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skibum
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Posted: Sat Mar 22nd, 2008 02:29 pm |
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Peabodie-
I am crossing my fingers for your d and Vassar. It is a wonderful school- great facilities, faculty, food, etc. Keep us posted!!
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ellenrch
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Posted: Sat Mar 22nd, 2008 03:46 pm |
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| Big congratulations to all, and fingers crossed for more good news to come in the next week.
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Sat Mar 22nd, 2008 05:49 pm |
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| Outwest, congratulations to your daughter. Bryn Mawr is a wonderful place. From what I know of your daughter, I think she'd find much to like there if she visits. Congratulations!
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riviera
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Posted: Sun Mar 23rd, 2008 04:48 am |
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| Outwest, congratutalions to your daughter! We drove around Bryn Mawr after visiting Haverford last year. It's a beautiful place and the academics are top-notch! Last edited on Sun Mar 23rd, 2008 04:49 am by riviera
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Consolation
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Posted: Fri Mar 28th, 2008 02:31 pm |
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Re being waitlisted by Grinnell, there is a mother on The Other Board whose D received a handwritten note from an admissions person saying how great her essay was and how excited they were about her app...then they waitlisted her! (To add insult to injury, it is the kid's 3rd wait list!)
What on earth were they thinking?
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outwest
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Posted: Fri Mar 28th, 2008 02:47 pm |
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A day later, we are still pretty surprised by my Ds waitlist, too. I did read about the other Mom over there. Most of the posters were waitlisted. The waitlist letter said it was the highest number of applications in the schools history.
Today maybe she'll hear from Oberlin. She got a letter from her admissions rep. there saying how much they liked her essay, a parent letter to us, a letter from her admissions rep. right after she applied and two letters from professors. If they waitlist or reject her they are truly evil, but after reading about that kid I wouldn't be all that surprsied.
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revkat
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Posted: Fri Mar 28th, 2008 03:35 pm |
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| We were surprised by an acceptance at MIT and a waitlist at Carleton. (Equally surprised by both outcomes!) There are just so many great kids that from the outside it really seems like there's no logic to the process.
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Consolation
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Posted: Fri Mar 28th, 2008 05:49 pm |
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Outwest, my S hasn't gotten that kind of attention from ANY school. It sounds promising, but I think you are wise not to count any chickens before they hatch.
My S has received another big envelope today--Bowdoin--but of course I don't know what it says. I hope he comes straight home from school! I'm telling myself that it could be a waitlist, since Bowdoin apparently is waitlisting a lot of kids this year. (Do schools send big envelopes for waitlists?) An amusing sidelight--well, it seems amusing NOW!  --this is the school where he committed the classic error of sending an essay with another school's name in it! We immediately sent replacement pages, but how well I recall the horrors of that night when everything was due, the system was crashing, the internet was crawling, and we were screaming at each other! 
...later...He's in, but the FA is ridiculous. I'm beginning to wonder what my H put on the forms...people I know with almost twice the income are expected to contribute less than half of the expectation we're getting.
Last edited on Fri Mar 28th, 2008 06:56 pm by Consolation
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Wendy (wjb)
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Posted: Fri Mar 28th, 2008 09:51 pm |
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The strategy of "enrollment management" is something Carolyn has written about frequently in her blog. Take a look at a few articles in this collection: http://collegehunt.blogspot.com/search?q=%22enrollment+management%22 Also see this excellent article from the Atlantic Monthly: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200511/financial-aid-leveraging
In a nutshell, as a matter of institutional policy, all colleges leverage financial aid to control their admissions results and manage their operating budgets. One of the strategies they use is known as "preferential packaging." As Carolyn points out in her blog, "it's a term most colleges would prefer to keep under their hats. In a nutshell, many colleges offer the most advantageous financial aid packages to their top applicants."
So much for need-blind admissions...
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outwest
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Posted: Fri Mar 28th, 2008 10:19 pm |
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Mail came: Oberlin: waitlisted
I am really surprised. They say they had 5800 applications for 635 students. I wonder how many they did admit?
Anyway, she is down, but not out. She read the letter twice and then asked when we were going to Pennsylvania to check out Bryn Mawr and Dickinson. Then she asked if we could go see Lewis and Clark and Occidental again. I said, "Of course!" She teared up a little at that and said, "But, not Smith?" I said, "Not Smith." She also got an invitation today to go to a Smith welcome in Los Angeles, but we won't go.
I feel bad for her. She is above their SAT scores and in the top ten percent. The only thing I can think of that waitlisted her at Grinnell and Oberlin is that her midyear had one B. ONE. She has a total of 5 Bs in her entire high school career (two of them in Freshman year) and none Junior year with three APs. That B first semester was in an AP class. If one B makes a difference between acceptance and not, then these poor kids have it really hard.
I am really angry with Oberlin, though. They mailed her a letter right after she applied, a parent letter to us, letters from two professors and another letter from the admissions counselor specifically saying how wonderful her essay was and how much they liked her. That letter was....TWO WEEKS AGO! They HAD her midyear reports. My D quietly commented as she set the waitlist card down, "I thought they liked me?"
Oberlin stinks.  When I cool off that they led her to belive they liked her, I plan to email that stupid admissions rep. and tell her what I really think of her.
Last edited on Fri Mar 28th, 2008 10:23 pm by outwest
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Chedva
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Posted: Fri Mar 28th, 2008 10:38 pm |
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| outwest, that is truly outrageous. Why are they wasting their time, your time, and getting kids' hopes up? So sorry for your d. Hope you've got a lot of ice cream around! (And a big spoon!)
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NCEph
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Posted: Fri Mar 28th, 2008 10:42 pm |
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I'm really surprised at the Oberlin waitlist your D got, too. Before this year I had never heard of any instances in which the admissions office went out of their way to compliment essays and then waitlisted the student. Now I've heard of several such tales. I hope next year's applicants are reading all of this and taking it all in.
There's something about the whole admissions scene this year that's different from ever before, and some colleges are not handling it well at all. I don't know if you saw the article in yesterday's Boston Globe about waitlists, but it sounds from that as though many schools are being extremely cautious about offers of admission, because they have no idea how their yield might be affected by the increase in applications everywhere. I bet some schools were way overly cautious and will need to go to their waitlists early.
My son got two somewhat surprising (to us) waitlists this week, but fortunately for him, he also got an acceptance from a school that he liked at least as well. Had the timing not been like that, I would be in extreme stress mode, and he would have been in a serious funk. The only thing we could figure from those waitlists was that those colleges had a hunch he would decline an offer of admission. If he'd been accepted everywhere, he most likely would have declined those schools, but goodness knows most kids aren't accepted everywhere, and for many, they may only have one offer. I hate when schools make such assumptions.
Fortunately, your daughter has some excellent choices, and if she's interested in waiting, she may well get in off one or both of the waitlists.
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CardinalFang
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Posted: Fri Mar 28th, 2008 10:56 pm |
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About the Oberlin waitlist: Tufts syndrome? (Allegedly, Tufts has or had a policy to waitlist students they deemed overqualified, since they feared such students were using Tufts as a safety and wouldn't enroll. Those overqualified waitlisted students merely had to say they would stay on the waitlist, and presto! They'd be admitted. Or so the story goes.)
Damn. If these highly qualified kids are getting waitlisted, my Fang Jr. doesn't have a chance next year.
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Consolation
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Posted: Fri Mar 28th, 2008 11:03 pm |
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Wendy (wjb) wrote:
In a nutshell, as a matter of institutional policy, all colleges leverage financial aid to control their admissions results and manage their operating budgets. One of the strategies they use is known as "preferential packaging." As Carolyn points out in her blog, "it's a term most colleges would prefer to keep under their hats. In a nutshell, many colleges offer the most advantageous financial aid packages to their top applicants."
So much for need-blind admissions...
Yes, I had thought of that, but Carleton is need aware. They could easily have just rejected him if he were in the bottom 10%. And he is an unhooked white boy from New England, so no one would care.
And Bowdoin made him a "Bowdoin Faculty Scholar" which means you can draw on a $3K stipend at any time during your years there to finan9*88888888888888888 (<===Sorry, cat typing, but it's so cute I'm leaving it in.  )...as I was saying, to finance an educational "extra" such as research, travel, etc, usually during the summer but not necessarily. Why bother to give him that if they really don't want him?
At both of these schools, he represents somewhat of a boost to their SAT ranges but doesn't do anything for their diversity claims.
I have the feeling that what is going on here is that an asset we own is screwing us. It is a house owned by several siblings (not mine), which cannot be sold without the agreement of the others and against which we cannot borrow.
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Wendy (wjb)
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Posted: Fri Mar 28th, 2008 11:26 pm |
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consolation: Bummer about that asset. But your son is raking in some nice admits, so hopefully there will be some good financial aid, and perhaps some offers to play off against one another.
outwest: Oberlin is OUTRAGEOUS!!! We all know schools' marketing departments are separate from admissions, and lots of marketing puffery goes out to applicants. But for an admissions rep to write your D 2 weeks ago praising her essays, then waitlist her. That is cruel. Just cruel. And beyond understanding.
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NCEph
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Posted: Fri Mar 28th, 2008 11:47 pm |
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| Consolation - I wonder if you could obtain a reevaluation of your share of the property you own jointly. In the situation you describe, the value of your share is not really worth the total value divided by the number of owners. If the schools are using too high a value, perhaps you can challenge that value and show that it's worth significantly less. Surely if you were to offer your share for sale on the open market, it would be unlikely that any buyer would offer you what the college probably thinks it is worth. If you could do that, that might help somewhat with the aid offers, but I'm not sure how that would work.
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Wendy (wjb)
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Posted: Fri Mar 28th, 2008 11:56 pm |
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| You know, outwest, I believe your D's regional rep at Oberlin -- maybe someone who is young and low on the totem pole in the admissions hierarchy -- really DID genuinely want to admit your D, but lost out in the negotiations. That doesn't excuse her conduct, but does probably provide a good hint that your D has a solid chance of coming in off the waitlist, assuming you're all not too fed up with Oberlin.
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Consolation
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Posted: Sat Mar 29th, 2008 12:10 am |
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NCEph--I'll suggest that to my H. It's a real pain, because we are too far away to use the property--although on the upside we are also too far away to work on it.
Outwest, I think that the way your daughter has been treated by Oberlin is simply outrageous and amazingly cruel. What on earth were they thinking? When this is all over you should write them a letter detailing the unecessary anguish they put her through. And make sure that EVERY person, including the professors, who participated in it gets a copy. I understand the need to market, but this is ridiculous.
Wendy, I think you make an excellent point regarding likely power struggles within a committee. I find it hard to imagine an Ad Officer cold-bloodedly manipulating a kid like that. After all, they WANT to accept kids to their school and have them attend.
Sometimes we have to remind ourselves to assume good intentions. (This is my mantra for the next few days.  )
Last edited on Sat Mar 29th, 2008 12:17 am by Consolation
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Canadian
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Posted: Sat Mar 29th, 2008 12:15 am |
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Agree that Oberlin is outrageous and also cruel. Outwest, I hope you write this up on an Oberlin thread so next year's prospects are forewarned.
If Oberlin and Grinnell are doing this, there may be other schools, too. This is really the kind of stuff that NY Times education writers should pick up on. Or Mathews over at WA Post.
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outwest
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Posted: Sat Mar 29th, 2008 01:00 am |
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I am not angry with Grinnell. They never gave her any indication she was in any way wanted other then bombarding her with the flyers of a cute kid eating corn. There is another Mom on CC who's D was waitlisted there after receiving a similar letter to my Ds from Oberlin, though.
The Oberlin thing is just so weird and very, very cruel. I pulled out the various communications she has received. The first one does say that the Admis.Counselor (who eventually sent a note about her essay) is the 'first reader', so apparently the second reader (or team or whatever) did not like my D. My D asked if she should stay on the waitlist. I reminded her that she needed FA and that by the time they got to the waitlist the FA would be mostly gone.
I am so thankful she was realistic with her application choices. On paper, she applied to no reaches. Grinnell and Oberlin, on paper, were matches, but apparently not matchy enough.  If she had only applied to matches or reaches, goodness knows where she would be right now (certainly without the money to go!!!).
As it is, I want to forget about the whole debacle and focus on the choices she does have. I mean, for a white girl from the 'burbs (that needs FA) to have a choice of FOUR very nice little private LACs is nothing to sneeze at, is it?  GO, my daughter!!
Last edited on Sat Mar 29th, 2008 01:18 am by outwest
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