Boston University...Concerned about DS SAT scores

[Anonymous]

DS would love to attend BU. GPA is 3.79 with the weighted GPA 4.45. He has multiple after school activities: sports, theater arts, public service through our church, Natiional Honor Society, multiple leadership positions at school. (a public school in Maryland) He has taken a heavy course load throughout high school, and taken a total of 4 AP classes. The problem is his SATs are ok but not stellar. He has taken them twice and they average around 1800 (not including the writing portion). His ACT was 27. He does not want to take them again or do a prep class.
BU is very selective, but I would think he has a solid chance. But are his test scores going to preclude him being admitted? He will apply, but considers it his "reach" school. Any feedback appreciated!

[Anonymous]

http://www.bu.edu/cgs/about/prospective-students/.

Look at BU's school of general studies. It looks for kids with high gpas low sat scores and visa versa.

GO BU -- BEAT BC!

[Anonymous]

Have you checked out your school's naviance or other data that shows recent acceptances to BU from DS's high school? We found this to be a decent guide. I assume you meant DS scored 1800 with the writing section? If so, I think his ACT of 27 is a better score. Look up a conversion chart from ACT to SAT to get an idea. My DS was accepted to his reach school -- that school actually combined a higher math SAT portion with a higher ACT verbal portion to get a combined super score. You both really need to research and ask questions. (For example it may be better for DS to send only his ACTs to BU). Visit the school, show interest, apply early if that helps. Make sure DS writes a great essay. My nephew loves BU, also a reach school for him. He was accepted to start in the January term -- but it was worth it for him to go to his dream school.

[Anonymous]

I'm reminded of the line from Risky Business where the college rep. interviews Joel and says "well you've done some solid work here Joel, but not exactly Ivy League now is it? Anyway, as we know, Joel did get in - though his methods were perhaps "unconventional."
Anyway, OP's son has done some very solid work. I'm sure he'll get into a fine school.

[Anonymous]

OP, go to collegeconfidential.com and search for any discussions about BU. This website has been really helpful for us. Also, your son shouldn't have his heart set on one school. There are plenty of great schools in Boston. Has he looked at Emerson?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm reminded of the line from Risky Business where the college rep. interviews Joel and says "well you've done some solid work here Joel, but not exactly Ivy League now is it? Anyway, as we know, Joel did get in - though his methods were perhaps "unconventional."
Anyway, OP's son has done some very solid work. I'm sure he'll get into a fine school.

Joel -Get off the babysitter

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm reminded of the line from Risky Business where the college rep. interviews Joel and says "well you've done some solid work here Joel, but not exactly Ivy League now is it? Anyway, as we know, Joel did get in - though his methods were perhaps "unconventional."
Anyway, OP's son has done some very solid work. I'm sure he'll get into a fine school.

Joel -Get off the babysitter

Sometimes, you just have to say, what the fuck?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm reminded of the line from Risky Business where the college rep. interviews Joel and says "well you've done some solid work here Joel, but not exactly Ivy League now is it? Anyway, as we know, Joel did get in - though his methods were perhaps "unconventional."
Anyway, OP's son has done some very solid work. I'm sure he'll get into a fine school.

Joel -Get off the babysitter

Sometimes, you just have to say, what the fuck?

beat me to it. OP: tell your kid sometimes you just have to say "what the #$%^" and go for it!

[Anonymous]

OP -- what sort of high school does your child attend? Private? Public? How large? Any idea about class rank? Have other students from your child's hs been accepted to BU? BU isn't that hard to get into. He should do fine. They say it's easier for boys to get into college now than girls because as a whole they're not performing as well.
Good luck! Any additional info you might provide would be helpful. I'm a college career director here in DC so I know the college landscape fairly well and went through the admissions thing with my own DD 2 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP -- what sort of high school does your child attend? Private? Public? How large? Any idea about class rank? Have other students from your child's hs been accepted to BU? BU isn't that hard to get into. He should do fine. They say it's easier for boys to get into college now than girls because as a whole they're not performing as well.
Good luck! Any additional info you might provide would be helpful. I'm a college career director here in DC so I know the college landscape fairly well and went through the admissions thing with my own DD 2 years ago.

You seem to be a tad out of the loop. It is generally easier for boys applying to college not because they aren't performing as well but because fewer are applying to college. That's why the college population is skewed femail. For schools that aim for a 50/50 balance it tends to favor boys. However the stats in the attached link show that BU has a higher admission rate for girls.

http://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-148-Boston-University.html


The stats also show that the ACT range was 25-30 so a 27 is in the middle of the range.

[Anonymous]

You can't read stats pp. BU has a much higher percentage of girls. That means it's going to be easier for a boy to get in because they need more boys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can't read stats pp. BU has a much higher percentage of girls. That means it's going to be easier for a boy to get in because they need more boys.

How do you figure? They admit 59.8% of girls and 56.9% of boys. So fewer boys are accepted from the applicant pool of boys.

[Anonymous]

Look at the US News + World Report Rankings pp -- BU has a much higher percentage of girls than boys there. They need boys.

[Anonymous]

So where/when/how are boys falling off the college enrollment numbers? There are still more. Lots of colleges we looked at were almost 65-70% women (James Madison University, for one). We generally heard that applications/qualifications being equal the boy had a better chance of being accepted to many colleges. But now I'm not sure why that is the case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look at the US News + World Report Rankings pp -- BU has a much higher percentage of girls than boys there. They need boys.

They may need them but they aren't admitting as many of them. Maybe they have a weaker boy applicant pool, which should favor the OPs son who would for sure be in the top 56.9% of boy applicants.