<p>Hi Northcoastdad,</p>
<p>Welcome to the parents forum at CC. I am going to give a crack at this posting (be warned it is probably going to get long and may run over a few post but I am also going to add a lot of information some will come straight no chaser).</p>
<p>Regarding the Out of state colleges: I would consider them to be a reach/match for a number of reasons. Be prepared for a few things; admissions at many public universities unless you are applying for a specific programs (honors, etc) is going to be a numbers driven approach.<br>
The philosophy of public universities is to provide an affordable education for their in-state residents. Unless you fall into on of the following categories:</p>
<p>You live in state has reciprocity agreements with other states that will
charge you an in-state tuition rate as an out of state person</p>
<p>Your son is admitted with major merit money (honors, specialized program) </p>
<p>Your son is a recruited athlete in a revenue producing sport (especially at a places like UMich & UNC-CH) </p>
<p>Even if admitted the money will not be coming with the admissions. So as many of us have advised time and time again, make sure that your son has a true safety- a school that he would be very likely to be admitted, if admitted, he would be happy to attend, and is a financially affordable option for your family.</p>
<p>Regarding MIT & UPenn, even with the fact that your son is a URM, remain cognizant of the fact that blacks are stepping up the game and he will still be evaluated in a competitive pool of applicants. Even in selective colleges where the numbers of african americans is at 8% (this still translates to having less than 100 african american students in the freshman class). The numbers of blacks applying to selective univerisites are up across the board and he is going to be evaluated in a pool of applicants, that have the following: </p>
<p>higher grades</p>
<p>better scores</p>
<p>students who are legacies</p>
<p>prep school students coming from feeder schools</p>
<p>students from nationally recognized high schools (TJ in Va, Stuyvesant, Bronx Science in NY and the rest). </p>
<p>This is not to take anything away from your son, but you should also remain aware and keep it in the back of your mind that there are other candidates in the pool.</p>
<p>What does this mean overall for blacks; every one has to step up their game as being a URM is still going to be a hook, the pool in this population is going to be more competitive, whith more choices given to those that bring the overall "A" game to the table, as the pool is also participating in more rigerous courses offered by their school.</p>
<p>During the time that I have spent on this board, admissions is becoming more and more of a crap shoot for everyone this includes URMs. As others have posted, have in toss his hat in the ring, but don't expect to be a shoo-in.</p>
<p>Over the next few years, the competition to get into college especially selective schools is going to be really stiff just because of the sheer number of applicanats (this includes URMs). </p>
<p>From the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education </p>
<p>**Yale Tops the Ivy League in Black Freshman Enrollments: **</p>
<p><a href="http://www.jbhe.com/latest/100704_b...lment_yale.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.jbhe.com/latest/100704_b...lment_yale.html</a></p>
<p>JBHE has completed its annual collection of data on black first-year enrollments at the eight Ivy League colleges and universities. Blacks make up 9.3 percent of the first-year students at Yale University this fall. This is the highest rate in the Ivy League and the highest rate at Yale in the past decade. A year ago, only 6.7 percent of the entering class at Yale was black. </p>
<p>Harvard University also had a good year in attracting black students. There are 145 black freshmen at Harvard this fall. They make up 8.9 percent of the first-year class. </p>
<p>At the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Dartmouth College, blacks make up slightly more than 7 percent of the entering class. At Columbia University and Brown University, blacks are 6.8 percent of the freshman classes. </p>
<p>As has been the case for the past 13 years since JBHE began collecting statistics on black first-year enrollments in the Ivy League colleges, Cornell University has the smallest percentage of blacks in its entering class. This fall blacks are 4.7 percent of the freshman class at Cornell. </p>
<p>*Black Applicants Surge at Harvard and Dartmouth: *
<a href="http://www.jbhe.com/latest/021005_a...th-harvard.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.jbhe.com/latest/021005_a...th-harvard.html</a></p>
<p>Harvard reported this past week that it received a total of 22,717 applications for the class that will enter this fall. The number of applicants rose by 15 percent from last year's total. Black applications for the freshman class increased at an even higher rate. Harvard reports that black applicants increased 28.3 percent from last year. A university spokesperson stated that the huge jump in applicants may be due to the new Harvard Financial Aid Initiative, which essentially eliminates out-of-pocket tuition and room and board expenses for students who come from families with incomes of less than $40,000 per year. </p>
<p>In the year after the Cornel West controversy, black enrollments dipped slightly at Harvard. Now it appears that Harvard has weathered that storm as well as last summer's controversy surrounding the denial of tenure to African-American studies professor Marcyliena Morgan. This denial of tenure caused Professor Morgan and her husband, Lawrence Bobo, the esteemed sociologist and member of the National Academy of Sciences, to take tenured teaching positions at Stanford. </p>
<p>At Dartmouth College, overall applications surged to their highest level in history. The admissions office reports that applications from "students of color" represented 25 percent of the total pool. Applications from blacks were at their highest level in the past four years. Good evidence that a frigid winter climate does not necessarily deter black applications to a college that is otherwise seen as receptive to black students.</p>