<p>OP, our son had similar ACT scores to yours. Did not take SAT. Sounds like he took similar course load in terms of APs and rigor junior and senior year. Did take the senior year AP English class, but I dont think that mattered. Was accepted RD to RPI. Had decent ECs and should have gotten good recommendations. He did visit and he seemed to hit it off with the staff in the department for his major. It was clear that he liked the program. That may have helped also.</p>
<p>My son has an 800 math, 610 CR, and a 3.5 UW gpa. His high school classes have all been honors or AP. He only applied to 3 schools for engineering. He’ll be a freshman at NC State next year. NC State has an excellent (and well ranked) engineering school. You may want to change your mind and take a look at it. The middle 50% for NCSU engineering is 1170-1360. My S also got full tuition plus a $2500 stipend from Alabama and was accepted to Northeastern with $16,000/yr scholarship.</p>
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<p>Probably rejected by MIT because he was a poor writer! The others must have had pity on him and let him in.</p>
<p>Linymom - my son is as you described. He is in the top 3% of his HS with lots of AP and honors classes. His PSAT was 80 math 59 cr. With a bit of tutoring he got his CR up and his SAT was 800 math, 630 reading. His sat 2’s were same as your son. He used to think engineering but has since changed his mind to business. He was accepted to Emory College ED1 and so had to withdraw his other applications (to UMiami, Vanderbilt, WashU, UF). You can email or pm me if you have any questions.</p>
<p>My son is pretty lopsided. Had a 790 math, and couldn’t get his reading (and definitely writing) up to a decent level. He just kept taking the SAT, took it 5 times. The last time he got lucky and got his CR up to 660. Decided it was a fluke, was very happy with it, and just stopped there. For kids who can stand it, I’d say repetition is the key and if they get lucky one time, hey that’s all it takes! He figured, why waste time with a bunch of practice tests on Saturdays, when he could just do when it counted. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but it worked.</p>
<p>He got accepted to Lehigh (they don’t consider writing), Bucknell, Santa Clara, Fordham, Seattle U. Waitlisted to Carnegie Mellon and NYU. And I still don’t know where he’s going!</p>
<p>“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”</p>
<p>“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.” </p>
<p>That’s your take-away??? Yeah, it must have been the white male part and not the part that it’s a lottery school. Your kid did great and will end up well I’m sure. Most kids don’t get accepted into every single top school even if they’re rock-your-socks-off amazing. Oh, and he’s not lopsided.</p>
<p>My son is pretty lop-sided. AP classes in calc, stat, physics, econ, computer science, honors everything else and grades def better in the math/sciences. SATs 740M, 710Cr, 600W. The 710 CR delighted me; I guess it’s more the writing that is his nemesis. He tends to be very brief and to the point which did not help with essay gradings. GPA only ok, accepted Pitt, Temple, Penn State branch, Univ South Carolina. Only schools he appled to.</p>
<p>busdriver: The SATs five times! WOW! That’s not happening here, but I admire your DS for his persistence, which obviously paid off!</p>
<p>seiclan: Too bad you don’t have more comparison data for me! I’d be interested to see where your DS got in with those stats. If DS wasn’t interested in engineering possibly, we could consider Emory, Brandeis and some others. I do have the Wash U postcard on the kitchen table with a special visit day in the summer. Will hold onto that for now…</p>
<p>BUandBC: NC State won’t work for us because it is also important to us that there be a significant Jewish population, but I appreciate the suggestion. I did look into it after you mentioned it today.</p>
<p>2collegewego: Congrats on UMDCP. I think it makes a difference if you go in as a music or engineering major. Great school.</p>
<p>vmac: That’s good info on RPI. We visited last summer on a junior visit day (open house?). My DS was very impressed with it (wish we could take it out of Troy though). We mentioned the RPI Award and his possible interest in the school to DS’ GC, but he’s not the top math / science student so it’s not likely he will win it.</p>
<p>“I think it makes a difference if you go in as a music or engineering major. Great school.”</p>
<p>Yes, which is why I mentioned it-- but your kid’s gpa was MUCH higher than my kid’s so I think your son has a really good chance, especially if he applies early. I’m afraid our Naviance doesn’t break down by school so not much help there. </p>
<p>I really think your kid is a strong candidate.</p>
<p>You never know, liny, your son might take the SAT a few extra times, you never know. I hadn’t expected my kid to do it 5 times (plus 3 times for subject tests), as he’s not the type to enjoy tests. But the first time, after a Kaplan prep course, and all those years of really great private schools, he got a high math score, and CR/W each under 500. I was banging my head on the wall, thinking, can you get into any school with these? I think he was going too slow and not finishing up, he just didn’t have any idea of timing, and all the answers sounded right to him. But each time he improved 50-100 points overall in the superscore. Finally, we promised him a new laptop if he could get over 2000 total. He did that and then some,so we got him the laptop (that we were going to get him anyways for college, heh, heh) but he did get a nice gaming computer that we probably wouldn’t have gotten him. The bribe worked perfectly, and he ended up accepted/waitlisted to places where he shouldn’t have had a shot. No high GPA.</p>
<p>I normally wouldn’t recommend anyone taking that stupid test so many times, but ridiculously, so much rides on it sometimes.</p>
<p>I helped a friend with her S who was science/math lopsided like OP’s S. For any selective school that was not known for its science, he did not get in. But he got into Tufts and WL at Washington SL. The Tufts acceptance was a pleasant surprise.</p>
<p>He narrowed his choices down to Tufts and Miami, chose Miami (he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to get the grades he needed at Tufts–premed), then changed his mind and ended up at Tufts. He’s doing fine, but he studies like a demon (or at least that is what he tells his mother…).</p>
<p>Have you looked at the University of Rochester? Very good science/ engineering. I think I read somewhere (I think on the University of Rochester thread on CC, in a post from the previous admissions rep) that they are open to “pointy” kids – e.g., they don’t necessarily expect kids to be super strong in everything. Your son must be getting pretty good grades in English/ history in addition to science classes to be in the top 5% so that would help as well. My understanding is that for Rochester, there is a real benefit to applying early decision – they openly state that they read ED applications in the best possible light.</p>
<p>My kid had a friend who was accepted for engineering at Northeastern and VPI with lopsided stats but I don’t remember the exact numbers. I know math was over 700 and CR was impacted by a disability.</p>
<p>My daughter was lopsided and did very well in the college admissions (and scholarship) process. She was accepted at 9 out of 11 schools with CR 680, M 520, and W 780. She took the SAT three times and the ACT once (composite of 28–English 34 and Math 21), but she was never able to boost her Math scores. (Oddly enough, her twin brother is a Math & Science guy with top scores.)</p>
<p>She was admitted to a Limited Enrollment Program at the University of Maryland College Park, which was her top choice, and she’s starting classes there this fall.</p>
<p>She was also offered substantial merit scholarships to Ohio State, Florida State, University at Albany, and Washington College, among others.</p>
<p>I was seriously worried for a while about the outcome, but things worked out well in the end…I bet they will for your lopsided child as well!</p>
<p>LINYMOM - Your sons scores will be competitive for the schools you are looking at and with some research on websites like parchment I am sure that you can find some academic safeties. To this point I have not noticed that anyone has mentioned the second part of a safety which is the financial side. Make sure you take a good look at the cost of attendance as it is just as important (unless you just don’t have to worry about the $$. If that is the case congrats).</p>
<p>I agree with some of the earlier posters. Spend a good amount of your time looking at his EC’s and figuring which of those you can leverage in the application process. Then start thinking about the essays. Our son was not lopsided, had top scores across the board, reasonable EC’s with some leadership but we didn’t plan how to leverage the EC’s and allowed him to do his own essays without review. That proved to be our downfall. He was accepted everywhere but didn’t receive the merit we had expected at most of the schools. With numbers that are good but not tippy top the better you do with the application the better your chances will be.</p>
<p>We found that there was a good selection of schools that were “sleeper” math/science schools in that they were overall LAC schools with excellent math/science departments. My son’s SATs were Math 740, CR 700 (better than expected!) but 580 writing) and his GRADES (and clearly his interests) were very lopsided. (and he had some problematic issues that made applying to more competitive schools problematic.)</p>
<p>He wound up being accepted with really good scholarships at Beloit, Knox and several others. We considered U of R, but he wound up not applying. He wound up choosing RIT but not necessarily because it was a tech school (for the supports and several other reasons).</p>
<p>I would still start by focusing on schools he would be happy at, and then expanding from there… some easier to get into by scores, some harder, some larger (or smaller), some more general/liberal arts (or more tech).</p>
<p>With both my sons, we found that the final decision school was NOT in the bull’s eye we had first drawn, so having schools on the final list of applications that were not cookie cutter copies, but shared qualities that they liked, was very helpful.</p>
<p>OP – You’ve been an active participant on this site for a while, so you likely don’t need this piece of info, but, in addition to an additional “safety” or two, try to pick at least one or two rolling admissions schools he would be willing to go to. Having one or two admits early will lessen the pressure. And…if for some reason those rolling don’t work out…he’ll have a chance to add to his list.</p>
<p>Pitt and Indiana are the two rolling that seem to like LI kids with 550+ scores…so…they’ll love his high math score. And they have substantial Jewish populations. Look at the early Posts on the Admitted thread for other rolling suggestions. </p>
<p>As for safeties…RPI is close to a sure thing with his scores. SUNY Albany and Buffalo would also be close to safeties. Anything else on your school’s Naviance, that seems interesting, where he’s above the line for GPA and scores?</p>
<p>The safeties are a challenge. Yes, Albany and Buffalo are safeties but he would never go to either so they don’t fit the “love thy safety” requirement. He is above the line on our hs naviance for his favorite schools but they are not financial safeties. </p>
<p>The good news is that he got his ACT scores back today and they are
a little less lopsided.</p>