<p>The Chess and Math class is a freshman seminar; they vary from year to year. My son had heard about it and was delighted he was able to take it. I know that Harvard has a chess club; they play Yale every year on the morning of The Game. Beyond that I’m not sure if they compete or just get together and play. My son was heavily involved in another club and only played a little IM chess while he was there.</p>
<p>CTTC—You took the words out of my mouth with post #60.</p>
<p>Oh my . . . the URM complaint again. No thread ever escapes it.</p>
<p>My nephew attended Harvard (graduated 4 years ago, and is graduating from med school this year). He’s from a middle class family in the midwest. His dad is a firefighter and his mom is a secretary. Neither of them attended college. He attended a private high school on scholarship - he begged to go to this school as his local public high school isn’t particularly good. He had good stats - great GPA, high class rank and a 35 ACT. He was involved in ECs, did community service work and had a part time job throughout school. Other kids at his private school who applied to Harvard had similar resumes (except for the job), and several had higher stats, but he was the only one admitted. His theory was that he got in because he was different. They were all upper class kids from professional families, and he was the blue collar kid who was the first in his family to attend college. Ultimately no one knows why he got in and his equally or better qualified friends did not, but I think his theory is certainly plausible.</p>
<p>There are over 10,000 kids that get into Ivy League schools every year. None of them are normal. By definition, they are all above the norm. </p>
<p>I do not know your son at all, but you describe him as home-schooled, with strong scores, Hispanic and with a middle-class, blue collar family. That is above the norm -as it is described by all highly competitive colleges today.</p>
<p>Have him apply. Encourage him to write an engaging essay.</p>
<p>OP- your kid sounds amazing.</p>
<p>There have been a lot of threads on colleges for math kids at a wide range of selectivity.</p>
<p>Your son should look at Brown- very strong applied math department; his personal story will resonate with many in the admissions department.</p>
<p>I would not eliminate schools such as WUSTL right now because of a perceived focus on pre-med. They are very generous with merit aid for the tippy top of their applicant pool-- I think right now your strategy needs to be to identify schools with need only aid (Brown) and also merit aid (WUSTL) and get a big pile to cull through. The best way to ensure that your S ends up in a place where he will thrive is to make sure you’ve got a broad range of schools identified up-front.</p>
<p>You haven’t mentioned Cornell (unless I’m missing it); Rice; JHU.</p>
<p>I was a Brown interviewer for many years and my favorite admit was a kid who took three buses to get to me for his interview from an adjoining state. When I found out he’d spent the day on Greyhound I felt terrible- my car was parked out front and I could have gotten to him in two hours. </p>
<p>First generation college living in a rural community; family had no money; kid had leadership out the door like your son. I basically lobbied the admissions department on his behalf for three months until they accepted him. He was such an obvious admit once you met him- perhaps not so much on paper-- and I was prepared to stage a sit-in on the steps of the financial aid office if they didn’t come up with a package that he could afford (they did of course, without any intervention from me… believe it or not, the system actually works most of the time.)</p>
<p>It is terrific that you are taking this journey with your son. Good luck!!!</p>
<p>Everyone’s situation is different, of course. My DD’s experience with the admissions process is described below.</p>
<p>DD is not brilliant, but she does work very hard. I think the Ivies view this as having the “potential” for accomplishing great things with a great education, just as we thought while watching her grow up. How did the Adcoms know about her work ethic? She wrote about it. Her GC wrote about it. Both teachers wrote about it. Her Principal wrote about it. Her 4.0 unweighted, and 6.0 weighted GPA and lots of ECs and tons of volunteer hours lend credibility to the authenticity of the essays and letters of recommendation. We could not be much help, she’s first gen.</p>
<p>We do not have much money, so that little PSAT in the 11th grade was serious business (full-rides to many good colleges). Prepping alone for the test that summer, taking the PSAT five days AFTER taking the SAT was just more efficient for her busy schedule. She nailed them both because she wanted them out of her way! NMF does help, as does doing scientific research. She has also won many other significant scholarships. I do not believe that the Ivies really want to accept a student that has not already first been thoroughly “vetted” by other prominent organizations.</p>
<p>The most meaningful letter came from her GC, commenting on her humbly requesting fee waivers for her college applications. All this time he never knew we were struggling because she is such a positive, upbeat, and happy kid. I think the Ivies do evaluate applications “in context”. You might expect a kid attending Andover to produce such a transcript; she attends a pretty tough public high school and had to do all that she did, on her own.</p>
<p>Lastly, she was never stressed this year about college applications. She got them out of her way last summer, and then spent the fall editing. She began receiving acceptances (full-rides) beginning in October, averaging one per month. Each acceptance was of a higher and higher caliber (including LLs from Yale and Dartmouth). Lots and lots of communication with all of the Reps from all her colleges, next week should be very interesting.</p>
<p>So after reading the above, you’ll know why I get a little steamed when the URM complaints start. DD just rolls her eyes.</p>
<p>Kelsmom,</p>
<p>The fact that you know a good number of kids in Ivies tells me you must live on the east coast. 
We know one, my son’s friend, though we have several online acquaintances who attend these schools. I’m glad to know there are “normal” kids that attend the Ivies! :-)</p>
<hr>
<p>Nope. Midwest, rust belt, mixed socio economic area. Cornell, Stanford, Penn, Yale, Harvard, and Columbia were the schools these kids were accepted into … all matriculated except for the one accepted to Stanford (she is at UMich with a great scholarship).</p>
<p><< She got them out of her way last summer, and then spent the fall editing. >></p>
<p>This made me laugh. My son was one who spent New Year’s Eve at his desk, finishing up his applicaions. Fortunately he was able to commiserate with his buddies on AIM as they were all doing the same.</p>
<p>Blossom, I loved the story of your interviewee. Thanks for sharing it.</p>
<p>1moremom: Lucky you! You have several reams of paper more than we do! LOL!</p>
<p>He also saved us, paper and money, by only applying to four schools. ;)</p>
<p>CoolRunning - Your D sounds incredible and I’m happy that she will have so many options. I can’t speak for the poster who commented on URM status but I think that most of us realize that ANY hook is a good hook. If you’re getting into an IVY with scores below 2000…you have to have some hook - URM, athelete, first-gen, talent, legacy, celebrity, etc. Nothing wrong with that. But to think that any of these hooks is not a factor in admissions is a bit naive.</p>
<p>Thank you for your kind words regarding my DD. We are very proud of her.</p>
<p>BELOW 2000 is not a “hook” for anyone; it is a DENT! DD has no dents.</p>
<p>Naive? Look, you have to admit that the top schools, University or LAC, are OVERWHELMINGLY white. You don’t need a “hook”, you need to be first, “qualified”, and second, to be useful to the class. If the school needs scientists, apply there – if not, don’t. Simple.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This. ^ Exceptional individual achievement is rarely not needed, unless the student is Hooked.</p>
<p>I will add that the Elites have become more interested in the last several years in taking a close look at homeschooled students. Part of the reason, however, for this, is precisely the exceptional level of achievement, including academic exploration, and also including fewer time constraints on extracurriculars, which are often possible for the homeschooled student.</p>
<p>^^^ It may also be the other way the other way around: student is homeschooled because exceptional involvement in EC precludes attendance at regular school. (e.g., film actors, touring musicians, olympic athletes)</p>
<p>Yes, I’m aware of that, too, mihcal. ;)</p>
<p>Yes, mihcal1, there are definitely kids who are homeschooled <em>because</em> a regular school schedule won’t work with their busy lives and you named a few of the possibilities. That was not the case with us.</p>
<p>My son is homeschooled because it was the best education that we could figure out for him. It also fit our family’s philosophy of spending time together and developing our faith. My original reason for homeschooling actually stemmed from the fact that my son was waaaay too wiggly and too advanced in math to fit in anywhere. As a former special education teacher, I knew that a kid like my son would be labeled right away and would not be challenged. I remember him at age 4, swinging in the backyard while he would call out, “mommy, give me a math problem” and we would throw out multiplication, division, and even squares and square roots. For him, it was and still is pure joy to do mental math but no school around here could accomodate a kid who constantly had to move while learning. </p>
<p>He was interviewed for a book when he was about 6 and he was quoted as saying, “I love working on hard problems that take me at least an hour to solve.” :-)</p>
<p>What I didn’t prepare for or plan on was the fact that I would need to outsource his education almost completely by the time he was 11 or12. At that point, I became a facilitator, administrator, and counselor rather than a teacher. I found resources for him that allowed him to continue to do the self-study he thrived in and the advanced work and social opportunities that I couldn’t provide. At that point, I sought out mentors, tutors, classes, co-ops, part time college, university symphony, and more from the community, church, friends and family, and anywhere I could. We also have been fortunate to have some financial support through several organizations over the years and that has been critical, particularly for violin lessons and purchasing a quality instrument which has served him so well and given him many opportunities to earn income.</p>
<p>Blossom,</p>
<p>Thank-you for your encouraging words and thank-you for sharing that great admissions story. I will take another look at the schools you mentioned and we will keep on keepin’ on! :-)</p>
<p>sbjdorlo-</p>
<p>Hi…I posted a reply to your thread on the Vandy forum a couple of days ago. Don’t know if you saw it or not. Looks like this thread is the one that has the traffic!</p>
<p>With some of our kids we have been accused of ‘pushing’ but I always tell people it is more a matter of being pulled along, kicking and screaming!</p>
<p>-critter</p>
<p>Hi Critter,</p>
<p>I did finally see your post on Vanderbilt’s site! You and I do have a lot in common. That’s so interesting to find another parent of a math/physics/music kid interested in similar schools and issues (substance free dorms, Christian community, laid back middle class California wondering about culture shock,etc). </p>
<p>I do remember being accused of pushing my son when people discovered he could read at age 3 or 4 but he was self taught and in fact, <em>I</em> didn’t know he could read until I gave him a dolch word list and he read it all. </p>
<p>My son has practiced what I call “self-directed learning”. I will say that this year, I have definitely felt pressure to have him jump through certain hoops (testing, required coursework) since he has some very selective schools on his list. Fortunately, he’s pretty good about it all and tests well.</p>
<p>Nice to “meet” you. :-)</p>