Hi there, new to this forum, thanks for reading. My son is a rising senior, planning to apply for non-CS engineering majors in a few top STEM schools as reach (MIT, Caltech, CMU, Berkeley). He has 10+ APs, all 5 expect English lang and ush. He got 5 on gov, world history, and foreign language though. STEM APs include calc BC, physics C (both), chem, CSA.
Other than these 2 humanities AP 4, his profile is decent: GPA top of the class, some USAxO award, research, volunteering, varsity sport.
MIT and Caltech both seem to stress on humanities, requiring a rec letter from a humanities teacher. Just wondering, will AP 4 on these two core humanities subjects look really bad? How much does humanities competency weigh in these two schools admission? CMU and Berkeley seem to care less.
Thank you. That’s very reassuring! First time in college application and getting overwhelmed. It’s just that on MIT and Caltech admission sites they stress a lot on humanities. My kid is an above average student in humanities classes so the rec letter may just be ok to good, certainly not stellar. That’s another concern…
It’s important to know though that the vast majority of students with “perfect” applications get rejected. It’s not a reflection on the rejected student, but rather the fact that far too many highly qualified students applying to too few schools. The reality is that it doesn’t really matter. Our son has had two arguably elite engineering jobs. He’s named on a patent from the first one. The engineers that he has worked with have been educated all over the place, including at many overseas universities. So, don’t stress too much. It will work out.
I also do not think that a 4 on a humanities related AP test is going to have any significant impact on your son’s applications. MIT by the way does not admit by major, so your son’s choice of major similarly will not have any impact on his chances at least for MIT. My guess is that Caltech is probably the same in this regard.
However, as @eyemgh has correctly pointed out these schools are reaches for essentially all applicants, and the very large majority of applicants are very well qualified to attend and do well. Your son definitely also needs to apply to other schools where admissions is far more likely.
I’ll also add that they are very much niche schools. As an applicant you need to know what you are getting into and whether or not you’ll like that experience. They are not for everyone. Don’t figure that out after you’ve started at one or the other. I’d probably throw CMU into that realm too.