Chris Donovan

I have been trying to assist my son in determining which are reach, target and safety schools among those he is considering but wanted to get other opinions. He has a 3.52 UW (his school calculates some eigth grade courses in the GPA, so this counts two Bs he received in 8th grade - 3.57 without these in calculation) and a 4.0 Weighted (4.10 without the two 8th grade classes). Class Rank 74/395

Junior Classes
IB English HL
IB Chemistry SL
IB Information Technology for a Global Society SL
AP US History
Precalculus
JROTC
Technical Drawing

Prospective Senior Classes
IB English HL
AP Calculus AB
AP Physics B
AP European History
AP Psychology
JROTC
Engineering Drawing

Freshman and Sophomore class were largely Honors and Pre-IB - he had three years of Spanish, including Spanish I in 8th grade

ACT - 31
SAT - 1310 (660 M 650 V)

We live in Virginia
He plans to study Engineering
Hope to obtain Navy ROTC scholarship

He has leadership roles in JROTC and Civil Air Patrol
Varsity Club Lacrosse
Over 100 hours of volunteer work
National Student Leadership Conference for Engineering
Aerospace Engineering Summer Program at NC State
Cadet Officer Leadership Program
Part-time job as a cook in a restaurant for the last four months and will likely remain there through senior year

Reaches
Michigan
UVA
Vanderbilt

Targets
Florida
Virginia Tech
Purdue
Penn State
NC State

Safety
VCU

Do we have this figured right or are some of his targets actually safety schools? With some, his ACT/SAT scores are in the top 25% for the school but we're not sure if that is also true for the Engineering college at the school. Any other comments or recommendations would be appreciated.

lylbeachbabee

Since you're from Virginia, I would say that UF is like a high match/low reach, mainly because of his class rank. The vast majority of students at UF are in the top 10%. But, UF is definitely still a possibility. I don't know all that much about many of the other schools, but it looks pretty good to me!

jec7483

I think your predictions for reach/match/safety are right on. He has a great shot at all of these schools. Congrats and best of luck.

RealM

If he is interested in aerospace engineering, I strongly recommend that he look into Georgia Institute of Technology. It will definitely be a match school.

Chris Donovan

He has had Georgia Tech on his list in the past. The thing that concerns him is the limited options if, down the road, he determines for whatever reason that Engineering is not for him. As he thinks of it, he has told me he has an equal passion for History as he does Engineering but senses the job reality with History. If that were to happen, I'm not sure that GT is a very good option as he contemplates History or some other major in Liberal Arts. I think its good that he wants to have options even though it could eliminate some great schools such as GT. GT is still being considered though. Thanks.

Chris Donovan

bump (10 char)

DunninLA

what about the Naval Academy? My brother's son is just starting second year there and it is all he expected and more.

Chris Donovan

I've discussed the Naval Academy with him on a number of occasions. While he wants very much to be a naval officer, he wants more of a typical college experience on a campus environment. Thanks though.

Any other thoughts on whether the Reach, Target and Safety school list should be modified?

DunninLA

I would need to know more about how good the students are at your son's school. 31 is a great ACT, and the SAT is solid but not great. He is top 20% in rank -- if this is at a very selective private school, then Mich should be a match and UVA /Vandertilt mild reaches. If it is a very good but not great suburban public school that sends about 5-10 graduates each year to Top 10 schools, then MI is a reach and UVA/Vanderfilt far reaches.

bclintonk

^ I'm not so sure I agree about reclassifying Michigan as a match, even if it's a very selective private school. Their reported 25th/75th percentile GPAs are 3.7-4.0 unweighted (28% of entering class have a 4.0 unweighted GPA). They rely more on ACT than SAT, so that helps: OP's son is right at their 75th percentile ACT. But bottom quartile GPA is a complication regardless of the school---especially since Michigan says they weigh grades more heavily than standardized test scores. Also note they count only the grades from 10th and 11th academic courses in calculating GPA, so if there's been an continued upward trajectory it should help. Also note that for engineering they'll look separately at the ACT math subscore (or SAT math, whichever is higher). I'd say there's a fair chance of admission, but it's still a reach.

Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota also have very good engineering programs and are probably in the match range, though I'm not sure about Illinois' OOS policy. Strictly by the numbers, Purdue may be a safety even though it's a very good engineering school, but again, I don't know whether they have higher standards for OOS applicants.

DunninLA

bc - gpa is nice, but they certainly know how to correlate 3.7 gpa from one school to a median 26 ACT vs. a 3.7 at another school which might correlate to a 30 ACT. GPA is meaningless in isolation except that it must exceed a certain minimum cutoff.

hopeful_gtb

Actually, GT is a great option, even if it is engineering based. My brother is an alumni, and got a normal engineering degree and now does something completely different from engineering...definitely research the school.

dadofsam

For matches and/or safeties, possibly Clemson, Louisville, U of Cincinatti.

bclintonk

I don't disagree with this. My only point is that Michigan places particular emphasis on GPA which they describe the single most important factor in their admissions decision, and they pride themselves on their 3.7-4.0 unweighted 25th/75th percentile GPA medians, which means their "minimum cutoff" is going to be pretty high. A 3.57 unweighted essentially means you're competing to get into the bottom quartile of their entering class on the criterion they consider most important. The 31 ACT means this candidate will stand out relative to other candidates with a similar GPA, but it's still a low GPA relative to what they're looking for. Consequently, I'd have to rate Michigan a "reach" instead of a "match" for a candidate with these stats, unless recalculating GPA the way Michigan does---looking only at sophomore and junior year grades and translating all grades into "whole letter" grades (A+, A, and A- all count as A = 4.0; B+, B, and B- all count as B = 3.0; etc) pushes the candidate's GPA at least into the middle 50%, i.e., above 3.7.