Son's chances

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>Hi everyone. I am new to this board about 1 week ago. I am finding it very useful for putting the college search in prospective for my son. I am also amazed at the amount of intelligent and gifted students out there.</p>

<p>I would appreciate anyone's thoughts on my son's chances at the following schools.</p>

<p>Son attends a private catholic high school known for strong academics.His is entering his sr yr and his intended college major is the sciences...not really sure what...?chemistry, biochem, engineering</p>

<p>-GP- 4.2 weighted, 3.3 unweighted
-Has taken all honors courses throughout hs
-Was elected into a small summer class for honors physics which enabled him to take an extra AP class during hs (the school limits AP classes to 6)
-AP Chem- 5
-Couse load this yr includes AP Bio, AP Calculus(BC), AP Economics-Macro and Micro, Honors Eng, Theology(required)
-SAT II Math 720(highest level one), SATII Chem 760 SATII Bio 650 (taken freshman yr)
-SAT Math 690, CR-630 (taking again in Oct)</p>

<p>EC's</p>

<p>-Division I football- all four yrs
-Division I wrestling -fr and soph
-Spring Track -soph
-Power Lifting - jr/sr
-Summer jobs - all four yrs
-weight lifting year long </p>

<p>Honors/Volunteer</p>

<p>Natl Honor Society
Unsung Hero Award for football - Freshman yr
Captain -freshman/sophmore year - football
Christmas in the City(helping needy children with xmas)
Leadership Retreat - summer sr yr (also incl volunteer work)
Active in Church
Lettered in Football</p>

<p>Hopeful schools but realize some are high reaches:</p>

<p>Villanova
Boston College
College of the Holy Cross
Notre Dame
Lehigh
Loyola of Maryland (maybe)</p>

<p>He also has some safeties: UMass Amherst, UConn, UNH</p>

<p>Any other schools in the northeast that you think he has a good shot at?</p>

<p>Also, should he retake SATII Math</p>

<p>Thanks so much</p>

<p>BTW...what does bump mean?</p>

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<p>Oh yeah, my son is in the top 10% of his class..thanx</p>

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<p>B.U.M.P. is an acronym. Bump up my post.</p>

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<p>Now that I know the meaning of bump, I am going to use it...</p>

<p>anyone?</p>

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<p>I am not sure how much the unweighted GPA will impact admission - Many schools accept the class rank the high school assigns, but refigure weighted GPAs. So top 10 % of the the class is terrific, but I don't know if the GPA of 3.3 hurts . His ECs are not exceptional and except for football no real passion is immediately apparent.</p>

<p>BC and Notre Dame - reaches
Villanova and Holy Cross - Slight reaches
Suggestions:
Stonehill, Fairfield safe matches and Providence match especially coming from Catholic High School. </p>

<p>St Michaels Colchester Vermont safety
Siena College Loudonville, NY Safety</p>

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<p>Thanx daffymom...I agree his EC's are not exceptional (nor volunteer) but the time committment for the sports is huge...I also agree with his unweighted GPA...his spanish grades always killed him. He hated spanish and got consistant B-'s (therefore, he did not take language this yr). His math and sciences have always been A's (with one or 2 B+'s thrown in).</p>

<p>He is hoping to bring up his SAT scores in Oct but feels he does not need to prep at all (yikes!!). Between first and second SAT's, his CR went up 40 pts but the math score went down 10 pts. I have printed xiggi's method and will pray he does the work needed to bring up his scores.</p>

<p>His first choice at this time is Villanova but he loved BC as well.</p>

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<p>I agree, that unweighted GPA will hurt him. SAT IIs are good, but bringing up the SAT I about 50 points in each category will do him lots of good. Sports are great. Does he do any kind of art or music?</p>

<p>Villanova and Boston College are probably reaches, but not huge ones.</p>

<p>Good luck to him.</p>

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<p>Villanova
Boston College
College of the Holy Cross
Notre Dame
Lehigh
Loyola of Maryland (maybe)</p>

<p>He also has some safeties: UMass Amherst, UConn, UNH</p>

<p>Amherst is NOT a safety for him</p>

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<p>B.U.M.P. is an acronym. Bump up my post.</p>

<p>^ actually means BRING up my post</p>

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<p>Poop may be confusing Amherst College with U-Mass/Amherst. Amherst would be a reach, but U-Mass is a safety.</p>

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<p>Poop is definitely confusing UMass/Amherst with Amherst College.</p>

<p>Sinister, not really arts. He plays the guitar on his own but nothing special at all. Would he even mention this in his activities?</p>

<p>Also, should my son retake SATII Math? Even though he got a 720, he was only in the 68th percentile. That shocked me!!</p>

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<p>Yea bonmar, it's because Asians take Math IIC more than they do vitamins (I'm Asian but I refuse to take it on principle). An 800 is the 90th percentile. Go figure.</p>

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<p>I'm thinking that UConn UMass and UNH may be safeties ... but don't match the rest of his list. We hear so often that you should love your safety ... does he <em>love</em> any of those state unis?</p>

<p>I'm a UConn grad and my H is a Villanova grad. Absolutely no comparision in feel.</p>

<p>What about St. Bonaventure for a safety? (Or is it a match?)</p>

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<p>cnp, no, I don't think my S "loves" any of his safeties (not like the other schools). However, he could see himself being happy. I went to Villanova with him but he went to UConn himself (an overnight visit with his cousin who attends UConn)...so I'm not really sure what you mean about no comparison in feel. Hopefully he does !!</p>

<p>Since FA is a factor as well as purely getting in to the other schools, I have advised my son to make sure he could envision himself at any one of the safety schools. He has not completely secured his list either.</p>

<p>I have never heard of St. Bonaventure but will look it up on collegeboard...Thanx</p>

<p>Enderkin, is it really true about what you are saying re: the SATII Math??? Or am I being naive? Thanx also</p>

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<p>Look at all of the decisions threads for the various schools. 99 out of every 100 Asian applicants has taken the SAT II Math test. At the Ivy League/comparables , all of them are 800 or so. It's not supposed to be a very difficult test, but for Asians who qualify for the AIME among other things, it's more a cakewalk than anything.</p>

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<p>The SAT II Math IIC is very different than the SAT I Math or SAT II Math IC.</p>

<p>The margin for error on the Math IIC is much higher: you can miss up the four (sometimes even five) and still score an 800. My friend left five questions blank when he took the test, and yet still walked away with a perfect.</p>

<p>That factor, combined with the fact that nearly applicant (and many Asians) applying to the top universities takes the exam due to its relative lack of high level material (calculus is not necessary), makes the percentiles low in comparison to what you might expect.</p>

<p>I don't think he needs to retake the Math IIC if his reach schools are Villanova, BC, and Notre Dame. If he has the time to do a review book (Barron's is very good for this particular exam because the practice tests are more difficult than the real thing, which will prepare him better faster) and wants to give it another shot, go for it. Otherwise just focus on pulling that SAT I score up.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the advice...I will pass it on to my son</p>

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<p>What's his SAT I writing score? Did he somehow take the test before the writing section came out? If he did, then he really does need to study for the writing test at least to get a feel for it.</p>

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<p>No, he took the writing test-590 (ouch). Obviously, writing is not his strong suit but with quotes in his head, he will take it again in Oct.</p>

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<p>I think reading test prep books will help him a lot with the writing section. It definitely helped me a lot. My scores went up significantly (maybe 70 points?) after just reading a test prep book on the writing section for 2-3 hours and doing 2-3 practice tests.</p>