<p>Sounds like so many of you have some wonderful choices! congrats Jozuko - what an amazing time!
Linymom - looking forward to hear you’ve sent your deposit to Miami!</p>
<p>S got accepted to RIT!</p>
<p>A friend’s S has a close friend at Colorado College who loves it there (not Jewish). Ditto what phillyart commented about the drawback of how difficult it is to miss class, given the pace. Here it is considered an “A” school.</p>
<p>came across this today, very accurate for the most part, worthy of ten minutes, in the Daily Beast
[Amazing</a> But Overlooked: 25 Colleges You Haven’t Considered But Should - The Daily Beast](<a href=“Amazing But Overlooked: 25 Colleges You Haven't Considered But Should”>Amazing But Overlooked: 25 Colleges You Haven't Considered But Should)</p>
<p>Not overlooked by the CC community! (NYU? Michigan?)</p>
<p>I think that list was generated by votes from the public (which is weird IMO)…obviously not here on CC!!!</p>
<p>congrats: jozuco and family!!!..</p>
<p>DS’s twin sister, who is a high stats kid, received an early write yesterday from Macalester. Very happy and proud, but I’d like to know more about Jewish life there. It does have a holocaust studies program, so I am assuming that there is a decent sized Jewish population, but would like to know more.</p>
<p>The Daily Beast gallery wasn’t about “overlooked schools” - it was about certainly qualities at those schools that were overlooked. Big difference!</p>
<p>My DS applied ED to Colorado College last year. It was his absolute favorite from day one. We visited and that really sealed the deal for him… bad news is he was deferred than rejected. He had a 3.6GPA from a top private prep and 2200 SAT’s, Eagle Scout, 1500 hours of Community Service, and tons of leadership. He was beyond heartbroken at first, but all well that ends well. Fell more in love with a school that accepted him with a big scholarship, and will happily be attending St Lawrence University this Fall after he finishes up his gap year.</p>
<p>So, Colorado College is a great school, the location stunning. Happy, smart, engaged,free-spirited, outdoorsy leaning towards crunchy granola student body… I actually think he would have done really well with the one class at a time learning, it is an unusual way to go about teaching and learning but it seems to work. My S liked it because you get 5 days off at the end of every month and he wanted to do outdoor stuff. Colorado is a perfect place for an outdoorsy kid. I do agree with champs that it is definitely not a B student school… maybe a few years ago, but not now.</p>
<p>It’s a reach school for sure for my son (Colorado college) but I think my son would fit in well and might just be quirky and artsy enough and able to portray that in essays (which I understand are very important there) to maybe get in??? He is a B plus student possibly A minus if the year keeps,going the way it’s going? He does work 4 days a week for a video production company (editing and shooting) and has had his own video production business for 3 years (shoots events and high school athletes video promo’s for recruitment purposes). It’s a reach I know, but everyone needs a reach… Right??</p>
<p>champs - congratulations on RIT!</p>
<p>Champs: congrats on RIT. We had considered it for a long time but S never got around to applying!</p>
<p>Jozuko: my niece is a sophomore at Tulane and LOVES it. She had a lot of options but after visiting she & my sister-in-law decided it was the right feel & the right financial aid package. I don’t think she has any regrets- she is managing to do very well & have an amazing college experience. And she gets a lot of family visitors!!</p>
<p>H told me about the Daily Beast article but said he stopped reading after seeing the schools with the best food on the list. Given the limited palate of S1, the quality of dorm food isn’t really a factor. :)</p>
<p>S1 has been moping about UT/Austin (he got admitted to 2nd choice major, not first & we said it didn’t make a lot of sense to go there) for the last few days. I think he has finally snapped out of it. He has narrowed it down to Case Western & UIUC. Such different colleges…</p>
<p>Champs, Congrats on RIT. Your son has a lot of good choices.</p>
<p>TTTC: I’m sorry that your S didn’t get into his first choice major at UT. I agree that it doesn’t make a lot of sense to go there if he has other options. Good luck with the decision. .</p>
<p>Moments… absolutely… I would never discourage my kids from going for their reaches… I have heard too many stories of kids getting in. Just wanted people to be aware that Colorado College has gotten MUCH harder to get into just over the past few years. I know a few kids on here this year that were very sad about not getting in ED/EA because they just were unaware of how selective it has become. It is a great school though.</p>
<p>just looked at that article amazing but overlooked schools, 25 colleges you haven’t considered but should. Am I missing something? #17 is Rollins college because of it’s party reputation? Known for it’s drug scene? How does this type of description become an overlooked and amazing college? I actually liked Rollins and am now totally turned off? Am I missing something here?</p>
<p>Colorado College seems to take other things into account quite a bit. When I read the threads here from the students who list their stats they seem a bit random which is the only reason I feel my son may have a chance. There are kids with 4.0 and 2400 SAT’s not getting in and then kids with 3.4 and 1800 SAT’s getting in. There must be some variable they are looking at that is less concrete then stats and my gut is telling me to encourage my son to go for it even though on paper he really is not quite qualified. He is a junior so we are really just getting serious and I’m hoping to find other fits that are more of a sure thing for him. I feel like my son is like being between sizes in clothing… he seems to really be right in between two levels of schools and I’m not quite finding the place that he fits. One of these college websites has this thing where you put your stats in and the schools your interested in and it spits out a likely % chance you will get in and he seems to be either at the 98% chance or the 20% level? So we will continue to look for that place he truly belongs?</p>
<p>@momentscaught</p>
<p>My son sounds similar to yours. He has high standardized scores, but a lower GPA (he is A-B+ student) My son was deferred EA from Colorado College. He applied to 12 schools - has heard from 6 of the “lower ranked” and the others will be late March. What we learned:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Show the LOVE. I believe he received lower merit at some target schools because he didn’t make enough contact. Some he did alumni or off-site interviews.</p></li>
<li><p>If you are a musician or athlete send a DVD. One school outright told us that would have upped the ante for him.</p></li>
<li><p>The Common Data Set was a great help. We targeting schools in which he was in the top 25% stat wise and in which SAT/ACT there was at least 10% in his range. This helped ID schools that he could get merit and find peer students.</p></li>
<li><p>My son started looking only at LACs for the size and discussion based classes. We “forcced” him to look at a larger University with Honors program. Not all are created equal, but he discovered some of the larger schools offered much of what he was looking for and they had better merit to boot.</p></li>
<li><p>Remember when reading the thread stats, you can’t also decipher who is full pay (I think this is much more important at some schools then they admit), an athlete or an URM.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Colorado is so unique that I would definitely encourage an application, but temper it by the fact less than 1 in 4 students are accepted.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I thing that is much truer than many schools admit. Our older son (typical B student with good but not stellar CCesque SAT scores) applied to a few schools that his GC told him he would never get into with his profile. If you were just looking at Naviance, she was probably correct. Most were privates or OOS publics and he was 4/6 acceptance admission-wise and doing well at the one he selected. I’m sure that not asking for FA played a role despite what the schools say.
While our younger son is applying to schools this year, he happened to be checking the portal at one ‘need blind’ school. In bold 24 font size letters at the top of the screen it screams, “NOT APPLYING FOR FINANCIAL AID”. If it says that on the student portal, I wonder if the same screen or one close to it is visible to the Adcoms…</p>
<p>Some kids who like Colorado College might find a similar experience at Kalamazoo.</p>
<p>Champs: what are all your DS’ choices so far? Any in the lead right now?</p>
<p>Champs… This is the key that unlocks the mystery at CC when you see such a discrepancy with the high stats kids not getting in and the low stats kids getting in. I am 100% convinced that those low stats kids are full pay. We were unfortunately not. I wrote a big post on this sad story last year…</p>
<p>Interesting Seattle mom about Kalamazoo… was never on out radar because my S wanted a school in the mountains…but hmmmm.</p>
<p>moment… I totally get what you said about your S being in between 2 levels of schools… that was my S. I thought it could go either way… and it went South Unfortunately. He had 2200 SAT’s and extraordinary EC’s… but the 3.6 GPA coupled with HUGE need and a C+ in AP Econ first semester Senior year sunk him…</p>
<p>a very interesting point 5 boys. one that i have been considering recently. one question is - wouldn’t admissions policies be transparent by default. admission committtees are large and institutional. wouldn’t there always be the implied threat of disclosure by any single disgruntled employee? I am just curious what others think about this. In other words aren’t colleges too large to veil a hidden policy of financial credentialing of students?</p>