<p>Both Georgetown and Carleton seem like fairly significant reaches to me, based on what you’ve told us.</p>
<p>Carleton is a definite reach, but not unrealistic. They are need-aware for the borderline 10% or so.</p>
<p>Keil…why do say that they’re need aware for the borderline 10%? Is that a guess?</p>
<p>Nope, not a guess–the information is public, though I’m not of a mind to dig it out from their website. Carleton has an FA budget every year, and accepts need-blind until that budget is used up–the remaining need-aware acceptances have fluctuated from a few percent to I think around 10% this past year, although I’m fuzzy on the numbers.</p>
<p>Monydad, I’d figure out where he ranks. Start by getting a copy of the school profile and talking to his counselor. These colleges will know where he ranks and a shot at Gtown or Carleton will very much depend on rank even though there is no official one.</p>
<p>I’d say he has a much better chance at schools in the MW and South like Carleton and Davidson than many on the E. Coast that see tons of candidates from the NY area. The strong CR/writing is a big plus. If rank is strong, I wouldn’t hesitate trying at all but the top 15 or so.</p>
<p>Without knowing much about where you son stands in his class – how about Claremont McKenna College? The school requires all of its students to take courses across the gamut – from the social and natural sciences to the humanities; this might light a spark in him academic-interest-wise, or at a minimum confirm what areas of study he definitely wouldn’t want to pursue.</p>
<p>CMC may (or may not) be somewhat of a reach, but either way I would imagine that your non-California residency would improve the odds of gaining acceptance. Their website shows 34 percent of their latest incoming class as California residents. I’m not sure if that’s particularly high or low for a school of its caliber (or if it matters at all).</p>
<p>CMC is definitely a reach–reachable like Carleton, less selective than (not realistically reachable, IMO) Pomona.</p>
<p>I imagine sometime on the next few months they will have the initial “college kickoff” meeting with guidance counselor, I will ask about the whole rank thing, how that all works and where he stands. Since they don’t publish a ranking so far as I know. Whatever it is, it will obviously be hurt by the grade in that one math course, that’s the only disaster. </p>
<p>But then there’s the issue of (higher) grades in non-honors science/ math vs. (lower)grades in honors. Guidance counselor has previously said that colleges recompute GPA for themselves,give their own "bonus points’ as they see fit, don;t just take the high school’s weighting (or non-weighting, in this case). So I don’t know how I would figure it, Since I am not a college and do not have their formulae.</p>
<p>Certainly their kids go to college, so this must get figured out somehow.</p>
<p>This never came up there with D2 since she transferred into there junior year,had no low grades, no non-honors and is not lopsided.</p>
<p>“The school requires all of its students to take courses across the gamut …”</p>
<p>A common situation, and one that is frankly less appealing to someone who is relatively weak in certain areas, and might want to avoid or downplay them.
I imagine that, given choices, he’ll be preferring the schools with the more lax distribution requirements, and more “physics for poets” courses if he needs to go that route. He’s not real impassioned about foreign languages either. Not horrible at it, just no real interest.</p>
<p>On that note, I want to throw in the Grinnell has no distribution requirements at all, which might appeal to your S if he really doesn’t want to ‘eat his Wheaties’ yet again.</p>
<p>monydad, </p>
<p>My son is lopsided too… and he wanted an open curriculum school, rather difficult to find except among very selective schools. He is extremely happy at Sarah Lawrence. It’s a fantastic school for him with very small classes and a ton of 1:1 interaction with extremely dedicated professors. Lopsided M/F ratio works fine for him 
Worth a look!</p>
<p>Re schools in the midwest…</p>
<p>If you are considering Carleton, then you should also look at the slightly less reachy Macalester (and possibly St. Olaf’s).</p>
<p>Another very interesting, less-reachy midwestern LAC to consider that I don’t think I’ve seen mentioned here is Earlham. Its general reputation is very good. Personally, I know several very independent-minded, intellectually-inclined people who are grads or current students.</p>
<p>A probable safety for him to consider is the College of Wooster: it’s another school that is easier to get into that has a reputation for accommodating students who are more intellectual than the school’s stats would indicate, and developing the intellectual qualities of students beyond that which <em>their</em> stats would indicate. :)</p>
<p>I was thinking he might be less political than my image of a Macalester steretotype, and a less artsy than Sarah Lawrence.</p>
<p>But I’ll put them on the list.</p>
<p>For a boy, Vassar is probably realistic. Males admitted at 35% rate (as I recall) and females at 20% rate! Check out the ratios for male female admist on the common data sets before making your decision on how reachy some of the schools are. </p>
<p>Most schools are lopsided in male / female enrollment. The most selective are less so, but beyond that, the typical student body at many LACs is closer to 60 - 40, not 50 - 50.</p>