Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot depends on your definition of safety. It the child is qualified (mid-point of SAT/GPA, etc) for Williams and Bowdoin, then some true safeties (very high probability of getting in) are:
Skidmore, Trinity, Bard, St. Mary's, UVM, Kenyon, Oberlin, Macalister.

And, these are perhaps one small notch less selective than Williams and Bowdoin (and with many similarities to Williams and Bowdoin): Bates, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Colgate, Carleton, Grinnell, Vassar, Ithaca, Tufts,

You were doing well until you threw Ithaca into this category. Ithaca is two tiers below.

Ithaca should go to the safety list for this student I think. Has the outdoorsy location on top of hill overlooking lake Cayuga. Great town.

Great town, great location but that is one ugly campus and Cornell dominates the conversation.

I did not think so but I was distracted by that view....amazing views. But I guess it is not really a slac.

DC (top DC private, 3.9+/1550 SAT) was admitted ED to one of those. We toured many SLACs and DC's matches/safeties were William & Mary (in state), Scripps, Occidental, Haverford, Bates.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does he love about each. Mine loved Williams, hated Bowdoin, and loves Colby now (didn't get into Williams).

Actually has only seen Williams in person, he is basing Bowdoin on what he has heard and read. He loved the mountains, tutorials, academic seriousness without the intensity of say Swarthmore, small chance of getting into the Oxford program junior year and liked the idea of a rural setting. He also liked the small campus. I loved the musuems (he hiked with his brother while I visitted them).

That's useful info. Less selective than Williams but similar in those respects: Colby, Hamilton, Colorado College (but check the block schedule), Whitman, St. Lawrence

This is the right answer. There's a lot of silliness in the rest of this chain. An OP who says Yes to mountains and No to Swarthmore and gets lots of posts suggesting Grinnell (and others cheering them on)? I mean, Grinnell's a great school, but it's clearly not what this kid is looking for.

Agree, though can sometimes be hard if you are looking for a selective but the NE ones may be beyond reach.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does he love about each. Mine loved Williams, hated Bowdoin, and loves Colby now (didn't get into Williams).

Actually has only seen Williams in person, he is basing Bowdoin on what he has heard and read. He loved the mountains, tutorials, academic seriousness without the intensity of say Swarthmore, small chance of getting into the Oxford program junior year and liked the idea of a rural setting. He also liked the small campus. I loved the musuems (he hiked with his brother while I visitted them).

That's useful info. Less selective than Williams but similar in those respects: Colby, Hamilton, Colorado College (but check the block schedule), Whitman, St. Lawrence

This is the right answer. There's a lot of silliness in the rest of this chain. An OP who says Yes to mountains and No to Swarthmore and gets lots of posts suggesting Grinnell (and others cheering them on)? I mean, Grinnell's a great school, but it's clearly not what this kid is looking for.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot depends on your definition of safety. It the child is qualified (mid-point of SAT/GPA, etc) for Williams and Bowdoin, then some true safeties (very high probability of getting in) are:
Skidmore, Trinity, Bard, St. Mary's, UVM, Kenyon, Oberlin, Macalister.

And, these are perhaps one small notch less selective than Williams and Bowdoin (and with many similarities to Williams and Bowdoin): Bates, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Colgate, Carleton, Grinnell, Vassar, Ithaca, Tufts,

You were doing well until you threw Ithaca into this category. Ithaca is two tiers below.

Ithaca should go to the safety list for this student I think. Has the outdoorsy location on top of hill overlooking lake Cayuga. Great town.

Great town, great location but that is one ugly campus and Cornell dominates the conversation.

Ithaca is much larger than most of the schools (except maybe Tufts) and isn’t a national liberal arts college. It really doesn’t fit in this list. But the other schools are good ideas.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot depends on your definition of safety. It the child is qualified (mid-point of SAT/GPA, etc) for Williams and Bowdoin, then some true safeties (very high probability of getting in) are:
Skidmore, Trinity, Bard, St. Mary's, UVM, Kenyon, Oberlin, Macalister.

And, these are perhaps one small notch less selective than Williams and Bowdoin (and with many similarities to Williams and Bowdoin): Bates, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Colgate, Carleton, Grinnell, Vassar, Ithaca, Tufts,

You were doing well until you threw Ithaca into this category. Ithaca is two tiers below.

Ithaca should go to the safety list for this student I think. Has the outdoorsy location on top of hill overlooking lake Cayuga. Great town.

Great town, great location but that is one ugly campus and Cornell dominates the conversation.

Make sure you have a real safety in there somewhere. All those LACs are small.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot depends on your definition of safety. It the child is qualified (mid-point of SAT/GPA, etc) for Williams and Bowdoin, then some true safeties (very high probability of getting in) are:
Skidmore, Trinity, Bard, St. Mary's, UVM, Kenyon, Oberlin, Macalister.

And, these are perhaps one small notch less selective than Williams and Bowdoin (and with many similarities to Williams and Bowdoin): Bates, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Colgate, Carleton, Grinnell, Vassar, Ithaca, Tufts,

You were doing well until you threw Ithaca into this category. Ithaca is two tiers below.

Ithaca should go to the safety list for this student I think. Has the outdoorsy location on top of hill overlooking lake Cayuga. Great town.

Anonymous wrote:A lot depends on your definition of safety. It the child is qualified (mid-point of SAT/GPA, etc) for Williams and Bowdoin, then some true safeties (very high probability of getting in) are:
Skidmore, Trinity, Bard, St. Mary's, UVM, Kenyon, Oberlin, Macalister.

And, these are perhaps one small notch less selective than Williams and Bowdoin (and with many similarities to Williams and Bowdoin): Bates, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Colgate, Carleton, Grinnell, Vassar, Ithaca, Tufts,

You were doing well until you threw Ithaca into this category. Ithaca is two tiers below.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No or few supplements and no application fees can also attract more applications.

Colby is a great college. But it is really increasing its applicant numbers (and thus decreasing its admit rate) by doing this. This is why USNWR needs to find a better way to incorporate admit rate into its ranking because the admit rate can’t be taken on its face.

Its a great school. I am not sure about job placements. Doesn't seem to be getting the recruiters like other schools. Also, not as many alums recruiting.

A lot depends on your definition of safety. It the child is qualified (mid-point of SAT/GPA, etc) for Williams and Bowdoin, then some true safeties (very high probability of getting in) are:
Skidmore, Trinity, Bard, St. Mary's, UVM, Kenyon, Oberlin, Macalister.

And, these are perhaps one small notch less selective than Williams and Bowdoin (and with many similarities to Williams and Bowdoin): Bates, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Colgate, Carleton, Grinnell, Vassar, Ithaca, Tufts,

With the common app and testing optional, I think admit rates are just all going to stay low. Looking at the stats and the relative admit rates can be helpful to not get overwhelmed. All the schools seem harder to get into but the order of which ones are impossible and which ones are not as impossible might be useful to know.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No or few supplements and no application fees can also attract more applications.

Colby is a great college. But it is really increasing its applicant numbers (and thus decreasing its admit rate) by doing this. This is why USNWR needs to find a better way to incorporate admit rate into its ranking because the admit rate can’t be taken on its face.

Admit rate is not a considered factor in the USNews calculations.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does he love about each. Mine loved Williams, hated Bowdoin, and loves Colby now (didn't get into Williams).

Actually has only seen Williams in person, he is basing Bowdoin on what he has heard and read. He loved the mountains, tutorials, academic seriousness without the intensity of say Swarthmore, small chance of getting into the Oxford program junior year and liked the idea of a rural setting. He also liked the small campus. I loved the musuems (he hiked with his brother while I visitted them).

That's useful info. Less selective than Williams but similar in those respects: Colby, Hamilton, Colorado College (but check the block schedule), Whitman, St. Lawrence

Did a little quick research. Williams had a 12% admit rate last year while Colby was 9.7%. That doesn't sound less selective.

Actually if you look at the common data set, Williams had an admit rate of 8%

Anonymous wrote:No or few supplements and no application fees can also attract more applications.

Colby is a great college. But it is really increasing its applicant numbers (and thus decreasing its admit rate) by doing this. This is why USNWR needs to find a better way to incorporate admit rate into its ranking because the admit rate can’t be taken on its face.