College List vs. GC

CountingDown
Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:53:47 +0000

S1’s GC only questioned one school on his list – it was a LAC on the other side of the country and was clearly very different from the others he had listed. He wound up not applying there, but not because of the GC’s input.

S2’s GC never asked where he was applying, though she was delighted with his results and thrilled with the seriousness with which he approached the questionnaire she used for writing her letter. Both of these were large public schools with heavy caseloads. We did not expect that the GCs would have time to advise us on the odds and merits of Northwestern vs. UChicago or Grinnell vs. Carleton, which is how I came to CC. :)

Our experience is that the GCs tend to push the publics because that’s where the vast majority of students attend (including the tippy top kids, because the flagship gives out fabulous merit $$). It is a fairly straightforward admissions process. Most use FAFSA/federal methodology for FA vs. PROFILE/CSS.

What the GC won’t discuss with you is MONEY. Run EFCs on Federal and Institutional methodology, and add 10%. Find out if schools gap on FA packages, how much they give in grants vs. loans, etc.

For my kids, the flagship was an academic and financial safety, with a decent shot at merit $$. Neither were crazy about the size, but felt they could make it work. (This would have been easier for S1 than S2, given their majors.) S2 added a mid-sized private that was a likely, given his stats.

For my kids, a reachy list was OK. They did not get in everywhere they applied, but in retrospect, the places that rejected them were clearly not as good a fit as the places where they were accepted. Not a big surprise as to results, since for both guys, the top choices were the ones where they really focused their essays. For our family, the time spent on essays was critical to getting into the reachy schools they really wanted.

Naviance was pretty much on target for admissions from the guys’ schools, though there were not a lot of data points with S2’s combo of SAT and GPA.

S1 got into four, waitlisted at one, rejected at two. SAT 2380, SAT-II 800/800/730, 3.76 UW/4.56 W, many AP and post-AP courses, several national awards and big leadership in his field.

S2 got into four, waitlisted at two, rejected at two. SAT 2290, SAT-II 770/770/730, 3.49 UW/4.24 W, 11 APs, full IB, interesting ECs, some leadership.

Both were at insanely competitive and difficult nationally known public school programs. Neither matriculated to the “highest ranked” (FWIW) program to which he was accepted.

Their results told me they had reasonable lists and had done their homework well. We are big fans of EA, too. Enabled them both to drop several schools from the list in mid-December.