How to find college fit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in Virginia.

Sounds like your son would be happy at most of the VA schools. Have you visited any of them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I keep reading about college fit but having hard time trying to figure our a fit. Almost every college seems good with the below criteria:

- No preference for big or small college
- No preference for either a city or college town
- No big preference for sports, but would like the school to have a baseball team
- Pay is not an issue but would not want to waste it either
- Would focus on STEM with a focus on Math but not sure if it would be sciences, engineering or CS
- Very interested in a research opportunity at undergrad level
- Exceptionally strong in math
- Dorm with AC would be strongly preferred

Perfect GPA and SAT/ACT scores, but asian male. No extracurriculars except math, math and more math activities.

Not looking at prestiage at all. Just trying to find schools where he has a good chance of getting in and also enable him to pursue math and go into sciences/engineering/CS as they seem to be most likely paths he would be interested in.

Could the more experienced posters please provide any advice and pointers to get started on the college list?

Is the reason why no preference in these because he is super introverted? I ask because most kids have a strong preference if they have visited a few college campuses. If he really doesn’t mind the environment either way, then just pick strong stem schools. Ones that have the broadest majors and minors that are easy to navigate switch majors explore minors etc. Everything from Rice to Tufts to Purdue for a start.

Thank you! Great to learn about Rice, Tufts, Purdue would allow switching majors. Is there a way to find out which schools allow majors to be changed? I hate to go to every single college and dig out the details.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I keep reading about college fit but having hard time trying to figure our a fit. Almost every college seems good with the below criteria:

- No preference for big or small college
- No preference for either a city or college town
- No big preference for sports, but would like the school to have a baseball team
- Pay is not an issue but would not want to waste it either
- Would focus on STEM with a focus on Math but not sure if it would be sciences, engineering or CS
- Very interested in a research opportunity at undergrad level
- Exceptionally strong in math
- Dorm with AC would be strongly preferred

Perfect GPA and SAT/ACT scores, but asian male. No extracurriculars except math, math and more math activities.

Not looking at prestiage at all. Just trying to find schools where he has a good chance of getting in and also enable him to pursue math and go into sciences/engineering/CS as they seem to be most likely paths he would be interested in.

Could the more experienced posters please provide any advice and pointers to get started on the college list?

Is the reason why no preference in these because he is super introverted? I ask because most kids have a strong preference if they have visited a few college campuses. If he really doesn’t mind the environment either way, then just pick strong stem schools. Ones that have the broadest majors and minors that are easy to navigate switch majors explore minors etc. Everything from Rice to Tufts to Purdue for a start.

Thank you! Great to learn about Rice, Tufts, Purdue would allow switching majors. Is there a way to find out which schools allow majors to be changed? I hate to go to every single college and dig out the details.

He is not as introverted as I may have made him look like. Has a close knit 12-15 kids that he goes out with often. He coaches students at an elementary school for math competitions. He writes math problems for competitions. He organizes math contests.

He likes MIT a lot as many of the topics he is interested in seem to lead to MIT professors as authors. But we know MIT is a really loooong shot as to not even to think about it as a realistic option.

[Anonymous]

I agree that visiting schools and doing the campus tour will help.

Other criteria he can consider to narrow the focus:
Flixible/open curriculum vs some/many requirements
Possibility of a double major
Four year residential college or move off campus
Class size
Class structure - lecture vs discussion based (math can be discussion based,)
Any possible interests in applied math - computational biology, environmental math, quantitative economics, etc.
Does he prefer problem sets with a few hard problems or more straight forward
Collaborative vs competitive
Schools with geographic diversity
Access to outdoor recreation, big city events, walkable to shops
Is a car needed

[Anonymous]

This gives a long list of ideas for other factors you might want to use to narrow it down, and tells you where you can find the information.

https://lesshighschoolstress.com/blog/7/

[Anonymous]

OP try London School of Economics

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I keep reading about college fit but having hard time trying to figure our a fit. Almost every college seems good with the below criteria:

- No preference for big or small college
- No preference for either a city or college town
- No big preference for sports, but would like the school to have a baseball team
- Pay is not an issue but would not want to waste it either
- Would focus on STEM with a focus on Math but not sure if it would be sciences, engineering or CS
- Very interested in a research opportunity at undergrad level
- Exceptionally strong in math
- Dorm with AC would be strongly preferred

Perfect GPA and SAT/ACT scores, but asian male. No extracurriculars except math, math and more math activities.

Not looking at prestiage at all. Just trying to find schools where he has a good chance of getting in and also enable him to pursue math and go into sciences/engineering/CS as they seem to be most likely paths he would be interested in.

Could the more experienced posters please provide any advice and pointers to get started on the college list?

Is the reason why no preference in these because he is super introverted? I ask because most kids have a strong preference if they have visited a few college campuses. If he really doesn’t mind the environment either way, then just pick strong stem schools. Ones that have the broadest majors and minors that are easy to navigate switch majors explore minors etc. Everything from Rice to Tufts to Purdue for a start.

Thank you! Great to learn about Rice, Tufts, Purdue would allow switching majors. Is there a way to find out which schools allow majors to be changed? I hate to go to every single college and dig out the details.

He is not as introverted as I may have made him look like. Has a close knit 12-15 kids that he goes out with often. He coaches students at an elementary school for math competitions. He writes math problems for competitions. He organizes math contests.

He likes MIT a lot as many of the topics he is interested in seem to lead to MIT professors as authors. But we know MIT is a really loooong shot as to not even to think about it as a realistic option.

Those extracurriculars are mathy, yes, but extracurriculars nonetheless. He should definitely list all of those (potentially as separate items). Does he have any family responsibilities? A religious community? Exercise he does for fun on his own? Extracurriculars can include things he does at home just for fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I keep reading about college fit but having hard time trying to figure our a fit. Almost every college seems good with the below criteria:

- No preference for big or small college
- No preference for either a city or college town
- No big preference for sports, but would like the school to have a baseball team
- Pay is not an issue but would not want to waste it either
- Would focus on STEM with a focus on Math but not sure if it would be sciences, engineering or CS
- Very interested in a research opportunity at undergrad level
- Exceptionally strong in math
- Dorm with AC would be strongly preferred

Perfect GPA and SAT/ACT scores, but asian male. No extracurriculars except math, math and more math activities.

Not looking at prestiage at all. Just trying to find schools where he has a good chance of getting in and also enable him to pursue math and go into sciences/engineering/CS as they seem to be most likely paths he would be interested in.

Could the more experienced posters please provide any advice and pointers to get started on the college list?

Is the reason why no preference in these because he is super introverted? I ask because most kids have a strong preference if they have visited a few college campuses. If he really doesn’t mind the environment either way, then just pick strong stem schools. Ones that have the broadest majors and minors that are easy to navigate switch majors explore minors etc. Everything from Rice to Tufts to Purdue for a start.

Thank you! Great to learn about Rice, Tufts, Purdue would allow switching majors. Is there a way to find out which schools allow majors to be changed? I hate to go to every single college and dig out the details.

He is not as introverted as I may have made him look like. Has a close knit 12-15 kids that he goes out with often. He coaches students at an elementary school for math competitions. He writes math problems for competitions. He organizes math contests.

He likes MIT a lot as many of the topics he is interested in seem to lead to MIT professors as authors. But we know MIT is a really loooong shot as to not even to think about it as a realistic option.

If he likes MIT, that's a start. You may wish to consider CMU, WPI, RPI, RIT, Olin, Harvey Mudd, Georgia Tech, just of the top of my head.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This gives a long list of ideas for other factors you might want to use to narrow it down, and tells you where you can find the information.

https://lesshighschoolstress.com/blog/7/

Thank you! Looks very informative. Will read this up.

[Anonymous]

Thanks again for all the very helpful information.

Indeed, he did not visit any universities yet. Except for MIT which happened by accident when we are on vacation in Cape Cod and did a day trip to Boston and we visited MIT. Took a tour that a very helpful student signed us up.

Did not realize that visiting colleges would be that important. My mistake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree that visiting schools and doing the campus tour will help.

Other criteria he can consider to narrow the focus:
Flixible/open curriculum vs some/many requirements
Possibility of a double major
Four year residential college or move off campus
Class size
Class structure - lecture vs discussion based (math can be discussion based,)
Any possible interests in applied math - computational biology, environmental math, quantitative economics, etc.
Does he prefer problem sets with a few hard problems or more straight forward
Collaborative vs competitive
Schools with geographic diversity
Access to outdoor recreation, big city events, walkable to shops
Is a car needed

Thank you for the detail. Helpful, I did think in terms of these at all.

He likes computational biology and also economics. Also very strongly prefers problem sets with few hard problems. I have seen him work on problems that took him several days to solve. He absolutely likes those kind of problems. No tolerance whatsoever if the problems are straight forward. Just would not do them.

Likes hiking trails.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I keep reading about college fit but having hard time trying to figure our a fit. Almost every college seems good with the below criteria:

- No preference for big or small college
- No preference for either a city or college town
- No big preference for sports, but would like the school to have a baseball team
- Pay is not an issue but would not want to waste it either
- Would focus on STEM with a focus on Math but not sure if it would be sciences, engineering or CS
- Very interested in a research opportunity at undergrad level
- Exceptionally strong in math
- Dorm with AC would be strongly preferred

Perfect GPA and SAT/ACT scores, but asian male. No extracurriculars except math, math and more math activities.

Not looking at prestiage at all. Just trying to find schools where he has a good chance of getting in and also enable him to pursue math and go into sciences/engineering/CS as they seem to be most likely paths he would be interested in.

Could the more experienced posters please provide any advice and pointers to get started on the college list?

Is the reason why no preference in these because he is super introverted? I ask because most kids have a strong preference if they have visited a few college campuses. If he really doesn’t mind the environment either way, then just pick strong stem schools. Ones that have the broadest majors and minors that are easy to navigate switch majors explore minors etc. Everything from Rice to Tufts to Purdue for a start.

Thank you! Great to learn about Rice, Tufts, Purdue would allow switching majors. Is there a way to find out which schools allow majors to be changed? I hate to go to every single college and dig out the details.

He is not as introverted as I may have made him look like. Has a close knit 12-15 kids that he goes out with often. He coaches students at an elementary school for math competitions. He writes math problems for competitions. He organizes math contests.

He likes MIT a lot as many of the topics he is interested in seem to lead to MIT professors as authors. But we know MIT is a really loooong shot as to not even to think about it as a realistic option.

Those extracurriculars are mathy, yes, but extracurriculars nonetheless. He should definitely list all of those (potentially as separate items). Does he have any family responsibilities? A religious community? Exercise he does for fun on his own? Extracurriculars can include things he does at home just for fun.

Thanks for the tips!

[Anonymous]

I would look at Lehigh

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t want to hijack but wanted offer solidarity. My daughter is similar to your son. It’s so hard to help them figure out fit.

Thank you! Wishing you the best. Hopefully some of the very valuable information being shared in this thread would also be of use to you.

[Anonymous]

Some schools with computational biology:

Carnegie Mellon
Case Western
UMBC
University of Pittsburgh
Virginia Tech
WPI