Hi,
My son got a 1910 in SAT first time and 1980 second time. He got a composite score of 33 on the Act with (30 English, 31 reading, 33 science , 36 math, 28 English/ writing). On his subject SAT he got a 790 in math 2, 780 chemistry, 760 physics. In his freshman year he self studied Ap Calculus AB and got a 4. He then advanced to Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra as a sophomore and he took Differential Equations and Complex Analysis as a junior. In his sophomore year, he got 4’s in AP US History and Computer Science. In Junior year, he got a 4 in AP Chemistry and double 5’s in AP Physics C. His weighted GPA is 4.2 and his unweighted GPA is 3.7. What are my son’s chances for admission into top schools i.e. (UPenn, Mit, Princeton)? Does he need to write any extra standardized tests to better his chances in the college admissions process? Thank you in advance and appreciate your valuable advise.
–What were the section scores on his 1910 and 1980?
–What is his class rank?
–What are his ECs?
–Any awards (e.g. math)?
–What will he major in?
Those schools are pretty much crapshoots for anyone (short of being a recruited athlete, having a parent who donated a building on campus etc.). He should apply to those schools as well as a range of match and safety schools and see what happens.
IMO the SAT isn’t very relevant with a 33 ACT. I don’t know if the ACT would need to come up or not. It’s obvious the student is a math/science kid. As @happy1 stated, pick some safeties and matches he’d be happy to attend (and that you can afford) and then roll the dice on the others.
The 33 ACT means you don’t worry about the SAT score. There are a couple of schools that require all test results, Stanford is one. He’s very advanced in math clearly. Has he won any academic competitions or done any research type work? Solid AP scores, particularly the Physics. His UW GPA is lower than ideal 3.85 or better would be ideal. Better chances at Penn than at Princeton. Consider also Harvey Mudd, Georgia Tech
Mudd is going to be just as much of a reach. An ACT of 33 is the 25th percentile there, and his UW GPA is on the low side. I agree that some serious pop in his ECs would boost his chances at any of the schools discussed.
For the 1910, my son had a 720 math, 590 reading and 600 writing. For the 1980, he had a 760 math, 600 writing and 610 reading. He wants to major in comp sci. He is in NHS, science honors society and got a 76.5 AMC 12 in the past year. He is within the top 10% of his class. He also hosts annual math camps for middle school students and the mayor has written a letter congratulating his contributions to the community. He is also developing apps for a nonprofit organization and is interning at a biomedical research lab over the summer. Thank you for you insight. Here are some safety schools that he wants to apply to. Looking mainly in the Northeast region but open to good schools anywhere.
Steven’s
NJIT
Rutgers
Just to add, can you please suggest to add to some of these target schools he also would like to do some business subjects as minor in addition to Comp sci. Major.
Amherst College
Rochester Institute of Technology
University of Maryland
How much can you afford to pay?
I wouldn’t call Amherst a target. IIRC, its acceptance rate is around 12% – low enough to make it a reach for any applicant.
The ACT is soooo much better than the SAT, that there’s no reason to even be looking at that. The ACT is equivalent to about a 2200 SAT. His ACT is equivalent to a 1460 M+CR. His real SAT doesn’t come close (1360/1980, so just forget about that. I’m not even sure why the SAT was mentioned, much less mentioned first!?!
What is your budget for paying for college each year?
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His weighted GPA is 4.2 and his unweighted GPA is 3.7. What are my son's chances for admission into top schools i.e. (UPenn, Mit, Princeton)?
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Is your son an international?
If not, what is your home state?
What are his safety schools? These are schools where you know FOR SURE that you have all costs covered AND you know he’ll be accepted.
Our home state is NJ. I mentioned both SAT and ACT to get feedback in case he should retake any of the tests for improving chances to get in some of the good schools. Can you please suggest any of the safety/target schools other than mentioned above?
He is much better in every ACT section vs the SAT. There is evidence that he won’t improve significantly on the SAT sections that are lagging (CR & W) to match his ACT score. Even his ACT Math was much better than SAT M. So don’t take the SAT again.
Taking the ACT again is debatable. To improve to a 34 Composite, he would need to improve by 4 points in all sections, and I’m not sure where he’s going to find those 4 points. He might be able to improve the E & R sections, but he has already improved those sections significantly over the SAT CR section. His SAT CR sections were the equivalent of ~ACT 26/27.
So whether he can improve further is uncertain. Based on his marked improvement from SAT to ACT, he may have fortunately pulled off the best ACT test that he could have hoped for. It wouldn’t even be out of the question to end up with a lower score on a second try. But your son knows best: if he thinks he has room to improve the E/R/W sections, with study, then go for it.
Submit only his ACT, and try to have his SATs (not the subject tests!) removed from his transcript (ask his guidance counselor). Note that some colleges require you to submit all test scores. I’m not sure what schools those are, but for reach schools, avoid them if possible. If a school is a reach with his ACT scores, they will be a very high reach with his SAT scores alongside.
MIT, Princeton, Penn, Amherst are reaches for everyone. He’s in or near the bottom quartile in E/R/CR for those schools (especially Princeton), so it will be tough. His U/W GPA is also mediocre for those schools. Go ahead and apply to a couple, though – he’s strong in math/sciences – just make sure he has a good selection of matches and a safety.
NJIT and Rutgers could be safeties. RIT is down in safety territory, too. Stevens is more of a low match. Also check out Northeastern, Rensselaer, U Rochester, Boston U for matches. If you’re full-pay, out-of-state (publics) like UIUC, UWI-M, UC San Diego, and UMD-CP might want him, but good OOS schools can be reachy for competitive majors like CS.
Thank you so much for the insights.