Refer back to M Wolf to see who’s being admitted early. Middlebury, for example, has 31 sports teams with almost 800 athletes on them. So, there are almost 200 athletes being admitted each year. With other hooked applicants, as many as 250 ED admissions can be from that group.
There are about 700 students in a Middlebury freshman class. If 250 are hooked, that leaves 450 spots in the freshman class. If 2/3 of the freshman class are ED, that equals about 470 admitted ED, or about 220 or so who are not hooked. Another 230 are admitted via RD. But that was the yield after almost 1800 were accepted total, or more than 1300 via RD.
The athlete thing is a red herring. This applicant has a sibling there, knows the school already, presumably, and could demonstrate interest in a well written essay. Sibling + ED + Full pay? Would be the golden ticket and an undeniable advantage. (I would also add in the flexibility of willing to start as a Feb in the application.)
I think the athlete numbers are often way over counted. We know several athletes at Middlebury or graduated within the last 3 years and a good chunk of athletes there are not recruited and/or did not apply ED. Taking the total number of athletes and assuming 100% applied ED and were recruited is a huge swing in the opposite direction of interpreting ED stats.
I’m not confused. I think you’re forgetting that the ED application pool for not just Middlebury, but for any top LAC is typically only between 5-10% of the overall applications pool.
OP: Seems clear to me that your interest in studying urban planning is secondary to your other stated preferences.
Concern about “fake Californians” is unwarranted at Pomona College, but might be an issue at Scripps College.
To further investigate an interest in urban planning, consider study abroad programs for a semester or for a year. There are several study abroad programs focused on urban planning and related areas for undergraduates.
Lots of useful information regarding your prospective major can be found at:
Important to apply for internships/externships in urban planning and/or a related areas to further gauge your interest as you will have little exposure to this area as an undergraduate at any of the three LACs unless permitted to construct your own major.
Agree. This discussion seems to effectively be “what can my ED strategy be to maximize prestige as defined by ultimately attending one of these three schools”. And that’s fine, but then that should just be stated as the goal.
As a 5th generation Californian, I take issue with the “fake” bit
There’s a pretty big difference between Dartmouth/Middlebury and Pomona. And if you’re planning to ED anywhere, you must absolutely set foot on campus before you make that call. Agree with others who note that being in or near a good sized city will make urban planning more relevant for internships—Haverford, Macalester, Vassar, Trinity College (CT), Occidental (in Los Angeles), if we are sticking in the LAC realm.
You may want to take a look at A Is For Admission, by Michele A. Hernandez, EdD. She is a former assistant director of admissions at Dartmouth College. This publication is outdated; nonetheless, she does provide some keen insight into Dartmouth admissions. This could help in you finalizing your application strategy.
@greatatious I suggest exploring this a bit more. Both CA and New England offer lots of outdoor opportunities but they are pretty different. Are you into big outdoor adventures/trips? Or more interested in being surrounded by natural landscapes in your daily life? And, if you can swing it, visiting the two regions and exploring the environment could really help you decide. You have to ask yourself – can I be happy spending the next four years of my life here?
Personally, I think the fake CA idea is b.s. We are all fake everywhere.
It would still be worth greatatious’s time to take a look. The author did walk the halls of Dartmouth admissions in a past life & has the historical insider perspective & info. It may have been true in the past that applying ED would lead to approx 1/3 admitted, 1/3 rejected, & 1/3 deferred. According to Dartmouth’s website, of those deferred, 5-10% of those ultimately getting admitted in March. So, I don’t see much of a disadvantage to getting deferred; these applicants still ranked Dartmouth as their number one choice though some might have a new number one choice in the spring since they weren’t the early ones to get admitted.
I agree with this…I don’t think visits are end-all be-all, but for ED, when not some other clear reason, I think very important. And in this case, where outdoors is very important, I think extra important.
Also, weirdly, I think Dartmouth and Middlebury feel very different from each other in person but may not sound so on paper… Personally, I find Middlebury feels MUCH more remote, small, and rural than Dartmouth…..(Others would love one over the other or say the same vibe) etc.
Although it seems clear OP would do ED2 in that instance and potentially give up that chance (or even probably give up that chance, given the earlier discussion where posters seem to think they have a high chance to get into Midd ED).
Interesting point. Maybe, it’s that Dartmouth is more built up than Middlebury? That’s clearly true. Perhaps Colby is the better analogy since they tried so hard after WWII to emulate Dartmouth’s campus:
I also think the whole Dartmouth community include students, faculty, and staff is around 10K people, whereas I think Middlebury is more like 4K total.
But then Middlebury’s main campus (so not including their much larger landholdings like the ski area and such) is actually bigger than Dartmouth’s main campus (same caveat), like apparently 350 to 269 acres.
And I have a pet theory that the population density of a campus actually contributes independently alongside the total size of the population to the overall “feel” of a campus during visits and such. If even roughly true, we’d expect that Darmouth being not only over twice the population size but also over twice the density might create a quite noticeable difference in “feel” (at least among people at all interested in such things).
100 percent. In fact, my S26 did not like Middlebury and loved Dartmouth. His Middlebury tour was lackluster, lots of talk about how wealthy the school is, kind of a country club vibe, and lots of emphasis on foreign language. On the flip side, at Dartmouth, he was all about the D Plan, the art studio facilities, the river right there, the bigger student population. Definitely agree you need to see both.
Having said that, they are more like each other than Pomona is like either of them, imo.
