One twin applied to 20, but almost by accident. He’s been all over regarding majors, from trade school to STEM. He also fell into a rut worrying about going with a friend, so they’d apply someplace and he would. Then at the end I warned him he needed a safety or two and some financial safeties, so he added a few non competitive state schools. Not having aid packages has been particularly hard on him. Every school is basically like Harvard, but in terms of need.
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Isn’t any time appropriate to drink in Scotland?
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FWIW, I just got back from a trip to China, where we visited a number of high schools and universities and met with a number of administrators. As frustrating, unpredictable, and anxiety-producing as the American holistic system is, I’d take it over the Asian test-centric system any day.
Oh, and D24 got into Scripps! (I haven’t seen the aid package yet.)
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This brings up an interesting question that I have …
How often is it that schools admit to the second choice major and then later on give a spot in the first major? Or was your D24 admitted to a “pre-business” holding place major or an entirely diffferent major?
S24 is business. He did not put a second major at any school where it was not required. Our thought was … why take up a spot or be admitted to a program he didn’t want to be in. He was very certain he wanted business and not econ/liberal arts-- the two are very different in terms of day to day curricula. But you raise the possibility that the business school at some point says … sure, we denied you earlier (and put you in a different college and major) but now we’ve changed our mind and you are in!
I think I may have given him bad advice!
Unfortunately the answer is “it depends” on the school and the major. At UCSD for example, if not admitted for CS, there is nominally a process to attempt to transfer once enrolled. But functionally speaking this is somewhere between extremely difficult and impossible.
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In D24’s case they contacted her and gave her the option to apply to the liberal arts college because they could not accept her at the business school. They said she could major in Econ or math (or anything) and do a 4 plus 1 MBA program. While it wasn’t marketing, Binghamton had been at the top of her list for 2 years and she didn’t want to say no. So she said she would be interested in the liberal arts school and was accepted the next day.
We did tour and eventually moved on because she realized she really wanted business. Having admissions reach out last week was a total surprise. It’s like she got off a waitlist she didn’t even realize she was on. And while our initial tour was meh, in hindsight we realize that there were a lot of factors influencing that feeling.
So now we are going back knowing we are in the business school. She is also interested in environmental studies and they have interesting programs focusing on economics and sustainability so we will check that out also.
So totally unexpected but very welcome.
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You broke the code!
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Paid our enrollment deposit this morning! Yahoo!
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There really are just so many colleges out there that could be a great fit…at least for kids with fairly broad interests who don’t have a definite career path in mind. Mine definitely didn’t apply to EVERY top 20 LAC, but he did apply to 7 of them, and I maintain that he would be happy at any of those. My DS22, on the hand, who was music, music, and only music, had a much smaller list of schools that would work (he ended up applying to 6). This list was very specific not just to this kid but to this kid’s situation come December. Like if he didn’t already have a couple of solid EA options, there would have been fewer reaches and more likelies…the final list focused heavily on need-blind schools with excellent FA, which necessarily meant focusing on the very hardest to get into schools. The schools on his list with the lowest acceptance rates are also the ones that meet need with no-loans, which obviously would be an ideal situation. But there was plenty of thought given to fit as well (there’s only one Ivy on there, and we’re certainly not expecting anything to come of it, but…you never know)…which is why there are 7 top 20 LACs and not…20. Or, you know, 15 if you eliminate womens’ colleges and military academies or whatever. Also he had a common app fee waiver encouraging him to apply a bit more freely than he would have otherwise.
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Agree there are so many colleges out there that can be great fits - academics were never the limiting factor in the searches we undertook.
Each of our three kids reduced their lists by way of ‘soft’ factors: location, weather, campus vibe, nearby amenities/opportunities, campus food, athletic facilities, additional program offerings, merit money offers, etc.
The application process itself was also incredibly helpful in figuring out the right schools. Every school the kids applied to had supplemental essays. There were schools that felt right up to actually completing the applications - my kids would read some of the essay questions and be completely turned off. I told them, “If you don’t like the essay options - that tells you something important about the school itself. Don’t bother applying”. They each had a couple schools that fell off the list at that point.
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I’m excited for your daughter! I can totally see how her view of the school could be very different now!
Thank you! I am excited to go back on Friday also. Maybe I will have a decision update soon!
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Right, what you’re referring to might be called a secondary admission pathway. And that is obviously very major and school dependent.
What the previous poster referenced is something entirely different. It is being rejected from one major, and admitted to a different major, and then offered that first major again before ever matriculating at the school and without some sort of additional petition, or waitlist spot. I have never heard of that happening before. Has anyone else ever heard of this happening? Like a secret waitlist?
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Before matriculation? I too have never heard of that happening. I suppose it’s possible at the margin, but, it would likely take the full summer of yield and melt before the school would know so as to then offer it to an incoming student.
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My oldest eliminated both Bowdoin and Haverford because he was turned off by the supplemental prompts…but he actually really disliked Macalester’s, too, but pushed through!
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S19 applied to, I believe, 7 and was accepted at all.
S21 applied ED to one, got in, and that was that (easiest admissions season ever!)
D24 applied to nine, and I think that was at least three too many. So far three acceptances, one waitlist, one rejection.
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I guess we are just proof that crazy things happen! I’m just glad that we didn’t decline the original offer. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster ride for sure. They basically went in and updated her letter with the new major - said that she didn’t have to do anything on her end. D24 was so excited. While she did find another program she was happy with, this is what she wanted originally and feels like she can make the best choice now.
I hope that it caused a ripple effect and allowed them the ability to offer her original spot in Arts and Sciences to someone else. That would be the best outcome.
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That’s the most important aspect! And one I’d not considered. I’m not at all pressuring the droids to decline schools at this point, but this adds a whole other layer (they do have acceptances into 2nd choice majors here and there, so, yeah).
Awesome that that happened for your DD!
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D22 applied to 10 but could easily have done fewer since she loved a safety and we were all pretty sure it would stay her favorite. I do think it was a nice ego/confidence boost to get in to some of her reaches.
D24 applied to 7 schools and would likely have applied to 4 more had she not gotten in to her ED school.
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And to your original point about transferring schools within the University after matriculation - it is notoriously difficult to go from A&S to Business within Bing so that is why we moved on and looked at other schools more closely. She didn’t want to go in hoping to transfer, especially knowing that you need a 3.7 after a year to be considered.
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