<p>broken_symlink,
Many thanks for your input. It is very valuable. I understand they group the 3-2’s together, so you’re with people of similar experiences. You mentioned others. How do you find yourself fitting into the culture/environment? Do you feel welcome by the 4 year students… how about the professors? </p>
<p>Lakemom and ucbalumnus,
My son has great grades and is in AP. From what we see of the requirements, he would probably have a good shot at Cornell, but I’m sure a lot of people think they have a good shot and Cornell and still get passed. </p>
<p>But there is a bigger fly in the ointment. He is a competitive tennis player and wants very much to play college tennis. He is in the top 400 in the nation. Good enough to play D1 tennis at a lot of schools, but not good enough for Cornell, Georgia Tech, etc… Those schools are getting 4 star, 5 star and blue chip players. My son would be lost in the sauce, relegated to low doubles … or worse: warm up for the other guys. </p>
<p>We thought his tennis would get him into a school a bit better than he qualified for. Who knew he’d be smart and tennis would hold him back!? :-p</p>
<p>Some people might think “Just give up the tennis.” It’s not so simple. Tennis is one of those all year sports that suck you into the culture. He lives and breaths tennis. He is on court six days a week, about three hours per day on average. If you ask him about himself, first and foremost, he is a tennis player. He has no delusions of being a pro. He knows the closest he will ever get is college tennis and he wants that.</p>
<p>He wants a career as a physicist or possibly an engineer. So we’re looking for a school that can both satisfy his desire to play tennis (and be a major contributor to the team) and offer him the career path in science that he wants. </p>
<p>Thanks for all the good advice.</p>