<p>
</p>
<p>By the Oxbridge standard, since she wanted to study engineering, they would ask, did she have at least three 5s in AP courses in junior year? Did the total number of STEM related 5s on AP Tests/ 700+ SAT subject tests, equal to at least three when she applied to college? This is the minimum threshold, before one is considered at Oxbridge.</p>
<p>Oh and I forgot, 700+ on all three subsections of the SAT are required by Oxbridge too.</p>
<p>One piece of advice for all of those that are weighing their options and are finding that scholarships are getting scarce or have been reduced in value. There is hope. If your field is Engineering I strongly suggest that you do Co-ops starting in the sophomore year. It will help you in 2 fronts. First you get paid, depending on how many credits you have, an engineering student can be paid up to $30/hour. Usually co-ops are 3 terms, 2 semesters and one summer. You can use that money to help you pay the balance that the scholarships don’t pay. I also recommend that the student do one summer REU’s (research for undergraduates) pretty much every college has those and you can apply to any place you want. The stipend is between $5K to $8K depending on location and institution. Secondly, it gives you the experience that employers value a lot. You become a high commodity between employers because you already know how to apply your knowledge in a work environment.</p>
<p>I work for a Fortune 500 company and go and recruit co-op students from time to time. We use our Co-op student pool as our hiring pool and many other companies do the same.</p>
<p>This is without a doubt one of the best ways to help finance your education.</p>
<p>perraziman,</p>
<p>I loved itsv’s advice! I hope you (and others on this list) follow at least some of her suggestions.</p>
<p>I think what’s important to know is that it can be an either/or situation when it comes to APs.</p>
<p>My friend’s son took maybe 19 AP exams. He was the “god” in his gifted STEM high school. He got all 5s (as far as I know), he was a USAMO one year, he took university course in high school, and he got into all the schools to which he applied. (He was caucasian, btw)</p>
<p>My son took 5 APs before applying (took a 6th one his senior year but that had no effect on admissions) and got 55554 on his scores. By your description, my son would have little chance of admissions. But he also was admitted to all his schools.</p>
<p>The point is that he was a totally different kind of applicant (though some great similarities in terms of the fact that they both ended up at MIT and both turned down Princeton) than his friend.</p>
<p>Great AP scores are wonderful. Lots of 5s on AP exams is great. However, if an applicant has other strengths besides lots of AP scores (national awards/honors, lots of college classes, research, work experience, great ECs, etc), they have an equal chance of getting into their schools.</p>
<p>And oh yes, test scores also matter. (And in the case of my son and his friend, their scores were very similar)</p>
<p>Does that make sense? :-)</p>
<p>Your son has an interesting background and is a very strong student with much to commend himself. With your vested interest and help along the way this fall, I think he’ll do well in admissions.</p>
<p>lapagan,</p>
<p>Could you explain what co-ops are? I’ve not heard of this before.</p>
<p>Sorry, Co-op’s short for Cooperative Education. Here is Purdue’s definition for it.</p>
<p>"CO-OP Information</p>
<p>Cooperative education brings together the worlds of education and work. Co-Op students alternate sessions of full-time work with semesters of full-time study. On-the-job, they apply classroom theory to workplace production projects. As they work with professionals, they learn about the potential for their chosen careers. In the classroom, work experience makes theory meaningful.</p>
<p>Although programs vary in size and scope between departments, all have one goal: to provide an opportunity for students to gain relevant work experience and to understand the role of the professional in business and industry. "</p>
<p>"</p>
<p>As a Co-Op student you will have the opportunity to:</p>
<pre><code>-apply the fundamental principles and theories you have learned in the Purdue classroom to actual technology engineering programs–making your academic work more meaningful. Your assignments will not consist of “make-work” projects, but will be challenging projects necessary to the operation of your employer’s business.
-get to know and work with professional engineers in real problem-solving situations.
</code></pre>
<ul>
<li>learn to work with and understand people at all levels of the employment environment.
-learn some of the many and diverse functions that technologists perform. In this way you may develop your own interests and abilities along certain channels. This experience will help you choose electives in your senior year.
-lessen the adjustment from academic to professional life.
-learn to know more about yourself. In a work environment you gain insights into your ability to work better as an individual or in a group-orientated career.</li>
</ul>
<p>Here is shortcut from Auburn that gives you a good idea of the typical salary levels. As you can see it is not only for engineering students.
<a href=“http://www.auburn.edu/co-op/documents/AuburnCo-OpSalaryInfoApril2012.pdf[/url]”>http://www.auburn.edu/co-op/documents/AuburnCo-OpSalaryInfoApril2012.pdf</a></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Let us see, </p>
<p>That is four 5s on APs and let us not forget the 800 Physics, 800 Math II & 730 Lit. on the SAT Subject tests. Also an incredible SAT in which he scores above 700 in all subsections.</p>
<p>So here are the Oxbridge questions, </p>
<p>Q1: Did he have at least 3 AP courses with 5s by junior year? </p>
<p>A: He had 4 exceeded the requirement by one. Add the multivariable calc, linear Algebra & Diff equation etc and he exceeded by over 100%</p>
<p>Q2: Did he at least have a total of three subject tests with over 700s and AP tests with 5s related to STEM? </p>
<p>A: Yes, he had four AP 5s and two SAT subject tests, for a total of 7. That exceeds the requirement by more than 100%.Add the advanced math and he exceeded by 200%.</p>
<p>Q3: Did he have SAT scores that exceeded 700 in each subsection.</p>
<p>A: With a 2300+ on the SAT, the answer is yes. </p>
<p>So, you see your son easily exceeded the minimums for rigor, established by Oxbridge and did it with ease even before he reached junior year. Infact, once we add in the advanced math in college and performance on competitions he became incredibly irresistable to the top schools.What was his high school class rank and gpa? It really did not matter, even though as a home schooled kid he probably did not have those.</p>
<p>In contrast my s still needs an SAT to meet all the minimums. Possibly a Physics SAT subject test score over 700 to exceed the minimums on all categories. A very different story than your son’s.</p>
<p>Correction: (miscalculated)</p>
<p>I stated:</p>
<p>A: Yes, he had four AP 5s and two SAT subject tests, for a total of 7. That exceeds the requirement by more than 100%. Add the advanced math and he exceeded by 200%.</p>
<p>I should have said,</p>
<p>A: Yes, he had four AP 5s and two SAT subject tests, for a total of 6. That exceeds the requirement by 100%. Add the advanced math and he exceeded by 200%.</p>
<p>A truly remarkable young man.</p>
<p>Perazziman, </p>
<p>I reiterate that your son has a unique background, both in schooling and family, and that he should incorporate his history into his essays. Schools will find him compelling, I am sure.</p>
<p>Re. the Oxbridge system-I’ve not heard of it before (since I’m from the US). I suppose there are some similarities to how selective schools look at candidates, but there are definite differences. (And it’s true, my son had no ranking but a 4.0 gpa in his college classes)</p>
<p>You’ve been on the MIT website, you’ve seen the controversy about how some people feel schools like MIT discriminate because they take a “holistic” view in admissions and look at many factors (including the “biggies” of test scores, gpa, and accomplishments) including background and diversity.</p>
<p>Let me tell you, all the kids I met when I was dropping my son off at school <em>belonged</em> there! And there was an amazing array of diversity on campus, but still the majority of students were Asian and Caucasian.</p>
<p>I guess my rambling point is, yes, a school like MIT looks for stats similar to how you describe in the Oxbridge system but it goes beyond numbers and looks at students from a very human point of view.</p>
<p>So, for all applicants on the Hispanic students forum, I would still say, “Have your safeties (both financial and acceptance levels), matches and reaches,” and 10-14 schools seems a good number of schools to which to apply.</p>
<p>I looked very closely at finances, perazziman, when it came to helping my son select schools. Since your family is low income, you really might consider broadening the selections of schools, particularly because your son should be able to get application fee waivers. And do look into the fly in programs at Lehigh, Williams, and others.</p>
<p>My son just got an email from Center for Student Opportunity (apparently, they don’t take kids off their list when they graduate high school) with info about fly-ins to the following colleges:</p>
<p>Bowdoin
Brandais
Franklin and Marshall
Colorado College
John Hopkins Univ.
Kenyon
Trinity
University of Rochester
Virginia Commonwealth University</p>
<p>If you contact these colleges, they can give you the info on the fly-ins, or you can probably find an application on their websites.</p>
<p>^I’m going to add some of these schools to the Diversity Fly-in thread in the Resources sticky thread. Thanks!</p>
<p>I encourage all Hispanic high school students to sign up for Center for Student Opportunity and it’s e-news letters. My DD receive it too and it was very informative. Plus a ton more schools joined as Partner Schools-these schools are targeting hispanic students and trying to increase their enrollment numbers. Since it was in an email there is no way to link it here but you can find the website via an internet search.</p>
<p>My S is a sr. He is just starting the college app process. Looking for colleges that give very good merit scholarships. His stats are as follows: NHRPScholar (ltr just came yesterday), will probably be a Commended NMScholar (received 222 in NJ & last yr’s score for semi-finalist was 223 so I am going to assume it will be the same or higher this yr), 4.4 GPA, took 4 AP courses last yr (recv’d two 5’s and two 4’s), taking 6 more AP classes this yr, AP Scholar with Honors, 4 yr Varsity on Wrestling (Capt this yr) Academic All-Conference for Wrestling 2 yrs, 2 yr Varsity for Track & 2 yr JV, went to American Legion Boys State this yr, Distinguished Academic Achievements for all 3 yrs at HS, NHS, Treasurer of SGA-2yrs, numberous clubs, 2280 on SAT’s, taking ACT this Saturday, and wants to take SAT’s again in October for a higher score, our school does not give rankings but probably in 5 to 10% of class, some community service but not a huge amount, works full-time during the summer.</p>
<p>He is looking in the Northeast. Will travel as far as Massachusetts and North Carolina. I’ve read a lot of different forums on scholarships and those that require interviews for those top scholarships sound frightening. It says about 800 kids are invited to them but only about 8 get those scholarships.</p>
<p>What are his chances? He wants to go to a top Law School, therefore, he’s looking to get a lot of money for his undergrad so that we can help pay for Law School. We have an older son in college now paying well over $50,000 a year bc the school he chose did not offer good merit money. He knows we will pay for undergrad; but if he decides to go for Masters, he’s on his own since we are paying full tuition for undergrade. We also have a daughter who is a freshmen in HS, and we have to think about her college as well. We saw a college advisor last year, and we do NOT qualify for financial aid bc of assets not bc of money in the bank.</p>
<p>We need help please!</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>2 CollegePlus1-Welcome to the Hispanic Forum on CC. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Read the sticky thread at the top of the Hispanic Forum and pay particular attention to the NHRP scholarship posts. </p></li>
<li><p>Read my post #19 on this recent thead on the Hispanic Forum <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/1385115-feedback-college-list-2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/1385115-feedback-college-list-2.html</a></p></li>
<li><p>Go through and read the threads on this forum. People have posted previously information that is relevant to your question. Be sure to read previous year’s decision threads since posters usually post the scholarships they receive from colleges.</p>
<ol>
<li>I like the book “The College Solution” and the tools/methods will be helpful in finding schools that will offer your son merit. Also read the website connected with the book. </li>
</ol></li>
</ol>
<p>good luck.</p>
<p>2collegesplus1, Those look like good stats. Can you elaborate which AP subjects did he take in junior year and in which did he earn those 5s? Has your son taken any SAT subject tests and what are his scores on them? I am asking because if he has not taken a Subject Test or two it may be more productive to add a few 700+ Subject Tests right now than an ACT score that duplicates what the SAT has already told the Adcoms. </p>
<p>Also, did he take any AP courses in sophomore or freshman year? If so, any 5s in them?</p>
<p>By the way, that PSAT by all indications is good for Semifinalist. I believe the cutoff will be 221 in NJ and infact will not be higher any where.</p>
<p>I believe these are the colleges he should focus on for the best chance of getting into a top Law School. (An old post from CC)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Yale 2.16% </p></li>
<li><p>Harvard 1.56% </p></li>
<li><p>Princeton 1.09% </p></li>
<li><p>**Williams 1.03% **</p></li>
<li><p>Amherst 0.73% </p></li>
<li><p>Stanford 0.68% </p></li>
<li><p>**Bowdoin 0.57% **</p></li>
<li><p>Swarthmore 0.55% </p></li>
<li><p>Brown 0.44% </p></li>
<li><p>Columbia 0.43% </p></li>
<li><p>Dartmouth 0.36% </p></li>
<li><p>Duke 0.33% </p></li>
<li><p>Rice 0.28% </p></li>
<li><p>Wesleyan 0.25% </p></li>
<li><p>Chicago 0.20% </p></li>
<li><p>Carleton 0.140% </p></li>
<li><p>Berkeley 0.139% </p></li>
<li><p>Emory 0.11% </p></li>
<li><p>JHU 0.094% </p></li>
<li><p>Oberlin 0.094% </p></li>
<li><p>Northwestern 0.084% </p></li>
<li><p>UVA 0.082% </p></li>
<li><p>Georgetown 0.081% </p></li>
<li><p>Notre Dame 0.080% </p></li>
<li><p>USC 0.07% </p></li>
<li><p>WUSTL 0.056% </p></li>
<li><p>Tufts 0.055% </p></li>
<li><p>Tulane 0.05% </p></li>
<li><p>Cornell 0.049% (would rank 16th (0.16%) if CAS only) </p></li>
<li><p>UCLA 0.036% </p></li>
<li><p>Utah 0.035% </p></li>
<li><p>Penn 0.034% (would rank 27th (0.06%) if CAS only)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The highlighted are interested in recruiting NHRP Scholars, as sbjdorlo just suggested in the previous posts.</p>
<p>Looks like your’re in luck, it appears the NJ cutoff dropped 2 pts this year, see post #683:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/1379508-official-national-merit-semifinalist-qualifying-score-thread-class-2013-a-46.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/1379508-official-national-merit-semifinalist-qualifying-score-thread-class-2013-a-46.html</a></p>
<p>As long as all sections are over 700, his SAT looks great to me and I don’t think more testing (either ACT or SAT) is necessary. IMO his ranking is likely to hurt him more than his testing. How about Subject tests?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The combination of these two factors makes things tough, that NE corridor is where everybody wants to be and therefore is the most competitive.</p>
<p>My advice would be to look seriously at NHRP and NMS scholarships, some of which are automatic, and some of the LACs that have a more difficult time recruiting Hispanics and males. However, this will likely mean looking outside the geographic bounds you stated.</p>
<p>x-posted w/itsv & perazzi, wow this is a busy place!</p>
<p>Thank you so much sbjdorlo and itsv, for your advice. I was trying to post last night, to thank you but my computer was acting up.</p>
<p>^I think it was CCs Discussion board, I was getting a blank screen.</p>
<p>Hi everyone. First I want to thank you all for your help. I’m new to CC so I’ve having some difficulty replying.</p>
<p>I would like to answer some questions that might help. My S took 4 SAT Subject Tests: US History - 780, Math Level 2 - 750, World History - 690, & English Literature - 690. SAT’s were 760, 760, 760. His AP exams for his Junior year were: AP Gov’t & Politics - 5, AP Eng Language/Comp - 5, AP Us History - 4, and AP World History - 4. He did not take any AP courses before his Junior year because they were not offered. Our HS is just starting to offer more AP courses. This year he has AP Enviro Science, AP Biology, AP Human Geography, AP Calc, AP English/Literature, and AP Spanish 5. He ran out of AP courses to take unless he takes another Science (Physics or Chem) which he doesn’t want to do. As I mentioned before, he did take the ACT on Saturday, and we’ll wait and see what he scores on that. We’ve told him it is not necessary to take the SAT’s again, but he really wants to get into the 800 Club so he’s choosing to take them again in October - he puts a lot of pressure on himself. His ranking is in the 5 - 10% of a class of 150 kids, but as I mentioned our HS does not rank. Do you still feel that his ranking will hurt him?</p>
<p>Thank you for the info that NJ’s score this year for Semi-finalist NMS is 221 - He’s very excited.</p>
<p>perazziman, thank you for the list of colleges. It was very helpful. We are definitely looking into some of them. I have do have a question, however. I’ve read on some of CC’s forum for Law Schools and in the Princeton Review that they look soley at GPA’s and LSAT’s that where you go for your undergraduate does not matter. Do you not find that to be true? Do you really think it matters to go to a better undergrad school. For instance, we have a friend who went to Georgetown, had a 3.75 GPA, not sure on LSAT’s, but she did not get into Georgetown Law. Our GC even told him to go to a college that is not as competitive bc his GPA will be higher and then study, study, study for the LSAT’s because that is what Law Schools are looking for. </p>
<p>I’m so glad I joined CC you guys have been wonderful!</p>
<p>2collegesplus1, You are welcome. With those SAT/ ACT and those AP/SAT Subject test scores, I believe he will be quite competitive.</p>
<p>Yes I have heard that law school admissions are very GPA oriented. However, since my son is interested in Physics, math and engineering, I have not looked into law too much.</p>
<p>2college-I am a lawyer married into a family of judges and lawyers. Both myself and my spouse and his siblings all went to small liberal arts colleges where we were all financial aid students. We all agree we had a great educational experience which allowed us to distinguish ourselves academically. We all got into top 10 law schools including Ivies for DH and his fam. So I have to agree-law school is number driven with GPA and LSAT. Rarely am I asked where I did my undergrad but I am always asked about law school. For DH his year out of a small class of 200 graduating seniors- just among his friends 4 went to Harvard and DH went to Yale Law. My small class at my school had 3 go to my top 10 law school on West Coast. Going to a place where you can achieve great grades and have wonderful experiences really helps with law school admissions. Also going someplace where merit may help reduce the bill will then free up money for law school is always a good thing. </p>
<p>Peraz… You are very welcome. Just keep on having your son complete his applications and write a great essay about his background will go far in being at the right academic fit come next May. Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks again to all. After speaking with my son and realizing that he may have to go outside of the area he would like to be in, he is now considering going further to get those merit scholarships. </p>
<p>Can you guys provide any schools that give merit scholarships knowing what his stats are? Even though we are going to fill out the FASFA & CSS and having two kids in college, we still don’t feel that we would qualify for financial aid, therefore, he’s going to need merit aid that is not dependent on financial need. As my husband keeps saying “He would like to retire someday before he’s 80.”</p>