Medium to Large Southern Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The post was for medium to large southern schools easier than UGA. U of South Carolina, Auburn, Clemson, Baylor, TCU, Ole Miss.

Wake is big on ED. With ED and interest in political science as major (not pre med or business which WF gets a lot of) there might be a chance with demonstrated interest and entire application considered.

Good options. Would add University of Tennessee (ranked 103 in National Universities by USNWR).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The post was for medium to large southern schools easier than UGA. U of South Carolina, Auburn, Clemson, Baylor, TCU, Ole Miss.

Wake is big on ED. With ED and interest in political science as major (not pre med or business which WF gets a lot of) there might be a chance with demonstrated interest and entire application considered.

Good options. Would add University of Tennessee (ranked 103 in National Universities by USNWR).

Every single one of those was stated on page 1 of this thread but here we are on page 4 regurgitating the same thing because people are arguing whether Vandy, Duke, WF, UVA and Yale are a thing...they're not.

[Anonymous]

CNU Honors as a safety if they liked UVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The post was for medium to large southern schools easier than UGA. U of South Carolina, Auburn, Clemson, Baylor, TCU, Ole Miss.

Wake is big on ED. With ED and interest in political science as major (not pre med or business which WF gets a lot of) there might be a chance with demonstrated interest and entire application considered.

Good options. Would add University of Tennessee (ranked 103 in National Universities by USNWR).

Every single one of those was stated on page 1 of this thread but here we are on page 4 regurgitating the same thing because people are arguing whether Vandy, Duke, WF, UVA and Yale are a thing...they're not.

People on DCUM love to argue. You know that.

[Anonymous]

Baylor SMU and TCU are good medium to smaller-large size and sound like good matches. They are private and have a higher price tag closer to 70-80k. The state schools Auburn, Tennessee, South Carolina, Clemson and Ole Miss will have a similar feel and enrollment but will be lower cost at 45-50k out of state. UT and UF are not only harder to get into OOS but they are much bigger schools enrollment wise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:U of FLA
Georgia
Clemson
Wake Forest
UNC

Smaller

College of Charleston
Vanderbilt (reach with 28 ACT)
Davidson

The ACT. Is a little low

Maybe South Carolina, auburn, nc state,

UNC, Vanderbilt and Wake are way out of reach.

If Wake Forest University is test optional, then it is well within reach for the OP's student.

Do we know which state the OP's student lives ?

With those stats Wake is a reach.

4.0 URM with 8APs. WFU is not a reach since WFU is test optional.

4.0 UW yes, but it’s 4.0 W. Depending on the grading scale, that could be excellent, or not so great.

I agree that, unless the GPA is very close to 4.0 UW, UNC, Vandy, and (probably) Wake are very much long shots, if not impossible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP. I do not think DS can get into a Duke, Vanderbilt or WF with his grades based on data we have read. Of the 8, he has taken 4 APs so far and has done well and the next four APs are senior year. They are core APs not fluff classes and we will send in updated grades. Still, he gets As and Bs, hence the 4.0 weighted. Not even sure what UW is as it is difficult to calculate - he is in FCPS. He is going to retake the ACT to see if he can get it higher.

The challenge is as some have pointed out, he has some good things to tell about himself but the big schools may not care care let alone ever find out. There is not even a chance for interviews. Some schools do have regional admissions directors that you can contact and we are thinking about how to approach that. He likes the feel of the larger schools which makes this difficult. We will share with him the potential admission benefits of a smaller school. Finally, while out of state schools are more expensive - up to 50k - they are no where near private schools which are more like 70-80k. We have saved for a long time but private tuition just seems too much for people in the middle who won’t get need aid or upper who can afford it. Thankfully our DS doesn’t like most of the private schools which are smaller anyway. Appreciate all the feedback.

Doing some prep and retaking the ACT is a good idea. My DC did about 12 hours of tutoring and brought his ACT score up 3 points, which opened a whole new range of possibilities. Having a higher test score would also help with merit aid from private schools that might bring the cost more in line with OOS flagships.

Judging from last year’s experience, big state schools don’t like test optional as much as the private schools that have more time to evaluate applications. For example, this year Auburn rejected a lot of OOS students who thought of it as a safety. In some cases, they asked for test scores from kids that applied test optional, and many OOS kids that were at the high end of their of their previous 50% range were rejected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hispanic, congressional intern, Eagle Scout? He could 100% get into Duke, Wake or Vanderbilt. I would add Virginia Tech to the list. What about Tulane?

Came here to say this. Eagle Scout, Congressional intern and URM will get into a lot of reaches. If he weren’t determined to go south, I’d recommend test prep and apply to Yale.

Yale, yeah, that's totally realistic for a non-first generation Hispanic kid from a MC/UMC household in the DMV with several B grades. Eagle Scout is NOT that uncommon and answering constituent mail on the Hill isn't really that impressive. But then again, you were kidding, right?

No. I know kids like this who got in. Higher test scores though. And if he’d consider ROTC, even better chances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Elon

Except it's not medium and definitely not large.

5,000+ undergrads is a medium sized school by my definition

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's your strategy OP:

MANDATORY: go test optional. UGA, UNC, UF don't want that 28 pulling down their mean. Same for Vandy, Duke.

Play up the Congressional internship and service and Eagle Scout and service and more service. If you are indigenous/Central American, play that up. (If you are from Buenos Aires and wealthy, do not play that up.)

Every single school is on the table with a Hispanic Eagle Scout and a 4.0W. Especially Duke and Vanderbilt.

Georgia is a little tougher because that 4.0w is not killer. Same for UF and UT-Austin. Florida and Texas will have a lot of Hispanic kids with 4.5W.

It'd be tougher to get into Georgia OOS than Duke or Vanderbilt? Really?

Yes because all Georgia cares about these days is actual stats. GPA and SAT/ACT. Your ECs aren't "stats" and the giant state schools don't have time to ponder 40,000 letters of recommendation from the scout leader.

DC was deferred EA OOS from UGA with far better stats than OP and was admitted to a top 10 private school ED -- with killer ECs.

I'm glad your DC was admitted to such a great school - congratulations! But if your DC had applied to UGA early decision (as they did for the top 10 private), that may very well have made a difference.

I'd also note that the UGA website makes it crystal clear that increasing diversity among its students/entering classes is VERY important to the school and that they have policies and practices in place to help make this happen, so UGA obviously cares about more than just stats. Plus, Duke's SAT and ACT mid-ranges (1510-1560 and 34-36) are notably higher than UGA's and its acceptance rate (16.7%) is much lower than UGA's (39%).

Since UGA was not his top choice, ED for Georgia was a non-starter. Therefore, EA. He came from a school with no grade inflation and these kids can't compete with the 4.99999 GPA kids.

The process taught him something he hadn't thought about, and is relevant to OP: all these big state flagships care about is quantifiable (objective) factors. GPA, SAT/ACT, maybe AP scores. [As an aside, what the hell is the University of California system going to use to assess hundreds of thousands of applicants now after rejecting standardized testing? Really? they're going to read 500,000 -- literally -- essays every year and make comments?]

Every single school in the United States says they want to "increase diversity." The devil is in the details in how that gets done.

To your point about Duke and mid range .... they haven't announced for 2023. If they're test optional, OP's kid goes test optional. Boom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The post was for medium to large southern schools easier than UGA. U of South Carolina, Auburn, Clemson, Baylor, TCU, Ole Miss.

Wake is big on ED. With ED and interest in political science as major (not pre med or business which WF gets a lot of) there might be a chance with demonstrated interest and entire application considered.

Good options. Would add University of Tennessee (ranked 103 in National Universities by USNWR).

What is a good cut off GPA and ACT/ SAT for the schools listed above since from this thread it appears that’s all they care about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The post was for medium to large southern schools easier than UGA. U of South Carolina, Auburn, Clemson, Baylor, TCU, Ole Miss.

Wake is big on ED. With ED and interest in political science as major (not pre med or business which WF gets a lot of) there might be a chance with demonstrated interest and entire application considered.

Good options. Would add University of Tennessee (ranked 103 in National Universities by USNWR).

What is a good cut off GPA and ACT/ SAT for the schools listed above since from this thread it appears that’s all they care about.

Clarification - for these schools:

U of South Carolina, Auburn, Clemson, Baylor, TCU, Ole Miss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The post was for medium to large southern schools easier than UGA. U of South Carolina, Auburn, Clemson, Baylor, TCU, Ole Miss.

Wake is big on ED. With ED and interest in political science as major (not pre med or business which WF gets a lot of) there might be a chance with demonstrated interest and entire application considered.

Good options. Would add University of Tennessee (ranked 103 in National Universities by USNWR).

What is a good cut off GPA and ACT/ SAT for the schools listed above since from this thread it appears that’s all they care about.

Clarification - for these schools:

U of South Carolina, Auburn, Clemson, Baylor, TCU, Ole Miss.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to say for sure without seeing this year’s numbers, since some schools got an unprecedented number of applications this last year. You also have to know the break out for OOS vs. IS. As a rule of thumb, for OOS, I’d say you need to be in the top 25% stats-wise for it to be a sure thing. For example, there were kids who were solidly in the middle 50% for Auburn last year who didn’t get in OOS (Auburn applications were up 150% over two years ago). There were some threads on this board about it. Also, many schools seem to have a greater yield than expected this fall and may take fewer students next year to compensate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The post was for medium to large southern schools easier than UGA. U of South Carolina, Auburn, Clemson, Baylor, TCU, Ole Miss.

Wake is big on ED. With ED and interest in political science as major (not pre med or business which WF gets a lot of) there might be a chance with demonstrated interest and entire application considered.

Good options. Would add University of Tennessee (ranked 103 in National Universities by USNWR).

What is a good cut off GPA and ACT/ SAT for the schools listed above since from this thread it appears that’s all they care about.

Clarification - for these schools:

U of South Carolina, Auburn, Clemson, Baylor, TCU, Ole Miss.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to say for sure without seeing this year’s numbers, since some schools got an unprecedented number of applications this last year. You also have to know the break out for OOS vs. IS. As a rule of thumb, for OOS, I’d say you need to be in the top 25% stats-wise for it to be a sure thing. For example, there were kids who were solidly in the middle 50% for Auburn last year who didn’t get in OOS (Auburn applications were up 150% over two years ago). There were some threads on this board about it. Also, many schools seem to have a greater yield than expected this fall and may take fewer students next year to compensate.

My DC has U of South Carolina, Auburn, Clemson and Ole Miss on their list. ACT is 31. Do they need to retake?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The post was for medium to large southern schools easier than UGA. U of South Carolina, Auburn, Clemson, Baylor, TCU, Ole Miss.

Wake is big on ED. With ED and interest in political science as major (not pre med or business which WF gets a lot of) there might be a chance with demonstrated interest and entire application considered.

Good options. Would add University of Tennessee (ranked 103 in National Universities by USNWR).

What is a good cut off GPA and ACT/ SAT for the schools listed above since from this thread it appears that’s all they care about.

Clarification - for these schools:

U of South Carolina, Auburn, Clemson, Baylor, TCU, Ole Miss.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to say for sure without seeing this year’s numbers, since some schools got an unprecedented number of applications this last year. You also have to know the break out for OOS vs. IS. As a rule of thumb, for OOS, I’d say you need to be in the top 25% stats-wise for it to be a sure thing. For example, there were kids who were solidly in the middle 50% for Auburn last year who didn’t get in OOS (Auburn applications were up 150% over two years ago). There were some threads on this board about it. Also, many schools seem to have a greater yield than expected this fall and may take fewer students next year to compensate.

My DC has U of South Carolina, Auburn, Clemson and Ole Miss on their list. ACT is 31. Do they need to retake?

OOS? Without knowing the GPA, I’d say a 31 would make most of those schools a “match,” but not a “safety.” Ole Miss could be a safety? Clemson’s middle 50% ACT last year was 27-32. I think Auburn’s average ACT was 29 for EA last year, but that would include a large number of in state applicants. There were quite a number of OOS applicants on line who were saying they were deferred from Auburn EA with higher scores and the overall EA acceptance rate was 24%.

The thing is not to put too much stock in web sites that have data that’s not from last year. Who knows why? Is there a “trickle down” effect as other schools get harder to get into, or are some of these schools just having a moment? Whatever the reason, many of these schools that were viewed as “safeties” got a big bump in applications last year.