Indexes are higher for a lot states this year, including here in CA. The list came out for our public high school, out of a class of 600, 40 plus kids made NM Semifinalists, in spite of such a high index. Now you can understand why my 3.5 gpa kid is barely average here 
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So true! High in many states! Our school has about 400 seniors and has rarely had a NMSF, and never more than 1. Class of 2024 had the largest group with a SF and 3 commended. Last year a SF but no commended.
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Not pulling my hair out.
d26 has SUDDENLY decided she wants to stay in Maine. Colby, bowdoin and bates will be toured asap. I ran npc- Colby blows the others out of the water. Bowdoin is still doable. Bates not so much. I donât know if she even has a chance at Colby even if she loves it. Sheâs top 6% of her class but SAT 1320 isnât in the range they accept. Theyâve been test optional since before Covid but I worry itâll hurt her chances. They donât publish ED acceptance rates so even if she LOVES it, she may not gain an advantage going ED. We will tour Bowdoin and bates as well. All are within about 2 hours of home so itâs easy enough. Sigh. Bates maybe does merit? But again- her SAT might prevent a lot of it.
I kind of am hating this process.
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Bates doesnât have merit aid. Colby ED is probably your best bet. They donât publish their numbers, presumably to hide that they accept a huge portion of the class in ED. And Iâm guessing that all these schools give a little boost to Maine students.
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Isnât it funny that I automatically assumed that living in this state would mean that she had a less chance of getting accepted lol. Maybe Iâm a glass half empty type! It would be nice if it meant a small boost because honestly, she doesnât have the opportunities she could have in a city somewhere else. Even just one or two hours south. Sometimes I have some regrets over living here. Love our neighborhood, love how safe it is, love how nature is right outside our door, and I love the people in our community. But I donât love our school system so much. The teachers are wonderful, but the resources are just not there. It would be nice if she wasnât penalized for that.
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I have a couple thoughts on this. First, Iâm pretty sure all of those schools do holistic admissions. So, your daughterâs record will be looked at given the context she is in. So, it will be judged based on the opportunities available to her and they will look at how well she did in context. So, for example if her SAT is well above the mean for her school and area it will be looked at much more favorably than a similar score from elsewhere (assuming you decide to submit, it may make sense to go test optional if score is too low). And, grades and course selections will be looked at in context as well.
Second, most schools publish a common data set, that at the end of section C1 has a breakdown of how many students in state and out of state applied and were admitted. You can use that data to calculate the in state vs out of state admissions rates which might be quite different. That said, for a state like Maine, I could imagine the quality of the in state and out of state applicants to these schools could be quite different. The schools have a national reputation and I could imagine a disproportionate number of high stats out of state students applying which could skew the comparison of in state vs out of state admissions. So, while the common data set information on in state vs out of state admissions may be useful, I wouldnât take it as gospel on whether there is an in-state admissions penalty. If it were me, if the Maine admission rate is higher, Iâd probably assume there is an in-state boost. But if it is lower, I wouldnât necessarily assume there is a in-state penalty.
Donât know about these schools, but a lot of private schools Iâve looked at leave that section blank.
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I donât know about those schools in particular either, but my daughter is only looking at privates and a lot of hers have it included.
Ah yes, I remember Braggy Pants! 
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The recruited athletes are starting to post on the âdecisionsâ instagram thread - UCLA and Stanford so far. Not that C26 is aiming at these, but made me think how much more useful Maia would be if they marked the athletes among the admits.
(I donât know these kids and donât know much about recruitment so not sure how they know for sure so early in the process)
Roster spot offers for top 2026 recruits started going out last summer and commit announcements started shortly after. For D1 schools (and likely some D2 and D3s), there is some academic wiggle room depending on the talent level of the athlete. For the D3s my D26 was considering, there was no academic wiggle room and she had to be admittble on her own merits, so she has elected to not publicly announce her commitment to the ED admissions process. She got her first offers in April and July.
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I donât know how it all works, either â none of my kids have an athletic bone in their bodies, lol â but two kids in D26âs class have been committed to schools to play a sport for some time now. One at Ole Miss for lacrosse, and one at Furman for softball.
(Actually one more that I remembered â another kid is committed to Miami Ohio to play golf. Probably there are more that I donât know of.)
My D was a fairly serious gymnast for many years and some of her old gymnastics teammates/cohort have been committed since last fall (Stanford and UCLA, specifically).
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A few schools I checked, and it seems Harvard has more in state ration compared to Columbia, Princeton. Maybe too many feeder private school in MA.
Random newsâŠ
D26 said her BFF at school is applying to 15 colleges, 1 of which being Penn. Best friend whoâs a boy but not a boy friend and is locker neighbor has no idea what he wants to major in and doesnât know where he wants to apply.
We were all chatting about the assured admission to U of Aâs honors college and Husband asked why does D26 need to apply anywhere else. 
<â thatâs the look that D26 gave him. And then she said, âDuh, like Iâve told you before. To have options.â
out of the mouths of babes
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Is anyone here also dealing with elderly parents in the midst of all of this admissions stuff? It is not for the faint of heart 
I have a mother overseas (she has been there for 30 years) and long story short, refused to move back to US when she could have with ease. Her health has rapidly declined in the last 18 months and now she has pretty significant dementia. Since November I have been managing all of this by having to coordinate 24/7 live-in care for her. To complicate matters, she made zero plans for her future, has no retirement, no assets, etc. so her only source of income has been her monthly Social Security. We have been supplementing her monthly income to pay for her care. Trying to move her here would be extremely complicated as she is stateless and we are not in a position for her to move in with us. It has been a nightmare to say the least. Our relationship has been complicated to put it mildly so that adds an extra layer to the situation. Just venting here. But it is really hard dealing with all of this on top of my D26 stuff. I am constantly trying to make sure I am present for her so she does not feel like she needs to do all of this on her own, or feel like she is not allowed to be stressed. She is the type of kid who would be afraid to add anything to my plate which makes me sad. I have told her this is a stressful time for every kid applying to schools and to 100% fall apart/vent/meltdown as necessary and I am here for her. My husband is supportive but It is definitely a difficult balance managing all of this 
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That sounds like a nightmare to manage. I know helping elderly parents can take so much energy and time. Sheâs lucky to have you to help. I hope things ease for you once college apps are in and some decisions are made.
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Iâm sorry you are going through that - we are in similar situation with a parent - just not overseas, which I can imagine makes things super complicated and more stressful for you. Sounds like you are making sure your child feels supported also though. Feel free to PM if you need to vent re the aging parent stuff. Iâm at the beginning stage of it so may not be the most helpful except to listen and commiserate.
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Yes, I have similar. A fraught relationship with a mother who is overseas and I am responsible for everything. Iâm lucky in that she is in a retirement home for members of our community who I can completely trust to look after her and what she needs, and they keep me updated each week with normal stuff and immediately if something needs taken care of, but itâs difficult. Sheâs my kidsâ last surviving grandparent.
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I too was part of the sandwich generation. My mom was officially dx with ALZ when my D was 12 and my dad had been chronically ill for 30 years at that point as well. The second my D was on the bus I was helping with caregiving until it was time for pick up. They my H was forced to make a job change out of state, I stayed back a year for D to graduate HS and to get a plan in place for my parents. Then I was long distance caregiving until they both passed two years later. Super hard, super stressful and I know my D was like yours, in not wanting to add any stress to my plate. I worried about her a lot and guilty about not being 100% present.
We have a whole thread about it here if you think it could be helpful: Parents Caring for Parents Support Thread (Part 2)
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