Advice for undecided, very high stats kid

<p>I am helping to guide my D15's friend through this process, her parents were not raised in the US and are very unfamiliar with how things work here. They both have Ivy Phd's though, a very smart and accomplished family. This student got a 36 on her first shot at the ACT, SAT is nearly as high. She has taken the most rigourous classes available at a highly ranked public school that most on CC would recognize. By the end of her Sr year ( she is a Jr) she will have finished 14 AP classes and tests. So far she has 5 AP tests finished, with all 5's. She is an accomplished musician and has a couple other EC's. Parents have enough funds to be full pay BUT are interested in merit aid as they would like to preserve some of those funds for younger sibllings, who should be high-stats kids but not likely this high.</p>

<p>Sounds great, but this student has NO idea what she wants in a college or a major. She thinking programming is boring, so CS is out. She does robotics and has now decided that engineering is not for her. From the classes she has taken in HS, she finds Chemistry to be the most interesting. </p>

<p>ANy general advice for people who have had/known kids like her? We are touring schools over spring break with her ( big and small, public and private, urban and rural) so that may help her determine likes/dislikes....I am leaning towards advising a large research university as I think when she arrives on campus she will be drawn to research opportunities, and a large school would give her the ability to explore a wide variety of topics. These types of schools would give her the most credit for her AP credits, allowing her room in her schedule to explore, change majors, double major etc. I assume this student will plan to go through to PHD like her parents, but would advicse her to do someting that leads to employment optoins after a major.</p>

<p>Any words of wisdom from the CC crowd?</p>

<p>Since they are hoping for merit aid, point them to the threads on that topic in the Financial Aid forum, and include any of those institutions that are near you on the spring break tour schedule.</p>

<p>When you are in the car rolling down the road, test out the notion of a Gap Year. The parents may have enough connections to help her pin down something interesting to do either as a volunteer or as a paid employee so that she can explore her options a bit before heading off to college.</p>

<p>Don’t worry about major. Identify safety schools. Then give her a Fiske Guide. The kid should be able to find some type of college she is drawn to or some criteria that matters. I would say don’t worry too much about AP credits. My daughter was undeclared, used no AP credit and had no problem exploring majors, doing research and graduating in 4 years. Small research universities are nice that way too.</p>

<p>I’m a senior who is just wrapping up the application process, and your D’s friend sounds a lot like me. (I had 2390 first try on the SAT, fewer AP classes but still rigorous schedule, leaning towards a chemistry major but undecided otherwise.) Definitely visit a variety of sizes-- small LACs, medium-sized universities, large public universities. After my first three or four visits to local colleges, it quickly became VERY apparent that I was not cut out for large schools (found them completely overwhelming). I ended up applying to almost all tiny liberal arts colleges where I loved the social atmosphere and could have strong relationships with professors. There are often good research opportunities available at all different types of colleges, not just research universities. Other factors may also surface, such as political atmosphere, prevalence of Greek life, etc.</p>

<p>If she’s not already, try to get her interested in colleges in different parts of the country. A narrow geographic range is quite limiting, and there are fabulous schools in overlooked areas (the Midwest, the South) that often can serve as great matches or safeties, esp for merit dollars.</p>

<p>If she wants merit money, she will have to do her homework. I basically took the top 100 LACs in the country (ranked by USNWR for lack of a better metric) and removed the ones that did not offer any merit aid. Then I looked at the rest and narrowed them down with a list of my personal criteria. This thread, while outdated, gives an excellent strategy for merit money: <a href=“USNews Top 100 Liberal Arts College - Merit v. Need Only - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/219357-usnews-top-100-liberal-arts-college-merit-v-need-only-p1.html&lt;/a&gt;. I followed the idea of merit safeties, matches, and reaches. There’s a similar thread by the same poster for research universities.</p>