<p>S got his ED notification today and…he was accepted at Wesleyan!!!</p>
<p>We are so beyond thrilled. Such good news…I’m in celebration mode right now and I’ll be back to post more later!</p>
<p>Congratulations to your son, GKM!</p>
<p>YAY!!! GKM… SO happy for you and your S. You have made my day because I know there is hope for my stat similar S who will be looking at some of the same schools that your S did. I guess you never know what will happen. I bet you are so happy to be done and now have such a relaxed xmas holiday… Try to check back next year on this thread… I may need your positive thoughts…</p>
<p>Awesome GKM! What wonderful news! Enjoy a second round of celebrating.</p>
<p>Big CONGRATS to GKM & GKS!</p>
<p>Congrats, GKM! What a month for you! Ah, well, Bard’s loss, I suppose. Isn’t it wonderful that your S won’t ever look back and wonder “Where else might I have gone?” He got to experience all of the feelings and can know he’s made a great decision.</p>
<p>It is Bard’s loss, EmmyBet, but I don’t regret my S doing IDP at all…what a great school. For Bard it is still a win in a way–they won’t get my S as a student, but they now have 2 new ambassadors for their school (I’ll always be a proponent here on CC, plus people locally who really weren’t familiar with the school at all are now quite aware of it). I also have one more child…</p>
<p>As for why Wesleyan looked past my S’s 3.55 GPA? I think the reasons are multiple: great test scores, long-time passionate ECs with leadership, an essay that really showed who he is. Also, his GPA was in full IB, and I was told by an admissions officer that IB kids are looked at very favorably at Wesleyan.</p>
<p>Of course, all this is just speculation. BUT…its speculation like this on CC that did help my family with my S’ application process so, so much. We may be done with S’s college search, but I’ll still be here on CC adding to the conversation and rooting on all your Ss and Ds that are still in the process.</p>
<p>GKM, FABULOUS news! A young family friend finished Wes last year and had a stupendous experience. Listening to him talk about the school would make anyone want to sign up immediately.</p>
<p>Thank you Slithey! Great and truly unexpected news! </p>
<p>It’s funny…I didnt’ really know how very much S wanted to go there till he got admitted. Yes, I knew he chosed to apply ED, and I knew he felt it was the best match for him academically and interest wise, but S was a bit circumspect about the whole thing. Now, I can’t shut him up about the school! I’m sure before he was trying to protect himself in case he got rejected, and you can’t blame him.</p>
<p>I’m hoping to see more top school admits for the kids in this thread! </p>
<p>As far as further speculation on his admit, I think being top 10% in spite of the unweighted GPA definitely helped. Also probably helped that he was the only one EDing from his school to Wes…he didn’t have to compete with anyone else ranked higher. Would he have had an admit in the RD round? Would have been much harder, I’m sure.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your great advice a couple of pages ago. But I will have to pass it forward because my daughter was accepted at Johns Hopkins ED! She is thrilled because the creative writing program and international studies program are exactly right for her.</p>
<p>Congrats, levirm!</p>
<p>Great news levirm, and nice to hear someone who isn’t going to Johns Hopkins for science! :)</p>
<p>Congrats! Congrats! I’m so happy to hear such great news. </p>
<p>And of course since by definition this thread may hear a bit more rejections than another group, I’m sending my best wishes to everyone whose news is disappointing.</p>
<p>Sometimes I worry my kid might be setting herself up - of course with the auditioned programs she has to be ready for some major blows, but she’s also giving a few other longshots a try. Since she hasn’t finished the supplements for all of them yet, I can’t quite get into a “what will be, will be” mode quite yet. </p>
<p>I assuaged some of my anxiety this morning by checking Common Data sets for D’s reachier schools (the non-auditioned ones). Thankfully we truly haven’t been fooling ourselves - she’s in the running for all of them. I do find it interesting that they talk so much about class rank rather than GPA; I can see the value of both, I guess, but I do wonder how it will work for or against her. She has a 3.6 (unweighted, including non-academics), with an upward trend and as rigorous as possible, and she’s not in the top 10%, only top 25%. Her grades are what they are, and the schools will just have to decide how to interpret them. Her test scores for these 3 schools put her in the mid-50% for one and top 25% at the other 2, and they all accept plenty of students in the top quarter rather than just top 10th of their class (more so again for the latter 2). She doesn’t go to a fancy school where they know her grades would mean more; she was just kind of a late bloomer and is clearly better in some subjects than others. </p>
<p>So as I’ve read on this thread, she’s not fooling herself after all and has a chance and certainly a right to apply. I’m not somehow allowing some kind of masochistic disaster. As a parent, one does worry about these things.</p>
<p>As she portrays her ECs and writes her essays for these reach schools, I’ll urge her (without scaring her, I hope) to take extra care that they are looking for a particular spark, not just the “nice cool kid” her matches and safeties will be happy with. </p>
<p>I know she’s very capable of showing how unique and interesting she is, and in the end she’ll be what she will be. I do know that with these apps in particular I’ll just be glad when they’re done, and out of the “I hope she does as good a job as possible” part of my brain. </p>
<p>Thanks for letting me vent this. She has 2 deadlines on 1/1 (and one of those schools very nice e-mailed her not to sweat the date on school reports, etc.) and 2 on 1/15. So we have a full month of work ahead (for her, getting the things written, and for me, trying to be kind and helpful).</p>
<p>We do have a very nice safety in hand, and some other rolling/EAs that should be very positive over the next few weeks, too. But I’m grateful to have this thread to talk about this particular aspect of her journey. I know you folks understand.</p>
<p>Best wishes to everyone whose results are coming in! We’re all in this together!</p>
<p>Our son was just accepted ED to Carleton with 3.5 GPA, 1580/2210 SAT1. He had decent but not exceptional EC’s and honors- e.g. local but not state Science fair, math team and AIME 6, music, etc., so not a shoo-in by any means. Still his interests and personality made Carleton a good fit, and Naviance suggested he’d have a reasonable chance (Carleton doesn’t seem to weight the writing part of the SAT1 that much) so he decided to give it a shot ED. I’m really glad it worked out, as I’m not sure what his options would have been in the regular-decision round.</p>
<p>Enjoying sharing in the good news!! Congrats, everyone!</p>
<p>Aeddar, congrats!! I don’t remember that many folks in this range doing ED last year, but it sure seems to be working out well!</p>
<p>S2 had similar numbers, slightly higher SAT, and was waitlisted at Carleton in RD. We think that if he had been more up-front about having cold feet re: playing football and did NOT have cold feet about the school, that would have turned it around. However, he was in the migraine stage at that point of senior year and didn’t have the heart or mindset to write about a very difficult decision. Same thing happened at Bowdoin, and we think for the same reason; he had shown lots of interest and had visited both schools but didn’t pursue the football.</p>
<p>I’m don’t think getting into the LACs would have changed his ultimate decision (though Carleton was his top LAC choice), but it was interesting to see how the perceived demonstrated interest played out.</p>
<p>I wanted to give some perspective, as the mother of two who both got in (ED) to their top choices (a top 10 LAC and a top 20 university).</p>
<p>My kids both had UW in the 3.7 - 3.75 range - so a little above this thread, but not amazingly so. They did not take honors in every subject - S, who is a history guy, took only “regular” math and science; D, who is into chemistry, took “regular” English. They had good test scores, but not the 800/800/800 range or anywhere near. S submitted 3 AP’s, I believe 2 4’s and a 5, and D submitted 2 AP’s, I believe 1 4 and 1 5.</p>
<p>D played on a varsity sports team but nothing award-winning; S had no sports at all.
Neither of them were president of the class, or started clubs or businesses, or won any kind of Intel prize or whatever. </p>
<p>They each did have a unique extracurricular that came from the heart, and that really reflected them and did not have the feel of “someone did this to look good for college.”</p>
<p>I think the real difference came in the essays. S wrote a somewhat quirky essay about a particular household object and drew some parallels between that and his personality. His personality really shone through. D did a VERY risky essay about a personal obstacle (one of those that if I told you the topic, you’d say OMG I can’t believe she wrote about that). </p>
<p>I am convinced – for whatever it’s worth – that it was the essays / personal statements that really made them stand out, and that a few more SAT points or GPA points here or there was really irrelevant as long as the kid had the basic smarts / stats to be able to successfully handle the school. </p>
<p>I also think strategic deployment of ED was critical as well, and I’m glad we played that card. </p>
<p>Anyway, that’s my perspective – take it or leave it. Good luck to all!!</p>
<p>Totally agree with Pizzagirl that essays are critical for kids in this range.</p>
<p>I have also found that the kids I know in this bandwidth have their heads screwed on pretty straight, and don’t sacrifice their lives for the sake of the GPA/SAT. I think their sense of balance and/or dedication to an activity make them shine.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, thank you so much for the thoughtful analysis. That’s the kind of thing that can help us all immensely as we go forward. (I guess by saying this I’m confessing to being a 2012 person, stalking the 2011ers and so grateful for what I’m learning!)</p>
<p>Aeddar, that’s wonderful, wonderful news for your son. It always warms the cockles of my heart to read about a kid getting into a school that’s a reach, but which is a real fit for their interests and personality. </p>
<p>One aspect of applying ED that I did not appreciate until this week was what a big chance kids in this range are taking just by applying. They’re going after the school that they love, without the safety net of having other decisions arriving around the same time. D1 says that though she’s glad that she’s done with the process, she would still like to see ED and EA eliminated based on the effect it has on her friends who haven’t had happy news. </p>
<p>Gwen Fairfax, make sure you take a look at your kid’s high school profile. D1’s UW GPA at the end of junior year was around 3.4 UW and 4.0 weighted–but the old profile didn’t mention things like how the only weighted classes are APs, not honors, and how students must take the AP test to get AP credit. I volunteered to help overhaul the school’s profile. It now highlights the school’s academic credentials in a much more compelling way.</p>