RD class of 2020

liska21
Sun, 10 Apr 2016 20:46:37 +0000

For my daughter:

Buntrock Scholar ($24,000) + addnl as Nat Merit Finalist
ACT 34 (SAT was north of 760; math was about 780; I don’t recall the specific numbers)
Nat Merit Finalist
3.85 UW GPA
2 AP exams (the 2 Calc ones; 5s)
Doesn’t play instrument; one of the top math kids at her school but wasn’t into the math competition stuff; very involved in theater both acting and tech year-round; low-level competitive nordic skier (has no desire to compete in college); NHS; etc.

She applied to St Olaf sight unseen because of their strong math program and study abroad program. She wanted a rural small LAC (3K max) in snow country. She visited many small LACs in New England, CO, OR, WA but we didn’t have a chance to visit the midwest. St Olaf is quite popular with the theater kids at her HS and she really hit it off with the Olaf rep who came to visit. Dry campus and more artsy/less sporty were positives too. Norwegian opportunities were a positive too. Her parents also encouraged her to consider St Olaf given her math interest (St Olaf is one of the top producer of female math graduate students).

She really liked St Olaf during her Buntrock visit/interview and overnight. She especially liked the ‘conversations’ program in addition to the feel of the campus and student body. Loves the 4-1-4 calendar. She also visited Carleton but she didn’t like it as much as St Olaf; she liked it fine but not more than St Olaf. She also got into Bates College and liked that a lot, but it is weaker in everything important to her (math/study abroad/theater) plus 2x as expensive.

We visited many lovely LACs in New England, but in the end, we (the parents) just couldn’t get excited about the price tags—not when our state’s flagship university is stellar. She doesn’t like our flagship (“meh, way too big! way too close!”), so if small LAC is what she wanted, we wanted her to target schools that are strong in STEM and give merit aid. Turned out to be harder than we thought given all her other ‘wants’ for a school, but we are thrilled that St Olaf worked out and think it’ll be a great fit.