<p>Ask xiggi via PM. He seems to think it will be?</p>
<p>He’s a fantastic resource for you ch.</p>
<p>Can we fine tune our Qb app if we are selected?</p>
<p>CH78,
OK, so your grades other than trig didn’t drop too much. That’s good. Is math usually your toughest class?</p>
<p>Our GCs like students and parents to put comments, explanations, etc. in writing so that when they go to write the letters, they have something to look at and can use the specific language, if appropriate. Is your GC aware of the other issues at home? That will help to give a fuller picture, but you also have to weigh it against privacy, how much of your life to you want to spill to adcoms, etc.</p>
<p>I just reread this thread and looked at some of the Naviance data for BxS. Again, this thread is WAY too optimistic. You will probably get into Vanderbilt, but it is unlikely you will get merit money there. </p>
<p>With all due respect to parent posters, he has posted that the median gpa at BxS is 88. Now, obviously, that doesn’t mean that the median gpa in every subject was an 88. Usually, though, the median gpa in humanities is higher than the median gpa in math and science. Lets assume though, in the absence of data, that 88 is the median gpa in every subject. That would mean that the OP’s grades during that bad semester were in the bottom half of the class in 4 out of 6 subjects. and that his overall gpa at 85 was in the bottom 40%–if not lower. This is NOT a slight dip folks. This is a free fall. </p>
<p>And, while his grades went back up, they NEVER got back up to the level below the fall. Grade patterns do matter. Unless things have changed, Princeton doesn’t count 9th grade grades. The OP’s average without 9th grade is BELOW a 91. I seriously doubt that he’s in the top 20 % for those 3 years—remember, 88 is the median. </p>
<p>I don’t know about the Chinese guy who got into Princeton with a 93, but if I were the OP, I’d find out what his gpa was without 9th grade. My hunch? He’s someone with a weak 9th grade gpa. </p>
<p>Seriously, shoot for the stars…there’s no reason not to do that. But please a fall from a 94.5 to a 85 is NOT a slight dip. It just isn’t. He went from being in the top 10% of the class first semester sophomore year to being in the bottom 40% of the class. </p>
<p>And his ECs are really, really weak.There are over 100 clubs at BxS and he is not an officer in a single one. Bx has a fairly strong student government…and he is not even a homeroom representative and/or a student senator. </p>
<p>I honestly wish you well…and I do know that your strong scores will help you a lot. But lets not be ridiculous. GET SOME SAFETIES.</p>
<p>jonri…ch has had safeties on his list from post #1. He has stated that P is a ‘dream’. </p>
<p>His BS GC told him that Dartmouth was a match for him. She might have overstated that, but she may know more about him and BS and his class rank than you do?</p>
<p>You are repeatedly beating his record into the ground. It’s unseemly. </p>
<p>The kid has enough hardships. Well-meaning CC parents should offer positive suggestions–like Pitt. This student does not need anonymous beatdowns, in my opinion.</p>
<p>I want to repeat a comment from marite, which I was surprised didn’t seem to get much traction. She mentioned that your original list had schools that were very unlike each other, including as it did schools like U of Md and Williams. </p>
<p>What kind of schools do you want? A large university or a small Liberal Arts school? Have you thought about fit at all? Do you want quiet surburban, or city atmosphere? And the crux of the question: What attracts you to Princeton such that you call it your dream school?</p>
<p>I think it would be easier to come up with other matches and safeties if there were some particular type of school you were interested in. So far, you have only mentioned names, and the names were apples and oranges.</p>
<p>On a different note, you might want to be careful about the non-NY public schools. Some of them give a small number of great scholarships, but they aren’t generally known for lots of merit money if you don’t get one of those scholarships, and if you are OOS.</p>
<p>You are lucky in your choice of career. Medicine, unlike some fields such as engineering or architecture, is a field supported by a whole slew of different types of schools so you could look at a broad range of schools.</p>
<p>My advice- don’t make too much about the aunt’s illness. Unless there’s some mention of it made by someone else- anyone else- in your letters of rec, etc. I wouldn’t make it a part of your application package, essay or otherwise. We went through a sort of “Marvin’s Room” experience with my dad when my sons were in 9th and 10th grades and still it seemed like a sort of “excuse” when my kids went to apply to colleges.</p>
<p>You have a wonderful resume. Find a couple schools you <em>know</em> you will get into. The rest—apply and hope for the best. You’ve got a lot going for you.</p>
<p>Cheers,</p>
<p>Apparently, you do not accept either PMs or email–I guess that makes it easier to take pot shots at other posters.</p>
<p>I’m sorry if you think it’s unseemly to tell a kid that he is being unduly optimistic. I do live in NYC. I am familiar with BxS. </p>
<p>I have looked at the scattergrams.</p>
<p>He is getting very bad advice here.</p>
<p>I did suggest UPitt. Maybe you already know that…</p>
<pre><code>Again, this may seem insensitive, but… in a school like BxS, it would be VERY surprising if this kid doesn’t have at least 20-30 classmates who have endured more serious disadvantages than he has.
He is free to dream…I encourage him to do that… but he needs to have safeties he would be happy to attend…and I don’t think he does.
</code></pre>
<p>
</p>
<p>So, the advice the OP has gotten so far is not incomplete, not optimistic, not simplistic … it’s downright VERY BAD?</p>
<p>Is that assessment based on the fact that not every poster had to beat the issue of needing a list of safeties to its proverbial death. For the record, most everyone knows, or at least should know about the value of safeties and the value of building a list of potential schools from the bottom up. However, the beauty of safeties is that they can be addressed very early (through rolling admissions) or later in the winter. </p>
<p>Please do tell what you considered VERY BAD advice in this thread?</p>
<p>I noted your suggestion of Pitt, jonri. You haven’t seemed to note the safeties on his list. For some reason, it’s paining you that ch wants to shoot for a dream school–as a super reach. I know you are from New York. That’s what makes your opinion so valuable to a kid who needs mentors. I used to live in Manhattan myself.</p>
<p>Sorry if you were offended, but I disagree with you. He hasn’t gotten bad advice on CC, he’s gotten great advice–from marite, xiggi, HeliMom, you and others.</p>
<p>First read the BxS page. It clearly states that the naviance program will allow BxS kids to identify reaches, matches and safeties based on stats alone. So. based on his overall pga and scores, without looking at anything else, Dmouth is a match. I think it is virtually certain based on the OP’s posts that this is all the GC told him. (S)he did not analyze his ECs.</p>
<p>Now, according to the OP, the highest gpa in a BxS class is usually about a 97.5 and the median is an 88. His is about a 92. For 10th and 11th grade however it is a 90.9. He has the equivalent of a C- one semester in math. </p>
<p>In terms of ECs: 9th grade: pre-med society; 10th:pre-med, chess/go; 11: pre-med and Key Club; 12–pre-med, chess/go and American Cancer Society.No officerships. Some sort of project chair for Key Club–not clear if he has already done this or plans to do it in 12th grade. </p>
<p>I also surmise that he doesn’t belong to ARISTA, the BxS Honor Societ which requires that you keep a 90 average each semester and have 70 EC credit hours per semester. (Belonging to a club is worth 15.) My understanding is that most years about 15% of the BXS class is invited to join. </p>
<p>With this record, it is suggested that he investigate the Morehouse scholarship, a free-ride at UNC-CH and consider himself a serious candidate for a Chancelor’s scholarship at Vandy.Yeah, I think that is very bad advice.</p>
<p>I shall refrain from posting further in this thread.</p>
<p>Okay, Jonri!</p>
<p>I now realize that telling someone who did score a 35 on his ACT, attends one of the strongest public schools in the country, expresses an interest in the University of North Carolina, and last but not least, expresses a need for substantial financial aid is very bad advice.</p>
<p>For the record, nobody is guaranteed to find success in any application. However, the surest way of NOT landing anything is by NOT applying. Further, even if the OP is not the strongest candidate, he would learn a tremendous amount about the process by participating in the process.</p>
<p>And, fwiw, you may want to check the background of winners of the Morehead and Robertson scholarship" not every winner is Superman or Superwoman. As a past discussion on CC indicated, one can land a Robertson and a little spot on the USA Today without stellar accomplishments, and even with rather dubious claims in the EC department.</p>
<p>jonri…you may be reading too much into naviance without enough information. I doubt the weighted class average for BS is 88. It may be 88 overall, but not for kids taking the courseload that ch has taken. He’s been assigned to honors english, Chem , Physics and Maths courses. That tells me that BS considers him among the brightest. He has not divulged a otn of info on ECs–perhaps wisely. Too much info from such a public place would not be in his interest. He has said he is one of 35 Intel participants. One of 35.</p>
<p>Your message about Vandy was so harsh–you sort of tossed out Vandy along with the idea of a Chancellor’s scholarship. Yes, a Chancellor’s scholarship is reachy–but Vandy doesn’t get many BS apps comparatively. What’s more, they don’t get a good yield out of the BS apps they do take. That might tip ch farther than you imagine.</p>
<p>I still like Vandy for ch–for the money and the program.
For matches mentioned, I like Pitt, Rice, Case Western, BU with University Professors Program and unmentioned USC (another big money place with ties to medical school and a substantial asian population). I don’t know about the six year med programs carolyn mentioned but they should be on ch’s radar too–esp if he wants neurosurgery which is such a long haul.</p>
<p>I still think Dartmouth and Williams are iffy reaches–and if Princeton is a dream–well have at it.</p>
<p>I think it is quite hard to judge the OPs ECs because they are not presented in a way that demonstrates any passion he might have. </p>
<p>With his summer job at a hospital, volunteering at a hospital, S-Prep at Columbia medical school, dental internship, and research, it may be possible for him to make a case for having neglected in-school ECs to seek out and pursue his passions elsewhere, but without details of what these activities entail and how much time they have taken up, it is really hard to see it.</p>
<p>The OP really needs to organize his list in such a way that it highlights the positives and plays down the negatives, rather than the converse as is the case right now.</p>
<p>I’d also say: start gathering everything you have on you financial situation as soon as possible. If you are in an unusual situation, it can be a long and infuriating process to work out even what you will need to back-up your case, let alone actually get that information. In my experience, schools are not willing to take your word for very much at all, they want written evidence, corroboration from your school and whoever else is relevant, data from tax returns, bank accounts, the list can be huge and trying to get everything before a deadline incredibly stressful (even though in my case it turned out there was actually only one thing they really wanted, but no-one was able to tell us what it was at the time. aarggh!) Even Questbridge might want something from you that relates to your father’s support, I really can’t remember what they ask to determin whether you are low income or not, and their deadline is not far away at all.</p>
<p>With regard to your list (I’m sorry, I’m going quite far back on the thread), I think it seems quite balanced now in terms of reaches/matches/safeties. My only concern would be that you are relying on quite a few maybe scholarships without which you will not be able to attend even if you get in. However good you think you are, there may be an unexpectedly huge number of also very good candidates and you could lose out, so be sure that you really, really can see yourself attending your safeties, not because they are OK schools, but because there is something you really like about them.</p>
<p>The Morehouse at UNC-CH is incredibly prestigious.</p>
<p>Two years ago a girl from my school won it. She had a perfect SAT score, was the star of numerous school productions, worked on Howard Dean’s campaign, etc. And then she spent her gap year saving AIDs orphans in Africa.</p>
<p>The OP is in no way up to snuff for that scholarship. But VERY few people are, let’s be honest.</p>
<p>It’s the “Morehead” scholarship at UNC, and the people who get it tend to be people who get HPYS acceptances, and whom UNC is trying to recruit. The OP doesn’t to me appear to be in that category. </p>
<p>I also think that many people are being overly optimistic with the OP. For instance, the people I’ve seen here getting top merit aid at Vandy were getting admission offers from places like HPYS.</p>
<p>I think that the OP has decent chances of admission at Vandy, but isn’t likely to get major merit aid from them. </p>
<p>I think that due to his ACT score and being in one of the country’s top high schools, the OP definitely can get into some top 25 tier one colleges. I think, however, that places like Dartmout definitely are reaches as his ECs seem weak for that caliber of school. The way he has presented himself on this thread hasn’t demonstrated intellectual passion.</p>
<p>Good catch, northstarmom.
And to be even more accurate, it’s now the Morehead-Cain scholarship, with an infusion of Cain money that increased the number of scholarships awarded this year.</p>
<p>(I’ve done that Morehead-Morehouse mistake myself – Morehouse has an old strong reputation in the Atlanta area, and it’s hard to erase that memory chip associated with prestigious education).</p>
<p>I could still get major aid based on financial need right?</p>
<p>Math is usually my easiest subject. My math grades are as follows:99,99,92,75,93,95</p>
<p>Yes, your family’s income should mean that you get major aid from schools like Vandy although it is important to check out the implicaitons of your dad’s contribution. I also think that you could get some merit aid from some of the schools listed.</p>
<p>With that ACT score…did you make NMSF?</p>
<p>OP,
It will be very important that you communicate early with the financial aid departments of the colleges that you decide to apply to, and let them know about the situation with your dad. More than likely, they will require some proof of your dad’s lack of financial involement, and that proof may be time consuming for your mom to provide. The earlier you start working on that, the better.</p>