Williams, Swarthmore others?

Don't rule out Bowdoin fantastic program!

Thanks all - really appreciate the responses. I am going to hope to visit Claremont area in the fall. Also Hope to visit middlebury as well

Good luck. You can't lose no matter who you pick in your group of schools. Let us know who you choose.

What you don't mention is that many of the financial aid students excel because they are there because of their academic promise, not because Daddy's money got them into a fancy prep school, so that they can go to the head of the class right away through hard work and talent, despite the fact that they are rising multiple levels in difficulty from their mediocre high schools.

Claremont colleges are a great environment, close to mountains, within driving distance of the ocean, small college atmosphere with additional opportunities from the other colleges, nice campus, friendly but studious students, good athletics (really good xc and track now at Pomona-Pitzer), great weather, and excellent academics.

Thanks! Going to visit over the summer to cmc and Pomona.

In practice it doesn't work that way. The kids you say get in thru daddy often are 1600 sat kids who learned how to study and prepare already at the college level, while slumming at the fancy prep school. They hit the ground running in college.

The fin aid kid from public high school often goes through culture shock in year 1, and then slowly rises up the class as their experience catches up to their intelligence. Many fin aid kids, however, never 'get it' and end up dropping out, or shifting to easier majors.

This is why many of the Ivy + schools now have special programs to help the fin aid group transition sucsessfully to college. It's not enough to just admit them, they also need some support.

The same goes for athletes that get a break on standards at the top schools. Plenty of academic advisors and tutoring available.

First, Williams has a 96% graduation rate.

Second, 2/3 or 3/5 of the students are "fin aid kids."

So, no, a lot of financial aid students are not failing out. Many of the richest are mediocre students with no work ethic. The transition programs are typically for students of color and concentrate on math.

My understanding is that yes, that would fly (that’s right around the limit). The funny thing is that it’s sports dependent - the academic standards for track are higher than for say, football or hockey, for which some admits probably have SATs below 1000.

The other thing is that there are slots and there are tips. XC might get 1-2 slots but a handful of tips. For tips, these are students generally within the academic averages for the class (eg SAT >1400), but whose odds of getting in without a coach’s support would be low.

There is actually a list below tips, which is basically indications of interest. For these, the students would have pretty good odds of getting in on their own, but being on the list confirms that this student excelled in their extra-curricular, in the same way that a music professor might vouch for a violinist. Being on the list could put you in the right pile if you are on the edge.

I would be very careful with Nescac coach “commitments”. This post is concerning in college confidential, apparently 20+ Wesleyan “recruits” were rejected a couple of cycles ago

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Wesleyan ED Fall Admission 2022 Discussion

Congratulations to your son! I am happy to hear that not all athletic recruits were affected by this highly unusual behavior. I can confirm the “25 recruited athletes deferred to RD” number and I can also confirm that all coa...

Link:talk.collegeconfidential.com/t/wesleya...