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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think what people are saying is that not only do you not have true safeties but the "target" zone on your list is a little scanty too. You have a ton of reaches (Hamilton and Midd and Wesleyan are reaches, and her odds are low unless she EDs them). With a really strong application, they become low reaches if ED'd.

I think your actual targets for applying RD are F&M, Dickinson, Bard, UMD. If she is really happy with those options that's good, but F&M is a significantly more competitive school than Bard and Dickinson and maybe she'd want more options in that range?[/quote]

I posted this and want to clarify that it's not like it's impossible she could get into Williams or a school that selective--it could happen! But in the past couple years I have known of some excellent students who applied to highly selective schools and ended up at schools much lower ranked than you would have expected (and TBH, schools they really didn't want and 
had never expected to actually attend) because they didn't have solid middle-range options. Admissions are more competitive and unpredictable than they were five years ago.[/quote]

I feel like the OP in the back of her mind believes she will get into Williams/Amherst at least subconsciously because she feels her daughter deserves it and is kind of going through the motions of rounding out likelies.  Is someone interested in Williams and Amherst really seriously thinking Towson St is a possibility?

With a 35 and a top notch transcript, anything is possible.  As I understand it, her academic stats really couldn't be better.  F&M and Dickinson would be lousy outcomes in my opinion--and it's a bit weird to think that a nearly perfect academic student would have those as target schools.  Assuming chasing merit aid is not a top priority, my personal advice would be to figure out 2 schools between Williams and Dickinson in the rankings that her daughter would love to attend and make them the ED priorities (while figuring out a bunch of other ones for RD).  A kid with a 35 will def get some acceptances RD.  I also really believe the gap between the Willaims and Amhersts and the next 20-30 is not as great as it once was so you are not giving up that much by prioritizing a somewhat less rejective school.  The experience will be very similar as will the quality of the students.  There are so many extremely bright kids who want to attend a LAC now (not to mention other types of schools) and the total number of seats available among top US LACs is not a lot.  So they are all over the place, whereas the extremely bright ones 10 years ago may have really been concentrated in the top 5.[/quote]

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