He’s a 3.7 unweighted, 4.6 weighted at a small private that does not grade inflate, no one has an unweighted 4.0. Lots of rigor. 6 APs, 14 dual credit classes. He’s currently 7th in his class I think. One sat score of 1390 and a 29 act, hoping to improve a bit. He’d probably planning to major in physics. He has no idea what he wants as far as size, hoping to dial that in on upcoming tours. Not sure if it matters, but we’re Hispanic.
The mine schools in New Mexico and South Dakota are less expensive and less difficult to get admitted to.
(edited, saw later message about physics major)
Physics is not that popular a major, so admission competition at some UCs and CSUs will not be as high as for engineering or CS majors.
It does not matter at California public universities. It may matter at some other schools. Did the student take the PSAT and hit either National Merit (seems unlikely given the SAT score) or College Board Recognition (seems more likely, if taken)?
Apparently, the CBNRP score thresholds are not officially published, though some blog claims (presumably by reverse engineering) that the thresholds vary between 1270 and 1370 depending on region. But the College Board would have notified students of CBNRP status if they got it. He could always ask the College Board directly.
If he is interested in Physics, and is willing to look at smaller schools, I would add Lawrence University (WI). They are well regarded in Physics. With a 3.7 and 1390, their NPC gave a Net Price of 40k. May be worth an EA( not ED) app. Also to answer your other question, my DS is at the 40k school.
What is the major? I will say Chapman is very generous with merit, even with ED in their most competitive program (film production). Sure isn’t same as that Cal Poly tuition bill but lets face it, you hit the lottery with that one, great school and I would argue the best value of any education. Would be hard to find another strong program with the CP tuition bill. But totally dependent on major. UCs are easier this year for CA students but you never know with those if you’ll be accepted (CP too).
I trusted the comments on this site of previous families at the schools and asked if merit was fair even with ED. They told me Chapman was fair. LMU was not as generous with merit especially in ED. Not sure on Santa Clara or USan Diego. I believe Denver U was also generous.
I agree you should ask about a merit pre-read to help with the ED decision, but not all schools will do that. Your S should also directly ask his admissions officer if there is a smaller pool of merit money for ED applicants with the hope he gets a straight answer. For example, Tulane is transparent that those admitted ED receive lower merit offers than those in EA or RD. Tulane has said that in more than one instance, here is a recent citation:
Keep in mind that the pool of merit money for Early Decision students is smaller. Need-based aid remains the same for every admitted student.
At least at SJSU, physics is one of the less selective majors that admitted frosh applicants with 2.6 HS GPA. Compare to computer science which required a 4.35 HS GPA (the listed impaction index is 800 * HS GPA + possible bonus points for local area, etc. – HS GPA is recalculated using limited weighting “weighted capped”).
That’s helpful. I know at CP slo physics has an acceptance rate of around 48% for their last data set. I’m assuming other schools are similar where CS, biology, engineering are considerably more selective.
I’ve figured his weighted and capped for UC at 4.2 and for CP slo at 4.3, providing nothing goes horribly awry in the next two months of junior year.