<p>UW isn’t high on her list for several reason including that they don’t give Oregon students a break on OOS tuition. D wants “the” college experience - on campus living, lots of student activity, possibly the Greek life. Many UW students live off campus. And the college informs many freshman that it may take 5 years to get a bachelors due to huge enrollment. </p>
<p>sk8rmom: I don’t have an answer to your question, “Can she compete with the scary smart kids?” What is considered scary smart? The Sheldon character from Big Bang, who has an eidetic memory?</p>
<p>Has she applied for UofO Honors program? (I’ve heard good things.) I wouldn’t recommend UW these days - it has become increasingly difficult for students to get the classes they need to advance in their majors, and graduate.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about scary smart kids( like Sheldon). They are not competing with anyone except themselves. It’s the uber competitive kids that you have to worry about…</p>
<p>Here are D’s “stats” as it stands now. Since she’s only a sophomore, she hasn’t taken the SAT, or ACT yet. She’s taken the Explore -which I’m led to understand is a pre ACT - and scored quite high over all and exceptionally high on math and science. Not sure if this is a true indicator of future test scores. She attends a highly respected Catholic prep school where 60% are boys, takes the most rigorous classes and is usually in the top 3 of the class.</p>
<p>She plays on a school sport team, competes on a national and international level in a different year round sport, earned a spot on a US junior team for this sport, is a 3rd degree black belt, has 3 4-H projects including animals, competes at a state level, is now a 4-H leader, is a 4-H ambassador and founder & president of the school physics club.</p>
<p>D is also outgoing, kind, beautiful, and competitive with her classmates in a healthy way. She’s very bright - she is TAG in our state. But one of her best friends has an eidetic memory & taught herself Latin last summer because she was bored. D has similar grades and scores as brilliant friend.</p>
<p>Well, I was thinking more about competition for research positions, academic connections, etc. that will be important for her to achieve the more selective grad school programs that were mentioned. Basically, would she not only fit in, but actually stand out and be noticed among the Stanford/MIT types (please forgive the sweeping generalization)? I think this is a big part of “fit” anyway, but there have been several studies and articles recently on how competition affects our future female scientists in particular…just food for thought!</p>
<p>As a soph, it’s not too early to have her take the ACT and SAT…especially the SAT since it can be a heads-up to the PSAT for next fall. </p>
<p>Having her take these tests soon will give you an idea of how she’ll do once she’s a junior/senior.</p>
<p>I would wait to do these campus visits until I had some ACT or SAT scores. I would also spend some time determining what the likely expected family contribution would be at “full need” schools (and as mentioned earlier, OOS publics will not likely give you much need based aid, altho some will give merit).</p>
<p>Anyway…“family contribution” can be about 25% of income for those with incomes of less than 100k and up to 33% of family income for those earning over 100k. These are rough estimates and will be higher if the family has a good amount of assets. And, to clarify…this is for full need schools.</p>
<p>I think EXPLORE is given to 8th graders? And then Plan is given before the ACT (as frosh or sophs)? Or maybe things have changed???</p>
<p>LOTS could change between now and when she actually is ready to APPLY to colleges. A cautionary tale…our daughter saw Southern Methodist University when she was a 9th grader. She LOVED it…absolutely LOVED it. She informed us at that time (her brother was a high school senior who had just gone through the college search) that she was DONE. She was applying to SMU…it had everything she wanted and needed (as an FYI…it DID have everything she wanted…and in many ways was similar to the school from which she eventually got her two degrees). Well…fast forward to 11th grade. I say…so…are you ready to apply to SMU? And she says “Texas?? I’m NOT going to college in TEXAS.” So much for advance planning.</p>
<p>I would take your kiddo on some college visits to see types of schools but I would NOT fret much over the SPECIFIC college right now. She may completely change her mind ab out majors, distance from home, what she really likes in a college, etc…in the next 2 years.</p>
<p>Explore college options…urban/suburban/rural, large/medium/small, public/private, near to home/far from home, etc.</p>
<p>The time to narrow down those choices will come when you have FAR more information available to you.</p>
<p>Sk8rmom: I believe she has the skills, drive & ability to compete at the higher levels. It’s ultimately up to her if she chooses to do the work to be a standout. </p>
<p>We’re starting campus tours next month and have chosen five schools in California to tour as it’s relatively close and we can catch some sun and spend a day or two at Disneyland. We’re starting a bit early as D has an opportunity to study abroad the summer after her junior year and may not be home. Our summers are limited as it is due to competitions.
Traveling for these tournaments has given us the opportunity to look at colleges in OOS cities. We’ll be in Texas this summer and we’ll see what we can fit in to the schedule.</p>
<p>Good idea to link visits to sports travels. In my opinion, it’s not a good idea to visit during summers anyway…campuses arent the same when students/faculty/activities aren’t in full swing. I don’t even like visiting campuses on weekends during the school year for that reason. College students often sleep in til noon (or later) on weekends or are at various places off-campus, so a lively campus can appear quite dead during a 9 am Saturday tour.</p>
<p>FYI on taking the SAT “just to see” . . . most top end schools want to see all scores from all tests, and I read many posts last fall from kids who were surprised by that with regards the the Stanford admissions process. Fewer private schools allow score choice now, so testing on a lark could haunt you down the line.</p>
<p>as long as it is not taken excessively… taking the test multiple times shouldnt be a problem…the schools can see when they were taken…ie if she takes it in sophomore year, i think they can recognize what it was taken for.(practice)</p>
<p>I had my daughter take it freshman year because that was the year they added writing and I mistakenly thought the PSAT counted sophomore year. She ended up taking it three times total. Did not seem to do any harm in the admissions process.</p>
<p>A top school is going to view a soph test within context. It’s not going to haunt them. It would be different if this student had a low score senior year or late junior year. And, it doesn’t sound like this student is going to have a low score anyway.</p>
<p>my son had to take it freshman year also…part of the selection process to get into his hs. then took it a couple of times after that…no problem at all…all tests showed up on his transcript, (even though on some schools he had used score choice, thinking earlier ones wouldnt show up the schools got them all)</p>
<p>Having done this a number of times I wish I know before what I know now. We are finding it far more financially reasonable to look at schools outside our home state of California. For engineering the good schools we like the overall feel of best are:
Montana State & University of Wyoming. Great environment and really want their students to succeed.</p>
<p>D took a catholic entrance exam for admittance into prep school. D will miss the early PSAT test due to an out of town tournament. The PSAT will be given to all juniors next fall.</p>
<p>hbsurfer: A friend’s son is in the engineering school at Montana State and loves it. But he is also partial to snow and cold. Our D prefers sun over snow - just like her expat California mom :).</p>
<p>The multiple SAT sagas has me a little confused. From my reading it appears that it’s possible to take the test several times. Some schools will only ask for your best individual and super score. Others want to see all of the scores. Is this right?</p>
<p>So far the discussion has focused on merit aid. Agentninetynine, have you estimated your “Expected Family Contribution” (EFC) to see if you’d qualify for need-based aid at selective private schools? </p>
<p>If your income is approximately $120K - $150K, you may pay little more after aid to attend a typical selective private college than you would pay to attend the University of Oregon. At a few super selective schools (Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford), you might pay less than Oregon’s full rates even if your income is as high as $180K. Of course, many factors come into play to affect these numbers.</p>
<p>If your income is a little higher, but you cannot afford your EFC (which will reach 100% of costs as you get into this range), be aware that some slightly less selective private schools award a merit scholarship “discount” to 10% of admitted students, 20%, or more. The amounts typically average about $10K-$15K. This often makes their net costs competitive with OOS public rates.</p>
<p>If your daughter has scored near the 99th percentile in her tests she took in elementary school (ours tookCTBS), I would have her take the SAT in June for practice. Although the PSAT is not exactly the same, it is similar. That way, she will have some experience wih that type of test. There are nice scholarships for kids who do well on the PSAT. Of course, she could also get a practice book if she likes working on her own.</p>