Earlier this year I had asked Jeremy if U of I Urbana-Champaign should be on the list. I had a favorable impression of it. Jeremy dismissed it as being in the middle of nowhere. I was like, ah, the college is enormous – it is the town, it should be fine. Anyways, it remained off the list. Last week, Jeremy was sitting in Urbana-Champaign at a college cafe (probably nursing a boba tea and a slightly concussed head) and he said, there are so many hipster Asians here on campus after I drove hours through cornfields; is it on the list? I said, it is not on the &%&^# list! You said it shouldn’t be on the list. I can’t add it to the list, the list is already too long.
At the start of the school year, Vince’s SAT scores were pretty poor in relation to his grades. For example, Rutgers engineering for the middle 50% of admits had a weighted GPA of 3.7-4.2 and an SAT score of 1350-1500. Vince’s numbers were skewed – way above the high end for GPA and way below the low end for the SAT scores which left me confused how to structure the list. I feel since he’s an Asian male wanting to get into STEM, that low SAT score would tank him as the first to get cut. That’s why there are some schools on the list centered around his low SAT scores. (FH, I feel your pain. That damn test.) Anyways, he managed (somehow) to up his SAT scores another 80 points last month (a Hail Mary attempt), so now he’s mostly in the middle 50% of the SAT ranges of all the schools on the list to which I breathed a sigh of relief, maybe there is a chance but still likely the first cut as an Asian out-of-state guy. Vickey was like – now you gotta add U of Michigan to the list. I said – it’s still too much of a stretch for him. And she asked – will you be mad that he gets into all the schools on your list (minus the obviously out of range ones), that you didn’t try for anything more prestigious? I’m said no. Absolutely not. I will thank my lucky stars that he got into all the schools on the list. Anyways the *(*&^ list is too long. I can’t add to the list anymore.
Vince came home yesterday from talking to Ms. Vincent his physics teacher who is writing one of his recommendations. She suggested Purdue to him and he was excited about it. She said a bunch of her former students had gone and had a great time. One majored in engineering and theater both. I said it’s a great engineering school, a bit conservative, but you could become an astronaut. He wanted to add it to the list that is now really too *(&#& long.