Need help with College List

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looks fine. Thanks for rubbing it in.

Every time anyone mentions their “very rigorous private school” I cringe. Everybody thinks their private school is “rigorous.”

The reason I mentioned is because he does have 4B+s in last 3 years and several A-s. I know if he went to our public HS which is very competitive, he would have a much higher GPA. He went to public school from K-8 and all his friends at the public has much higher GPAs.

Sorry didnt include it to sound braggy.

How is the "single sitting" relevant information?

I included since some schools on his list don’t consider superstore (specifically Princeton).

Not sure that’s correct, PP.

https://admission.princeton.edu/faqs

IF I TAKE THE REQUIRED TESTS MORE THAN ONCE, WHICH RESULTS DOES PRINCETON CONSIDER?
Princeton will consider the highest individual section results across all sittings of the SAT and the highest composite score for the ACT. We will only accept a composite from an entire sitting of the ACT. We will not consider scores when a student retakes an individual section of the ACT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looks fine. Thanks for rubbing it in.

Every time anyone mentions their “very rigorous private school” I cringe. Everybody thinks their private school is “rigorous.”

The reason I mentioned is because he does have 4B+s in last 3 years and several A-s. I know if he went to our public HS which is very competitive, he would have a much higher GPA. He went to public school from K-8 and all his friends at the public has much higher GPAs.

Sorry didnt include it to sound braggy.

How is the "single sitting" relevant information?

I included since some schools on his list don’t consider superstore (specifically Princeton).

Not sure that’s correct, PP.

https://admission.princeton.edu/faqs

This is OP. They superstore SAT but not ACT.

From their FAQ:

IF I TAKE THE REQUIRED TESTS MORE THAN ONCE, WHICH RESULTS DOES PRINCETON CONSIDER?

Princeton will consider the highest individual section results across all sittings of the SAT and the highest composite score for the ACT. We will only accept a composite from an entire sitting of the ACT. We will not consider scores when a student retakes an individual section of the ACT.

[Anonymous]

Those are great stats. Good enough to get in anywhere.

But that's also not enough these days. I would look at your high school admission data, Colleges seem to prefer certain high schools. For our high school, for instance, Penn seems to hate it. But Yale and Cornell seem to like it. Duke was good for several years, but now it's impossible.

Get the high school data. And be very wise with the ED card. Private schools will be more affordable than OOS public schools.

Engineering is pretty flexible though. It's not a name brand thing. A degree from UIUC or Georgia Tech will be regarded as more valuable than one from Harvard or Yale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those are great stats. Good enough to get in anywhere.

But that's also not enough these days. I would look at your high school admission data, Colleges seem to prefer certain high schools. For our high school, for instance, Penn seems to hate it. But Yale and Cornell seem to like it. Duke was good for several years, but now it's impossible.

Get the high school data. And be very wise with the ED card. Private schools will be more affordable than OOS public schools.

Engineering is pretty flexible though. It's not a name brand thing. A degree from UIUC or Georgia Tech will be regarded as more valuable than one from Harvard or Yale.

Seriously read other comments in the post.the entire discussion is based on high school data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS, unhooked, 4.27 W GPA ( goes to a rigorous private school outside of greater DC area), 1540, 36 superscore (35 single sitting); sure NMSF
Math research with awards at math fairs,
5 weeks paid engineering research internship at state university (selective),
4 weeks state governor's school in math,
3 varsity sports (captain in one but not recruitable in any sport),
all district, all state french-horn player,
some other school clubs
Senior year courses- AP Cal BC, AP Physics M & EM, AP Gov, Reg English, Honors Spanish

Applying for engineering

NC State (in state); UNC Chapel (in state), Virg Tech, Georgia Tech, Uni of Southern California, Purdue, Clemson

Rest of the colleges super high reaches (debating between duke ED or Princeton REA); leaning towards princeton

Does this look reasonable or should he add more safeties?

NP, Congratulations. Your son has quite the resume. Particularly impressive extra curriculars. I obviously don't know what your son is looking for in a school and what you can or willing to pay. Although UNC is a great school, I would guess it's engineering program is considerably weaker than the other schools of interest. Unless you want to pay 90,000/yr for a handful of privates most of the strongest programs are large state schools, many of which offer merit. Have fun! Good luck.

First, the OP’s son is wonderful.

Second, the grades and taking regular English might not be that big of a problem, but the fact that the OP might be the one driving the application process during summer break is a concern.

If the son is really doing the work and the OP just wants to come up with financial safeties, that’s cool. If a would-be engineering major didn’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of this process by the summer before the senior year, that would be a red flag. That would be a sign that the son should probably be aiming for an easier, less stressful school.

As for safeties: I don’t think the son actually has great activities for rigorous engineering programs. This might be because the parent is describing the activities, but nothing here indicates the son is passionate about engineering. So, one simple way for the son to create an emergency backup safety, and possibly increase the odds of getting into very selective reach schools, might be for him to apply to a school like UNC Charlotte as a math major and to apply to any T20 schools on his list as a math major.

As a engineering undergrad who went on to a very competitive graduate engineering program, I absolutely disagree with the bolded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the best threads I’ve read in a long time on this specific forum. I hope it’s helping you, OP.

This is OP, this feels like a complement. Thank you!

It is- I’m one of the supposed toxic DC moms. Very thoughtful answers even if they’re not exactly on point or somewhat blunt.

Yes it has been helpful. I will have him research some of the schools mentioned (rit, Rpi, RH, mines etc). May ask him to reconsider Purdue since it does a lot of yield protect and add one or two of these colleges. Just hoping for some good merit to justify the cost of them over NC State).

One thing about Mines (my DS considered it last cycle) is that many freshmen take nearly the same course load, and you can dorm with people in your same classes. The kids my DS spoke with in their visit really seemed to like that. It’s hard — old-school engineering 101 in some respects — but there are very tight bonds that develop as a result of the live together/study together culture. The alumni network of that school is apparently very connected as a result.

[Anonymous]

This thread has been really helpful as we gear up for the application season for our DC. Thank you OP for sharing your thought process, your kids stats and your forthcomingness in sharing details about your DS rather than exaggerating which often happens on these forums. Good luck to your DS and I hope you will come up and share his admission results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the best threads I’ve read in a long time on this specific forum. I hope it’s helping you, OP.

This is OP, this feels like a complement. Thank you!

It is- I’m one of the supposed toxic DC moms. Very thoughtful answers even if they’re not exactly on point or somewhat blunt.

Yes it has been helpful. I will have him research some of the schools mentioned (rit, Rpi, RH, mines etc). May ask him to reconsider Purdue since it does a lot of yield protect and add one or two of these colleges. Just hoping for some good merit to justify the cost of them over NC State).

One thing about Mines (my DS considered it last cycle) is that many freshmen take nearly the same course load, and you can dorm with people in your same classes. The kids my DS spoke with in their visit really seemed to like that. It’s hard — old-school engineering 101 in some respects — but there are very tight bonds that develop as a result of the live together/study together culture. The alumni network of that school is apparently very connected as a result.

your feedback and others have made mines a strong contender to be added to his list.

[Anonymous]

I have yet to see a truly rigourous private school - I am sure they exist but they are a bit of a unicorn. The parents say it but then the kids go to college and struggle so I always wonder - I went to private schools because the schools were bad where I was but here I do not see the kids doing better in gaining knowledge at privates. Just my 2 cents.

That said they 100% have a massive advantage in admissions due to the underworld of admissions.

I think your list is reasonable but too short for my comfort level. Who knows what will happen this year. My 152 IQ kid had to apply to almost 20 schools. It's insane, maybe the new SC rulings will help.

And your kid sounds awesome, private school rigor not withstanding. Seems to be well rounded and high achieving and a school would be lucky to have him - but merit has been out of the equation for a while so to be safe, I would add a few more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Previous poster again:

When I said,
"I would say that he is aiming pretty low with those extracurriculars but it's hard to tell without any knowledge of his high school.
If he had that GPA and extracurricular list from Sidwell he'd have a very solid chance at many top 20 schools.
He would never end up at Clemson, NC State or Virginia Tech."

I meant---he is aiming low in his college list because his extracurricular list is really impressive. Not that his list is "low."

He is not in top 10% but his school doesn’t rank so not sure exactly where he falls. He does have most rigor in math and science courses but have only taken reg Eng all years.

He also is applying to high reaches although I didn’t include it in the list ( Princeton, Cornell, cmu, Duke, u pen and a few others)

If he is not in the top10 percent of his class, his reaches seem very unlikely, even coming from a top private, particularly for engineering. I would build out the target portion of his list more.

Adding that I would put USC in the unlikely category, engineering admit rate is even lower than its overall rate of 10 percent. How excited is he about his in state public options?

I think maybe she meant University of South Carolina??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Previous poster again:

When I said,
"I would say that he is aiming pretty low with those extracurriculars but it's hard to tell without any knowledge of his high school.
If he had that GPA and extracurricular list from Sidwell he'd have a very solid chance at many top 20 schools.
He would never end up at Clemson, NC State or Virginia Tech."

I meant---he is aiming low in his college list because his extracurricular list is really impressive. Not that his list is "low."

He is not in top 10% but his school doesn’t rank so not sure exactly where he falls. He does have most rigor in math and science courses but have only taken reg Eng all years.

He also is applying to high reaches although I didn’t include it in the list ( Princeton, Cornell, cmu, Duke, u pen and a few others)

If he is not in the top10 percent of his class, his reaches seem very unlikely, even coming from a top private, particularly for engineering. I would build out the target portion of his list more.

Adding that I would put USC in the unlikely category, engineering admit rate is even lower than its overall rate of 10 percent. How excited is he about his in state public options?

I think maybe she meant University of South Carolina??

. OOPS--re-read and she did mean University of Southern California.

[Anonymous]

Princeton is a far reach. There are dozens of kids with similar stats at TJ and 99 percent of them were turned down. On the other hand, those did get accepted did not necessarily have stats in the same caliber. Who knows! College application is like a huge black box. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

You are probably wasting your application with Princeton...although, if you are fine with UNC or NC State, I suppose you perhaps don't care about ED/REA at a school like JHU or a school ranked 10-20 (but make sure that is the case). Don't understand why your kid would not take AP English and AP Spanish...these are not traditionally considered "difficult" AP classes.

I think your kid is 100% at NC State...and near 100% at UNC.

[Anonymous]

I would add University of Arizona to your list if finances are a factor. They offer $32K in merit aid for those with a 4.0 GPA, which almost covers OOS tuition. And there is no requirement to live on campus the first year. Add to that it's got rolling admissions, a beautiful campus, and has an amazing honors program and dorm, it might just be worth adding to the list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I should add demographics -southeast asian (Indian, male)

Does race matter anymore? Didn't we just have a Supreme Court ruling that race can't be considered in college admissions?

Right, families of white and Asian kids can no longer blame race for their children’s failure to gain admission to the school of their choice. It’s a pure “meritocracy” again, just like it was before Affirmative Action.