Do you have access to Naviance? At our large, competitive high school, kids with top stats are routinely rejected from the schools you mentioned. My 36/1570 student didn’t even think about applying to MIT and CalTech. The scores you see on CDS are one piece of a very complex puzzle and asking why high stat kids aren’t targeting MIT and the likes is oversimplifying highly selective admissions.
In regards to Purdue being in the middle of nowhere, it’s 2 hours from Chicago and not everyone wants an urban school.
Yes, in at Rose and Michigan State (both safety according to Cappex, Collegevine, others). Rejected at Cal Tech and MIT (reach, expected) and Notre Dame (target). Deferred at Purdue, Auburn and South Carolina (all safety).
Highly rated public high school with strong STEM and AP curriculum
In-state, Michigan
770M / 750E (took test once)
3.9+ UW
6 APs: BC Calc (5), Physics (5), Econ (3), Chem, Bio, Stats
Tested out of Algebra 1 and Geometry
Most electives in STEM: programming, engineering design, genetics/microbiology, botany, etc.
First Robots, Varsity first year eligible, engineering team lead
NHS
Worked with local start-up with research, product design and web design
Tutored underclassmen in math
Lots of public service
Outstanding recommendations
Well written essays
Thank you for that piece of information. My son is waiting on two more important decisions: one other top school, and one very top school that his decision was deferred at. He wants to make the best choice he can with all his answers in front of him (and financial information is a big consideration for almost everyone). We are also going to make an “admitted student” visit. I appreciate you!
Heard back from Honors College that it’s part of the campus wide visit for admitted students…3 pm
My D22 didn’t ask specifics about the Forge the Future Event, just the campus wide event since she hasn’t been to the campus yet.
You should strategize with your college counsellor how to get off that deferral. That’s what they are there for. There will be a lot of flux this year in terms of kids letting go of Purdue and going elsewhere.
DS got into the Honors College. Second paragraph of admissions letter:
“You have also been offered admission to the Purdue Honors College. As the university’s only academic residential college, students in the Honors College live and learn in the same place.”
Those are University-wide metrics (and from two classes ago).
CS is about 500 students of a class of 10,000+ Freshmen.
One Purdue College has an SAT average of 1081. Another is 1150.
CS and Engineering are vastly over-represented here, and the metrics are much higher.
I disagree that “Any one of these kids could literally get accepted to Ivies”. They have single digit acceptance rates with tens of thousands of 3.9+\1500+ applicants. My D is one of those kids and wasn’t interested in CS at any Ivy other than Cornell.
neela, His high school is one of the top schools sending students to UofM, and two kids just from his robotics team were accepted by UofM’s engineering program last year. The funny thing is that J didn’t like UofM’s campus and vibe, especially the logistics of catching a bus to take classes at a remote engineering campus. For a MI resident, turning down UofM would be blasphemous.
Your S might find CMU an easier admit that Michigan. A very bright local kid(MechE now at Purdue) applied to both from OOS. He got into CMU, rejected by Michigan.
Sounds like he already has some very, very good choices, and maybe some ones that will be a bit easier on the wallet than your final two reaches. Oops, just read that you are instate for UM…great option, I guess? A lot of people here think that WI(instate for MN residents)is the greatest, and it is a vg school, but it turned us off. Way too much concrete, forced “school spirit”, sports emphasis, and too many cars.
57, It is far easier to gain admission to UofM as an in-state applicant vs OOS. Our son attends one of the top high schools in MI in terms of sending students to UofM.
neela, He has not had his heart set on any school, and his rank-order list has change during the admissions process. Before attending Catapult, RHIT was his favorite on paper. Now he does not want to go to Terre Haute. Early in the process he was cold on CMU, but after seeing the campus and hearing a MSU AO inadvertently plug The Nerd Farm, he started warming to it. Right now, I think his top two are CMU and CWRU.
We’ll make him review outcomes for the various schools, and he is already planning to re-visit some campuses before making a final decision. It is good to have choices though.
CMU and CWRU are not the same quality of school from the point of view of reputation. I don’t believe in just engg rankings divorced from the general school rankings. We were also looking at CWRU, but stepped back after finding a 4yr graduation rate of 67%. This suggests grade deflation at a minimum. There is no business for a private school to have that low a 4yr graduation rate.
I am not sure where you saw that CWRU graduation data, but it is incorrect. Here are the historical figures for 6 year grad rates, most in the low to mid 80%s…which is excellent.
Often, a low graduation rate is related to finances/affordability, so it’s relatively lower at schools that do not meet full need. CWRU started meeting full need in 2017, so there grad rate should increase once that data is available/updated. https://case.edu/registrar/general/statistics-and-data/completion-rates
What’s his dream school?