<p>Hi all, I am new to this forum and new to the whole college thing. Not quite sure what to do but doing some research on colleges for my son. and can he get some finacial help from a college with these stats?</p>
<p>His stats,</p>
<p>ACT 28</p>
<p>GPA
Unweighted 3.80 Weighted 4.59</p>
<p>ap's and honors about 7</p>
<p>he does some volunteer work</p>
<p>I would look at this thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p>Seems he has done some research of his own. Interested more in the school than the financial help, but the information is good to have.</p>
<p>University of Chicago
Wakeforest
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
Notre Dame
University of Illinois champaign
Case Western
Carnegie Mellon
Colgate
Duke</p>
<p>You need to identify 3 “reach” schools, 3 match, and 3 safety, any of which he would be happy to attend. For me, a match is where his test scores and GPA are at the high end of the 25%-75% distribution for the students accepted there.</p>
<p>Also use the collegematch program on this site and see what ti comes up with. I think there are several schools on your list–UChicago, Vanderbilt, and Duke–that are going to be tough to get into with a 28 ACT, assuming your son does not have a good hook. How much studying did he do for it? Any chance of getting him to take it again? A score that starts with 3 would help.</p>
<p>Sorry for my ignorance, but where can I find the college match program on this site. I looked but maybe my eye site is worse than I thought. Thank you for your help.
By the way, your post was interesting, you seem very knowledgeable about this stuff!</p>
<p>It sounds like your son is going to be a senior in the fall. He has a list of dream schools that a lot of kids from the midwest would love to attend. That’s a good first step, but there are a lot more on this journey!
Let him do some research into the feel and fit of these schools. Notre Dame is not like University of Chicago. He should get acquainted with the Common Data Set
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/76444-links-common-data-sets-posted-colleges-24.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/76444-links-common-data-sets-posted-colleges-24.html</a>
which will give him a guide for acceptances at colleges. He also needs to come up with a second list of schools that are matches for his statistics: Beloit, Marquette, Illinois Wesleyan, Loyola, Northern Illinois U, etc. are popular for Illinois kids.
[College</a> Admissions - SAT - University & College Search Tool](<a href=“http://www.collegeboard.com%5DCollege”>http://www.collegeboard.com) has a search engine.</p>
<p>As a parent, you need to look at your finances and get a realistic number that you are willing to pay for college. This is tough for just about everyone. You can start with a finanical aid calculator on collegeboard.com Look for more information on the finanical aid forum on this site. You will have to consider the prices of private vs. state schols, and whether your son can qualify for merit aid at some schools. These will not be the top tier schools on his current list. The next question is will he have loans, and how much in loans is acceptable.</p>
<p>As I said, it’s a long road, and you will learn a lot. Good luck to you and your son.</p>
<p>^^ It is the supermatch program available on the home page.</p>
<p>What do you meen by Notre Dame is not like University of Chicago? They are different schools for sure but can you explain.</p>
<p>Notre Dame is large, catholic, sports-oriented. University of Chicago is small, not much in the way of sports teams, kids are more quirky and have higher ACT scores, the application itself is difficult which causes many kids to not apply. These are only some of the differences. Wake Forest is different in other ways - more preppy, more Southern. Nearly all the schools on your list will be reaches with a 28 ACT unless your son is recruited for sports or is an unrepresented minority. My son didn’t get into Northwestern with a 33 ACT and a 4.2 weighted GPA. He did get into Carnegie Mellon, though. Your son needs a few matches and safeties like Beloit and Loyola as mentioned above. If he knows what he is interested in studying in a general way (math and science vs Spanish and poly sci) it will help. Some schools are better in certain things. So, for example, a computer science major will be better off at a school like University of Rochester while an art history major will be better off at Beloit.</p>
<p>As a start at least think about things that you can use to narrow down the list - area of the country, weather, size of the school, distance from home, cost.</p>