<p>My son is a senior @ quality public high school in the northeast.
many honor & AP classes
3.75 GPA weighted
jazz guitar 7 years
jazz band 2 years
volunteer 25 - 50 hours
stock club
french club
starting photography club
track 1 year
part-time job</p>
<p>SAT 2040
ACT 28</p>
<p>Current list:
NYU (social life?)
Bard (too rural?)
Vassar (a reach)
Binghamton (weather = a negative)
Univ of Rochester (same as above)
Univ of Miami
Univ of Calif santa cruz
Occidental
New College of Florida (not enough structure?)
Muhlenberg
Oberlin (reach)
College of Charleston</p>
<p>Looking for quality academics - not interested in party/football/frat school - dislikes jappy/preppy atmosphere. prefers proximity to interesting city (for music & arts)... also prefers mild weather...</p>
<p>Are you looking for merit-based and/or need-based financial aid? What is your budget? What does he want to study?</p>
<p>“Proximity” to an interesting city can mean different things. There’s a world of difference between getting to NYC from NYU versus Bard/Vassar/Muhlenberg. Similarly, Oberlin and Cleveland.</p>
<p>UC Santa Cruz doesn’t make sense on this list, and I’m an old alum of the school. These days, it’s a large public university where you’d have to pay out-of-state tuition. Other schools on your son’s list are small liberal arts colleges offering lots of personal attention and service.</p>
<p>Your son’s weighted gpa is low, but the ACT and SAT scores could make him an interesting candidate at Pitzer College in Southern California. It’s one of the Claremont Colleges. You might add it along with Occidental.</p>
<p>But given that he put UCSC on his list and wants an interesting city and mild weather, I’m wondering why he hasn’t considered colleges and universities in the Pacific Northwest. Lewis and Clark College, just on the outskirts of Portland; Willamette University in Salem, Oregon’s state capital (landed among the top dozen schools on US News & World Report’s list of “Up and Coming” U.S. Colleges and Universities), or the University of Puget Sound in Washington could all be pretty interesting. Finally, a much more vibrant state university smack in the center of a fascinating city is the University of Washington in Seattle. I think he might be a match for the school, and it would be a better choice than UCSC, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that many colleges will consider only the unweighted gpa. Do a calculation of that for yourself as well.</p>
<p>Merit-based aid would be nice, but not necessary. We would pay for an excellent fit & quality academics. He is most likely a liberal arts major; he is interested in photography, psychology, & music. He is a talented writer (710 on the SAT writing).
I think he would be happier if he were close to an interesting city (ie. NYU) or town.
CalAlum, do you think he could get into Pitzer? We heard it would be an extreme reach. Thank you for the Pacific Northwest ideas…!</p>
<p>Yes, I think your son would have a better chance at Pitzer than at Vassar. From Pitzer’s Common Data set: [Pitzer</a> College - Offices - Institutional Research - Common Data Set 2008-2009](<a href=“http://www.pitzer.edu/offices/institutional_research/data/cds/CDS2008_09.asp#C]Pitzer”>http://www.pitzer.edu/offices/institutional_research/data/cds/CDS2008_09.asp#C)</p>
<p>Average ACT score of admitted students = 27.2
Average SAT reading plus math scores = 1265
Average gpa=3.75. 54% of admitted students had a gpa higher than 3.75. This is probably an unweighted gpa, however.</p>
<p>NYU social life is a great place for the right person. Student must be OK with not having a traditional campus. My child loves it and has made many friends. Not a jock/preppy scene at all. She really enjoys taking advantage of the things the city has to offer.</p>
<p>NYU is not very good with merit aid and to be really honest here, don’t expect any. They require REALLY high stats.</p>
<p>Make sure that you visit first. Also, the weather is not really “mild”, although since you are from the northeast, your S may be OK with it if he likes the school.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I’d take NYU off the list, for starters. If he wants a school near NYC, he might take a look at Sarah Lawrence, which is a really interesting place and less reachy than Vassar.</p>
<p>Is it safe to assume that he has ruled out Boston? Otherwise there are several choices there.</p>
<p>Why take NYU off the list? He has legacy there also.</p>
<p>He wasn’t crazy about Boston (although he may reconsider BU at some point). I think the weather is a negative.</p>
<p>I thought he wanted a school with mild weather, and he seems to have a lot of LACs on the list. Also, you expressed concern about the social situation there. </p>
<p>Also, I must admit, that NYU, with the possible exception of the Tisch school, strikes me as over-rated and over-priced. But that’s just my view.</p>
<p>Boston has a very lively arts scene, especially in jazz.</p>
<p>any other schools he should consider?</p>
<p>Tulane certainly has party aspects, but it’s warm and there are good academics and there is the city/music/culture aspect. Rhodes College in Memphis, one of the so-called Colleges That Change Lives. University of Oregon is a big football school but may have other aspects that your son would enjoy, and the OOS COA is over $10k less than for UCSC.</p>
<p>Just to weigh in a little, I suspect that gpa for Pitzer is weighted. Schools like Princeton that calculate their GPA as per the CDS instructions are around 3.79-3.84. I would bet a ton that 3.75 is weighted. Pitzer not alone in this, a lot of schools report GPA’s like 4.1 and 4.2, so clearly they also are not following the instructions to calculate on a 4.0 scale. Also, a 3.75 weighted is more consistent with their SAT score range and the fact that they report 47% in top 10% of class. An unweighted 3.75 would have that at more like 90%.</p>
<p>Anyway, Tulane is a possibility, as was stated, as is Miami (FL). Neither is really any more of a party school than most others, they just happen to be in fun locations. His mild weather preference rules out Chicago and Boston as locations, and St. Louis is borderline. He could look at UT Dallas, it is a school on the rise I think. Also there is College of Charleston, a charming city. Both of those would be safeties, I think.</p>
<p>I would suggest UNC Asheville. Fits academically - good for students who are more into music/art than sports - Asheville is supposed to be a lot of fun - good weather. Not preppy from what I have read - more mellow/hippie vibe.</p>
<p>Thank you. He is really excited about adding Pitzer to his list.
We were told by an overpaid college consultant that Tulane is too much of a sports/party school & he wouldn’t fit in, however, he may add it to his list anyway.
What about Colorado College?</p>
<p>I hate to say it, but you definitely overpaid for that consultant. Sports??? Tulane??? In the same sentence??? Uhhhh, no. Teams not very good, rather poor attendance. Baseball the only exception, and they even had kind of an off year (for them). They are just now addressing the football/basketball issue, but it will take a few years.</p>
<p>The party reputation is overblown, I guarantee. As an aluim and now a Tulane parent, it is like every other school. You can go out and get drunk every night if you want (although you will flunk out, kids going there now will tell you Tulane is no cakewalk), or you can not drink at all, or take a middle road.</p>
<p>Colorado College seems to be an up and comer, popularity rising quickly. But I don’t know many details.</p>
<p>I suggest Rollins College in Winter Park, right outside of Orlando, a city that has nice weather, small classes, and great arts, far beyond what Disney offers.</p>
<p>My son is a theater major there and loves it.</p>
<p>I think he’ll add Tulane back on his list, no thanks to the “independent educational consultant” (that’s another post)!
Rollins College has a big greek life, which is a negative for my son.
Is Vassar too much of a reach? He loved it there.</p>
<p>I think Vassar is a pretty big reach, but hey, nothing to lose. Just make sure he is psychologically prepared for the famous “thin envelope”. Let’s break it down.</p>
<p>For the latest entering class, 25th% SAT was 1960, so he has that beat. What was his breakdown, btw? As an aside, the 75th% was 2220. So as a guesstimate, his SAT is better than about 30% of the students that end up attending. Somewhat challenging odds, but doable. Vassar 25%-75% ACT was 29-32, so he looks better on the SAT. I would only send that.</p>
<p>Vassar says their average GPA for the entering class was 3.77, and it is always impossible to know if the school is following the instructions regarding reporting this UW, on a 4.0 scale. In this case, I suspect that is UW. Do you know his UW GPA? 26% had a GPA of 3.50-3.74, 12% 3.25-3.49, and 4% below that. So I think you can see his odds based solely on those stats (guessing that his UW GPA is 3.3-3.5) are probably only about 20-25% of getting admitted, but there are other factors of course. It is kind of too bad you are not from Nebraska or Idaho, lol. The Northeast is, of course, highly represented at Vassar, and this works against him. Probably lowers the odds to 15-20%. Just the reality.</p>
<p>Hope that helped, even if it is a bit pessimistic.</p>