Please advise majors and colleges for my son. His case is a bit “weird”.

Parents Forum
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<p>We are middle class and live on the east coast. My son is a Chinese male, no hooks. His high school has sent several students to ivy, and around 15% to top 50 schools each year. We are trying to find a college fit him. Non west coast schools please, I don’t want him to travel too far away from home.</p>

<p>1, Academic:
SAT 2300 (CR800, M760, W740). PSAT 237. SAT II (M800, USHIS 780)
6APs (5,5,5,5,4,4) until the end of junior year. All Humanity subjects and Cal BC (5).
UW GPA is top 10% or better (I guess, according to last year’s data (His school is not ranking). He is more like A- than B+ student (of course, no Cs), but his course load is the most rigorous, I’m quite sure about this)<br>
Senior course load will be most rigorous too (all APs)
Besides HS courses, he took 2 community college courses and 2 online courses, all A’s.</p>

<p>2, EC:
Honor: Maybe from AP, NMF? Some state competition awards. And something minor like NHS, all honor rolls…
Something he is consistent on doing for 4 school years: varsity tennis, math team, tech team, and band. Volunteer 400 hours)</p>

<h2>Leadership: He holds some officer positions in 2 clubs (I can’t remember which one)</h2>

<p>He has undecided major. I feel his case is “weird” because:</p>

<p>His SATs/APs are ok, but GPA is not.
His reading is very strong, but writing is not (I mean writing an article, not SAT W)
His Math is strong, but sciences are not (Bio, Chem, Physics are all B/B+)
His passion is playing videogames, but no any interests on game design or computer major.
He is good at “sprint run”, but not very good at “duration run” (he is a fast kid, sometimes did unexpectedly well. But if it is a long term battle, he may have a chance to lose patience, not meticulous…)</p>

<p>He is my first child. We have no experience for college applications. Please advise him for his major and college selection. We appreciate your helps.</p>

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<p>Sounds a lot like my younger son. There are lots of schools that will find him desirable. It’s okay for him to be undecided about a major - he should apply to schools that are strong in many areas. As an Asian male he should look at some of the smaller liberal arts colleges as well as universities as he is likely to be in higher demand there. My son with similar stats got into U of Chicago early (but you have to write good essays for them), Tufts, Vassar and American. (My son wanted a school that was bigger than most of the smaller LACs.)</p>

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<p>There is nothing wrong with your child. MANY students apply to college as undeclared majors. Others enroll with one major in mind and change majors…sometimes multiple changes.</p>

<p>I would suggest that you look for schools with a strong Core course requirement. That way your son will be required to take courses in MANY discipilines…and one (or more) might very much interest him.</p>

<p>I would not “advise” a major at all…let HIM choose…he is the one going to college and he’s not the first (nor will he be the last) to have NO IDEA what he wants his major. </p>

<p>BTW…he does NOT have a “weak GPA”. Just FYI.</p>

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<p>I don’t think he has a “weak” GPA either. He’s a great kid for many, many colleges. Being undecided is totally normal! I remember my son turning bright red in the face when we bumped into the Dean of Admissions on the sidewalk at Bates. The Dean asked my son what he was thinking of majoring in and my son stammered, turned beat red and said he really didn’t know because colleges have so many different classes than high school. The Dean chuckled and told him that was a great attitude and to enjoy “sampling” before settling down.</p>

<p>Bigger questions for you are does he like big or small, urban or rural. Does he want to continue with any sports either as intramural or as a club? Does he want “big football” or is he thinking at all about Greek life. Maybe start to figure this out and the options of where to apply will follow. </p>

<p>Start with the low hanging fruit…find a college you can afford that he likes and would be willing to attend and then add some more that fit him. Then your only consideration is whether he has a passing interest in a technical degree like engineering that not all schools have. After that it’s just the fun part of picking colleges!</p>

<p>He sounds like a totally normal, bright,wonderful kid with a decent high school transcript to go into the process.</p>

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<p>Thank you all for your response and encouragement.
I agree that schools with a strong Core course requirement would let him study many disciplines and find one he likes. But he likes “open curriculum” better, such as Brown (it’s a reach for him). He is not mature and doesn’t like “requirements” .
He is not party animal and not interested in Fraternities. He likes neither too urban nor too rural. A campus with green grass and easy access to public transportation would be ok. He likes snow.</p>

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<p>Just curious, what instrument did he play in band? Sometimes that can be a “hook” if the college has an orchestra or band. At most high schools band is a huge time commitment and requires discipline and fortitude. And 400 hours of volunteer service is above and beyond the average. Time to start touring campuses.</p>

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<p>Thanks, planestate
Clarinet, he isn’t a section leader and didn’t want to try All State. He cannot even attend band class because of course conflict, so he doesn’t have band course credits! He practices by himself and participates rehearsals. “ huge time commitment” is just for hanging out with a group of friends in band.</p>

<p>To all Parents, Would you please suggest some colleges for my son? Reach, match and safe. Thanks.</p>

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<p>Have you sat down with your son and whoever else is helping pay for his education, and had The Money Talk? Until you are all on the same page about how his education will be paid for, all the other questions are moot. You need to know what you parents can afford to pay each year, how much you expect your son to come up with through summer jobs and working during the school year, and how you feel about him taking out student loans. You also need to know your FAFSA EFC and have an estimate of what the institutions that use the CSS Profile will expect. Run the calculators at [EFC</a> Calculator: How Much Money for College Will You Be Expected to Contribute?](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>Expected Family Contribution (EFC) – BigFuture) for both the Federal (FAFSA) and Institutional (Profile) methodology. For information about interpreting the results, read through the Financial Aid Forum, and pay a visit to [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org)</p>

<p>His SAT results are excellent, and his grades must be better than decent if he is in the top 10%. For ideas on where he might qualify for merit-based aid, see <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>As a Chinese male with top test scores and solid grades, he will be much sought after by the midwestern LACs (liberal arts colleges) - Grinnell, Oberlin, Macalester, Carleton - where being asian makes you a URM - and they offer generous aid. Being male also helps a bit. Grinnell in particular offers outstanding merit (as well as financial) aid, and like Brown, it has no distribution requirements. (S is an Asian male who got a generous merit scholarship at Grinnell and loves it there.) And take a look at the east coast LACs - some are similar to Brown. Kids who like Brown (a reach) often look at Weslayan and Swarthmore (which has engineering - one of the few top LACs that does). (None of these schools have frats or party excessively.) Other possibilities on the east coast: Vassar, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, Hampshire, Haverford.</p>

<p>The great things about LACs for an undecided kid are the small class sizes, personal attention from faculty, and lack of competition from grad students for attention and research opportunites. No chance of getting lost or overlooked, even if they aren’t the top student in the class. And the close personal relationships that a small school fosters means that there is often less overt competition. (As a pre-med, S notes, for example, that his organic chem class went out for dinner together every Thursday night - sharp elbows weren’t part of the culture.) And the top LACs are very well known by graduate schools - they are, in fact, a top source of PhD students.</p>

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<p>It’s difficult to think of schools that would be good for someone with great test scores, good grades, and standard ECs who has trouble with writing and long-term projects. </p>

<p>My first thought was to suggest some great universities with lots of majors like Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, and the University of Michigan. They all teach writing well, however, they also require a lot of self-directed persistence from their students, so it seems that schools with more personal attention from the faculty might fit better. How about the University of Rochester? Or a small liberal arts school? </p>

<p>On the other hand, he doesn’t sound that different from a lot of students. Many are unfocused in high school, but mature pretty quickly once they get into college. He might not need a lot of personal attention once he finds the right fit. I agree that visiting some campuses might help. See which schools appeal to him – there’s a huge selection out there and colleges differ greatly in “vibe” and social atmosphere. Start with the schools close to home (including your state flagship), then look at some guide books and choose a few others that seem worth a visit.</p>

<p>Of the schools I mentioned, Cornell and Carnegie Mellon are (slight) reaches and Michigan and Rochester are probably matches. Maybe try something like Clark for a safety (your state flagship is probably either a safety or a match). If your college visits reveal that he prefers liberal arts schools, then you’d need a different list.</p>

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<p>I concur with those above: your son isn’t weird at all. And it is perfectly fine for a kid to not have a major in mind when they apply to college! Most of the subjects that can be studied in college haven’t even been sampled yet: anthropology, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, astronomy, just to name a few. Your son is a bright kid who should look for a school with many strengths, where he can find out what interests HIM.</p>

<p>I would say that the schools suggested by M’s Mom are excellent choices. I would also suggest checking out the University of Rochester, which is a very good all-round university with merit aid that would probably be a good safety for your son. (It was my S’s safety, and his record and stats were fairly similar to your son’s.)</p>

<p>Brown is a reach for him, as it is for just about everyone, and their admissions are often described as “quirky.” But if he really likes it, there is no reason why it should not appear on his list, as long as that list also contains a couple of academic and financial safeties, and several matches. </p>

<p>If he is attracted by Brown’s open curriculum, he should also look at Amherst. Amherst is an elite LAC, and probably also a reach for him, but he is certainly a realistic candidate there. It shares the open curriculum feature with Brown. Also, he needs to keep this in perspective. A kid with reasonably wide-ranging interests will normally have no problem at all finding interesting courses to fulfill distribution requirements at any good school. And even a school with a core, like the U of C, has options to satisfy different interests. He may be thinking that it’s like HS, where kids are locked into a fairly narrow curriculum. It isn’t. Some schools will have a range of real students’ stories, complete with courses they chose and internships/study abroad/activities, on their web sites.</p>

<p>Lastly, do pay attention to what Happymom says about finances!</p>

<p>Good luck :)</p>

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<p>Your son sounds like a very attractive candidate to many schools! Like others, I would encourage the idea of looking at excellent liberal arts colleges elsewhere than the East Coast - such as the midwest - where having Chinese ethnicity would make him an extremely strong candidate. I teach at a midwestern LAC and know that Grinnell in Iowa is extremely highly-regarded and has a very high admit rate (40%). It is also a school very attractive to native Chinese, who are applying to the school in record numbers (recent New York Times article from this spring documents that). Carleton, in Minnesota, is one of the top 5 liberal arts college in the country, and while very selective (25% admit rate) would be extremely interested in your son as a candidate because of his academic strengths and what he would bring to the campus as a diverse student. Students from both schools consistently do outstandingly well when seeking admission to graduate school because grad schools regard these two institutions highly. These are 2 great places I’d recommend. Your son has much going for him, and you are a great advocate to be seeking out all this information.</p>

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<p>Green, cold, near a city - Brandeis.</p>

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<p>Is math a likely major? If so, given that he has already aced Calculus BC (two years ahead of the normal progression), it may be better to consider a school that has a good graduate program in math. Many of the math majors who are that advanced in math start taking junior level math courses as freshmen, and take graduate level math courses as undergraduates. Such students may not be as well served at undergraduate-only schools, as they may easily exhaust the math offerings there.</p>

<p>Note that math typically is not heavy with requirements (and no time consuming labs), so it is not difficult to double major in some other subject (related like computer science or economics, or unrelated like history or literature).</p>

<p>Where on the east coast? If Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, or Pennsylvania, you likely have one or more very good in-state state universities to add to the list.</p>

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<p>Green, cold, near a city - Tufts, Boston College, Syracuse, Northwestern, UC Berkeley (not cold exactly but certainly not hot)</p>

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</p>

<p>He’s going to have requirements for SOME major at some point.</p>

<p>What about Wesleyan?</p>

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<p>Sounds like a normal American teen with excellent academic credentials. Unfortunately Asians are overrepresented in the pool of college applicants so you can’t count on the elite schools accepting him. His maturity fits his age- you’ll be surprised at how well he’ll adapt to college. Amazing growth occurs the last year of HS, wanting to be somewhere and being independent does a lot for being responsible when young men go off to college. Motivation matters- it is easy to be bored in HS and not have any challenges worth rising to to show maturity.</p>

<p>Most students either don’t have a major or change majors when they start college so this is nothing to worry about. This is from the U of Wisconsin- Madison’s information- not just the many students/parents who have learned it through experience. Consider this school and others with top math grad schools. The Honors math sequence was good and so was the ability to take several grad level math courses at UW. This is likely the case at many flagship U’s. Son started unsure of his major and it evolved based on his college courses. Your son may discover something you didn’t expect from his HS experiences.</p>

<p>He may like the many opportunities and chances to explore different fields in a large public U. He could even take Chinese related courses- literature, history, language- that may not be available at small LACs. He should consider places he can explore his heritage if he chooses to- some small schools are limited in this. There are many electives to take for knowledge and not one’s major, look at what is offered at various places. If you come from a place with few Chinese college may be the place to discover others like himself.</p>

<p>He may discover a field his HS experiences to date have not exposed him to or change his perceptions of ones he has only the HS level experiences with. He should consider large public and private research U’s so he has opportunities when he is a junior and beyond- he doesn’t want a school where he exhausts the courses available in his major, but one where he can take grad level courses as an undergrad.</p>

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<p>WUSTL as a reach. It has easy access to public transportation, and a green campus next to a large park. Fraternities are low key. </p>

<p>Vassar as a match. It has a very open curriculum. Male students have a slight admissions advantage.</p>

<p>Possible majors: Economics, finance, actuarial math.</p>

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<p>WOW, I see so many responses with great thoughts. Thank you all !!!</p>

<p>@happymom1, Money is a very important factor for shopping for higher education. The cost might be more than EFC and many colleges don’t meet 100% need. DS will do work-study, parents will moonlight, and we have some savings and home equity. For financial and also academic safety reasons, I’m thinking about adding some state colleges to his EA Round, such as UNC,UMD, UMN, Penn State, where sticker prices are much below private colleges even for OSS. And his AP credits may save some money too. But I worry it’s hard to get in for OSS. I’ll also use the link you provided to search merit scholarships.</p>

<p>@M’s Mom and partyof6mom, it’s my first time knowing that Chinese male can be treated as URM in somewhere. You opened my eyes. Most of LACs which you mentioned I’ve never studied before, but I’ll definitely do my homework.</p>

<p>@kdmom and Consolation, S likes U. of Rochester after reading PR, It has all the professional schools which he may be interested in attending after college. This school will be on his list. But I heard the economy is going down in Rochester, and crime rate is high over there. I don’t know whether it’s true or not. Both Amherst and Brown are reach for him, sometimes I’m thinking: if he doesn’t have a big chance to get in, how about putting it as ED to make him happy?</p>

<p>@sorghum, I heard Brandeis is a Jewish school; would it be easy for him to fit in? and any particularly outstanding majors in that school? I like the school location.</p>

<p>@ucbalumns, You pointed out an important thing I’ve never thought of before: find a school which has enough higher level math classes for him.</p>

<p>@katliamom, he is ok with Tufts, but does “tufts syndrome” mean a lot of IVY level kids who failed get in IVY will go to Tufts? Which makes Tufts very competitive? Are the students over there happy with work load and atmosphere?</p>

<p>@thumper1, Wesleyan (CT) has a nice campus and open curriculum. But I find some kids (maybe in art major) are too liberal, and Wesleyan’s sticker price is the highest one. I’ll keep this school in mind.</p>

<p>@wis75, “Unfortunately Asians are overrepresented in the pool of college applicants…”, yes, Asian’s SAT score is discounted 200 points. This is why I just said his SAT is “ok”, only if he can get 2500 that means “excellent”. Thanks for UW information; I’ll do more research on it.</p>

<p>@sacchi, those majors you recommended, he may be interested in.</p>

<p>One thing I still cannot understand, If his math is good, usually science should be good. If reading is good, writing should be fine because there are a lot of things that can be written because of his experience with literature. But why he is not?</p>

<p>Thanks again for all your inputs. S is happy for helping his friends building Eagle Project these days. I’ll show him all your posts after he comes back. Teenagers often listen to the people other than their moms.</p>

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<p>If your son is more of a sprinter than a marathoner–like my middle son was–you might want to give extra-credit points to schools that are on the quarter system instead of the semester system. They may be more of a fit for his academic style.</p>