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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does he need more motivation in life - Like needs to be surrounded by peers who are more driven? ED to BC

OP here - thanks!

Boston is too far

Good because 4.5wGPA won't get anyone into BC even ED.

Does he want big or small, urban or not, warm/cold/indifferent to weather? Full pay or chasing merit? Is Greek life a pro or a con? What prospective major?

We can give better input with more details. I had a 4.5wGPA kid and we found the a great school for him, ED also helped to hit a high target.

Good lord, where does your kid go to high school that the grade inflation is so over the top? My kid had a 4.4 and was top 5% of her class, headed to her first choice T20, and here you are talking about a 4.5 as if it’s some massive handicap!

You are behind. The 75th percentile of UVA’s entering class last year had a 4.5. Median had a 4.4 ….

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does he need more motivation in life - Like needs to be surrounded by peers who are more driven? ED to BC

OP here - thanks!

Boston is too far

Good because 4.5wGPA won't get anyone into BC even ED.

Does he want big or small, urban or not, warm/cold/indifferent to weather? Full pay or chasing merit? Is Greek life a pro or a con? What prospective major?

We can give better input with more details. I had a 4.5wGPA kid and we found the a great school for him, ED also helped to hit a high target.

Depends on the high school and how they weight. At our DMV high school, the valedictorian often has a 4.5

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.

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 wrote:Why can’t they be more than 3 hrs away? That seems extremely limiting

It's one way to narrow down all the options, and for some kids distance matters a lot.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks!

Waiting for July AP results.
Haven’t taken standardized tests yet, but with coaching, will likely end up around 34/1500.
DC is not catholic, but not opposed to a catholic university.

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?

Depending on where in the DMV you are, Princeton could be 3- 4 hours.

Anonymous wrote:Would absolutely get merit from Loyola Maryland

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 wrote:OP here - thanks!

Waiting for July AP results.
Haven’t taken standardized tests yet, but with coaching, will likely end up around 34/1500.
DC is not catholic, but not opposed to a catholic university.

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?

Why can’t they be more than 3 hrs away? That seems extremely limiting

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.

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 wrote:OP here - thanks!

Waiting for July AP results.
Haven’t taken standardized tests yet, but with coaching, will likely end up around 34/1500.
DC is not catholic, but not opposed to a catholic university.

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 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does he need more motivation in life - Like needs to be surrounded by peers who are more driven? ED to BC

OP here - thanks!

Boston is too far

Good because 4.5wGPA won't get anyone into BC even ED.

Does he want big or small, urban or not, warm/cold/indifferent to weather? Full pay or chasing merit? Is Greek life a pro or a con? What prospective major?

We can give better input with more details. I had a 4.5wGPA kid and we found the a great school for him, ED also helped to hit a high target.

Good lord, where does your kid go to high school that the grade inflation is so over the top? My kid had a 4.4 and was top 5% of her class, headed to her first choice T20, and here you are talking about a 4.5 as if it’s some massive handicap!

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 wrote: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/

This. Also Wesleyan.

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/