Thanks everyone. There are so many places I think he would be happy at all points on his list, even if he had to shrug off the disappointment of not getting into colleges higher on his list.
His job starts tomorrow, so the lazy days are over, and he can start scanning the websites and thinking about common app essay topics!
This is not a “rule” that everyone here agrees with. Some kids will never find a safety that they would be happy to attend. Willing to attend, yes. But not necessarily happy.
Then such students should realize that they have no actual safeties. An unhappy student is less likely to be a successful student.
^S is a teenaged boy…I’m not sure he is ever happy! Lol! But with the safety schools (other than suny), he chose bc he likes the campus, folks there, the town, etc. I think a safety showing him love will help a lot.
There is always something to love- even at the safety. Ugly dorms and grim labs? But lots of paid research opportunities during the summer. Hum-drum city/suburb/rural area without a lot going on? But the campus has dance performances and poetry slams and concerts Thursday-Sunday nights. Food is lackluster? But an award winning debate team (or fill in the blank for whatever your kids top interest is).
If you can’t find something to love at a college which isn’t at the tippy top of your kids list, your kid isn’t trying hard enough. At one “safety type” school we toured, the guide touted easy access to the ski slopes as a terrific side benefit (and heavily discounted lift tickets, ski equipment, etc.) It was hilarious- this was my kid who couldn’t stand being wet, cold, or any combination thereof.
But it was a good reminder to the whole family to seek out a few “really wonderful” qualities of every school we toured- even the ones the kids disliked or didn’t want to apply to. It’s easy to tour the mega-reach schools with stars in your eyes, but every college will have a couple of fantastic things going for it- nice weather, a cool performing arts center with free performances, subsidized fellowships abroad… that a kid can get excited about.
My S, who is pretty laid back, would have been willing to attend his safeties (both of them were the lowest COA of all the schools), they all had programs which suited his interests and he could have done well at any of them. However, we would be kidding ourselves to say that he wouldn’t have been disappointed to have not had a full range of choices from which to pick, including some of his top 3 or 4. I still think this is OK, and that we are still allowed to call those schools “safeties.”
"The vast majority of the programs within the. schools where D applied (other than her true academic safeties) had admit rates under 10%. I think Northwestern (which was one of her reaches) had the highest admit rate at 12%. "
I absolutely would no
Which BC is his safety school? BC usually refers to Boston Vollege which wasn’t even on the list in your first post.
Sorry, iPhone corrects too many real acronyms!! His safeties are Elon, Miami Univ and Binghamton.
I think plenty of kids are only willing to attend their safeties, but if for one reason or another they end up there, they’ll find things to like. My younger son lucked out - he liked his safety better than some of the other colleges he applied to, though still felt that he’d be better off at a more selective school. Older son had two smaller tech schools as safeties, he’d have been fine at either one, but I’m glad he had better choices.
Update:
So yesterday he says, have I ever mentioned northwestern to you? mom: no, but you thought U Chicago was too far. S: yeah, well, I didn’t really realize Chicago was that close…
At this point, thinking geography camp may be a good idea for August!
Anyway, he got invited to tour Cornell with 50 other area kids in October and stay with hosts in dorms. (Not an exclusive thing, some alumni sponsored trip). So he is a little more interested. I’ve talked to him about how if he gets sick, I can’t drive to Duke, and chicken soup doesn’t fit in a FedEx box! At least at Michigan, grandma can bring it!
He is also taking that online economics course Stanford offers for free to see if he really likes it. He says so far it is hard:). If it is not his thing, then it changes things a little.
Grade card day! Always a drama on our house with my younger one! S now has a 94.5% cumulative. (Little bro: 89.6)
So progress in inches for now.
Just another question, which would normally ask GC, but it us summer…
With Common App schools, how much “extra” work is each additional teacher recommendation for those teachers? I told S his limit of schools to apply to should be governed by the time it takes to do them not affecting the overall bunch, and not using uo all the teachers’ gooodwill!
Also, recomendations of whether to self report AP scores? He got one 5 and two 3s.
good news is he is more open now to other EDs or NO ED thanks to all your help!
None. It’s one and done. The teacher rec can be included on select applications, but the rec itself is the same.
IMO, if the class is on his transcript, report the score. If not reported, the AO may assume he got a 1.
@HRSMom , if your S and you are unsure about how the Comm App recommendation (or other aspects of it) works, he can create a dummy account now so he can give a test run. The dummy account will be eliminated when the new Comm App season begins in August.
Each school’s Comm App supplement will show the LOR and additional requirements, such as supplemental essays.
If your S’s school has a system allowing teachers to upload LORs (such as Naviance), they will use that. Otherwise, teachers will receive notification thru Comm App and upload directly.
If he really wants to go to Duke but it has a high sticker price, you might want to consider adding schools not in the top 20 that provide merit (non-need based) aid. My older S went to Wash U and my younger S is out of state at Michigan. Almost no merit aid is given by Wash U or OOS Michigan. So if he really wants to go to Duke, adding another school like NW where you likely have to pay full price or close to it, may not make as much sense. Once you get out of the top 20 (which I know Michigan is not in but it still does not give much merit add to OOS) there is a lot more merit aid available. Having said all that, both Wash U and Michigan are fabulous schools if finances are not a concern.
I think this is absolutely right. The good thing is, after they get to the safety, they often end up very happy and never look back. ESPECIALLY if the safety sweetens the pot with merit money and the school is filled with other students for whom it WAS their first choice.
Exactly.
Honestly, if you can afford Duke (or Penn) and his heart is set on a list of schools that are going to be comparably priced for your family, I would apply to the safeties very early, get those rolling or EA acceptances in hand, and then go for broke with the ED application. Not sure if Duke weights ED applications as heavily as Penn, but many schools do.
“I think this is absolutely right. The good thing is, after they get to the safety, they often end up very happy and never look back. ESPECIALLY if the safety sweetens the pot with merit money and the school is filled with other students for whom it WAS their first choice.”
I think that this is true even if the school has lots of kids who ended up there as their safety school.
I graduated at the top of my high school class (many years ago), but got rejected from all the Ivy’s. Ended up at Brandeis. In the first couple of weeks a lot of us established that we had applied to more selective/prestigious schools, but had gotten rejected. It made me realize that there were lots of other very smart kids there with me, who didn’t fit the Ivy League ideal (at a time when it was a lot of Jews being rejected instead of a lot of Asians being rejected). I made friends that first year or two that have lasted me a lifetime.
It also ended well for me, in that four years later I found myself at Harvard Medical School. In terms of medical school admission (and many other things) it’s better to be a big fish in a solid pond than a run-of-the-mill fish in a more prestigious pond. Just sayin’.
@pizzagirl- you are quoting me in post #106… Then I am confused by your only sentence “I absolutely would no”. Looking for a clarification. Is that a question? A comment? Are you doubting the acceptance rates of her programs? I am confused
I think most schools consider a 95 to be a 4.0 on a 4.0 scale. My son had a 91 and that was considered a 3.6 by North Carolina. Most schools look at unweighted. His class ranking may help if in the top 10%.
If you are willing to pay for Duke, then ED is his best chance. Hard to get him to focus on something else with that in the wings. My son’s attention was squarely focused on his ED school, until he was rejected.
If he likes the South, then early application to Tulane is merited, as it will be a good option if Duke doesn’t come through and he might get merit aid.
You will find there is a big difference between schools where Econ is in the School of Arts and Science, and where it is part of the Business School. My son definitely preferred the former, which knocked Miami and Ohio State off the list. He added Case Western after visiting, as the major is a B.A. but classes are taken at Weatherhead School of Management. He liked the integration of practical and theoretical. And Case was very generous with merit aid.
Michigan was really difficult this year for kids from our NY suburban public high school, which usually has a much higher admission rate than the national percentage. Great Econ program, even if not admitted to Ross, but will compete with Ross for jobs.
Reaches: Penn, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Michigan, UVA, William & Mary, UNC
Matches: Lehigh, Bucknell, Villanova, NEU (NEU can be tricky), Tulane, Case, Binghamton
Safety: Elon, Miami
I would add a few safeties, even if they initially would seem disappointing to attend, as my son was wait listed from two schools that were matches, with stats close to your son’s.
We added Bard College, which has an economics institute and great foreign language programs.
It is all very confusing, matches/safety. our naviance shows Binghamton, he is well over the mid 50, and no one at his school has ever been denied even close to his stats. NEU is similar. even U of M has shown dozens of accepts, only 2 rejects had similar stats. Villanova shows no one with his stats has even applied, let alone been denied. I’ m not sure Naviance is helpful for us! It may be painting too rosy a picture…i know his school is well known and respected by the top 50 schools tho…
Acceptances last 5 years:
Bing. 191
Elon. 22
Cornell. 52
Penn 20
duke 12
Dartmouth. 15
lehigh 48
Mich: 126
W&M. 9
NEU: 61
Tulane. 135