<p>We are looking at a list of match and safety schools for our son, who attends Thomas Jefferson High School (TJ) in Northern Virginia, ranked number one in US News. Here are his stats:</p>
<p>2340 on the SAT, including 800 on math and critical reading. 800 on SAT II physics, chemistry and math II. All 5's on AP tests, chemistry, physics, computer science, calculus and world history. </p>
<p>Approximately 4.25 weighted GPA average. (TJ does not compute raw GPA or rank students.) </p>
<p>Is in his second summer working in a chemistry lab at Georgetown University. He is the only high school student in the lab. Will be listed as a co-author when the research paper is published, but this may not happen before college decision time. But he will get a very nice recommendation letter from his professor in any event. </p>
<p>His other extracurriculars are not awe inspiring. </p>
<p>S wants to major in physics, chemistry or a related field and go on to get a PhD in a top graduate program if he does well as an undergraduate. So we are looking at schools strong in science and math, including both universities and LAC's. </p>
<p>Any good advice on appropriate match and safety schools? I think we have a good idea which ones are reaches.</p>
<p>He may want to consider whether a strong graduate program in the subjects is desirable – in some cases, the top students in the subject want to take graduate level courses, which may mean that they would find an undergraduate-only school to be too limiting.</p>
<p>The other thing to consider is that physics and chemical engineering have much better job and career prospects than chemistry (though for physics, it is because “surplus” physics graduates are recruited into well paying finance and engineering jobs). So if he is otherwise undecided between the fields, he may want to consider that aspect.</p>
<p>What can you afford? Certainly VT should be on the list (and I would imagine UVA though that may be tough based on the number of other TJ applicants).</p>
<p>Match: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaigne, UMich,</p>
<p>Safety: UC Santa Barbara, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Maryland</p>
<p>But he will probably get into his top choices :)</p>
<p>I don’t know…
UVA as a match? Or VT? Or JMU? (in state)
Ah, I (almost) got in to tj… I got to second round anyway :D</p>
<p>Erin’s Dad, my S is interested in William and Mary, which he thinks would be a safety for him. But not in UVA or VT. Don’t ask me why. To my mind, VT might also be a good safety school. Money is not an issue for us. We simply want him to go to the best school he can get in to and will be happy in. At the end of the day it will be his call. SeattleBulldog, I am a UW-Madison alumnus, so would be happy to see him there. I know it is a great science research school. But we are thinking more of smaller universities in addition to LAC’s, meaning schools in the the 6,000 student range. Right now, I should mention, his top choice is Caltech, which we have visited, followed by Reed, which we have also visited. Haverford, Carnegie Mellon and Swarthmore (all visited) trail behind in his druthers. He didn’t like Princeton and is adamant about not applying to any Ivies. Not cool, he thinks. We are also going to visit MIT, Williams, Wesleyan, Bowdoin, Duke, Washington of St. Louis and Chicago, to give you some idea of our reach universe. He has legacies at Bowdoin and Swarthmore and his mother went to Bryn Mawr. I agree he will probably get into some of these schools, but we (and he) want to have some margin for error.</p>
<p>W+M is not a safety school, by any stretch. Maybe a match, for a truly kick-ass student. Maybe.
VT is a more realistic safety. Well, not a safety per se, but a low match/low safety.</p>
<p>Cal Tech is possible but with the acceptance % a reach. Reed is possible as well but grades and scores don’t count for much in admission (like 20% according to one poster).</p>
<p>How about Tulane, Vanderbilt, Emory for “match” schools. All are about the size that you want.</p>