<p>I was wondering how many parents have a child that is lopsided in their academic abilities. My D is very math and science oriented. Her Math SAT score was 780. Reading is a totally different story. She only scored 600 on critical reading. Although she usually gets A's in English, it's a real struggle. She is just not one of those students who enjoys literature.</p>
<p>Her unweighted GPA is 3.95 and she is in the top 1% of her class. She has noticed that a number of kids at her school with lower GPAs but higher SAT scores have been accepted into top colleges. With her math SAT scores, she could have been considered at any top tier school. But, because her scores are very lopsided, we did not even consider applying to schools of that caliber.</p>
<p>She plans to major in computer science, which is a good fit for her strong math aptitude.</p>
<p>I might be wrong, but I suspect that more students tend to struggle with math vs. english. I'd appreciate hearing from other parents.</p>
<p>A 600 CR score is at the 79th percentile nationally. In a random group of five college-bound seniors, she’d most likely be the next-to-the-highest in CR.</p>
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<p>I’ve had two Ds go to Harvard with 800s in CR and W and mid-600s in Math.</p>
<p>At least she is lopsided in a way that is favorable to women! </p>
<p>How about some top ranked techie type schools…especially since she wants to study computer science. MIT, Caltech, Carnegie Mellon. That sort. With her high math scores I would bet there are tons of really great math/science schools out there that would LOVE to have her.</p>
<p>We are waiting to hear from Carnegie Mellon, which is her reach school. They have the #1 ranked comp sci program in the US. She is convinced that she won’t be accepted there. They have a fabulous program for women in computer science.</p>
<p>She has already been accepted at our state flagship university (honors program), a local state university (merit scholarship), and an OOS tech university. She didn’t consider applying to any LACs because most do not offer a strong comp sci program.</p>
<p>She has a friend who was accepted to MIT. He had nearly identical SATs scores, but lower GPA. However, he is an underrepresented minority from a low income family. I have heard that top tier colleges sometimes take that into consideration (although somewhat controversial). Here is a quote from an MIT Faculty Newsletter: </p>
<p>“MIT has long been at the forefront of science outreach to students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.” </p>
<p>I supposed my D could be considered “desirable” to some colleges because she is a girl interested in comp sci.</p>
<p>Good luck to your daughter. A factoid that might work in her favor at Carnegie Mellon: Their computer science program is the home of the “Dave-to-girl ratio.” They discovered about 5 years ago that they had more computer science majors named David than computer science majors who were female.</p>
<p>Engineering programs are always on the lookout for female candidates. In fact, one of the Ivies called our local high school’s college counselor to ask if there were any more strong math/science girls who could be encouraged to apply. I think that with her GPA and math SAT score she has a good shot at Carnegie Mellon.</p>
This has really morphed from its origins! It started as a comment someone made on the Systers list - an email list for women in systems - back in the early 1980’s. This list was started and maintained by Anita Borg, a research computer scientist who worked at one of the Digital (DEC) labs. Later, Anita went on to found an organization that was eventually named for her, the Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology.</p>
<p>Anyway, in the early days the Systers list was a place where women in computer science could discuss and ask questions. As I remember it, one young Syster who was considering grad school programs posted a question to the list asking for opinions on how friendly each program was to women. Someone wrote back about one of the departments: “Oh that place - it has more Daves than women.” It was funny and it felt so true about some schools, so it stuck.</p>
<p>That is very interesting, Calreader. I didn’t know the back story on it. My source was a New York Times article from about 5 years ago, which stated that it was actually true of computer science at Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>umdclassof80, I very strongly encourage your daughter to follow her interests, and hope that she will get into Carnegie Mellon, though I am sure that she will have a great experience no matter where she goes. Minor cautionary note: I think the data on the gender composition of the class of 2011 would be more indicative than the ratio in the class of 2014, which is a single semester into the program.</p>
<p>Has your daughter ever considered that she may have an underlying dyslexia/processing issue? If something like that is at the root of her difficulties with extensive reading and literary interpretation, knowing it won’t necessarily change her life overnight, but it will help her understand her situation better.</p>
<p>I realize that Umd describes her daughter’s relationship with literature as a “struggle,” but again, a 600 on CR is really, really good! Consider that the 79th percentile in height for a college-aged American woman is 5’7". We wouldn’t suggest that a 5’7" woman be examined for dwarfism or consider the potential stature-enhancing benefit of human growth hormone.</p>
<p>She may look less uncommon than you think. I suspect lots of kids whose families come from abroad are much stronger, and much more interested, in math/science than in language arts, and have similar splits in their test scores. </p>
<p>My daughter had a classmate who was third in her class (out of 550) and had 800/600 SATs. She came to the US at 14, and English was her fourth language. She was accepted at four of the five colleges commonly referred to by a single initial on CC, and she is now in an MD/PhD program at a top university.</p>
<p>I appreciate your feedback. However, I seriously doubt my D has dyslexia. Her father has a degree in special education. I’m sure he would have recognized this. Could someone with dyslexia score 600 on the reading portion of the SATs? She loves to read, but has a somewhat limited genre of books that she enjoys (i.e., realistic fiction, mysteries). She can finish an entire book in 1-2 days. She complains that most of the books that she has to read in english are “soooo boring.” I don’t think she has a reading problem. She just has a very high math/science aptitude and is not interested in the humanities. Looking back, I struggled with the one literature course that I was required to take in college. I majored in biology.</p>
<p>It’s not impossible at all to have dyslexia and score 600 on the SATs. My mother has dyslexia, and she was an English and Philosophy teacher in high school for 25 years, then got a PhD in Philosophy of Education and taught humanities at the college level. Reading things was always a struggle for her . . . but she always won the struggle.</p>
<p>UMDclass80: My hs senior daughter had very similar SAT scores. Math and writing were 700s range and CR originally was in the 500s. She practiced CR over the summer and brought the CR to mid 600s. She has always been a slow reader but does comprehend what she reads. She intends to study biology in college. I’ve never considered her lopsided academically just that her strengths are more in the science/math department.</p>
<p>umdclassof80,
I think your D’s chances are pretty good at Carnegie Mellon. Her GPA and class rank are clearly outstanding, her SAT Math is in the top quartile for Carnegie Mellon, and while her SAT CR puts her somewhere around the 25th percentile, her composite SAT CR+M is right around the midpoint for Carnegie Mellon’s entering class. For her intended major it’s much better to be math-heavy than reading-heavy. On top of that, in her chosen field and especially at a school like Carnegie Mellon, her gender is probably a strong “plus” factor. According to CMU’s common data set, they admitted 36.7% of female applicants in 2010, but only 30.0% of a much larger pool of male applicants. I don’t mean to imply it’s a sure thing by any means, but I like her chances. I’d say this is more like a “low reach/high match” school for her.</p>
<p>One of my friends had a son who was also lopsided (top 25 percentile math, bottom 25 percentile CR at competitive schools). He didn’t get into his high top reach schools and most of his mid top reaches–except that he met with better success at mid reach schools that were math/science oriented.</p>