<p>Hi. My son (who is an engineer- or scientist-to-be) is kind of lopsided - very strong on the math/science side and less so on the English/reading side. He's finishing his junior year in HS now.</p>
<p>SAT scores- in the 700's both times in math. CR just under 600.
SATII - in the 700's in math 2 and chem
ACT scores - in the 30's in math/science, 20's for English/reading (waiting for second set of scores)</p>
<p>He takes all honors and AP courses -- 1 AP science this year and AP Lang, but refuses to do AP Lit next year; has selected an honors Eng course. Will take 2 AP science courses next year along with AP Calc (the rest honors). Close to top 5 percent of his class.</p>
<p>I contacted three of the colleges he is interested in and they assured me they don't look at SAT writing scores.</p>
<p>I'm sure there are many "lopsided" kids like this. I'm wondering how others have fared with admissions, especially on the east coast. Would love to hear your experiences.</p>
<p>Well, my daughter is lopsided but in the opposite way as your son. Act reading was 32 and math was 25. She has never taken calculus - just pre-cal. </p>
<p>She got into Ohio State (honors) and full tuition scholarship
Kenyon (with a scholarship)
College of Wooster
Earlham
Ohio Wesleyan </p>
<p>…plus others. We added up her scholarship offers and total they were around 900,000 so I think she did pretty good! She had extremely strong essays and only a few in depth extracurriculars & 4.0 uw. It sounds like your son will do great next year! The worst part isn’t getting in… It is deciding. Agony.</p>
<p>Your son is exactly like both our sons! They both took BC calculus as juniors and all the AP sciences. They got 5’s in the sciences and economics. Neither took any honors English or history classes. The older had 800 in math and 610 on his verbal. It was before the writing section. The younger had 750 in math and 690 in verbal. He got a 590 in W, but thankfully Cornell doesn’t look at W yet. He went to an SAT tutor for his verbal. There are ways to “learn” how to take the test and he benefitted from that a lot. Both did a lot of community service and played sports. I think that’s a key component to their success. The older one got into University of Miami (full scholarship), Clemson, but went to Vanderbilt. He’s a mechanical engineer and lives in Houston. The younger got into Georgia Tech, University of Michigan, but is in Cornell’s college of engineering.</p>
<p>The world needs more Americans who are willing to study the sciences, so I think that’s why our guys did well with admissions. Engineering is really HARD in college - be ready.</p>
<p>I had a 3.06 GPA (did poorly in some history/english classes - some were AP though), had an SAT CR/M/W of 660/780/560 and ACT of 34 and got accepted into Clemson, Purdue, Pitt, VT, Northeastern and UMass-Amherst. Was rejected early action from NC State.</p>
<p>Honestly a lot of these state schools have a formula that they just plug your numbers into to figure out if you’re accepted or not. I think my ACT score saved me (miraculously got a 33 on the English section!)</p>
<p>And yes engineering is tough in college! I didn’t have the best time management skills in high school (explains the 3.06) so I struggled through freshman year - especially Calculus II (flunked that) and came out after that year with a 2.3 GPA. I’ve pulled it up to a 2.7 now 3 semesters later but with a lot of hard work.</p>
<p>pierre: Your 1440 on CR/M and 34 ACT was clearly the ticket. You don’t look lopsided (congratulations for that!) although your GPA vs. test scores was not consistent. I’m hoping for DS to get a 33 on English - that would be miraculous for him too!</p>
<p>I’m looking for people with high math/science and lower (below 600) on CR. Thanks to all who have responded so far.</p>
<p>Colleges look at so much more than test scores. What are your son’s ECs? Will his letters of recommendations be good? Will his essays be outstanding? </p>
<p>I know kids with perfect SAT scores in Math, 5’s on 9 different Math and Science AP tests, but lower scores in Verbal. The assumption was “MIT only looks at Math and Science scores”. They were rejected by the top tech schools, mainly because they were totally one dimensional. No real ECs, no leadership, so-so essays.</p>
<p>Make sure he applies to a range of schools, and that he really loves his safety. Good luck!</p>
<p>^ Great point, gsmomma. He doesn’t just do math and science – He’s an all-around kid - involved in music, sports, community service, science olympiad (but not too spread out, focused in his areas of interest); some leadership, including an award. Recs will be very good; essays will be fine (with work; writing is not his strongest point). My concern is just that the English/Reading scores are so much lower than the Math/Science.</p>
<p>We’re looking for the safeties… that’s the hard part!</p>
<p>Georgia Tech is self-selecting. Kids apply there if they’re interested in attending one of the best engineering schools in the world. Don’t be fooled by low admission stat’s - it’s a solid engineering experience and companies line up to hire its graduates. Look at Clemson. If you’re thinking a northern setting, the University of Michigan cannot be beat! In my opinion, based on the little info you’ve given, I think your S would be admitted to all of them. Try EA with them and you’ll hear early!</p>
<p>Leadership in EC’s that he is passionate about will be the key. Our D is a Sci-kid, mid- 700s on math and sci sat IIs and high-low 600s on her crtreading/writing. She did very well on her APs: 5s on Bio, Chem, Physics, Calc. However, it was probably the fact that she was highly commited to her 3 major ECs that sealed the deal for the following schools: UVM, Middlebury, Rochester, Bowdoin, Colgate, Carnegie Mellon(MCS/HSS), Dartmouth and Columbia. Every single school cited her dedication and leadership to 1 or all 3 of her favorite ECs as the prime factor to acceptance. There are plenty of students who will demonstrate high numbers/stats but the ECs will set a student apart because they illustrate the “human” side of the application and if there’s plenty of passion and dedication to a few, that comes thru to the adcoms better than a huge list of which the student can’t possibly commit a lot of time to each one.</p>
<p>Of we’re to be honest, a CR score in the 500s will be a major issue at many schools. MIT and Caltech have CR score averges very close to their math averages, so even tech schools don’t seem to give much of a break there. </p>
<p>I would get him a strong tutor and have him practice vocabulary and do more reading. This will also be important in helping him do well in non science college classes.</p>
<p>Waverly: I agree that it will be an issue at the top schools. DS not aiming there (a couple of reaches are almost that high, but he knows not likely). More looking at Lehigh, Lafayette, RPI, Miami, Maryland, Tulane.</p>
<p>He is tutored and tested to his limit right now, and focusing on his sport for the next month. What you’re saying reinforces our need to keep looking for a safety that he loves. Getting over the 600 mark would have really helped. I hope he did better on the recent ACT. If not, we’re not going to cry about the 1300+ SAT score. That’s still a great accomplishment – not on CC, but in the real world :)</p>
<p>Still looking for those safeties…</p>
<p>Does anyone have any experience with a lop-sided kid getting into the schools I mentioned here?</p>
<p>Im not sure about the others, but I’d be hesitant to put lehigh and Lafayette into the safety category. I’d suggest digging deep into their CDS to see how many students were admitted with his CR scores. For solid safeties, I’d only feel comfortable where the lowest score was solidly in the 25%-75% range, closer to the 50%-75% side.</p>
<p>Those are by no means safeties! Those are schools that he is interested in! We need safeties! According to our HS Naviance they are match schools (to one extent or another), but they are definitely not safeties.</p>
<p>I’m wondering about anyone else’s strong math/science kids (who don’t have corresponding high CR scores)… anyone want to share?</p>
<p>I appreciate your input here… we have some other requirements so these don’t really fit… I didn’t specify all details because that wasn’t really my intent here (but I do appreciate your suggestions!)</p>
<p>I started this thread because I thought others may have had the same tilt on scores as DS does and I want to see how they fared (not necessarily looking to you all for the safeties…)</p>
<p>My D’s Reading score has always been the lowest and it stays that way. However, her strongest has always been English. It was 7 points difference in ACT between English and Reading. She has done wonderfully. Yes, had lots of science in UG and continue the same (in Med. School). Her slower reading actually is helping her a lot. She has very high comprehansion and always wonder why people are asking questions that are explained very well in a book. I would not worry too much about low Reading score. However, her very strong writing skills has helped her a lot in every subject, including writing long lab reports in science classes. D. went to state UG and currently at highly ranked private Med. School.</p>
<p>Linymom, My lopsided kid got into Md-CP with a 3.0gpa (somewhere between a 3.5 and 3.6 weighted), about 6 APs, lots of honors and an overall 27/28 ACT with consistent math highs in the 30s and a low in English of 23 (yikes!) on one test, 25 on the other. The catch is my kid wasn’t applying for engineering-- applied to music and I suspect the music helped. Still, I was surprised.</p>
<p>My recommendation for Md is to get the application in early. The school has a very early deadline (Nov 1).</p>
<p>My S was a lopsided applicant this year. He got basically all A’s in math and science and B’s in English and German but attended a well known science and technology high school, which also helped. He got a 2350 on his SAT I (2340 on one sitting, 800 on math and critical reading) and 800 on his SAT II in Math2, Physics and Chemistry. 5’s on all his AP tests, all in science, CS or math, except AP U.S. History, where he also got a 5. His weighted GPA was 4.262 but about 3.8 unweighted given the above mentioned B’s. He applied to Caltech and MIT early action, and Amherst, Reed, Cornell and William & Mary regular decision. He got in everywhere except MIT. Lessons? He was clearly attractive to the STEM schools given his science background, but somewhat less competitive at MIT than Caltech since MIT emphasizes diversity and he is a white male. His Caltech essay was also a lot better than the short answers he did for the MIT application, which can make a difference when admissions officers are trying to distinguish between large numbers of equally accomplished applicants. I think he was also attractive to the LAC’s because of his science orientation. They look to balance their student bodies and want to make sure they take in students who stand a good chance of majoring in math or the sciences.</p>
She had extremely strong essays and only a few in depth extracurriculars & 4.0 uw. It sounds like your son will do great next year! The worst part isn’t getting in… It is deciding. Agony.</p>