| For Miami and Tulane you are going to have to show a ton of interest without an ED which I assume includes visiting the schools. Tulane especially is notorious for taking a huge percentage of students via ED. My students stats were way over the Miami average and they were deferred in EA then waitlisted (they are now at a Top 15 for perspective)--definitely yield protection going on there. It's not too late to switch EA apps to ED 1 or 2 so you may want to consider this for those schools. |
| You may need to alter your don't ED/visit schools later strategy. A lot of the schools that fall into your bucket take a much higher % of students via ED and/or consider demonstrated interest which is easier to show if you visit. |
| Go to the beanpot and you'll see smaller schools with plenty of spirit. |
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Hobart William Smith recently won the D3 championship for men's Ice Hockey and is always a solid school for women's soccer.
There are a lot of students support for the teams. It was a safety for my DS who wound up at another SLAC but overall we we came away really liking it. Other schools that are not SLAC - but maybe ones to explore are some of the Catholic schools. When we toured Providence and St. Joe's you felt the rah rah school spirit. |
USNWR does not think they are a SLAC. They think they are a LAC |
| Richmond |
| No |
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When people say “school spirit,” they mean sports-centric, right? It always seems like a vague term to me, but that seems to be the gist of it.
If you can extend beyond D1 football, there are lots of smaller schools with big-time basketball programs that make it to the “big dance” most years. But even sports like baseball and lacrosse can have strong followings at small schools (which sport is big often depends on the region). Especially if the school is in a small town with not much else to do, or in a league with strong rivalries. You’ll have lots of students turning up to cheer on their team, you just won’t have ESPN showing up for the pregame hype. |
Mine visited Miami and has done their virtual programs. They've also been in contact with their admissions counselor. There is no way they are changing to ED, though. As much as they like Miami, they aren't willing to commit to 90K a year without seeing how it all plays out. The calculator suggests merit, but there are other schools that may make more sense. Can I ask what school your kid chose? |
Our kid showed tons of interest at Miami--in person, virtual, in touch with admissions counselor, sporting events, etc.--problem is coming from a DMV private, I think they assume you can afford Miami, so you could ED if you really wanted to. My student knew they were accepted elsewhere at a school they preferred before they got waitlisted at Miami so they let it go. I do wonder if at that point if they had emailed it was their top choice and they would go if offered a spot if they would have been accepted. Miami yield protects and fair enough my kid with high stats chose elsewhere so they weren't wrong to do so. |
| Boston College |
| Not a slac, but maybe Villanova? |
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Depends on your definition of sports/school spirit.
For football- no Many of the Jesuit schools (more midsize than Slac) have great basketball programs with plenty of school spirit. Holy cross, Davidson, Pepperdine are slac w/strong basketball U Denver has hockey |
UABC, Baja Instituto Tecnologico La Paz James Cook University Universidad Costa Rica |
My kid had the same experience with Miami. Didn’t do EA but was waitlisted in RD even though way above stats and from a top private |