Son is in class of 2018 and is in the process of finalizing college list. His stats are very good (1560 SAT, 35 ACT, 4.0 Unweighted, 12 AP classes once graduate all 5’s so far, 800’s on Chem and Math II and Math I Subject Tests, #1 in class) and has good extracurriculars (3 sport varsity letterman, recruited in football and soccer; section lead in orchestra cello; leadership positions on teams and in school; research assistant to astronomy professor at Rice and co-authored scholarly article with him submitted for publication)…
He is primarily interested in math and theoretical physics. We are struggling with college list since most of the schools are reaches for everyone. Caltech has offered athletic support for application; loves Harvard and Princeton math departments; loves MIT; Stanford; Yale and Chicago will be on the list for physics…we are in Texas so UT Austin probably on list and Rice…
Not real excited about “safety” schools of Texas and Rice. Thoughts on building a college list for a kid like this who on paper should have a good shot at top schools but such reach schools make list difficult without reaching down to schools not excited about.
Firstly, Rice is a top 20 university and can’t be considered a safety. We also need some information about fit in order to give safety options.
Is he being recruited at schools he’d like to attend? Which sport does he want to play - both are fall sports. Guessing he’s a kicker for football. Is this something he wants to do in college? That will definitely make a difference in your search. And as a rising senior, conversations with coaches should have happened/be advanced. Sounds like he’s looking for midsized, city schools. He may want to check out Tufts, Columbia, CMU, northeastern,… He’d have to see if he likes their programs.
It can’t be considered a safety, but if he wants to play football, definitely look at Carnegie Mellon. My son’s friend will be going/playing there in the fall - never would’ve gotten in without football, his stats aren’t as high as your sons. They have a hard time finding players because they won’t bend the admissions standards too much just to fill the team. Another friend’s son graduated there after playing football and I’ve heard nothing but great things about the school and the football program.
I wouldn’t pick a school based on specific departments or programs, especially since the rankings of these departments are tied to research output and therefore should only be relevant to grad students, not to undergrads. I highly doubt that the very best professors will give time and attention to undergrads, and we know that the best professors for research aren’t necessarily the best teachers. Moreover, there is a lot more to the college experience than academics. But if your son really wants to go to schools with top math and physics departments then Columbia, Penn, Duke, Northwestern, and Berkeley should all be on his list. Other than NW and Berkeley I wouldn’t consider any of these safeties but I’d also have a really hard time seeing him get rejected by all of them with his stats.
How about decent public schools like UVA and UNC? Try to get his college counselor to nominate him for merit-based full scholarships (Jefferson and Morehead-Cain). Even if he can’t get the scholarships he’d still have a great chance to get in and they’re considered to be pretty good schools. I would also strongly consider applying to Wash U since it offers scholarship opportunities and is decent at math and physics; he should be able to get into Wash U easily too. He will also have a chance to play at Wash U since it’s D3. The truth about prestige is that outside of HYPSM (even P and M are debatable, and I say this as someone who went to P for undergrad and M for grad school) there is pretty much no difference in prestige to the general public. And the supposedly “highly educated” know that people choose colleges for various reasons, so they don’t care either. So your son may as well go to a school that offers a huge scholarship. If I had a younger brother this is exactly what I’d tell him.
Just apply to a bunch of the big flagship state schools: UMich, GT, UNC, UVA (like the above person mentioned). Getting in should be relatively easy, and you have a good shot at getting major scholarship. Also the professors there will actually help the undergraduates. Unless your son has qualified for USAMO at the very least, its very unlikely that professors at the schools he is currently looking at would take them in for high level research, especially for a theoretical physics major (this is what I’ve heard).
Also, those colleges on your list are still reaches, despite the stats. While the sports/gpa/sat are great, winning some kind of national award is the only way you could say that an Ivy league school is a target. Surprisingly enough, publications are becoming less important to colleges, as it is very easy to submit a bad paper to a low quality journal. I’m not trying to degrade those amazing stats, I’m just correcting that one sentence “We are struggling with college list since most of the schools are reaches for everyone.” That kind of mindset can really make you overlook quality colleges like Rice (as someone else mentioned)
If the student doesn’t like Rice then don’t apply. It is NOT a safety school lol. If you’re in Texas go visit the main UT campuses and see how your kid feels. Keep in mind, if your kid has stellar academic performance they can always join the honor program and graduate with honors! When you go to a school like an Ivy, it’s hard to stand out because they picked the best and brightest in the USA from every school. When you go to a bigger school, being in an honors program is a great way to stand out.