<p>S is a rising senior. He wants to major electrical & computer engineering at college.</p>
<p>He already has list for "reach" but has no idea about "safety".</p>
<p>SAT combine: 2300
SATII: Math II 800, Physics 790, Bio M 770
ACT: 34</p>
<p>GPA is kind of low: 3.30 </p>
<p>He is taking AP Cal BC now and will take MV Cal next year and AP Physics C too.</p>
<p>Has no idea about safety; any chance for Lehigh, Bucknell and R.P.I. ????</p>
<p>arling,</p>
<p>Are your S’s math/science grades substantially higher than other grades? Or are his grades kind of uniformly in the the B+ range? That might make a difference at some engineering schools.</p>
<p>He got mostly B+ or A- (all honor or AP level) except C at his sophomore year honor chemistry when he switched to another high school at another state.</p>
<p>Which colleges does he consider reach colleges?</p>
<p>Does he have “match” colleges?</p>
<p>Where does he want to go?</p>
<p>Look at (just a general list, you should probably already know what are reaches for you)</p>
<p>Rose-Hulman Institute Of Technology
Harvey Mudd College
California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo
Cooper Union
Bucknell University
Massachusetts Institute Of Technology
University Of California - Berkeley
University Of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
Carnegie Mellon University
Stanford University
Georgia Institute Of Technology
University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor
California Institute Of Technology
Cornell University</p>
<p>sounds like Rose-Hulman, Georgia Tech, Cal Poly would be safeties to look at. Purdue is also another safety since they take a lot of students (acceptance rate: 70-80%?)</p>
<p>Pierre0913 - Thanks for the list.</p>
<p>Collegehelp - How to define “reach” “match” and “safety”? By test score or GPA? Thanks.</p>
<p>If you are between the 25th and 75th SAT percentile you are a match.
If you are below the 25th percentile, it is a reach.
If you are above the 75th percentile, it is a safety.</p>
<p>This is a good way to define it.</p>
<p>collegehelp - thanks !</p>
<p>^^ I’m actually a little more cautious than collegehelp. I wouldn’t put a match down to the 25% of SAT because many of the students with lower scores are athletes which gives them an advantage. A “non-hooked” student would have to score higher to be equally competitive. Also those are just for Scores. That is just one component of what colleges consider (and some don’t even consider those). You need to see how your son compares in GPA and rank as well. If you look at schools Common Data Set (usually you can find it in a search of the school web site), section C, you’ll see how much they weight each of the factors for admission.</p>