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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Son finally has close to an A average — but he’s a junior. Total GPA will be a 3.4 if we’re lucky, it’s at 3.1 now. SAT around 1350, may go higher. Very smart kid who struggled with ADD. Intellectually, hangs out with smartest kids in his school. Wants to go somewhere for pre-med, ideally within five hours of DC. Thoughts? [/quote]

OP, is that a weighted or unweighted GPA?[/quote]

Unweighted. He’s at a private school that does not weight grades. [/quote]

In that case I might move Pitt from “out of reach” to “reach.” Might have a chance if he can test prep and get that SAT up around 1450. But it’s a very desirable school for east coast kids now and the stats reflect that. [/quote]

Yep. Pitt is really interesting. Like Tulane and Northeastern, it seems to have decided to make a move.  They started working with TJ a few years ago and became TJs safety school.  As in, my child’s guidance counselors lists say VCU, GMU and Pitt are safety for “almost every” TJ student.   The specifically push Pitt because rolling admissions.  Get the app in at the beginning of school. Get your acceptance you can pay for locked in.  In 2017, they admitted every single TJ applicant.  In 2018, it was 108/110.  And across the board, TJ get in get very, very good merit aid and strong Honors College preference.  It was the number 4 TJ destination after WM/UVA/VT last year, with 25 kids.

I’m assuming other top HSs are similarly targeted.  Pitt is aggressively courting and purchasing the attendance of high stats, high achievement kids. Case Western is a school mentioned on this thread that has done this and had it pay off. It’s interesting to see what schools do to break out of the pack.

And yep.  I agree that a 3.4 UW private is light years better than a 3.4 W FCPS.  He ought to make a serious effort to raise the SAT score.

It may be impossible for a rising senior who has already tested to get CB accommodations. [/quote]

Thanks, 10:24 - Do you have any insight into how the kids who ended up at Pitt liked it? He will apply for rolling and his school has a great admit rate there - I just worry it will be too big! No way on accommodations - he never used them when he had them and we let them lapse when he entered high school. [/quote]

My sense is that TJ kids at Pitt really like it and do very well there. That it’s a big campus, but they are not getting lost. I know the number of TJ kids choosing to attend is trending upwards as it become as “hot school” and gets a good reputation among TJ alum.  It helps that their engineering and CS is decent, and that’s where many of them end up. And that they are pricing it at or below VT for most applicants. They also seem to like that it’s campus almost bleeds into CMU, and they can take CMU classes, I believe and another 12-18 kids a year end up there. And Pittsburg has a lot to recommend it. Or, a lot more than Blacksburg.

Having done the visits, my kid strongly prefers Pitt to VT.  It has a strong speciality in his non-engineering area of interest with good research opportunities. And he likes Pittsburgh more than Blacksburg. He is also ADHD (so I get the bright ADHD bot thing), and will almost certainly end up at a smaller school.  But apply before school starts and hopefully have an answer by October 1 is appealed. And means he doesn’t have to apply at all to any safeties he likes less than Pitt. (And VT makes you use the Coalition App instead of the Common app which is a PITA. Avoiding that would be nice).

Good luck! [/quote]

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