<p>Does he know what he wants to study? Cal Poly SLO could be a financial safety if his potential major is strong there. I disagree about narrowing down the UCs because you never know where a Regents Scholarship may be offered and it’s only the application fee, no extra applications on his part.</p>
<p>I should also mention that USC was on DS’s list as a easy match but not really a top choice. After acceptances, scholarships and secondary site visits it became his favorite. He turned down Cal & UCLA, and couldn’t be happier with his decision.</p>
<p>My S had similar composite scores as yours. He was accepted at UCLA and Berkeley, the only 2 UCs he would consider, so I think yours won’t have trouble with UCs. I suggest that he considers more schools in the reach category (schools in the lower Ivies perhaps) keeping in mind the personality of the schools; for example I am not sure a person who is happy at Princeton will be happy at Brown.</p>
<p>I shared all your great advice with S. He will look into all the colleges and ideas suggested. Thank you.</p>
<p>We leave it up to S where he wants to apply although he has to do the research and tell us why. Actually I do a lot of research but I tell him he has to do his share.</p>
<p>Mei, I’m also a UMich alumna. My son was accepted twice – undergrad and grad school – and turned it down twice. 
Actually, he made the right decision for him, but it would have been fun to have had a third generation Wolverine.</p>
<p>Is your son planning to apply early to Michigan under their rolling admissions policy. If he does that he would know one way or another before he has to finalize his entire list. If accepted he could use Michigan as his safety.</p>
<p>This doesn’t address the financial issue, but rather the “fit” issue. If your son’s top choices are medium sized privates, perhaps he should add some less selective medium sized privates to his high-match category, like Johns Hopkins, CMU, Emory or Rice.</p>
<p>S already submitted his app to UMich last week. But our high school is very slow and takes a long time to do anything. They have a process setup that everyone requesting SSR/recs must fill out this packet. On the packet, it says it will take them at least 1 month! Maybe it is because >80% go to a 4 year college and many to top ones. During college app season, the office must have huge piles of SSR/recs to do. UMich sent back an email with student id and said app is being processed but will not be reviewed until everything is in (SSR/rec/transcript). S went to talk to teacher and counselor several times already to try to speed up the process. I am so stress over this. Should I go talk to them?</p>
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<p>I know it’s hard to pressure the counseling staff as you’re really at their mercy and you don’t want to ruffle feathers. But in this case I would suggest that you write or talk to them about the special case involving UMich rolling admissions. Since this is unique (I believe) among selective universities, your counselor may not be aware of the situation. Applying early is a massive advantage.</p>