<p>My son is a junior in high school and is looking at the following schools:</p>
<p>USC, Syracuse, Penn State, University of Cincinnati, KU, University of Illinois. KU and UIUC more as backups.</p>
<p>His current grades:</p>
<p>weighted: 5.30
non-weighted: 4.95 (out of 5.00)
Rank: 29 out of 590</p>
<p>ACT: 31</p>
<p>currently has AP physics, AP Calculus, AP English</p>
<p>Is taking art classes both semesters this year and next.</p>
<p>As part of the talent development program he is interning at an architecture firm for credit for a semester.</p>
<p>Has had architectural drawing and advanced architectural drawing. As part of the advanced architectural drawing class is a competition among the districts 6 high schools (9 teams total). They complete plans for a house. The winner has his house built. My son's plans won and the architect on the project has changed very little of his plan. The house is currently being built (price about $600,000 and a ranch). His school uses Autocad. </p>
<p>Besides a topnotch portfolio (he is currently putting the finishing touches on his portfolio), does anyone have any comments about his ability to get into his list of schools? He is thinking about retaking the ACT to see if he can get it higher. Is it worth it?</p>
<p>I am a student at KU. I was accepted with fewer credentials than that. I think your son has an excellent chance at getting into any school he likes. As far as retaking his ACT, he wouldn't need to for KU. </p>
<p>KU is quickly moving up on the rankings as one of the top 10 Arch schools in the nation. They focused a lot on practical knowledge of the build environment. With classes like acoustics, structures, and then the 800 level graduate classes where several students are chosen to design and build actual houses, you can't go wrong. KU is also very highly focused on design and their studios. We build a ton of models and do more freehand drawings than one might like. </p>
<p>I think your son should visit the campus. You will first meet with the Arch Dean, Mike Swann. He will tell you exactly where your son stands and what his chances are to be accepted. Then he will have an Arch student show you and your son around campus. I was a transfer student so I didn't get all the bells and whistles that freshmen get, but I can tell you, they have a great workshop facility that is open to the students to aid in their model building and later real buildings.</p>
<p>You may want to hurry though. Priority deadline for fall 2008 was Dec. 1st.</p>
<p>brothel,
Msheft's son doesn't need to hurry. He is a junior. </p>
<p>Msheft,</p>
<p>Based on what you shared, I think your son's profile is on the mark for those schools. The most selective one on the list ACADEMICALLY SPEAKING (not counting the arch porfolio end of it) is USC. Your son's stats are fine for USC as well. The mid 50% range of accepted students into all of USC is 28-32 and so your son's 31 is above the 50% mark of admitted students. In my view, he doesn't need to retake the ACT. The average GPA accepted there is 3.7 (your son's is above that once an equivalency is figured). 86% of those admitted are from the top 10% of their HS class and your son is in that range. Does this mean he WILL get in? No. With an acceptance rate of 25% for the university (and I don't know it for the arch program itself), qualified people can still be turned away. But the thing is, your son has the RIGHT qualifications for USC and the other schools as well. I don't think he needs to retake the exam. The fact that this early he has a portfolio in the works, has taken coursework and an internship are all great. I am impressed that your school has arch classes for high school. Ours did not. The fact that your son won that competition not only is a wonderful achievement on his application resume but also speaks to the quality/level of his work as being competitive and so it is a benchmark among other qualified candidates that you have an idea he is a competitive candidate. Also, AP Calc and AP Physics as a junior is advanced. </p>
<p>I say kudos to him on what he has achieved so far. Frankly, he could possibly be competitive for harder schools like Cornell or Rice, but maybe he has a reason he doesn't want Cornell or Rice. The other schools are certainly fine ones as well. USC is certainly a selective school. Did he ever look into Carnegie Mellon? In any case, his list is appropriate vis a vis his qualifications and if anything, he could add some on the more selective end.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply. As a sophomore, he had Cal Poly SLO, Cornell, RISD, Cal Berkley, Iowa State, and Arizona State on his list besides the ones I stated. An architect in the Phoenix area (32 years old and has his own firm and the firm is rated as No. 4 in the area) sat down with my son for about 2 hours and talked to him about being an architect and his list of schools. The architect indicated what each of the schools stress and their philosophy. From that, my son eliminated these six. He also went through the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture's Guide to Architecture Schools. After all this, Cornell, Iowa State, ASU, RISD, and Cal Poly did not appeal to him. He likes Cal Berkley but really prefers the 5 year program rather than 4+2. The only reason U of Illinois is on the list is it is an instate school for him (we live in the Chicago area) and Cincinnati is on the list because he likes their coop program. He also has a preference for Northeast, Midwest and West. That leaves out Texas and Rice.</p>
<p>This past summer he visited USC and loved the place (and California). This summer we will be taking him to visit Penn St, Syracuse and Cincinnati. </p>
<p>He has been taking art classes (classes and private lessons) from an art school since he was 5 years old (at his request not ours).</p>
<p>msheft, your son is going about selecting schools in the right way. He is exploring them in depth for fit and so is making wise choices. I'm glad you also can do some visits. Not sure if he looked into CMU. But overall, he has a wise list based on thorough exploration which is exactly what prospective students need to do. He is on the right track. Each candidate should have their personal list of college criteria and explore schools in depth to see which ones meet their criteria the closest. I've got a D going through this process once again, but for admission to MArch grad schools. For instance, like your son, she doesn't want the south and that ruled out Rice.</p>