“The time has come to get our travel plans in order for DS4. He is torn between law and medicine and wants to major in Chemical Engineering.”
“Basically, a very self-driven over achiever who thrives under pressure and hates to be bored.”
I would suggest the following colleges which have chemical engineering departments heavily involved in medical research. The goal here is to become involved in research as an undergraduate.
Cal Tech
MIT
Stanford
Northwestern
Vanderbilt
Georgia Tech
Given his outdoorsy interests, I really think he should consider Dartmouth.
I was thinking about you, OP, while we trekked to UT last night.
I had two thoughts:
do visit the Texas schools. I bet your son has been to UT since he has an older brother there, but has he had a visit to imagine himself there? I have a kid there and am struck every time I go by how great it is. With his grades and scores, your son could potentially be a Dean’s Scholar or Health Science Scholar. And UT has so many opportunities for intramural and club sports, music, etc.
So it sounds like he is developing an East Coast list of places to visit. He could see some Boston area and NY area schools and see what he thinks. We did this with my very undecided kids. We hit the East Coast and saw MIT, Tufts, Northeastern, UPenn, NYU, Columbia, and Brandeis. Seeing a variety of schools with different campus vibes helped son2 decide what he liked. The big surprise was he did NOT like large, highly urban campuses with a core curriculum and he DID like small liberal arts colleges. We ended up making a second swing through the Midwest to see smaller schools.
Good luck! It is an exciting time.
Thanks everyone!
@Consolation I’ll specifically point out Dartmouth. Thanks for the direction!
@Lizardly DS4 has been on the UT campus since he was in a stroller. My husband and I are both alums. We consider UT to be the best choice in Texas. (In our incredibly biased opinion) Right now, only UT and Rice are on his list in state. (We love SMU too but, for business, not so much for engineering)
Eat some tacos at Torchy’s for us!
He’s got an East Coast list and a CA list. More research on other possibilities is in order.
I endorse what Jonri posted above.
I would add that with a bright, driven student like your S, you need to make a fundamental decision: Does he want to be in an intellectual environment where he will shine, or does he want to be one of the “pack”? Some kids want/need the former, some are fine with the latter.
But it makes a huge difference. If he attended U of Chicago, for example, he would be in an highly stimulating intellectual environment, but he would be challenged and would be just one of many gifted students. Our neighbors son had perfect grades and perfect test scores, and loves Chicago. His equally gifted younger brother went a different route, and this was entirely on personality, not ability.
If your S attended UT or Trinity University, he would be top of the heap and could be an academic star, likely an Honors Student at UT if he wanted that.
You are blessed financially, so that eliminates those issues entirely.
As a lawyer, I can tell you that the hiring market is just brutal. I can also confirm that undergraduate major is essentially meaningless for law school admissions. Grades and LSAT is everything.
I am not an expert in Med School admissions, but everything we found when we were investigating indicated the same thing: Grades and MCAT’s rule. You obviously need to take many of the science classes that are tested on the MCAT to succeed, but you don’t necessarily have to major in those fields.
In general, it sounds like your S is very well-rounded, which, IMO, screams LAC. Small classes, hands-on attention, and requirements to explore many areas of study. Who knows, he may find some new interest if he is exposed to it in college.
Finally, if money is no consideration, if your S can get into Williams, it rocks. Check out their freshman program where they copy the Cambridge/Oxford model and have your student take a seminar with one other student and a Professor, and take turns making presentations/preparing papers on the topics. Terrific. But, again, he will be one of many very gifted at a school like Williams or Dartmouth or any of the Ivy’s.
Good luck!