GRE and other questions

onemoreyear
Wed, 29 Dec 2010 14:16:43 +0000

Thanks for the replies. I agree Berkeley is quite a stretch. I’m not too concerned about the GRE. He is a pretty good test taker–scored 34 on the verbal part of ACT and 11 out of 12 on the on the written part of the SAT. Weirdly enough it was his math scores that brought him down (27 on ACT). But he has made A’s in all of his math and engieering classes and found that he really loves math. He didn’t take much advanced math in high school, which is probably why he did not score so high in that area.

As far as doing his own research–it is not lack of motivation because he is highly motivated–I guess I need to ask him. Maybe lack of opportunity or time? I don’t know–he does hold down two jobs which could be part of it (and a girlfriend who takes up a lot of his time). But you are right–this is a direction he should be taking.

And he is considering applying to a university on Germany. He spent his senior year in high school foreign exchange there and feels very comfortable in Germany. He will be doing research with a German doctoral student on water sanitation (yes…I know, not his own research) next summer at a university over there, but it is a fully paid internship and maybe it will be the imputus to steer him toward his own research.

Thanks again for the input.