Anonymous wrote:OP, you need to tell us his weighted and unweighted GPA.

4.89/4.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If he gets into UMD engineering and does not go, that's a dumb decision unless money is no object for you guys or unless he gets into someplace like MIT (which he won't, with that profile).

He might not get into UMD engineering. But he should be working towards that goal because that is likely to be his best option. It's regularly ranked around 20 in the engineering schools rankings. It's hard to get into.

I wouldn’t say money is no object, but we could afford private. He just isn’t excited about spending four years in a DC exurb, having grown up here, which to be honest I get. When I was his age I wanted to see the workplace (and he is definitely considering McGill etc).

*world, not workplace….

Anonymous wrote:If he gets into UMD engineering and does not go, that's a dumb decision unless money is no object for you guys or unless he gets into someplace like MIT (which he won't, with that profile).

He might not get into UMD engineering. But he should be working towards that goal because that is likely to be his best option. It's regularly ranked around 20 in the engineering schools rankings. It's hard to get into.

I wouldn’t say money is no object, but we could afford private. He just isn’t excited about spending four years in a DC exurb, having grown up here, which to be honest I get. When I was his age I wanted to see the workplace (and he is definitely considering McGill etc).

NC State. Not a bad drive depending on where you are in the area, plus several flights from DCA to RDU each day (maybe BWI and IAD, too?). Raleigh/Wake County has more than 1 million in population (Ral is 500K). Lots of student housing near campus.

Colorado School of Mines - in Golden, just outside Denver. Although Mines is on the smaller side and not D1. Still a great environment. We toured there and I loved it. (So did my son, but he ultimately chose somewhere east of the Mississippi River. )

OP, you need to tell us his weighted and unweighted GPA.

If he gets into UMD engineering and does not go, that's a dumb decision unless money is no object for you guys or unless he gets into someplace like MIT (which he won't, with that profile).

He might not get into UMD engineering. But he should be working towards that goal because that is likely to be his best option. It's regularly ranked around 20 in the engineering schools rankings. It's hard to get into.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OSU
VTech
Ga Tech
Purdue
WPI

GA Tech has a 12.7% Overall Acceptance Rate and 9% OOS. If you that's your "target" school then cool. Good luck.

Yeah good luck because you don't understand the definition of target school in that case

Here's what you may comprehend...if a school on the list below has less than a 15% acceptance rate than I would not consider it a "target" for this profile, or for most, but a reach. Is that better?

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering

Well IMO, a target needs an acceptance rate between 20-50%, so even 15 is still a Reach. Doesn't matter if you are high stats or not, everyone applying to those Reach schools is as well (or at least 75-80%), so your chances of rejection are still high. Don't leave your kid forced to attend a safety (unless they want to) because you didn't find and apply to actual targets.

+1

Anonymous wrote:Olin near Boston? It doesn't have other makos outside of Engineering, so may kind is not considering it. NC State in Raleigh. Colorado School of Mines is near Denver and since it is a state school will be more expensive. All the others that I can think of are in remote locations.

Schools don't get any smaller than Olin. Not at all a fit for someone who wants a larger school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where should we consider for a boy with 1520 SAT, good IB predictions (44), and weak extra-curriculars? He prefers decent-sized cities to rural locations, and prefers bigger to smaller schools.
Thanks for any thoughts!

My son's best friend is attending Colorado School of Mines. Civil engineering. Loves it.

Similar stats, but not IB, top 5% of a public school. Math through AB calc.

EC's - didn't publish or start a non-profit. Eagle Scout and varsity football.

DD is a freshman at Mines. She’s also CivE. She has truly found her people and her happy place.

It's great when the school matches perfectly with the applicant.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where should we consider for a boy with 1520 SAT, good IB predictions (44), and weak extra-curriculars? He prefers decent-sized cities to rural locations, and prefers bigger to smaller schools.
Thanks for any thoughts!

My son's best friend is attending Colorado School of Mines. Civil engineering. Loves it.

Similar stats, but not IB, top 5% of a public school. Math through AB calc.

EC's - didn't publish or start a non-profit. Eagle Scout and varsity football.

DD is a freshman at Mines. She’s also CivE. She has truly found her people and her happy place.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OSU
VTech
Ga Tech
Purdue
WPI

GA Tech has a 12.7% Overall Acceptance Rate and 9% OOS. If you that's your "target" school then cool. Good luck.

Yeah good luck because you don't understand the definition of target school in that case

Here's what you may comprehend...if a school on the list below has less than a 15% acceptance rate than I would not consider it a "target" for this profile, or for most, but a reach. Is that better?

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering

Well IMO, a target needs an acceptance rate between 20-50%, so even 15 is still a Reach. Doesn't matter if you are high stats or not, everyone applying to those Reach schools is as well (or at least 75-80%), so your chances of rejection are still high. Don't leave your kid forced to attend a safety (unless they want to) because you didn't find and apply to actual targets.

Olin near Boston? It doesn't have other makos outside of Engineering, so may kind is not considering it. NC State in Raleigh. Colorado School of Mines is near Denver and since it is a state school will be more expensive. All the others that I can think of are in remote locations.

Anonymous wrote:Where should we consider for a boy with 1520 SAT, good IB predictions (44), and weak extra-curriculars? He prefers decent-sized cities to rural locations, and prefers bigger to smaller schools.
Thanks for any thoughts!

My son's best friend is attending Colorado School of Mines. Civil engineering. Loves it.

Similar stats, but not IB, top 5% of a public school. Math through AB calc.

EC's - didn't publish or start a non-profit. Eagle Scout and varsity football.

My go-to exercise for finding targets is to go to College Navigator and enter in a few filters. For example, here's a search for schools over 5,000 students with a Mechanical Engineering major, an acceptance rate over 20%, and relatively high SAT scores.

Binghamton University
Brigham Young University
Case Western Reserve University
Colorado School of Mines
George Washington University
Lehigh University
North Carolina State University at Raleigh
Ohio State University-Main Campus
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rochester Institute of Technology
Santa Clara University
Southern Methodist University
Stony Brook University
University of Florida
University of Maryland-College Park
University of Massachusetts-Amherst
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
University of Rochester
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Villanova University

You might update the filtering to match different engineering majors, different admit rates, different student body sizes, etc. But that should give you a pretty solid list of candidates to start with.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is very happy at UW Madison.

Same here. No need for more superlatives for the city of Madison.

+1