<p>Okay fellow parents, I read these post CC a lot, but rarely submit posts. My son is appling to six schools (class of 06):
Harvard EA
UPENN
Stanford
Duke
Virginia
Wake Forest
Some Stats:
SAT I : 1510 Math:800 Verbal: 710
SAT II: Writing: 770 Chem: 790 Math 2C: 800 US Hist: 770
GPA: 4.0 unweighted 4.75 weighted (4.0 Scale)
Class Rank: 2 0f 535
APs
Chemistry
Stat
Lang & Com
W. Hist
AB Cal
Biology
US Hist
Score: All 5's
APs Currently taking
Psy/Spanish/US Gov&Pol/Micro & Macro Economics/Lit Comp/Physic B
Community College courses:
Calculus II (Grade: A)
Calculus III taking this fall
ECs:
Baseball (JV-Co Capt & Varisty), Indoor Track, Jazz Band Pianist, N'tional Honor Society(Leadership Board Member), Chairman-SGA Project Planning, Math Team (Co-Captain), Nat'L Merit Scholarship Program (Commended), National Achievement Scholarship Program (Semi-Finalist), Athletic Conference First Team All-Conference, 2005 Telluride TASP, National Urban League Golden Pyramid Award (2), blah, blah, blah..nothing really extraordinary. Some volunteer work around 100 hours over the past 3 years.
Work:
Electronic store around 20-25 per week.
Few awards...nothing great but will list on apps.</p>
<p>Not really asking for chances, but I do not think he has a safety school listed, he considers Virgina a match and Wake a safety. Both are out-of-state for him. Some advice, should he apply for at least one more safety school?</p>
<p>Your son is a very strong candidate, but it is wise to have safeties, as audiophile pointed out. Does UVA have a cap on OOS that makes it far more selective when it comes to non-residents? Don't know about Wake. If they do, then I'd advise adding another safety or a rolling admissions at a top university such as Michigan. If he is interested, he should apply soon; it would be great having an admission that early in the process.</p>
<p>Your son has amazingly impressive credentials. Terrific grades and great scores, demanding courseload, solid ECs, and TASP is a huge feather in his cap. </p>
<p>Since you mentioned that he is a National Achievement semi-finalist, I assume he's African-American---statistically there just aren't many African-American male students with his scores, let alone the whole portfolio of other accomplishments. You've posted elsewhere that you live in a rural community in southern Maryland--there simply isn't a huge pool of students applying to those extremely selective schools from rural southern Maryland, so there are some geographic diversity points in your son's favor as well.</p>
<p>Unless there's some hidden factor, it's hard to imagine that he could strike out everywhere....but the big question for me would be does he have a FINANCIAL safety? Is there a school on the list that is a sure thing for your family to be able to afford comfortably as well as get into.</p>
<p>I would think that U of Maryland College Park would be a clear financial safety, since he'd be in-state plus they do give merit aid as well. I've heard great things about their honors program. </p>
<p>It's very likely he'll get into at least several of the other schools on his list, but a generous offer from U of Md could also be a helpful bargaining chip in negotiating more generous financial aid from those other schools.</p>
<p>What does he want to study? Perhaps that would give us some ideas of other safeties/financial safeties to suggest.</p>
<p>Another likely or rolling admit school wouldn't hurt. You want him to have choices in April. As it stands, the list <em>should be fine</em> - but some pretty random stuff happened this year, and 2006 will be just a little tougher. Your son sounds like a fine young man!</p>
<p>Thanks for the post so far. Yes, we are AA. His top choice is actually Stanford, but his sister is currently a Soph at UNC-Chapel Hill and we do not want to have kids attending schools on opposite coast. We did look into U of MD but he just did not like the school. He really liked UPENN and Harvard when we visited and he took MIT off the list after our campus visit. He wants to study Bio-physics or some type of Biology.
Financially, of course will have impact on our finally decision, but I don't think that will prevent him from attending either school if accepted.
Audio--thanks for the article and I did read that post earlier and that is why I am a little nervious about his choices.</p>
<p>I agree with everyone else that your son is an outstanding candidate who should stand an excellent chance at those schools. However, Harvard, Penn, Stanford and Duke can be unpredictable in terms of admissions even for the most qualified applicants so even though your son is qualified for those schools, he cannot count on them which involves quite a large degree of chance. UVA is a match but still hard from out of state and not a sure thing. I'd say Wake is a borderline match/safety. I don't know enough about what your son wants in a college to truly make suggestions but I would add another match/ballpark school like William and Mary or Vanderbilt and one more safety (in the range of schools like Syracuse, Lehigh or Villanova). With four unpredictable reaches (though I would like to think at least one will come through but you never know with those schools), I'd want two matches, and two safeties. That is why I would add one more match and one more safety and I'd feel better going into it.</p>
<p>I did not know he was a URM when I posted above which boosts his chances further. He might be able to get by with four reaches, three matches, one safety.</p>
<p>My daughter's best friend, who is also African American, is a freshman at Wake. She was a good student (top 10%, based on weighted grades) and involved with music, drama, and other activities, but her scores, grades, and activities were not nearly as impressive as your son's. She told us that both her verbal and math SAT scores were below the 25% published by Wake. She was in the honors (not AP) track for English and Social Studies and in the college prep (not honors) track for math and science. She was not from an economically deprived family, but rather from an upper middle class family. Based on the experience of this limited sample of one person with Wake admissions, I would guess that Wake would be a safety for your son. Also, in your original post, you mentioned that Wake is out of state for your son, but, since it is a private school, I don't think it matters if you are in or out of state.</p>
<p>On another topic, are you sure you want to rule Stanford out for your son based on location? We are from the East coast and I wasn't keen on my son going to Stanford either, but he is a senior there and it has turned out to be the perfect school for him. The trip to Stanford from the East coast is actually very easy.</p>
<p>As a URM with stellar stats, I would say your S has excellent chances at Harvard, which appears to be one of his top choices. By all means, go for it.
Momsdream'S is a freshman at Upenn; he is also AA. You could PM her to enquire about her S's experience there. I suspect, though, that biophyics might be a bit stronger at Harvard (or Stanford) than at Penn.</p>
<p>Again,
Thanks...Motheroftwo, I understand the logistics of the trip between the coast is quite easy with the numerous airline deals now available. We are actually from San Diego and my son had the opportunity to visit Stanford a couple times when we lived in San Francisco. But, the wife wants to have the kids close to one another and also be able to drop in on occassions (We are working on her), but just like with my daughter who wanted to go to U.of San Diego--my wife talk her into her second choice (D is very happy at UNC so it work out great). Do anyone have a suggestion of a couple of good safties/matches? I do not want him to apply to no more than 6-8 schools.</p>
<p>I think your son is correct that UVa is a match; even though he is OOS, as a highly qualified applicant who is also AA, he would be a very desirable candidate for the school. It would be good for your peace of mind to have one more clear match and safety but realistically speaking, his specific combination of excellent credentials and minority status suggest that he will do very well with his current list.</p>
<p>The Honors program at some large universities such as Michigan would be an excellent choice for a safety and he would be very likely to get merit money. Case Western, Washington University-St Louis and Rice would excellent choices as well 9 you already have Duke on the list).</p>
<p>
[quote]
I do not want him to apply to no more than 6-8 schools.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I think that's sensible--better to concentrate on doing a great job on a manageable set of college applications than to spread oneself too thin.</p>
<p>Given his interests in biology and biomedical science, I'd second Marite's suggestion of U of Michigan. They have a superb honors program and I've heard great things from undergrads who got a lot of terrific research experience early on, even as freshmen. Michigan is a rolling application school, so he could have an acceptance there in his "back pocket" pretty early in the process and then he could focus his efforts on his top choices.</p>
<p>Michigan out-of-state is not a safety, but I still think he's got an excellent shot--and the nice thing would be having some uncertainty out of the way at the beginning of the process.</p>
<p>I've been trying to figure out what your son's list of schools has in common with one another, in order to figure out what might be a good safety. One thing that comes across as a common factor is "schools with strong athletic teams as well as strong academics,"--another reason I think Michigan could be a good bet. I assume that since your son has been active in high school sports, he likes the culture and rah-rah spirit and balance that a strong athletic program provides to academic life.</p>
<p>So Michigan seems to fit the bill on that score. Then again, Maryland fits the bill too--perhaps if you told us a bit more about what it was that he didn't like about Maryland, it would yield some clues that would help us come up with suggestions.</p>
<p>I must say that I really don't get your wife's objections to Stanford. Some of the other schools on his list aren't really much "closer," in terms of travel time between them. E.g., Harvard: given the idiosyncratic spoke&hub airline system, it's really not much easier to get back and forth between NC and Boston vs. NC & the Bay Area.</p>
<p>Mother of Two,
I have tried to ease the JH letters in front of him, but he would not bite. He does like Univ of Michigan, but I am not a big fan (I try not to let him know my bias though). I have also tried WUSL, again no bite. All the schools and it is very diffcult to find a good safety that both my wife and S can agree to. How would Univ of Miami rank match/safety?</p>
<p>Michigan can't be any easier to get to than SF, and in the practical terms you outlined above, it's similarly remote from your D's school. Even St. Louis and Miami aren't exactly nearby NC. Maybe since those schools are under consideration, your wife will eventually relax her restriction and let a few west coast gems into the mix. Stanford might be an excellent choice for him.</p>
<p>Wistera,
You are right on the money, he wants to schools to have a good sports program. I think is why he is relutant to consider MIT/JH etc. I think adding UofMich is a great idea. If he is accepted to Stanford, trust me he will convert his mom. So that would give us 7 schools. So we will roll the dice and see what happens.
Thanks for all you guys help and pls keep giving the good advice.</p>
<p>Possible matches:
William and Mary
Vanderbilt
Tufts
Johns Hopkins
Emory</p>
<p>Possible Safeties:
Syracuse
Lehigh
Villanova
Case Western
Furman
Univ. of Maryland
UMich (has rolling admissions)
University of Richmond
University of Rochester
Virginia Tech</p>
<p>Also an "easier reach" and more like a high end match but might round out the list depending on how the list plays out is Cornell.</p>
<p>PS...my post crossed with some others so you can knock out Johns Hopkins.</p>
<p>I think there is a direct flight from Durham to Boston.<br>
I think U of Miami really does not compare with U Mich. Suggest that he apply; he does not have to accept the offer, but it will ease the pressure tremendously to have an offer early on in the process. It will make the goal of limiting the number of applications that much more realistic. And may I suggest (gently) that it will be your son, not your wife or you who will be going to college? The school has to fit him, and not others.</p>