ideal schools?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>for a friend, as i am far removed from college at this point:</p>

<p>about him:</p>

<p>-intellectual, but disorganized
-interested in computer graphics, design, entrepreneurship
-has started his own little "companies" before, like selling things at his school
-has won several state and national level awards for his art (computer graphics)
-designed logos for local companies in middle school
-wants to become an inventor/mad scientist/make and design cool stuff for a career
-has dismally low GPA that is not reflective of how smart he really is (~2.5 as a sophomore)
-standardized test scores are weirdly very high (PSAT 230), so we know he's got a high IQ
-terrible essay writing skills that also don't reflect how smart he really is</p>

<p>he wants to go to MIT, but there's no chance in hell of him making it. i think he likes the fact that there would be so many "toys" for him to work and experiment with there, but his lack of discipline and incredibly low GPA have already killed his chances there.</p>

<p>realistically, what are some good options? with straight A's throughout the rest of high school, he's looking at a ~3.4 GPA in the absolute best of circumstances. he's seriously a smart kid. it's just such a shame that he didn't take his academics more seriously his freshman year. his sophmore year grades are better (closer to 3.0) but still needs serious improvement.</p>

2

<p>bump. any thoughts?</p>

3

<p>Home state? What can his family afford?</p>

4

<p>New York City. Both parents and grandparents will be supporting him.</p>

5

<p>Case Western, Rose Hulman</p>

<p>I normally wouldn’t say Olin because of the GPA, but they’re very much into entrepreneurism, so <em>possibly</em> they’d forgive his GPA because of his outside activities.</p>

<p>many of the ______ Institute of Technology (other than MIT and Caltech)</p>

<p>Honors colleges within larger universities?</p>

6

<p>Add RPI, WPI</p>

7

<p>Tell him to work his butt off to raise his GPA as much as possible. Schools are more willing to overlook bad test scores than bad grades! An strong upward trend is necessary for them to overlook his rocky start. Does he take honors/AP classes?</p>