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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you are unhooked, you need to think more carefully about schools between Williams and Dickinson.  In particular, you need to think through an ED strategy.  If your ED strategy is ED1 and ED2 to Williams, Amherst and Swat, your kid may end up at Dickinson or F&M.  There are a lot of great schools in between that you would have a much higher chance of acceptance if you apply ED than you would at the top 5.  I would figure out which of these appeal to your kid.  Yes, Williams is the gold standard, but there are many schools not far behind... Consider Rhodes and Furman for merit aid.[/quote]

OP here. Did you have schools in mind? I thought we had a pretty good selection across the small liberal arts colleges. I will take a look at Rhodes and Furman.

I’ll admit I’m not well educated on early decision options. Why would doing early decision to one of the more selective schools mean she was locked into one of the less selective ones? Is that because you think she would be rejected out right at the beginning?[/quote]

The best and most likely way to get into a selective liberal arts college is by applying ED1 or ED2. These schools take up to half or more of their classes ED. So RD becomes very difficult with fewer open spots, and you are competing against all the kids who got rejected ED from the most selective LACs as well as Ivy League type rejects. Schools also practice yield management (where they don’t extend offers to qualified students because their computers tell them they are statistically unlikely to matriculate) so outcomes can be flukey.

In a sense almost all of the top 30 LACs are kind of reachy although with a 35 and a 4.0 you are in good shape. But I would worry about pinning your hopes on top 5 LACs just because they are so ultra competitive. If you apply ED1 and ED2 to Williams, Amherst etc, you could well get rejected both times and then you’ve lost your shot at schools in the 10-30 range. You only had two such schools listed- Hamilton and Midd I think it was- which are very close to the top themselves. What I would do is look at the US News list top 30/40 and think very carefully through process of elimination which schools may be really good fits. Then visit them etc. You could reach for the stars ED1 if you want but maybe ED2 if that doesn’t work out have something less competitive in mind. Or pass on the super duper competitive ones altogether for ED. I think it’s very likely your daughter would get into many schools ranked below 30 or so RD probably with merit aid. But you want to be more strategic in my opinion about the top 30ish and develop an ED game plan. Also, the Ohio schools are a bit easier to get into for the quality they offer and have great performing arts- I would investigate. [/quote]

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