Senior at a competitive parochial high school
GPA: 3.0 (struggled freshman year with new mandated and unregulated iPad usage, diagnosed with ADD sophomore year, unmedicated) mix of advanced and honors classes
ACT: 32
ECs: Cross country freshman year, debate freshman year, hockey freshman & sophomore, track junior; ACE mentor program junior & senior year; part time job since sophomore year; volunteers with adults with disabilities; two years of summer pre-college engineering programs; honors junior & first quarter senior
Major: Civil Engineering
Great essay - well written, gives a fantastic sense of who he is, focuses on his passion for engineering
Reccs: strong (Physics and English teachers)
Schools:
Catholic U (EA)
Central CT State Uni
Clarkson
UHartford (EA)
UMaine (EA)
Manhattan College
UMass Dartmouth (EA)
UNH (EA)
Quinnipiac
Stevens Institute
Wentworth Institute
@deneuralyzer - Stevens would be more than a slight reach. The high school GPA of the most recent accepted freshman class was 3.85. The OP’s ACT of 32 is competitive, but I would recommend that he/she try as best as possible to improve the GPA.
My S18 was in a learning difference class for dyslexia. It was disclosed. However, if he had not been in a class, his ld would not have been disclosed. I think your GC can clarify for you what, if any, information is disclosed by the high school to colleges in support of the applications.
@Hippobirdy S doesn’t have any accommodations because it’s a private school, so they are not required to provide any. I did speak to all of his teachers and asked that he be put in the front of the class. Also, a few teachers did require him to use paper notes vs the iPad. Other than that, nothing. So I’m pretty sure the teacher reccs wouldn’t mention this. I can have him ask the GC if she mentioned it.
My S22 sounds similar. He is going to go through the ADHD testing soon. He does very well with soccer and percussion but otherwise struggles with focus. Good luck and please share outcomes! Looks like a solid list.
I think you will have some tough choices to make when all the results are received. Most look like a good match for you and they all offer great opportunities.
UNH Maine Q and Catholic are favorites of mine for various reasons. I like a traditional campus atmosphere.
@privatebanker The schools you listed are my favs as well, except Maine. I also really like Manhattan and Clarkson for him. His favs are UNH and Q. We didn’t look at URI only because he already had a couple of OOS publics that he really liked, and we were focused on smaller schools.
Makes sense. Really like Clarkson for engineering as well. I worked with some fine individuals from u Maine in the past. They were so down to earth and practical, Maine style, that it clouds my opinion.
Don’t know much about manhattan other than it’s not in Manhattan, I think. Lol.
@privatebanker Glad to hear the first hand knowledge of UMaine grads. We both really liked the campus and engineering facilities (he also liked the access to Acadia and good skiing mountains!) but after visiting have heard less than favorable things about the student body (worse-than-usual party rep, unmotivated students, etc.) which brought it down a few pegs. But it’s one of the most affordable options. And he is a very down to earth, easy going, no drama kind of kid, so it sounds like it’d be a good fit.
One drawback to Clarkson, Stevens, and Wentworth is lack of other major options if he decides engineering isn’t for him. I keep telling him he needs to have a backup plan - engineering is hard - but with the exception of maybe Construction Management (which few of his schools offers) he has no plan B; there’s nothing else he’s interested in. That will come into play once he has acceptances in hand.
Stevens has other majors besides engineering. It has the gamut of science majors - physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, et al, and highly regarded humanities, art and music technology programs. It also has reputed technological business, technology management, financial engineering, economics,and quantitative finance programs. Naturally, it does not have the smorgasbord of majors that a large state institution would have. How far afield would you expect your student to go if he/she decides against engineering?
@Parent0347 Thank you for the additional information. I didn’t realize the breadth of Stevens’ offerings. I didn’t do much research on it because I think realistically his chance of admission are slim. I have no idea what he will do if he ultimately decides not to do engineering. I have told him he needs to think about other options, but he says that’s all he is interested in, except for maybe construction management.
@sgopal2 Yes, my son spent a week there this summer for a pre-college program, and he fell in love. I don’t think he has much of a chance of getting in, and if he does, I’m not sure I’d want him attending, being at the bottom of the accepted stats range. But we’ll see what happens.
@taverngirl , realize this thread is a little old but I’m thinking you will see it and a more sensible place to “connect broadly” than in Clarkson thread.
We are nearby in Farmington. Son also has ADHD and has some spectrum “qualities” but a great kid (of course). He gets some accommodations - mainly extra time on exams and tests. He may look to get these in college - you might consider if formal diagnosis would help your son in college but expensive to get I think. These were not revealed in applications except to one school (Marist).
He is focused on Computer Science and overlaps with your son’ on Stevens, Quinnipiac and Clarkson. He has strong grades and tests (95/100 wtd, 1500 and 34) but needs constant supervision to get his work done in some subjects so we are looking at a mix of schools and considering gap year if he gets into stretch schools and he really wants to do it. (He really struggled with Essays and GC may have written a mediocre letter as HS has been a little difficult at times.)
He is not eligible for FA so it’s really “interesting” to think about selecte schools vs merit aid. A recent revelation from a nephew is that transferring from a stretch school means you (generally) won’t get merit at the new “less selective” school. Making me think a lot harder about starting at a school where he will thrive and get merit - save money for grad school or a “better start” financially upon graduation - rather than risking stretch school if he were to get in.
At the moment we are likely to visit Clarkson - maybe a loop including Champlain. Working on timing - perhaps February.
Here’s his (admittedly long) list:
visited
Crazy Reach:
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell* (attended 6 week summer program that was a challenge)
Reach:
Northeastern* (deferred EA)
Lehigh*
Target:
Rensselaer*
WPI* (messed up and discovered applied RD even though on EA deadline)
Stevens*
Marist* applied to support program, hoping to hear soon
Safety and safety-ish
UConn*
RIT*
Quinnipiac* admitted with strong merit
Clarkson, admitted with strong merit
Champlain, admitted strong but not as strong merit