How do you know if your child would be competitive at top schools?

Ynotgo
Sun, 23 Apr 2017 20:49:35 +0000

My son never felt he was particularly good at foreign languages, but stuck it out through 4 years of Spanish starting in 8th grade. Several A- grades that were quite close to a B+.

(Note: For someone starting languages from scratch, I’d say French is actually the most useful language for scientists, because France can be finicky about using it’s own language at conferences, whereas most other European countries use English as a 2nd language at conferences and Asian countries provide English translation.)

He has what looks like 2.5 years of social studies on his transcript, though colleges in California count the semester-long community college class in World History as 2 high school semesters. So 2.5 to 3.0 years with APUSH, AP Gov’t, and AP Macroecon plus the college class. So, that’s a little light on social studies, but it is fairly normal for California public schools to offer only 3 years of social studies.

But, he is “pointy” with math through multivariable and linear algebra (college, not at the high school), 3 college CS theory classes, and all 3 of AP Physics, Chem, and Bio along with college Geology. Also physics research, high school engineering classes, selective summer STEM program, and some national CS-related awards.

Anyway, he ended up with admits at “pointy” colleges (Caltech and CMU SCS). So, pointy can work, but note that he got waitlisted at a couple Ivies, UChicago, and Stanford, and lack of humanities achievements might have been part of that (but who knows).