Seeking College Counselor for Math Geek
I am seeking recommendations for a college counselor for my son, a high school freshman. He is gifted and advanced in math (finished high school math curriculum in 7th grade) and also loves computer science, physics, and chemistry. He is at a private school for kids who love math, so he already has plenty of opportunities to learn college and graduate-level math. Aside from good grades and great piano playing skills, however, he has no extracurricular activities. I would love advice from a college counselor re: how he can best position himself to apply for the most challenging colleges for math geeks, including Cal Tech and MIT.
Many thanks in advance for your suggestions.
Jan 20, 2020
Parent Replies
Unfortunately, even the most brilliant math student is unlikely to get into top US colleges without stellar extracurriculars. Would your son consider applying to college in the UK or Canada? College there tends to be more focused on your major, and admissions also are focused on how good you are (as demonstrated by tests) in your chosen field.
My son is a first-year math student at Cambridge University, one of the top places in the world to study math. In high school, he had sky-high SATs, excellent grades, had already completed most of the college math curriculum in high school...but didn't have impressive extracurriculars. He applied to 10 selective US colleges and got into only one (a UC). However, he also applied to 5 of the top UK universities and got into all of them.
An additional bonus: college in the UK is way cheaper than here. My son's 3 years (for a BA—he can stay a 4th year for a master’s) at Cambridge (which is one of the two most expensive universities in the UK), including room & food, will cost about the same as it would have to send him to the University of California (as an in-state student!) for 4 years, and way way less than it would have cost to send him to a private university in the US. And he absolutely loves Cambridge, and is delighted that he never again has to take a history or English course! All his classes are either math or theoretical physics. Good luck to your son--I hope he finds a college where he can continue to explore the wonderful world of math!
Hi. I'm new here but saw this question and since went through this, thought I'd add my 2 cents. We just recently used Barbra Harris and honestly she was a godsend for us. This was our first experience in going through all this but she was so helpful and patient with my son who like yours is really strong in STEM (top scores, high gpa) but not much on the extra-curriculars find some amazing college choices, places I'd never heard of as well as some big names. Bottom line he got in ED to his first choice which was a reach. I think where she really helped him a lot besides keeping him on track was in helping him write some essays that honestly I never thought were in him, as he is not a writer. Feel free to contact me if you need more information.