Anonymous wrote:Wellesley

Just what I was thinking.

Anonymous wrote:DD is a senior at a rigorous private, 4.0 weighted GPA (strong curriculum but not AP-level across the board), 1460 on SAT (730 +730), two-sport varsity athlete and team captain, has won significant recognition for her art and has been active in other ECs. In other words, successful, well-rounded kid but no hooks. Wants to study international relations, is passionate about numerous social justice causes, wants and politically active and diverse campus, ideally in a city. She's made some visits and has a couple of favorites but wants to expand her list--where would you have her look?

A lot like my child who has just over a 4.0 GPA, 1490 SATs, and three sport team captain.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would suggest taking a look at Oberlin. My daughter just started as a first year and it's a great campus with a lot of what she's looking for, except the big city. The town is really nice though and Cleveland isn't too far. It's commitment to social justice is well known and it's music scene is world class as a bonus. If merit money is appealing I would estimate that your daughter will be offered some (mine was).

Don't be put off by the reputation of it being too alt left either. We are fairly conservative and loved it for our daughter.

My son has similar stats and is a musician. He loved Oberlin when we visited.

Would you mind sharing how much merit money your daughter received? It is hard to tell how much merit money Oberlin gives out-are we talking about a couple of thousand dollars, or significant merit?

We cannot send him there without merit aid, so I don't want to get his hopes up if he is unlikely to receive enough merit aid to make it doable for us.

Your son has a big advantage being male because they skew female and want to keep the balance as close as they can - I think this year's class is 57% female. My daughter got $10K but she applied ED and didn't apply for any aid so it was a nice bonus, though not huge. They give up to $25K in merit money and the higher amounts are for regular decision so I would wait instead of applying ED and try to negotiate. In some ways I wish we had waited but my daughter was 100% certain and I didn't want to risk her being waitlisted (you never know these days).

If he's a musician he will love the school - just so much great music everywhere. And the more I know about Cleveland, the more excited I get to explore the area when we visit. I was pleased to see this recent article that captures some of the cool stuff going on in Cleveland right now that I would never have known until we visited:

http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-cleveland-20170716-story.html

Good luck to your son!

Anonymous wrote:Some of the schools suggested are going to be really tough to get into with a 4.0 weighted GPA/1460 in good but not the top classes. The kids I saw go to Wash U, Georgetown, etc., were kids in the most rigorous classes with a 4.0 unweighted, or something close.

I agree that Oberlin would be worth a look. Also, the Maxwell School at Syracuse. Northeastern might be a good alternative to Tufts. Tufts too would be fantastic but it is probably a reach, especially if applying regular decision.

Yes, I'm assuming that Tufts, Georgetown, Hopkins and Penn would all be reaches for her, and she may give one of them a shot ED. Schools like BU, GWU and Macalester are probably her matches and I'm wanting to be sure she's looked at enough of those. Will suggest she look at Oberlin and also NYU and Northeastern. She goes to an all-girls HS, so the women's colleges aren't to fly. Grateful for all the suggestions!

Anonymous wrote:I would suggest taking a look at Oberlin. My daughter just started as a first year and it's a great campus with a lot of what she's looking for, except the big city. The town is really nice though and Cleveland isn't too far. It's commitment to social justice is well known and it's music scene is world class as a bonus. If merit money is appealing I would estimate that your daughter will be offered some (mine was).

Don't be put off by the reputation of it being too alt left either. We are fairly conservative and loved it for our daughter.

My son has similar stats and is a musician. He loved Oberlin when we visited.

Would you mind sharing how much merit money your daughter received? It is hard to tell how much merit money Oberlin gives out-are we talking about a couple of thousand dollars, or significant merit?

We cannot send him there without merit aid, so I don't want to get his hopes up if he is unlikely to receive enough merit aid to make it doable for us.

Women's colleges are a great idea, if she's game. Might also look at Scripps. Not exactly urban, but SoCal's like that. Has Metrolink access to LA.

Part of the Claremont consortium so she'd have access to courses at all 5 campuses, study abroad, and domestic exchange with GWU.

Barnard.

Anonymous wrote:If she will broaden her "ideally in a city" factor, she will also broaden her choices. All the HS grads want to be in a city these days. Trust me; BTDT. Is the city location the PRIMARY factor? If not, make sure she applies to some more far-flung choices. You will both be glad she did.

I would agree with this. Grinnell came to mind till you said she wants a city.

Tufts sounds like a good fit - my guess is she would get in if she applied ED but rejected/wait listed in RD

A friend of my son sounds like a male version of the OP's DD except he graduated in 2017.

He applied to many of the suggested schools but only got into one with basically no aid.

OP, I don't think you need more reaches, I think you need more matches and more difficult safeties.

While we haven't heard any feed back as school hasn't started yet, the male version ended up at in the UMd Government and Politics

department hoping to do an International Relations Concentration. His feeling was that it is hard to beat being near Washington.

Another vote for Oberlin.

Some of the schools suggested are going to be really tough to get into with a 4.0 weighted GPA/1460 in good but not the top classes. The kids I saw go to Wash U, Georgetown, etc., were kids in the most rigorous classes with a 4.0 unweighted, or something close.

I agree that Oberlin would be worth a look. Also, the Maxwell School at Syracuse. Northeastern might be a good alternative to Tufts. Tufts too would be fantastic but it is probably a reach, especially if applying regular decision.

I would suggest taking a look at Oberlin. My daughter just started as a first year and it's a great campus with a lot of what she's looking for, except the big city. The town is really nice though and Cleveland isn't too far. It's commitment to social justice is well known and it's music scene is world class as a bonus. If merit money is appealing I would estimate that your daughter will be offered some (mine was).

Don't be put off by the reputation of it being too alt left either. We are fairly conservative and loved it for our daughter.

She should be a Wash U Bear

Tulane!!!