<p>My son is a junior at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Northern Virginia. He has an SAT score of 2250 on his first try but plans to retake it. He got a 2350 on his PSAT so has a good shot at being a national merit scholar. He has gotten all A’s in math and science, has taken plenty of AP courses, with B’s in German and English, both of which he dislikes. He should have a weighted 4.25 or 4.30 at the end of his junior year, a little north of 3.8 unweighted. He got 800’s on his chemistry and math SAT II’s. He will be working as an intern in a chemistry lab at Georgetown this summer for the second year in a row. The professor loves him. He currently wants to be a research scientist in physics or chemistry. </p>
<p>He (and we) feel he would be most comfortable at an LAC or mid-sized university. He has narrowed his field of schools he is interested enough to visit to the following.</p>
<p>MIT
Caltech
WUSTL
Carnegie Mellon
Chicago
Duke
Haverford (legacy)
Swarthmore (legacy)
Bowdoin (legacy)
Wesleyan
Williams
Amherst
Reed</p>
<p>Obviously, MIT, Caltech and Chicago have national reputations in the hard sciences and math. But how would you rank the rest. Are they all strong for someone who wants to go on to a top graduate school?</p>
<p>Also, any suggestions about good safety schools for him?</p>
<p>Any LAC will be great for preparing him for graduate studies. I’m a student at Amherst, and though I can’t speak about science at any of the other colleges, I feel that the reputation of Amherst as a humanities and social studies school belies its excellence in the sciences. Our facilities might not be as good as Grinnell’s or William’s, but our faculty is probably just as good and the opportunities for on-campus research are abundant. My point is that usually, if you’ve gotten yourself into a top tier school whose community you’re happy to be a part of, you can engage in whatever you want and excel in it. </p>
<p>All the schools on your list are strong for someone who wants to go on to graduate school, but your son may prefer the science departments at some schools over others. If I were him, my move right now would be to decide on the size of my ideal school. The culture at LACs and big universities are different, socially and academically speaking. This might be just my opinion, but I feel that the sciences are better represented at big universities. That said, many small schools are just as good as educating its science majors. </p>
<p>As for other college recommendations… Harvey Mudd (reach), Grinnell, UVA, Tufts (this is great if you’re looking for mid-sized). Safeties might be a few tier-2 LACs such as Pitzer.</p>
<p>That is a mighty impressive list of schools you have, and based on the objective facts, your son has all the right academic credentials…perhaps too much. Does he like to play video games and watch funny videos on YouTube? I hope so.</p>
<p>Although my experience is by no means analogous to your sons, I went to Bowdoin with every expectation that I would not major in anything math related. I hated it in high school. I excelled in writing and was determined to become a journalist. This is coming from someone who ended up being an econ-maths and history major (the history major was predictable). The point I am trying to get across is that any 17-18 year old really has yet to realize what he/she is capable of. Your son may love science but has he taken an econ course? He may take a college physics course and fall flat on his face (the AP experience really doesnt count for much at places like Swarthmore, Bowdoin, MIT, etc.). </p>
<p>What was eye opening about Bowdoin was that my world went from prep school, crew practice and getting into college to literally no limits. Everyday, I am with people who are going to work/study for the best in their respective fields. I know the physics major that is going to Caltech for his PhD despite the disadvantage of not having the same opportunities or resources as the physics major from MIT. I know the Asian Studies major who will me going to McKinsey despite not having gone to a Wharton or Ross. I cant keep count of all my classmates who are going to med school despite not having a designated pre-med major, beating out a lot of students who dedicate their entire undergraduate careers to gain every advantage to get into med-school. It is nice knowing that in my old age, I will have friends who will become leaders in a variety of fields. If you would have asked a 17 year old me what I thought of Booz & Co., I would have had no idea, but Bowdoin was able to explode my horizons into the world of strategy consulting (I will be a strategy consultant for Booz after graduation).</p>
<p>All of the schools youve listed are institutions that will in no way hold your son back from any field he may want to pursue. If he is dead set on going into science, then Swarthmore would be a great back up for him as a legacy. If he wants to really reach beyond his current comfort zone, I cant speak more highly of places that offer a liberal arts education. Harvard, Bowdoin, Williams, Amherst are just a small handful of places that offer the liberal arts and also open the doors to the elite corners of every field whether it be science, business or the humanities. And although Caltech undoubtedly is a fantastic institution, it doesnt quite have the same power to not only open a variety doors but also show your son the boundless possibilities of having a bright mind. Then again the is the argument for everyone who is for the liberal arts. And to be honest, the liberal arts are not for everyone. You may know your son better than he knows himself, but the crux of the liberal arts education is that your son needs to know himself better than anyone else to make the right choices in his life. That I can guarantee at a liberal arts college. If at a liberal arts he realizes that his passion for science may have been better served at a research university, he could only have been certain of that because of a liberal arts education. And for me, I dont see that scenario as a bad one. For one, it is very unlikely that having excelled and majored in physics (for example) at Bowdoin instead of a place like CalTech will put really put him in a major disadvantage for graduate programs. Is there a disadvantage yes, but only minute at best.</p>
<p>I would say that the small LACs (Williams, Amherst, etc.) will be pretty good for getting into graduate school. Historically, the number of students getting into top graduate schools has been high for really most of these colleges. Is he considering Cornell? They have one of the best engineering programs in the Ivies and their Arts and Sciences college has physics and chemistry departments. For safeties, the usual for TJ are VTech, UVA, and William and Mary. With those scores, as long as he writes good essays for those three schools, he’s very likely to get in. He could also take a look at University of Pittsburgh’s Honor Program, which is quite a bit harder to get into, but very good. Good luck!</p>
<p>I would recommend Williams or Swarthmore. Great science programs (Bio, Chem and Physics). Swat has the highest per capita number of science nobel laureates among its alumni and the highest proportion of graduates going on to PhD’s. MIT is also great, but isn’t exactly a LAC or terribly intimate.</p>
<p>Wesleyan represents a nice medium between a normal LAC and a big university; it’s the only Carnegie Foundation classified Baccalaueate College (LAC) with Ph.D programs in the sciences. It means research can be conducted all year round and not merely when the professors are on summer break or sabbatical. </p>
<p>Haverford’s retiring president is a stem-cell research scientist by specialty and has done a fine job attracting money and constructing new facilities in the Life Sciences. He’ll be returning to teaching in a year or so.</p>