<p>^^I interpreted Nightingale’s comment as that they had saved the money specifically for college and then (I guess?) didn’t apply for aid. Hard for me to imagine that they have NO other savings or sources of income, but maybe she meant tapped out in the sense of no more education money, which doesn’t seem so bad to me, as I would usually expect an adult to pay for their own grad school (unless they made a deal with their parents/parents are very wealthy).</p>
<p>I should only be so “tapped out” (but I’m not complaining. ;))</p>
<p>I don’t know what to tell you bluebayou. The dad told me at he was paying 40k about three years ago… which was probably the full tuition. The next year, with the other child at Tufts, he told me he was shelling out
80k. I guess “tapped out” may simply mean those funds alloted to #1 son are gone, or “tapped out” could mean as far as private med. school is concerned (more expensive). My only point in the post was that I consider Williams an excellent school and I thought it was unfair that a Williams GPA was not held in the SAME regard as a Harvard GPA. And, yes folks maybe there is more to the story, but I put out there all that I had. Maybe the kid showed up on a Harley with body piercings… who knows. And from what I read that may have actually helped him.</p>
<p>wow: two kids in college and full pay? where can I volunteer for that income/asset level? mini you can get in line right behind me… :D</p>
<p>but, yes, I agree with the original point of a Williams gpa being discounted that much makes no sense at all.</p>
<p>You know, another possibility (and I mention this because it impacted the way I got INTO Williams) is that his GPA may have been fine, but he was only the 6th or 7th most talented applicant among the Williams pre-meds who were applying. The quality of recs, etc. could have reflected this regardless of his GPA. (In other words, even at Williams, all 3.6s might not be created equal.)</p>
<p>Or the adcom may thought Williams was Roger Williams. This “mix-up” is not all that uncommon</p>
<p>Out here, people think I said my alma mater is “Whitman” (which is good, because also out here, Whitman has a better reputation.)</p>
<p>Mikey, why are you so insistent that the admissions officer at the med school IN THE SAME STATE as Williams wouldn’t have known what Williams was? Why would that be…how could that be? Don’t you think that there maybe, possibly would have been other applicants this year and previous years from Williams to UMass and if for no other reason than that the admissions officer would have heard of Williams?</p>
<p>I mean, I guess it’s possible, but…it just doesn’t make any sense to me.</p>
<p>Mix-ups like that happen all the time. If that is what happened, the admissions officer would have known Williams but just thought that the applicant was speaking about a different school. A lot of people in Chicago think that the University of Chicago is the University of Illinois -Chicago. A lot of people in New England think that Dartmouth College is UMass -Dartmouth.</p>
<p>Its quite rare for Williams students to apply to UMASS for medical school. Less than 15 percent of Williams undergrads claim Mass as their home state. Many people in New England confuse Williams with a bunch of other schools. Why should an admissions officer be any different? </p>
<p>Ask adcoms at UCLA if they know about Pomona?</p>
<p>3.4 and avg MCAT (31) admitted to Umass from Williams</p>
<p><a href=“http://mdapplicants.com/viewprofile.php?id=3370[/url]”>http://mdapplicants.com/viewprofile.php?id=3370</a></p>
<p>oh, please. Adcoms are not the man in the street in Pittsfield! First, there are several members of admissions committees. Second, if one school is likely not to be known in MA, it’s Roger Williams, not Williams.</p>
<p>I actually know a Brown graduate who went to UMass Medical. Her parents were very happy to save so much money.</p>
<p>
.</p>
<p>At a full needs school, half that income and a fraction of that assets (house equity and savings) netted no grant, a loan and workstudy.</p>
<p>Will let you know if still less income and much less savings left makes any difference this year.</p>
<p>Yes, we are tapped out for grad school. Don’t no why that is so hard to fathom.</p>
<p>But yes, med school can be financed on loans successfully (see my post above).</p>
<p>Williams’s sibling elite New England LAC, Amherst, is quite forthcoming about med school admissions and success rates. Here is what the Amherst premed office says about admissions prospects:</p>
<p>
</code></pre>
<p>So a science GPA of 3.1 is considered well qualified for applying to medical school.</p>
<p>They then report
</p>
<p>“3.6 from Williams not good enough” just does not add up.</p>
<p>Now, if the subject of this post applied ONLY to UMass, hoping to take advantage of in state preference and tuition, or applied only to UMass and Harvard, then I can see an admissions committee deciding he was not that serious about medical school.</p>
<p>Here is an interpretation that might be more generous to the interviewer: Williams uses the A+ grade, and assigns it a 4.3 value in calculating the GPA. AMCAS ignores A+ and calls it a 4.0. So in comparing a GPA as calculated by Williams to that of a college that does not give A+, and assuming the student had some A+'s, then it would be accurate to say that the AMCAS GPA would be lower than the Williams GPA. It would not be a Harvard vs Williams thing.</p>
<p>It is ridiculous to assert that an admissions person at any med school in the country is unfamiliar with a top LAC. It just doesn’t happen.</p>
<p>I work in corporate HR; I know how you become a Baker scholar; what it takes to be admitted to Phi Beta Kappa (or junior Phi Bet); the various things that Fulbright commitee people look for vs. Rhodes vs. Marshall; the difference between Wesleyan in CT and the other Wesleyans; why anyone who claims to have graduated from MIT magna cum laude is lying; that Wellesley is not Wells and that Bennington is not Bard, or that the Yale Daily News is not the same publication as the Yale Herald. Not because I’m a genius, but because I get paid to know. You can’t possibly sift through thousands of resumes a year without understanding what all this stuff means. </p>
<p>Just like adcoms… they get paid to know the difference between Williams and Roger Williams.</p>
<p>It’s a shame when kids don’t get accepted where they want, but people need to get a grip on reality sometimes.</p>
<p>This is only for law school, and I don’t fully understand it, but one of the speakers at an admitted students day discussion I went to was talking about grade inflation/deflation. He said for law school they have some board that basically uses information for each school and individual to make an algorithm that “adjusts” GPAs up or down to make them comparable. I don’t know anything else about it, he was just saying his UVA GPA didn’t changed at all so that probably meant they didn’t really have grade inflation or deflation. He claimed to know that someone from Harvard got theirs adjusted down but I don’t know if he was just saying that or not. </p>
<p>Anyway I found it interesting and I kind of assumed from that that there was such a thing for other big grad school programs like medecine and business. But I guess not.</p>
<p>Again, I think you are all giving adcoms far more credit than they deserve. In general, adcoms are chosen for their “sparkling personalities,” not their vast knowledge of the inner machinations of higher education.</p>
<p>And HR??? Are you serious???</p>
<p>Mikey:</p>
<p>How do you know how they’re chosen?</p>
<p>I have little knowledge of northern colleges but I know what Williams is, and I know it isn’t called “Roger Williams” (that I have never heard of).</p>
<p>Trust me… I am exceptionally familiar with the admissions offices at many colleges and universities, and I know the sorts of individuals who make successful adcoms. To preserve my identity (which has already been discovered by more than one cc poster), I’d prefer not to go into too much detail.</p>
<p>I will concede that I am less familiar with the admissions processes at medical schools. From what I understand, admissions committees are comprised of physicians and non-physicians.</p>
<p>After re-reading some of my posts, I realize that I may have been a bit harsh on Williams. In general, this type of name recognition plagues all top LACS. At top medical schools, where many faculty and adcoms attended top unis and LACS, I would be shocked if any of the parties involved in admissions were unfamiliar with Williams. However, at somewhere like UMASS, the pedigrees of staff involved in admissions are likely more… varied. Not having heard of Williams does not mean that the admissions officer is shirking his or her responsibilities. It does mean that Williams students should be prepared to politely inform the adcoms that Williams is a selective college.</p>
<p>Williams has made great strides in familiarizing the public with the excellemt education that it provides undergraduates. Unfortunately, they have been unable to reach everyone.</p>