Please help with college list?

<p>My son is a senior @ quality public high school in the northeast. He has taken many honors and 2 AP classes, throughout his high school career.</p>

<p>3.75 GPA weighted/around 3.2 unweighted (though the school doesn't release UW)
SAT 2040 (650 CR, 680 M, 710, Wr)
SAT II's 650 Math 2C, 640 US Hist</p>

<p>ec's:
jazz guitar 7 years
jazz ensemble (audition only) 2 years
volunteer ~50 hours (leading jazz group at local nursing home)
founded photography club senior year (president of club)
stock club 4 years
french club 2 years
ski club 1 year
track 1 year
summer job 2 years</p>

<p>So far he is applying to 10 schools.
ED @ Oberlin (loves it. has visited/overnight-ed), and EA/Regular @ other lac's like Colorado College, Bard, NYU, etc...</p>

<p>He is looking for more schools in the target/reach range, because many of the schools on his list are reaches/high targets. He would prefer to stay in the East.</p>

<p>Any ideas/thoughts to ease the mind? </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>A little farther than Oberlin is U Dayton. Not a LAC but a good music program, good business education, and your son would probably get some merit aid.</p>

<p>There are countless colleges that would welcome your son, but it’s hard to offer responsible advice without knowing more about him. Using his interest in Oberlin as a guide, he might want to check out Goucher (MD), Connecticut College, and Skidmore (NY), all in the East. Since he’d go to the Midwest to attend Oberlin, he might want to also consider Lawrence University and Beloit College in Wisconsin.</p>

<p>he visited skidmore and goucher, and disliked both.
will consider lawrence beloit and u dayton.</p>

<p>thanks!</p>

<p>any others? or even thoughts on his chances at current list?</p>

<p>His GPA and course list match my daughter’s from last year, but his SATs are higher. She’s at Elon and LOVES it. A bit further south and not a true LAC, but in the liberal arts tradition (and a bargain at $35k this year). They are very EC-oriented, and have a strong music program.</p>

<p>Also, if he wants to continue with music, perhaps Muhlenberg? Others in that statistics range - Providence and Fairfield. He’d probably get merit $$ at Marist.</p>

<p>He should visit Elon. Bet he loves it (but you never know). Very important to apply at least EA if he is interested. Most of the freshmen come from the Northeast, so he will feel at home…</p>

<p>Even though his HS doesn’t release unweighted grades there are colleges that use them- those schools will calculate an unweighted gpa regardless of the weighted gpa given them by his HS. You may want to consider this when comparing his stats to those at a given school.</p>

<p>TCNJ and SUNY Geneseo are public LACs</p>

<p>wis75 is correct… most colleges (especially the smaller ones) will re-calculate his GPA based on his transcript using their own scale. It may be unweighted, or it may be more heavily weighted. But re-calculating using their own scale allows them to put everyone’s GPA on the same scale.</p>

<p>Clark U in Massachusetts, Earlham College in Indiana.</p>

<p>What did he hate about Skidmore?</p>

<p>There’s Wheaton in MA, which is always thrilled to get guys. You don’t mention his area of interest, but if it’s language oriented, I also suggest Emerson which is one of the few LAC’s in the NE in a city (Boston.)</p>

<p>And Bates may be a bit of a reach, but its admissions process is quirky, so you might try it.</p>

<p>DePauw in Indiana</p>

<p>Wheaton (MA) Bennington (VT) Sarah Lawrence (NY) </p>

<p>University of Rochester has the Eastman School of Music.</p>