My daughter and her thoughts and choices

Parents Forum
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<p>I posted last Fall with school ideas and thoughts around what our daughter was thinking about and got some great feedback. I am back now (after much lurking and panicking) to review her thoughts/goals and scores --a long with a few of my own questions!</p>

<p>These are her current stats</p>

<p>Public High School -- top 2 or 3 in Massachusetts -- no class rank (but if I had to guess I'd say she is top 10-15%--the school is full of overachievers)
Weighted GPA 4.2 this year so far, with slight upward trend --her school does NOT weigh the GPA so according to them, she is about a 3.4 or 3.5 -- 100% honors or AP classes
Varsity math team 3 years -- will be 4
Rotary youth leadership conference
Academic Bowl team 3 years -- will be 4
Worked at local preschool in summer will be 2 years
Teaching assistant at a residential camp (at worcester polytechnic institute) last summer for 2 weeks, focussed on middle school girls who are interested in math and science -- will be 2 years
Girl Scouts -- working on the gold award which is sort of like the equivalent of eagle scout</p>

<p>She is a volunteer ski instructor for children with disabilities at a mountain 120 miles from our home. She has over 720 hours already in her high school career -- will have close to (or over)1000 hours by graduation. It is a peer to peer program and is a total commitment from November to April. She is a mentor this year and next as well. Huge family commitment as well...so I am hoping that our many sacrifices to get her there will pay off beyond the intrinsic good will. Again, this is community service.</p>

<p>Taking 1 AP and 5 honors junior year (including 1 virtual high school honors class -- environmental science) Next year she will take AP stats, AP calculus AP physics, as well as Anatomy and Physiology and honors English</p>

<p>PSAT -- National Merit Commendation
SAT -- 710 Math, 690 Critical Reading, 740 Writing</p>

<p>Subject test results are pending and we think she will not retake her SAT's.</p>

<p>She wants to study Biomedical Engineering.</p>

<p>This is the current list of schools</p>

<p>WPI
RPI
Dartmouth (obvious longshot...but we are encouraging her to shoot for the moon)
Colgate
Northeastern</p>

<p>And maybes: </p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon
Syracuse
RIT
University of Rochester
Clarkson
Lehigh
UPenn
Johns Hopkins</p>

<p>We are VERY interested (and worried) about the possibility of merit aide at these places (excepting the obvious ivies where I already know they are need based only). Also, have we missed any in our northeastern quadrant of the US? She is very certain on the geographical limitation. </p>

<p>I am so worried after reading the many stories here! Any assistance or advice is greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>Best of luck to the '09 moms and dads and grads!</p>

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<p>I think both WPI and RPI will offer her money. Carnegie Mellon is less likely to, but she’s a decent match, not a shoe-in if she likes it. They aren’t known for having as much aid as they would like to have.</p>

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<p>Does your HS have naviance or something similar?</p>

<p>In our HS, schools like Penn and JHU would be considered very reachy for a kid with your D’s profile; in other places, they are probably less so. Our GC would also advise a kid interested in engineering to retake the SAT’s- getting the verbal up 20 points and the math up another 30, which is probably not going to be that tough, will make every single school on her list that much easier- even the major reaches.</p>

<p>Have you done the various aid estimators and figured out what you are likely to get in terms of need based aid? If the number is very small- then consider what you would do if your D were accepted to one of her no-merit reaches. </p>

<p>Have you visited these schools (at least some of them?) Northeastern is a fine school for a lot of reasons, but it doesn’t exactly scream bucolic if your D fell in love with Dartmouth.</p>

<p>And which of these schools is her financial safety if none of the merit aid materializes? Has your GC suggested Cooper Union?</p>

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<p>As a LAC, Colgate does not have engineering. 'GAte is also need-aware, but offers need-based aid. If she really like DArtmouth, apply ED, but chances are extremely slim. Just too many other kids who attend top-ranked schools with a ~1400, but higher gpa’s.</p>

<p>Being a female is a plus at engineering schools, but will require a strong Math 2 score (750+) for consideration at Penn and Hopkins. IMO, Engineering programs seem to be more stats-focused and less on ECs.</p>

<p>You might check on cc threads for schools that give good merit aid, but those typically require higher scores for consideration, particularly at the collegiate level you are looking at.</p>

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<p>I think she would have a good shot at merit money from University of Rochester. You should make it your business to visit the campus and schedule an interview either on campus or when they have in your area. They defiinitely like to see you show interest- the local area interview slots fill up very quickly. Also pay attention to the application deadlines. In my daughter’s year the application deadline for scholarship consideration was December 1, as opposed to January 1.</p>

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<p>A women in engineering- her stats look very good for the schools she is interested in. I do not see why she would need to retake the SATs. Good luck your daughter sounds like a wonderful young lady.</p>

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<p>The only question I would have is what will the gpa on her transcript be? Most colleges accept the gpa on the transcript and if the weighted GPA isn’t listed on there I’m not sure how they handle that. I’ve seen that mentioned on other threads…</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>If her school doesn’t weight the GPA then she doesn’t have a weighted GPA, period. Trying to apply some other school’s weighting system to her grades is meaningless. Schools will look at the transcript as it is sent by the HS. </p>

<p>Her school will also send out a profile that will include some idea of GPA distribution for last year’s class, and that is what colleges will look at if they want to try to figure out where she ranks within her class. (That plus general familiarity with the school, since it sounds likely that the top schools have had a fair number of applicants from this one.)</p>

<p>If she has mostly As of some type in a “most rigorous” course load, she should be in good shape for many of the schools on your list, although not all. Blossom’s advice seems on point to me.</p>

<p>BTW, is she not taking foreign language?</p>

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<p>Most schools don’t look at weighted GPA anyways, they normalize the unweighted GPAs and look at those.</p>

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<p>A 3.4 or 3.5 which has been trending upwards suggests (at least to me) that there are more B’s than A’s; although most colleges on this list will deconstruct the transcript, if your school doesn’t weight, than the 3.4 or 3.5 is what they will see as the GPA.</p>

<p>Penn, Dartmouth, JHU engineering- even for a girl, a low 700’s math SAT if not coupled with a somewhat higher SAT 2 in either of the maths plus one of the sciences, is possibly a knock-out factor. These schools are not in the business of admitting women who don’t have the core computational skills to be successful in an engineering program.</p>

<p>So if it were my kid and the merit money were a concern, I’d put those reachy schools out of my head for now and try and nail down a couple of solid financial and admissions safety’s for a kid with SAT’s in the low 700’s, GPA of about 3.5, and some great EC’s that show commitment and passion to community service but don’t scream passion for engineering or analytics.</p>

<p>Just my take.</p>

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<p>Lafayette, Rutgers, UConn.</p>

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<p>Northeastern would probably be generous. They’ve been very welcoming to high achieving kids (at least until this latest economic downfall.) Do read up on Northeastern, though, before you apply. My own D is there and loves it, but it’s not a school/program for everyone.</p>

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<p>I would venture to guess that since your daughter earned a 710 on the SAT she will prepare and do nicely on the math level ll.</p>

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<p>^you can’t count on it though. My younger son scored 60 points lower on the SAT2. I’d be a bit nervous about the SAT1 math score, but am assuming that, at least at the engineering schools, she may get a bit for forgiveness for being female. I don’t think that will be true at the schools that already have a good M/F balance.</p>

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<p>A question for your daughter: If biomedical engineering doesn’t work out for her – for one reason or another (and this is not unusual; a lot of kids change their minds about engineering), what would she be interested in studying instead?</p>

<p>If the answer isn’t something scientific or technical, she should think long and hard about specialized schools like WPI and RPI. A more comprehensive university like Syracuse or the University of Rochester might be more appropriate. </p>

<p>In my experience, students with your daughter’s credentials have only an outside chance at Johns Hopkins or Penn. But I’m from Maryland, where vast numbers of students apply to both of those places. Your daughter might have a slight geographical advantage over applicants from my area.</p>

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<p>Marian, in our area where Penn and JHU are very popular, I can’t think of a kid who was not squarely in the top 10% of a well regarded HS who got into either school in the last umpteen years (if you can believe the buzz about class rank.) So agree with you that both schools seem to be longshots, which is why i’d suggest another go-round on the SAT since the class rank is what it is, but the SAT’s could go up another 40-50 points with some prep.</p>

<p>Agree you’ve asked a great question about the engineering.</p>

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<p>She is a pretty sure bet for a math or science if biomed is not for her. She knows very clearly what she is in for since she works at WPI in the summer and her Dad is a Mechanical Engineer. I suspect if the biomed thing did not work for her, she would end up as an M.E. </p>

<p>I am not pushing her to take the SAT’s again since she had a bad skiing accident in April and is suffering the effects of post concussive syndrome quite badly and the long sitting for a test takes her 2-3 days to recover from. (Thank God she was wearing a helmet) I know she is a longshot, but feel like what it is will have to stand and her relief at us saying that is worth the risk. She is keeping up with her day to day work, but the long tests are killers.</p>

<p>The class rank thing is complete crap at her school because as you so correctly ascertain, kids with straight A’s in regular classes could rank higher than her – that is why they do not “rank”. Her GPA reflects mainly A’s and B+'s in 100% honors and AP. Her lowest grade was a B in Spanish. She is taking almost the very hardest course load in her school. She would be in the absolute most challenging maths except that we moved here in 8th grade – and they already start the crazy math track – to take Calc II by Sr. year at a local college…but she will do AP Calc next year.</p>

<p>Thanks so much for great feedback! I had no idea about JHU and UPenn. Probably will apply anyways…just to see! </p>

<p>She has a very healthy attitude about rejection. She wants to do a “wall of shame” in her room! We are really proud of her!</p>

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<p>On the merit money issue, I would call the admissions offices, ask to speak to the relevant person, and describe your daughter’s record. In my experience some schools are surprisingly frank (although many are not, in which case all you’ve wasted is a phone call).</p>

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<p>harvardmum- good luck to your daughter on her recovery. We were just talking with some dear friends from years ago whom we haven’t seen recently at a grad party, their daughter was in a car crash over the winter and is having a hard recovery from brain trauma. </p>

<p>As you say, your D has a decent record and she’ll find some place good for her. Have you looked at honors programs at state schools, I know UNH is decent for engineering, I’m not sure about UVM.</p>

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<p>Jackie – She has 90% recovered, and we are no longer worried about that last 10%, except for the extended cognitive work. Her neurologist is sure it is only a matter of time, but could take up to 6 months to totally return to “normal”. So scary.</p>

<p>Wear a helmet. Everywhere! I want to wrap her in bubble wrap!</p>