Might as well spend the $60 or so to apply to MIT. If he gets in and decides on the USNA, he can always tell people that he turned down MIT.
[quote]Vanagandr wrote:
[quote]Headhunter wrote:
[quote]Cr Powerlinate wrote:
What is his subscore breakdown? This will tell you more about his potential to get into MIT, especially if Math was his (relatively) weaker section. Getting an aggregate 34 on the quantitative sections versus 36 aggregate on the qualitative appears weaker to MIT/Caltech admissions than the reverse. They also place particular focus on GPA, course selection and extracurricular activities.
Regardless, assuming his fitness and GPA is in check, he’s on the right for USNA. Although I’d be remiss if I didn’t suggest USMA instead.
[/quote]
English 36, Math 35, Reading 34, Science 36. They superscore and he got a 36 in Reading on the other time he took the test, so he’ll have a 36 for them.
He needs a ‘hook’ to get in there, like volunteering a soup kitchen or similar.
[/quote]
I assume your kid is a junior? Tell him to get started on that hook now, because to be honest it’s pretty late already. Getting into Ivy Leagues/Prestigious Universities practically begins at conception.[/quote]
More like heritage.
[quote]Jewbacca wrote:
[quote]Vanagandr wrote:
You seem extremely knowledgable so I hate to question your facts but i’m pretty sure GPA is pretty much the number one priority for every single college.
[/quote]
Nope.* GPA varies greatly from school-to-school and course-track-to-course track. As a result, the standardized test is the king.
- The exception are certain state schools and areas where affirmative action is deemed illegal discrimination. The schools get around discriminating against Asians, Jewish people, and Whites (who, as a group, have higher standardized test scores) by weighting GPA higher or doing things like auto-admiting the top 10% of all public schoools — theory being the minorities tend to group themselves together and compete against each other for class rank.[/quote]
Doesn’t this statement contradict your previous post where you say “GPA is very important”?
i disagree with the gpa sentiment. I got a 1500 on the SAT and my best friend got a 1560 (out of 1600)… my high-school gpa was terrible, i ranked around the middle of my class, and my friend was probably around the quarter mark…
let’s just say the offers didn’t come pouring in for either of us
admissions counsels are obviously dominated by honor-roll socialists, what with their valuing of work-ethic over excellence
Congrats to him and you, HH. I hope he does well in whatever field he chooses.
Don’t pay for undergrad, IMO. I scored in the 99% on the ACT and went to the best public university in my state for free. Then, I ended up going to professional school at Yale after doing very well in undergrad.
It’s not a pleasant thing to think about, but I know a lot of people who came into my undergrad with even more impressive resumes that ended up washing out. This happens a lot in elite undergrads as well. For them, that huge investment is essentially a waste considering how much money we’re talking about. Undergrad is a poor investment, IMO.
So, I would suggest you have your kid go to the cheapest good school possible, then focus on getting into an elite graduate school. Today, undergrad is sort of the “testing ground” because so many good jobs demand some form of graduate education.
This holds unless your kid wants to go straight into something like finance/ibanking, in which case the signaling power of the undergrad is helpful.
[quote]Gettnitdone wrote:
Doesn’t this statement contradict your previous post where you say “GPA is very important”?
[/quote]
No. GPA is very important. But standardized tests are very, very important.
To restate:
You might get in to an elite school with amazing test scores and a good-but-not-great GPA.
You will almost certainly not get into an elite school with good-but-not-great test scores and an amazing GPA.
Both GPA and test scores are FAR more important that extracuriculars, unless you happen to be an Olympic-level athelete of some kind or a sports star (in a sport the school cares about — say, hockey, at most Ivy Leagues) in the making.
If you are a future first-round-draft NHL hockey player, get a 600 on the SAT and have a 2.7 GPA, you can get into any Ivy League School.
Similarly, if your mommy or daddy give millions of dollars, and promise to give more, and know the right people, you can get it.
Generally speakng, the best extra-curiculars are sports/outside related, if you are not a candidate to get on a sports team.
[quote]Headhunter wrote:
Not a Pol/World Issue but I’ll put it here anyway.
That is all.[/quote]
Nice. I got the same score. My dickhead brother-in-law got a 36. I was ranked 15th in my high school with a 3.97. I walked into a public U with scholarships. I am not rich by any stretch, but I make a darn good living as an engineer.