I know you are trying to cut the list down and you missed visiting. Our S20 visited a number of schools on your list and Lafayette was his favorite. He liked the size 2800 vs 16-1800 in many of the other LACs. The central quad which looks like it came off a movie set. What he liked the most, his words-" It’s not too preppy, it’s not too artsy" He felt the kids had diverse interests. We called it the Goldilocks test.
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I do think Lafayette is going to stay on the list although we probably can’t visit before he applies.
Also you mentioned when you visited Dickinson they brought up the US Army War College. International relations and international trade are major areas of study. We did an open house at Dickinson and met several kid who wanted to go into Foreign Service. The War College is a graduate research school and kids do research there and I think they share faculty. It’s a long standing partnership, that if not unique, is at least rare.
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That’s good to hear. I got the sense it had a very preppy, Lacrosse boys, vibe. I guess everyone’s sense of that is different though. Maybe we will have to visit.
I stand corrected! I’m just an East Coast girl (married to a St Louis boy).
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Okay, I’m monkeying around with the spring list now and rethinking the goals of the trip.
We can always do virtual tours/schedule visits to schools that accept DS during senior year. But this spring I want to vet a handful of reach schools that might be early decision candidates (recognizing that some of the schools he liked on our midwest tour – Oberlin, Denison, and Kenyon – are also probably toss-ups unless he applies ED).
Accordingly, I’m trying to figure out how to include all of the following:
- Bates (still) – and not Colby or Bowdoin, even though they are right there, for reasons I can explain if asked.
- Wesleyan University – because it looks (from the outside) a lot like Oberlin and has such a great mix of science and arts.
- Vassar – similar in some ways to Oberlin and has the gorgeous campus that kiddo seems to like (but I have a gut sense that this might be less of a match for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on.)
- Hamilton – I know…it’s the longest of long shots. They have a strong physics program and an open curriculum that makes dual majors easier (I think this was another feature of Oberlin that appealed). Kids who liked Kenyon also seem to like Hamilton.
Also on this trip – because it’s not sufficiently complicated! – we’re going to try to see the total eclipse with our NH and Maine family. This is part of my rationale for stripping away some of the schools we might have otherwise visited (e.g. Union/Skidmore/Clark/Holy Cross). I keep asking myself: is any of these likely to be more of a hit than Oberlin/Kenyon/St. Olaf? Would DS be inclined to ED at one of those? I think in all cases the answer is no. For similar reasons we aren’t driving all the way to Rochester (even though I think it’s a match school and the open curriculum/strong STEM programs make it intriguing.)
I think we might manage to slip in a visit to either Brandeis or one Worcester school at the end of the trip and I’ll talk with my son about which one/s we should consider. But basically, again, the goal is to rule out the longest of long shots (or determine that one of them should be an ED1 choice).
Then, in theory, the strategy for applications would look something like:
EA: St. Olaf + (some subset of Wooster, Clark, Rhodes, Macalester, Union…TBD)
EDI: one of the above schools if it stands out – or possibly Oberlin.
Then, if necessary
ED2: if ED1 dings him, either Oberlin or Kenyon or maybe one of the other reaches +
RD: some subset of Dickinson, Brandeis, Lafayette, Oberlin, Kenyon, Denison, Whitman, Occidental, Reed, U. Puget Sound, Rochester, and maybe Santa Clara.
This (hitting fewer schools that are yes – farther apart – but similar in selectivity, with a laser focus on “do i like this more than Oberlin or Kenyon?”) feels much less grueling than my previous scheme. And we get to see friends and family and places like Maine and Boston.
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I’m confused.
Why bother with the “longest of long shots”? Just to cross your fingers that he doesn’t like that (or those) schools and you can drop them without regret?
Focus on the LIKELIES and SAFETIES. This is where most people get into trouble. They’ve got their “ride or die” list-- schools they’ve visited, eaten in the dining hall, had ice cream in the funky “we crank our own” old fashioned parlor in the student center. And then they’ve got a few “I can see myself here” colleges and a robust list of “safety schools which I’d rather die than attend”. The old folks here can quote chapter and verse of the April Lament. Kids who never visited their safety schools because they somehow “knew” they wouldn’t need to… until they do. Parents who don’t bother with the match schools because everyone is burnt out and broke after seeing the pie in the skies… and now they need to help their kid figure out a la Bert and Ernie- “one of these things is not like the other”. I.e., the “Best of the Worst” options.
I think you’re slicing the bologna too thin. And sequencing the ED/EA/RD’s with some grand strategy… we’ve all seen that play out as well.
Make sure his safeties are very safe. Make sure you can afford them. Make sure his match schools are really solid matches which you are likely to be able to afford. And then have at it at the tippy top. Yes, if he gets lucky it might mean a trip next April.
This feels very complicated to me. And I know the driving distances between Boston, NH and Maine, and even though these campuses look really close together if you’re comparing west coast distances, Hamilton to Bates- not that far, but not that fun.
Why so many schools? Remind me…
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Have to agree with this. This doesn’t sound like a fun road trip driving wise at all…way too many slow areas/high traffic areas to drive through. I’d do something like Wesleyan, Bates, Brandeis, Clark and/or WPI (and you’ll still feel like you never stopped driving). Don’t get sucked into NY State on this trip.
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Since you might be looking for an easy-ish way to include/exclude colleges, one thing you might want to consider, since you are from the West Coast, is how difficult/easy will it be to travel to any of these colleges on any kind of regular basis – especially for the shorter college breaks like Thanksgiving or Spring Break. It really is a long haul to do for a short break. We are in California and my son, who is at school in New England, chose to not fly back for two of the three Thanksgiving breaks he’s been away, just due to how short the break is vs how much travel is involved.
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That’s not quite how I’m thinking of it. I think any one of those schools could be a wonderful place for him, and I’d like to give him the chance to see them and think about whether or not he agrees. I guess I should clarify too: we’re not looking at Ivies, or the subset of LACs with <10% acceptance rates. There are longer shots.
The bulk of the schools on our list right now are match schools, which means (I think) that it’s a coin toss whether he gets in or not. So yeah, applying to 5-10 of them (depending on how strongly he feels about each one and how many supplemental materials they require) doesn’t seem crazy.
Affordability is thankfully not an issue for us.
I never came home for Thanksgiving in college and I don’t expect my son to either. It’s actually a fabulous opportunity to go see friends/relatives/experience something different from your family traditions. (I ended up spending Thanksgiving in Manhattan every year; other friends went home with roommates or friends who lived nearby.) We have family and friends sprinkled across the Northeast (including a fun aunt and uncle who live half an hour from Bates).
That said…I do think about access. But some of the coolest schools on our list are just not super convenient to get to. I imagine he’ll have the rest of his life to live in a coastal city near a major international airport, right?
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I really hope you visit Clark. I love your write ups 
and this may be one of the schools we don’t have time to visit before deciding. Have heard great things about it though.
I highly encourage this approach, especially in contrast to the streetlight-effect approach often recommended on CC.
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As I’m sure you realize, he shouldn’t ED to anything unless it’s a total standout. It sounds like he might need the time and the assortment of offers to make a choice he feels right about. Maybe, maybe not. You’ll have to see if he zeroes in on a single school by fall.
Don’t get stuck in the ED trap for the possible bump in admissions chances unless he’s really sold on a standout. The “luxury” of being able to apply ED can be a bit of a blessing or a curse depending on the individual. He’ll have some wonderful acceptances to choose from even if he doesn’t apply ED.
I gotta say, Maine sounds pretty cool for your kid. I hope he likes some of the schools there. I’ve really enjoyed hearing about your son’s application journey.
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I’m assuming you 'll be trying to catch the eclipse in Maine? I’ll warn you the traffic will be a nightmare. Roads in Maine aren’t like highways in California.
When the last eclipse happened a few years ago, Wyoming was one of the best places to view it. Going up wasn’t bad and people spread that over a few days. It took some people about 9 hours to get back to Denver from just north of Cheyenne, same from the very western parts of Nebraska, usually less than a 3 hour drive. The highways were bumper to bumper. The eclipse lasted about an hour and everyone jumped on the highway at the same time.
I sat in a park in Denver and while it wasn’t a total blackout, I enjoyed the viewing and was home in 5 minutes. Choose your viewing spot carefully. My friends are flying to Austin TX and are already complaining about the costs of air tickets and rental cars.
I’d also vote against focusing on reachy ED possibilities.
Specifically, I personally think having a robust list of targets the kid is really excited about, all of them, for specific concrete reasons, is a much more important goal than seeing if the kid is ready to pick an absolutely favorite reach as of the ED deadline. And I think looking at and rejecting possible targets can contribute to the process of getting excited about the targets you actually end up choosing.
Moreover, I think the EDs most likely to be effective are targets and not reaches. I am deeply skeptical of the “ED boost” that supposedly gets a highly selective college to admit someone ED that they wouldn’t want to admit RD. But if you can identify a college that you really love that is also reasonably likely to love you back just as much, and you don’t want to compare aid offers if admitted, then that might make more sense for ED.
Given this perspective, if, say, the current favorite is Oberlin, the ideal “find” from further visits would not be a MORE selective college he liked better than Oberlin. It would be a college he liked better than Oberlin that was actually no more selective. Or, even better, a college he liked better than Oberlin that was also LESS selective than Oberlin.
And so if I was going to prioritize finding any sort of college, it would be that college, which implies the priority should be promising college anywhere from no more selective than Oberlin to less selective than Oberlin.
As a final thought, I think it can be tough sometimes to resist adopting the mindset that more selective = better. It is an implicit premise of so much common strategizing and discussing, it is often reinforced by the kid’s peers, other parents, and so on. But once you learn to identify and insulate yourself from that way of thinking, it becomes a lot easier to help support your kid in developing a truly wise list.
Including a list which potentially involves ED not at one of the most selective colleges on their list, but rather at the college they like the best even though it is not among the most selective.
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Sounds like you’ve thought about it from a lot of different angles. As long as you don’t mind driving - go for it.
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Yes, agreed! This was my daughter’s experience as well. In fact, she considered it a strength of Oberlin; everyone hanging out and socializing, etc. across interests. I gave this example before, but she went to several combo lacrosse house/jazz parties.
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I agree with others that visiting target and safety schools is important - I would be careful about de-prioritizing visits to these schools. (Understanding, of course, that no one can visit all schools out there.) One very practical reason is that many of these schools care much more about demonstrated interest than the more selective schools. Holy Cross, for example, cares about campus visits and says so very explicitly in its various admissions presentations. My son applied this year and had to write a short response as part of his application that detailed all of the ways in which he had engaged with the school.
Second, visits can help generate interest in schools that otherwise would be overshadowed by the glitzier, more selective options. My son was not particularly enthusiastic about college touring. But in the end it was striking that he liked virtually every school he saw and was happy to apply there, but was very reluctant to add additional options that he had not seen. This was especially true for likelier schools that did not have a lot of buzz among peers at his schools.
That said, I also agree that thinking about an ED strategy makes sense. I know that quite a few people on this board believe that the ED bonus is a thing of the past and that strategic considerations should not factor into an ED decision. While I would get rid of ED if I could, I do think it pays to think about it strategically while it exists. I doubt that there is much of an ED/REA bonus at the very selective Ivy Plus schools or the top couple of LACs. But at a school like Bates, for example, applying ED is a real advantage and one that should be considered if the school is of interest and a feasible option. The same is true for most (all?) LACs in a similar selectivity range. FWIW, all of the independent high schools with strong college placement in my area strongly encourage an ED strategy, which includes prioritizing visits to schools that are the student’s top two or three ED contenders. In fact, S24’s school also favors choosing an ED2 school, especially if the student was denied and not deferred in the first round. And they would advise that a good ED target is a somewhat reachy school that is still realistic for the student. (Naturally there are exceptions to this ED recommendation, for example because of financial considerations or because the student did not have strong reports junior year.)
Of course, this thought process is how we ended up visiting something like 18 colleges all over the country! 
And we had the advantage of being on the east coast within driving distance of a lot of schools.
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I’m not getting sense that OP is over-prioritizing reaches. Unless I missed it, we actually don’t know what her son’s stats are, but the schools they visited and the ones that are on the “likely to apply” list seem to be in a range of selectivity. It also sounds like OP’s son is quite smart, but with some challenges (like all of our kids!). She’s very consciously been leaving out the reachiest of the small LACs - Middlebury, Bowdoin, etc. - and including a mixture of low targets/safeties, matches and reaches. This seems especially reasonable given a couple of other factors - no need to shop for merit aid and a willingness to apply ED if there is a school that rises to the top. With some of the schools on the list, applying ED could be huge. Finally, they are using an EA strategy so they’ll learn from some schools early, and if results are disappointing, they can change course a bit to add in some additional targets and safeties during the regular admission cycle.
I had a very similar kid, and this is basically the same strategy we used (which is probably why I like it! : )) It doesn’t seem like a case where they are overemphasizing super reach schools, but looking at a list of safeties/low targets, matches, and “reasonable reaches” (especially if ED is in play) and also really looking closely at fit for each of these schools.
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After much heated debates at home, S24 didn’t apply any schools ED. Several EAs and a dozen RDs (although he didn’t complete few RD schools as a result of positive EA results). He was not ready to pick a place at that time even though lots of his friends did.
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