. Extracurriculars are how you spend your time, so if you were part of a study that took up a significant amount of your time, I would count that as an extracurricular.

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Just noting that on OP’s list, Wesleyan is also open curriculum.

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36

This is great and if you go local as subs…for example, Elon is - while not in the sticks, it’s in the sticks as far as day to day - just a tiny strip off campus. If you know you hate that, then some on your list can come off. So local for comparison sake is ok.

I wouldn’t change the email addresses I gave - although you can fill out another info request and use the new. That way you get it both. Then you can just unsubscribe from the old. I like the college email - just so you know everything college is in one place.

Not all require demonstrated interest - so you don’t have to open all. And you don’t have to go crazy. Open emails is fine. Play a video, walk away is fine. It can be weekly, not every day. You can jump on an online admission session for those who track. I don’t think you need to go crazy - like some try to do 80 things - a few things that show you’re paying attention.

Maybe no Charleston - it’s smack in the party zone. The Fellows is definitely more studious - and I was just recommending for that. It’s not many kids and they are the creme de la creme. But the school is smack in the tourist zone. It’s a condensed campus, very historical.

PS - as for legacy, maybe, just maybe, it can break a tie. But I would apply to Harvard if I wanted to go to Harvard and I wouldn’t if I didn’t want to. Like wondering about - where you come from, does it give an edge? I wouldn’t worry - because you won’t know. Apply to the school if it’s right for you and don’t apply if it’s not. There’s even public LACs - St. Mary’s of Md is small (and likely affordable), SUNY Geneseo, in VA you have Christopher Newport and U of Mary Washington, in NC UNC Asheville, College of Charleston is one although 9k kids. In the end, you will be somewhere four years, day after day - so applying to a school mom wants you to apply to, if it’s not right for you, makes little sense.

So UNCW and UNC are fantastic but if they’re too big, there is smaller. Same with Harvard. Brandeis, as an example, would be in that area but smaller.

Go visit some larger campuses locally - see if you like them.

Best of luck to you.

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The link doesn’t work. Can you repost? Or the CC might just block it - it does for some.

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If you want to write an essay about how special your experience was, living in this particular city located in Texas, that’s fine. But I’m not exactly sure how you would convey the rigor of that high school/community college experience once you leave that system; I’d ask your current h/s guidance counselor for advice about that. Unfortunately, I can’t think of any other way of gaining brownie points for having lived in an “underrepresented city”.

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Given that you are currently a junior, you do have some time to figure this out. However, most of the schools on your list are very expensive unless you qualify for need based aid. By the time that you are done with your bachelor’s degree some are likely to cost over $100,000 per year. So at some point your parents will need to figure this out. They might want to run the NPC on a couple of schools on your list just to see what number comes back.

UNC-CH is a very good university, and is specifically very good for math. Given that I live way north of you we do not see a lot of UNC graduates this far away. However, I have worked with a few who were very good. Also, in graduate school, in a subfield of applied math at Stanford, one of my good friends in the same program was a UNC graduate and was one of the stronger students in the program. I do not know whether it is a safety for you, but given a 4.0 unweighted GPA plus a very strong SAT score plus being in-state it should at least be quite likely. This gives you a very good option which is likely to be relatively affordable.

I honestly do not know what someone does with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy other than go to law school.

I was a math major. It turns out that there are a lot of careers that you can go into with a degree in mathematics. My fellow students in the same program for example went into a huge range of careers (software engineering, physics research, acoustics, law, AI, …). It turns out that there are a lot of things in this world that only work because someone did the math.

I think that you are a competitive applicant for any college or university in the USA (and any in the world that happen to teach in a language that you know). You do have a lot of reaches on your list. When the time comes I think that you should make sure to have an application in to UNC-CH, and a solid safety or two, and to a short list of whatever schools you feel would be the best fit for you. Then once these are done continue with other applications if you feel like it. You might get burned out before you get 20 applications completed.

Until then, visit a few schools, and think about what would make a school a good fit for you.

Given your excellent academics, I think that you are likely to get several admissions among your target schools.

And to me it looks like you are doing very well.

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You have noted an important distinction, in that colleges may consider the characteristics of a region rather than simply the boundaries of a state.