I’m a bit late to the thread but just wanted to chime in and congratulate so many students on their acceptances thus far. Woohoo!! It’s still hurry up and wait around our house- daughter hears from an EA school on Thursday and her ED school on Friday. How can the the end of the week feel so far away?
@Clementine7624 has your daughter looked at the University of Richmond? How about George Washington or American? Going farther north Perhaps Drew in NJ though might be too small?
@shrimpburrito. There would have to be a central application system or at least an assigned code to each student that is tracked and once submit is hit the code is tracked and when you hit five submitted your code is no longer valid. Yeah, that is how it works in my fantasy world, lol.
Maybe a tiered system? “you can choose to apply to two schools from Category A (acceptance rate <15%), three from Category B (AR <30%), and four from Category C (AR >30%)”
@Clementine7624 I usually recommend my alma mater, Syracuse University, for those interested in any kind of communications field (has a great photography program). That being said, it snows from October through April there so it might not be a weather fit.
@Clementine7624 & @MomOutWest - My son received the same offer ($23+3). Great school but the price is still very high with a direct cost of attendance of $61k so he will probably decline.
@Clementine7624 - I would take a second look at University of San Francisco. 23% out of state is not a bad number and 18% International is also a large percentage. I do think that USF targets students similar to Santa Clara University and other Jesuit schools so not just a safety for University of California hopefuls. Overall, I really think it is a great school in a great location.
@Clementine7624 one girl from my Midwest town went to Univ San Francisco; transferred after a year because she felt other students were not engaged in school or community according to her mom. She transferred to Oberlin, and finally to U Wisconsin. So she might be especially fussy!!
I would consider Trinity in San Antonio (not Southern feeling, but Texan), Richmond (Southern?), Colorado College (if she can handle block plan). What about Oklahoma or Kansas or Oregon or Minnesota (but cold!) if she wants bigger?
@Kayak24 have you tried the Niche college acceptance calculator?
And if anyone else has tried it…what percentage chance would you consider a reach?
@Clementine7624 Take a look at Oberlin which is outside of Cleveland. Nice campus, very progressive and about 5,000 students. Lots of famous graduates the most recent being Lena Dunham of “Girls” fame.
@Clementine7624 : University of Santa Clara has a strong social justice group and nice winters.
@Clementine7624 if she likes the social justice aspect, what about other Jesuit schools in California (Santa Clara, LMU)? There’s also USD (Catholic but not Jesuit, but has a social justice focus), although it might not be diverse enough for her. In DC, you could consider GW or American if the weather there doesn’t put her off.
DD’18 met with a coach yesterday afternoon. The meeting lasted over an hour. We asked her out it went. DD said, “He is really nice, but he talks a lot.”
Thanks for all the suggestions @KaMaMom @glido @burghdad @Booajo . She likes USF despite it being Jesuit (we are Jewish but she is currently atheist). We visited LMU and she thought it was “too perfect”. I am going to encourage her to look at American and GW - I think those hit most of her current wants. Oberlin - she has ruled out as too isolated. Trinity and Richmond too southern and Oklahoma or Kansas or Oregon or Minnesota too big. Colorado College - doesn’t like the block plan.
@melvin123 in post #10785, well said!
@MDSparkle , Congratulations!! Great school and I’m so happy for you all!
@kcjo02 , I have not tried that but I’ll look. To answer your question, I heard somewhere that any college that accepts less than 30-40% of kids should be considered a reach for everyone. Obviously some kids can be more confident than others at a school in that range but I’ve seen kids with really high stats get rejected from schools one would never have expected.
@melvin123 I have some of the same concerns about the friend group being too focused on the EA and ED decisions coming out this month. I just think it raises the level of stress higher than it already is and the result becomes too public, too highlighted. They all know what long shots some of these schools are, but some of them seem to be wallowing in the drama.
@MDSparkle congrats - Go Big Red!!
If it makes some of you feel any better, S’13 was rejected at a few top schools, wait listed at one, and accepted to others. It did feel random and we did wonder how the different schools were seeing his application so differently. But I do think each school has their own “wants” and that those change every year. S’18 watched this happen and is, I think, prepared for the apparent randomness of the process. He seems to think that if he gets into a couple of his reaches, hopefully with merit where it is offered, that he will have made it through the process well. Some of his friends don’t seem to have that perspective.
@Clementine7624 I thought of Santa Clara too. Occidental might also be worth a look, although on the smaller side… 53% from outside California w/ additional 7% international. Seems to be quite diverse for a LAC and has a Center for Gender Equity as well as a Diversity and Equity board in student government. (has 5 short answers required on the common app though, it that is a concern).
@Macmiracle I am sure she will be fine!
Just found out that someone D knows was accepted ED at Cornell. Kind of surprises me (stats would be lower than I would think) though the kid is well rounded. It’s one of those people where you are happy for her but if D gets rejected ED on Friday, you will scratch your head and think, “but how did ____ get into Cornell?” Not in a bad way, but this selection process really is a moving target defying logic. I’m not enjoying it!
And right now I am seeing the plus side of someone being accepted ED or EA to their favorite. Won’t it be nice (no matter when it happens) when we can all just settle in knowing where our kids are going? But then can we rewind the time so we have more time with them at home?? :(( 
@Kayak24 and others- Just wondering if people think it’s possible some of these uber selective schools are following some of the “Turning the Tide” talking points when making admissions decisions? Obviously those students receiving good news (the ones that are surprising people) have the underlying academic chops for admittance, but I am wondering if we are seeing a higher degree of acceptances correlated to Turning the Tide’s “Making Caring Common” theme over (or beyond) the traditional tippy top GPA/Scores/Awards/Achievement model?
In other words, I am wondering if people have a feel for the kind of community involvement these early acceptance kids at super selective school might have, whether there is any pattern emerging in the depth/breadth of EC interests in the broader population of students gaining early admissions?
I know it’s way too soon to draw any conclusions but I thought I would throw out that possibility with so many more early decisions coming soon. Those tippy top schools have to turn away so many qualified and overqualified kids, admissions is complicated on so many levels. I will be curious whether or not the 175 deans of colleges who endorsed “Turning the Tide” are in any way shape or form shifting their own institution’s approach to decisions with that message in mind.
Interesting thought @lr4550. Of course the cynical part of me recognizes that community service will just become something else for hypercompetitive students to game, but if it means more community service is being performed I guess it’s all to the good even if the motivation behind all those service hours is not entirely altruistic.