Which colleges should S apply to with a B average?

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<p>Longhaul you are right. His psat score of 76 in writing and 74 in critical reading suggests to me he has the potential to do well in the arts and humanities too. He has been unwilling to concede this, partly because, like many children he wants to prove me (his dad) wrong. I have always told him he should major in history or anthropology or perhaps medicine.</p>

<p>In elementary school, he was recognized as gifted and talented for a 96 percentile in his verbal skills on the stanford 9s. Same thing for TIPs in 7th grade, where he had a 98 percentile in Critical Reading, but much closer to average in mathematics on the SAT. In Sophomore year PSAT, 98 percentile reading, 92 percentile mathematics. This year on the PSAT, 99 percentile reading, 99.5 percentile writing, but 95 percentile mathematics. </p>

<p>I do not mind that he is pushing himself in mathematics and physics with the thoughts of becoming an engineer. I think these subjects will help him in life even if he decides to major in something else, eventually in college. As long as he is taking AP English, AP US History, AP Biology and AP Computer Science, I feel he is not too narrowly focused. As long as he is thinking of engineering and not majoring in mathematics, I am okay with it.</p>

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<p>Mathematicians and engineers need to read and write, so scoring highly on reading and writing tests will be good for any major.</p>

<p>Being “only” at the 92nd to 95th percentile in math (690 to 710 in SAT terms) is still quite good, and well within the range where students succeed in math-heavy majors like math and physics. [This</a> study](<a href=“http://arxiv.org/pdf/1011.0663]This”>http://arxiv.org/pdf/1011.0663) found that students in the >=680 range of SAT math tended to be successful as math and physics majors, but that those in the <600 range of SAT math were only rarely successful as math and physics majors. However, he may want to put in more work in his classes, given the grades you mentioned before.</p>

<p>Note that medicine does not require any specific undergraduate major; it just needs a set of pre-med courses taken as an undergraduate. But really high MCAT scores and GPA are important (pre-meds have a “cutthroat grade grubbing” reputation at many schools because of this).</p>

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<p>

OP, I wonder why you feel that way? Math is a major used in many different occupations and industries.</p>

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<p>ucbalumnus, Thanks for sharing some very interesting stats.</p>