I'd rethink his early choice because he's not getting into Princeton. He'd have a better chance getting into one of his other reaches. Did you say Duke really likes kids from his school?

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.

Anonymous wrote:

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?

How much of you want to bet on Dec 14, 2023 at 5pm when kids get rejected from their ED/EA schools they will blame their race still...

How is this related to anything being discussed here? Are you just trying to stir the pot or jealous of this kids stats?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. I think he should consider adding one or more of the below schools for targets/safety schools:
Colorado School of Mines
University of Rochester
Rensselaer Polytechnic
Rose-Hulman
Also I’d consider Texas A&M and Case Western which are a little on the reach side but not by much.

Why? OP is looking for safeties. This looks like more targets. 5 of 6 schools recommended are nothing like the schools currently interested.

I am open to adding one or more of these schools to the list (possible replacing with any from our list, any thoughts on which one I can remove?). Haven't done any research on these schools so not sure if they are a good fit but there is a one in particular that would give merit, I would ask him to consider seriously.

Looking at the scoir data, I only see green dots for RPI and RIT so he has a pretty decent chance at these ones. There is no data available for Mines, Rose Hulman and U of Rochester so looks like not many kids apply to them from our school.

I don’t think I would replace any on your list with one of these — I think they’d just be additional targets/safety schools.

Mines offers good merit aid and the application is very easy: just the common app and transcripts, I think. So it’s not hard to add to the list.

For the green dots, you have to make sure it’s post 2021 data. That having been said I think your child has a very good chance for both RPI and RIT.

Thanks. School recently switched from Naviance to scoir so only has 3 years of data only (including class of 23) and only shows results if there are at least 12 dots.

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?

How much of you want to bet on Dec 14, 2023 at 5pm when kids get rejected from their ED/EA schools they will blame their race still...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. I think he should consider adding one or more of the below schools for targets/safety schools:
Colorado School of Mines
University of Rochester
Rensselaer Polytechnic
Rose-Hulman
Also I’d consider Texas A&M and Case Western which are a little on the reach side but not by much.

Why? OP is looking for safeties. This looks like more targets. 5 of 6 schools recommended are nothing like the schools currently interested.

I am open to adding one or more of these schools to the list (possible replacing with any from our list, any thoughts on which one I can remove?). Haven't done any research on these schools so not sure if they are a good fit but there is a one in particular that would give merit, I would ask him to consider seriously.

Looking at the scoir data, I only see green dots for RPI and RIT so he has a pretty decent chance at these ones. There is no data available for Mines, Rose Hulman and U of Rochester so looks like not many kids apply to them from our school.

I don’t think I would replace any on your list with one of these — I think they’d just be additional targets/safety schools.

Mines offers good merit aid and the application is very easy: just the common app and transcripts, I think. So it’s not hard to add to the list.

For the green dots, you have to make sure it’s post 2021 data. That having been said I think your child has a very good chance for both RPI and RIT.

Anonymous wrote:OP, you’re not from the Washington area and need to understand something. You are on a website full of super competitive and frankly jealous women who are all scrambling to get their kids into the college that most impresses their “friends” and Biglaw colleagues. They’re going to tear apart your son’s “stats” and make you believe that he’ll be lucky if he gets into community college.

The fact is that your son has EXCELLENT numbers and is 100 percent GUARANTEED to get into NC State at a minimum. And NC State is a fantastic engineering school and a lot of fun as well. He’s also highly likely to get into several other schools on your list.

You’ve done a good job with him and should sign off this website and relax. Don’t let these crazy women get you down.

+1 yes! Your child sounds amazing and will get in somewhere awesome. Get off this board rn and celebrate with him.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. I think he should consider adding one or more of the below schools for targets/safety schools:
Colorado School of Mines
University of Rochester
Rensselaer Polytechnic
Rose-Hulman
Also I’d consider Texas A&M and Case Western which are a little on the reach side but not by much.

Why? OP is looking for safeties. This looks like more targets. 5 of 6 schools recommended are nothing like the schools currently interested.

I am open to adding one or more of these schools to the list (possible replacing with any from our list, any thoughts on which one I can remove?). Haven't done any research on these schools so not sure if they are a good fit but there is a one in particular that would give merit, I would ask him to consider seriously.

Looking at the scoir data, I only see green dots for RPI and RIT so he has a pretty decent chance at these ones. There is no data available for Mines, Rose Hulman and U of Rochester so looks like not many kids apply to them from our school.

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)

The regular English, assuming his school offers honors, is going to be an issue for the top schools. Maybe add more second tier schools.

Anonymous wrote:NP. I think he should consider adding one or more of the below schools for targets/safety schools:
Colorado School of Mines
University of Rochester
Rensselaer Polytechnic
Rose-Hulman
Also I’d consider Texas A&M and Case Western which are a little on the reach side but not by much.

Why? OP is looking for safeties. This looks like more targets. 5 of 6 schools recommended are nothing like the schools currently interested.

Anonymous wrote:NP here, why would this kid go to U of Arizona? That is absurd. I know admissions are getting more difficult, but someone with this record should not go to U of Ariz. it does not even have a good Honors College.

he’d get a free ride.

NP here, why would this kid go to U of Arizona? That is absurd. I know admissions are getting more difficult, but someone with this record should not go to U of Ariz. it does not even have a good Honors College.

NP. I think he should consider adding one or more of the below schools for targets/safety schools:

Colorado School of Mines
University of Rochester
Rensselaer Polytechnic
Rose-Hulman


Also I’d consider Texas A&M and Case Western which are a little on the reach side but not by much.

Anonymous wrote:I agree that the reaches are too high. Your kids does sound amazing though! I would encourage him to think about applying early to the instate options since they are strong and save a ton of money. Coming out of engineering school he will have tons of job options regardless of graduating from NC state, VT or Princeton! Once you work 3/5 years he’ll either be at a top graduate program or have done enough his skills get him his next job not the name of his college. I would add rose hulman, Rochester, Rensselaer, olin, and some other state schools where he is likely to get into the honors program - think university of Arizona - more toward the bottom of the top 100.

DP. NOT picking a fight, but I was thinking that the schools you suggested are all small, private and nothing like the other schools OP has on their list. The schools are fine. Just different. Very good programs, with possibility of merit and great chance of acceptance are the middle Big 10 schools like Ohio State, Michigan State and Minnesota. UMN as well as Pitt are rolling admissions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the UW GPA? I find the list odd for Engineering….USC? Duke? For engineering, I’d consider schools like CMU, Cornell, CalTech, Harvey Mudd, Lehigh, UCLA, University of Washington, Santa Clara

What type of engineering. University of Illinois is tops for civil engineering, UMD is tops for aerospace, etc.

I am having hard time convincing myself to pay oos tuition at public universities when he can go to NC state and unc chapel (bioengineering) for much cheaper.

You are in-state and you’ve been calling it “UNC Chapel”?

Yes dear. That’s because he is my first and we didn’t really start thinking about colleges until recently. Should I apologize for not being caught up on all the jargon.

See what I mean, OP? These women are nasty.

DP here. Hmm. Is this possibly OP? Or a friend? Posting 4 min later? I only question it because no one other than OP with the "yes, dear" and eyeroll has been "nasty." I'll admit the Chapel comment was some bored pot stirrer, but everything else has been focused on helping, even if a little blunt at times.

Look. It's hard when people say things that are not affirming, but the info from people on this thread is largely trying to help.

Also, Olin would be a reach or hard target, not a safety. Neither is VT. But, RPI, RH and RIT could be good likelies for the list.Have heard good things about U Cincy as well. Also U Minn with bonus of great merit offers (anecdotally). Also heard some raves about NC State.