Strong academics, not much else
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Anonymous
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Look at ED to Northwestern/Amherst/Brown or similar.
If he's a deep philosophical kid, apply philosophy & physics: https://www.brown.edu/undergraduate-programs/physics-and-philosophy-ab Get a summer job. Fiddle around with a hobby. Add an EC or 2 if you can. Look at successful profiles: https://www.reddit.com/r/collegeresults/comments/18lsq3m/queer_stoner_with_no_ecs_but_cracked_academics/ https://www.reddit.com/r/collegeresults/comments/1pryk03/accepted_uchicago_ed/ https://www.reddit.com/r/collegeresults/comments/1d4k2xy/lazy_student_results/ |
Anonymous
This. Also Wesleyan. |
Anonymous
Some schools give 1 point for A, 0.5 for honors; some give additional 0.33 for A+. Thus 5.33 is the A+ in AP. The top 10% at these schools ofen have above 4.9. A 4.5W at these places would be below the top quarter. Middle of the class is arouond 4.2W. Other schools with 0.5 for honors and AP, even with a 0.33 A+ boost, 4.5 W is top 5%. With no A+ boost of course a 4.5W would be evey single class honors or AP and all A. TLDR, IT DEPENDS. The OP should ask the counselor |
Anonymous
What are you basing this on? his PSAT 10? If you think he needs coaching to be 34/1500, that's around 98th%ile with coaching--so at baseline he is 95%ile?. If that's the case aim WM, UVA, Georgetown, W&L. The middle 50% are 95-98%ile meaning he has a great chance of being average or above. He will be in over his head at any ivy/T15 where the majority are higher: those are for students who test minimum 98%ile UNprepped, ideally 99+%ile with no prep. Our college counseling dean at the private school based the initial list of "matches" for rigor fit based on the unprepped PSAT 10 percentiles converted to SAT based on the same percentile. Our fist was a junior in 2018-19 pre-TO but the method was tried and true and it did not mean you could not reach, it just meant the parents realized when the reach was likely out of the typical academic range thus the "fit" might be way off--might struggle and be below average which for many is not the right environment. They met w all juniors in fall and reviewed the PSAT 10 and ACT10 and also the7th grade standardized CAT/CTP testing to give an understanding of where your kid was in relation to average students at colleges. |
Anonymous
| Your kid sounds like mine. Mine is at a Wash U/Emory/Tufts-type school. they also liked William and Mary and American for options closer to home. |
Anonymous
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My similar kid who also had the 3hr drive limit has a list like this:
Georgetown Villanova William and Mary Lehigh Franklin and Marshall Dickenson Loyola MD Penn and UVA are in distance, but not as great an option if you really want to explore many areas and choose a school/major later. Too bad the open curriculum schools are farther afield. Wesleyen and Hamilton would be great for this kid. |
Anonymous
| Why can’t they be more than 3 hrs away? That seems extremely limiting |
Anonymous
If he’s reading a lot, is it possible that he’ll get over 1550 on the SAT verbal test? Whether he doesn’t, maybe he could make Johns Hopkins a reach school. Also, Penn, Temple and Haverford. Maybe Johns Hopkins and Penn would be off-limits if he was a premed. But, if he can write and speak well and has interesting ideas, and he wants to major in an undersubscribed humanities major for the love of learning, maybe he could win the lottery at a lottery school. Example: Is Princeton within a three-hour drive? If so, maybe that could be a reach. I know people here will say that’s impossible, but how many of those folks have kids who read books for fun? |
Anonymous
This is where my son goes. Not as high grades and applied TO but has enjoyed the core curriculum classes and not having to choose a major right away. He’d get great merit aid there. |
Anonymous
Depending on where in the DMV you are, Princeton could be 3- 4 hours. |
Anonymous
It's one way to narrow down all the options, and for some kids distance matters a lot. |
Anonymous
| He should look into liberal arts colleges. They’re desperate for literally any top students, at all. Consider Swarthmore, Haverford, and W&L (they’ll love the rigor). |
Anonymous
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OP here - thanks for these suggestions!
34/1500 is my guess based on cold tests run through a prep company (probably will just self study) No A+ boost; not sure, but DC is likely in top 5% academically Reads a ton for fun, even Harvard Classics type stuff. 3hr locality for family reasons. |
Anonymous
Depends on the high school and how they weight. At our DMV high school, the valedictorian often has a 4.5 |
Anonymous
[mastodon]
You are behind. The 75th percentile of UVA’s entering class last year had a 4.5. Median had a 4.4 …. |