Our homeschooled son is rising 11th grader. Son is extremely bright and motivated but weak on time management. He’s borderline on autism spectrum but academically gifted (his counselor good-naturedly compares him to Big Bang’s Sheldon). He’s taken college prep classes in HS so far, but nothing overly rigorous (except math). We were waiting to see him grow in motivation and time management, and he had major foot surgery mid-9th grade with long recovery. He took discrete math with AoPS in 10th grade, did extremely well and LOVED it. Then he scored 35 on ACT after 10th grade (35 English, 36 math). He’s now very motivated. Wants a math PhD and wants a “top STEM college”.
Plan is load up 11th grade and see how he does. AP calc BC, both AP Physics C’s, AP English Lang, “normal” US history, German 2, Bible class. For 12th, plan is AP Chem, AP comp sci, Calc 3/DE at local college, AP English Lit, and probably more math. None of those classes is beyond him; it’s the overall load that he needs to be tested on. He has no “hook”; he’s just a super-smart, ethical, great funny kid who has found math as a burning passion. He’s taking a summer class with AoPS by choice, and is constantly studying math online or books (stuff I’ve never heard of like group theory), and if you give him a pen and napkin at a restaurant, he’ll start working on a proof. He will try to qualify for AIME this year via AMC 12. He wants to attend one of the top math camps next summer.
No athletics and not too many EC’s; he spends much time with Boy Scouts, family and church; he can flesh that out on essays because they are really his life, not just application fillers, and he’s got the leadership and collaboration components colleges want to see. So, how competitive will he be if rounds out his transcript? ASSUMING he maintains his current 4.0 (unweighted, including online classes with all A+‘s, not just my grading him) and does well on APs and SAT subject tests (he always tests well), AND he can write great essays (he can; he got 11 on ACT writing FWIW), what are realistic goals for college apps? I think he’ll be a lock for some good STEM schools, like NC State or RPI, but he’s wondering about top 10 schools like GT, CMU, MIT, Caltech. Should I encourage him, or is he setting up for disappointment without a more impressive EC record? Some students’ records I see here are unbelievable - some literally so :-). I don’t want him to be anything but himself, and we aren’t looking to “make him an ideal candidate”. Thank you!
I would have him apply to a range of schools including schools on your reach list, some match schools and some safety schools. All of these should be schools that appear affordable and that he would be happy to attend.
Your son will need to understand in advance that his reach schools are just that – reaches. And that is not because of his ECs (which should be fine if he is heavily involved in the Boy Scouts (will he go to Eagle Scout?) and church activities) but because these very top tier schools have very low acceptance rates and simply don’t have room to accept all of the qualified candidates who apply. I get the sense that if he doesn’t try at least a few of these top schools he will always wonder “what if” so assuming he has a good academic year in 11th grade, I’d let him send in some applications to these schools and see what happens.
Good luck to you and your S going through the process. Nobody can predict results of the hyper- competitive schools but it sounds like he should have many good choices when all is said and done.
Thanks, happy1. I guess we’re trying to determine where to draw the line between match and reach, when the ACT and GPA are at or above the average for even the top places, but knowing that the numbers for rejected applicants at those places are equally impressive. Sounds like he will need to research a lot of the top STEM schools and we’ll visit as many as possible next summer. Cast a wide net and see if he lands one. He’s done a little research into which schools have the most of what I call “lovable nerds”. Right now, he’s intrigued by CMU and UChicago. :-). Thanks again!
It’s great to see you are his strong advocate. Seek out schools that will have the resources for him to thrive. Dream school will be one on a very long path that will keep the doors open to the next leg in the journey.
Is he better off at a small school? At a school outside of a city? Near home? Support for kids with autism? Strong placement into grad school? Etc
He will be transferring from a home school environment into college. Finding a school he feels at home is valuable.
Where he finishes will be more important than where he starts…
Thanks, ClarinetDad16. You are right, and I think I will just need to plan for the time and expense of many campus visits and re-visits next year. He’s not intimidated by a large school (we visited NC State). I see advantages to small school for him, but the benefits of a large school may win out - resources, research opportunities, breadth of extracurriculars, maybe more Christians /ministries for fellowship, etc. He will probably spend almost all his time on campus, so city probably doesn’t matter much. Mom wants him close to home, he doesn’t care either way. ASD support is basically required by federal law as long as kids get admitted and enrolled, but the reality of what actually happens does differ. That’s when schools that seem to attract more than their share of Asperger’s and similar kids look attractive; CMU and Caltech have been recommended. He’s beginning to research the grad school placement stats. Again, Caltech a top choice. Small LACs with good grad school placement don’t appeal to him much, though I encouraged him to add Harvey Mudd to his list.