<p>“And yes, investment banks love kids with any strong quant major. Especially with good programming skills.”</p>
<p>I have also heard this. Wall Street today needs brilliant thinkers & analysts, not–well, whatever they had that got us where we are today. ;)</p>
<p>^ Unfortunately many of the most recent problems are due to those quant thinkers dreaming up new ways to “reduce risk” in portfolios.</p>
<p>I might be a little biased toward the school I will be attending next year, but I would throw out Washington University in St. Louis as an option. I agree with a lot of people that medium sized research universities would be a good fit for your son, and Wash U seems to have a lot of the things you’ve been listing off. It’s right on the edge of St. Louis, so it’s in a big city, but still has a campus feel and is very safe. In addition, it has very good science programs, but also a great business school where basically every student either goes to grad school or as a job by graduation.</p>
<p>Of course, your son is very qualified and Wash U should be no problem for him to get into (except that they really take demonstrated interest seriously, so if he’s considering it, he needs to make sure the university knows it) so I wouldn’t necessarily make it a top choice. But Wash U does offer some very good merit scholarships. Unfortunately, you have to fill our a separate application for them, but they are fairly painless and your son’s stats are very similar to those of students I know who have received full tuition scholarships through those programs.</p>
<p>Some other non-HYPS schools that are similar to Wash U/Carnegie Mellon that he could consider might be Notre Dame (especially for business–#1 for undergrad business), Tufts (as someone said before), University of Virginia (also great for business and science), UNC, and obviously others.</p>
<p>UChicago and Northwestern. UChicago encourages a non-narrow view of education with very high level science and econ. They have courses in cinema although it certainly isn’t in the same league as USC. Northwestern is a great school with strong programs across the board.</p>
<p>
Same question–I was going to say that I think he’d be a great fit for Yale.</p>
<p>Honestly, he’s going to be a great fit lots of places. Since he has multiple interests and is undecided, I guess I would lean away from places that limit his choices–like MIT and Caltech. It’s also true (to a lesser extent) for LACs. But the Ivies, WashU, Duke, Vanderbilt, lots of places. What a great dilemma to have!</p>
<p>State publics worked for all in my family, but everybody knew their field of study and never changed it. D. has visited UGs under her consideration a lot, visited multiple times the ones that she still considered after initial visit, talked to current students. Looking back, I can say with some degree of confidence that it was very important to choose the place that matched personality and wide range of kid’s interest. Happy student has better chance at being successful. You do not want to have the feel of not belonging when a kid is trying her best to adjust to completely new life away from the family. Take a very close look, take multiple trips, look around campus, visit eating places, dorms, talk to current students (a lot), stay overnight, visit with sport team (if in sport). Nothing can substitute personal research. If my kid mentioned that she does not see herself going to certain place, I did not even ask why. There is no reason, there are plenty of other places where they might feel “at home”.</p>
<p>The whole premise of this thread is a little wierd, to me. </p>
<p>I would be more concerned about a HS junior who is absolutely decided as to what his major will be in a college he hasn’t even applied to, as opposed to one who is “absolutely undecided.”</p>
<p>“I would be more concerned about a HS junior who is absolutely decided as to what his major will be in a college”
-Why? There is nothing wrong with either case and there is no reason for concern. People reach tehir decision at different stages in their lives and some change much later in life (like me). Some kids know at 12 and they are so passionate about it that they go on and educate themselves way beyond what school can offer, just because they want to be engaged in their interest as much as their age allow. At the same time, I have changed my field in my mid 30s (thank goodness!). We are all different.</p>
<p>OP here.
I am resurrecting this thread after almost a year to thank you guys and to let you know how the process wrapped up for DS.
He has applied to 15 schools. Applied to some EA, but no SCEA or ED. Here are the results:</p>
<p>Accepted at : Caltech, University of Chicago (full ride - Stamps scholarship), UNC Chapel Hill (full ride - col. Robinson scholarship), Yale (likely letter), Dartmouth (likely letter), USC, UC Berkeley, UCLA, state flagship (full ride to honors college), Duke (full ride - Robertson scholarship)</p>
<p>Waitlisted at : Harvard, Princeton, Wharton, Columbia</p>
<p>Rejected at : MIT (deferred EA then rejected RD), Stanford.</p>
<p>He chose not to pursue waitlists. In the end it came down to a decision between Yale, U Chicago and Duke. He chose Duke for the fit of the college and for the opportunities offered by the Roberston scholarship. A big shoutout to ucbalumnus who mentioned this amazing opportunity over a year ago on this very thread - come over for champagne , please ! :)</p>
<p>I am posting this to thank you all for helping us in this process. Maybe others will learn from this thread as well. One big lesson for our family - we never realized that full ride merit scholarships are offered at top schools. Lesson learned :)</p>
<p>Thanks again ! :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the update…what great choices! :)</p>
<p>Yes–there are merit scholarships available to top prospects at top schools. And they don’t necessarily start with the letters HYPS or M. ;)</p>
<p>Thank you for the update! How have his academic interests evolved over the past year? Is he still interested in everything?</p>
<p>If he likes Northeastern (and co-op idea), check if they still have NMF full tuition scholarship. </p>
<p>“maybe Harvey Mudd (hated the campus)” - Mudd is a realllly intense STEM school. For kids that click there, the ugly buildings and windowless dorm rooms are a non-issue. I thought the dorms were the least appealing of any on our college tours, yet DS was enthralled due to the academics and geeky vibe.</p>
<p>As a junior in high who is ALSO undecided I have found it much easier looking at majors based on the simple things I do on the day to day bases, pay close attention to things he might do differently than other students even at his hobbies, they usually narrow down the options. And I think it’s better going in as undecided rather than to choose one career path and change it half through. :)</p>
<p>I’m pleased to see that Yale made it back on to the list, but that opportunity at Duke is just too good to turn down. Congrats!</p>
<p>Looks like there are a lot of schools that have competitive Stamps scholarships. Many, but not all, of them are full tuition or full ride. Examples:</p>
<ul>
<li>Texas, UIUC, LSU, and Miami (FL) are full ride.</li>
<li>UCLA, USC, and Notre Dame are full tuition.</li>
<li>Michigan is $10,000 per year plus some matching funds from the university and division.</li>
<li>Berkeley is $5,000 per year on top of Regents’ scholarship amount.</li>
<li>Some schools listed on the web site don’t say, although reports like the OP’s can reveal what they give (e.g. Chicago is full ride).</li>
</ul>
<p>[Partners</a> - Stamps Foundation - Stamps Foundation Blog](<a href=“http://www.stampsfoundation.org/partners/]Partners”>http://www.stampsfoundation.org/partners/)</p>
<p>Wow. Awesome results OP.</p>
<p>I’ve never posted this before–and I can’t believe I’m typing this 
– but frankly, your kid sounds like a perfect fit for Harvard, and vice versa.</p>
<p>I am shocked CC has been useful to people after reading that higher ED article. :p</p>
<p>Kelowna, I am so happy for you and your amazing DS. What a great kid. Hurrah for him and the Class of 2013.</p>
<p>Laughing a bit at the comments on the Mudd campus. When we drove up in August after sophomore year for a visit, D2 eyed the buildings and said, “That architecture is very unfortunate…” Add on that it was a 100 degree day and there was noisy construction on the campus, and she was not enthralled. But… at my request she kept it on her list, and decided to go back for accepted students day. And ended up turning down some much lovelier campuses (U of Chicago and Swarthmore) for Mudd in the end. Just saying, first impressions of a campus aren’t all there is to it – the students and feeling of a campus can speak to a kid, too, especially when they come back for accepted student days and spend more time there. Congrats to the OP’s son on his great acceptances and scholarship offers!</p>