Is he aiming too high?

Consolation
Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:24:18 +0000

Admissions counselors take into account the difficulty of the courses, the standards at the high school, the amount of time dedicated to extracurriculars. The high SATs and extracurriculars will outweigh the B grades.



Not at MIT and Ivies, they won’t. They EXPECT the most difficult courseload and a lot of time devoted to extracurriculars, plus high scores, high grades, and high class rank.

If I told you that a kid had a circa-95 UW average (school does not rank, but clearly top 10%), the most difficult possible courseload (8 APs including chem, bio, physics, calc bc and two languages; all honors wherever available; maximum number of academic courses every year PLUS independent study AP); 3-season athlete all 4 years (mostly varsity, sometimes qualified for states); instrumentalist in regional youth symphony, special by-audition workshops, district, and all-state orchestras; multiple state and national awards in two languages; CTY 4 summers; NHS; NMF; Presidential Scholar Semifinalist (2310 SAT); 5s on all AP exams; all SATIIs over 700; excellent essays and recs from teachers at least one of whom said “most intellectually outstanding student I ever had”–how do you think that student’s chances compare to the OP’s bright and talented son?