I don’t want to get nitpicky but the suggestion was that Haverford was not a peer of that first group named. That’s just not so. Nor is it easier to get into. Its admission rate doesn’t tell the whole story. It reminds me of U Chicago back when that school’s admission rate hovered in the 40% range. No one would have looked at U Chicago and pronounced it a school that was easy to get into or lacking in prestige. It was known as a self-selecting place where only very serious and very smart kids went because it was the place “where fun went to die”. In the case of Haverford, there’s that same intellectual vibe (without the intensity of U Chicago and plenty of fun remaining) but there’s also a focus on character and community that leads toward self-selection. If you don’t like or care about the honor code, it’s not going to be the right school for you. To make sure that my impressions of the school were still current, I went to the CDS for 2015-2016 for Swarthmore and Haverford to compare testing data and found, as I expected, that the SAT 25th and 75th data points were virtually identical. Frankly, they were pretty interchangeable among most of the schools in both lists.
So why am i posting so much about where Haverford fits? It goes back to what the OP said in post #1:
I have definitely caught on to this at wesleyan. Question: do you guys perceive Wesleyan as a reach for every white girl in an over represented area regardless of academic qualifications?? I am getting that sense.
Not entirely. Women who give every appearance of being potential STEM majors still have a hook, IMO. Wesleyan has very active NSF/NIH funded research labs and a very tiny number of graduate students to do the work. Undergraduates are constantly being asked to fill in the gaps…
Yeah, prospective political science or English major here. I have very strong academics, 4.0 FULL ib diploma etc, and strong but not incredible extracurriculars. It’s frustrating that so many schools my parents could have gotten into easily 20 years ago with such stats are still reaches for me. But I know I am not entitled to a Wesleyan education so.
Not sure if it was mentioned yet (probably was) but Vassar might be a good option! Especially given the interests you mentioned. I just visited a friend at the campus recently and oh my goodness, it is breathtaking! And that library! It put Yale’s Sterling Library and Williams’ new modern library both to shame in my opinion. I thought it was on par with the Bodleian!
I would go on to second several of the schools mentioned, especially the LACs. I think the undergraduate focus and opportunities they provide are just about unmatched, especially Williams, Amherst and Middlebury. Grinnell is another good one for sure, but a bit in the middle of nowhere in Iowa for my own tastes, suit yourself.
@lightsgoout - You may not be entitled to a Wesleyan education (I might argue that nobody should feel entitled to be admitted to his/her school of choice), but you certainly are competitive for getting into many top schools. If you end up finding the elusive “perfect fit” (which includes financial as well as academic and social), you should think about applying ED.