<p>We found that there was a good selection of schools that were “sleeper” math/science schools in that they were overall LAC schools with excellent math/science departments. My son’s SATs were Math 740, CR 700 (better than expected!) but 580 writing) and his GRADES (and clearly his interests) were very lopsided. (and he had some problematic issues that made applying to more competitive schools problematic.)</p>
<p>He wound up being accepted with really good scholarships at Beloit, Knox and several others. We considered U of R, but he wound up not applying. He wound up choosing RIT but not necessarily because it was a tech school (for the supports and several other reasons).</p>
<p>I would still start by focusing on schools he would be happy at, and then expanding from there… some easier to get into by scores, some harder, some larger (or smaller), some more general/liberal arts (or more tech).</p>
<p>With both my sons, we found that the final decision school was NOT in the bull’s eye we had first drawn, so having schools on the final list of applications that were not cookie cutter copies, but shared qualities that they liked, was very helpful.</p>