Not sure if you listen to the Your College Bound Kid podcast, but this question was raised in a recent episode (episode 455). However, they did not answer it in that episode as they got carried away with other aspects of the broader question. They then said that they would spend about 25 minutes on this topic in episode 459. I don’t think that one is out yet though.
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My kid also got the rural distinction. He doesn’t really have any academic awards so he will definitely be using it! We are absolutely a rural school district. Primary employment here is agriculture and we are 90 minutes from any sort of city. Just FYI — some very selective colleges are actively recruiting rural students.
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There’s even an organization for that, more info and see member colleges here:
There’s an informational virtual event on Aug 20th, followed by others:
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Interesting! S25 went to a special info session for rural students at Claremont McKenna so I know they are looking to recruit that type of student as well. We definitely have some real challenges out here but I think all the ranchers and farmers have a unique viewpoint and strong work ethic.
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This is my exact situation. My daughter has her heart set on one of those schools and she refuses to truly consider any other option, despite us visiting numerous other colleges that she thought were perfectly fine.
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S25 got his first acceptance…Mississippi State! He doesn’t seem too excited but it’s a relief to have one admit! I think he submitted the school application sometime last week, so this was a quick response! Still needs to get the Common App in, but I think he’s going to wait until National Merit semifinalists are announced.
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Hey, I’ve got a kid there! Good place, particularly for engineering and most especially for meteorology.
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It’s such a great school! A lot of kids from S25’s high school go to MS State, but he’s dead set on a smaller school. Can’t beat the cost, and I hear the academic programs are strong. Hope your kid is enjoying it!
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Visited Rider, Stockton, and Saint Joes. D25 is realizing more that the service learning oriented Jesuit colleges sound interesting to her.
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C25 has list of 7 favorite schools in order. At least a couple of them have double digit acceptance rates. lol Major finger crossing.
Bowdoin 8%
Bates 13%
Wesleyan 15%
Colby 7%
Oberlin 32%
Middlebury 13%
Macalester 28%
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Those are all great schools. Hard to really see why some are so much more rejective than others. Oberlin blew our socks off when we visited.
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D25 got her first acceptance today! Last week she applied to NAU and today she got the big envelope in the mail.With the WUE tuition it is cheaper than in state UC tuition and on par with CSUs. She will most likely end up somewhere else, but it is nice to have that first yes!
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Great list!
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Obviously you need some less reachy schools. You might consider schools like Allegheny, Gettyburg, Muhlenberg, that have similar size, campus vibe etc.
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Ha- I appreciate the sarcasm!
We did some list whittling yesterday and successfully convinced the kiddo to remove the most expensive option that also happens to be a huge reach from the list: Vandy. Small victory! I think the next most expensive school is also on the chopping block (Fordham), but we’ll see, since that one is more of a match and merit might be an option for him.
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Dickinson, Saint Lawrence, Sarah Lawrence? @groundhog74
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D19 got a what I thought was a fairly generous merit offer for not top academics (3.5uw) from fordham. Although it may have gotten more competitive since, I might keep it on the list to see what you get.
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Also places like Furman, Elon, Rhodes, Shawnee could fit the bill as well
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Current list, but we’ll reassess after ED/EA results.
ED:
Bowdoin
EA:
Lewis and Clark (later notification)
Macalester
St Olaf
University of Vermont
RD:
Amherst
Bates (possible EDII)
Carleton
Colby
Middlebury
Oberlin
Pitzer
Skidmore
Vassar
Wesleyan
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