Please understand that these are my opinions, and it is extremely hard to chance for these schools. Be proud of him for GT CS, truly an amazing achievement.
The only issue I have is slightly non-unique ECs… He blends into the masses with his ECs. Let me go through everyone one by one.
SAT: Score is fine.
Rank: Valedictorian is great, but not a deciding factor. Definitely a positive, though.
13 APs: AP scores play virtually no role in the admission process, as the score depends on the teacher, not just the student. He will get quite a bit of college credit though, so still a positive. 13 is a solid number of APs and the scores will only help.
School Awards: Not sure how big/how many students get this, but this seems to be an extension of the Valedictorian ranking. Nice to have.
Co-Founder of large club: Not sure how many people are in school, but 270 seems like quite a bit. If there is a good impact and story alongside this, it is good. I am praying he did not sell himself as a stat in his essays, and instead showed himself as a “feeling” and that he enjoyed his time here. Will definitely help.
Mathnasium: Job experience is great, really depends on whether he shows what he learned from the job.
Math Team, Mu Alpha Theta: Solid ECs, once again it depends on awards/impact shown.
Tutor: Once again, solid EC.
Robotics Referee: Seems fine, but I don’t know as I don’t have info about impact.
Regular Volunteer: Doesn’t hurt to have hours, but for this to have an impact it really should be more than 150-200 hours, because colleges recognize that most schools require hours. Unless the number and impact is above and beyond (“I led a city-wide initiative” or something of the sort).
Leadership Council: If this is a class, this is fine. If this an EC/Club/After-school activity, it holds a bit more weight but once again just matters on impact
Essays: “Good” isn’t normally good enough. I can’t speak for essays as I haven’t read them but deferral over rejection is a somewhat good sign.
LOR: Personally, I had LORs from two teachers who both affirmed that they had written me some of the strongest LORs they had ever written (20+ years of teaching each). Additionally, my counselor LOR was written by a VP who knew me extremely well, rather than something generic written by my counselor. These set me apart from every other “strong” applicant. If your son received an LOR from his principal, that would hold immense weight. However, “good” won’t cut it.
Other Schools: Unfortunately, other schools don’t predict future success. Plenty of students get into one amazing school and no others. I’ve seen students from my school get into Princeton and still get rejected from most of their safety and target schools, even UCs.
tl;dr: A strong student who stands out due to very strong, albeit somewhat non-unique, ECs. Strong scores and community service, but no state/national-level awards or impacts. It’s pretty easy to picture him on campus, though, as the focus on Math & Community Service is there.
The question comes to whether the volunteering held enough impact, and whether his essays truly helped readers understand how he would contribute to campus while utilizing resources, which I think he will. He is a 2-/3+ candidate, which would put him in the running for admission. My hypotheses:
Waitlist Princeton: Academics need to be sustained and LOCI will greatly help.
Accept Yale: He clearly shows the camaraderie and community service, which combined with strong stats make this a strong case. I pray he displayed a collaborative mindset.
Reject Stanford: It’s hard to picture him on the entrepreneurial campus.
