ED Bump at Bowdoin or Middlebury

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP at 13:16. Should say what could "happen" not "happy."

I suspect that you made Freud proud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't get the appeal of either on of these schools.

Why ?

I understand the attraction to both schools even though I prefer larger schools.

Bowdoin College is similar to an elite prep boarding school--meant to be a positive description--while Middlebury College is larger and more diverse than Bowdoin.

Both schools have beautiful campuses and both are located in nice areas. Both offer excellent academics.

I can understand that one might find Bowdoin College too small over the course of four years. And I worry about the excessive involvement in students' lives by at least one Dean at Bowdoin College as I think that boundaries are not respected and have been crossed by that Dean. But, for those who want to be closely supervised in a small school environment, Bowdoin College should be given serious consideration.

Middlebury College offers a great environment academically and athletically/recreationally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here with an update. Hamilton coach came back after pre read and said they would support DD in an ED1 application. Colby coach seems to have ghosted kid. I understand if their roster changes but it's not a great look to just ignore kids emails. My DD has emailed several times asking Coach to just let her know if she is no longer on his list but no word back at all

I'm thrilled with Hamilton but DD still thinks she wants to go aggressive and try her luck at ED1 Middlebury/Bowdoin. I'm hoping when school reopens the counselors can talk to her more about her odds. No point in my being the bad guy in this process which is how it will turn out if I try to influence her decision making.

I do understand why one might prefer Middlebury or Bowdoin over Hamilton College due to the location of each school, but it is different for a recruited athlete. Your daughter needs to connect with members of the athletic team at Hamilton to determine whether or not it is a great option for her. Likely that her teammates will e among her closest friends at any school large or small since so much time and common effort/purpose will be spent together. If she clicks with them, then the choice becomes more clear; if she doesn't click with them, the her course of action becomes more clear with a solid foundation behind her decision.

[Anonymous]

What ended up happening?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bowdoin parent here.

Unless there’s another hook, I would push Colby and Hamilton as ED1 and ED2. I would only use the ED1 hook if one of the coaches is willing to support her.

What you have to understand is that lots of kids who are in the range will be deferred and rejected. Being in the range doesn’t get you in. In general, at these small Nescac schools, each kid brings something extra to the table: a sport, a development case, the child of a political leader or influential business person, a child from the inner city who is a mathematical genius but hasn’t had opportunities … So your student needs to have a something extra to be supported - and sports are powerful. I would limit her use of ED to schools where there’s coach support.

This is the answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowdoin parent here.

Unless there’s another hook, I would push Colby and Hamilton as ED1 and ED2. I would only use the ED1 hook if one of the coaches is willing to support her.

What you have to understand is that lots of kids who are in the range will be deferred and rejected. Being in the range doesn’t get you in. In general, at these small Nescac schools, each kid brings something extra to the table: a sport, a development case, the child of a political leader or influential business person, a child from the inner city who is a mathematical genius but hasn’t had opportunities … So your student needs to have a something extra to be supported - and sports are powerful. I would limit her use of ED to schools where there’s coach support.

This is the answer.

Agree with the final sentence, but have to smile at the ridiculous description of Bowdoin students as I know too many Bowdoin students to believe that horsecrap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our DD from one of the area private schools (Top 5 according to DCUM) is really interested in Bowdoin and Middlebury. She wants to ED at one of the two schools and we are looking for guidance about which one gives a bigger bump for ED. Our DD's GPA is about 3.68. She will be going test optional. She has some sports leadership activities (Captain of teams since 11th grade) and should have excellent recommendations. At her private school, the regular admits for Bowdoin and Middlebury are around the 3.75 - 3.8 range so she is not competitive for RD. Unfortunately, there are not enough kids from her school doing ED to Bowdoin/Middlebury to get accurate Naviance data for this subset. Any anecdotal and/or factual advice would be really helpful. She honestly loved both schools from her visit and can see herself at either campus so her focus is on making the right ED decision. We are full pay if that helps.

Don’t go test optional. Test optional isn’t meant for full pay, private school kids. Hasn’t your college counselor told you this?

Test optional is meant for applicants that the college wants for some reason (impact athlete, development, minority etc), but who has test scores somewhat (but not too much) below the 25th percentile. That group frequently includes white, private school, full pay recruited athletes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Test optional coming out of an expensive private school is a bad look. Don’t do it.

Unless you’re a recruited athlete with strong support and relatively weak but not disastrous scores.!In which case the coach will tell you after the pre-read that going TO is strongly recommended.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there more of a bump if it is a boy with similar stats of a 3.7 (out of 4) at a private school and a 33 ACT?

Sure, that boy, with no other hook, applying ED, would have maybe a 1 in 20 shot at admission instead of the 1 in 30 shot a comparable girl would have.

Are you serious? A boy with a 3.7 GPA from a private school (so presumably no weighted GPA available) and a 33 ACT would have only a 5% chance of getting into Bowdoin or Middlebury ED?

Might be serious but he’s wrong. That kind of applicant is NESCAC’s core customer - a slightly sub-Ivy, full-pay, ED, private school kid.

[Anonymous]

There's a lot of parroting of bad info here. Bowdoin has been test optional for over 50 years, it's not some newfound thing. If your application is improved by your test score, send it. If it's not, don't. That's the Bowdoin-specific advice, regardless of who you are.

No, you do not need to be God's gift to some sport / a "development case" / a yet-to-be-cultivated inner-city math genius to get into Bowdoin. It's hard, it's not that hard.

Bowdoin is also need blind for admissions, so your full pay/non-full pay status has no bearing on your admission (with a few minor exceptions involving transfer students and, very occasionally, waitlisted students). The financial aid application literally goes to a different office on campus housed in a different building with different staff.

Finally, Bowdoin is more diverse, at least racially, than Middlebury, with 36% URMs compared to Middlebury's 28% based on the numbers I found at a quick glance (though they may be a year or two out of date). Not a big difference but worth getting the facts right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our DD from one of the area private schools (Top 5 according to DCUM) is really interested in Bowdoin and Middlebury. She wants to ED at one of the two schools and we are looking for guidance about which one gives a bigger bump for ED. Our DD's GPA is about 3.68. She will be going test optional. She has some sports leadership activities (Captain of teams since 11th grade) and should have excellent recommendations. At her private school, the regular admits for Bowdoin and Middlebury are around the 3.75 - 3.8 range so she is not competitive for RD. Unfortunately, there are not enough kids from her school doing ED to Bowdoin/Middlebury to get accurate Naviance data for this subset. Any anecdotal and/or factual advice would be really helpful. She honestly loved both schools from her visit and can see herself at either campus so her focus is on making the right ED decision. We are full pay if that helps.

Don’t go test optional. Test optional isn’t meant for full pay, private school kids. Hasn’t your college counselor told you this?

Test optional is meant for applicants that the college wants for some reason (impact athlete, development, minority etc), but who has test scores somewhat (but not too much) below the 25th percentile. That group frequently includes white, private school, full pay recruited athletes.

Actually it's what schools use to bring in URM and first generation without having to report their test scores. How is that not obvious?

[Anonymous]

As of the fall of 2022, Middlebury's entire student body was 56.4 percent white, 31.6 percent "underrepresented minority" and 11.9 percent international

[Anonymous]

would you send a 1500 to Bowdoin or middlebury?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:would you send a 1500 to Bowdoin or middlebury?

Yes

[Anonymous]

What about a 34?