what to ED1/ED2/RD with this list

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Id think deeply about the type of environment he wants. Example:

Uchicago is a great, really hard school. It’s not exactly known for its exciting environment even if it’s in Chicago, because students work like hounds there, and the academic culture is very PhD prep even if you’re going off to industry right after.

Bowdoin is also great, really collaborative community school. Bowdoin people work hard, but they also spend a lot of time community bonding (Maine winter on a small campus brings people together).

Davidson is another great option, pretty much a rigorous, Greek life school. It’s got heavy grade deflation but students love it there and the Greek life takes over the culture a bit. With North Carolina, you get the sun but you also get the humidity.

He should also look at faculty closely. Humanities departments across the board are struggling a bit with their faculty lines, and he should Ed where he has the ability to be taught by important people in his field. For example, if I was an English major today, I’d jump at the opportunity to go to Columbia or Iowa, because they have the best of the best.

Our experience with Davidson doesn’t quite fit the above portrayal. While it is true that students love the Davidson experience, work hard, and have a Greek life, there is not grade deflation and Greek life is very unlike most Greek schools.

Davidson publishes annually an academic profile of its graduating class. For 2024, the average GPA was 3.658 and the median was 3.748. Three quarters of the kids had a GPA above 3.52.

As for Greek life, it’s very much Greek-lite. Only 25% of guys join a fraternity and most Greek girls join eating houses. The eating houses are non-rush, non-competitive admissions. Girls input preferences for their self or a group of friends and a computer determines the match. All Greek parties are open to everyone, save the formals.

To be frank, these are poor gpas for a top school and do indicate grade deflation. Attended a peer school a notch or two above Davidson and getting a 3.6 means you were a pretty bad student or just didn't like using resources. The trend has been going towards average gpas of 3.7 up at many schools. I have friends who attended Davidson, who called their time without Greek life pretty "oppressive." Have you been eating up the words of tour guides or students, because there's typically a severe difference in the realities. Neighbor growing up was a Kappa at Davidson and told stories that made you think he went to Bama.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Id think deeply about the type of environment he wants. Example:

Uchicago is a great, really hard school. It’s not exactly known for its exciting environment even if it’s in Chicago, because students work like hounds there, and the academic culture is very PhD prep even if you’re going off to industry right after.

Bowdoin is also great, really collaborative community school. Bowdoin people work hard, but they also spend a lot of time community bonding (Maine winter on a small campus brings people together).

Davidson is another great option, pretty much a rigorous, Greek life school. It’s got heavy grade deflation but students love it there and the Greek life takes over the culture a bit. With North Carolina, you get the sun but you also get the humidity.

He should also look at faculty closely. Humanities departments across the board are struggling a bit with their faculty lines, and he should Ed where he has the ability to be taught by important people in his field. For example, if I was an English major today, I’d jump at the opportunity to go to Columbia or Iowa, because they have the best of the best.

Our experience with Davidson doesn’t quite fit the above portrayal. While it is true that students love the Davidson experience, work hard, and have a Greek life, there is not grade deflation and Greek life is very unlike most Greek schools.

Davidson publishes annually an academic profile of its graduating class. For 2024, the average GPA was 3.658 and the median was 3.748. Three quarters of the kids had a GPA above 3.52.

As for Greek life, it’s very much Greek-lite. Only 25% of guys join a fraternity and most Greek girls join eating houses. The eating houses are non-rush, non-competitive admissions. Girls input preferences for their self or a group of friends and a computer determines the match. All Greek parties are open to everyone, save the formals.

To be frank, these are poor gpas for a top school and do indicate grade deflation. Attended a peer school a notch or two above Davidson and getting a 3.6 means you were a pretty bad student or just didn't like using resources. The trend has been going towards average gpas of 3.7 up at many schools. I have friends who attended Davidson, who called their time without Greek life pretty "oppressive." Have you been eating up the words of tour guides or students, because there's typically a severe difference in the realities. Neighbor growing up was a Kappa at Davidson and told stories that made you think he went to Bama.

Most schools don’t publish easily accessible information about their graduating student profile, so kudos to Davidson for doing that. Because so many schools, don’t publish this data, it’s unclear where the PP got their data about other schools. However, a simple prompt in ChatGPT for the average GPA of graduates from liberal arts schools turned up numbers closer to 3.5. Separately, here’s a somewhat dated (2021) article from Williams about grade inflation. In 2019, their average GPA was 3.52.

https://williamsrecord.com/455518/news/grade-inflation-continues-rise-through-fall-semester-some-professors-say/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Id think deeply about the type of environment he wants. Example:

Uchicago is a great, really hard school. It’s not exactly known for its exciting environment even if it’s in Chicago, because students work like hounds there, and the academic culture is very PhD prep even if you’re going off to industry right after.

Bowdoin is also great, really collaborative community school. Bowdoin people work hard, but they also spend a lot of time community bonding (Maine winter on a small campus brings people together).

Davidson is another great option, pretty much a rigorous, Greek life school. It’s got heavy grade deflation but students love it there and the Greek life takes over the culture a bit. With North Carolina, you get the sun but you also get the humidity.

He should also look at faculty closely. Humanities departments across the board are struggling a bit with their faculty lines, and he should Ed where he has the ability to be taught by important people in his field. For example, if I was an English major today, I’d jump at the opportunity to go to Columbia or Iowa, because they have the best of the best.

Our experience with Davidson doesn’t quite fit the above portrayal. While it is true that students love the Davidson experience, work hard, and have a Greek life, there is not grade deflation and Greek life is very unlike most Greek schools.

Davidson publishes annually an academic profile of its graduating class. For 2024, the average GPA was 3.658 and the median was 3.748. Three quarters of the kids had a GPA above 3.52.

As for Greek life, it’s very much Greek-lite. Only 25% of guys join a fraternity and most Greek girls join eating houses. The eating houses are non-rush, non-competitive admissions. Girls input preferences for their self or a group of friends and a computer determines the match. All Greek parties are open to everyone, save the formals.

To be frank, these are poor gpas for a top school and do indicate grade deflation. Attended a peer school a notch or two above Davidson and getting a 3.6 means you were a pretty bad student or just didn't like using resources. The trend has been going towards average gpas of 3.7 up at many schools. I have friends who attended Davidson, who called their time without Greek life pretty "oppressive." Have you been eating up the words of tour guides or students, because there's typically a severe difference in the realities. Neighbor growing up was a Kappa at Davidson and told stories that made you think he went to Bama.

Most schools don’t publish easily accessible information about their graduating student profile, so kudos to Davidson for doing that. Because so many schools, don’t publish this data, it’s unclear where the PP got their data about other schools. However, a simple prompt in ChatGPT for the average GPA of graduates from liberal arts schools turned up numbers closer to 3.5. Separately, here’s a somewhat dated (2021) article from Williams about grade inflation. In 2019, their average GPA was 3.52.

https://williamsrecord.com/455518/news/grade-inflation-continues-rise-through-fall-semester-some-professors-say/

I'm not sure how this is inflation versus bouncing back from poor grading standards. You cannot compete in the grad school market anymore with a 3.5, and GPAs have began to reflect it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Id think deeply about the type of environment he wants. Example:

Uchicago is a great, really hard school. It’s not exactly known for its exciting environment even if it’s in Chicago, because students work like hounds there, and the academic culture is very PhD prep even if you’re going off to industry right after.

Bowdoin is also great, really collaborative community school. Bowdoin people work hard, but they also spend a lot of time community bonding (Maine winter on a small campus brings people together).

Davidson is another great option, pretty much a rigorous, Greek life school. It’s got heavy grade deflation but students love it there and the Greek life takes over the culture a bit. With North Carolina, you get the sun but you also get the humidity.

He should also look at faculty closely. Humanities departments across the board are struggling a bit with their faculty lines, and he should Ed where he has the ability to be taught by important people in his field. For example, if I was an English major today, I’d jump at the opportunity to go to Columbia or Iowa, because they have the best of the best.

Our experience with Davidson doesn’t quite fit the above portrayal. While it is true that students love the Davidson experience, work hard, and have a Greek life, there is not grade deflation and Greek life is very unlike most Greek schools.

Davidson publishes annually an academic profile of its graduating class. For 2024, the average GPA was 3.658 and the median was 3.748. Three quarters of the kids had a GPA above 3.52.

As for Greek life, it’s very much Greek-lite. Only 25% of guys join a fraternity and most Greek girls join eating houses. The eating houses are non-rush, non-competitive admissions. Girls input preferences for their self or a group of friends and a computer determines the match. All Greek parties are open to everyone, save the formals.

To be frank, these are poor gpas for a top school and do indicate grade deflation. Attended a peer school a notch or two above Davidson and getting a 3.6 means you were a pretty bad student or just didn't like using resources. The trend has been going towards average gpas of 3.7 up at many schools. I have friends who attended Davidson, who called their time without Greek life pretty "oppressive." Have you been eating up the words of tour guides or students, because there's typically a severe difference in the realities. Neighbor growing up was a Kappa at Davidson and told stories that made you think he went to Bama.

Most schools don’t publish easily accessible information about their graduating student profile, so kudos to Davidson for doing that. Because so many schools, don’t publish this data, it’s unclear where the PP got their data about other schools. However, a simple prompt in ChatGPT for the average GPA of graduates from liberal arts schools turned up numbers closer to 3.5. Separately, here’s a somewhat dated (2021) article from Williams about grade inflation. In 2019, their average GPA was 3.52.

https://williamsrecord.com/455518/news/grade-inflation-continues-rise-through-fall-semester-some-professors-say/

I'm not sure how this is inflation versus bouncing back from poor grading standards. You cannot compete in the grad school market anymore with a 3.5, and GPAs have began to reflect it.

Williams and Davidson graduates go to great graduate schools, but the point here is that Davidson's average GPA is not depressed or deflated relative to its peers.

[Anonymous]

If your DS ends up wanting a SLAC, he’d have a great chance with Middlebury ED2 based on our DDs experience (Unhooked, full pay, solid gpa/test, basic strong extracurriculars, etc…)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Id think deeply about the type of environment he wants. Example:

Uchicago is a great, really hard school. It’s not exactly known for its exciting environment even if it’s in Chicago, because students work like hounds there, and the academic culture is very PhD prep even if you’re going off to industry right after.

Bowdoin is also great, really collaborative community school. Bowdoin people work hard, but they also spend a lot of time community bonding (Maine winter on a small campus brings people together).

Davidson is another great option, pretty much a rigorous, Greek life school. It’s got heavy grade deflation but students love it there and the Greek life takes over the culture a bit. With North Carolina, you get the sun but you also get the humidity.

He should also look at faculty closely. Humanities departments across the board are struggling a bit with their faculty lines, and he should Ed where he has the ability to be taught by important people in his field. For example, if I was an English major today, I’d jump at the opportunity to go to Columbia or Iowa, because they have the best of the best.

Our experience with Davidson doesn’t quite fit the above portrayal. While it is true that students love the Davidson experience, work hard, and have a Greek life, there is not grade deflation and Greek life is very unlike most Greek schools.

Davidson publishes annually an academic profile of its graduating class. For 2024, the average GPA was 3.658 and the median was 3.748. Three quarters of the kids had a GPA above 3.52.

As for Greek life, it’s very much Greek-lite. Only 25% of guys join a fraternity and most Greek girls join eating houses. The eating houses are non-rush, non-competitive admissions. Girls input preferences for their self or a group of friends and a computer determines the match. All Greek parties are open to everyone, save the formals.

To be frank, these are poor gpas for a top school and do indicate grade deflation. Attended a peer school a notch or two above Davidson and getting a 3.6 means you were a pretty bad student or just didn't like using resources. The trend has been going towards average gpas of 3.7 up at many schools. I have friends who attended Davidson, who called their time without Greek life pretty "oppressive." Have you been eating up the words of tour guides or students, because there's typically a severe difference in the realities. Neighbor growing up was a Kappa at Davidson and told stories that made you think he went to Bama.

are you referring to you and your friends time as college students? can you put a date on that because a lot has changed, unless you're 23yo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Id think deeply about the type of environment he wants. Example:

Uchicago is a great, really hard school. It’s not exactly known for its exciting environment even if it’s in Chicago, because students work like hounds there, and the academic culture is very PhD prep even if you’re going off to industry right after.

Bowdoin is also great, really collaborative community school. Bowdoin people work hard, but they also spend a lot of time community bonding (Maine winter on a small campus brings people together).

Davidson is another great option, pretty much a rigorous, Greek life school. It’s got heavy grade deflation but students love it there and the Greek life takes over the culture a bit. With North Carolina, you get the sun but you also get the humidity.

He should also look at faculty closely. Humanities departments across the board are struggling a bit with their faculty lines, and he should Ed where he has the ability to be taught by important people in his field. For example, if I was an English major today, I’d jump at the opportunity to go to Columbia or Iowa, because they have the best of the best.

Our experience with Davidson doesn’t quite fit the above portrayal. While it is true that students love the Davidson experience, work hard, and have a Greek life, there is not grade deflation and Greek life is very unlike most Greek schools.

Davidson publishes annually an academic profile of its graduating class. For 2024, the average GPA was 3.658 and the median was 3.748. Three quarters of the kids had a GPA above 3.52.

As for Greek life, it’s very much Greek-lite. Only 25% of guys join a fraternity and most Greek girls join eating houses. The eating houses are non-rush, non-competitive admissions. Girls input preferences for their self or a group of friends and a computer determines the match. All Greek parties are open to everyone, save the formals.

To be frank, these are poor gpas for a top school and do indicate grade deflation. Attended a peer school a notch or two above Davidson and getting a 3.6 means you were a pretty bad student or just didn't like using resources. The trend has been going towards average gpas of 3.7 up at many schools. I have friends who attended Davidson, who called their time without Greek life pretty "oppressive." Have you been eating up the words of tour guides or students, because there's typically a severe difference in the realities. Neighbor growing up was a Kappa at Davidson and told stories that made you think he went to Bama.

are you referring to you and your friends time as college students? can you put a date on that because a lot has changed, unless you're 23yo

27, so not that divorced from college. Graduated right before the pandemic, but can’t imagine that that reduced scores, rather than shot them up. Looking at my college now, and if you want to be in the top 25% of the class you need a 4.0 GPA, so I think it’s about the same if not worse than before

[Anonymous]

DS grad 2022 from Davidson with degree in Econ and Comp Sci. Works at a FAANG company. Heading to Yale Law in August. Selected Davidson over many schools, including Ivies. Amazing experience, even through Covid. Cannot recommend more highly. Although challenging, DS aced the LSAT, and was admitted to multiple law schools. He did not have a 4.0 but really learned and absolutely loved his classes. The PP who claims that the school is oppressive is just plain wrong.

[Anonymous]

Today’s lesson for DCUM: perspective. Are we all going to act like a Yale law student is the average Davidson grad? Challenging environments are amazing as your intelligence and can be pretty miserable if you’re the type who can’t keep up. Same hint happens on these forums when discussing UChicago- great college if you’re academic good, horribly oppressive for many

[Anonymous]

According to PP’s warped standards, every top school is oppressive. In my experience, top schools attract amazing students. They come to learn and appreciate the intellectual challenge. They also want to be surrounded by intelligent peers. They find the environment stimulating rather than oppressive. Not everyone can cut it, but those that do self select. Those that don’t have a wide variety of less rigorous options.

[Anonymous]

I know a ton of kids at Davidson and wouldn’t say it is oppressive academically. Quite a few find it oppressive socially, as a good number of the kids aren’t very social and it’s just small. But I hear similar complaints about Middlebury. I think it’s a downside of SLACs generally and kids who want a more active social/party scene should pick bigger schools.

[Anonymous]

Some of it depends on how you want to use your ED/how long you want the process to last. Some people choose to ED a far reach knowing odds are low, but ED would help a little—they may get deferred but the school will know they are serious about it and they are up for working off a deferral/waitlist—others really want to be done with the process early and ED a lower reach/target.

Pay attention to the percent of students admitted ED—it’s notoriously high at some schools (Middlebury/Tulane come to mind). I feel Vandy might be up there too.

Also pay attention to the number of ED1 spots and if the school counts athletes in ED1. I personally would not waste an ED1 on a smaller school that has few spots with athletics in the mix unless it is by far the top choice school and you’re ok having a longer process.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

want to underscore the lopsided numbers at SLACS is very much rooted in athletics. Some of these schools are 30% or more athletes. And yes, even if they're not recruited, the readers know to look for kids to fill out that women's hockey team etc. There are just a lot of positions that need to be filled.

look at all these preppy white faces!
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/football/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/baseball/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/fhockey/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/wswim/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/softball/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/mcross/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/wsquash/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/mhockey/roster

and on and on and on .. they're ALL like this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:want to underscore the lopsided numbers at SLACS is very much rooted in athletics. Some of these schools are 30% or more athletes. And yes, even if they're not recruited, the readers know to look for kids to fill out that women's hockey team etc. There are just a lot of positions that need to be filled.

look at all these preppy white faces!
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/football/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/baseball/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/fhockey/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/wswim/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/softball/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/mcross/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/wsquash/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/mhockey/roster

and on and on and on .. they're ALL like this

This is why if you're interested in diversity and less athlete culture, you apply to the Claremont Colleges. Otherwise, prepare for New England Boarding School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:want to underscore the lopsided numbers at SLACS is very much rooted in athletics. Some of these schools are 30% or more athletes. And yes, even if they're not recruited, the readers know to look for kids to fill out that women's hockey team etc. There are just a lot of positions that need to be filled.

look at all these preppy white faces!
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/football/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/baseball/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/fhockey/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/wswim/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/softball/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/mcross/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/wsquash/roster
https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/mhockey/roster

and on and on and on .. they're ALL like this

Do you have an issue with athletes for some reason? Most SLACs, including Middlebury, are D3. It’s significantly less intense than D1 athletics, both in terms of team training and recruiting. Davidson is D1 and I have heard there is a divide there between athletes and non athletes, but not to the extent the non-athletes are unhappy.