<p>^^^I do agree that a consultant or someone with good marketing/writing skill could help showcase OP’s son better. Most of us ,in just reading OP’s descrtiption of her son, he sounds very much like a typical Asian kid. Some of us may even assume he is practicing 3 hours a day because of tiger mother, but in truth it could very well be his true passion.</p>
<p>OP - You probably get a better picture for your son by looking at the acceptance history at your son’s school. In the last 5 years, my kids’ school had about 10-11 kids admitted to HYP and 9-10 of them were Asian. Harvard took about 7-8 kids and 3 of them were admitted because of musical talent. Yale only admitted 2 kids and 1 of them had musical talent.</p>
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<p>I don’t know many Asian kids, but where do people get the impression that most Asian kids are that good?</p>
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<p>I wonder if only MP3 files are available, can people tell a Korean/Chinese musician (lacking in musicality) from others?</p>
<p>OP’s S will get into a good school, not necessarily YHP. He might want to go to somewhere else.</p>
<p>I am Asian, and they are that good. My kids are half Asians, so they are only half as good.</p>
<p>Where did the OP said that her/his kid is Asian?</p>
<p>The second sentence of the original post, she notes he is an Asian male.</p>
<p>Missed that, thanks :)</p>
<p>oldfort is funny. You say so maybe because you know your kids are not on CC.</p>
<p>The OP’s S’s test scores are interesting also, only 2 800s and the rest with little variability. Why a math kid got SAT I math 780 and Math II 790?</p>
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<p>Consider schools with strong graduate math programs. A student who has already aced two university math courses (presumably university sophomore level) by junior year in high school will likely be one to start taking graduate level math courses during undergraduate. An undergraduate-only school may be too limiting for such a student.</p>
<p>Also consider whether the school has strong programs in math-related fields like statistics, computer science, economics, and finance.</p>
<p>Non-Ivy schools strong in most of these subjects include MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, and Chicago. Maryland College Park is also quite strong even though it is usually a few ranking spots lower.</p>
<p>Oh good grief lake! does it matter? Talk about hair splitting.</p>
<p>Coolweather- as hard as it may be to believe, there are 30,000 hs in this country and only a relative handful have any kid apply to HYP, much less multiple kids. The advice to “look at the pattern of your high school” is useless outside a small number of elite private and rich publics.</p>
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My math kid - who was taking Linear Algebra as a senior - only got a 770 on the SAT1 math. That was one stupid mistake. As it happened on a 4th grade level problem - it involved counting tiles that would cover a bathroom floor. SAT math is so easy for him he didn’t check his work carefully enough and he made one or two dumb mistakes every time he took the test. He got 800s on the CR every time he took it, though he also made a couple of mistakes each time.</p>
<p>Our high school is big enough that you can make pretty good predictions about the likelihood of getting into most elite colleges. For example, every year 2-3 kids get into Harvard. They are always in the top 2% of the class, always have a WGPA over 100. In a certain range, it looks like about a 50% chance of getting in, and historically there’s a 25% acceptance rate for the students who apply. I think for east coast schools this is likely a common pattern, probably less so in the rest of the country. I really wouldn’t characterize our school as a rich public, though we are obviously better off than many schools in the country.</p>
<p>“@MiamiDAP - I’d imagine the concern is for two reasons. If an Ivy isn’t the best fit, the child may not be as successful in college (and so afterwards) as if the child were at a very good school that’s a better fit.”</p>
<p>-I agree with you 100% that Ivy is not for everybody. My D. stated several times that it is not for her.
But it is not what OP has asked. They did not ask for advice on being fit to Ivy’s or not. They have asked for chances at being accepted. They have decided already that child fits and financial side is no concern and many other aspects of going to Ivy’s. So, I am not sure why we are advising on fit/match when it is not OP’s concern.
I agree with you 100% that Ivy is not for everybody. My D. stated several times that it is not for her.</p>
<p>Was busy yesterday so didn’t read the thread. Thank you all, whether the post is advice or lecture!!! Truly I didn’t know a thing about college app. In my 2nd post, I even asked what ED means, lol. Started the thread with Ivy because that’s what S wanted. As first generation immigrants, hubby and I had to make decisions because of financial constraints. We could only go to places that offered us TA assistantship. Now that we are okay financially, I just wanted S to be able to fulfill his dream.
Some of the postings do get me thinking though. Regarding SATIIs, it never came cross our mind that you won’t do it, especially right after the AP exams in May. I thought it’s a natural thing to do. Hope this won’t affect his chance.
He is a good, but not perfect, test taker, if you know what I mean. That’s why he doesn’t get perfect 800s. He is the type that if you ask him how was the exam, if he says “it’s easy”, we know it might be a problem… He does well working with open ended questions, try and error, he gets careless sometimes when the problem is easy.
One more question – prior to entering high school, he was accepted by the extremely selective math & science magnet program and also the IB program at the same time. The M&S program produces many Intel semi-finalists each year …. He decided not to attend either one of them because he wanted to be able to keep his intensive music training and travel schedule. This decision broke our heart because (1) most kids in our close Asian circle went to that program and many eventually went to MIT or CalTech (last year 13 were accepted to MIT, out of 100), and (2) as a child of PhD parents and scientists grandparents, I just assumed all along this is his path. In the end we agreed with his decision. At our local HS though, he took on the most challenging courses. Should we mention this in the college apps? Would this make him look less a typical Asian who is obsessed with testing taking? Would this make the admission folks think that he was afraid of challenges, which won’t be fair?</p>
<p>fiveacres: I think your son’s decision to focus on his music was brilliant. His scores make him an amazing test taker. </p>
<p>If he emphasizes his music in his applications and sends in arts supplements I think he will have many, many wonderful options to choose from.</p>
<p>He shouldn’t write an essay that lists his accomplishments or talks about how hard he practices. He should find some interesting angle for his essay. Not this, but this is just an example – from playing his music what it would be like meeting Bach or something like that. Or why a particular piece is his favorite and what it means to him.</p>
<p>My S is a pianist and a violinist and did some composing. He sent CD’s of all his work, three – one for strings (violin and viola), one for piano, and one for his compositions to all his schools. </p>
<p>I think your S should consider Williams and Wesleyan, top LAC’s that have serious science and math and serious music programs. Not instead of the Ivies, just along with.</p>
<p>My S wrote his essay on how much he loves Star Wars from the perspective of the study of myth and Joseph Campbell. In it he talked about what John Williams’ music meant to him (along with a lot of other aspects of the films.) His school sends personal notes to all acceptees, and his involved Classics, music and his love of Star Wars.</p>
<p>His final assignment (he graduates on Sunday) was an oral project on the musical treatment of the Aeneas myth in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. My only point here is that he was able to maintain his interests all through college.</p>
<p>Your son needs to show how his passion for music will make the college community he attends enriched and how the other kids will benefit from having them there.</p>
<p>I think he is a brilliant kid with a great heart who is deeply committed to some very important things. Congratulations!</p>
<p>I went to Yale years ago and currently do alumni admissions interviews for the school so I get to see each year the latest crop of seniors. Your stats are very average for the 22,000 other kids that will be applying to these top schools (that is 22,000 each school). Your community service looks a little weak. You will be competing against kids who started hospitals in Bosnia, dug water irrigation systems in the Sahara, or something like that - just saying. They have admit rates of 7-9% so a lot of talented and smart kids don’t get in. My daughter, who is going to one of the best private schools in the District, has staight A’s, comes from a feeder school to the Ivies and has a lot of extra curricular activities including AAU volleyball, still is a long shot and I am preparing her for the very real fact that she probably will not get in (especially since our name is not on any of the buildings there!).</p>
<p>Like others said, if he has the stats for the Ivies, he will definitely get into other great schools. While an Yale diploma has opened doors for me (especially in the beginning of my career), after 26 years of working, my experience is more important. Also, ironically, I have had to work for many bosses from lesser known schools that have done really well for themselves.</p>
<p>I say go for it - apply. But keep other options open. There are plenty of non-Ivy schools that have fantastic music programs. Good luck.</p>
<p>You are right. I went to Yale. The Ivies are very different (I would die before I let my child go to Princeton, for example). Look beyond the names and find the right fit for your child. He will be a success whereever he decides to go.</p>
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<p>MIT and Caltech aren’t for everybody. Neither are Harvard, Yale and Princeton. I mean this with all due respect, but your family seems to be stuck on a few brand names --and then the state schools with which you have experience – and what we are gently trying to tell you is that there are a lot of elite private schools out there, not just the Ivies / MIT / Caltech. HYP plus state school isn’t a very good strategy, because the chances for not making HYP are so high. We are asking you to PLEASE consider other top 30 or so universities and to take a look at the corresponding LAC’s.</p>
<p>Math I and II - The curve for Math I is much harder like SAT I Math where one or two wrong drops you out of 800. Math II on the other hand you could probably get 4-6 wrong and still get an 800.</p>
<p>OP - mentioning the missed opportunities actually makes no difference on a college app. You chose not to go a school for high school is not relevant whatsoever because in my town, there are 5 different variations of public high schools people can apply to and get in that are unique in their own way. It is no way relevant that they ended up going to a specific one and declined the other 4.</p>
<p>Oldfort - I am guessing your kids are twice as good instead of half since they are only half asian like Amy Chua’s daughters!</p>
<p>Btw - Yale had 28,000 and Harvard had 35,000 applications.</p>
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<p>I am curious about this. Is this an American high school student who headed a project and navigated all the logistics to start a hospital in Bosnia? Without significant assistance from some other group or individual? That’s extremely impressive - I always assumed “starting a hospital” was a fairly massive and all encompassing undertaking.</p>
<p>I can see participating in such a project, or heading up a siginficant fundraiser for this goal.</p>
<p>No, how about the 22,000+ applicants at each school? I went to Yale in 1978 - not a chance in heck I would get in now.</p>