<p>sbjdorlo - If you’re really interested in Pomona I would suggest applying to Pitzer instead. They’re both part of the College Consortium and taking classes at any of the five schools is easy to do. My daughter was accepted into both Pitzer and Knox as well as 5 or 6 others and it came down to Pitzer and Knox.</p>
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<p>By my math, 590.</p>
<p>To be clear, this isn’t my daughter; this is a friend’s daughter. (I have three sons)</p>
<p>Math was 570. CR was 800 and W was 790. (I probably got that mixed up before) Two SAT tests in US History and Lit were 760 each.</p>
<p>Ok, so maybe no explanation on the UC app. I guess it’s pretty evident where her weakness is.</p>
<p>I did see that both Pitzer and Scripps offer linguistics; I suggested those schools.</p>
<p>amtc, remind me of which school your d chose and how she likes it.</p>
<p>The family is Seventh Day Adventist, but I don’t think that is necessarily affecting the school choice.</p>
<p>A gal who is that bright in humanities shouldn’t arbitrarily limit her school choices to those where she matches CR and M scores. </p>
<p>But, you don’t submit a pro forma app, something dry and inconsequential. You carefully try to learn what that school values, how the majors match the interests and strengths, what other aspects of match (ie, non-academics) make a sweet pairing. No lukewarm essays about granddad’s war exploits; show your strengths through the topic chosen and execution.</p>
<p>Your young friend is not a math-sci kid. Neither is D1, who is now a sr at a “highly competitive.”</p>
<p>Just to clarify - while I agree that, at many competitive schools, one low score does not equal automatic rejection, Pomona is very clear on its CDS and elsewhere about its strong reliance on GPA and test scores. When 2 of the 4 scores are below the 25% mark, there is a reasonable assumption that the student will not be admitted. Other schools seem to take a more holistic approach.</p>
<p>My D is applying to Pomona with a 2340 and a 3.94 UW GPA, and we are considering it a serious reach. Based on several visits and multiple perspectives, her stats are not that impressive, and she really expects to get rejected. </p>
<p>Part of the reason she is not very upset about that is what someone else mentioned - many majors seem to have a strong quantitative focus, and a lot of the humanities courses are more interesting elsewhere in the consortium.</p>
<p>Some of the other schools are less competitive in terms of admissions, but provide the same advantages.</p>
<p>I don’t know finances, but that might be influencing the schools of choice. She’s not a NMF but possibly commended; I need to find out. Family of six with single, decent income (I don’t know what it is but can assume it’s between 80-100K), but probably doesn’t have a ton of resources. Oldest is in college on a full ride. </p>
<p>I assume essays will be outstanding from what I’ve seen so far.</p>
<p>If anyone wants to PM me with any other suggestions, including schools with merit, please feel free to do so.</p>
<p>sbjdorlo - My daughter just finished her first term (trimester) at Knox. She had some serious adjustment problems (although not quite as serious as she relayed to me) but everytime there was a “problem” the school was great about it, confirming that this was the correct place for her. She’s so happy there now that she’s decided to become an Ambassador for our area, informing others of their programs.</p>
<p>In the end she decided against Pitzer because she felt that she is too shy to take classes at different schools, having to sort of reintroduce herself each time and not having the kids in her class be those from her school and that is something all the schools rely on heavily. Really not the kind of nurturing, family environment she wanted. Your friends daughter might find that perfect as she can take most/all of her classes in any of the five schools. Honestly, I’m surprised more kids don’t “back door” themselves into the program!</p>
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<p>Exactly!</p>
<p>I really think that posters here are over-focusing on the student’s weakness and overlooking the fact that she is REALLY strong in other areas. What she needs to do is apply to schools that value what she brings to the table. I think that lots of schools will be looking at that CR 800 and not too concerned about a 570 and mediocre grades in math for a kid who is soldiering on through AP Calc AB.</p>
<p>A bunch of theater kids at our HS went to Brandeis several years ago, and I strongly doubt that any of them were anywhere near presenting a CR800 W790. They certainly weren’t NMFs.</p>
<p>That said, I <em>really</em> wish the parents would get this girl a really good math tutor.</p>
<p>Screams Smith or woman’s college to me, even with your caveat.</p>
<p>How big a school would she be willing to attend? U
Mass Amherst? Stony Brook? I have good friends at the linguistics department there.</p>
<p>It seems to me that searching out non- quantitative linguistics departments would be a first order of business and go from there.</p>
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<p>Perhaps.</p>
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<p>No evidence provided by the OP that such is “really” true. All we have is ONE strong CR score (which easily correlates to a strong W) score, and the OP’s comment that the girl has “strong” ECs. Since we have no idea what they are (music and performing arts in high school? in community theater? in statewide programs?), the ONLY thing that we have from which to opine is numbers: (unfortunately) like thousands of other high school girls, strong verbal and lit, weak math/science. Moreover, the girl is not targeting fine arts programs, she is looking at the top LAC on the west coast. Absent a hook (solo at Carnegie Hall?), top LACs like to see REALLY strong numbers in all areas.</p>
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<p>Brandeis is much less selective than Pomona.</p>
<p>If a student majors in linguistics virtually everywhere, s/he will be required to take a course like “quantitative methods in the social sciences” and, likely, a course in stats as well. Upper level classes will almost certainly require some serious quantitative work.</p>
<p>High school grades aren’t the issue, really. The question is whether she is capable and willing do the work, and will embrace it.</p>
<p>I don’t think Pomona is realistic unless this applicant is hooked. Only 5.79% of 2011-2012 class had a math SAT score in the 500s and my guess is they would be hooked applicants, not females from California. 90% of their accepted applicants were in the top tenth (although I’m sure there are a lot of schools that don’t rank) which leads me to believe there are few successful applicants with multiple Cs. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.pomona.edu/administration/institutional-research/common-data-set/11-12/C-Admissions.pdf[/url]”>http://www.pomona.edu/administration/institutional-research/common-data-set/11-12/C-Admissions.pdf</a></p>
<p>I think this student should use geography to leverage admissions-- Brandeis is still a reach with only 13% of accepted applicants scoring under a 600 on math–but geography will help her. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.brandeis.edu/opir/institutionalresearch/pdfs/CDS2011_2012.pdf[/url]”>http://www.brandeis.edu/opir/institutionalresearch/pdfs/CDS2011_2012.pdf</a></p>
<p>If someone does have a math LD but is otherwise very, very smart, would that automatically rule out quantitative upper division math?</p>
<p>I’m thinking of my middle son, a sophomore, who tests 98%ile in math reasoning but 14%ile in math calculations, while testing at the 99.9% in verbal language. I am applying for accommodations on the College Board tests. He gets math; he’s good at math; he’s slow at arithmetic. If he decided to do something in computers, I wouldn’t want his disability to disqualify him, but I wouldn’t necessarily encourage him to go into a field that requires quick math skills.</p>
<p>With this student, I know she’s super smart. I don’t know if there are underlying issues.</p>
<p>Well, there are lots of things to explore before Dec. 31st.</p>
<p>I really appreciate the input.</p>
<p>this student’s grades are very strong in humanities (lots of APs) No, we don’t know if that’s predominantly A’s and how competitive the hs is, etc.</p>
<p>But, what Consolation said: apply to schools that value what she brings to the table.</p>
<p>We did just that for D1. Trust me, I would have been delirious if she had reached 570 in M. And she was not high-high in CR. not above 700. We identified schools that very much valued her stong suits, could see in her CA and interview that she was a multi-level match, despite the math. (Not a full page of ECs, but some remarkable leadership among adults and a strong suit in her main hs activity.) There are no guarantees, but we found the research was key. She’s at a highly competitive.</p>
<p>For the gal, it does not necessarily rule out upper div math- it depends on how the school handles math or math analysis requirements for non-STEM. For DS, I’d suggest considering an early cs class, to see how well he builds knowledge upon knowledge. I can only speak to my own cs experience, but, sometimes the actual application of math opens up skills more than an ordinary math class can. You might post a thread in the cs-related forum, see what feedback.</p>
<p>Often, kids’ computational skills catch up to their reasoning skills IF they aren’t shamed, embarrassed, humiliated, or ignored in the process (which is precisely what often happens in school). It’s much harder, in my opinion, to signfiicantly improve the reasoning skills - it can be done (and is done all the time), but is more difficult.</p>
<p>Nothing they teach in high school these days is rocket science (except rocket science, and few high schools teach it these days). Places where quantitative reasoning is used in linguistics include: rates of linguistic change; comparison of linguistic elements; rates of language acquisition, and cross-cultural comparisons of same; statistical variation in dialects, generations, and geographical locations - the list is virtually endless.</p>
<p>I agree with others that Pomona is not in the cards for this student. Pitzer, I believe, has also become much more selective over the past several years. My nephew went to Knox and it worked very well for him. The others I don’t know. My son was accepted at Pomona 5 years ago, but he had an almost perfect GPA, almost perfect test scores, NMF, a boy from VT, full pay, etc. He said his interview at Pomona was the only one that felt intimidating.</p>
<p>I agree with everyone else that Pomona is unlikely for this kid. (Bethie, my S was accepted there also. His stats were apparently in the same ballpark as your S’s, although he was at the opposite end of the financial spectrum.)</p>
<p>I just think that she has a good chance at a lot of schools that are probably more selective than Knox. If you compare her stats to the Brandeis CDS, yes, her math score is below their 25% mark. But her CR is more than twice as many points <em>above</em> their 75% mark.</p>
<p>BlueBayou, according the OP the girl has sought out instruction in an additional language not offered by her HS and participated in summer linguistics programs. She also skipped an entire year of HS Spanish. It appears that she has demonstrated both talent and intellectual drive. Also according to the OP, she has taken a rigorous courseload, even in the academic area where she does not excel. In addition, she has 760 on two SATIIs and at least one high AP score. The OP cited a high weighted GPA and lots of strong music and performing arts ECs. </p>
<p>I agree that she is unlikely to get into Pomona, but Brandeis, which is less selective, is also on her list and it would appear to me that she would have a very reasonable chance there. Other people seemed to think she didn’t have a prayer anywhere but Knox.</p>
<p>Consolation–I think this student probably has great chances at many schools, but the only ones I know personally are Knox and Pomona on the list we were given.
i agree with others who say this seems like a random list. I think we’re trying to help her round it out.</p>
<p>sbjdorlo, your middle son sounds like my younger son. He had a wonderful letter from his pre-calc teacher which said, that while his grades (B+) were not the best in his class, he actually understood calculus better than most of the kids in his class. He was the last kid in 3rd grade to memorize his multiplication table and he regularly had to figure out problems from first principals because he’d forgotten the shortcuts his teachers had taught him. Thankfully that math teacher was impressed that even though he often ran out of time, he was able to logic his way into correct answers. That said, he ended up with a 690 not a 570 in math on the SAT, which is a little easier sell. I do think that a bright kid can sell themselves with a weakness - especially if others can address the idea that the weakness is not as weak as it might appear.</p>