Reality check list of colleges (high stats, CS)

Parents Forum
1

Would love some feedback on son’s current list of Universities! Thank you :smile:

NorCal public high school
GPA: UW 3.92, W 4.23, UC 4.46
ACT: 36
APs: APUSH 4, Bio 5, currently taking CalcAB, Statistics, Econ/Gov
Extracurriculars:
*Varsity Snowboard Racing, state meet first 3 years, captain
*Club Soccer (NPL) since forever, goalkeeper
*Volunteer at local science center, 3h/ week
*Summer jobs, 10th-11th = camp counselor 40h/ week, own lawncare ‘business’ 9th
*Lots of independent garage projects (e.g., designed and built own “boosted board” using regular longboard, 3D printer, and various parts). Kid likes to tinker; not as interested in organized activities.

Majors: computer science or possibly mechanical engineering

Not as interested in a big city (LA is definitely out, but surprisingly loved UCB?)

No financial limitations

Reaches (?)
Stanford, REA
Northwestern
Dartmouth
Georgia Tech
UT Austin
UCB
UW
CalPoly SLO

Match (?)
UCSB
UCSD
UCI

Safety (?)
CU Boulder
School of Mines
SDSU
ASU Barrett

2

I think you have good list for the California schools. No UC Davis or Santa Cruz or they too close to home? Although they are reach schools based on acceptance rate #’s, SLO and UCB are definitely possible.

Congratulations on his hard work and best of luck to him.

3

I think you’ve categorized the list properly. Good luck to your son!

4

GT, ASU, and Washington are in big cities.

If he unsure between CS and ME, investigate change of major criteria be at each school.

Washington, UCSD, and UCSB are much more competitive for CS than overall.

ASU looks like automatic admission to the school and CS major.
https://admission.asu.edu/first-year/apply
https://webapp4.asu.edu/programs/t5/majorinfo/ASU00/ESCSEBS/undergrad/false

5

Be aware that Dartmouth requires 5 years to get an ABET approved MechE degree.

6

Dartmouth’s social scene is also very fraternity/sorority heavy.

7

Cornell has better CS and ME programs than Dartmouth, so I would recommend replacing Dartmouth with Cornell.

Otherwise, I would say that your list looks good.

8

Has he considered Harvey Mudd or Olin?

9

Have him apply early action to Georgia Tech for automatic consideration for a great merit award, and possible instate tuition rate. But he has to apply EA. Not sure he can apply EA to GT if he applied SCEA to Stanford. But then you did say finances were not a consideration.

@jym626 do I have that right?

Assuming this student is not a senior now!

I do think it’s a well balanced list!

10

Haven’t read this thread yet, but to answer your question, @thumper1 , Stanford allows students to apply to a public universityEA while also applying to Stanford REA, so the student could simultaneously apply to Stanford REA and GT EA.

11

And as long as they completed and submitted their GT application by Oct 15, they are fine.

12

Thanks all!

He did apply to GT EA, but a scholarship never crossed my mind since it is a reach school. I guess we will find out soon-ish–

Dartmouth vs Cornell is something interesting to consider. I sincerely doubt he’d ever join a fraternity, so a greek-dominated social life may not appeal. I think he is under the impression that Dartmouth has better skiing/riding (I know!)

I have suggested Mudd, but so far he does not seem too interested. Too small I guess.

Will be interesting to see where he lands. I feel like he has a chance to be accepted to any one of these schools, but also decent a chance to be rejected at almost all of them too. (Hoping at least ASU is a true safety).

13

He has a 36 ACT and over 4.0 weighted GPA. @jym626 is GT really a reach for admissions…EA?

14

For an OOS applicant, yes GT is a reach.

15

While it may happen, I would be very surprised if he wasn’t accepted into at least a few.

Besides, he doesn’t need more than one acceptance to a college which he really likes.

16

Last year GT took about 15% from OOS

17

This is a good read from the head of GT’s admissions http://pwp.gatech.edu/admission-blog/

18

Why has he only taken 5 APs and Calc AB (and not BC)? If he is a strong student, he should take the strongest rigor offered at his school. How many AP’s does the HS offer?

19

I second the suggestion of Olin. It is very small but unique. On a par with MIT for selectivity, or it used to be.

20

How many total APs (including ones he is currently enrolled in) has he taken?