<p>Dear all,</p>
<p>First, thank-you for the great information! This is so helpful as I, like crazymomster, try to help my son find colleges that “fit the bill”, so to speak. </p>
<p>Crazymomster, I can definitely see why Caltech would be a better fit for your son based on what you shared. Personally, I think your son would be a shoe-in there. I think Caltech is a school that bucks the tide and gives no thought to affirmative action. They go after the best students and don’t consider race or ethnicity, at least that’s my understanding. I admire them and I’m sure your son would get an amazing education there!</p>
<p>My son said he doesn’t want a tech school because he’s interested in so many things besides math and physics. He loves writing, he’s looking forward to taking several college history courses next year and he’s even semi-joked about majoring in philosophy. So, a LAC is a better fit for him as he may, indeed, end up double majoring in a tech and non tech area. He really doesn’t know…</p>
<p>His PSAT was 225; that’s high enough to go NMSF but I’m unclear on what it takes to actually get merit money. I know there are plenty of high achieving students in Ca. that have scores much higher than my son. He did apply for a corporate scholarship through my husband’s company that’s valued at 6K and we can dream that his research this summer will get entered into a science competition and win something! LOL</p>
<p>What is the University of Maryland? Is that College Park or Baltimor County? My son’s been to Baltimore. He went to an awards ceremony at Johns Hopkins Univ. in 8th grade and didn’t like Baltimore (well, he liked the baseball stadium). It seemed too big, cold, and scary at the time but he’s older now. I do know that one of the Maryland schools has a great chess team and at one time, they gave full ride scholarships to students with chess ratings of 2000+ (my son has that) and SAT scores of 1400+ (obviously has that). Not sure if they still do that or which school that is but I did see that UMCP is pretty selective and the average math SAT scores are pretty high. Maybe worth a second look?!</p>
<p>Ok, so the things about Harvey Mudd that are great: Yes, it’s true my son has taken a lot of college math and physics and that his current physics course uses the same textbook as a junior level course at Princeton. However, we were thinking that there’s enough depth and width in the courses that there would still be other courses he could take. Given that my son is probably going to major in math and not physics, he might only take another couple of physics courses. He could still take quantum and nuclear physics. (He’ll take optics at the state uni. in the fall but that’s all) There seem to be lots of math classes he hasn’t had-number theory, discrete math, real analysis II, partial differential equations, probability-and I would think their offering is wide enough. Also, being able to take courses at the other colleges in the humanities is appealing. Mudd also apparently has a few Christian professors which is unusual and appealing to my son. Lastly, it’s only 2 hours away so my son could drive home more often. That has appeal financially and personally since our son is close to us and his siblings. </p>
<p>OTOH, he was very pleased visiting two east coast schools and thinks he would enjoy the lifestyle, climate, and culture of these types of schools. </p>
<p>The negative to a Maryland would be the size. He’s on the UCSD campus often and feels it’s too big. I think he would feel lost. At this point, he thinks he would prefer a small to medium campus. Maybe being in an honors program would help make it feel smaller. He definitely wants to be on a campus with other students who love to learn. At SDSU, he gets quite the opposite feeling. The kids in physics are fine but the rest of the campus doesn’t feel good to him.</p>
<p>Texas A&M and UT Austin both have some great qualities but again, because they are so large, I’m not sure my son is interested. Is there ever a way to get a “small campus” feel from such a large campus? I’ll look into the scholarship mentioned at UT Austin, though. Thank-you! Several years ago, we were really looking at various chess scholarships but my son hasn’t been playing enough and progressing enough to get the top scholarships. His close friend, same age and they do many events together, is 200 points higher than my son and a chess master now. He would have a much better shot at those scholarships. My son would need to combine academic and chess scholarships. I don’t know if Texas A&M has any but there are a number of Texas schools that have them.</p>
<p>The UCs are really financially out of reach unless there are some great merit scholarships. UCSD is doable because he’d be a commuter. Really, he could just transfer there if that’s what it comes down to. We know a number of people who’ve done that. Because we’re not poor but not rich, the other UCs would probably leave us with more than we can afford. Our EFC is around 10-11K but we think we can pay about 5K. Princeton seems to come in very close to this using their calculator. It’s a crapshoot but my son will definitely apply to three of the top schools and maybe one more.</p>
<p>I haven’t heard of California having a relationship with schools in other states. I grew up in Tucson and I’m pretty sure U of A would not be a good fit for my son unless he absolutely knew he wanted to do optics.</p>