<p>There are twenty schools on the list so far, though some adjusting will come after the SAT results and college trips. The schools are from Chicago east, with no decision yet about size, location or majors. D’s criteria – cold, wet, rainy, snowy, not Christian/Catholic/Jesuit/Hyper-religious other, not too Greek/preppy, not too granola-easting, tree-hugging, near concert venues, decent housing, not all girl or predominantly female. You can see why finding a school might be tough!</p>
<p>What thread? re post no. 3817</p>
<p>CowntingDown, can you explain about your flagship strategies? </p>
<p>I have my own flagship issues. My D does not want to apply. They scared the kids in school this year saying that the flagship will hardly accept anyone next year given the economics and they should all apply to the next level down of school. I swear bad counseling is worse than no counseling at all.</p>
<p>YDS, here you go: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/665449-relocating-d-east-coast-does-make-sense.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/665449-relocating-d-east-coast-does-make-sense.html</a></p>
<p>^^the thread about moving east to be near college D.</p>
<p>Oh, my. How have I missed this?! Me thinks it’s best to stay away from that thread.</p>
<p>CountingDown, now I want to know the other schools on your son’s possible list! (It is funny especially since the big brothers also seemed to have quite a bit in common.) Most of our state schools are either too rural or too big for my son to be happy about them.</p>
<p>Counting Down: Yeah, I’ve been virtually stalking Curmudgeon’s post about merit aid, Rhodes & their college selection process. Between Curmudgeon & Colleges that Change Lives, that’s what got Rhodes on my radar (and CTCL got Birmingham Southern & Centre on there too.)</p>
<p>S’s list is all over the map, literally. We’ve had some fun visiting, though!
Tentatively:</p>
<p>Bowdoin
Carleton
Grinnell
Macalester
Pomona
Rice
U of Oregon
U of the Pacific
U of Puget Sound
U of Redlands
Whitman
Willamette</p>
<p>zm – loved your comment about how your D looked at you when you mentioned Rice. :)</p>
<p>Queen’s Mom,
S2 does not care for large schools. Flagship has 24k undergrads, but he is a likely admit given the HS program he’s in, possibly even with some merit $$. The two honors colleges in our state that are more to his liking size-wise do not have his major – he’d have to cobble something together. I’ve told him he needs to have an in-state school he likes that is a financial safety. </p>
<p>Last year, S1 liked the flagship, had an excellent shot at merit money and said he’d be fine going there. Knowing that, he used the rest of his apps to aim high. If S2 doesn’t like the flagship, he’s going to need to find some financially sane likely admits we can all be happy about – and that would likely be 2-3 schools for a good range of options. OOS would be OK with us in that regard. At the end of the day, I don’t want a $50k tuition bill for a school that neither he nor we are excited about.</p>
<p>I just want to say that this is an extremely helpful and supportive thread. It’s great to go through this process with all of you!</p>
<p>I have been surprised today to see two posters mention Vanderbilt as a match for their kids. We visited a couple of weeks ago and Vanderbilt has become very competitive. It’s a top 20 university with a beautiful campus. The class of 2012 had close to 17,000 applicants for just over 1,500 spots. The 25-75 SAT range for Critical Reading was 650-740, and for math it was 680-760. More power to those of you for whom Vanderbilt is a match for your kids. ;)</p>
<p>May I second Booklady’s motion on post #3831?</p>
<p>Okay, S’s CA centric short list (it never was long so we’re working on this with him) includes (in no particular order):</p>
<p>Stanford
USC
UC Bekerley
UCLA
UC San Diego and</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s it for now. We’re also waiting on SAT results from this Saturday to determine the reach-math-safety buckets, except for Stanford which is an uber reach for just about any student. Our HS gets perhaps one admit to Stanford every other year or so. Every year, there are some students that get into Ivies and Berkeley, UCLA and other UCs, some top LACs.</p>
<p>One of the local, small time papers (on line version) picked up my remarks in appealing to salvage the AP science and math classes.</p>
<p>Practice is cancelled, and he’s taking the BC Cal test as we speak. Woohoo! Two of todays hurdles cleared, one to go!</p>
<p>that’s great YDS, I look forward to hearing about our newest Eagle Scout later 
I also third Booklady’s motion!</p>
<p>As I check D’s list on naviance (which put them in alphabetical order), she has listed-
Bates
Bowdoin
U of Chicago
Connecticut College
Dartmouth
Middlebury</p>
<p>There will probably be more as we do more visits. She did list list before our Tufts visit, so not sure if she doesn’t want to include it or hasn’t gotten to it yet. I think she will include it. We also want to schedule a NY trip sometime before end of June.</p>
<p>I’ve been overwhelmed with work and haven’t been posting much, but I’ll chime on the health and college list fronts.
Health: diagnosed today with bronchitis for the first time in her life–this has been a tough year health-wise.
College list (disclaimer–some of those big boys at the top of the list are GC’s recommendations. D is actually feeling a bit of reverse snobbism if that makes sense, but is willing to visit H and Y and consider them). Here goes (stars mean she has researched and liked):</p>
<p>Harvard University
Yale University
*Brown University
Stanford University
*Swarthmore College
Washington University in St. Louis
*Cornell University
*University of Chicago
Northwestern University
*Haverford College
Wesleyan University
Vassar College
Carleton College
Tufts University
Oberlin College
*Reed College
Macalester College
*University of Rochester
University of Maryland
*Whitman College</p>
<p>That’s good news, Youdon’tsay! Now you can take a breath or two. Good luck to your S on the Eagle Scout meeting.</p>
<p>Here’s Son’s working list. </p>
<p>An estimated SAT midpoint of 1250 (R + M) separates the high matches from the low matches. We don’t have an SAT score for Son yet, but figure 1250 would be a good first try based on his 127 PSAT (R + M) and his erratic practices. Course rigor, GPA, and ECs are strong.</p>
<p>Reaches (> 1300)
Wm & Mary
UVA Colgate
Bucknell
Wake Forest (SAT optional :))</p>
<p>High Matches (1251 - 1300)
Franklin & Marshall
Richmond
Gettysburg
Lafayette
Dickinson
University of Maryland</p>
<p>Low Matches (1201 - 1250)
St. Mary’s College of Md
Allegheny
TCNJ
Elon
Loyola of Maryland</p>
<p>Safeties (< 1200)
Salisbury
Roanoke
High Point</p>
<p>Well, I fourth Booklady’s statement - it’s so true!</p>
<p>I love seeing the variety of schools on everyone’s lists. I was wondering the same thing as momof3sons about Vanderbilt though - I didn’t think it was considered a match for anyone anymore. That’s a school I’d love for my D to consider, but it’s a little far from home for her. </p>
<p>Youdon’tsay - glad everything’s working out for your DS tonight. Good luck tonight, and congrats to the new Eagle Scout.</p>
<p>Well Vanderbilt may be a reachy match if things have changed. They’ve come to our school and said that us NYers are considered to be something of a URM there. But assuming his SAT scores match or better his PSAT scores (75CR, 68M) it looks good. He’s in a totally green zone according to our school’s scattergrams.</p>