Hi All, middle aged mom on the junior year college visit odyssey. We’re trying to visit everywhere she has a strong interest in applying, but I’m getting tired! I’m trying to decide if we should keep our Princeton visit in November or if it’s just too much of a long shot and we should forget it. About DD: She’s a very smart, quirky junior in a magnet STEM school with a 4.0 unweighted GPA (4.4 weighted) some good leadership, a bunch of AP’s, good EC’s, extremely good writer and 1470 PSAT last year. Emphasizing quirky though. We’re in Virginia. She wants to go on in some kind of undecided biology - possibly genetics, cell biology, etc. but not medical school. Very intellectually curious about everything but not socially savvy.
So far we have seen:
Swarthmore
(hated it - depressing, poorly run admissions)
Johns Hopkins
(liked it but reservations about Baltimore and possible stress culture)
William & Mary
(Liked - maybe loved)
Cornell
(Liked ok, but felt it was pretty big and sterile, and far from home)
Princeton is the next on our schedule but I’m wondering if it’s even worth the trip. It seems like such a long shot, and I wonder if she’d be out of place even if she did get in by some miracle. Thanks in advance for any input!
If she is interested and you have the time and resources it is fine to visit. As long as D understands Princeton is a longshot for any unhooked student and has match/safety schools she would be happy to attend it doesn’t hurt to apply to a couple of reaches. That way she will never have to wonder “what if.”
Also, I don’t know where in VA you are, but if in northern Virginia it’s pretty easy to take the Amtrak to some of the Ivies. Might make travel easier and some she could do on her own if she’s independent enough. (Caveat from my kid though is if taking train to Yale, don’t walk to campus due to neighborhood concerns. They have a shuttle and non students can take it. Providence Train station an easy and safe walk to campus or a quick uber ride ). And of course Boston is the terminus for the northeast corridor trains and lots of colleges there!! )
So my two cents is you should definitely prioritize visits to possible Likelies and Targets over Reaches.
In fact, when you think of it, if you are not going to visit some colleges before applying, it makes most sense not to visit Reaches, since definitionally they will probably moot the issue by not accepting you. If they then actually do accept you, you can do an admitted students visit.
In contrast, Likelies are definitionally most likely NOT to moot the issue for you, followed by Targets. So those make more sense to prioritize for pre-offer visits.
Now of course if you had unlimited time, money, and energy to visit every college that might end up on her list, great. But in the real world, if not visiting Princeton meant she could maybe visit another potential Target or Likely, either eliminating one she thought she might like but it turns out she doesn’t, or alternatively getting really excited about one she didn’t know she would like that much . . . that is real value.
And then if she applies to Princeton unseen and actually gets in–great, go visit then and see how she compares it to her other most exciting offers. Assuming it even makes that short list (it might not).
She doesn’t like UVA or Tech too much. Nothing else in VA is standing out which is a problem. She likes a midsize school with an intellectual/nerdy population.
Unhooked means you don’t have some very very special and unique thing you bring to the college…things like folks who have donated a LOT of money to the college, sometimes legacy, things like being an Olympic athlete, child of a famous person, recruited athletes, etc.
We’re having a lot of trouble identifying Likelies and Targets where she’d actually want to go. She’s almost rather go to community college for 2 years then transfer than go to JMU or GMU. We’re trying to stay in decent driving distance to northern VA and looking for a midsized, intellectual place for her.
I think it is for sure. And she absolutely loves it. She’s considering ED1 there but it just seems so crazy that she’s worked so hard, grueling magnet school, internships, etc. to go to the first in state school she looked at.
Why? My kid’s top two choices were amongst colleges that were on her first college trips…and she went to and graduated from one. If it’s a favorite, it’s a favorite…and that’s all that matters.
I don’t think of Princeton as quirky. Intellectual, but more buttoned-down. It may be worth it to visit for her to make her own call though (I found that visits helped, even when they were nos, to solidify the right school when D saw it). One other school that came to mind – Wesleyan. I know it has a strong sciences, seems a little good-quirky, and is a larger LAC (around 3000 students). Not easy admit, but easier than Princeton (and harder than W&M instate).