In November, Daisy appears on track for straight As even as she juggles the maximum of 4 APs authorized by the parish, albeit with some help from multi-variable calculus sources (i.e. extra credit). However, on November 1, Daisy's parents show her the credit card statement along with the 3 items related to college applications.
"You already spent one hundred sixty dollars on college applications, plus another sixty dollars for the SAT itself. Is there any reason why you aren't submitting the ACT as well?" Daisy's father questions her. "Also, could you please just put aside any notion of concerns about partying and just apply ED-two at Tulane if Dartmouth fails?"
"It's not the first time you kept pestering me about Tulane! I admit, all I saw of New Orleans was very limited because all I did was compete at debate tournaments!" Daisy screams at her father. "As for the ACT, I feel like a thirty-three is weaker than a fifteen hundred on the SAT"
"We moved here before you were born. Several people settled here in the aftermath of Katrina. If the New Orleans of today is as I remembered it pre-Katrina, there is still a lot to do, museums, performing arts, and not just in the French Quarter during Mardi Gras either, so you can evade the party scene" Daisy's mom explains to her.
Daisy is then shown the in-state auto-admission requirements for Tulane in ED2. The most important ones for her are the following: 3.8+ core GPA, and 32+ (ACT)/1460+ (SAT), since she has a perfect disciplinary record and TOPS' core curriculum covers the curricular requirements in full. Now I have a better idea of why Gaston announced openly during a debate practice he was going to ED at Tulane! He's somewhere in the low-3.9 range, but he never talked about ACT or SAT.
Yet the credit card statement is a very painful reminder to Daisy that she must decide quickly where to apply, and to narrow down her list of applications. And fast.
"For the rest of the process, we will only pay a total of five hundred dollars towards your college applications, inclusive of what was already spent. Any additional amount paid for college applications will come from your own pocket!" Daisy's father warns her.
Ouch. This also means that I must be cautious about application costs. The good news is that I can apply to Conn and it will cost mom and dad only $15. And W&M if I choose to redeem the debate team's voucher. I need to write down all the application fees for all the colleges I could be considering, and see how much I'll need to earn to apply to all the schools I actually want, or alternatively, just mix and match, Daisy has a lot on her mind as she is about to get on the bus to VA.
On the bus, she double-checks on mobile some EFCs that appear inconsistent with what she heard about financial aid at such-and-such college, especially Vassar and Kenyon. To which people on the bus were oblivious. However, she had all the information kept on hand in the College Board's system should the college use the College Board as its official net price calculator. Oh boy: this means more schools to potentially apply to: Vassar, Kenyon, Grinnell, Colgate, to name those whose EFCs have changed the most, and now double-check a lot of stuff, now that it makes financial sense to attend. During recess, though. Remember: schools with sub-10% acceptance rates are reaches for everyone, 10-15% acceptance rates are reaches for me, except maybe for Tulane, Daisy's thoughts keep racing as her memories of what reaches, matches and safeties mean to her, given her profile.
For November, she keeps trucking, checking her email for news from debate coaches at various colleges she could be considering. Like W&M whose debate head coach could potentially offer to bump any financial aid to full-tuition if the university awarded her a partial debate scholarship. Yet, she couldn't take that for granted because the Tribe is a major debate team, and being a debate walk-on at W&M wouldn't be worth the cost to her.
--------------------
But, as Dartmouth's early decision date draws near, Daisy is in for a surprise at the Isidore Newman Invitational, going into the last preliminary LD round in the afternoon on December 4. At this point, both debaters are 3-2 and whoever wins this game, will go on to the playoffs:
"This is round six of the 2027 Isidore Newman Invitational varsity Lincoln-Douglas preliminary rounds. On the affirmative, we have Kinder AT, on the negative, we have Venomous Agendas DP. Best of luck to both debaters" the judge introduces both participants.
The neighboring parish attends inter-state debate tournaments now? And Anna of all people? Daisy struggles to contain her surprise at seeing Anna playing, whom she knew for years as a VA, and even trained with her despite Anna not actually being on the team at the time.
However, unlike so many opponents Daisy played against at this tournament, Anna is a breath of fresh air, in that she plays in good faith and at a speed that's much more intelligible. That round makes both girls nervous, but it was a much more satisfying round to whoever watched it. She's pretty good for what's effectively a novice, but we're both more traditional LD debaters, and it's going to be a tight game, Daisy sighs, while she advances to the outrounds. Yet, as with Duke two months prior, Daisy, once again, didn't earn a ToC bid despite Isidore Newman being her best shot at earning one, and also being eliminated in the quarterfinals.
It appears the entire team is taken to Tulane for a visit on Sunday, since no VA debater made it to the semifinals in any division, and speech finals are held on Saturday night. With Gaston acting as a tour guide, and the non-seniors pay more attention to what Gaston had to say than Chantal did.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
--------------------
Valerie meets with Chantal and Daisy on the night of December 15, at her own home, feeling that it's best to get the 3 kids for whom early admission is a gamble together to find out if said gamble has paid off.
"Time to roll! Chantal, you go first" Valerie signals her teammate on the math team to check on her REA application to Princeton.
Chantal is as nervous as nervous can be, she starts to hyperventilate and then pray as she accesses the Princeton application system. The other 2 remain by their side and on the edge of their seats. And, of course, Glen is filming the entire scene from the moment the 3 girls are in position.
Because so many try to access their decision letter by that point, the system is a little slow so once Chantal finally reads it...
"Dear Chantal..."
"Keep going, please..." Daisy asks a paralyzed Chantal, while she opens her own Dartmouth application. "We regret to inform you..."
"Daisy, you know what's left for you to do" Valerie pleads with a devastated Daisy.
"Against the coach's advice, you went ahead and decided to apply ED to Dartmouth anyway! There was no way you could have gotten in without at least having played at Nats, even with the grades you got!" Chantal scolds her debate teammate, before resuming her reading of the Princeton decision letter. "Congratulations! I am delighted to offer you admission to Princeton's class of 2032" Chantal then jumps for joy, but Valerie starts to hyperventilate herself, knowing her turn has arrived to check on Caltech.
If I don't make it, will I be condemned into attending LSU? Might be affordable, yes, but... are the lost opportunities worth the savings of going to LSU? Valerie ruminates while struggling to keep her cool. I don't want to waste my two MOP participations, but I don't feel like I am in the hot seat in mathletics anymore; Faith is the one the parish adulates now. Dad doesn't pressure me about my college choices, he trusts me enough to make the choice by myself. "It is my absolute honor to offer you admission"
"Woohoo! Valerie made it to Caltech! That's my daughter! That's a nice consolation prize for failing to make it to the IMO" Glen shouts for joy.
Meanwhile, Chantal notifies her parents, asking them to prepare to pay the deposit at Princeton, leaving Daisy alone with Valerie while Glen shuts off the webcam and starts editing the resulting clip.
"My dad told regularly about how where you go to college won't define who you will be. And Anna would have as well" Valerie then tells a Daisy who might be a little disappointed by her rejection from Dartmouth.
"I guess, I could be applying to other colleges where my extracurricular record might be enough. Like Trinity, Connecticut College, or William and Mary, and contact their respective debate coaches. That said, try to guess who I played against at Isidore Newman" Daisy tries to lighten up.
"Did you play against DCC again?"
"Anna"
"Anna? The Anna we both knew for years?" a surprised Valerie screams across the room. "I would never have imagined her to be a confrontational type, and to just stick to quiz bowl!"
"Yes, that Anna. I might have won against her, but she's still pretty good for a novice"
Glen, who is Valerie's father as well as the parish's superintendent, edits the clip so that he can post the reaction of both Chantal and Valerie making it into their top choices. At the same time, he is about to hand over the scolding clip to Daisy.
"Before I hand over the clip to you, promise me that you won't publish the clip in any shape or form" Glen then pleads with Daisy.
"Sure, it's embarrassing and it's a painful reminder to me" Daisy acknowledges the facts.
Daisy then thinks of where else she could apply that would provide a similar experience to Dartmouth and wouldn't write her off based upon her inability to qualify for Nats or the ToC, believing that Ivies and equivalent colleges of any size will. Unless I win either at NSDA-State or Last Chance... in which case I may as well take a gap year! A 3.9+/1500 would not be held back by numbers.
Before she returns home, Daisy wonders why is it that Trinity somehow resurfaced in her mind, when there were other colleges she could have considered in its stead. Like Connecticut College, both of which feature very similar student bodies and have EFCs in Tulane's price range.
Upon returning home, she fills out all 4 applications, Tulane, Trinity, Conn and W&M, the supplement for the last one was ready for weeks, but does not commit to any one institution. And she calculates the costs to apply, so that she doesn't go over her allotted budget. $65 for Trinity, $60 in SAT score reports because Conn and Tulane are both free, and she takes the free application voucher at W&M, for a total of $125 for regular decision. And they spent $345 total on applications and their materials. She then proceeds to ask for an interview with Trinity and Conn's debate coaches, because she believes her parish of origin would help more at Tulane.
"I know you will root for Tulane, but I hope they understand we need to compare aid. I can't, in good conscience, do ED-two at Tulane, so I will apply RD there for just fifteen dollars. If Tulane ends up being unaffordable, but either Trinity or Conn were cheaper... however, college is my opportunity to get out of here, and I made peace with the fact that I will need to get out of here for college, even for LSU"
--------------------
Connecticut's coach is the first to answer her request the following week, online, and... wow. The coach immediately begins with how so many at Conn might not necessarily be the most accomplished in the world and look at college on a blank slate.
"I have seen a good number of applicants join the debate team in high school because they feel it will look good on a college application, and don't feel so hot about the activity itself. How is the debate team perceived at your school?" Conn's debate coach asks her.
"Why do you ask?" a puzzled Daisy asks back.
"Often how a team is perceived at school will have an impact on who will join it, and what drives them once on the team"
"The debate team, at my school, has a reputation for very high intellectual intensity, which makes people feel like it's not for them if they don't perform so hot in language arts and social studies, which leaves us with people who are motivated by the activity and the subject matter"
"What do you expect out of Conn?"
"At Conn, I would expect a lot of the students to be at or near my academic level, and that I would be able to get the most out of the career services. In addition, I would be able to get some flexibility out of the curriculum, and to be able to study without having to worry about partying or alcohol" Daisy answers, while the coach reads her essay.
I can't guarantee anything, but I know very few Louisiana kids even apply here, and the college wants to diversify its student body. She appears to be strong enough to get in, and had her priorities in the right place, though, the coach reflects while reviewing her file as well as her answers to the interview questions.