<p>Hello, I am a parent seeking advice to help my S. He is currently a rising senior, and I want to know which schools of his/our interest would be possible or likely. Here is some of his basic information:</p>
<p>Unweighted GPA: 3.5 (Strong upward trend - GPA has risen every semester since his first semester of 10th grade)
Weighted GPA: 3.9 - 4.0
SAT I: 760 M, 760 CR, 780 W (2300)
SAT II: Will take in October
Class rank: Top 10-15% (Class rank hasn't been officially released yet in his school)
Courseload: Taken 8 AP classes and 3 honors classes in 10th and 11th combined, will be taking 4 AP classes and 1 honors for his senior year.
AP scores: Lang (5), Lit (5), Macro (5), Micro (5), Bio (5), Chinese Language and Culture (4), Calc AB (4), Chem (4), Human Geography (3), Euro (3)
Essay: Should be very good, as he is a great writer (5 on both Lang and Lit as a 10th grader, 12 on SAT essay, school newspaper chief editor, etc.)
ECs: Nationally ranked in Academic Decathlon
Ethnicity: Asian</p>
<p>He would like to pursue a business major. Money is not an issue, nor is the location of the school. My son does not wish to apply to any of our state schools. We have discussed his possibilities for a while now among our family. My husband and I have encouraged him to apply to many of the upper-tier schools, even if they are reaches. We still need to trim down his list of schools, but here's what the list looks like so far:</p>
<ol>
<li>Northwestern (Applying ED)</li>
<li>U of Chicago (EA)</li>
<li>WashU</li>
<li>Vanderbilt</li>
<li>U of Virginia</li>
<li>UT at Austin (McCombs business school)</li>
<li>USC (My alma-mater, so he is legacy)</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon</li>
<li>Boston College</li>
<li>U of M (EA)</li>
<li>Indiana University</li>
<li>Illinois - Urbana Champaign</li>
<li>U of Washington</li>
</ol>
<p>And LACs:</p>
<ol>
<li>Claremont McKenna</li>
<li>Carleton</li>
<li>Wesleyan</li>
<li>Colorado College (EA)</li>
</ol>
<p>I recognize that many of these may be reaches, but as a parent, I see no point in spending time/money on applying to countless "matches." The method I told my son to use was multiple reaches, a few matches he could really see himself at, and a couple of safeties. Duke was always his dream school, so I encouraged him to apply ED, but he decided against that because he believed it was too big of a reach. </p>
<p>Which colleges from this list are possible for my son to get into? Any advice/comments are greatly appreciated. This board is very helpful. Thank you!</p>