Cornell, Penn, Columbia Engineering - could S get in without having to play football?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>My junior son would like to get into an engineering school with a free ride or close to it, and because our income is low, an ivy would do it. We're close to Cornell so that is one school that is being discussed quite a bit; here are the stats so far:</p>

<p>GPA: 99.5 (A's in every course so far; does that mean 4.0, unweighted?)
SAT: 780M, 680 CR, 720 W
SAT II not taken yet
APs: the school only offers three, one to juniors and two to seniors. So far his average in his APUSH is high 90's but the AP test won't be until next month. He has taken all the hardest courses available, though. Cornell seems to not worry about lack of AP courses at our school because every year at least one person gets in from a class of around 140-150, though not the engineering school. I don't know how many have applied to engineering, though .
Rank: 1 or 2 out of 150</p>

<p>EC: Will have had Band 4 years, Jazz Band 4 years, Chorus and Select Chorus 4 years (All-County and Area All-State every year so far), NHS induction to happen next month, Key Club, Odyssey of the Mind 3 years (6th at worlds last year, and Rantra Fusca both last year and this year), school musical every year (major roles every year including the lead part of Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Tech. Dreamcoat this year), Varsity Football starter every year, Varsity Track every year. Volunteers at church 2 hours every week for worship team. Volunteered 40-50 hours for flood relief after a local disaster.</p>

<p>My S was a starter on the varsity football team as a freshman on defense (DE and center LB), and also started on offense as a RB as a sophomore and junior, playing both sides every game. He has also been the team's punter and kicker since sophomore year. The poor boy is beyond exhausted every Saturday in the fall :O ; his coach depends on him way too much, IMHO. He has been getting letters from football coaches at a fair number of schools, including Yale and Harvard, but he is really tired of football. I'd be glad to see him stop, to be honest. He hasn't been hurt yet but I worry it will happen. So, the summary is that he doesn't really want to play for a college unless they need a punter or kicker.</p>

<p>Given the above stats, do you all think he needs to keep football on the table to get into one of these engineering schools? Do engineers even have time to be playing sports there?</p>

<p>Thanks for your thoughts on this!</p>

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<p>You know, you can get recruited for football, get admitted with need-based FA and then decide you don’t want to play.</p>

<p>I’ve seen it done.</p>

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<p>He would not be happy at all with that approach…he’s a very upright guy :slight_smile: . </p>

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<p>99.5% is a 4.0 Unweighed GPA. </p>

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<p>I don’t really know how to chance people, but he should be a qualified candidate, and I’m sure that his decision to leave football can be a great subject for an essay. Fwiw, my son’s essay was about having to scale down his ice hockey (which he still loves) because he just wasn’t big and strong enough to handle the increasingly tough checking. He now enjoys playing in a men’s league (aka beer league).</p>

<p>Mostly, I wanted to commend you for raising an honorable kid. </p>

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<p>Thank you for your kind words, IxnayBob. We feel very blessed by all our kids. DS’s been told he could play college ball if he wants, but he’s very tired of the culture. Specifically, he’s tired of people trying to pump themselves up get aggressive enough to want to hurt people, and feeling pressured to do the same. I do love that kid :slight_smile: .</p>

<p>Good thought about the essay; I’ll suggest that to him.</p>

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<p>Thanks, wannabefeyman. </p>

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Realized that I never followed up here. For future reference:

DS decided to avoid any more football and has zero regrets; he doesn’t miss the game at all but certainly has opinions on play calling, LOL. He applied to Cornell College of Engineering, Princeton, UVA, MIT, Buffalo, Binghamton, and RPI. Admitted Cornell COE, UVA, Bing, Buffalo, RPI, denied MIT and Princeton.

He’s an extremely happy Cornell COE student now with a fabulous GPA, and is taking Tae Kwon Do from my old sabumnim :slight_smile: . Thank you all for the advice you gave when we were stressing out a year and a half ago.

Now the case can be officially closed!