<p>My son (Cornell legacy) will apply next year to Cornell and UC Berk engineering. He has a "perfect" GPA (4.8 weighted almost all honors/AP/IB, 4.0 unwtd) but has test anxiety and scores mediocre for selective colleges. Other info:</p>
<p>SAT (1st try) Math 690 Writing 590 Reading 590 (total 1870)
Will graduate IB diploma
PYIC attended Obama inaug
Top 10 percent statewide math comp 3 yrs
Marching band, 4 yrs, squad leader 2 yrs
University robotics camp last summer
Natl Honor Society
More than 150 hrs comm service including math tutoring and working with engineer at city hall
State regional honor band
AP: 3 in US Govt and 4 in US Hist
This spring will take AP in macroecon, IB SL in French and Econ, SAT subject in bio and math 2
Next year 3 IB HL courses and AP calc BC</p>
<p>Leadership is not great but he's shy. He works very hard hence excellent GPA.</p>
<p>What are his chances? Any advice?</p>
<p>Standardized test are a extremely important fact to ivied, so he has to raise his score to 2100 or he’s getting rejected, the min SAT is 1930 but it’s extremely selective.</p>
<p>get him the review books and also he may want to take a shot at the ACT. Remember he will need to take SAT 2’s in any case. Good luck</p>
<p>His extremely high GPA with his sub par SAT score may suggest that his high school is easy. He should try to focus on raising his test scores.</p>
<p>His low SAT score means his high GPA has to come from a prestigious high school. And make sure he is taking as many APs as his school offers. If he took the wimpy classes in lieu of the APs to secure high GPA, they will not accept.</p>
<p>~Equuleus</p>
<p>He should work on getting around 2200+ on the SAT. Think about how many people apply for Ivies each year. They’ve become so competitive that it has become more efficient to look for the “not so goods” of applicants rather than the “goods.” Therefore to ensure that your son does not get eliminated from admissions, he needs a higher SAT score to match the criteria of Ivy League Universities.</p>