@liska21 you could always do a Northeastern/BU walk around and then go sightseeing around there if you don’t do MIT/Harvard.
Tufts isn’t in the city, its in a suburb and you’d have to drive out there. 75% chance at NU is pretty good !! I’d take those odds over the others.
I personally like MIT’s campus better than Harvard for tourism purposes, but I am a nerd.
@shuttlebus To add to the discussion of RD rates so low that applying seems pointless, we have Vandy
https://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/vandybloggers/2018/03/class-of-2022-regular-decision-summary-statistics/
Look at those scores. I wonder what the enrolled data will look like come fall.
Adding: looks like they admitted 183 fewer students than last year and had a 3k increase in apps. Last year: https://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/vandybloggers/2017/03/class-of-2021-regular-decision-summary-statistics/
@evergreen5 what a joke. Something is very wrong with this current system and I don’t even know who would be in charge of fixing it. Can’t wait to hear if anyone from our school got into Vandy.
@coffeemomCO My DS16 was granted provisional acceptance to Clemson as a Jr in HS . While they Clemson says there is no formal EA program , they tend to let high stats kids know in Nov and Dec. They no longer grant provisional acceptance . DS19 has a similar GPA, but lower scores and ranks in the top 10% not 1% like his brother. Clemson has gotten so competitive in the last 2 years , frankly we’ll be happy if DS19 is even offered the Bridge program. We’ve seen quite a few high stats kids bridged, waitlisted or rejected .
@carolinamom2boys agreed!! We have seen it getting far more difficult as well. My D19 is a high stats kid, but we will apply right when it opens and hope for the best! Cover all the bases and create a well rounded list of colleges… safety, likely, chance and reach options all in there. Right now she’s in a good place mentally… and seems to like a range of choices!
The published SAT scores for Vandy admits followed the trend that other colleges are reporting. It does seem that the initial reports that the new SAT is easier than the old SAT is simply not true.
Info from Vandy’s report:
"Old SAT**
Middle 50% Critical Reading: 740-800
Middle 50% Math: 770-800
New SAT**
Middle 50% Evidence Based Reading and Writing: 710-770
Middle 50% Math: 720-800
Middle 50% ACT: 33-35"
It will be interesting to see the new concordance tables.
@evergreen5 I’d encourage any high performing HS kid who understands the odds and is genuinely interested in applying RD to schools like UChicago or the Ivies to apply anyway – admission stats be damned. The RD stats bandied about here on CC (2% RD for UChicago?) are likely to be somewhat exaggerated.
Editing ninakatarina’s post:
I agree that most of the popular colleges which we considered follow above rules. I find SCEA/REA to be much more restricting than ED and it could lead to a much disappointing outcome. Fortunately, there are only a handful of schools doing SCEA, HYPS.
We will probably apply one ED, and EA to as many as possible schools which we can find. Since the ED school will be a lottery, it will be as if we are only applying to non-binding EA schools followed by more reach RD schools.
That makes it clearer, @payn4ward thanks for the clarification. I just did a copy/paste without pointing out the relevant information.
@KnightsRidge As far as I know (which is not saying much), Chicago stats are usually given orally at various types of presentations and then word spreads, so there is potential for exaggeration. However, the others I’ve been looking at are officially reported (like Northwestern’s RD 6.4%). At least Chicago has EA, even if it might be the same rate as RD.
@evergreen5 - Those are crazy stats for Vandy! How to the ED rates compare with those for RD?
@liska21
WPI is 50 miles west of Boston, RPI is 131 miles west of Worcester and Williams is in between (why not Amherst?).
Union is only 15 miles from RPI. Clarkson is a great school for the country boy, but is over 190 miles from RPI.
Dartmouth (5 year engineering program), Colby (LA), Bowdoin (LA) and U Maine at Orono (respectable engineering program and Stephen King’s well funded writing program), are great locations for the outdoors person. Little known trivia: Maine is the most heavily wooded state in the nation! U Maine is on the edge of nowhere! How badly does he want the seclusion? They do have over 11,000 students on a large piece of real estate. This school and Clarkson would be fine backups for engineering. If he makes it to Maine, he might want to read about the Allagash Wilderness waterway (see http://www.maine.gov/dacf/parks/water_activities/aww-river-conditions.shtml). It would make a great spring break as the black flies are not out yet! One paddles and eats fish!
WPI class of '67, retired to Maine!
I am not sure how many colleges we will be able to visit. Kid’s school allows I think 3 days missed for college “stuff” but I think that is usually used senior year once the student is admitted. Plus it is just not feasible for us to do a lot of midweek travel…we can do select weekends and maybe have more opportunity during the summer but are summer visits worth it? Will schools work with you on a visit even if it is not at a previously scheduled time?
@retiredfarmer Thanks for the info! That is helpful. We shall see how much seclusion he wants. Hopefully the visit to Williams will give insight to that. Part of the attraction of NY and NE is the paddling and colleges with robust WW kayak clubs. Though I predict rowing will be his college sport. Only problem is he is short for crew (shy 6’1") so needs a school with a lightweight crew team or not uber competitive heavyweight team.
@liska21 regarding the interest in Engineering without having to apply as an engineer - I thought the program at Amherst sounded great. It is a 2-1-1-1 with Dartmouth. So you spend, 2 years at Amherst, go to Dartmouth for junior year, back to Amherst for senior year and graduate with your class, and then a grad year back at Dartmouth.
Seems like a better set-up than a 3-2 program. Can almost think of that 3rd year as junior year ‘abroad’
I know some of you are touring schools today. We’re headed out in a bit. Hope you all have fun exploring!
Luckily in NE it’s not snowing, and most of the snow has melted.
Our school district sliced spring break down to just today and Monday. I am feeling the pinch. Honestly, they should add 15 minutes on to the school day and give us back some vacation days, but nooooooooo. The board of education isn’t imaginative enough to do that. I am so jealous of all of your luxurious spring breaks that allow travel time.
So today is for relaxing and Monday is for a repeat trip to Gettysburg. They’re a match school, and I’ve been reading enough about kids being rejected from their matches for not showing enough love that I am determined that we will show them love. So much love. And truth to tell, I have a great friend from high school who works just off campus who I am going to pal around with on Monday so I don’t have a hard time loving the college.
@RightCoaster you need to find some schools farther south. I’m so happy to not be wearing a winter coat!!!
Going out on tours with S19 this weekend also. Don’t wanna say where, but I will be the annoying parent with the disinterested teenager. Stop me and say Hi!
(joking of course… hoping to have some fun with W and S and I have a “no questions” policy for myself on tours!)