My younger son is a junior. I just want to get an idea of what are his chances of getting into some schools (reach, match, safety). I am not sure what he wants to major in.
Below are his test scores and academic stats:
ACT 34
SAT 1570 (Math - 800, Verbal - 770)
SAT Math 2 - 800
SAT World History - 700
PSAT - 1500 (Math - 760 perfect score, Verbal - 740), with index 224 so most likely he’ll be a National Merit Semifinalist
GPA 3.5 UW, 4.0 W
Current Junior year courses: AP Calculus AB, AP Physics 1, AP Chem, AP US History, AP Econ, AP Lang, Spanish 3
Senior year courses: AP Physics C, AP Statistics, AP Lit, AP Gov, Spanish 4, Oceanography, Debate
(He’s thinking of replacing AP Statistics with AP Calculus BC - but not sure if that helps anything.)
EC:
NIH 8-week paid internship during summer of junior year - doing research at National Cancer Institute
Co-founder & President for a non-profit tutoring kids K-8
Boy Scout
Varsity Track
Varsity Debate Team
Key Club
Kumon tutor
Math Honors Society
National Honors Society
First Place Team in Science Fair competition
He’s taking the SAT Chem test next month.
We’re from Virginia. Which schools that he can or should apply? Thanks in advance for any feedback.
Definitely should apply for UVA of course. GPA is kinda low and EC’s are kinda bland. But his testing scores are pretty spot on! I’d say he has a good shot at Emory, maybe Wustl, tufts (esp if ED), and Carnegie Mellon for some reachy (but not too much of a reach school). Gpa kinda brings him down and I can’t really tell what his interests are based on his EC’s do you have any schools in mind? I think chancing is easier than making a list, just cause you know your son and his interests better than I do (ex: would you consider Cali? Southern schools? New England?)
Agree Calc BC is more impressive than Stats especially if he is thinking of going STEM. I think you need to visit a few schools to see what he looking for - small vs. large, rural vs. urban. I think UVA and W&M are pretty good matches for him. VTech is probably a match/safety. Each are different and some kids like one over the other. Is there a budget? Does he want to stay close to home?
The GPA is a little low. Did your son have a poor freshman year? Has he shown a rise in grades? If he gets straight As first semester of senior year AND if his freshman year was the reason why his GPA is so low, than I’d say he can go ahead and throw applications in to some ivies
Thanks all for your replies.
He just had mostly B, B+ for both freshman and sophomore years. Some As in electives like Spanish, PE, Art. Only 1 C+ in freshman year for English Honors. He took all Honors classes. Took AP Computer Science and AP World last year. But for unweighted, that’s about right, since B = 3.0, and B+ = 3.3.
We see more As this junior year so far (AP Calculus AB, AP Chem, AP US History, AP Econ).
If he applies any early action/early decision, I don’t know if senior year grades will count. Should he apply to any Ivy at all? or that’s too unrealistic ? He doesn’t want to stay close to home though, so out of state won’t be a problem. Maybe it will be matter for us parents more lol
I need some advices here. Appreciate any input …thanks in advance.
Son decides not to take BC this Falls because of the BC teacher. Beginning of this year when he switched from BC to AB, the teacher was not happy and mentioned about it in all her BC classes that “anyone who takes AB in junior year pr switch from BC to AB should not sign up for BC in her class in senior year …” (just general what she was saying, not exact words), but his friends were telling him about it, and I also heard that. She didn’t mention him name, but they all knew she was referring to him as he was the only one switching that time. Unfortunately, she’s the only one BC teacher in the school. My son got A now for AB, and I told him to just take BC and just ignore what the teacher said. She probably did not mean much when she said that or even forgot about it already. But son still refuses to sign up for it. He said he can take any course, but not BC. So should I tell him to sign up for AP Biology instead ? in case he wants to apply for some selective colleges, will not taking BC hurt his chance ?
Senior year courses:
AP Literature
AP Statistics
AP Physics C
AP Government
Debate
Oceanography
Spanish 4
do you have any schools in mind? I think chancing is easier than making a list, just cause you know your son and his interests better than I do 
(ex: would you consider Cali? Southern schools? New England?)