<p>I wouldn’t mind going to those schools he has for me, but I am a reach at best for those schools. He is not happy that I am going to look at Texas A&M. So he is not going with us to take me. He even told my mom this morning that he expects her back home by noon on the day she drops me off. I get dropped off at 9:30am. So, my mom cannot even stay for anything, and has to drop me off by 8am to get back when he expects her back. She tells me she intends to ignore him and she will arrive home when she feels like arriving home. So, yes, a lot of family fighting going on over this now. He is convinced I could go to Yale, Princeton, or Williams if I tried. And I will try if that is what he wants! It is a waste of his money for me to apply there. But I have no problem with applying there, or even going there, if I got in. I doubt I will get in. On the financial aid calculators, I would also get very good aid at those schools. His test scores and ECs would not get him in where he went to for college now. He didn’t really have ECs, and I do. I also have volunteer work. He went to a Jesuit school and I go to a public school. He had about a 4.0 and I have about a 3.8. He even admits to me that he never did his homework and he had about a 50% in AP calculus and that was an A for him. He thinks my public school should curve grades too. These days, I think the colleges would catch on to the fact that his school did grade inflation. And his SAT scores were almost the same as mine. He had a 650 and a 720, and I have 640, 730, and a 720.</p>
<p>Youdon’t say…yes…that is what I am talking about. I arrive Monday morning and get picked back up Tuesday afternoon. It is not actually for parents, but I guess there is one thing for parents in there, including lunch. I am considering canceling going.</p>
<p>In my (very biased) opinion, I do not think you should cancel. It’s arranged, and your father already knows you’re going. THAT particular battle has been waged and won.</p>
<p>You should go! That event is actually closed, filled up for all sessions. It’s a cool deal, and you should give it a shot.</p>
<p>BTW, congrats on your NMS status.</p>
<p>Do you mind sharing your intended major?</p>
<p>Do NOT cancel.</p>
<p>If you can get to a library and see if they have the old US News college reports on microfiche. Print out copies showing the percentage of applicants accepted in 1983 or the earliest year the library has and then the percentage accepted last year. Maybe pick a few years in between. Show them to him.</p>
<p>
The “top 10” schools were still selective in the 1980s, although it is no question that they are more selective today since there are far more applicants, but not many more spots. Applying to only one selective school would have been a bad idea in the 1980s, just like it is today. It’s great that your dad got into his desired school, but many do not. </p>
<p>You can find countless articles and papers that explain this. For example, in the 2006 article at [Palo</a> Alto OnlinePalo Alto Weekly: Our Town:The man who says no (June 7, 2006)](<a href=“http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/story_print.php?story_id=1568]Palo”>http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/story_print.php?story_id=1568) the Dean of Admissions at Stanford mentions a <10% admit rate for perfect SAT/GPA type of applicants. He specifically mentions problems with the applicants who don’t have safeties, saying,
There was a thread not long ago on CC where a valedictorian who had perfect math/CR SATs and what he believed to be a “perfect” app was rejected by “all ivies” (he actually didn’t apply to all 8 of them). I can’t link to it because the thread appears to have been deleted. You can probably find it in a search engine archive.</p>
<p>There are thousands of more examples. Applying SCEA at your first choice might be a compromise, but such a compromise really shouldn’t be necessary. It should be obvious to anyone who is willing to listen that an applicant needs safeties.</p>
<p>Another strategy you can try is saying you don’t necessarily want to go to those schools, but you know you can use financial aid offers from other schools as bargaining chips for the school you actually want to go to. Being towards the top of the pile in the schools he doesn’t want you to attend might bring in more money, and then you could try to get that extra money from somewhere he does want.</p>
<p>If you have enough of your own money in the bank to pay for application fees, you don’t need Dad’s approval to apply wherever it is that you believe you can be admitted and can afford on your own. If A&M is not a dead-on admissions and financial safety for you, take a look at some of the places discussed in these two threads:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html?highlight=bobwallace[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html?highlight=bobwallace</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-3.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-3.html</a>
You may need to re-take the SAT (or take the ACT) to pull your test scores up completely into the range for some of these scholarships, but a tiny bit of prep could be enough to get you there.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The SAT scoring has been revised since he applied. His score today would be a 710/790. Quite a bit higher than your scores (1500 for him vs. 1370 for you, ignoring writing). This is something he may not be aware of… it might help if he is still listening at all… Here is a link with the conversion values.</p>
<p>[SAT</a> Score Conversion Chart](<a href=“http://www.greenes.com/html/convert.htm]SAT”>SAT Score Conversion Chart)</p>
<p>Happymom,</p>
<p>If he’s a NMS and he designates Texas A&M as his first choice, he has a potential to get HUGE scholarships.</p>
<p>Thanks cromette! I’m not up on the TAMU scholarships. That is great news for the OP!</p>
<p>Yes. He will probably learn all about it at the conference he’s (hopefully) going to.</p>
<p>I only applied to one school (in this millennium). It’s not top 10 but it’s pretty good. </p>
<p>But anyway, explain to him that the $60 or whatever it costs to apply to a school, even in a highly unlikely event that you are not accepted to your top choice school, is worth it because ending up at no school is so much worse.</p>
<p>Another thought on the SATs - be sure you show him the 50% ranges for acceptance to those schools (by type, as your CR is low). Remind him that legacies, URMs, and athletes are certainly most of the bottom 25%, and some of the next 25% as well. Unless you are one of those categories, if your scores are below that 50% mark, your odds aren’t great.</p>
<p>For example, from Fiske book:</p>
<p>Yale
CR 50% range - 700-800 (you are at 640, well below the 25th percentile)
M 50% range - 700-780 (you are below the 50% range)</p>
<p>Williams
CR 50% range - 660-760 (you are below the 25%)
M 50% range - 660-760 (at 720 a bit above 50%)</p>
<p>Princeton
CR 50% range - 690-790 (you are well below the 25%)
M 50% range - 700-790 (you are below the 50% range)</p>
<p>It is pretty great that you dad thinks you will have such good admissions results. But you have to be a realist, and figure out some way to get some matches and safeties on the list. Odds are very high that you will end up at one of those. Maybe these statistics, with some Naviance data if you have it and the info on the recentered SATs might at least help him see that you need a range of schools on your list.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Dad sounds like a control freak. Best of luck to you OP.</p>
<p>Yale admissions data: </p>
<p>Year/ Total Admits/ Admit Rate/ Total Matrics/ Yield rate/legacy fraction
1976 1980 9,387 2,481 26.4% 1,300 52.4% (15.6% legacies)
1977 1981 9,785 2,423 24.8% 1,330 54.9% (16.1% legacies)
1978 1982 10,015 2,464 24.6% 1,372 55.7% (16.3% legacies)
1979 1983 10,275 2,204 21.5% 1,276 57.9% (17.8% legacies)
1980 1984 10,304 2,130 20.7% 1,257 59.0% (18.7% legacies)
1981 1985 10,937 2,186 20.0% 1,296 59.3% (16.8% legacies)
1982 1986 11,023 2,189 19.9% 1,297 59.3% (18.5% legacies)
1983 1987 9,934 2,162 21.8% 1,255 57.5% (16% legacies)
1984 1988 12,035 2,274 18.9% 1,344 59.1% (14.8% legacies)
1985 1989 11,737 2,182 18.6% 1,278 58.6% (17.4% legacies)
1986 1990 12,528 2,269 18.1% 1,291 56.9% (15.9% legacies)
1987 1991 13,063 2,310 17.7% 1,312 56.8% (16.4% legacies)
1988 1992 12,797 2,370 18.5% 1,275 53.8% (15% legacies)
1989 1993 12,063 2,264 18.8% 1,279 56.5% (14.4% legacies)
1990 1994 11,922 2,354 19.7% 1,366 58.0% (11.5% legacies)
1991 1995 10,794 2,372 22.0% 1,290 54.4% * legacy rate drops to 11.2%
1992 1996 11,054 2,455 22.2% 1,326 54.0% (10% legacies)
1993 1997 10,705 2,453 22.9% 1,317 53.7% (9% legacies)
1994 1998 12,991 2,451 18.9% 1,308 53.4% (8.6% legacies) (556/432 EA)
1995 1999 12,620 2,521 20.0% 1,364 54.1% (10% legacies)
1996 2000 12,952 2,371 18.3% 1,409 59.4% * (ED) (413 + 70) (9.2% legacies)
1997 2001 12,046 2,144 17.8% 1,307 61.0% (461 + 58) (10.5% legacies)
1998 2002 11,947 2,100 17.6% 1,299 61.9%
1999 2003 13,270 2,135 16.1% 1,371 64.2%
2000 2004 12,887 2,084 16.2% 1,352 64.9%
2001 2005 14,809 2,038 13.8% 1,296 63.6%
2002 2006 15,466 2,009 13.0% 1,300 64.7%
2003 2007 17,735 2,014 11.4% 1,353 67.2%
2004 2008 19,682 1,958 9.9% 1,308 66.8% * (SCEA) (674 + 249)
2005 2009 19,451 1,880 9.7% 1,309 70.0%
2006 2010 21,101 1,878 8.9% 1,315 70.1%
2007 2011 19,323 1,911 9.9% 1,320 69.1%
2008 2012 22,817 1,952 8.6% 1,320 67.6%
2009 2013 26,003 1,958 7.5% 1,307 66.8%</p>
<p>I was half expecting to see you complaining that he was still sporting a “Flock of Seagulls” hairdo. 
Seriously though, best of luck. He obviously thinks highly of you. But you would think a fellow who went to a top school would be smart enough to know times change.</p>
<p>He can be. But he does think highly of me, just higher than I am. Mom is more strong willed than him. I came home last night to him saying it is fantastic that I am going to National Scholars Day. He is even considering taking the day off to go too, because there is a parent thing. He just wants to see me at least TRY to get in to the other schools. I will try. And it would be great if I got in to one of the others. I am going to send him the SAT score conversion thing so he can see how different our scores actually are. I would honestly love to go to one of the other schools too. I just cannot see myself getting in. A&M is a complete safety.</p>
<p>I am unsure what I want to major in yet. I know I want to do Asian Studies as a major or minor. But I also want to do applied math type degree. I am very interested in Linguistics. My understanding is, though, there won’t be much for work for me once I graduate if I do that. Specifically, I would like to study how languages develop and how people learn language.</p>
<p>that’s great!! things are looking up!!! have fun in Aggieland!</p>
<p>I am really glad things are working out.</p>
<p>Agree that there is a lot of good advice here. Is he prepared for you to attend a community college for a year if you don’t get into any reach schools? If he is focused on prestige, how will he handle this? And more importantly, how will YOU? </p>
<p>Does your school offer any college counseling presentations that parents and kids both attend? Hopefully they will emphasize the importance of match and safety schools in the app. process. If finances are not a concern, that’s great for you. If you know where you really want to go (and its on his list of “acceptable” schools), apply ED, or at the very least non binding EA. Good luck!</p>