<p>My DS is having trouble making a list of reaches/matches and safeties. Maybe you can help.
He is ranked 1/650 and GPA is 4.81W and 4.0 UW.
He is President and Founder of Chess Club and Mu Alpha Theta President
NHS member, SNHS Treasurer. He has had a parttime job for 1 year and has about 250 hours of volunteerism. Has won the VFW essay award 3 years in a row. AP W.H. student of the year...the list goes on. I'm sure his essays will be great.
SAT M 740, CR 570, W 650
Took the SAT yesterday to see if any improvements occur.
He is a Junior, so we have time, but any suggestion would be great. He prefers South of D.C. if possible. Financial Aid is necessary. Thanks for any suggestions.</p>
<p>any suggestions please?</p>
<p>How about Tulane and Georgia Tech. Tulane is supposed to be good with aid. Don't know about Tech.</p>
<p>what does he want to major in?</p>
<p>Don't panic! I would suggest that he prepare to take the ACT in the spring. Many students who don't do well on the SAT do very well on the ACT. Most colleges will accept either test. Don't submit any scores until you have all the facts. I would suggest looking at Wake Forest and Vanderbilt. He sounds like an outstanding student with lots of involvement. Stay calm- he still has lots of time!</p>
<p>I think that he is in very good shape. Congratulations to him on his gpa and ranking! Why not look at the fair test website and look at which schools are test optional? He has so many options, even submitting those scores!</p>
<p>Very impressive stats, but hard to understand what happened on his SAT CR. Get that up and places like Duke, Emory, and Vanderbilt are more realistic choices. At current levels, Wake could be in the mix and I agree that Tulane would be worth a look. For publics, both U Virginia, U North Carolina and W&M are excellent, but are difficult for OOS applicants. </p>
<p>For a school that is exceptional academically, but with less weight given to SAT scores, take a look at Davidson.</p>
<p>How about places that don't require SATs such as Bowdoin, Muhlenberg,Bard, Bennington etc.</p>
<p>Here is a url that lists colleges that don't require SATs:SAT/ACT</a> Optional 4-Year Universities</p>
<p>Since when is a 1340/1600 considered "mediocre" on the SAT? That's a good score. Clearly, not as impresive as Valedictorian standing, but still pretty good. Clearly, if he can improve his CR by 60+ points, he'd be in much better shape. </p>
<p>There are many fine universities out there, but what is your son looking for? What is his intended major? Here's a list of schools I think would be realistic:</p>
<p>PRIVATE:
Duke University
Emory University
Rice University
Vanderbilt University
Wake Forest University</p>
<p>PUBLIC:
College of William and Mary
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
University of Texas-Austin
University of Virginia</p>
<p>LACs:
Davidson College
Sewanee - University of the South
Washington and Lee University</p>
<p>Goodness.....he is clearly gifted in Math. CR is not horrible..its above average. Yes, if he could hit at least 600 it would help. So cross your fingers he did so. I think the school list above is excellent. I would add Furman University to that list as well. Visit as many as you can THIS COMING SUMMER and then make your priority list...rank them in your head and start applications early. Apply early decision to your number one school. I dont think you will have any trouble getting money on merit and likely get a bunch of financial aid if you apply early and use the CSS forms.</p>
<p>Dont worry. You really are in the catbird seat. Being number 1 or top 5% is a golden key to admission. </p>
<p>Success in college is based not just on scores, but on maturity and self discipline. The kids who bomb are not kids who are stupid, but kids who party too much and dont handle freedom very well. Kids with mediocre scores and grades from high school often EXCEL in college simply by working hard and being self disciplined. I see it all the time.</p>
<p>Just maintain your grades until graduation and you will have a good problem in April of senior year: picking between numerous prestigious offers.</p>
<p>So chill.</p>
<p>I agree with the colleges that Alexandre has posted above (but add Tulane), but I think you need to put the CR score in context and what it could do to an applicant. Colleges will commonly have scads of applicants that look similar and they may use outlier scores (SAT, ACT, etc.) as a way to eliminate students in the cutting down process. Most of these schools are extremely competitive in admissions and even some of the easier ones like U Texas are much more difficult than it appears due to the very high numbers of IS students (94%). </p>
<p>For the CR at each of these colleges, consider the following:</p>
<p>25th percentile CR score, % of students scoring below 600 on the CR, estimated # of freshman with sub-600 CR scores</p>
<pre><code> PRIVATE:
</code></pre>
<p>690 , 6% , 95 Duke
620 , 13% , 216 Emory
650 , 9% , 69 Rice
630 , 11% , 175 Vanderbilt
610 , 15% , 162 Wake Forest
610 , 21% , 343 Tulane</p>
<pre><code> PUBLIC:
</code></pre>
<p>630 , 14% , 201 W&M
590 , 27% , 1156 U North Carolina
530 , 46% , 4259 U Texas
600 , 21% , 770 U Virginia</p>
<pre><code> LACs:
</code></pre>
<p>620 , 11% , 46 Davidson
570 , 35% , 133 Sewanee
650 , 5% , 22 W&L</p>
<p>Thank you all for your input. My son wants to go to an undergrad with a business school. We were also thinking of U of Miami. Any opinions on that? I think he is praying for Emory, but of course, with the CR score, that may not happen. U of Florida, our home state, is also tough to get into...also so huge. I think he'd prefer something like Emory's size if he can get in and we can get some good aid. Thank you all. You have given us some options we had not thought of and hopefully on Dec. 20, the new test scores will be up enough to make us relax a bit.</p>
<p>U Miami seems like a good match, and even Emory is possible.</p>
<p>However, I'd suggest adding a couple SAT-optional LACs...just in case.</p>
<p>do not fret.
my son was in your son's situation to a certain degree.
his math scores are lower even.
and don't forget that at this point, although it might change for next year, most schools are not using the writing score in their admission decisions.
my s has cr 600/math680/writing700
he thinks business might be a focus, but he's unsure.
he has applied to tulane ea (accepted on 15 nove w/$24k scholarship
u of miami (which we visited and he liked). your son is entitled to i believ 16K annually with his scores there.
vandy
emory (my husband's on the med faculty, so very economical choice if S gets in). for emory, the look heavily on your level of interest. hey keep track of each contact you make--visits, dvd order, college fairs, etc.
unc chapel hill--a reach
duke--a bigger reach
uga- another free tuition option</p>
<p>on a final note. my S's bf, started as a junior with 1380 and no has a 1540.
my s retook the sat last satruday, too.
let me know if there's anything i can help with.
sherbear</p>
<p>I'm not a big fan of spending a lot of time on testing, but I would agree that often students who don't do as well as expected on SAT CR, tend to do much better on the ACT. I think it's a more straightforward test. But perhaps the re-test on SAT will show an upward trend. I agree, your son will have good choices even with the initial scores, but scholarship $$ might increase at some schools with higher scores.</p>
<p>I would look strongly at Davidson. Great school and financial aid without loans.</p>
<p>Thank you for all of your suggestions. I will check out Davidson. The ACT is always an option, but we were hoping to not have to do it. He's worked so hard on the SAT prep and now studying for SAT 2's and to learn a new test seems so much with his heavy courseload. We'll decide after Dec. 20 when the scores come back. I pray it goes well...</p>