The Lehigh specific thread was filled with posts of high achieving students that were very disappointed with outcomes, including kids with hooks. Agree with ^, not a safety.
Just reading through the NEU 2018 results thread on CC and already found proof that NEU is not a safety for your DS - or any kid - despite his 36 on the ACT. 34 ACT, 1520 SAT, 35 ACT; 4.0 UW GPA, 3.99 UW GPA; played at Carnegie Hall, 3rd place in a national speech and debate tournament - none were accepted. Plus this was only a two page thread and kids are more likely to post acceptances than rejections and waitlists. Back in my day, if you had the grades and test scores (or the connections) you were in, but, oh, how things have changed.
To make it easier for posters to judge exactly what is a safety/match/reach for your DS, could you give us his UW GPA and a vague description of his ECs?
I know that a 36 ACT score may seem like it should open many doors for your child, but unfortunately top schools have gotten ultra competitive in the past few years. Look at these stats for Brown for the class of 2020:
https://www.brown.edu/admission/undergraduate/facts
Only 28% of students with a 36 were admitted. And that was two years ago! I’m pretty sure this year’s stats were worse based on what I have heard and read, both first hand both on CC and among my D’s friends.
Now, for schools where your child applies as a CS major, the competition is even more fierce. CS is VERY hot right now. Everyone wants to major in CS.
And for some of these schools, you have to show them love or else they think that you are not really interested (“Tufts syndrome”).
Yes, it all seems crazy. But it is very, very easy to get shut out if you are not careful, especially without a hook. Make sure your S has some very clear safeties and matches.
Be careful with NE over confidence. He is clearly a star but they where a bit whacky and a tough ticket this year. All kinds of spring semester starts and overseas NU.In. If he where goingfor Econ or something other than CS. I think it is a low match for his major. But not a safety as in no way could he be waitlisted ed safety. Lehigh might be more of a safety with its science focus. the NE coop attracts a lot of savvy and smart engineering types
GPA is weird at our HS because they have a unique process whereby to have a 4.0 UW you need to have 100% in every class you’ve ever taken. So clearly no one has a 4.0. He’s 2nd in his class and has all As, with every academic class (except Spanish where it is not offered) being honors or AP. Every semester he has been on “Principal’s Honors” which means an average over 95 with no grade below a 90. But I don’t have all his grades handy so I can’t compute a “normal” GPA for him.
His ECs are in post #47.
Brown has a 9% acceptance rate. Sure, the tippy top schools reject lots of kids with “perfect” stats. I don’t think Northeastern and Pitt fall into that category (certainly not Pitt).
How have the top performing kids in his high school done the past year or two?
Also, when you started the thread you mentioned merit aid as something you were looking for. Has that changed as the majority of the schools you’ve listed don’t provide merit?
He most likely wouldn’t be rejected as you state. But some of the schools you are mentioning are not schools that use an auto admit algorithm which would be definite safeties for him. Pitt being s public school I agree with you. NE most likely but just a word to the wise. I went into this thinking like you and coming out the other end with a completely different appreciation for the process with super high achievers. Holistic applications really are looked at differently than you think. It’s a mosaic not score driven. And a mosaic across race region interests and ecs. perfect score kids get knocked out by so called lower stat kids all the time The tippy top schools could have three classes of perfect scores each year and they only have 25 percent of those. 75 percent get a no. In the top 40 it’s not guaranteed I promise you having just gone through this with a similarly positioned child.
DS is considering taking additional loans (we would co-sign for him) to finance his education if he gets into one of the tippy top schools that do not offer merit. Given the salaries that these kids command upon graduation (we have a son who graduated from Cornell CS who had multiple offers in the same outrageous salary range, and has a class full of peers with similar offers) this is not unreasonable, so we are continuing to pursue those schools.
If he doesn’t get into one of those super-reach schools, he’d want to choose a school with a considerably lower net cost via merit aid or Canadian citizen tuition (and internship or co-op earnings). We will qualify for little need-based aid (but probably some at the most generous schools). We’re looking for a balance of excellent program and school “feel” (his subjective assessment) with lower cost for the non tippy-top schools, We don’t necessarily need a school that will give guaranteed merit, likely is good enough.
The school does not publish this information (doesn’t have anything on Naviance etc.) and I don’t actually know many kids who have graduated in the past couple of years, but typically our school will have a couple of kids who get into ivies or the like. As far as I know no one from our HS has ever been admitted to MIT, but I know kids who went to Princeton, Cornell, etc.
MIT does love the 36 act kids. You would definitely be in the conversation if the rest is in line too
I’m sure that, like Brown, they reject more 36 ACT kids than they accept. He has strong grades and ECs, but I kind of feel like you have to have done something truly exceptional to get into MIT these days, and I don’t think he really has. But he does have some leadership (HOBY, class president, etc.) which my older kids didn’t, so he’s the one I think “just might” have a chance. You never know when something is going to just click with an admissions officer.
I will say that MIT bothered to send him recruitment mail, which is something. I didn’t think they really did that since they have so many more qualified applicants than they can admit without needing to advertise.
“I will say that MIT bothered to send him recruitment mail, which is something. I didn’t think they really did that since they have so many more qualified applicants than they can admit without needing to advertise.”
A lot of the tippy top colleges seem to do that these days. I don’t like it as they have plenty of applicants but it seems part of the admissions racket and marketing these days.
He has a 36 act. It’s an automatic part of the marketing. It doesn’t mean they have their eye on him individually but a score like that gets noticed.
MIT sent my oldest (35 ACT) a letter (not a glossy advertising pamphlet) saying something with a lot of hedging language that we interpreted basically as “we wouldn’t laugh our asses off if a kid with your stats applied.” (They later rejected him.) My 2nd DS (also 35 ACT) did not receive any mail from MIT (and did not apply, preferring a lower stress college environment). Most of the mail any of my kids got/get from the “tippy top” schools tends to be advertisements for their $$$$ pre-college summer programs. 
I’m not saying that I think MIT has its eye on my kid – a 36 ACT is nice but he hasn’t done anything else that MIT would find noteworthy (yet?). I was just surprised that they send admissions advertising at all.
Be careful with schools that use level of applicants’ interest in admission. They may reject or waitlist an overqualified applicant using them as a “safety”.
" I will say that MIT bothered to send him recruitment mail, which is something."
@mathmomvt
Its nothing.
The MIT admissions office ISN’T the one that sends those mailings. The Enrollment Management company that MIT hires is the one who sends those mailings to hi stat kids. The enrollment companies buy the lists of ACT and SAT top scorers from the College board .Their job is to boost the # of applications a college receives [ they are paid based on the # of applications a college receives].
Its ALL marketing.
IT’s NOT personalized outreach from someone at MIT’s office.
MIT sent me a recruitment letter over 40 years ago. It is not a new phenomena.
A safety should have an acceptance rate of at least 50%. Remember, you’re talking about a 90+% chance of admittance to be able to call a school a safety. A 50% admit rate, and being at or above the 75th percentile for scores and GPA, are (IMO) the quantitative pre-requisites for safetyhood. And even then, many such schools don’t like being referred to as safeties for top-stat kids, so you have to show them some love.
True about showing some love, but DS is doing that. Since Pitt has rolling admissions and DS was already planning to apply very early for best scholarship consideration, I think we should know relatively early on whether or not he needs more safeties.
Applying for rolling admissions or for a scholarship does NOT constitute “showing them the love”. That’s more like holding out your hand and saying " give it to ME."
@mathmomvt
have you heard of “Tufts Syndrome”?
That is when colleges reject really hi stat kids because they calculate that they would probably NOT enroll if accepted. the only way to avoid that is to show the love, which involves more than sending in an application.
LISTEN to what prezbucky is saying. Your sons ACT score is blinding you to the realities of what a "safety’ REALLY is.
There will be THOUSANDS of applicants just as accomplished as your DS applying to the same reach schools . He really needs a lot more safeties.
Let me ask you a question- you mentioned earlier that your older sons at ACT scores of 35. [There is NOT that much difference in admissions officers minds between a 35 and 36. Both are "hi enough to make the first cut at the most competative colleges]
When did they apply to college, and where where they accepted and rejected?