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As ranked by whom? and for what type of engineering? I always take these rankings with a grain of salt. The elite schools have their place and always dominate these ranking lists, but there are always several schools that seem to get the shaft in these rankings that are every bit as good as some of those top tier schools in several areas.
Of course. That didn’t come out the way I meant it to. It was intended to be a compliment to Clemson and why it may end up making my son’s short list.
Sort of basing it on my oldest. He did ACT prep and his SAT ended up being a touch better and he used that. I regret not doing SAT prep with him because It may have helped him a little more. In the end it didn’t matter much but that was my thought. My middle son isn’t as academic as my oldest so we’ll probably have him do some pre-tests in both and go from there, but I do regret a little. I still think he would have ended up at Clemson over UNC, he grew on the big fish in a little pond scenario.
We were advised to have our son do some general prep for both and take both early junior year. Then, based on the results of each test, you choose which one to really focus on for a retest. That’s what we did and ended up settling on the ACT as the test of choice for our son.
Will do. We loved the visit and my wife works for a very well known company that recruited there (she went a few times). Some of her colleagues have gone there and she’s hired kids from there. My son got the benefit of talking to some of those people and that helped him make his call. The last one he called chose between USC honors and Clemson honors just like my son and that clinched it. It’ll be more money, but still nothing close to the private schools.
Same here. I work at a public university, which means our pricing model and financial architecture is totally different than privates, but I can tell you that many parents absolutely do put irrational weight on the size of a scholarship offer and irrationally little weight on net price.
Something like that.
Not really. Duke was U.S. News' 6th ranked school in 1985, which was 6 years before its first basketball title. I agree, though, that Clemson's football success is helping to boost its prestige.
You may be correct. Funny that the year I recall is when I was looking at colleges and according to this site (https://publicuniversityhonors.com/2017/09/13/u-s-news-rankings-for-57-leading-universities-1983-2007/) they were 12th. I remembered them in the top 20, but not the top 10.
With just 3 business days remaining, my daughter finally got the results of her scholarship appeal from Dickinson. They increased her merit scholarship offer from $15k per year to $20k per year (the max they offer). So happy to see all of her hard work paying off.
Congrats to your family! Just love reading posts like this.With just 3 business days remaining, my daughter finally got the results of her scholarship appeal from Dickinson. They increased her merit scholarship offer from $15k per year to $20k per year (the max they offer). So happy to see all of her hard work paying off.
Dickinson has been her first choice school throughout the entire process. She knew she qualified for both the $15k and $20k when she applied. She decided that if she got the $20k offer, she would commit to Dickinson right away, if she got the $15k, she would appeal and re-visit 3 other schools (Villanova, Dusquesne, JMU) before making her decision. She got the $15k, so we re-visited the other schools. Afterwards, she was more sure than ever that she wanted to go to Dickinson.
I still remember when her counselor told us that scholarships were negotiable. I had no idea. That little tidbit of advice (and help from @The_Man and google crafting the email) is basically saving us/her $20k over the next 4 years!
Congrats and thanks to all the others in the thread. I've learned a lot and have another one in HS yet to go.
That's great! Any idea yet what she wants to study? If/when it becomes appropriate, I can e-connect her with my faculty friends there (one in English, one in American Studies/History). We're actually hanging out tomorrow in Baltimore. And I will connect you with the best microbrew options around Carlisle.With just 3 business days remaining, my daughter finally got the results of her scholarship appeal from Dickinson. They increased her merit scholarship offer from $15k per year to $20k per year (the max they offer). So happy to see all of her hard work paying off.
Dickinson has been her first choice school throughout the entire process. She knew she qualified for both the $15k and $20k when she applied. She decided that if she got the $20k offer, she would commit to Dickinson right away, if she got the $15k, she would appeal and re-visit 3 other schools (Villanova, Dusquesne, JMU) before making her decision. She got the $15k, so we re-visited the other schools. Afterwards, she was more sure than ever that she wanted to go to Dickinson.
I still remember when her counselor told us that scholarships were negotiable. I had no idea. That little tidbit of advice (and help from @The_Man and google crafting the email) is basically saving us/her $20k over the next 4 years!
Congrats and thanks to all the others in the thread. I've learned a lot and have another one in HS yet to go.
I have heard so many great things about this school. Liberal arts schools in an urban setting are so hard to find and Mac seems to do it better than just about anyone. My younger kid is finishing sophomore year in high school and we're really interested in checking it out, but it is just so far from us in Maryland. We'll visit some local liberal arts schools first and see if he's interested in that size before making the long trek - my older kid had such a strong negative reaction to just about every liberal arts campus we visited that it made it easy to cross them all off the list and focus on bigger schools. My neighbor's kid went to Mac, loved it, got a grad degree at U of Minnesota, landed a great job out there, and is never moving back.
She plans to major in Bio-Chem and minor in Music. Any connections appreciated! I've read nothing but great things about the faculty there.
34 is likely a good number for Macalaster. However, Williams is a different stratosphere in terms of selectivity.
yeah, Williams has gone from highly selective to basically almost being a poor mans Ivey now. The competition there is ridiculous. A 34 means you need an almost flawless rest of your application and then probably need to go ED to get a better chance. Any other chinks in the app and/or applying regular decision lowers the chances dramatically.
Just from this thread, I went from thinking that my son's ACT score would likely make him competitive at any school by looking at the ACT median and 25th-75th ranges, to realizing that he stands little to no chance at the most selective schools once I realized that the those averages take into account underrepresented minorities, athletes and legacies. I think it was The Man's Princeton analysis upthread. Sort of a bummer, but definitely good to know.
Williams is a smaller school and is as good as an Ivy in my experience. I grew up in CT/MA and Williams and Amherst are generally considered two of the best schools in the country for smaller liberal arts schools. They might be more competitive than Brown and Cornell and Dartmouth to get into, even.
don't feel bad. Every single parent googles what is the ACT average for school X and then compares. The problem is that the sites never really explain that if you are at around the average, you are likely not getting in.
The quality of education Williams students receive is undoubtedly as good as that at an Ivy League school (if not better, because of the personal attention). But the admissions isn't quite as cut-throat for liberal arts colleges as it is for the Top 15 or so universities. Liberal arts applicants are a self-selecting group of kids, so those colleges don't generate the huge number of applications that bigger schools do. In a process that's gotten so crazy, I feel like applying ED to a liberal arts school is the last vestige of any kind of predictability. If you have the stats and apply ED to a liberal arts school, you still have at least a reasonable shot at getting accepted - not like the total crap shoot it is for Ivies and their peers. And once you go RD at a liberal arts school, you're right back in the unpredictable pool with everyone else.
No worries at all. The landscape is changing very quickly. I have a lot of knowledge in this space so I chime in where I have something to add.
My daughter goes to Williams. Took the ride on Easter weekend , 125 miles from my home , 3 hours with no traffic
Congrats to your daughter and you. Great school.My daughter goes to Williams. Took the ride on Easter weekend , 125 miles from my home , 3 hours with no traffic
Great school, horrible ride. She really ended up there by luck. Wasn’t a great HS student but has become an exceptional student while at Williams
Huh??? That's incredible.Great school, horrible ride. She really ended up there by luck. Wasn’t a great HS student but has become an exceptional student while at Williams
to think my wife’s school, Merrimack , turned her down
the good news here is that if your son is looking at those type schools, he is very likely a VERY strong male student. Competition at these liberal art schools for girls is very difficult but if he is a top male student, he is likely to be coveted by these schools so the ED issue might slightly be reduced.
is there more to this story?Great school, horrible ride. She really ended up there by luck. Wasn’t a great HS student but has become an exceptional student while at Williams
to think my wife’s school, Merrimack , turned her down
This is the general theory.
Were you driving a tractor?My daughter goes to Williams. Took the ride on Easter weekend , 125 miles from my home , 3 hours with no traffic
That's awesome!Or not...she's in at CMC!!!
So ... is she going?Or not...she's in at CMC!!!
Yup, unless she gets into Vandy or Northwestern she's going, sight unseen. Before we realized she had to commit w/in 48 hours my wife was looking into flights to get out there with her this weekend to check it out but that ain't happening. Not ideal but she is all-in, no hesitation whatsoever.
CMC is a fantastic school and a great environment with all the Claremont Colleges. Plus, you get to visit her in sunny California! So stoked for her.
CMC vs OU was my toughest decision in high school. Ultimately it came down to $$$ (which has worked out, in hindsight), but CMC seemed awesome. I have since made a couple of my closest friends who went there in undergrad, and it only reinforced that I didn't have a bad option.
It doesn't hurt to ask about depositing on Monday and flying out this weekend to see CMC. Its not unreasonable to request it and many people do ask. The worst they can say is no.
We put the BC deposit down weeks ago, did not think it possible she'd get off a waitlist prior to May 1.
Just so you are aware, depositing at two schools is really against the rules. If you do it and get caught, you are playing with fire because the schools could both revoke their decisions. I'll admit its very unlikely they will find out and I doubt CMC and BC will share lists of names of enrolled students, but you should be aware.We put the BC deposit down weeks ago, did not think it possible she'd get off a waitlist prior to May 1.
If I thought there was any chance she'd stick with BC after visiting CMC we'd ask for the extension but I think we'll just save the $3K or whatever it would cost for the weekend trip, put another $500 deposit down for CMC and be willing to lose that if one of the others turns around for her.
I also want to mention how much I appreciate the genuine interest everyone in this thread has for each other, and their kids, through the highs and lows of this process. Bunch of strangers giving a crap about where my daughter goes to school, and her happiness in general...pretty neat place.
To clarify, we're withdrawing the BC commitment and forfeiting the $500 we gave them already, knowing we can only hold one spot at a time.
As Nigel points out, putting down double deposits is wrong. But abandoning a deposit at one schools to accept admission off another school's waitlist is common practice. Schools account for a bit of "melt" during this process and are either slightly overfilled until the melt happens, or will themselves go to their wait lists and grab someone from another school to make up for the lost enrollment.
Got it. Then you are good.Nigel said:
Absolutely understand the system. Making sure Nigel knew the risks.The_Man said:
