<p>NavalTradition–
Missouri Synod, and it is a pretty high priority for him. Another tally mark for Ithaca…</p>
<p>Pitt does consider “level of applicant’s interest” (somewhat unusual for a public school), and isn’t cheap, though it has a reputation of offering competitive merit scholarships (but not something that can be seen as assured for safety purposes).</p>
<p>If it is hard to find 100% assured safeties for admissions, it may be worth having several suitable low matches (Pitt? SUNYs?) to minimize the possibility of a shut-out. Be sure to check costs as well to see if they fit in your budget.</p>
<p>There is a cautionary thread by a poster named andi, whose son with high academic stats was shut out due to not having a safety. He took a gap year and applied to a mostly different set of schools. Although he made the same mistake the second time (there were no safeties in the second application list), he fortunately did get admitted to some of them and therefore avoided an even more devastating second shut-out.</p>
<p>menloparkmom-
I am all for getting merit money! So glad your son had a success story. It is helpful to hear about students that turn down Ivy acceptances and are happy with their decisions. Also, our sons do seem to have much in common-mine is a pianist as well!</p>
<p>^ U of Chicago does have a few $30000 tuition scholarships, so that may be an additional reason for applying there as well [ they were able to initiate a much more generous FA program a few years ago thanks to a very generous alum]
They have many ACapella groups and lots of opportunities and venues for talented musicians to play around campus. And The Core really cant be beat for providing an all around first class liberal arts education.</p>
<p>MWCDSS–
Yale…yes my personal favorite, and in the words of my son, “Stop Mom, no one gets into Yale!”</p>
<p>entomom-
yes, thank you. I will be following the acceptances thread closely this year, and the “Diversity Fly In” thread will be a great resource for next fall.</p>
<p>magnetron-
You make a very good point. Even at the largest universities the geoscience programs are mostly very small. I was surprised that Cornell usually has no more than a dozen in their atmospheric science class each year.</p>
<p>He would probably make a geographic compromise for Stanford! (He has mentioned that he might be willing to brave the South for Duke or Vanderbilt…but isn’t quite so flexible when I try to suggest the lovely merit opportunities at Alabama…) I really can’t imagine the logistics of a CA school though.</p>
<p>He thinks there is a good chance he might end up working for the Air Force, but not in uniform.</p>
<p>I will absolutely look at UMCP-I am not even remotely familiar with it and I appreciate you pointing me in a new direction.</p>
<p>There exists a full ride scholarship at the University of Chicago:</p>
<p>[University</a> of Chicago, Chicago, IL - Stamps Family Charitable Foundation - Stamps Leadership Scholars](<a href=“http://www.stampsfoundation.org/portfolios/university-of-chicago-chicago-il/]University”>http://www.stampsfoundation.org/portfolios/university-of-chicago-chicago-il/)</p>
<p>Marian-
Thank you for clarifying UMCP as I thought magnetron must be referring to Michigan! I will be taking a look.</p>
<p>ucb-he toured Pitt this summer…Penn State? Kind of surprised no one has thrown that out there considering its School of Earth Science/Meteorology program. Another thought as a safety. Again, not cheap, but there is some merit money. </p>
<p>Wow on that UC scholarship. I’ll add that to my top college fantasies list!</p>
<p>"Yale…yes my personal favorite, and in the words of my son, “Stop Mom, no one gets into Yale!” </p>
<p>He is a very intelligent young man.</p>
<p>Start with the safety. Then the rest doesn’t matter. A safety is a school where he is sure to get in, you are sure to afford, and that he LOVES. Spend at least as much time finding the safety as you do the rest of the list.</p>
<p>I can’t claim to have the “inside scoop,” but…</p>
<p>It sounds to me as if the U of Rochester might be a good match for him with possible merit $.</p>
<p>How about University of Minnesota - Twin Cities? Somewhat further away (though the nearby airport is a hub for Delta), but has seasons, low match or safety admissions, low fraternity/sorority presence (3%), good earth science programs, acapella, and nearby Lutheran (Missouri synod) church. And it comes with a relatively low list price for an out-of-state public university.</p>
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<p>Has he checked some SUNYs like SUNY Binghamton?</p>
<p>mini-
"Start with the safety. Then the rest doesn’t matter. A safety is a school where he is sure to get in, you are sure to afford, and that he LOVES. Spend at least as much time finding the safety as you do the rest of the list. "</p>
<p>If only it were that simple…certainly he can find any number of admit safeties, and even full rides and SUNYs for financial safeties…but loving one of them? That’s the problem. I like “free” as much as the next person, but thus far I have not found any auto merit school that I feel comfortable directing him to. I think it will be more of a matter of picking some "I will go if I have to"schools like Pitt, Penn State, and SUNY Albany.</p>
<p>Is there a college in the US now that doesn’t have multiple a capella groups? We heard way too many of them when we attended accepted students’ day at RPI, which by the way would probably be a safety and offer merit money: [Academics</a> :: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Admissions](<a href=“http://admissions.rpi.edu/undergraduate/academics/index.html]Academics”>Academics :: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI))</p>
<p>I think you son should reach high. Coming from a poorly rated high school but achieving those test scores and AP results will make him stand out. Harvard has a push going on right now for recruiting students from low-achieving schools that don’t normally send kids there. Financial aid is amazing. </p>
<p>The same could be said about many top schools, Ivy League or not. Cornell and Yale are very reasonable places to apply. Brown is wonderful and students give very high ratings for “happiness” there too. Brown has no distribution requirements and requires a certain level of self-direction for that reason, though there is a lot of advising. Amherst also has no distribution requirements. Wesleyan is another possibility (read “The Gat3ekeepers”).</p>
<p>In the Boston area anyway, Tufts is considered a really great school, selective and rigorous, and the students I know who go there are really happy with it.</p>
<p>A student should always have a safety (often a state university around here) and not get totally fixed on any one school or set of schools, but your son should also definitely try for his dream schools, whatever they are.</p>
<p>By the way, Tufts syndrome refers to the situation in which a student is rejected by Tufts because Tufts admissions thinks the student really wants to go to, say, Harvard or MIT. Tufts is protecting its “yield” stats meaning the stats for number of accepted students who actually go there. It has nothing to do with the quality of education at Tufts.</p>
<p>^And Tufts swears up and down that they don’t practice yield protection. I think the real problem is that they really do care about the soft parts of the application and too many kids using Tufts as a safety phone in their applications. My son did not have the stats for Harvard and put a great deal of effort selling himself to Tufts - they were willing to dig a little deeper into their application pool to accept a diamond in the rough - and to do so they must have rejected kids with better stats than him. They are really looking for kids who engage in the world, who want to change things for the better now.</p>
<p>
How about letting him pick those schools rather than you. Lay them out, make sure he knows he has to like it, and let him visit.</p>
<p>“Has he checked some SUNYs like SUNY Binghamton?”</p>
<p>Of course Binghamton is our crown jewel but he has not really taken a serious look…I had mentioned Albany before because it has the atmospheric science program that Binghamton does not have. Binghamton does however have a 5 year program combining a BS in geology with a Masters in Education, and S has not ruled out becoming an Earth Science teacher if the job market does not look otherwise viable so maybe he should give the school an in depth look. Another BIG plus for the SUNYs is that he will have a ton of DE credits (in addition to his APs) and SUNY will give him full credit whereas the other schools he is looking at will give him ZILCH. He could probably complete the BS/ME in 4 years.</p>