A thought, are these three both public and private? All C26’s schools are publics. I asked, and nothing /almost nothing from any of them (other than after admittance by the rolling schools)
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Okay, that is a little nervous-making, not gonna lie.
I don’t know how accurate it is, but I’ve read that colleges do evaluate applicants in the context of the other applicants from their school. 
It’s still just one piece of the holistic puzzle, though.
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I am sure they do. I have also heard a couple of times from different people - colleges know this school is rigorous and lower grades are not necessarily an issue. And, on Maia they look fine vs history (but as we say in the investment industry- past performance does not guarantee future results!)
Once again, I am thankful for having Pitt as a solid, in-the-bag option! I would be a total bundle of nerves without that.
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S26 has done this, and it makes me stop and “??” every time. What do you mean, why would we go tour this school you said was your top choice? Hence, our updated plan is to tour the top 2-3 AFTER acceptances and only if we can talk to someone in the program he wants, as it hopefully will seem more real and urgent. CU Boulder is on his list as well, and they’ve been unresponsive by emailX3 to questions; however, when he called (portal failed), the person on the phone was pleasant and helpful. We’ve gotten 0 correspondence from them though. The midwest schools and ASU have been big on correspondence, which S26 doesn’t really care about, but I like! Sometimes the emails or mailers raise positives that are less obvious when perusing the websites.
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This would stress me out as well. But it’s good that it also shows good acceptance #s despite the volume of applicants and as you said, Pitt is a solid option.
I will say, if my daughter saw that a third of her senior class applied anywhere she’d probably pull her application. She loves HS and is having fun, especially senior year, but she definitely is ready to get away.
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Yesterday we (parents) got a letter in the mail from UNC-CH saying something along the lines of “we’d like to thank (daughter) for applying and can’t wait to learn more about her. We realize students put a lot of time and effort into their applications and we assure you we read them with care”. While it was definitely a personalized form letter sent to everyone that had applied, both my husband and I thought that was really nice. Now my daughter has a snowball’s chance in h@ll of getting in there OOS (and I am not even sure she would want to go there if she did get in), but I made the comment that they have a good admissions office because my daughter has also gotten some very nice communications from them. Some of her other schools have sent the same amount of stuff but the way those were worded felt more like “we’d love to take your money” and less like we actually care about you. So maybe it isn’t the amount of the communications but what they actually say that keeps kids interested.
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Regarding communication from schools- D26 definitely notices what schools send. It’s kind of cool actually because she’s taking a graphic design class and she applies those lessons when looking at the mailers. She was a little concerned from the lack of communication from Quinnipiac but she got a view book the other day that was very impressive and she has been receiving more emails from them as well.
One of the funnier emails she’s gotten was from none other than Pitt. It’s a very nice message saying that they hope she applies and how Pitt would be a great choice, etc. But the salutation says “Dear ,”. Lol.
Update on her applications- she has four acceptances now and although only one is for a school she’s considering, it’s good for her self-esteem. And one of them even invited her into the Honors program! (It’s kind of funny because it was Columbia Chicago and she said she’s telling her friends that she got into Honors at Columbia and then whispering “Chicago” 
)
She also got her first quarter grades and they were excellent! It’s the first time she’s ever gotten all A’s. (The EnvSci teacher took the assignments she was missing and gave her half credit, which brought her grade up.) So hopefully she can submit them to her top choices to strengthen her application.
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Ah, but for most of these I’m thinking it’s a safety app. The most the school has actually sent in any year so far is 15 (last year 9 despite that year being the most apps till then), which is not going to be an issue at a school that size, and very small chance any would end up in the same department as C26.
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What’s a Maia?
The system our school uses (like naviance, scoir etc)
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C26 has had variable responses to emails. Boulder - only has emailed the actual department and they have been responsive. Reach school - 2 emails to department (specifically its admissions contact, no response). Other school - no response to general admissions email but quick and helpful response to form on website (these are both offered as contact options). I don’t believe they have needed to contact other schools. I get that it’s a busy season but there really is no reason for schools to add to kids’ stress by not responding to whatever form of contact they put on their website.
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We are in state and just down the road from Boulder so of course lots of interest- but from a class of @ 500- last year 300 applied!! 
200 accepted. 80 listed as ‘unknown’- so not sure if denied/waitlist/accepted on those.
It is up to the students to update this- so the information can unfortunately be missing and make the stats a bit harder to interpret.
1- Private
RIT- this marketing team knows what it is doing!! She also falls under a special program there (NTID) so that may explain for the great engagement.
D even called once to ask a question, but she did not get an answer and hung up before leaving a voice mail. She got a return call- text- and an email letting her know that they saw her missed call and was there anything that they could do for her!!! They took the time to see who the missed # belonged to and followed up.
Plus they time there mailers out to where you are not getting overwhelmed but receiving information somewhat regularly. (a great tactic to keep the engagement from prospective students drawn out longer)
2- International
No marketing mailers or emails. All personal communication- but very friendly and thorough and responsive. The only templated email so far was her acceptance email.
5- Instate public
Just great communication and well-timed marketing / admission related emails. Feels personalized and not ‘advertisement’. (even though it is advertisement)
I feel like CU Boulder falls under the marketing group- ‘you want us more than we want you- so we don’t have to try’. 
It is a great school, and they are not having any enrollment problems- so they can do what they want in this regard. We would not let this aspect stop D from attending here if that is where she lands- I just find it odd that there is so little attempt to keep prospect engaged. It takes very little to do so.
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We did find Boulder had a number of pre-application mailers, both from the department and general admissions. They are clearly not yield-focused so not sure if that’s got anything to do with it. C26’s great tour experience was much more important to them than the emails though, and I think they fall more in the camp of only really wanting emails now if it’s actual “news” on the application so not too fussed. As with everything I guess different people value different things and schools have to try cater to all of them.
Oh, C26 dropped in a CSU app but arch is heavily impacted at both campuses they applied to so (is this bad?) I’m not even considering these to be “real” applications (not that I’d voice that out loud). They will almost certainly get into second choice at the one but it would take quite a change in preference/focus to end up there I think, though we would go visit campus if they want to (it’s in socal so we could work a long weekend around it).
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In her defense, I might fangirl a bit over Temple Grandin, too – I find her fascinating. How absolutely cool would it be to have her as a professor?!
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Noticing several school are extending their November 15 EA deadline.
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I think this is one of the things that has impressed me so much about the communications we’ve received from UNC. They definitely don’t have any enrollment problems - people would still apply and attend even if they sent nothing - yet they still seem grateful that people are making the effort to apply there.
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Full of anxiety at the moment - dropped D26 off at Miami University potential student program -but before we did that we did some walking around town. I KNOW this town (tiny town, rural Ohio) is NOT the selling point for this place - but unfortunately, we walked into this creepy ass antique store that was selling ‘blackface’ ‘ objects and old campus gear with the racist mascot (they used to be the Redskins - and they are now the red hawks) and creepy dolls that are 100% haunted. OMG -worst first impression ever. I mean I know that this town was NOT the selling point for this place but now I’m totally second guessing everything we put on the list. Last time I was here -without D26 of course – I walked into some stores downtown that were much more young, hip, rainbow flag waving shops. Luckily the people greeting us at the university were a diverse, friendly group but I don’t know if it will be enough to counteract that horrid first impression.
Update - okay panic moment over. Either she will like the school or not - that’s why we are here.
Thanks for letting me have my freak out moment.
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Yikes. 
But remember, even in the most progressive places, there are weird things like that.
I saw an article in the school’s newspaper that there was a decent turnout in Oxford for the No Kings protest, which you wouldn’t think would happen in that town – it gave me some hope.
(Maybe I saw that linked here – did you post it originally? I can’t remember. I don’t want to post the link here but it comes up in a Google search. It was an article in The Miami Student.)
I’m not trying to dismiss your concerns, believe me – because I have exactly the same reservations. It’s a tough issue.
My D26 did spend a perfectly nice week there this summer and didn’t encounter anything upsetting. She is half white, but because she’s relatively fair-skinned, it’s not immediately apparent.
Ugh. I hope your D26 has a good experience.
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We are a brown family, and had a very similar experience in the town during our visit 2 years ago. The university was amazing, but at our hotel and in a restaurant the vibe was off. And then someone made a nasty racial comment to my kid when he went to the restroom about the likes of him spoiling the university.
We are from the Los Angeles area, and both my kids were so scarred by that experience that unfortunately geography and politics ended up being the biggest factor in their college list.
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I am so sorry you experienced this. It just makes me deeply sad for so many reasons.
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