From Deny to Defer status

4boyzsmom
Thu, 14 Dec 2017 12:47:56 +0000

@psycholing and @mathmom - sounds like you’re familiar with CMU so if you don’t mind, I have a few more questions. My son is working hard to apply to other schools now (so please know we are not ignoring the advice to move on). He got into Penn State and waiting to hear from Schreyer Honors College. Applying to UPenn, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, University of Chicago, Tufts, Northwestern and Michigan Ann Arbor. For my husband and I it’s the first time we are experiencing the process of college application for undergrads. We got our undergraduate degrees in a different country and for us applying to grad school as international students 20 years ago was a very different process (we both studied here in grad school).
Here are my questions:

1. His 2nd and 3rd choice are Stats at Dietrich (specifically StatsMath major) and SCS. Both requires a lot of math, which he likes and wants. How do you write an essay that fits both? will the admission committee not look for specific names of professors in each department and/or research he’s interested in for StatMath or for SCS?2. Would you recommend he considers other schools that are strong in Math and on the east coast (he prefers to stay somewhat close to us)? he will not apply to Princeton, MIT, Harvard. He has great test scores, perfect GPA and all AP’s are 5 but he stands no chance there.

Thanks for your help!