<p>I learned that college acceptances are more capricious than I could have imagined. Both S and D were accepted at reaches and rejected at safeties (D) or matches (S). Never think your can predict an adcom. If your son is prepared for disappointment, apply to any school your son likes and is at all competitive for, and don't judge by anyone else's experience. Ya never know.</p>
<p>Learninginprog, that a high school may discuss specific colleges prematurely to its students is even a more pressing reason for us parents to guide our children away from discussing specific colleges. </p>
<p>Our college system is blessed in that high school students who have reasonably good academic standings can always find a mutlitude of colleges where a student can obtain a truly great education. This is especially true for students who wish to go on to obtain professional degrees such as medicine.</p>
<p>Do guide your son on specific colleges when his academic standing is better defined. In the meantime, enjoy the time while college application angst is still two years away.</p>
<p>If finances are going to be an issue, make sure you understand the implications up front. State schools are usually more expensive for out of state students and much more difficult to get into. Financial aid is usually not that great for out of state students. </p>
<p>You don't want him to set his heart on a school that you can't afford to send him too, no matter how hard he works.</p>
<p>Padad. I'm ok with the High school allowing kids to do a research on an instate college as well of that of an out of state and have students discuss their findings. Obviously, we have that difference, IMO it allows the kids to become more aware of what's out there. </p>
<p>Oh so aware that State schools are expensive for OOS!. Still that's why we're still lucky time is on our side to research and also utilize this forum in getting a feel of what's out there. In -State colleges have never been ruled out from our books.:-) However, as a previous poster stated, nothing is ever safe, so we've just got to keep all options open. </p>
<p>Appreciative of the various insights received!</p>
<p>To answer the original thread question....</p>
<p>I think I'll be much more relaxed with D#2 during the college process. She's going to be a junior this year, and although lots of discussion and future planning went into course selection for jr year (so that she already knows what she's taking sr year, also), I know that we won't get too worked up about the college scene until later next spring. She's got lots of ECs, lots of leadership roles, and strong grades. She's gotten a couple of B's under her belt, so she won't be stressing over keeping her straight A's like her overachieving sister did.</p>
<p>Best advice (which I think you're already doing), is to not get too wrapped up in the frenzy of CC. I'm a recovering CC addict, especially during the November - April timeframe this year as D#1 was going through the process. The article (I think from New Yorker) that keeps it real says there are approximately 4,000 institutes of higher learning in the U.S.....and only about 20-50 are the ones you see here on CC.</p>
<p>D#1 was val of her class of 566 kids, unweighted GPA of 4.0, weighted GPA of 5.1, lots of awards, lots of scholarship offers, and is going to be majoring in astronomy and physics at Univ of Maryland-College Park. She was accepted to 4 of 5 colleges she applied (and into their honors programs if they had them)....UNC-Chapel Hill, Williams, UMD-College Park, and Boston University. Was not accepted at MIT (which I was actually quite relieved about, in the end)--Before CC, I unwittingly assumed that she was a shoo-in to wherever she applied, but this site made me realize that there are lots of stellar kids out there for only a few spots at the schools that everyone envies.</p>
<p>This site gave me a good dose of a reality check, but I suggested that she stay away from here--she was hyperventilating enough about everything....I just fed her useful morsels of knowledge. D#2 is much more unsure about what she wants to do, so I know her college search will be much broader than her sister's, and we'll want to make sure that she'll go somewhere that will give her lots of opportunities to decide her future direction.</p>
<p>Good luck with your son, but remember to stay relaxed. You'll have his entire senior year to be a basket case, if you choose to stay really involved with his college adventure. But there are lots of people here (including me) ready and willing to help you out, and provide our opinions, whether you want them or not!!! :D</p>
<p>learning, My son just graduated from Williams. What stands out most to me after going through the whole stressful application process then reaping the rewards of four wonderful years is that colleges are looking for interesting kids who do interesting things. Your son sounds like he fits the bill. Encourage him to continue to pursue his various passions (current and newly discovered -- hey, he's just a teenager!) with focus and intensity. Not for the purpose of resume building or to impress an application reader, but with sincere intent to explore all the world has to offer.</p>
<p>Take a look at some of the smaller liberal arts colleges. They're not for everyone but those who like them, love them. </p>
<p>Don't fixate on the most selective. Safeties are harder to identify and take longer to develop an affection for, but they're out there for the finding and if you intend to get any sleep senior year, the search is well worth the effort.</p>
<p>The University of Michigan also uses an unweighted GPA, and relies on it heavily. We are pretty sure our legacy S was rejected because of this, despite having a HS curriculum of all honors and AP classes. (He was accepted by UW-Madison, rejected by UNC-CH, and didn't even try UVa.)</p>
<p>Astrophysics Mom!I like the comment recovering "cc addict". Now how do I withdraw before I too become an addict?. My son has now told me we are even ...him with his video games and I with CC. lol. Thanks for the feeback. I have no doubt D#1 will have a terrific time at UMD-College Park. I concur, CC has been really a reality check for me. I just wanted a pulse check as I know there is still a couple years to go :-). I'm sure with the knowledge gained, you are in a position where you've become more knowledgeable to guide D#2, Good luck with your endeavors, and thanks again for your input and in advance for more opinions to come .</p>
<p>Momrath- Thanks for your insight as well, he is definitely pursuing the passions he enjoys. After reading all these posts here on CC, it validates it even more that nothing is guaranteed, not even what are considered safeties.</p>
<p>HeliMom- Thanks for the post on University of Mic, was not aware that we had few schools there that weighed uw gpa's so heavily. I sure hope your S will find great happiness to where he is headed, it may be sometimes that things happen for a reason!</p>
<p>From S#1 application process I learned that it's best not to take 3 SATII on the same day. He was kind of tired and stressed out by the third test. If he had sat for 2 SATIIs on 2 test dates he would have done better. I also learned that it's most efficient to take the SATII as close to the end of the course as possible.</p>
<p>So, my suggestion would be to review biology late this summer for an early fall SATII and hopefully biology would not have completely faded from his mind. That way, he would not be too far into the school year when he would take the test nor would he be too overwhelmed with school to review if he were to take the SATII bio in late spring.</p>
<p>I learned from S#2 that when it comes to EC it's best to pick something that a student would love doing. That may mean that it may not be related to the intended field of study. After all students frequently change their majors after they start college. Schools look for passion and persistance, quality over quantity. Soccer seems to be your son's love. Hope he will stay with it, enjoy it and pursue it as far and as much as he can.</p>
<p>Also, from both my Ss, I learned that sometimes it is not possible to plan so far ahead and to have an ideal time table. S#1 had 5 areas of interest when we started his colleges search. We tried to find colleges that were good with as many of those interests as possible. He started college and dropped 3 of the possibilities but picked up another which may or may not be strong at his school. For S#2, he was not able to let us know his specific interests in time for us to plan spring visits in his junior year when colleges were still in session. But came May that year he came up with a fully fledged list of 8 criteria. Teenagers may grow a lot in two years. In fact, at one of our summer visits, one college admission counselor discouraged prospective students from applying ED even at her school unless they are 100% sure of what they would like to study or what school they like. She explained to the families that lots can change between summer visits to end of December.</p>
<p>Bottom line, pace yourselves and take time to enjoy the ride. Hope your son will enjoy his studies and activities.</p>
<p>I like all the atmospheric advice above, since he's just finished 9th grade.</p>
<p>But I'd add one university to your new radar screen, Brandeis U, because of their excellent track record getting kids into medical schools, and their broad scope of courses for undergraduates in every department. It's a "small university" of around 5000 (?).</p>
<p>Undergrad population is around 50% Jewish, so figure that means 50% not Jewish. I'm so good at Math :)</p>
<p>And if I were advising a potential pre-med still in such formative years, I'd say do EC's that deepen his humanity and ability to communicate. A new realization in the medical community is the need for improved patient communication. My cousin (an M.D. on faculty elsewhere) was brought in to the faculty of Johns Hopkins U--just to teach medical students how to communicate! If your S can make time to do projects to help the underpriveleged or in some way explore what it means to be a person in this country (not just a doctor), he'll bring something special to his life and that of others.
I have a nephew who went through Columbia U and on to medical school; his entire practice is grounded on his humanity and it really shows. He's in family medicine, and doing quite well financially finally, but he's a pleasure because of his deep commitments, that began with h.s. EC's actually.
So go to deepen the soul, not just uplift the math/science scores. Do both, really; just don't abandon the first part of that equation.</p>
<p>If he is planning on AP Bio or AP Chemistry I would not take the SAT II in Bio or Chemistry until the end of that course. The SAT II and AP exams are usually the same two weeks in the Spring and he can study for both.</p>
<p>This does depend on how strong your first Bio and Chemistry courses are. My D scored only a 560 on SAT II Chem after her Soph. Honors Chem. course (all A's) but a 780 and a 5 on the AP in the spring of Junior AP Chem (A's as well). Obviously the first course didn't cover material that was on the exam and she had not yet learned how to study for multiple choice tests. I would suggest using the December tests only for 2nd tries or for Seniors.</p>
<p>Many LAC's have great records on Medical School applications "for those students that their pre-med committees recommend". Franklin and Marshall is typical in this area and one to consider as a backup.</p>
<p>I haven't finished the process yet with my son so don't know that I am an expert by any means, but I can pass on a couple of things. The first is to tell your son to read as many books as possible. This helps on the SAT Reading more than anything else. My son is not a reader and this hurt him. You have to be able to understand the tone of a passage and that only comes from lots of reading. If you are lucky, your son goes to a school with a summer reading requirement. My son didn't. Second, is to show leadership in something. This is more than just being president of a club. Do something where you stand out as a leader. One soccer kid I know is coach of a younger team. It's a time commitment, involves motivating young children, requires ability to "read" the game of soccer, and requires "handling" irate parents at times. CIT is a good start, but being a full-blown camp counselor is also a great leadership job and provides a great letter of recommendation if your son does well. Leadership more than just developing your skills (like vacationing abroad to improve language skills) - it's putting them to use.</p>