thinaud
What you have written is what we have been thinking. We’re typical midwestern, middle class folk with no wealth or under-represented hook. DS has athletics, Eagle Scout, works, etc. but hasn’t done anything like won a national science fair, started a non-profit, etc., etc., Ivy schools might as well be on Mars, according to our mindsets. Maybe once every couple of years, someone from DS’s high school goes to a northeastern school (maybe even Cornell but never Harvard, Yale, or Princeton). My wife is from DC and she tells me that many people on the east coast think about the Ivies as a bit more accessible than people in flyover land. Northwestern, Michigan and maybe University of Chicago are a bit more common as “reach” schools. Notre Dame is probably the big attraction for high-achieving students. I’ve heard great things about Notre Dame’s NROTC.
We get all kinds of mailings from all the Ivies etc. but we’ve read that they cast a wide net to encourage more applications so they can increase their selectivity stats. Maybe I’m too cynical. DS recycles all of them.
We want DS to expand his reach (provided he can land a ROTC scholarship). He’s Engineering focused all the way. Purdue has been reach in his mind so far. Purdue is a great school but it would be desirable to go to a school with great engineering and great non-STEM focus, as well (but also a good NROTC or AFROTC program as he absolutely wants to be an officer). Our state university is a fine safety & my alma mater, Michigan Tech, is a “safe” but it doesn’t have NROTC and it lacks both diversity and less than 7 months of winter (and is 60 miles from the nearest stoplight).
What would others think are good “stretch” and “reach” schools that are not overly handicapping wealth and non-representativeness? (And preferably have NROTC)? We get all kinds of opinions from folks with no idea about ROTC so having opinions from this forum to explore further would be most welcomed.