Suggestion for match/Reasonable reach schools

Parent Cafe
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<p>I’ll be repeating some previous suggestions here. WashU and Tufts are both schools where it is easy to change schools (e.g. College of Arts & Sciences, Engineering, etc.), although Tufts doesn’t have a business school, but has good Poli Sci and is well-known for International Relatioins. WashU is very strong in Poli Sci, and also has Business and Engineering schools. (My S was accepted ED at WashU, and is considering Economics and PoliSci majors, and eventually law school. He had a 35 ACT also, but much lower grades than your S.)</p>

<p>Cornell, Johns Hopkins, and Northwestern would be reasonable reach schools.</p>

<p>Lehigh has good Business & Engineering schools, and would be a Low Match.</p>

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<p>Also, regarding when to visit, the best time is when you are out of school but colleges are in session. Spring break junior year is a generally a good time for that.</p>

<p>We live in NJ and high school doesn’t start until after Labor Day in Sept, so we also were able to visit some schools at the very end of Aug and beginning of Sept. If you are in the midwest, this probably isn’t an option for you though.</p>

<p>My son and I only visited one school when it wasn’t in session, and we found it to be very much less than optimal.</p>

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<p>My W and I are really grateful for all the suggestions and advices.
I guess it is time to get serious.</p>

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<p>With the stats that you gave, I think that you are being overly conservative in your assessments, and you should look at the ivys. They also provide better financial aid, especially at your income level, especially Harvard and Yale. </p>

<p>On your list, I would say that for your kid, Chicago (apply early action!), Northwestern, Pomona, Cornell, Vanderbilt and maybe Rice are all MATCHES! In my mind that means a probability of admissions of around 40-80%. </p>

<p>The others have chances ranging from 20-40%. I don’t think that you should assign a probability lower than 20% to any school (unless it’s a women’s college, LOL). </p>

<p>My D used Wisconsin as a rolling admissions safety. She applied in September and got in in October. Stress relief galore. Rochester is another good safety, small university, very LAC like, often with strong merit aid. McGill or Toronto are also good safeties and very different. </p>

<p>I would also say that if he doesn’t want to go to the south, or to religiously affiliated schools, then don’t look at those schools. You need SOME method of pairing down the list of top schools, and why start off the process by arguing with him. Teenagers are not always the most rational of beings and it’s not like he’d be left with few good choices if you eliminated them. </p>

<p>I would also use the junior year spring break visits to help him zone in on the type of school he likes (small, medium, large), (urban, suburban, rural), to help form his list. The particular schools almost don’t matter. Plan 1-3 fall visits to schools that are very serious candidates for top choice. A few schools (Dartmouth, Chicago, Northwestern) operating on the quarter system are still in session after AP exams in May. That is an ideal time to visit them. You can use a few summer visits for some schools that offer or recommend on-campus interviews and tend to care a lot about demonstrated interest. </p>

<p>You do not need to visit all of the schools - it gets pretty boring after a while.</p>

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<p>If a kid does not want to feel like he is in the middle of a big city, that’s a problem for schools like Chicago, Rice, and Hopkins (which are getting mentioned a lot), and of course Harvard, Yale, Penn, Columbia, Brown, NYU, Georgetown, USC, BostonU, etc. Chicago, Rice, and Hopkins may not be quite as in-the-middle-of-it-all as Harvard or NYU, but there is a huge, huge, huge difference in feel between them and suburban schools like Princeton, Stanford, or even Northwestern.</p>

<p>Lord knows, I love the University of Chicago. I think it’s practically perfect, and everyone should want to go there. But it would be cruel to send a kid there who felt uncomfortable in a large city and whose dream campus was Princeton, Pomona, or Williams.</p>

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<p>I agree with JHS- my son was very interested in Pomona, Stanford and Wash U for similar reason’s as the poster’s son. Sister was at an urban Ivy, and he really wasn’t interested in that environment at that time. (he’ll probably wind up working in a huge metropolis…;)) </p>

<p>While Pomona (where he is a senior) is a reach for almost anyone, it is slightly easier for boys (fewer apply) and being from the midwest would be a help in admissions. Only about a third of Pomona’s students are from California, by design.
Their financial aid is as good as you’ll find anywhere, according to current students. We have received letters from the administration that state that financial aid continues to be a top priority. And academic, research, internship,& employment opportunities are enormous- the five college consortium makes it possible for the colleges to offer more than any of the individual schools would be able to offer. My son has a paid internship (the college pays) this semester, in a company within his field of interest that he’s very excited about. This is his third one in four years.
While Pomona doesn’t offer a business degree per se, he’ll come out very prepared for any business school grad program, and of course, Claremont/McKenna is well-known for it’s business/government courses, all of which would be available to him.</p>

<p>One thing that MOST of the kids from smaller LACs come away with is outstanding letters of recommendation from their profs. (providing they are good students, of course) Because of the size, the profs actually do get to know each student. This is helpful to kids like my son who may not be the first one you notice, but who really shines when you get to know him, and he “wears well.” In a small community, getting along with other people is very important, and rewarded.</p>

<p>Also, if your son applies to WashU, be sure he looks into their merit scholarships. They have a few. Grinnell is also very generous with merit aid- at least they used to be.</p>

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<p>Do you live in California? Be sure to add UCSD to your list. </p>

<p>A note about southern schools - we dropped all southern schools, including Rice, off my d’s list when we realized that she can’t tolerate heat and humidity. She finds Boston difficult in the summer - imagine Houston!</p>

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<p>

True, but there’s also a huge difference between these schools and the ones that have no campus like NYU or George Washington (which my son rejected.) He’s going to have to visit the Chicago campus before he decides whether it’s too urban, but at least from google he thinks he can deal with it.</p>