CWRU Class of 2022 application - reflection

Mickey2Dad
Sat, 05 May 2018 12:03:05 +0000

If CW is being over-enrolled this year, it is going to have some interesting impact down the road. For instance, the most immediate impact will be the acceptance rate for class of 2023. I don’t think too many will take the gap year option, but with the possible “unexpected” higher yield, CW would be even more conservative in acceptance next year. In the 2012-13 cycle, CW only gave 30 acceptances from the WL, and that year had an acceptance rate of 54%. The following year, the acceptance rate for CW went down to 39%, with many more students put on the WL.

I wonder, is the higher yield due to #1) the rise in competitive nature out there, #2) increase affordability to attend CW, #3) better/newer facilities vs other schools, and #4) finally being recognized as a great place for STEM studies.

During the school search process, I have to admit CW was not at the top of our list. S was interested in biophysics, bios/premed type and he applied to state flagship, which has a decent program and a bunch of other schools that he and his friends were interested. CW was among the top picks with his friends, and we were a bit leery about Cleveland. We knew the reputation of CW reputation the health sciences area is top notch. Since CW did not require a special essay in the application, so we just hit submit for the EA round. Little did we know CW gave us an excellent merit package, making the CoA being the lowest. We didn’t apply FA for the schools we submit, and many didn’t give us any which I don’t fault them at all as many of them just don’t give out merit package. Eventually S got in UMich and JHU (still shock) and these two were the final choices along with CW.

We visited CW in April. We really liked what we saw. University Circle is amazing, the restaurants, the shops, the museums. CW is not a suburban school, but it is not urban-urban like NYU either. Since my S’s intend major is biomed/biophysics area, so we spend a lot of time to investigate the availability of UG research (which is absolutely important in our minds- considering top grad/med schools will look at those favorably in the application), we like what we learned. The people on campus were very nice, a bit nerdy, but perfectly “mid-western” nice. We liked that. We came home after the trip wanting to commit. We put that decision on hold till we have the JH trip the following week.

Side by side comparison, there is no doubt JH has a higher overall ranking and has very top medical school in the country. My concern is the competitive nature of the student body there, esp. in premed. S didn’t select the BME major as he was uncertain that’s for sure for him, so he put down the generic biology and physics instead. We liked JH a lot, the size, the facility, the availability of UG research, the reputation etc., it checked all the boxes. To me, silly as it may seem to others, CW and JH are very close in quality with biomedical offerings for UG. In my opinion, you can’t go wrong with either schools if you want to do premed or have an excellent foundation for grad school in the life sciences area.

S and I just love CW all the way to the final minute. When we let our son to decide alone, he picked JH, not because of any academic offerings but rather our eldest daughter is attending JH now, so he didn’t want to be in Cleveland alone. The JH package we got is nowhere like the one from CW. So CoA will be significantly higher. But I have to honor our S’s choice at the end.

I hope this reflection help some students to decide about the schools next year. For Class of 2023, please spend the summer to look around, and if you are outside of Ohio, worth a visit to CW. Apply EARLY, and if this is absolutely for you, go for ED. If history were to repeat itself, I’d bet the acceptance rate for CW will plummet next year. With no essays required, CW would be looking for something - some hook -they want to take you. There is a small PS line in our Son’s acceptance letter - a personal message that crystallized the character/quality of the candidate. So think of your application file, if someone read it, what would they summarize it in a short sentence. It is not about scores, GPA, and it invariably concerns with something else you did - let that be an EC activity - you start a biz, you start a foundation, your trip to whatever places/and reflections of those etc etc. In my S case - it was about his painful recovery of a serious sports injury during the 9th grade and he carried through such challenge. So make sure you have that focus when apply to CW. Otherwise, best of luck. There is no certainty anywhere, college applications included.