<p>Agree mostly with Drgoogle.It sounds like a top heavy list.Basically there are no guarantees.D is at Wellesley but got waitlisted at Lawrence U and Kenyon.Your son has a good resume’ but a wider range of schools is called for.Of course he must be deeply involved in the search to be invested in the outcome.Bon chance!</p>
<p>Drgoogle- :How can you be rejected everywhere and still attend a UC?</p>
<p>^^ indeed. The UCs are better than the majority of colleges in the country. That “amazing” boy will do just fine.</p>
<p>I think she meant rejected from private schools like HYPS, he had only state school options. She thought perhaps the essays were bad.</p>
<p>The truth is, HYPS only accept 7% of their applicants. A rejection by all of these schools says nothing about her son’s application or his essays, except that he was not accepted, like 93% of the applicants.
One thing college admission’s counselors are good for is getting parents and students to be realistic about their admissions chances. A parent who “blames” her kid (blaming his essays is essentially blaming him) is really not being fair, and needs a bit of a reality check. A good college counselor can explain this to parents, and relieve some of the feeling of failure from the student- which starts with a realistic list of appropriate colleges-- and many that the student would be happy attending and have a decent chance of being accepted.</p>
<p>Alternate view here. I believe you need to HAVE good analytical skills to be a successful engineering student. If you do not good analytical skills, engineering will be a tough major. I don’t think pursuing a degree in engineering to hone analytical skills is a good idea at all.</p>
<p><a href=“blaming%20his%20essays%20is%20essentially%20blaming%20him”>quote</a> is really not being fair,
[/quote]
I think it’s teenager talk after hanging around Collegeconfidential for a few days, everything is about your essays, you get in, it’s your essays, you don’t get in, it’s your essays. But I know it’s not that simple.</p>
<p>@DrGoogle - I did not know what is ORM. I googled it and found out. 
Yes he is male ORM :(</p>
<p>Why should one prefer Private over UCs? Even if he does not get into UCB or UCLA, UCSD and UCD are not bad options for Engineering. Thoughts?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>naveen, my daugther said the same thing. I just want to make sure she understands that she really is ok with it. She kept saying her friends said it takes 5years to graduate from a UC, which I think is hogwash, not with all the AP credits that are accepted at UCs, but she refused to add more private schools.</p>
<p>@LBowie - What are your thoughts about Duke, Northwestern when compared to UCs?</p>
<p>Duke and Northwestern are almost as hard to get into these days as the Ivy League. So I would think they fall into a different category at least as far as selectivity goes than the uc schools.<br>
I have no idea as far as quality of the engineering programs.</p>
<p>Tufts is another great school, offering engineering with a “low wall” between engineering and other schools. Minutes from subway to Cambridge and Boston, minutes away, but nice campus in Medford.</p>
<p>Have you looked into Carnegie-Mellon or Vanderbilt?</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your comments. Based on the input here is the updated list</p>
<p>Thoughts are - Go for top colleges as reach. If that does not work then have UCB and UCLA and a few Private California college (except John Hopkins and NorthWestern) as likely. And then have UCSD, , UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz and UC Irvine as safety.</p>
<p>The list has grown longer - but we are working on containing it.</p>
<p>Stanford
Harvard
Princeton
Columbia
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell
Brown
Yale
Caltech
UCB
Johns Hopkins
Clairmont McKenna
UCLA
NorthWestern
USC
UCSD
UCD
UCSC
UCI</p>
<p>It could be the essays, I thought the essays were the weakest link for my older son, which were basically of the “pretty good for an engineer type of essay.” There were plausible explanations for why he got in where he did, but unless one is a fly on the wall at the admissions office no way to be sure.</p>
<p>My younger son’s application was just the opposite, the essays weren’t the weak link in the application and I suspect (but of course can’t be sure) that the essays may have made a real difference. I know that someone thought his “Why Chicago” essay was funny (which it was intended to be) because he got a comment about it on a holiday card they sent him.</p>
<p>“Therefore CalTech and MIT are not in his list.”
OP, I see that Caltech is still listed . Based on your previous statement that your DS is not a techie kid, I’m assuming this is an oversight? CT is just about the most rigorous, intense STEM focused college in the US, so if he does not LOVE STEM subjects, or might be intimidated by the “like trying to drink water from a firehose” pace of teaching there, and is not dying to do hard core research as an undergraduate, he might be miserable.
Why is Harvey Mudd now off the list and Claremont Mckenna on it ? If your son gets into HM he can cross register at CM, Pomona and any other of the 5 Claremont College Consortium colleges for any classes not offered by HM[ and vice versa if he goes to CM], but given his interest in a engineering major HM is a better fit.</p>
<p>If your son doesn’t mind the heat, how about Duke and Rice.
I think you may have too many safeties. UCI, UCD are 2 safeties.</p>
<p>@naveenjain – I think Duke or Northwestern would be a totally different experience from the UCs. Yes, these privates in particularhave pretty low admit rates, almost like Ivys. </p>
<p>I used to teach at UCSC. Granted, this is not one of the most competitive UCs, but the student body in terms of caliber falls far short of those privates. His peers would be a smarter, more motivated bunch at Duke or NU. These schools are also smaller than UCLA or Berkeley (where students are stronger than at UCSC overall). Even though they are not tiny, i woukd expect a more personal student experience with respect to faculty contact at Duke or NU. Now then there is the sad state of California’s budget. I know this affects infrastructure, teaching loads, faculty stress. But no question the UCs are still a great value for a California resident. We don’t live there anymore, so would be paying te same as at a private. Not worth it in my opinion. But if we did live there, I am sure it would have been a strong option. (btw, UCSC is very good in computer science and computer engineering with an expertise/world-wide reputation in bioinformatics.)</p>
<p>I also think you have too many safeties, but also too many reaches. You need more matches on the list.</p>
<p>I will say…I am confused. WHY is this non-techie kid considering majoring in engineering at all? If he wants to work in finance, there are plenty of other majors he could consider.</p>
<p>I am very puzzled by the list. Princeton and Brown are very different schools. Your kid is interested in every Ivy school, except for UPenn. Why? If he is looking to apply to all top 15-20 schools because of prestige, then just do it, what could CC posters add to it?</p>