My son has an interesting story. We moved from Utah to Colorado due to my husband’s work. In Utah, my son was a stellar student with all A’s and an occasional B. He also won multiple state wide math contests. When we moved to Colorado, we didn’t know much and just put him into the “best” public high school. He really struggled to fit into that school and had a train wreck (all B’s, C’s, and D’s). My son decided that he wanted to change schools, so we got him enrolled in a private school and he made the decision to repeat junior year. The bad study habits, lack of passion, and lack of motivation that was brought over from the previous school came over to the new school. He got all A’s except for a B in Theology (first time taking a course like this) and a C/D in AP Calc BC (the background he received in Calc AB from the previous school was bad). He really stepped it up and rekindled his passion for academics as he scored a 35 on the ACT and became student body President (I was very surprised by this because it was just his first year there). Senior year, he so far has all A’s except a B in AP Stats. Does he have any shot at top 20 schools?
GPA UW: 3.26 W: 3.6 (School only weights AP classes)
ACT: 35
AP Classes: 13 through high school
Race: Asian (Permanent US Resident)
Extracurriculars:
President of Student Government
President of an ethnic diversity club
Trumpet for 6 years
3 College courses at University of Utah
Volunteer 2 hours a week at a nursing home for the past year and a half
Above plus various other volunteering opportunities total 400+ service hours
Varsity Golf past two years
Basketball Manager
Interned at two law firms during the past summer break
Church Youth Group President and Altar Service captain
Essay: I think it’s very good. He didn’t write about his rough transition, but about the importance of friends through a extended metaphor of a house.
Any advice/comments/criticism are appreciated. Thanks! Sorry for the long read.
What advice has he been given by the guidance counselors at his current high school? If they have had other transfer students like him, they will have some notion of where he is likely to be admitted.
top 20 colleges?
no. not a chance… top 20 colleges care IMMENSELY about BOTH standardized test scores and GPA. And there are just too many students applying to those same colleges who do have stellar GPA’s and test scores.
But there are lots of other colleges who would love him to go there because of his ACT score.
I hope he has a lot of safety and match schools on his list.
It seems that schools always like to admit a few who show promise. If he can write a compelling essay then I would say it’s worth applying if you think the top 20 is where he will thrive. Just make sure to have several matches and safeties on the list he would be happy with. A friend’s son had similar or lower GPA but had a boost in the last two years and scored 34 on the ACT. He did not apply to top 20 but was admitted to those with 40% acceptance rate (e.g. UMiami) and scholarships to his safeties (e.g. Hofstra). My S had a much better GPA and was accepted to similar schools with the exception that he received scholarships to his matches.
I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say it’s not a chance at any of the top 20 USNWR universities or colleges definitely the need to be extremely selective about what reaches get picked. The colleges would be better reaches than the universities. I agree with menloparkmom that the ACT will get him in at colleges and unis below those first top 20 universities and colleges. What kind of list you put together will factor not only his scores/grades but what your financial budget is. Are you full pay? Is he aiming at law school right now so liberal arts would be a great fit?
There isn’t really that much agreement about exactly which schools are in the top 20. There are some students who do well regardless of where they attend school. You could stick them in the most competitive environment or the least, and they’d be top of the class. But that isn’t your son. He has already shown you that he does well in certain environments and not others. I doubt that will change once he goes off to college. You stuck him in what was probably one of the most competitive public schools in your state and what happened? So why in the world would you want that repeated even if he could gain entry-which is unlikely anyway.
Forget about the “best” and help your son evaluate what will be the “best” for him. It isn’t an Ivy League school filled with tons of students who will try to cut your son to the quick if he tries to compete with them for class president! A score of 35 on the ACTs does not indicate any resurgence of passion for academics, by the way. Being inspired to write an article about a topic that he learned about in class would indicate that. The ACT score probably reflects private tutoring that was effective-suggesting that he does well in one to one learning situations. So give him a chance to love school by finding a college situation that best mirrors the high school situation he thrived in not the high school situation where he tanked.
Remember those kids in that competitive high school he hated? Consider the worst of those kids. Find schools that are not on their list!
Have to agree–don’t put him into hyper-competitive environments. So not Columbia, but also not Johns Hopkins or Reed.
I’m not really sure what “top 20” means to you. How is his ego? Can he take a lot of rejections? Because mostly, that’s what he’ll get. He might get into 1, if they love his story.
Oh–And not engineering or premed (at least not most places). Maybe some of the Quaker schools?
I presume that the OP is talking about the USNWR…many newish parents do use that shorthand. The top 20 universities almost all would be a waste of application dollars. The top 20 colleges (from USNWR) would be better reach choices. Just below the top 20 there are many regional choices that will welcome a 35 ACT and might be choices. The GPA centered ones (like UofM) will be reaches also with that unweighted GPA. But there are many possibilities for the OP with more information about finances, preferred region, preferred size of college or uni…all the normal things ones considers alongside the college ranking. Depending on major, the best choices could very easily be outside the top 20 universities and top 20 colleges listed by USNWR. The OP also has WUE options for safe choices.
Different colleges have different admission criteria. HYPSM… type highly selective, holistic colleges tend to place a heavy emphasis on GPA on transcript, so chance of acceptance is probably low, even with near perfect scores. However, some other top 20 schools, like Vanderbilt and WUSTL have a history of admitting students with near perfect scores and lower GPAs. This may relate to their emphasis on NMSs, and top scoring students being likely to be NMSs. Both Vanderbilt and WUSTL have more NMSs than Stanford, when you include school sponsored ones. That said I’d recommend choosing a college that fits best with criteria like goals, interests, desired majors/programs, location, size, general fit, … ; rather than choosing the highest USNWR ranked college where he can be accepted. You mentioned putting him in the highest ranked HS worked out very poorly, so when deciding on colleges you might try to focus on what went right and wrong at the different HSs, and look for a college with the characteristics that helped him be successful at the later HS.
I think he’s got a chance at some fairly highly ranked universities and LACs, but I agree with others I would think long and hard about what would be the best atmosphere for him. It sounds to me like he might like something smaller and more personalized.
He’s got a good story to tell. He needs to write about it – if not as as his main essay, then as an answer to the general questions on most apps as to whether there is anything else that the admission committees need to know. He’s obviously got the capacity to do well-- and he has made extra effort in high school to make up for deficits, showing responsibility and drive as he has matured. It sounds like the 15 year old who he once was would have been a bad bet for college…but the 19 year old who will be matriculating to some college next year seems quite promising.
He’s obviously better off targeting colleges with more holistic admission standards on the top end – though on the lower end his 35 ACT is going to pull up the threshold of what is a match or safety. By all means he should apply to one or two reach schools – why not? The worst that can happen is that he gets rejected by his reaches – and if so, there will be a lot of straight-A students in his company.
He just shouldn’t get his heart set on any reaches. But kid who decides on his own to repeat his high school junior year probably isn’t the type to get his heart set on unrealistic dreams. Sounds like the kid has a very good head on his shoulders… Just had the unfortunate experience of having been a teenager along the way.
Many students move around while in high school. It sounds like OP’s kid had a hard time handling “best school’s” rigorous curriculum, and now he is doing better at a smaller private school. As a parent, we may think it is an interesting story, but to others it may sound like the student could do better at a smaller LAC or he has a hard time adjusting to new environment.
Instead of focusing on getting the student into a highly rigorous top 20 schools, OP may be better off in trying to find a school that’s a good fit for her son. I think there are some lessons learned here.
The top 20 schools are really difficult to get into, so at most apply to 1 or 2 and realize they are unlikely to happen (and if they do, congratulations). The kids who got a 4.0 at that competitive high school while being state ranked athletes or starting businesses or doing medical research will get in before your son.
UC Colorado -Boulder, $28K in-state … it seems like a good choice, but I just think Boulder is beautiful and UColo is a good school.
Smaller schools may work well too, if you can afford them … But any school in the top 100 is good, not just the top 20 (and I would say a top 20 school admit would likely have been able to thrive in that public HS, unless there were major personal or maturity issues). Does Colorado or WEU have some smaller schools ? Should he stay close to home or is he ready to move far away ?
I tend to agree with people that his high school experience points to a supportive small college or university environment.
He could try to address his high school experiences in an essay and see if it work out. A really good description of his experience would be a really good essay, a mediocre one will just point out the obvious.
your son sounds like an amazing student but off the cuff, IMO any college/university in the top 40 would be at least a mini reach. op, I do agree with other posters on fit.