Hamilton RD?
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Anonymous
Your DC sounds a lot like mine (right down to the major and the language), only mine didn't get in. I know your DC will be amazing and love it there. Congratulations! |
Anonymous
| honestly applying to Hamilton is probably a waste of time if you’re not an athlete or a URM |
Anonymous
| Just saw an article that said Hamilton’s acceptance rate was 11.4 percent this year. Almost 10,000 applications, for a very small school that is a lot of applications. I know Colby’s acceptance rate very low this year, and probably other NESCAC schools too. As a NESCAC alum, I’m glad to see they are still popular, but for our kids it makes it very tough… |
Anonymous
Yes, but they're one-dimensional, gpa-chasing, a-holes like their parents. PP's kid is obviously valuable and seen as a student who will thrive and contribute to the community in positive ways. Not just a numbers chaser. Such small-minded, horrible people around here. |
Anonymous
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Let's just suppose that Hamilton (or Amherst, Williams, Middlebury etc) has had excellent experience with students they've admitted from certain elite DC schools (public or private) that have GPAs on the low end of their average. Typically, those kids with also have very high test scores (34+, 1500+), and be accomplished in something or multiple things that will redound to the benefit of the institution. Plus full pay. Though schools like Hamilton profess to be need-blind, they still somehow manage to admit half of the class as full-pay students, and nothing wrong with that. Someone's got to keep the lights on. Let's also say that Hamilton and its ilk get thousands application from 3.9 kids from mediocre schools, with much lower SAT/ACT scores. And while there are of course exceptions to the rule, the rule is that those kids don't perform as well in college as the lower-GPA elite high school kids.
When you look at a Naviance scattergram from one of these high-end high schools (and I have), you'll see that the admitted cohort is in a GPA range significantly below the college's published average. But its test scores are at the high end. So what does that say? Maybe something about grade inflation, and maybe something about the academic and other talents of kids who have had fortunate upbringings. Ask a NESCAC admissions officer, on deep background (because they'll never admit it publicly), to verify this. I don't know if they will, but I know they can. |
Anonymous
| Full-pay is king |
Anonymous
Might be rude — doesn’t make them wrong. I suspect it was equal parts student athlete/full pay |
Anonymous
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If you read up on Hamilton, one of the things they emphasize and that alums emphasize is how important writing is at Hamilton. My child got in RD to Hamilton and I wouldn’t be surprised if the essays pushed them into the accept pile. They had high gpa, very high SAT, good extracurriculars, and I think excellent references. They were not an athlete. I think their essays rang true with the rest of the application and painted a clear picture of who they were.
One of the things you can control is your essays. Many high stats kids are very good writers. Not all high stats kids are excellent writers who have developed their own style. I think that is what helped our student get in. A huge amount of time and effort went into the essays and it was time well spent. |