Tell me about the schools your kid applied to

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How would you describe the collection of schools your kid applied to without using any selectivity metrics. Location? Size? Public/private? Other criteria? If they had an outlier did they go there?

Interested in some of the criteria kids use that aren’t just selectivity.

Mid-size (<8,000) schools with a top reputation for overall academics and, specifically, undergraduate teaching, in an attractive-to-beautiful setting. Strong in both STEM and humanities. Reputation for “nice kids” and good relationships with professors.

[Anonymous]

Financial aid was probably the most important criterion. HHI less than 200k; we needed need blind schools known for giving excellent FA. Alternatively she applied to a couple safeties who are known to give good merit which were a couple religious privates, Jesuit. This meant only private schools. From very small SLACS to larger ones and midsize universities.

Secondly she wanted strong premed schools. This translates to research opportunities, mentorship, advising, outcomes. But also it mattered to her how the premed community collaborated. For her grade deflation wasn’t really a big concern for selecting schools to apply to.

Location wasn’t a big deal to her, but I will say she ended up gravitating to a place we had family. I steered her toward CA for weather, but she didn’t care. She also cared more about academic reputation than social and well-being stuff like football and facilities.

[Anonymous]

One kid wanted a school they could be proud of, mid-sized or larger, preferably not far from a larger city. Kid preferred Georgetown, Penn, Northwestern, Harvard, Boston College, Michigan, Vanderbilt, UVA. I insisted on adding Dartmouth, Cornell, & Notre Dame. Kid was adamant about not picking any true safeties & was prepared to do a gap year if things didn’t work out. Got in Mich, BC, ND, & Northwestern. Waitlisted at Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, & UVA (OOS). In retrospect, should have done more to show interest & applied to less-popular major.

Other kid wanted rah-rah school. Applied to schools like Florida State, Kentucky, Alabama, Mich State, Texas Tech, Nebraska. Got in all with merit money.

[Anonymous]

Mid size to large schools that were not in the heat and could play sport. Ended up being a random assortment of great schools that she could see herself at even if she didn’t continue the sport.

[Anonymous]

Kid 1: Big Rah Rah school with strong academics and Greek life. Applied to Mid-Atlantic and Midwest schools. Ended up at UVA

Kid 2: Big Rah Rah, good to meh academics, Greek life, applied to Mid Atlantic, South and Midwest schools. Will attend Midwest flagship with “meh” academics overall, but highly ranked for their major. Will not name school, as it might “out” my kids. Nobody from their high school is going there. Only seen one other NoVa kid on instagram class of 2030 from the DMV area.

[Anonymous]

"How would you describe the collection of schools your kid applied to without using any selectivity metrics. Location? Size? Public/private? Other criteria? If they had an outlier did they go there?"

- Average SAT scores (as a proxy for academic caliber of the students there)
- Location (DD wanted a non-urban school)
- Size (DD wanted a smaller one - while UVA was in the mix it was not one she really wanted to attend.)
- Mix of public/private - privates had to give generous merit though; schools with $90K sticker tags and no/little merit were ruled out entirely
- Whether they had her sport, even if it was just at a club level
- Vibe of the school/kids during the tour
- Campus attractiveness (although at her fav the kid vibe outweighed a pretty ugly campus)
- Quality of the program for her intended major

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How would you describe the collection of schools your kid applied to without using any selectivity metrics. Location? Size? Public/private? Other criteria? If they had an outlier did they go there?

Interested in some of the criteria kids use that aren’t just selectivity.

Mid-size (<8,000) schools with a top reputation for overall academics and, specifically, undergraduate teaching, in an attractive-to-beautiful setting. Strong in both STEM and humanities. Reputation for “nice kids” and good relationships with professors.

Would love to hear some of the schools on this list if you’re willing to share!

[Anonymous]

Liking this question!

Our kid started with two main criteria: strong in his desired major area and strong in his club sport. Parents added a few colleges that are strong for major and offer the club sport, but at a more recreational level.

This resulted in a list of a dozen large/small, public/private, urban/remote, faraway/within a few hours mix of colleges. Those characteristics were not primary factors for our kid.

One college did not make the final list due to institutional financial health concerns. Another exciting prospect did not make the list due to concerns over how they are managing their rapidly increasing student enrollment.

Among the received acceptances, he looked closer at curriculum and general campus vibe during visits. We also tracked how helpful and responsive colleges (admissions, the major department, housing, financial aid, the club team) were to any questions we had, as a sort of proxy for how easy/hard the college would be to navigate once he arrives. Surprisingly to us, two of the largest schools on the list were among the most responsive. We’ve also looked at which employers come to campus to recruit for co-ops, internships, and jobs. Another decision factor is what possibilities are offered, in case he changes his course of study.

He’s deciding between his two finalists right now!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kid 1: Big Rah Rah school with strong academics and Greek life. Applied to Mid-Atlantic and Midwest schools. Ended up at UVA

Kid 2: Big Rah Rah, good to meh academics, Greek life, applied to Mid Atlantic, South and Midwest schools. [b]Will attend Midwest flagship with “meh” academics overall, but highly ranked for their major.[b] Will not name school, as it might “out” my kids. Nobody from their high school is going there. Only seen one other NoVa kid on instagram class of 2030 from the DMV area.

Smart money is on journalism at Mizzou or Iowa for creative writing.

[Anonymous]

For my kids, they both wanted schools that leaned more liberal. We live in a very conservative state, and they both wanted to be in blue states/cities where the colleges were more diverse and LGBTQ friendly. I think that's a very important metric to consider when choosing schools- some may call it 'vibe', but basically will my kid fit in here and be able to feel comfortable? Other considerations were a specific club sport, distance to airports, and distance from relatives. My husband was an administrator at his university during Covid and he dealt with kids who got 'stuck' on campus for months during the shutdown, with no way to get home. Our kids took that into consideration- they didn't want to be somewhere they couldn't realistically get back home (or to relatives) if something like that happened again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How would you describe the collection of schools your kid applied to without using any selectivity metrics. Location? Size? Public/private? Other criteria? If they had an outlier did they go there?

Interested in some of the criteria kids use that aren’t just selectivity.

Mid-size (<8,000) schools with a top reputation for overall academics and, specifically, undergraduate teaching, in an attractive-to-beautiful setting. Strong in both STEM and humanities. Reputation for “nice kids” and good relationships with professors.

Would love to hear some of the schools on this list if you’re willing to share!

Sure thing! This was for two different kids; one looking for humanities, one for biology.
In order of most-to-least selective: Yale (SCEA), Rice, WashU, Carleton, William & Mary (OOS), St. Olaf, plus a few others that weren't quite in line with the description above, but that they added to possibly have a few more options.
They were rejected from Yale, waitlisted at Rice and WashU, accepted at the rest. They're finishing up their freshman year at W&M and it's been great.

As for a longer list of candidate schools to consider (not all of which made my kids' lists, but that I've heard track with what they were looking for) …
Mid-size schools: Rice, Tufts, Yale, William & Mary, Brown, WashU
If small schools are in-bounds, consider: Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Bowdoin, Davidson, Carleton (+ St. Olaf for a more likely admit)

[Anonymous]

I am so happy to see my kid wasn’t the only one who started their list by seeing which schools had their sport as a club sport!

[Anonymous]

DD applied to NE schools with a picturesque campus, co-ed and single sex. Ended up at Wellesley.

[Anonymous]

Program for intended major
Location (distance from home and city/rural)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child wanted urban, preferably with an integrated campus, cold weather, minimum medium sized, and definitely nowhere in VA. No rah rah schools and preferably no Greek life, but as long as it wasn't prevalent, the presence of wasn't a deal breaker.

This was my child 3 years ago. She chose BU and loves it.