<p>^^ He is going to get a recommendation letter from his employer. Thanks for the advice.</p>
<p>No one on CC can determine what a school may see in an applicant - have your brother talk to someone in admissions. Next year there is going to be a dramatic drop in the number of seniors, and therefore the number of kids applying to college. In addition, this year’s SAT scores were extremely high, I don’t think they are expecting the same averages next year. With the number of applications schools received this year, admissions officers may have relied more on standardized scores then in the past. That may not be the case next year. And with the current economy, private schools will probably be the first to see a decline in enrollment - who knows what that will mean for next years class?. I thought you said your brother was a transfer student - depending on the number of course hours taken at the college level, scores on the SAT/ACT are moot. They may not even look at them. SAT/ACT’s are only one indicator of a person’s success in college, you should continue to encourage your brother to apply. What’s the downside? He gets rejected? And it is true, seniors compete against their own classmates (not the general population).</p>
<p>one more thing, the comment attributing lower SAT scores to the athletes at Tufts. While that may be true for DI programs offering athletic scholarships, that is not true for DIII (DIII cannot offer athletic scholarships). Coaches make it very clear that academics come first. Athletes at academically competitive DIII colleges are there because they are smart and talented in the classroom and on the field, pool, gym, etc… There are exceptions of course.</p>
<p>3xcharmed-
The brother isn’t looking to transfer. He’s a high school junior. The OP was asking which Tufts school is the easiest to get into (an interesting concept, since none are easy to get into) because he was thinking of a strategy of applying to that school and then transferring to pursue a either a degree in engineering or a pre-med course of study. THe brother’s SAT scores thus far are 1540/2400 (M 530, CR 520, w490), hence my cautionary comments. Tufts does not strike me as a good match for this student, let alone pursuing courses of study in engineering or pre-med there.</p>
<p>I would agree with you if this young man was at a high performing high school, public or private, and was raised with English as his first language. Sounds like that is not the case for this kid. Therefore, he needs to seek advice from guidance and admissions and not CC. One has to do well in college before thinking about medical or graduate school, so we are putting the cart before the horse. But it is good to have a goal. Being at the top of your class (which it sounds like he is) in any school is a good thing, and many colleges have programs to help kids from under performing high schools succeed at the college level. Maybe Tufts doesn’t and therefore a good reason to look elsewhere. But the point is that you just never know what a college may see in an applicant, and its best to seek advice from those that do, guidance and admissions.</p>
<p>Agree… kid should talk to admissions. And if the school itself is relatively underperforming, I am guessing that the guidance counselor situation might be one where the GC is dealing with a lot more issues than simply college admissions. It amazed me at my daughter’s HS - a relatively affluent district comparatively - the counselors had never heard of Denison or Kenyon. I was like… ??? These are the circumstances were private counselors are of huge benefit. But in the case of socioeconomic difficulties, there is a non-profit called project admissions that helps in navigating what can be hugely confusing waters.</p>
<p>Lower numbers might be applying, but look at it this way… a 16% decrease in applications this year at Midd still had them considering well over 6000 applicants, many who are far more ‘qualified’ than the previous year before them.</p>
<p>No question that this kid should not stop with responses from CC and should seek “professional” advice from his school’s guidance counselors and/or the admissions offices at the schools he’s looking at (although I generally have found the college admissions officers to be unwilling to say much that it truly insightful, even when they could, because they want to see the individual’s whole application in the context of the entire applicant pool). I am not a college admissions/placement professional, just a fairly knowledgeable parent of college age kids, but the OP asked a question in the context of certain facts and figures and I offered my most candid and honest response. And even though the OP said nothing about it, I considered the possibility that English is not a first language; that is why I focused on the Math score in the context of the OP’s emphasis on an undergrad pursuit of engineering or pre-med (i.e., even though the reading and writing scores are comparable). I am also aware that the OP has elsewhere said that he is worried about this kid because, to use the OP’s words (from a posting he put on the BU board), he is “not that bright.” I am most definitely NOT saying the kid in question should not apply. I am only offering what I thought was a candid and insightful response in the hope that it might lead to some appropriate “expectation management.” I most sincerely do not believe that this kid would thrive as an engineer or pre-med at Tufts, assuming he could get in, about which I also have some (though lesser) doubts. I have seen kids with far more impressive academic credentials drop out of engineering and pre-med at Tufts. There are lots of wonderful schools out there and to the extent the OP says the kid in question “wants to go to Tufts” I am hoping that he doesn’t make unreasonable expectations a threshold of happiness of self-confidence.</p>
<p>^ No need to defend yourself, WCAS. I think all of us Tufts regulars have seen you around and know you a bit; the only one who is getting defensive is the OP.</p>
<p>Don’t worry :)</p>
<p>^ I don’t think WCAS is defending himself/herself that much. I think she is rather speaking of the fact and what a student should do in that situation.</p>
<p>^ I disagree.</p>
<p>10cr</p>
<p>JEEZ, guys chill. It’s that kids decision. So calm down. Let that kid make his own decision.</p>
<p>By the Way neethus1 what is cr? Sorry I am new to the forum :(</p>
<p>SRB2006-- They’re not telling the brother of the kid that the kid shouldn’t apply. What they’re trying to tell him is that given the information (and the information alone), it’s more likely than not that he will be rejected. They are, as WCAS puts it, “hoping that he doesn’t make unreasonable expectations”. </p>
<p>10cr is to fulfill the 10-character requirement CC has each time you make a post</p>
<p>Did you guys seriously read those 10 cr? Jeez, I didn’t even bothered looking at it. I guess I should just go back and read then. Haha</p>
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<p>The SATs test you on the reading and math skills you’ve developed through the course of elementary, middle, and high schools. It’s basically a test asking how many books have you read and how many math problems have you done in the past 10 years. Therefore an SAT prep class would only polish one’s test taking skills, not make or break their chances of getting into college.</p>
<p>Also if your brother cannot excel doing 3 hours of homework everyday (in addition to attending class) in high school, then he probably won’t have the ability to survive an engineering or pre-med workload here at Tufts.</p>
<p>People have been saying that your brother wont improve much on the Sats if he takes them again but he might if he takes a bunch of practice tests. like when I took the SAT II’s the first time i got like 5-600 for chemistry and math level 2. but i took them again like 2 months later after doing practice tests a lot and got 780 for both. so im pretty sure its doable</p>
<p>Scores and all the stats being important; no one has mentioned tuft’s interest in interesting people; essays; ability to express themselves and show how and why tufts would be good for them, and they would add to the tufts community. Why is the OPs brother interested in Tufts? All of this can add to an application.</p>
<p>^ I second that. Since Tufts is a “holistic.” school I think they will take everything in context.</p>
<p>Yes, Tufts considers everything, but it’s important to first establish that you can handle the academic rigor of the school - which presumably is why they look first at the transcript and second at the board scores. Barring an enormous improvement in scores, I would imagine that there would have to be something of extraordinary interest to get past board scores in the low 500s. I would assume it is the very rare student who is admitted with scores like this. The CR score might be attributable to English not being the applicant’s first language, but the Math score might be harder to explain.</p>