I think you need to assume your child could change majors. The majority of students do. You go to college to learn about the field and about yourself. Double majors can be difficuit with engineering, as the courseload is intense. I'd pick the school that offers options, not one with just one strength.

I also agree with the poster that said to ignore the waitlist s.

Id go with WashU unless Dartmouth comes through.

BC above all the other offers - can't believe its not been said already.

OP here with one more question. Anyone in finance have opinions on WashU vs Indiana? Dartmouth seems to be the best choice for finance placement for HS Senior, if accepted off waiting list. HS Senior is struggling with future career choices. Thank you.

Anonymous wrote:So much WL movement, including WashU.

Yes, hopefully it works out for Dartmouth WL. However unlikely that may be. -OP

So much WL movement, including WashU.

None they all blow

Something to consider - WashU, as a private and smaller school, is going to give a much better experience as things continue online than a large public school. I'm seeing this with my 2 college kids.

OP here with an update. HS Senior has narrowed it down to WashU and Indiana. Very different schools! She is still hoping to get off wait lists, and attended a Vanderbilt virtual wait list program where they stated that they are fully need aware for WL, so hopefully being full pay will help there.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you for all of the suggestions and insight. HS Senior is very indecisive (hence the # of schools applied to), but will probably choose WashU, with the hope of getting off the Dartmouth or Notre Dame wait list. I personally think that UVA and Vanderbilt are somewhat equal to WashU, so no need to keep hoping to get off the wait list for those schools (please let me know if this is an incorrect judgment), but HS Senior prefers Nashville over St. Louis, so we will see what happens. To answer a few questions that came up, HS Senior will not have any debt no matter where she graduates from (so that is not a factor), and she seems to really like both big and small schools.

Such great choices. Since she isn’t sure of major, I think Wash U and UT Austin have the most flexibility for engineering, business or both. It would come down to if she wants to go to a big Texas school with warm weather or smaller Midwest school with not warm weather. The vibe would be different for those two schools.

Of the waitlist, I think Vanderbilt is similar reputation to Wash U, maybe a smidge higher in US News and other rankings but the bigger difference would be weather and Greek social scene. So I could see staying on the waitlist - Nashville vs St. Louis. I didn’t really see what Notre Dame or UVA brought over Wash U or UT Austin unless it’s a cost or family history thing.

Looking at Dartmouth's Common data set.

Waitlisted applicants: 1381

# of applicants taken off waitlist: 0

https://www.dartmouth.edu/oir/pdfs/cds_2019-2020.pdf

OP, great options! I would encourage that she forget re: the WL schools. Do what's needed to remain on the WL for now, if she wants, but otherwise forget about them.

For the engineering schools, she needs to be confident that she would be happy at those schools -if not- in engineering. Remaining in engineering is never a given.