Help shortlist Colleges?

College Search & Lists
1

<p>My son is a senior in the bay area and we are in the process of shortlisting colleges where he should apply.</p>

<p>Career - He wants to do computer engineering and then get into business management/finance/investments?</p>

<p>Dream College - Stanford</p>

<p>More likely College - UC Berkeley</p>

<p>We are looking for help in two areas.</p>

<ol>
<li>We are looking to help him shortlist few more colleges between Stanford and Berkeley that he can apply to. Here are some of the criteria based on priority.</li>
</ol>

<p>a. School philosophy - He is looking for college that appreciates social enterpreneur backgrounds and is targeted more around upliftment in the community. He founded pretty successful non-profit and as per Strenghts 2.0 his strengths are people oriented harmony, individualization, context, developer and arranger. With his strengths I see to be successful in business, consulting and other people facing roles.
b. School brand and recognition in the marketplace
c. Chances of acceptance. We realize that applying into early admissions has higher acceptance rate and therefore should he apply to colleges that allow early application into multiple colleges (e.g. Stanford and Harvard do not allow early applications to other colleges).
d. Ranking of the engineering programs by usnews since they typically account for student/teacher ratio, perception of the students, etc.
e. Availability of indian vegetarian food - He was it UC San Diego last year for 6 weeks and had hard time with food.</p>

<ol>
<li>What are the pros and cons of applying to Stanford as Early Decisions versus apply to other Ivys as non-binding Early Decision and apply to Stanford as regular admission.</li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks,</p>

<p>-NJ</p>

2

<p>If your son’s dream college is Stanford and he has the stats to be potentially admitted, apply early action. It’ll give him the best chance of admission as well as relieve him of deciding between other colleges later on (this is…if he is admitted).
a. Not sure about Stanford in this regard
b. Stanford has, obviously, great name recognition and marketability
c. The best chance at Stanford for early admissions
d. Stanford has a good engineering program
e. Stanford is so diverse and has so many minority students; I am sure that vegetarian options are redly available (as they are at most top-tiered schools)</p>

<p>But MAKE SURE THAT YOU APPLY TO SAFETY SCHOOLS. This is SO important…and make sure that your son is willing to go to them as well.</p>

3

<p>If you haven’t already had The Big Money Talk with your son, please do so now. He needs to know what your family’s financial limits are, and whether you have any specific requirements (minimum GPA, finishing in four years, University X but not University Y, summer/school year job, etc.) that he needs to meet in order to continue to receive your financial support. Run the Net Price Calculators at the websites of the various colleges and universities that your son is interested in so that you know whether or not they can fall into your price range. If they don’t (or you don’t know what to make of the numbers) pay a visit to the Financial Aid Forum for ideas on dealing with the money issue.</p>