<p>Hello to you all - I am a parent of a HS Junior Son -</p>
<p>Wanted to know what would you recommend based on your own experience and what you have seen around you is a good major for son who is into Computers and has self taught Web hosting languages and Adobe.....3.5GPA 2160 SAT and Sat2 Math 800/sat2 Phy 790. He says he wants to be a Netreprenueur.</p>
<p>He has a good head for math, doing AP level courses in Math and Physics.</p>
<p>Although he is into computers I do not think he will absolutely love programming, because he is also interested in product design and is always analyzing new products ranging from IPOD to laptops to cars. He took APCS in 10th grade and was not in love with it the way I thought he would be.</p>
<p>I would value some good suggestions of college names and majors to look at. Since his interest are varied would he not suit a total technical school like Cal Poly Slo? </p>
<p>Overall, I think its best to keep options open if one is not sure. Thank you all for sharing.</p>
<p>We thought about business - maybe with CS minor, since he is so interested in that field. He has already taken, business, law and Entrepreneurship as electives in HS and breezed through them. I thought they were very easy courses since he has all A’s in them. On second thoughts could that be because thats his calling? Besides those he has A in AP Calc and a A- in AP physics. Both teachers very tough and demanding. HE goes to a private International school in SE Asia.</p>
<p>The University of Southern California offers a BS in Computer Science and Business Administration program, which sounds like it would fit well with your son’s computer and business interests. And in case his interests lean more towards business, USC has a very strong business school as well.</p>
<p>Thank you for your responses. I did look at the USC website and our school also has Naviance - which showed that no student below 3.8 was accepted there, my son is 3.5 GPA. It would have been ideal for him to go there, seems like a nice option. Same situation with Rice University, except their cut off is 4.2.</p>
<p>Was wondering about GTech, Texas A&M and Santa Clara U. How are their programs? Also Cal Poly SLo?</p>
<p>We have to plan our college visit soon and it is such a hike from here, won’t be visiting too many colleges.</p>
<p>My advice is: if you and your son both think that a particular school/program is a good fit, apply there no matter what the statistics say. I know most colleges, including USC, evaluate an applicant holistically, rather than disqualifying them based on one aspect or another of their application.</p>
<p>Also, check the GPA scale. You listed a 4.2 cutoff for Rice, which leads me to believe you’re looking at a 5-point GPA scale, with 5.0 being the max. The 4-point scale is pretty standard, so make sure you convert all your GPA numbers to to 4 point scale before comparing.</p>
<p>Georgia Tech is a very strong engineering school, consistently ranked highly in pretty much all engineering categories. But I chose to not go there because it seemed too focused on engineering, and I wanted a broader college experience, where I could make connections with people in all fields.</p>
<p>Thank you for your response - which college did you select?</p>
<p>Is there going to be cut throat competition at GTech - coz my son likes to learn for the sake of learning and has a laid back approach towards grades in general. He does well mostly where the environment is relaxed yet the learning is high. He thrives automatically with interesting teachers who care to teach.</p>
<p>I am still trying to figure out how Naviance at our school works. The scattergram I saw for Rice draws a box around 4.2 GPA and 2250 SAT and there are all red X’s where my sons stats fall. Hence my assumption that he will not make it there since 2005 no one has in his school.</p>
<p>Hmm, from what I’ve heard about GT’s school culture in regards to classes, they throw a ton of material at the new students and see which ones will survive. In my mind, this would lead to more cooperation between students, rather than competition. I think something similar happens at MIT, and there the older students will go out of their way to help out the new students. Compare this to CalTech, where I’ve heard that the competition between undergrads is extremely fierce. Anyways, this is all secondhand information, so if you’d like to find out more, ask someone that experienced it.</p>
<p>About Naviance, I’m sure that if you posted a screenshot, we could help you interpret the graphs. One thing immediately though, how high does the GPA scale go on the graph?</p>
<p>As for me, I picked USC, just finished my first year there.</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen of undergrads at Caltech I don’t think there’s a whole lot of competition. I think people usually either fall into the category of “Trying to get an A+ on my transcript instead of an A” or “I hope I get my B.” I can only really see competition happening among people within the first group, but any other combination will work together.</p>
<p>In undergrad I’d say everyone in engineering was very cooperative since half our socializing was done during study groups.</p>
<p>If he’s good at math and doesn’t want to be in CS…
Actuarial Science
Information Systems / Management
Accounting
Management
Industrial Engineering
…</p>
<p>It’s strange he doesn’t like programming. Then again, I don’t understand how anybody can not love programming, or math, or any of the things I love.</p>
<p>Hawk, our Naviance screen shows around 4.2 kids so I assume we cap at 4.5GPA. I think USC would be a great place for my son. We will surely visit it this summer and hope to learn more about it. Thank you for your suugestion.</p>
<p>Math, its funny, I wrote the last post while he was at school (we are almost 15 hrs ahead of you) and I was so wrong about his love for programming! When he got home I asked him how he felt last year in his APCS class and he said he had loved it!! He said the teacher was so-so and did not prepare them enough for the AP exam but he overall had enjoyed the class.</p>
<p>So, now we know that he could probably do CS with a Business or Math angle…he is very good at Math too. </p>
<p>He has learnt PHP, CSS, XTHML on his own and does part time work doing web design work, he just loves it.</p>
<p>We will not be able to visit Gtech as we are doing TX and CA only.</p>
<p>If he likes programming and math, CS with a business angle would be <em>amazing</em>. I’m doing a double major in CS/Physics, and it’s a ton of fun.</p>
<p>Georgia Tech isn’t that cut-throat. It has a reputation as a “sink or swim” school primarily because it accepts some students that, frankly, shouldn’t have been admitted, and it has no real “throw away” major for those that “sink” in engineering (even Business is a Top Tier program, now). Your son seems like a good match with SAT, just a slightly low GPA, but he still has a good chance for admission. He probably won’t be one of the “sink” individuals with that SAT score.</p>
<p>I like the suggestion of industrial engineering. If he focuses on economic decision analysis, he can design software and models to optimize business decision processes (when to buy a stock or when to invest in a financial situation, or when to order replenishment stock or how to forecast demand in an operations setting). There are many consulting firms hiring out of GT for that field (GT is the far-and-away top industrial engineering program in the world) and there are even some start-ups (one professor has a start-up selling software to pick the NCAA basketball tournament brackets).</p>
<p>But if his goal is to work his way up in Silicon Valley, he’s probably better off at a California school (Stanford and Berkeley, in particular).</p>
<p>GT doesn’t admit based on college - if you’re in, you’re in.</p>
<p>The average is just over a 3.7 UW. I’ve seen people as low as 3.5 UW get in, but usually with something else going for them (excellent EC’s, URM, female, etc), and with high math/science scores.</p>
<p>FWIW, the people that seem to have a lot of difficulty are the ones with good scores and grades, but lower Math SAT scores, and not rigorous math courses in HS (so no AP Calc, etc)</p>
<p>Thank you all for your prompt and useful replies…I am new to his board so when I am typing I do not know how to go back and look at all your names so I can address each of you separately. i will answer to all together -</p>
<p>Stanford has been his Dream School since 7th grade when he did the summer EPGY in Robotics and Programming the year after that. After 9th he went to Bejing in their Int’l Relations program and last year to Turkey for writing. One of the earlier counselors had told him that freshman results don’t count for college adm and he took that very seriously LOL!</p>
<p>We had just moved countries and he seemed to fall apart - from an A student he turned into a B…stanford dreams have remained just dreams now with 3.5 GPA… he just does what he enjoys which is Math and Computer related stuff. He is very well read and travelled. </p>
<p>I think CS with business or Industrial design is the way to go.</p>