<p>apr…I don’t know your son’s qualifications but I will assume they are very high given the schools you are discussing. So, let’s say he has top stats. Your son REALLY needs to know that even if he has top stats, that the fact is at the most selective schools in the land, they are STILL a reach…not because his stats make them a reach…they don’t (assuming he is in the right ballpark for the top schools) but their very low admit rates make them a reach for anybody. </p>
<p>I understand he has high expectations and wants a very selective school, but he also must be realistic and build a BALANCED list of odds…reach, match, safety. This is what I do for my job actually. But that aside, my own child was a top candidate for college admissions four years ago and while I am her mom and of course “unbiased” (LOL), suffice it to say she had the “goods” for any school in the country…BUT…she knew the difficult odds and she explored reach, match, and safeties and tried to find schools that met her criteria at different degrees of selectivity. She didn’t have to go that low in terms of selectivity but she certainly could not have a list of all very low odd schools. Her safeties were reaches for some kids and still very good and challenging schools. But she certainly was willing and open to find schools of a varying range of selectivity and to find ones she truly liked enough to attend. She was not caught up in prestige. She did want a very challenging school as she thrives in such an atmosphere. But she also was realistic and knew that when a school accepts 15% of applicants, for example, it must turn away some who are just as qualified as that 15%. Top schools still turn away students with top SAT scores, 4.0 GPAs and valedictorians, for example. Your son needs to really really understand this. My D definitely did (and does again now with her graduate school admissions process). Your son really needs matches and safeties. By the way, I went to Tufts and loved it. My D loved it very much as well. </p>
<p>I don’t wish to share my D’s stats here but they were excellent as were her achievements outside the classroom. If you take my word on that, I will share her outcome (she only wanted a BA, not a BArch…so she cut out Cornell and CMU which she had on a very early list before deciding against a BArch…she chose a BA and MArch path and is now an applicant to MArch programs) and I hope her outcome gives you some idea that you can’t count on getting into schools with very low admit rates, no matter how stellar your profile is. That is the reality of the situation. I also will share this to show you how she had a balanced list of reaches, matches, safeties in relation to herself, but all were good schools that she could have attended. I suggest your son look real hard for a few schools a notch down to balance out his list of reaches (reaches due to the low admit rates). </p>
<p>She applied to and had these results in 2004:
Yale EA: deferred, then denied
Princeton: waitlisted
University of Pennsylvania: accepted
Brown: accepted…now a senior
Tufts: accepted
Smith: accepted
Conn College: accepted
Lehigh: accepted</p>
<p>(my D only wanted the East Coast…but I think your son could look at WashU or UMich or Rice)</p>
<p>If you visit Brown this spring, I would be happy to put you in touch with my D as she is very willing to help prospective students. She has been a tour guide at Brown. She is an advisor to freshmen at Brown and she is also a departmental group leader for the Architectural Studies major at Brown, as well as has been a TA in arch at Brown, and taken courses at RISD. She would be a good person to meet up with on a visit.</p>