There are so many great colleges out there.
Ranking is far less important than how it fits you and you fit it, where you can grow.
Thanks. BTW, I’m not disparaging directionals; my husband happily teaches at one. Just that daughter likes LACS. Don’t want to take over this thread anymore…I’ll make space for others…
@inthegarden. You sorta just described a normal high school experience… Let her do what she enjoys and excels at. Do a few activities well and have fun at them. On CC you have really involved parents (not saying that’s a bad thing). So the stats and stories are going to lead you to believe that you are they are all super kids. Well some are but mostly hard working kids. Don’t try to compare or keep up. Let her keep doing what’s right for her but… If mock trial is coming after her… They might see something in her that she doesn’t see in herself and might open up an opportunity. I am usually under the suggestion of try it and see if you like it.
I like LACs. I steered all of my kids towards them. Not that they listened.
@inthegarden I’m completely confused. Sounds to me like your daughter is quite competitive for any LAC including top ones, 20-50 ranked ones, whichever ones she likes. One doesn’t need to be a nationally ranked superstar to get into any of them. You don’t mention her ACT or SAT score so I guess that would be the one thing she might want to find time to focus on and then figure out where she fits!
@Sue22 I’ll play.
An excerpt from the Carleton College Mission Statement:
“Carleton strives to be a collaborative community that encourages curiosity and intellectual adventure of the highest quality. Faculty, staff, and students respect one another for the serious work and the playful humor we share, and we support each other in pursuing a healthy balance of mind, body, and spirit.”
Carleton is the only college I know of that uses the word “playful” in their Mission Statement. That is a clarion call to our family culture…
DS had it top two on his list sight unseen, loved it when he finally saw it and will be attending in the fall.
@inthegarden There are many fantastic LAC’s out there. The most selective ones (Pomona, Williams, Amherst, etc.) are really difficult for “average excellent kids” to get into (think 2-3% chance in the RD round), but the Dickinsons, Whitmans, Knoxes and Grinnells of the world are fabulous schools filled with kids like your daughter. Usually cheaper, too. Good luck in your search! And if playful is important, look at Carleton. ?
In this search for info, don’t forget all sorts of misc pieces out there. I don’t know if they still do it, but Carleton has an older video where seniors said what their post graduation plans were. Not hopes, but actual plans in place. Super impressive.
For many colleges, the mission statement is pro forma. But when you see “collaborative” included, it’s a big hint. You show it, not just repeat the word. “Curiosity” isn’t limited to academics, either.
Muhlenberg’s Financial Aid put out a piece titled “The Real Deal on Financial Aid” describing how the process works and giving some very good advice on getting the aid you need. Essentially they tell you that if you need money to attend you’re going to do a lot better at schools that really want you, where you’ll be in the top part of their class or bring something special to their campus. Sometimes these schools may not be your dream school:
“If a college gives you a great package, they probably really want you and that’s a great feeling. The trick, as with many things in life (and you might as well learn this now rather than later) is to figure out how to want what you can have instead of what you can’t.”
https://www.muhlenberg.edu/admissions/therealdealonfinancialaid/
^ The Muhlenberg article gives a great explanation of preferential packaging, which is important at schools that don’t meet full need (almost all schools). When you look at the percentage of need met in the common data set, it is an average, including some full need packages and packages that include a substantial gap. What an individual student receives depends on how much the school wants them.
The article still pertains. I worked in admissions as a student assistant many many years ago at a school that was technically need blind in admissions. Admissions gave the very top accepts merit money(very few) and if they had financial need, the Financial Aid office, a completely different place not even in the same building, would make sure that student had full need met. If there was any need left after the scholarships, those kids got every bit of it covered by grants.
Those who were still top picks but not getting merit money, were coded as such and they too tended to get full need met with grants.
The next group of kids got self help and grants, but still got full need met. No gaps yet.
The last group got whatever state and government aid existed, and was gapped.
So the school was need blind in admissions but did not guarantee to meet full need. However, something like 90% of the kids did get need fully met
I’ve known Adcomms at schools that are not need blind in admissions in that they would rather accept a dozen low need kids (but still qualifying for need) for the amount of money it would take to fully meet the need of a high need kid. Those schools may also meet 90% of need, maybe 100% of it, but the methodology is completely different.
LACs range from super-competitive admissions (e.g. Amherst) to much less competitive admissions (e.g. Evergreen State). Some even have “directional” names, like Eastern Connecticut State and Northern Vermont. But most forum chatter on LACs focuses on the most selective ones, just like with non-LACs.
Preferential packaging of nominally need-based FA is basically merit scholarships that are not announced as such. The school presumably wants to maximize its flexibility in how it awards FA and “scholarships” without constraining itself by announcing scholarships before seeing the applicant pool. But that could mean that some applicants will not bother applying after seeing an unaffordable NPC result and not seeing any announced merit scholarships that they could try for.