@Essenay, I am having some trouble coming up with a mental picture of this student and what he wants in a college, sorry!
So he is interested in something related to CS/AI/math, his ECs seem to be mostly centered around coding (and swim), he does not enjoy reading fiction, and it seems like MIT is the top choice (as this is the one that you mentioned being willing to pay $90k for). But then you say he is not nerdy, so I think it would help to know what you mean by that, and what it means to him in terms of school choice. Many schools that are strong in his fields of interest are going to be full of nerds, in the sense that they are packed with people who are “devoted to intellectual, academic, or technical pursuits or interests” (the dictionary definition of nerd). Does he not see himself that way and maybe does not want to be around a lot of kids who are intensely devoted to their nerdy interests? (In that case, MIT wouldn’t seem to be a fit.) Or do you just mean he is handsome and social, for example, so he doesn’t fit the popular stereotype of a nerd?
Then, the list of schools you listed (that are recruiting him) includes a lot of LACs, which seems strange for a kid who does not want to take a fiction reading class. What sort of curriculum is he looking for? Does he want to take a broad range of humanities courses along with his STEM courses, or not?
Only cross out schools that he isn’t interested in academically & for swimming. 1470 is a nice SAT score (and nicer with the 800 math score). & I’m rooting for the higher reading/writing score or comparable ACT. A 730 verbal & 740 math would be more balanced but not necessarily better. Just the interpretation of it is different in terms of abilities. I assume that the SAT still assumes a range of ± 30 or 40 points if he were take the test 100 times. But assuming he doesn’t achieve this, he shouldn’t just forget about MIT if he is indeed interested. Bottom 10% verbal & math students get admitted each year. Students needing to take remedial expository writing get admitted. Your son could still get admitted. He just needs to be himself & demonstrate this on the application. Don’t just “forget it” because of a 670 verbal score (and especially coupled with an 800 math score). Only about 20,000 test-takers score an 800 in math each year. Don’t believe anyone who tells you that your son won’t get admitted to MIT with an 800. Not true! Only forget it if not interested.
Actually a 50 point improvement on verbal, bringing him up to 720 + 800 math = 1520, will bring him to the 25th %ile. For this year’s freshman class, 25th %ile was 1510. Last year was 1520.
This thread discussed MIT’s decision to go back to test required, with comments from someone who works in admissions, and there were various posts in the thread about the non-trivial importance of the verbal section of the SAT and the requirements for humanities and social sciences coursework at MIT.
I’m generally not a big proponent of retesting to try and get a higher score when one’s scores are already excellent. But, for MIT, your son’s verbal score may be sufficient in and of itself to preclude him from an offer of admission (though more than 95% of applicants are rejected, so odds are that your son would still be rejected from MIT even if his verbal score does surpass the 700 mark). Thus, if MIT is a school that your son is really interested in attending, then it could behoove him to study and retake the SAT to improve the verbal score.
At least with regard to AI and ML, it is not unheard of for someone to get a bachelor’s degree in either computer science or mathematics, or a combination of these, and then get a master’s degree in AI or ML. When setting a budget it might not be a terrible idea to at least keep the possibility of a master’s degree in mind.
To me you have such exceptional public universities in-state that I would be hard pressed to justify the cost of attending a significantly more expensive school elsewhere, particularly if you can get your desired major at a public university in-state.
You might want to think about what you would do if you got a full-price acceptance to MIT or Stanford and also got accepted to a few UC’s, or one of the top CSU’s for the majors that you are interested in. Would you spend the much larger price for the private university? A bachelor’s at one of the excellent UC’s or CSU’s followed by a master’s at Stanford or another highly ranked private school is certainly possible, and might cost less than just a bachelor’s at a private university.
With regard to universities outside the US, such as Toronto, you might want to look at the graduation requirements at different universities. Consider both general requirements and major-specific requirements. At least from the experience of a few people I know it seems that schools outside the US in some cases have significantly fewer general requirements, which can if you want allow you to take more classes in your intended major.
Looking at your SAT, I see a perfect math score and a bit of a gap between your math and English scores. This is something that is very familiar to me. Personally I would have been just as happy to focus more on what I was good at (anything related to math) and take less of other fields (general education requirements). It might be worth just thinking about whether or not you feel the same way.
Case Western looks like the perfect mix of tech interest, serious but not necessarily nerdy students, social vibe and swimming. It’d probably offer merit if his score can reach a 1500 and he wouldn’t need to take AP Lit.
I just want to chime in about 12th grade English classes and the verbal score…
Students are assessed in the context of their school, especially at the uber selective colleges. Your child won’t get dinged for not taking a class that isn’t offered but skipping AP lit may be a red flag for the Amhersts, Williams and JHUs of the list.
I also don’t understand why there are so many LACs on the list based on your child’s interest and the lopsidedness of his scores.
That said, my engineering daughter didn’t take AP lit either (she took British Lit instead). Her school capped the number of APs allowed and she opted to take APs in Physics C, Calc and Chem senior year. The cap was noted on her school profile and highlighted by her GC. But she also had a well balanced ACT score and did very well on the AP lang test. But it did shape where she applied - she was much more interested in STEM heavy schools that aligned with her interest and course selection.
I’d also second Case Western, RPI, WPI, and also keeping Mines on the list as a great safety. Also think GT is worth an application!
In fact, there’s no difference between their 25th percentile and their 75th percentile. Missing one question on the SAT math section results in scores between 760 and 800 depending on the test curve.
As an interesting side note, my son and my father (an MIT alum) both missed a single question, an easy one for each of them. It was a careless misread of something like sphere/hemisphere. My dad’s score was 800, my son’s was 760.
Dear OP: your profile is a good fit for Purdue. For Californians, it is approximately the same cost as the UC’s and is strong in the subject areas you are currently interested in. The main drawbacks are (1) the weather, and (2) not a lot of coddling or academic support (for example, you’ll be hard to find much grading on a curve… think 15-20% of the class will get A’s).
Also, Georgia Tech might be within reach depending on how strong your summer research with that UC professor has been. GT is generally regarded as a step above Purdue but the good news is that is it comparably affordable for OOS students (unlike Univ of Michigan which is quite expensive for OOS kids).
When he took the test, math problems were graded 1-5, easiest to most difficult. The raw results told how many were missed and how hard the question was.
Please take the sidebar conversation about SAT math to DM or create a new topic. This thread should focus on the OP and their questions. Thanks for your understanding.
The other drawback at Purdue is that changing from CS to engineering or engineering to CS could be difficult due to capacity limitations. Engineering also has a secondary admission process to get into specific majors.
Math at Purdue does not appear to have capacity limitations.
He says he is leaning more toward CS/math over engineering. However, since he has not had much exposure to engineering, I think it would be ideal if he has the option to choose at a later point.
He has visited only 3 colleges - Berkeley, Trinity U (Texas), and Occidental. He did not have strong opinions about them. He will apply to the UC’s but both comp sci and engineering have very low acceptance rates at the top 5 campuses, and I think it’s extremely difficult to change between engineering and comp sci. Many kids end up majoring in Applied Math. The lack of flexibility is concerning.
He has said he would prefer to swim varsity but is open to swimming club. Otherwise, I think he’d be happy at Berkeley. He liked Trinity and views it as a possible safety. Oxy is likely off his list because he feels the swim team isn’t fast enough.
He has submitted academic reread at several of these schools. He has a call with MIT coach this week so will find out the results. He has passed Harvey Mudd reread. Others are still pending.
