Wow, I am thankful that my daughter has been accepted in EA at Middlebury, Davidson, Wellesley, and WashU. Considering that we live in the Northern Virginia area, she is struggling to select a college suitable to pursue biology on a premed track. Any suggestions from the community? Regards!
For a brief subjective perspective on one of your daughter’s options, this post includes comments on Middlebury in the context of comments on several other liberal arts colleges: NESCAC Spoken Here: - #5 by merc81. Academically, Middlebury could make a fine choice for a premed student. However, it might be challenging to differentiate it from the other schools listed on this basis alone.
Wellesley can be partly defined by its status as a women’s college, ethnic diversity and proximity to a prominent city. Ties with Davidson for the highest admission yield from this group, based on recent IPEDS information.
Davidson offers a strong and popular biology program. Somewhat unusually among colleges of this type, more students major in biology here than in economics.
WUStL represents the most preprofessional school from this group. This may be favorable, or not, depending on the academic atmosphere that your daughter would prefer. Biology is a strong program here.
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None of these schools offer EA.
Regardless, she can do a premed curriculum at any of these schools. She should attend the school where she will have the best chance at getting a relatively high GPA. She can also look into these schools’ health care advising, and the ease of doing ECs appropriate for prospective med school applicants. Lastly, she should look to minimize undergrad debt, so choosing an affordable option is important.
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This is confusing. WashU has not released decisions yet so if your child was admitted there it would have been via ED (they don’t offer EA) and that means they are required to attend.
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I’m also confused. None of these schools has EA and RD hasn’t been released yet at WashU or Davidson.
ETA: unless they received a likely letter as part of one of the named scholarships…
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Schools with decision release dates such as that of Middlebury may not have Early Action, but they have early action.
The student may have been notified as a scholarship candidate for WashU. They release scholarships a little earlier than RD decisions. What about UVA?
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What early admit programs does Middlebury have for RD applicants? I know Amherst gives out early writes, but hadn’t heard Middlebury does. Note: Middlebury has released all RD decisions already, unlike WashU and Davidson.
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Exactly.
As I posted above, it’s possible they have “early notice/likely letters” from WashU and Davidson. I don’t have personal experience with WashU, but my D21 received from Davidson so I know they did that a few years ago.
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Agree, and as we know no likely letters allowed in the NESCAC (and LLs are different from Amherst’s early writes which are early offers of admission to certain RD applicants).
Hopefully OP answers, or maybe this is an early April fool’s joke.
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It’s that time of year that you never know! 
I do hope it’s because the OP has early acceptance due to being a finalist for one of the named scholarships at Davidson and WashU. However, I’m confused why they would not bring that up as a consideration, unless financial considerations are irrelevant. But there are other benefits to those scholarships beyond finances. So why ask for a comparison now before all is known?
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My daughter won the John B Ervin Scholar Award (full ride ) and that came with the decision.
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I assume you heard earlier than the regular RD announcement (which is today). Was a little confused about your EA comment since WashU (and the rest of those schools) doesn’t offer that - only ED (which is binding). Congratulations to your daughter. To me it would be a no brainer - I’d take the full ride at WashU. Fantastic school and free is the best possible combination. Pre-med (which isn’t actually a major) coursework can be accomplished at any school.
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RE is out for Middlebury and Wellesley. My daughter received respective scholar awards at WashU and Davidson and that may explain the early decision notification. Thanks for your advise!
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Yes, my daughter got signature scholar awards at Davidson and WashU
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She won full rides at those schools, so funding is not a factor. And she is expecting to hear from John Hopkins, Emory, Vanderbilt, Swarthmore, and Amherst by the end of this week. Should she get into any of the schools, that will exacerbate our headache of having to pick a college. Good problem to have tho lol
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Not April fool. It is not April 1 yet lol.
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What expected costs would you have for JHU, Emory, Vanderbilt, Swarthmore, and Amherst (based on their net price calculators), and are those expected costs within your affordability?
Note also that medical school is very expensive, so that you and the student may want to consider whether any college money not spent (e.g. if she attends a full ride college) can help reduce the amount of debt needed for medical school.
But also note that most college frosh pre-meds do not get to the point of applying to medical school (often due to grades not high enough to be a realistic medical school applicant), and fewer than 40% who apply get into any US medical school.
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Thanks merc81. With May 1st being the deadline to choose, we have a little bit of time on our hands.
You are right, I used the wrong category (EA). All the acceptances were RDs, except that they were treated as EA bcos of the signature scholarships. I now know where the confusion came from. Thanks
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