“I am trying to make sense of the process.”
Unhooked applicants that don’t have national/international accomplishments have really small odds at the top American privates (which are all relatively small, and of course, LACs are tiny).
That’s probably the simplest explanation.
Imo, some here are just being too darned simplistic. It’s not as simple as having wealth and advantages. Nor needing natl awards. Since the review is holistic, you want to approach the process that way. Not who’s got “better” this or higher/rarer that, which is hierarchical.
You’ve got a full app to fill out, 3.5 years to represent, and have to recognize that just submitting doesn’t automatically make you a great candidate, no matter the stats and some ECs you think are terrific. It’s not about being Top Dawg in your one hs. It’s more than that. And realize the final competition is among all those kids who do have that full picture the college looks for, after an intense review, a lot of culling. Enough to more than fill a class.
Kids get deferred for lots of reasons. Sometimes, it’s the competition from your area. They like you, but want to see who else shows up in RD. And your deferred app does get fully re-reviewed.
Top colleges want a range of traits, relevant to them, to college (not just life,) a level of thinking that they feel fits their community. A level of action that goes beyond just what happens in your school. It adds to wanting the right perspective, even sophistication. Again, that’s the thinking, the savvy way you approached your app, what you admit vs edit, in your wtiting. As well as your record. What shows.
Where it’s difficult for many kids is when they assume, rather than learning more about what X wants and looks for. Or they rest on their obvious laurels, as well as what they “want” in a college, and forget to learn what the college itself is looking for in candidates. But not all kids who struggle are at lower hs.
It is easy when you are a strong applicant who is not accepted to believe that the system is somehow rigged against you. And there are ways in which it is. It is true that athletic recruits and the children of big donors will get to jump the queue. It is true that schools may want more first gen kids or more diversity. And what that means if you are not in one of those buckets is that admission is going to be very very competitive. I have known high school vals with great ECs who were full pay who struck out at the very selective privates. I have known FP kids from “famous” boarding schools who were not admitted to the “top” schools. None of those kids were able to jump the queue either.
It doesn’t feel like much consolation but honestly, if your kid is “all that”, she will do great wherever she ends up and in life. Whether she was a kid that Wes needed to round out its incoming class means nothing in terms of her ability or talent.
Someone asked up thread about whether schools "finish " their classes off the WL. I think most would probably like to do so, but as someone who has paid some attention to this (my kid was admitted to his top 2 choices off the WL), I can tell you that at smaller schools with fixed housing stock, there is no pattern. One year, it was 40 kids, the next year none and then 4. If they yield even a few more kids than they thought they would, they are full up. And the opposite is true too.
@thurpam Did your D apply test optional? Elite test optional schools like Wes or Bowdoin can have a very high bar for test optional applicants. Ie; the balance of the app really must be sterling to get admitted.
They also use test optional to give kids from disadvantaged schools/backgrounds a leg up in the process.
For the most elite schools that are genuinely need-blind and meet full need, money isn’t a factor in admission itself, unless your parents are willing and able to donate millions or willing to take unlawful shortcuts as the parents in the Varsity Blues scandal did. Money does, however, buy you better preparations, a better resume, and better packaging of your applications. Money also becomes a direct factor to various degrees in admissions to colleges below those most elite schools.
OP, your D’s app will be reviewed in the context of what her high school offers. She is not directly competing against Susie Smith from Well Funded Suburban HS with 25 different APs and a full IB diploma program. They don’t expect kids to take classes that aren’t offered and join clubs that don’t exist.
Top colleges will look at what she did with what was available to her. And also, what did she do outside of that. Did she think outside the box to make some opportunities for herself? Or has she been involved in something of interest in her community? That doesn’t mean she has to start a bunch of clubs and be President of them. Maybe she loves books so she volunteered at the local library, read a bunch of books and wrote reviews for the YA section, helped establish a kids’ reading hour and a teen book club, then set up the library book sale.
As others have said, yes, being full pay can help at need aware schools.
To the OP directly: Yes, in your DD’s case, regarding the particular school where she is wait listed, it is very posiible, in fact, highly likely, that not being full pay and needing a lot of financial aid has put her at a disadvantage, at this point , in gaining admissions, and will be a factor in clearing the wait list.
Wesleyan is one of a small number of schools that are not need blind in admissions for all of its US citizen, main undergraduate freshman residential class. We do not know exactly how the school uses financial need in its metrics for admissions consideration but it states flat out that it does use it in some way. The information is readily available on the internet, as lists of such schools are out there and their decision to go this route is well documented with ample discussion.
As with most need aware schools, Wesleyan states that most of their admissions decisions are made without regard to financial need but that a minority of those decisions are, due to finding issues. Once they have accepted the students that they want the most and are able to find fully, given their budget, they start waitlisting or declining those students that they cannot offer a a financial aid package commensurate with financial need. That is where your daughter appears to possibly be. It Is not a certainty because there are other possible reasons she is on the waitlist, but that she has not been accepted makes need, in her case, a possible factor. IF that is the case, funds have to open up during the last part of the season, usually from accepted students offered financial declining Wesleyan’s offer,opening up those funds to those on the waitlist.
If you look at Wesleyan financial aid snapshot on the Common Data set , you can see that there having financial need is not an uncommon thing at the school. Wesleyan is one of very few schools that needed full need of their students so that those they choose to go there are better provided for in terms of meeting need than at the vast majority , like way over 90% of the schools in this country. Also note that Wesleyan is a private school and one of the more expensive schools in this country. All of this information is readily available to those looking at colleges as prospects.
Almost all of the colleges in this country are need blind in admissions. Almost none of them make a guarantee to meet full need and very few do , for very few students except for the public commuter type schools. It’s very expensive, particularly for private schools, to waive those high tuition fees AND also cover living expenses of all of the students that they may want to accept. My state has reasonably priced tuition for their state schools and offers many opportunities and programs for state school tuitions to be covered, particularly for those with financial need, but it is very difficult and rare to have penny one of living expenses and other costs funded.
To me, it’s a very obvious thing that applying to a private school with very high costs means that that are additional issues other than straight up admissions. If you cannot afford the costs of these schools, yes, you are at the mercy of their financial aid and scholarship policies. Most of these schools have gone the route of putting more of their money towards funding as many students as they can with financial aid rather than putting the money towards pure merit awards. Some schools have not, preferring to focus on getting the students they most want, and offering them money , regardless of whether they need it. Wesleyan has chosen to focus more on funding those students with need that they accept, but in doing so, at some point in the admissions cycle, it does take need as a factor.
So, yes, financial need plays a big role in admissions to colleges , but not so much at school in the very small niche that Wesleyan occupies. Gaining admissions to a school that does not meet need is a very big and prevalent reason why many students do not go to their first choice schools. Financial aid is not offered based on what the student and family are willing and able to pay. Every single year, at the end of the college admissions cycle, affordability issues come into play even for families deemed not needy at all by the schools. I personally know of a number of families over the years that turned down Wesleyan because they simply could not afford it , given their financial situations and priorities. Wesleyan’s definition of need did not mesh with theirs. They ended up at schools not as high on the desirability list, but more affordable either due to lower sticker price or merit money., usually the matter as these kids were a high caliber group, academically. My son’s close friend went to Tulane instead with a half ride and a number his classmates chose to commute to nearby schools which with some scholarships made it less expensive than 4 years away at what is now costing $80k a year. Still others accepted merit money at schools that were not their first choices but more in line with what their family wanted to pay.
So, absolutely, yes, many student meet her need to a point where yours end up at schools that are not their first choice for monetary reasons. Even if your DD clears the Wesleyan waitlist, and if Wesleyan does offer a financial aid package when that happens , it doesn’t necessarily mean that the aid package will meet family affordability standards, though with a school like Wesleyan, if you have run the NPCs and are willing and able to pay what these schools feel you should be able to afford, the likelihood is high If she should clear the waitlist with zero or otherwise too little aid, it’s likely not going to do her any good in terms of options. So she has to clear the wait list AND get enough financial aid to make attendance there possible.
Families understand that sending their kids to private school preK-12 is expensive, and that private boarding school costs are crazy expensive, and most do not bother to even consider that route for cost reasons alone. But for some reason when it comes to college, there is that expectation that full need and more are met, not only for tuition but for living expenses like room and board. Very few students are going to get that covered. Private schools do use tuition revenue for their expenses and most need that money. So cost does. play a big time in getting the opportunity to go to a private university and to live away from home. Of course, it does.
I’m more concerned about students who flat out cannot afford to go to college due to family situations. For some, commuting is even an onerous expense I’m working in an educational desert right now where, jobs are scarce and transportation options limited so that even going to community college is a financial challenge. It’s terribly unfair what the toll is for these kids to get a college education in proportion to their financial profiles. Private schools are a luxury that are not even in the picture because the vast majority of these kids are not considered top college picks. I saw only a few kids going away to college, hardly any to private schools, and only s handful over 5 years going to private chills up in the selectivity ratings. They are not even in the market for these schools unlike my NY suburb where the majority of kids go to private schools with name recognition and high selectivity rankings. No one here goes to Wesleyan (A hardly any to mine schools) that I know; in NY it is a favorite school on college lists. None of this is fair, IMO.
YOUR DD does have a chance of clearing the Wesleyan waitlist, and there are articles in this forum that give advice that may increase chances in doing so. If she does, knowing this school , she is highly likely to get a financial aid package compatible with the NPC for the school. Hopefully, this happens. My best regards in this matter.
Most 4 year colleges are need aware…out of roughly 3,000 4 year colleges, there are somewhere between 100-150 that are need blind for domestic students.
The issue with “need blind” schools is that most of them don’t meet full need, so it’s only one factor and not necessarily the most important for someone who needs aid. Is it worse to be rejected from a need aware school, or accepted to a need blind one but without enough aid to make it feasible? At the end of the day it’s the same outcome …kid has to go elsewhere.
Agreed. And only a subset of the need blind schools meet full need.
OTOH, many schools that don’t meet full need for all, do meet full need for some highly desirable students (based on the school’s definition of desirability).
@Mwfan1921, actually, most colleges are need-blind, but most of those don’t meet full need for all. That would be most publics, for instance.
I made a comment earlier about schools needing to keep an eye on the tuition revenue as they round out a class, and I feel like I left an important part out. Schools can also get near the end and realize they have room to take a lot of applicants that need aid. A school like Wesleyan is run by smart people and I’m sure they often find plenty of room for students that need aid.
Full pay always enjoys some advantage at most schools where there are not billions in endowment, but suffer a disadvantage at tippy tops where attracting first gen/low income is a priority.
I recently came across a great old post from @Sue22 that students and parents should keep in mind if they start feeling resentful about the admission process:
Everyone’s screwed.
The suburban white girl from MA who plays soccer, is the editor of the school paper, and volunteers knows she’s in a terribly oversubscribed demographic. Half her class is applying to the Ivies and NESCACs, and even with her 4.0 and strong test scores there’s no way for her to differentiate herself. “If only I lived in a small town in Idaho” she thinks, “I’d have it made.”
The kid from small-town Idaho knows he’s at a disadvantage because his school doesn’t offer AP’s and no one from his school has been admitted to an Ivy League college in 5 years. He points to the kid from a swanky New York private school offering 15 AP courses who obviously has an easier path to the Ivies.
The prep school kid notes that his class is made up of superstars. Even with his 2300 SAT he’ll never crack the top 10% of his class. Terribly unfair, and clearly he’s at a major disadvantage when it comes to elite admissions. If only he attended some mediocre public school across the border in NJ he’d be the valedictorian and he’d have a ticket to Harvard.
The high scoring middle class kid from a mediocre New Jersey school can’t afford to attend his top choices. Sadly, if he were a first gen. black kid from Mississippi his PSAT would have made the cutoff for NMSF and between that and minority scholarships the money would be pouring in.
The kid from Mississippi is trying to do it all on his own. How can anyone expect him to get into a top school when he has a terrible GC and so little support from his parents? If only he were one of those kids whose parents signed him up for Kumon math and Suzuki violin from the age of 4 like those Asian kids he’d be golden.
The Asian kid has read Espenshade’s research and knows she has to score higher and be a better all-around candidate to get into the schools she values, particularly because she’s applying as a STEM major. “Why should I pick a different major ? That Hispanic kid in my class isn’t even in the top 10 and I’m sure she’ll be welcomed to an Ivy with open arms” she thinks.
The Hispanic kid ranked #11 has only been in this country for 5 years. His parents attended college but they don’t seem to have any idea how American college admissions work. He knows he’s way behind all those suburban East Coast kids whose families have populated the Ivies for generations. They’re all legacies, right?
The suburban white girl from MA…
If you believe that enrollment is a reflection of acceptances, then probably.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/22/college-applicants-from-families-in-the-1-percent-have-a-big-edge.html
The article focuses on the Ivies and other elite private schools, which tend to have the most expensive COA. Even if accepted, enrollment depends on affordability.
“Less than 5 percent of students at Ivy League and other elite colleges come from families in the bottom 20 percent of the income distribution. More than 14 percent of their students hail from the 1 percent, according to a 2017 study.”
To me, that’s like saying most of the people that buy (designer clothes, luxury cars, $million+ houses) are wealthy.
One often overlooked aspect of elite admissions is how colleges choose which financial aid candidates to select. To get the best bang for their rankings buck, they prioritize first generation and Pell grant kids. Lower and middle income kids are out of luck.
Want the details? See Stanford and UVA research on this. Get ready to have your eyes opened wide.
“Two prominent researchers say some selective colleges have responded to pressure to hit national benchmarks for enrolling low-income students – in ways that hurt other needy students who are equally academically worthy.”
https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2019/01/28/study-pressure-enroll-more-pell-eligible-students-has-skewed-colleges
No disadvantage for full pay kids. But the advantage is mitigated at the very top schools by their desire to enroll Pell grant and first gen kids.
“Full pay always enjoys some advantage at most schools where there are not billions in endowment, but suffer a disadvantage at tippy tops where attracting first gen/low income is a priority.” - jzducl
Schools often look for bang for the buck, so a first gen. URM recruited athlete allows them to check off multiple boxes.
That makes perfect sense for the college of course, given that the students are “equally academically worthy”, even as it might prejudice other low income applicants, or applicants that are not first gen but are not legacy either, etc. Schools need some way to choose one academically worthy kid over another, and they will respond to the existing incentives. Not at all saying it’s right - just that it’s understandable.