And btw all the kids here have SATs over 1500? Lol college board says that his 750 in math is 98 percentile and 680 in English 95 percentile . It’s amazing that this is a bad score.
It’s not a bad score at all. It’s just that most kids applying to “elite” schools have a gpa and scores that are higher… often much higher.
Truth be told, it can be done indeed, with a little effort.
New Haven? Ok. Does he have an affordable place to live while working there? And a car? Public transportation isn’t terrific. He would be best served by finding a place to live that includes off street parking.
You also want to check your health insurance to make sure he is covered in CT…since you live in Indiana. If you have a HMO type plan, or a limited network of coverage, he might need to get health insurance in CT.
Also check car issues…like registration and drivers license. If he is living and working and self supporting in CT, he is supposed to get his license changed to a CT license…and check what that does to his instate status in Indiana.
For 2020, he will be filing taxes as a resident of CT…I believe. @BelknapPoint am I wrong…if he is living, working, and self supporting in CT?
And if it’s a one year gap…when exactly would he be starting college? Fall 2021?
Yes fall 2021
Versus the current plan of a gap semester?
Unless Purdue, IU, etc. have spring start for frosh, he will need to take a gap year and a half if he wants to take more than a gap semester before starting college.
@ucbalumnus the OP says he will start college fall 2021…so yes…1 1/2 years after HS graduation which just happened.
It’s not a bad score at all, but it’s not competitive at elites without a hook. For example, because he applied there, the 25th percentile SAT score at Northwestern for class of 2022 was 1440 (75th percentile was 1550). Your son’s score being below the 25th percentile, in an applicant pool that likely had a lot of perfect 4.0s too, would have needed something else spectacular to stand out. That is all that people meant. The scores/GPA may not reflect his actual potential (I presume that’s what you mean by “Truth be told, it can be done indeed, with a little effort”) but (1) it’s what admissions have to go on (2) they have plenty of applicants that have put the effort in (3) if the kid hasn’t put the effort in in high school, there is no guarantee to them that he will do so in college.
By contrast, when looking at a still very good but not “elite” college -like Purdue - there he shines, with his SAT comfortably above the 75th percentile (1390) and his GPA solidly in range (3.5-3.9).
A 1430 total is fine generally speaking. But it’s not stellar which is what he would need for the more elite programs, and even for CS at some of the schools mentioned. CS often has a higher bar for admission.
As long as he is happy with IU or Purdue (should he get accepted) then fine.
It’s really too bad he didn’t prep and retest. It would have opened up different options for him…and he might have gotten accepted at NU…
The stepdad may feel differently…lol
He would need to be top 10% of his class to be competitive at NU.
I’ve only seen the first and last page of this thread, but two points. Purdue is one of top schools in the country for CS. It’s higher ranked than pretty much all the private elite schools outside of CMU and Cornell.
I got remarried not too long ago. My stepD is at NEU and my kid is at Berkeley. There is/was zero expectations or discussions that we monetarily support the other person’s kid in any way.
Lots of bashing of the son on this thread, which seems unwarranted.
The young man seems like an interesting guy - decent grades, respectable test score, interesting and developed ECs have been indicated, graduating from high school early, finding full-time employment with a solid salary and interested in living independently prior to starting college. That all sounds super good to me! Sounds like a solid young man.
If I had a mother, father, and step-father that were willing to pay full freight for Northwestern at least and all made comfortable, 6 figure salaries, I would feel both confused and at least a little disappointed that my parents wouldn’t entertain other competitive private colleges I was interested in. Can’t begrudge the young man that. I’m sure he’ll get used to the idea (and it sounds like he has) but surely one can sympathize enough to understand the disappointment.
As far as whether the step-father is obligated to help, and I’m talking morally not legally as there is no legal obligation for even blood parents, we don’t have enough info here to go on to make that decision. How long have they been a family unit, how involved has the step-father been, and other questions would need to be answered before I’d personally feel comfortable opining on that.
Short version: Many are being overly harsh on the son, IMO.
The vast majority of matriculating students at highly selective private colleges do not submit class rank. At some schools, less than 1/4 of entering students submit class rank. Class rank is also highly dependent on things like context (not all HSs have the same quality of students), and some HSs choosing to use odd weighting systems in determining rank. The far more important measure is generally transcript – both UW GPA, and in which classes the A and less than A grades occur. A 3.7 UW is not a good sign for an unhooked kid applying to Northwestern, but some are also likely admitted in that range. Naviance or similar could give some clues about historical acceptance rate for applicants with similar stats from the HS, but which had hooks may not be obvious. In any case, the OP’s kid already applied and was not accepted, so it’s not especially relevant.
The issue of filing as a CT resident or as a non-resident with CT source income would depend on what the CT tax laws require, and I am not familiar.
Just look at LORs on the common app. It asks the GC/teachers to rank a student’s academic achievement: One of top few(1%), top 5%, top 10%, very good, good, average, below average. Even if a school doesn’t rank, AOs would know if a student is top 10%. My kids’ school didn’t rank, but we knew it mattered which box GC would check off (with a class size of 145 students and you are a Sal, would you be top 1% or top 5%? )
I believe GC would also check off if a student took the most rigorous courses.
Besides the SO, perhaps he wants to get away from Indiana due to relative unfriendliness to gay people (in terms of laws and underlying attitudes on the matter; see https://www.hrc.org/state-maps/public-accomodations and use “select state” to see Indiana and compare with other states that have been mentioned as places that he wants to go to).
Yes.on average but West Lafayette is very liberal
I don’t think parents are wrong to refuse paying for an out-of-state college even if they can easily afford it. We’re a full-pay family and I told my son at the beginning of the process that we’re not going to pay for any school that’s not much better academically than our state school (decent but significantly lower ranked than Purdue). It’s just not done in our family to spend a significant amount of money without a very good reason.
Your son sounds like a couple of kids I know. Very smart, stubborn, not much interested in grades, doing their own thing. One is now at another lower-ranked state school, another is in a gap year. I’m sure both will go far in their careers.
It’s my understanding that common app LORs have something similar to the following categories. These ratings are given in a variety of different criteria, rather than being rated strictly based on weighted GPA, as would occur in class rank. For example, students may be rated as having outstanding, excellent, or very good “personal qualities”, leadership, creativity, etc. Furthermore the rankings are subjective and generally attempt to put students in their best light, rather than strictly following the guidelines in parenthesis. Nobody is going to object if a teacher gives more than 1% of her students a “top few” ranking, even though the general guidelines in parenthesis says “top 1%”. Perhaps most important of all, NU doesn’t tell us anything about the acceptance rate for different category rankings on these LOR rankings. Does the acceptance rate shoot down for a student who gets a “very good” in LOR academic achievement, rather than “excellent”? Or does it more have to do with the written content of the LORs than whether “very good” or “excellent” is checked? We also don’t know anything about the type of LOR ratings the OP’s kid received. You are making assumptions without information.
Top Few (top 1%)
Outstanding (top 5%)
Excellent (top 10%)
Very Good (well above average)
Good (above average)
Average
Below Average