<p>@Mondut Thank you so much for your comments! I am very excited for him but very nervous as well. Probably just a little more than every single mom that is sending their child off to college because of his issues.</p>
<p>Can I ask you what kind of specific testing you’re talking about? </p>
<p>The school and the teachers look at him being so smart now (compared to the average at his school) that if I bring up anything like what your suggesting they think “I just want more from him” like a 4.1 isn’t good enough for me. Which is not the case…I feel like what your saying that if he’s problems were addressed he could do even better. But more importantly he could feel more CONFIDENT in doing better. Because as it is now, he feels insecure and wonders why he feels in his head he’s smart but that’s just not so on the test sheet!</p>
<p>The other thing is he has only 35 school days left! I don’t think the school or district will or can do anything about it anyway. Do you think they do testing like that in College? at UCB?</p>
<p>His 3 in AP English language and 4 in AP calculus AB do indicate that, in English and math, he is likely past the remedial level that many of the Summer Bridge courses are (Chem P, ColWriting N2, Math 32 or 96/98, Stat 0PX/98). But it still offers courses that he may find useful:</p>
<ul>
<li>One of the R&C A courses: AfAmSt R1AN, AsAmSt R2A, ChSt R1A, English R1AN</li>
<li>One of these courses: AfAmSt 39, ChSt 20 or 50, Educ 39, PubHealth 14N</li>
</ul>
<p>However, he should be aware that getting into the business major is very competitive. So he, like all students looking at the business major, needs to consider one or more backup majors.</p>
<ol>
<li> How far is UCB from home?<br></li>
<li> How many hours per day did he commit to studying to achieve his grades? Were his class test scores consistent with the final grade, or were they boosted with Extra Credit points?</li>
<li> My number one red flag is that USC and UCLA rejected him. USC has a bridge program and I am not sure about UCLA.</li>
<li> I could not find the cost for UCB in your posts.</li>
<li> You have mentioned that through hard work your son has surpassed expectations. How will he feel if he works twice as hard to earn B’s and C’s?</li>
<li> Will he be in a position at graduation to stand out from his peers for a job or grad school?</li>
</ol>
<p>@ucbalumnus The 4 in AP Calc was AB so he might have to do the math but he’s in AP BC now so hopefully he will do well on the test in May.
My question for you is regarding the business major. He and I both only just learned that a UCB student does not automatically get accepted to the business school junior year like at the other UC’s & CSU’s. I read online that Haas only accepts about 50% of the juniors.
So what happens to the rest? Do you have to change majors to Econ or Mathematics? or do you have to transfer to another college to get a business degree? Do people do that? Leave to go get a business degree?</p>
<p>My concern (hopefully unlikely) would be if he goes to the summer program and is not successful then where is he able to go from there? I assume it would be too late as he would have already declined other offers. </p>
<p>A lot of business hopefuls do alternate majors. Probably the most common one is economics, which has many of the same prerequisites, but admits anyone with a 3.0 in them. But there are many other majors for which a student can declare by just passing the prerequisites.</p>
<p>It does look like math is his stronger subject, so he has no need for the math offerings in Summer Bridge (which are precalculus or lower level). If he really likes math, he may want to consider majoring in math or applied math, although he should be aware that advanced math involves a lot of proofs (high school geometry often gives a taste of that).</p>
<p>@Kids2smart4Mom I didn’t mean it was a situation like this exactly. I have a kid who does well in school but really doesn’t like hyper competitive atmosphere, and for that reason I was angsting over Berkeley being his first choice. However, I don’t actually know that all programs in Berkeley are like that, and I was going to have him do an overnight to sample it. The summer program you have had suggested sounds even better. The only problem is it doesn’t give him the answer before the deadline to answer for other schools. </p>
<p>If he did well enough to get in, and wants to go, though… that is sort of a triumph for him, isn’t it? I don’t know the answer, but I’d really want him to be able to try it if he were my son, as well. On the one hand you want him to be successful as a certainty, and some of those other colleges are less actively competitive as an experiential matter. But on the other you don’t want to signal you don’t have faith that he can do this. Because if he got in, he’s indicated he can…</p>
<p>I guess I come down on the side of letting him do this and hoping he flies.</p>
<p>Yes that’s exactly what I’m saying. Your son sounds like what is sometimes referred to as “twice-gifted” - which means intellectually gifted but impaired by some sort of learning disability. He’s probably a lot smarter than he thinks he is. </p>
<p>What you might want to do is talk to your son and see what he thinks. He may object to being identified with a learning disability, in which case there’s nothing you can do because once they’re in college students must self-identify. However at least he should be aware that his testing problems may not reflect his ability but rather his processing issues. </p>
<p>It does look like whatever learning disability he has harms him more on tests like the SAT (mostly multiple choice) than in classes or on AP tests (some multiple choice, but with significant free response).</p>
<p>If that is the case, then the SAT would be underpredicting his college performance, since college exams tend not to have a lot of multiple choice, and there are other aspects of grading like term papers and projects. The SAT is already considered a weaker predictor of college performance than high school grades or AP tests. However, problems with multiple choice tests could be an issue if he later wants to take GRE/GMAT/LSAT/MCAT/etc. multiple choice tests for graduate or professional school.</p>
<p>Berkeley undergraduates are about 30% white, and 37% receive federal Pell grants (i.e. 37% from lower to lower-middle income), so the demographics might not be that unfamiliar to him.</p>
<p>Judging by his stats, I’m a little hesitant on encouraging him to go to Berkeley. I don’t know your son nor his abilities, but Berkeley is extremely competitive. However, since he seems so determined to go, I’d just say try to support him and see how he does.Otherwise, it seems like he might regret not going to Berkeley, and would always think “what if…?” If he really doesn’t like it at Berkeley, or struggles, he could always transfer to another school. </p>
<p>The business major is extremely competitive to get into. Top grades are not the only thing that they look for. They look for leadership positions, internship experience, and extracurricular activities on top of that and these are things most students that apply already have (they apply beginning of sophomore year too). I ended up getting rejected, so I became an Economics major (still ended up getting the same job at the same company as many business majors, hah!). When you prepare yourself for the business major, you also need to prepare yourself for a backup major in case you get rejected. The Economics major is impacted as well (you need a 3.0 gpa in your pre-req economics classes in order to get accepted). And there are people that can’t get into the econ major, so they end up finding another major (which you need to do the pre-reqs for, thats why people choose Econ as a backup since the requirements overlap)</p>
<p>It can be very stressful, and it depends on whether your son can handle stress or not. I tried to go into Computer Science because I was curious about it, and I ended up having a mental breakdown because I was getting less than 3 hours of sleep and working on a project. Simply put, I realized that I was not smart enough to become a computer science major, and then I dropped the class. It can be really frustrating because it was a intro to computer science class and there were students that finished the project in a few hours (project is supposed to take days or weeks). Heck, i really liked the major since it was so fascinating, but I knew at that point I didn’t have the ability for it. </p>
<p>Another frustrating thing is that you will meet people who are extremely, extremely smart. I know someone who is currently doubling in EECS and Business, and he is taking language classes for fun (he took 6-7 classes each semester…average student takes 4), and he looked like he still got 8 hours of sleep. It can be extremely frustrating when these are the students you compete against and they are so much better. This is something your son will have to adjust to, an environment that is extremely competitive and one where people simply study too much at times. If he can adjust and thrive, then he can have a amazing experience at Berkeley and he will be exposed to so many different things. I really love this school, but I feel really really average in this school. </p>
<p>Call admission and dsability services and ask them exactly these questions. They will reassure you and talk through concerns. That is what they are there for</p>
<p>Thank you all for your advice! There is a lot of information here, some that I thought of and some I did not. Tonight we are going to the UCB Admissions Reception in our area. There’s a short program and then time for us to talk to admissions counselors and meet & greet other students. </p>
<p>I really think I need to write out a list of questions before hand and either use this as the opportunity to get some answers or better yet if we find someone we click with maybe schedule a coffee date for later in the week to ease my concerns.</p>
<p>You’re all great, thank you again for your knowledge and honesty.</p>
<p>Hello OP, first of all, CONGRATULATIONS! On all your son’s acceptances, including and especially Berkeley. I am not sure exactly what kind of program your S is being invited into (Posse, I think, but I don’t know much about it). However I wanted to share our family’s experience. Our D was accepted to a state-funded opportunity program at a private college. She did an intensive summer program which allowed the kids to
get a headstart on Math and English
get credits before school even started
bond with each other as low-income kids about to be overwhelmed by the campus population in general
get to know their program advisers who constantly give them career-oriented advice
learn where everything is, who to talk to for what services, etc. In September they were the ones who showed all the other arrivals around campus!</p>
<p>I suspect that the program will entail academic support. In our D’s program, the students had to be “inadmissible” under regular standards of that particular private college but show the potential to thrive there. There are 13 kids and as of now 11 of them have over a 3.2 average. All of them are passing and are finding their way through the demands of first year because of the support.</p>
<p>If your S makes use of the support systems he will benefit greatly from them! </p>
<p>Help him to identify specific people he meets at the summer program who will become his lifelines later on.</p>
<p>I think Berkeley will offer him a lot of opportunities, but Business is very competitive like all the other posts have stated. If he is willing to work VERY hard for the next four years then send him to Cal. But the other schools, like UCSB and UCI are good and may feel like a good fit as well.</p>
<p>Take the offer. Berkeley will be very challenging, but your son seems to have surmounted his difficulties. If you turn down the offer, your son’s dreams might be crushed. Better to have him at least try. </p>
<p>The competition is overstated. MCB is the only major in which the competition is as bad as some fear, but most majors have an atmosphere of cooperation. </p>
<p>I just graduated with honors from UC Berkeley engineering and I have a disability as well. Mine is a medical condition, but because of the accommodations I got from the disabled students program (DSP), I was able to perform to my full capabilities. The DSP program here is an amazing resource here and I wouldn’t have been able to make it through Berkeley without their help. They’re very good in determining the right accommodations for their students and making sure that professors respect that. I met a couple of other students in the DSP program with learning disabilities as well and both of them have done very well with the accommodations. They (and I) were able to get extra time on the tests (one of them got 2x the exam time, and another got a time and a half).</p>
<p>What major is your son planning to go in? For me, attending Berkeley engineering with a disability was difficult, but doable with DSP accommodations. Good luck with your decision, and best wishes to you and your son in making this decision!</p>