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Not all publics give out A’s like candy. Our son’s weighted average was a 97 which put him just one off the top 5%. Your kid sounds like he’ll do fine wherever he ends up.</p>
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<p>The question is what is his unweighted average. A 3.95 on a scale of 5.0 isn’t all that great unless they school truly doesn’t have many top performing students or doesn’t give out many As (pretty unusual these days).</p>
<p>My son had a WA of 3.8 which put him at a 92 GPA and in the top 30% of his class. His UWA was 3.3. He was at a school with a lot of high-achieving students (no easy As) but still, I wouldn’t think a 3.95 WA is in the top 5%.</p>
<p>The OP said he was a A- student, which sounds about right with a 3.9 out of a 5.0. I can’t imagine any A- students being in the top 5% especially in a class of 250.</p>
<p>And to belabor my point about older S and Cornell. Even he says now that he should have considered the school that offered him a full NMF scholarship and not because we are still paying for Cornell. And I agree because I think they would have had a more vested interest in having him do well. The Dean that “recruited” him called several times and he would have been in his department. I think he would have been given more guidance. He ran into trouble at Cornell by being in an unsuitable major and having to transfer.</p>
<p>I think the mentality for those who can afford it is- my kid is going to go to the highest reach they can get into, like its a prize. I don’t know if this is always the best course of action. I think you need to go with fit and the school that “wants” your kid for one reason or another. Unless your kid is one of those “gosh I’m so lucky to have gotten in I’m going to make the absolute most of it” kind of kids. Because otherwise you are going to continue to be at the bottom of the heap and what kind of recommendations are you going to get and what kind of impact are you going to have?</p>
<p>Cornell only considers legacy as a boost during the ED round. So this really is his best shot…whale18 (and son of whale) I wish you good luck and hope everything works out for the best. Cornell is a tremendous school, but there are many good ones out there…</p>