<p>FYI - Harvard and MIT have an “arrangement” whereby Harvard students are allowed to take up to 49% of their classes at MIT and MIT students are allowed to take up to 49% of their classes at Harvard. Thus, a Harvard kid could feasibly be invited to take part in recruiting activities for MIT engineers.</p>
<p>My neighbor’s son, who also has very good stats, is a freshman at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She told me it has one of the top engineering programs in the country. I’m sure she’s done her research. The beauty of a big school like this one is that if your son changes his mind about his major, there will be many other choices for him.</p>
<p>You are dreaming if you think Berkely and UCLA are low reaches and TX, WI and Washington are safeties! You son is strong and could handle the work at those schools, but getting in is a completely different animal. The top schools don’t care about your weighted GPA, they will look at your rank. The 3.75 in that tough schedule is good, but it is not going to wow anybody in those engineering departments. What is his other SAT II? Has he taken any of the other math oriented standardized tests? gcnorth gave some good advice (post #2). I hope your son gets into one of those top school, he sounds like an asset to any school, but you need a real safety on there somewhere.</p>
<p>but you need a real safety on there somewhere. </p>
<p>glido, thanks for your input. M son’s safeties, taking out Texas, UWashington, and Wisconsin, would be Cal Poly and his UC “ELC” school, which may be UCSB or one of the other lower-tiered UC’s not currently on his list of schools.</p>
<p>OP, has your S taken a science-related SAT-II? Some of the schools will require this for engineering – and as someone I mentored last year found out, Bio DID NOT count for some engineering school apps. Also keep in mind that if he’s not taking HL Physics or AP Physics C (calc based), he will be in for a big adjustment in freshman year physics at a top engineering school.</p>
<p>Has your S finished his EE and TOK paper? I have a S who was in a similar boat last year (full IB diploma, National AP Scholar after junior year), fall helmet sport, and captain of debate team, and let me tell you, late November through mid-Feb. was NOT pretty. He applied to eight schools and that was all he wanted to deal with. We were dealing with stress migraines from a kid who KNOWS what it’s like to work hard and to do well. It was a scary time (and I would say it highlighted the kind of environment he <em>didn’t</em> want in college.)</p>
<p>If he’s ELC, pick the UCs he likes (if he’s NMSF, throw in USC) and then focus on what he wants out of reaches. Rice and Cornell strike me as good reaches. I’ll even throw Tufts into the mix here.</p>
<p>RE Post #63</p>
<p>I’ll continue to stand by my statement that an out of state kid with 4.5 weighted GPA, 2220SAT, 800 SAT II Math, Full IB, Eagle Scout plus other listed EC’s AND FULL PAY is safe OOS @ Univ of Washington and Wisconsin. Plus kid is also safe at a UC based on the state program there (ELC referenced frequently on CC, but I don’t really understand it!) The safe schools are well covered. Applicant just has to decide which ones.</p>
<p>We definitely considered the travel factor. We did not encourage any colleges that could not be accessed easily from the airport by public transport (or shuttle). I supposed if DS had loved Cornell (we visited with DD), we might have considered it. But the travel logistics are complicated. </p>
<p>Colleges with in few hours of relatives got bonus points. It just adds a warm fuzzy.</p>
<p>“(ELC referenced frequently on CC, but I don’t really understand it!)”</p>
<p>2boysima:</p>
<p>ELC is just the top 4% of each high school senior class (using a special UC weighted average formula). UC goes through the transcripts and determines this for all the high schools that choose to participate. If your S or D qualifies as ELC, then s/he is guaranteed acceptance to UC Santa Barbara, Davis, Irvine, Merced and Riverside. There is no guarantee of acceptance to Berkeley, UCLA, or San Diego, but the ELC status is “considered” as part of the admissions decisions, and if one reviews admissions statistics for these campuses, ELC status significantly increases the odds of acceptance to them.</p>
<p>If your S or D qualifies as ELC, then s/he is guaranteed acceptance to UC Santa Barbara, Davis, Irvine, Merced and Riverside. </p>
<p>camathmom, “…and Riverside” sounds like ELC guarantees you to all the schools you mentioned above, but I think you meant “… or Riverside”. My daughter was accepted ELC to UCSB and UCI in 2008. I don’t know of any CA resident ELC qualifiers who got accepted to more than 2. Anyone know if you can get ELC auto-admits to more than 2?</p>
<p>has your S taken a science-related SAT-II? </p>
<p>Yes. He took English and Physics and got 760 and 690 respectively. He’s re-taking Physics since he only had just begun the class when he took the test last year.</p>
<p>“Anyone know if you can get ELC auto-admits to more than 2?”</p>
<p>jshain:</p>
<p>Hmmm … good question. I’ve never really thought about this because my D is only interested in one auto admit campus. I really don’t know the answer.</p>
<p>If he doesn’t have a study guide for Physics, he should get one and focus on what he hasn’t covered in class. IB Physics doesn’t mesh well with SAT-II or AP exams.</p>
<p>If he doesn’t have a study guide for Physics, he should get one and focus on what he hasn’t covered in class. IB Physics doesn’t mesh well with SAT-II or AP exams.</p>
<p>CountingDown, He has the AP Study Guide. Thanks for the suggestion.</p>
<p>If your son is applying to USC Viterbi, be sure to apply by the scholarship deadline. He’s already guaranteed a half tuition scholarship if he’s NMF (if ever he were to decide on it he’d have to name it as his first choice school though, but that can be done in May or late April), but there’s always a possibility he could be invited for the Trustee full tuition. You never know. The Trustee brings all sorts of benefits and if he were to get that, USC could become attractive for him (as well as financially).</p>
<p>UCSD uses a point system for determining admission, which is explained here
[UC</a> San Diego Comprehensive Review Admission Process: Freshman Selection](<a href=“http://www.ucsd.edu/prospective-students/freshmen/eval-process.html]UC”>http://www.ucsd.edu/prospective-students/freshmen/eval-process.html)</p>
<p>Having ELC status (translation for non-Californians: Eligible in the local context, which means you are a CA resident in the top 4% of your high school graduating class) gives your son 300 more points. </p>
<p>So, ELC admission is automatic at UCSB and Davis I think this year. Merced and Riverside are not listed specifically for ELC but I think ELC students would get in there anyway. UCSD is not automatic, but because they give lots of points for SAT score and GPA, PLUS points for ELC status it is a safe bet.</p>
<p>Sequoia, S is planning to apply by the scholarship deadline. Thanks for mentioning this. USC at half-price would be extremely attractive, and even more so, since it is one of his top choices anyway!</p>
<p>50isthenew40, UCSB has been one of the ELC schools for a few years now (my D got her ELC offer from them in 2008). I believe Davis was included last year, as a previous poster mentioned. I think my S would like Davis, having spent most of my life living in the SF Bay Area and we still have family living there.</p>
<p>Last year my son was ELC and he got letters/emails saying if he applied he would automatically be accepted from UC Davis, UCI and UCSB. But I am not sure if they guaranteed any major. UCSD sent a letter “encouraging” him to apply.</p>
<p>This is a great problem to have. Congratulations to your son on his accomplishments.
What if he applies to all these schools …and they all say YES. Where would he want to go?
He really needs to rank his opinion on all the schools and just eliminate everything below the top 10.
I mean if he hates the east coast weather/lifestyle whatever…is he going to go to Brown?
And of course I think of the kid at the other end of the spectrum. </p>
<p>The one whose application University X did not accept because they had accepted enough brilliant kids already.
You sons acceptance (if he has no intention of going) is an acceptance another student (who may really want to attend) won’t get.
Making hard decisions are hard! But you can only go to one college at a time…so narrow that list! And donate the extra $500 you would have spent on application fees to a charity that is important to your family! That would be a win win for many!</p>
<p>What if he applies to all these schools …and they all say YES. Where would he want to go?</p>
<p>ilovedcollege, Stanford would be his first choice by far. But let’s be realistic in this day and age of ultra-competitive applicant pools and say that, in addition to Stanford, Princeton, MIT, Columbia, Brown, and Cornell are high reaches and so are WashUStL, Rice, Duke, Northwestern, and Notre Dame. He’s simply too top-heavy and he will be very fortunate to be accepted to even 1 or 2 of these schools. If Brown comes off his list and I hope it does, even though teacher recs have already been requested to be sent, it will be because of the Engineering school itself and no other factors.</p>