SCEA Princeton or ED Tufts or Johns Hopkins???? Need help!

College Search & Selection
1

S planned to do Princeton SCEA, but now is uncertain because he know that Princeton is a long shot for him and is reconsidering applying ED to one of his other top choices because he is concerned that he won’t get into many on his (admitted top-heavy) list. Interested in engineering, but is not 100% wed to that. If not engineering, then math or biochem. He wants to be in the NJ/PA/NY/MA area.

SCEA/ED ?
Princeton
Johns Hopkins
Tufts

RD
University of Pennsylvania
Cornell
Carnegie Mellon
Northeastern
Lafayette
Lehigh (but concerned about huge Greek life)
Rutgers (Honors College hopefully)

Any other suggestions? Looking for a place with a social life, but not party scene. S is on the quieter side and not the most outgoing, but wants to be involved and meet people (will probably do a club running type thing, research). Not a city kid, so that’s the downside with Hopkins being right in Baltimore. I think 2000+ students is a good fit (visited Swarthmore and felt that was too small for him).

Would really appreciate any suggestions!

Here are his stats.

SAT: 1520 (800M; 720V). Took twice (790M; 720V first time)
ACT: 35 composite (35’s on Math, Reading, Science; 33 English). Took once
SAT 2: 800 Math 2; 710 Chemistry
AP: 5’s on BC Calc (and AB subscore); Chemistry; Physics 1, Statistics.
4’s on APUSH and English Composition

GPA: 4.48 weighted. Unweighted 3.89. Hardest rigor.

Current classes/grades so far:
AP Physics C (A, but may come up to A+)
AP Biology (A+)
AP Computer Science (A)
AP Economics (A)
AP English Literature (A-)
AP Psychology (A)

AMC 10 and AMC 12: Highest score in school (sophomore, junior)

National Merit Scholar Commended
National Hispanic Scholar
AP Scholar with Distinction
National Honor Society, Science and Math tutor
Scholar Athlete (all 4 years)
Academic Excellence Award (all A’s freshman and sophomore year)
National Spanish Exam, Level 3, Bronze Medal

Member of many academic teams/clubs. Physics Olympics, Moody’s Mega Math Challenge, Math Madness, Biology Team, Chemistry Team.
3-season athlete (cross country, winter track, spring track)

Boy Scout, just finished Eagle Scout project, which was reestablishing a hiking/mountain biking trail that was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. This included determining a new route for the trail and leading over 20 volunteers (adults and kids). Other leadership roles within scouts.

Community Service. He has volunteered at a local nature preserve since 6th as part of a project to monitor the bluebird population. All of the information he collected was submitted to a study run by Cornell. Weekly commitment over 5 years.

Job. He tutored a local student for math and has been babysitting 2 kids for several years.

2

@4togo4 He has a strong profile, he is within the feasible range for Princeton but of course Princeton is a long-shot for practically anyone and quite harder than Hopkins or Tufts. Still it is attainable with his profile. I think if he does Tufts ED he is most probably in, and he has a very good chance for Hopkins.
However if he gets into Tufts or Hopkins ED will he regret terribly not being able to apply to Princeton or the ivies in his RD list?

3

He should ED at the school he LOVES best. He has a strong profile - but I would guess that ED at Tufts or JH would be a very good chance.

4

Thank you @Penn95 , I think that is the dilemma. Ideally, as I’m sure everyone would like, he would like a choice but with the increasing popularity of ED at all of these schools, he is concerned that he will fall short at RD. He also has a twin applying ED which I think makes it a bit more stressful–not that they need to go to school together, but the fact that most of the similar students he knows, including his twin, are applying ED.

5

Thanks for responding @suzyQ7 . It’s so stressful for all of these kids.

6

@4togo4 Why are you thinking of Tufts or Hopkins specifically for ED? If Hopkins would definitely be his second choice after Princeton, ahead of Penn and Cornell then it might make sense to apply there ED. If however he would choose Cornell or Penn over Hopkins if given the chance, then it might make sense to apply ED to one of those two. They are a bit easier to get in than Princeton. Of course if he would really regret not applying to Princeton, he should just do Princeton SCEA.

In any case I wouldn’t do Tufts ED. He will most probably get locked in ED, while he has a good chance at stronger schools.

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@Penn95 , he was set to ED Hopkins until his overnight. I can message more specifics if you are interested. That put some doubt in his head so he switched to SCEA Princeton, which he really would be thrilled to attend. If he did go RD (or got deferred or rejected by Princeton), and had time to revisit schools, he would take another look at Penn, which I personally think would jump ahead of Tufts and/or Cornell.

8

Tufts has ED2, so he could do SCEA at Princeton, and then do ED2 at Tufts if Princeton doesn’t work out. If he want engineering though, he might be better of at some of the other schools on the list, which are stronger in engineering than Tufts.

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Thank you @patatty , he was telling me the same, that Cornell, Princeton and Penn (not necessarily in that order, or maybe so, I have no idea) are the stronger engineering…

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@4togo4 Yes sure feel free to message me, I d be interested.

11

@Penn95 , sent

12

Looks to me like Princeton SCEA is the way to go. If it doesn’t come through, out of the other 8 schools besides Rutgers (which seems a sure thing) it looks to me like he’s likely to get into anywhere from 3 to 6 of them. He really should have some very good choices, and maybe some great ones. I do know it is hard to have that level of uncertainty, especially when it seems like everyone is applying ED.

If not, Penn ED just sounds like it could be good. There seems to be at least some advantage to doing ED and not RD there. It’s probably not good to try to talk people into ED (especially two days before the deadline!). But you could ask him to imagine that he knew Dec. 15 he was going to Penn next year, and if there really is any chance he would regret not being able to consider Tufts, Hopkins, or Cornell. Or regret not having taken his shot at Princeton, which is clearly under a 50% chance (and maybe under a 25% chance, just because it’s so hard).

13

Thank you @Wilson98
I agree! I told him that I think we should probably stick to the plan unless he has some epiphany and feels that one of the others would be best. My older daughter did not ED (very stressful for all of us), and it did work out so I’m hopeful that this will work out too.

14

I agree with @penn95, there could be nothing worse than having your son trapped at Tufts among all those hopelessly idealistic engineers that think they can make the world a better place. They might convince him to join Engineers Without Borders or heaven forbid, spend some time in the Peace Corps before launching a career.

He certainly would be much better off putting on his “Penn Face” and competing with all the Wall Street/Silicon Valley bro brothers at Penn for the highest starting salary.

The funny thing is that Tufts" Engineering grads outperform Penn grads in mid-career salaries.

I wonder how that happens?

Maybe it is true that the meek will inherit the earth.

Or maybe it is true that Tufts just offers a better undergraduate education than Penn in an environment free from all the social competition and stress of the Ivies.

15

Lol @Mastadon , my daughter is in Engineers without Borders at Hopkins

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@Mastadon stereotyping to the max here lol. You honestly think that all Penn people are soulless preprofessional douchebags like you describe or that there is not big involvement in Engineering without borders or other similar activities?

Btw I haven’t seen the figures you are referring to, I d love to take a look. Even if this is true - which is doubtful given the difficulty of measuring such a thing in an accurate and representative manner - i fail to see the correlation with the supposed quality of undergraduate education. Also I don’t understand what makes you say that Tufts would offer a better undergrad education than Penn or other ivies.

Tufts is a great school, but if we are being real here, students with stats like the son of the OP do not usually strive for Tufts. Not being snooty here, just realistic. A kid with his stats will almost surely get in if they apply ED. If Tufts is the dream for the kid then sure why not. but I don’t think that this is the case here, like it isn’t for most other similarly competitive/qualified kids.

17

Hmmmm. My daughter had stats like this (actually higher GPA with highest rigor) and chose Tufts ED as her dream school, Penn95. But she knew that Tufts was the place for her (chose to apply there ED over Brown, for instance, where she was a legacy). She is at Tufts now and seemingly surrounded by kids just like her.

But the larger point is she knew Tufts was right for her. If the OP’s son’s heart is with Princeton, I’d do SCEA there and possibly ED2 at Tufts if deferred or rejected. But only if he can truly see himself being happy at Tufts. Part of the beauty of Tufts for my daughter is that pretty much everyone she meets really chose it - they are very happy to be there. OP - my daughter has many friends in the engineering school who absolutely love it, can’t imagine being anywhere else. BUT, if your son doesn’t “feel it” there, he shouldn’t apply ED. I have a second child who is applying right now to schools who I think IS looking at ED fairly strategically, but that’s because she really doesn’t have a “dream school” - she just has a list of a number of schools where she thinks she could be happy. Tell your son to go with his instincts on this one.

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Thank you @Momtothreegirls
Good luck to your daughter applying and it’s wonderful that your older daughter found the right place for her. That’s all I want for my kids.

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And btw, 4togo4, I didn’t mean to imply that your son’s stats are not wonderful - they are indeed :slight_smile: My comment about my daughter’s GPA was just to reply to Penn95’s suggestion that Tufts ED doesn’t pull in a lot of really high stats kids. It does. When my daughter chose to ED to Tufts there were some people who felt the need to comment to me that they were surprised she didn’t apply to an Ivy instead (which I thought was inappropriate and at times rude). But she found that Tufts was her “just right” school, a place where she knew she could thrive. And she is surrounded by peers who felt similarly. Your son has the stats for all three schools (although we all know that in the current college admissions climate that doesn’t necessarily mean he will be admitted). Tell him to take a minute and really think through where he felt he belonged the most. If there’s a near “tie” and one is slightly less selective, I’d go with the less selective one. But if Princeton is his solid answer, I’d advise him to throw his hat in the ring. Good luck!

20

Although admittedly, since I just realized today is 11/1, he has likely already made up his mind. Good luck!