What level LAC can student with

[Anonymous]

4.0, 9 APs, cum laude, top 10% private (not big 3 level) + grade inflation, 33 act get into?
williams/Amherst or no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4.0, 9 APs, cum laude, top 10% private (not big 3 level) + grade inflation, 33 act get into?
williams/Amherst or no?

Sports recruit? Or any special ECs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:4.0, 9 APs, cum laude, top 10% private (not big 3 level) + grade inflation, 33 act get into?
williams/Amherst or no?

Sports recruit? Or any special ECs?

arts supp for dance but no high level recognition etc

[Anonymous]

Male or female?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Male or female?

female…

[Anonymous]

No

[Anonymous]

It really depends on the school, OP. You have to inquire with your college counseling office. A Field or a Burke does sometimes send students to that type of LAC--the top 5 to maybe 10%, so, it may not be completely out of reach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:4.0, 9 APs, cum laude, top 10% private (not big 3 level) + grade inflation, 33 act get into?
williams/Amherst or no?

Sports recruit? Or any special ECs?

arts supp for dance but no high level recognition etc

Not enough for Williams/Amherst. DD applied last year. Same stats and excellent ECs with national recognition and an athlete, but not recruited because were not recruiting for her position. Still could not get in.

Think of those stats as the entry level thing that you need at a minimum to get in. You need that plus so much more.

[Anonymous]

Mine had those stats and 1580 SAT and did not get into Williams or Bowdoin.

Look at Middlebury, Hamilton, Carleton, Bates.

[Anonymous]

If transcript is basically as good as it can be, the only thing a little soft there is the ACT. 34 would be better if possible.

But even with 34-36, it doesn’t make it that much more likely she can get into “top 5.” But does she want to go to top 5 just because they are top 5 or because she likes those particular schools? I would visit all the top 30 schools and figure out what really appeals and then develop an ED strategy off that. You have two bullets to increase your chances of acceptance - ED1 and ED2. If you go Williams/Amherst ED1 - you will have a lower chance vs the other schools named regardless of your stats. It’s kind of just a lottery. With my DC whose grades were not as strong, we started mid pack ED1 (Colby peer for perspective) and then did ED2 towards bottom of top 30 (Bates peer). Got into Bates peer and VERY pleased because it’s going to be a great fit. While the difficulty of getting into the Bates peer is lower, in my mind the academic quality is really on par with any of them. And the student body is like marginally “worse” by 20 SAT points which is meaningless. All these schools are getting incredibly smart kids - there is not room for all of them at Williams - some portion of the super duper perfect ones get in, then it waterfalls down (not just with rejections but via self selection ED). By the time you get to the bottom of the top 30 list you get a few kids who had Bs on their transcript (oh the humanity!). So I would just think carefully about where she really would be happy and target those two ED- worst case scenario you fall into RD land and could end up at Dickinson or Gettysburg or F&M or Denison- not the end of the world but think through how much you want to risk it going for gold in early decision

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If transcript is basically as good as it can be, the only thing a little soft there is the ACT. 34 would be better if possible.

But even with 34-36, it doesn’t make it that much more likely she can get into “top 5.” But does she want to go to top 5 just because they are top 5 or because she likes those particular schools? I would visit all the top 30 schools and figure out what really appeals and then develop an ED strategy off that. You have two bullets to increase your chances of acceptance - ED1 and ED2. If you go Williams/Amherst ED1 - you will have a lower chance vs the other schools named regardless of your stats. It’s kind of just a lottery. With my DC whose grades were not as strong, we started mid pack ED1 (Colby peer for perspective) and then did ED2 towards bottom of top 30 (Bates peer). Got into Bates peer and VERY pleased because it’s going to be a great fit. While the difficulty of getting into the Bates peer is lower, in my mind the academic quality is really on par with any of them. And the student body is like marginally “worse” by 20 SAT points which is meaningless. All these schools are getting incredibly smart kids - there is not room for all of them at Williams - some portion of the super duper perfect ones get in, then it waterfalls down (not just with rejections but via self selection ED). By the time you get to the bottom of the top 30 list you get a few kids who had Bs on their transcript (oh the humanity!). So I would just think carefully about where she really would be happy and target those two ED- worst case scenario you fall into RD land and could end up at Dickinson or Gettysburg or F&M or Denison- not the end of the world but think through how much you want to risk it going for gold in early decision

Didn’t mean to say visit all 30 schools. Visit the ones you think are interesting and also check out easier admits (30-50) as likelies, where btw merit aid will kick in and it will be sizable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If transcript is basically as good as it can be, the only thing a little soft there is the ACT. 34 would be better if possible.

But even with 34-36, it doesn’t make it that much more likely she can get into “top 5.” But does she want to go to top 5 just because they are top 5 or because she likes those particular schools? I would visit all the top 30 schools and figure out what really appeals and then develop an ED strategy off that. You have two bullets to increase your chances of acceptance - ED1 and ED2. If you go Williams/Amherst ED1 - you will have a lower chance vs the other schools named regardless of your stats. It’s kind of just a lottery. With my DC whose grades were not as strong, we started mid pack ED1 (Colby peer for perspective) and then did ED2 towards bottom of top 30 (Bates peer). Got into Bates peer and VERY pleased because it’s going to be a great fit. While the difficulty of getting into the Bates peer is lower, in my mind the academic quality is really on par with any of them. And the student body is like marginally “worse” by 20 SAT points which is meaningless. All these schools are getting incredibly smart kids - there is not room for all of them at Williams - some portion of the super duper perfect ones get in, then it waterfalls down (not just with rejections but via self selection ED). By the time you get to the bottom of the top 30 list you get a few kids who had Bs on their transcript (oh the humanity!). So I would just think carefully about where she really would be happy and target those two ED- worst case scenario you fall into RD land and could end up at Dickinson or Gettysburg or F&M or Denison- not the end of the world but think through how much you want to risk it going for gold in early decision

NP whose kids targeted nescac schools. This is excellent advice if you are looking at LACs and is essentially what a paid consultant would suggest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If transcript is basically as good as it can be, the only thing a little soft there is the ACT. 34 would be better if possible.

But even with 34-36, it doesn’t make it that much more likely she can get into “top 5.” But does she want to go to top 5 just because they are top 5 or because she likes those particular schools? I would visit all the top 30 schools and figure out what really appeals and then develop an ED strategy off that. You have two bullets to increase your chances of acceptance - ED1 and ED2. If you go Williams/Amherst ED1 - you will have a lower chance vs the other schools named regardless of your stats. It’s kind of just a lottery. With my DC whose grades were not as strong, we started mid pack ED1 (Colby peer for perspective) and then did ED2 towards bottom of top 30 (Bates peer). Got into Bates peer and VERY pleased because it’s going to be a great fit. While the difficulty of getting into the Bates peer is lower, in my mind the academic quality is really on par with any of them. And the student body is like marginally “worse” by 20 SAT points which is meaningless. All these schools are getting incredibly smart kids - there is not room for all of them at Williams - some portion of the super duper perfect ones get in, then it waterfalls down (not just with rejections but via self selection ED). By the time you get to the bottom of the top 30 list you get a few kids who had Bs on their transcript (oh the humanity!). So I would just think carefully about where she really would be happy and target those two ED- worst case scenario you fall into RD land and could end up at Dickinson or Gettysburg or F&M or Denison- not the end of the world but think through how much you want to risk it going for gold in early decision

NP whose kids targeted nescac schools. This is excellent advice if you are looking at LACs and is essentially what a paid consultant would suggest.

Thanks- I basically summarized what our (highly) paid consultant told us and what we learned through this process. But really think hard about where your kid will thrive because there really really isn’t a huge difference between school number 18 and school number 29 on some website. I also think the USNWR rankings are wrong in a lot of cases- even if it is just a superficial prestige ranking. And harder to get into doesn’t necessarily mean better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If transcript is basically as good as it can be, the only thing a little soft there is the ACT. 34 would be better if possible.

But even with 34-36, it doesn’t make it that much more likely she can get into “top 5.” But does she want to go to top 5 just because they are top 5 or because she likes those particular schools? I would visit all the top 30 schools and figure out what really appeals and then develop an ED strategy off that. You have two bullets to increase your chances of acceptance - ED1 and ED2. If you go Williams/Amherst ED1 - you will have a lower chance vs the other schools named regardless of your stats. It’s kind of just a lottery. With my DC whose grades were not as strong, we started mid pack ED1 (Colby peer for perspective) and then did ED2 towards bottom of top 30 (Bates peer). Got into Bates peer and VERY pleased because it’s going to be a great fit. While the difficulty of getting into the Bates peer is lower, in my mind the academic quality is really on par with any of them. And the student body is like marginally “worse” by 20 SAT points which is meaningless. All these schools are getting incredibly smart kids - there is not room for all of them at Williams - some portion of the super duper perfect ones get in, then it waterfalls down (not just with rejections but via self selection ED). By the time you get to the bottom of the top 30 list you get a few kids who had Bs on their transcript (oh the humanity!). So I would just think carefully about where she really would be happy and target those two ED- worst case scenario you fall into RD land and could end up at Dickinson or Gettysburg or F&M or Denison- not the end of the world but think through how much you want to risk it going for gold in early decision

NP whose kids targeted nescac schools. This is excellent advice if you are looking at LACs and is essentially what a paid consultant would suggest.

Thanks- I basically summarized what our (highly) paid consultant told us and what we learned through this process. But really think hard about where your kid will thrive because there really really isn’t a huge difference between school number 18 and school number 29 on some website. I also think the USNWR rankings are wrong in a lot of cases- even if it is just a superficial prestige ranking. And harder to get into doesn’t necessarily mean better.

This exactly! We learned this last year from our DC a who only targeted NESCAC schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If transcript is basically as good as it can be, the only thing a little soft there is the ACT. 34 would be better if possible.

But even with 34-36, it doesn’t make it that much more likely she can get into “top 5.” But does she want to go to top 5 just because they are top 5 or because she likes those particular schools? I would visit all the top 30 schools and figure out what really appeals and then develop an ED strategy off that. You have two bullets to increase your chances of acceptance - ED1 and ED2. If you go Williams/Amherst ED1 - you will have a lower chance vs the other schools named regardless of your stats. It’s kind of just a lottery. With my DC whose grades were not as strong, we started mid pack ED1 (Colby peer for perspective) and then did ED2 towards bottom of top 30 (Bates peer). Got into Bates peer and VERY pleased because it’s going to be a great fit. While the difficulty of getting into the Bates peer is lower, in my mind the academic quality is really on par with any of them. And the student body is like marginally “worse” by 20 SAT points which is meaningless. All these schools are getting incredibly smart kids - there is not room for all of them at Williams - some portion of the super duper perfect ones get in, then it waterfalls down (not just with rejections but via self selection ED). By the time you get to the bottom of the top 30 list you get a few kids who had Bs on their transcript (oh the humanity!). So I would just think carefully about where she really would be happy and target those two ED- worst case scenario you fall into RD land and could end up at Dickinson or Gettysburg or F&M or Denison- not the end of the world but think through how much you want to risk it going for gold in early decision

NP whose kids targeted nescac schools. This is excellent advice if you are looking at LACs and is essentially what a paid consultant would suggest.

If any paid college consultant gave this advice for a fee, demand a refund.