<p>DS appears to have settled on a list of schools to which he will apply. I am interested in everyone's thoughts about his choices (too many, too few, too narrow a focus, too optimistic, etc.). For background, he wants to study Mechanical Engineering and has:
-a 3.95 UW GPA, which is top 10% in a competitive private school
-34 ACT
-NMSF
-AP Scholar with Distinction
-3-sport athlete (captain of basketball)
-other awards and leadership positions</p>
<p>His current list is:
Reach - none
High Match - Duke
Match - Vanderbilt, Notre Dame
Safety - Case Western, Georgia Tech, Purdue, Tulane
Financial Safety - University of Kentucky (already has full-ride offer)</p>
<p>Your assessment of his chances are far too optimistic rmldad. There isn’t a single applicant in the world, no matter how qualified, to which Duke would be considered a “High Match”. Vanderbilt and ND like high test scorers so those might be considered “Low Reaches”, but still definitely not “Matches”. Duke rejected more than half the Vals and Sals who applied last year and your son is “merely” in the top 10%. I do definitely think that Duke is a viable reach school though.</p>
<p>Has your son thought about applying to schools with more renowned engineering schools like the University of Illinois and Cal-Berkeley? These schools have better engineering departments than Duke and are much easier to get admitted to. I hear a lot of these state schools are desperate for strong OOS talent since state funding has dried up so much. Don’t get me wrong, Duke is much more undergraduate focused than these schools, but they have more established engineering programs so your son should at least consider them.</p>
<p>I disagree with goldenboy – thought this may be semantics.</p>
<p>3.95 from a top private (prep) school with a 34 ACT and good ECs (three sports qualifies here IMO) is a ‘statistical’ match at ANY school in the US.</p>
<p>Now – being a statistical match at a place like Duke doesn’t eman you WILL get in, and may not even mean you have a 50-50 chance – but it does mean that these are the schools that you are targeting. I like the term “high match” and think it correctly describes the situation.</p>
<p>Your son’s list – </p>
<p>Although Vandy is somewhat easier to get into than Duke statistically, it’s probably a High match also. Given the numbers game having only two “high matches” may not be enough to give a really good shot at this level. He may want to consider a few more ‘high matches’ Cornell, Northwestern, Wash U, Rice, UT Austin come to mind quickly, but there are many others. Other schools in the Notre Dame category – Michigan? Lehigh?</p>
<p>If he was interested in a real reach school or two – Say MIT, Princeton, Cal Tech, Stanford – I wouldn’t discourage him.</p>
<p>Your “safety” schools – I think they are more like “low Match” than safety. Each has a number of surprising declines each year. (Well, maybe Purdue is a safety – great school, though) But if you visit, and show them some love, they are good possibilities. </p>
<p>However, since your S is into Kentucky for a full ride (and assuming he would be happy going there) you don’t need to worry about the ‘safety school’ issue – He’s in.</p>
<p>zephyr, are you aware that Duke has a lower acceptance rate than CalTech? Calling it a “high match” indicates that the OP’s son has a 60-80% chance of acceptance which couldn’t be farther from reality. I agree that this is all semantics but I hope the OP’s son is comfortable attending one of his safety schools because that’s what it might come down to.</p>
<p>If the OP’s son is bent on a top 20 school, he should definitely apply to CMU, Penn, Columbia, Brown, and Hopkins as well. If he applies to all of the above, he should at least get into 1 or 2.</p>
<p>@goldenboy -DS has outside chance of being Salutatorian by the end of the year, so he is higher than “merely” top 10% - if that makes a differnce. Also, I am a Duke alum so he has legacy status - the admissions office is vague about how much that helps him. He doesn’t like huge schools (such as UIUC or Michigan) and prefers to stay somewhat close to home (ruling out Berkeley).</p>
<p>@zephyr - I agree with you about statistical matches not guaranteeing admission and DS is aware of this. Fortunately, his preferences do not correlate directly with the school’s selectivity. ND is probably his top choice with Case and Purdue a close second (subject to change on a daily basis). The others are on the list primarily in hopes of generous financial aid (and humoring Dad by applying to my alma mater).</p>
<p>I think his list is perfectly fine! Even if he doesn’t get into any of those schools (which is highly unlikely), he already has somewhere to go with a full scholarship. That is the ultimate safety. </p>
<p>My daughter has stats similar to your son’s (switching out athletic talent for musical talent!) and has no safeties on her list. But DH broke out his old college statistics book, calculated the odds of getting into at least one of the schools she is applying to and got 91%. (This doesn’t even account for the fact that she is a legacy at two of the schools.) She says she can live with a 9% chance of having a gap year.</p>
<p>BTW, although most schools won’t tell you how much legacy status helps, I’ve read in various places that legacy applicants are admitted at one and a half to four times the rate of regular applicants, depending on the school.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon would be a nice addition to the list, perhaps Lehigh too if you wanted to have a few more potential choices.
Case Western is an excellent school for engineering - we looked at it pretty closely for my son and they can be generous with merit awards too which makes it even better :-)</p>
<p>rmldad – Notre Dame is a truly excellent school – and if it’s your son’s first choice (i.e., a good fit), it’s a great choice vs any of the other schools on the list (or frankly any school in the US). Case and Purdue – also excellent schools. I would be be somewhat surprised if he doesn’t get into ND (I just peeked at their CDS and looks like a solid match – shocked if he didn’t get into at least one of his top three choices.</p>
<p>goldenboy – ahhhh the problem with language – (Yes, I’m aware that Duke is in the tippy top tier as far as admissions percentages – just below schools like HYPSM) I think we’re using different definitions. I consider a “high match” to be one step below a ‘reach’ – basically, the students statistics match the schools acceptances (hence a match) but that the school probably rejects more (and maybe considerably more) than 50% of it’s matches. My pattern (and yes, I’ve probably thought about this far too much) – One has less of a chance of getting into a High Reach than a Low Reach, hence less of a chance of getting into a “High Match” than a “Low Match”.</p>