My son doesn’t want to even apply to reach schools, as he feels so defeated already because of his GPA and some Math issues that really stem from his ADD and executive functioning deficits. He was born an engineer, but now questioning as his major, because of his GPA. He got c’s in honors geom, as a freshman, C & B in soph Alg 2, A’s in Academic F/S/T (but dropped back to academic) and is hoping for a B first semester of AP Calc b/c, though currently at C. Otherwise he has all A’s & B’s. Jr year Took AP Physics C (4 on AP test), is in AP Physics E &M, AP Macro/micro Economics. Had taken honors for his Bio and Chem, and has been in IB Hist and Eng. HL. Three years of French.
He scored 1560 on SAT (780, 780), and on Subject Tests: 800 on Math 2, and 740 on Physics. Only tested once each. And is a National Merit Semifinalist. Rows Varsity, Captain. FTC Robotics for 7 yrs. Started the HS robotics club this year, and has outreach and service initiatives. But his GPA and Math history is so detrimental, especially with his scores being so good. I know it appears that he is lazy, but he definitely has time management issues and though gifted, anomalously slow processing speed.
Is there a way to address this, should he? And are there any highly ranked Engineering schools that he could apply and have a good chance?
Both UConn and RIT have excellent support programs in place for kids with EF/ADD issues. They’re not free, however. Clarkson is an excellent engineering school and definitely in the match category for your ds. Look at their outcomes; they are quite impressive. I know several grads and all speak very highly about the school and are doing very well. We recently visited UMaine and I was floored by their engineering faculty and facilities, best we’ve seen to-date (my ds20 also wants engineering, also has low GPA due to late ADHD diagnosis, won’t medicate but through very hard work has made a huge improvement in grades) And they offer a tuition match program so you’d only pay your instate uni tuition.
What is your son’s State of residence? Will paying for college be an issue/concern?
What’s his unweighted GPA?. That’s a great sat score. Biofeedback works wonders with his condition BTW.
I agree…check out RIT for support of executive functioning issues https://www.rit.edu/studentaffairs/ssp/
My son is similar. Fortunately for him though, he is perfectly okay with not applying to “reach” schools that his friends have put all their hopes on. We went to a STEM fair and talked to lots of other schools that aren’t MIT, Stanford or Berkeley. University of Alabama at Huntsville has a great engineering program and has well defined scholarships based on GPA or ACT/SAT test scores. We’ve done quite a bit of “what is like” on this forum and on the internet to find other schools that aren’t so selective. In addition to getting in, my son just isn’t competitive - he wants to learn and have fun through hands-on interaction with his program, not just study hard and get good grades (ha…). I don’t know what the GPA requirement of WPI is, but they are also on our list. And we are seriously looking at overseas, because they don’t look at GPA at all, only AP test scores and SAT / ACT scores - in addition their programs are primarily 3 years and only focus on the program of interest (my son is loathing the thought of Eng 101 with 300 students in his class). Beyond the States is who we are using to look at overseas schools in Europe and then we talked to several in Australia and Scotland at the STEM fair.
Gandalf78 - Pennsylvania, have some college fund savings, but also would appreciate any merit aid to offset and willing to make it work for the right fit. Won’t qualify for need based with DH’s business.
Knowsstuff - UW GPA is 3.49 (3.95 weighted) Please, tell me more about biofeedback?
Bopper - thanks, I checked the RIT link; What an amazing support program. But, while he has ADHD, he is not on the Autism spectrum or Asperger’s; he does not have an IEP.
Taverngirl -thanks for the recommendations. I will check them all tonight! Embarrassed to say I never heard of Clarkson, but sounds like the I need to get familiar.
RememberTheAlamo - Also a lot of great suggestions to give thought and research. Sounds like very similar kids, especially the non-competitive, hands-on, not just study hard and get good grades… He actually took WPI and all tech schools off his list to not be with just tech students, where he feels it will be more competitive and not so collaborative, and no Business, Liberal Arts, . So his “reach” that he doesn’t want to apply to are not the Stanford, MITs, but others that he just doesn’t feel confident about applying since it’s not a “sure” thing. I’ll have to ask, though, if he wants to consider oversees, it’s very compelling, and what an experience! Thanks for all the info!