<p>Please do not chance. Son is interested in pursuing engineering. I do not want to see him drop out or fail at the end of freshman year in some rigorous engineering program. So, if all you knew about him was:</p>
<p>GPA: 4.04 (A is weighted 5 for AP and Honors, 4 on all others)
Rank: Top 25 percentile. (At a competitive high school that placed 4 students to Stanford this yr)</p>
<p>Spring semester Junior year Grades/ Course & AP scores: </p>
<p>B Pre AP PreCalc (87%),
B AP Chemistry (AP score 4),
B AP Biology (AP score 5),
B AP English Language (AP score 5)
A AP Computer Science II (AP test not offered)
A AP US History (AP score 5),
A Pre AP Physics.</p>
<p>Standardized test scores:</p>
<p>NMSQT: CR 74, W 76, M 69
SAT Subject Math II: 750</p>
<p>SAT Reasoning: To be taken in Oct
SAT Physics: To be taken in Nov.</p>
<p>Do you think he could survive/ flourish at a top engineering program?</p>
<p>I don’t mean to discount intelligence, but certainly once you have established that he isn’t stupid (he is clearly bright), I would have to think that the #1 determiner of whether or not your son will do well is whether or not he wants to.</p>
<p>I assume he is going to take AP Calc BC and AP Physics senior year. How well he does in those classes will be a strong indicator of how well he would do in an engineering program as engineering is essentially a lot of math and physics.</p>
<p>I concur with the consensus. He should be fine in an engineering program. </p>
<p>That junior schedule was cruel and unusual punishment. Just to survive that, he must have nerves made of steel. I don’t think he’ll find engineering has hard as taking those particular 7 classes at the same time. </p>
<p>I think he can do fine if he doesn’t burn out in high school. Make sure he gets enough sleep as chronic sleep deprivation can cause a permanent loss of cognitive function. I think senior year it’s more important to learn Calculus and Physics well then to overload with the most rigorous schedule.</p>
<p>I don’t know if STEM college admissions have changed all that much in the last 20 years, but this was me…years ago of course…</p>
<p>High School GPA: 3.1
Class Rank: 120 out of 720
SAT Score: 1200 (equivalent to 1800 today)
ACT Score: 30
AP Credits: Absolutlely Zero
SAT Subject Test: Not a damn one
Highest HS Math Course: Something called Analytic Geometry (I did not take Calculus)</p>
<p>Results…</p>
<p>B.S. Computational Mathematics from Michigan State University (2.7 GPA)
M.S. Engineering from University of Wisconsin (9 years later)
22 years in Software Engineering (14 private sector, 8 in top-secret/INTEL contracting)</p>
<p>Answer to OP…</p>
<p>As long as your son has an interest and desire for engineering, he will do fine. His high-school academic credential are light years ahead of what I had.</p>