What are the chances of my son who become a senior.
GPA 3.9/4 (He has all A's and one B(89) in AP Human Geography
This GPA includes his math grades in Middle School. Those grades are 2 B's and this made his GPA and rank a lot worse. His rank is 67/501, but if not include the middle school's math grades, his guess is around 20/501.
He took 8 AP courses so far. But the AP grades are not so good
His SAT is 1530. (Math 800 Eng 730)
He has lots of extra activities, but not special.
He will take SAT subject after this summer
He want to be a medical doctor.
Here are some lists my son and I are thinking now…
First group : Not easy to get an admission?
Duke (My son’s first choice)
Johns Hopkins
Rice (My first choice)
Washington (My 2nd choice)
Vanderbilt
2nd group : half and half chance?
Emory
Notre Dame
Boston College
Case Western Reserve
3rd group : LAC
Pomona
Carleton
Bowdoin
Davidson
Washington and Lee
Which college is good for my son?
Which college is easily can be accepted?
Which major can be more chanced compared with bio-chem?
Any other college recommendation?
Middle school should not count at all. The only thing that is concerning is that his AP test grades aren’t that high, but many schools don’t consider those in applications.
I would suggest he start working on essays as soon as possible, and try to get those reviewed by his English teacher and/or guidance counselor.
I can’t recommend any other colleges because pre-med is very general, but if your son picks a major, that can affect which schools he targets.
First of all, your son looks like a great applicant. He has obviously worked very hard in school, and I’m sure that colleges will recognize that!
As far as his GPA, colleges will take the middle school grades out of his GPA and recalculate it.
I have some suggestions:
1-Replace the LAC group with a safety group. The LACs that you listed have very competitive applicant groups and you cannot count on him getting in to them easily. Safety schools should have acceptance rates around 60-70%. Pick one or two of your state schools for these, or a private school with a high acceptance rate.
2- I rearranged your college list a little:
First group (most competitive):
-Duke, Johns Hopkins, Rice, Washington, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, Pomona, Bowdoin.
Second group (more likely to get in):
-Emory, Boston College, Case Western Reserve, Carleton, Davidson, Washington and Lee. (A lot of these schools have acceptance rates of close to 20%. You may want to add more schools in the 30% and 40% range.)
Third group (safeties):
-None yet (1 or 2 schools with acceptance rates of 60-70-80%.)
Your son has pretty good academic qualifications, but like you said, he should probably take two or three subject tess soon (Math 2, Bio, and Chem would be good for a prospective pre-med student). That said, there is still room for improvement on the SAT, so if he does choose to retake it, he should aim for 1550+. Your son’s middle school grades will not count, so he will probably have a stellar GPA.
Without knowing his ECs, it’s hard to predict his chances, but from what you are saying, I would suggest your son get involved in “special” activities. He should have a few, strong ECs that reflect his interest in medicine rather than a wide array of ECs that are very varied and generic. That said, your son has a good chance at most of these schools except Duke, JHU, Rice, and WashU which are very competitive for medicine and look for stellar ECs that show a single area of interest. Good luck to your son! I would appreciate it if you could chance me back here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1995754-chance-me-low-gpa-rank-cornell-rice-wash-u-ucla-etc-p1.html
He should get involved in some research, become leader of a medical club, or something biology or chemistry related. Test Scores and GPA only get you so far.