<p>If she wants Stanford as #1, I highly recommend applying Restrictive Early Action. That will give her the best shot</p>
<p>Here is another question – has your daughter looked through a copy of the Fiske Guide to Colleges yet? That is a great resources to learn more about colleges, and she might find some other matches or safeties besides the state universities she is already considering.</p>
<p>You mentioned some of her match schools are out of state (OOS) universities. Unless your state has some kind of reciprocity deal with those states, tuition can be very high for OOS students. Just be sure you can afford those if they are going to be the “match” schools on her list.</p>
<p>Thank you all. I will check out these calculators; I really appreciate that! Princeton is her #1 choice, I believe. Any more information is appreciated!</p>
<p>No, where can I get a copy of that? Is it available online? Some are part of Utah’s “good neighbor” program, so they are a little more reasonable. She always has 2 in-state schools that are both good schools and totally reasonable. Thank you!</p>
<p>Also… do you know if her GPA (3.9) is weighted or unweighted? If her school “weights”, they give more points to honors and AP classes than regular classes. Some schools do, some don’t. But the GPA you want to be looking at is the unweighted one if you know it.</p>
<p>Also, some high schools have a system called “Naviance” that they use to track admissions results for all their students. The students show up as anonymous dots on the graphs, but you can see for a given GPA and test score combo what results have been for other students from her college for many schools. Even if you have it, a lot of schools don’t give access to students/families until late in junior year – most students don’t have test scores until then anyway, so it isn’t a very useful tool until then. That is something you could ask the high school guidance counselor about.</p>
<p>You can find Fiske at any Barnes & Noble (at least ours has it) or easily order it online. Or the high school guidance counselor may have a copy. A copy that is a year or two old is okay, although the SAT ranges may change a bit.</p>
<p>Another GREAT source of info when you really start digging in is the “Common Data Set” for each college. Tons of info on who applies, who is accepted, who attends, etc. Lots of statistical info. To find those, you just Google “Common Data Set <college name=”">" and you will almost always get a link to them.</college></p>
<p>You had asked if she should have a tutor for SAT. I think the answer to that depends on how dedicated she will be to self-studying. Most diligent students can figure out what they need to work on by completing and reviewing practice tests. The question becomes will they dedicate that time now to a test in the far away future? Scoring well on the standardized tests can move her to a higher merit aid award level, so worth putting in the time to study.</p>
<p>If she can establish a study schedule and adhere to it, then you do not need a tutor. But, if she postpones the studying, then you might want to consider a tutor just to force the isse.</p>
<p>You may already know this, but Utah is part of the Western Undergraduate Exchange.</p>
<p>[Western</a> Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) | Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education](<a href=“http://www.wiche.edu/wue]Western”>Save On College Tuition | Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE))</p>
<p>Her GPA is unweighted at 3.9. I will look into “Naviance” that sounds awesome! I’ve never heard anything about it before. I think she would be very dedicated to studying, but I don’t think she knows exactly what to do. No one in our immediate family has taken the ACT or SAT so we are not much help. If you could give me an idea of how to help her study/what she should be studying that would be great. She would study, I know, but are practice tests the main resource for this?</p>
<p>Yes, the WUE is awesome! Thanks!</p>
<p>For the SAT, the Official SAT Study Guide (known as the “Blue Book”) sold by College Board is a good starting place. There is a whole thread debating the additional resources available:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/1517736-sat-books-do-not-start-new-threads-post-here.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/1517736-sat-books-do-not-start-new-threads-post-here.html</a></p>
<p>I am a fan of Grubers for math prep in addition to the blue book. :)</p>
<p>Thank you! Do these just have practice questions? I will have to look into these. I feel much more informed thanks to you all! If you have any more information on how to be more helpful to her, I would really appreciate it!</p>
<p>All the books have basic instruction in many of the concepts covered on the test and strategy tips, then practice sections or tests. The “blue book” has actual old SAT tests, which is why it is the best place to start. The SAT is quite repetitive, so learning to do the types of problems on the practice test is very helpful in doing well on the real thing.</p>
<p>I’m curious as to how your daughter’s school is preparing her for college? Usually, a lot of this information is available through her guidance counselor and “college nights” as well as “Financial Aid” nights at the school. </p>
<p>The counselors are usually really on-top of this by scheduling multiple parent nights which discuss SAT’s, PSATs and National Merit qualifying scores for junior year, A-G recommended coursework at the UC’s which generally covers a number of private colleges. The schools usually have days where college representatives visit the high school. Our school constantly sends out online parent information.<br>
Is her school very small? Is it a school that doesn’t send many students out of state? </p>
<p>You need to seriously look at costs for schools she’s considering, NOW. You can’t assume that she’ll get a full ride at these expensive institutions. It’s all based on her scores for merit aid and any need based financial aid. You also need to consider any monies you’ve saved for her expenses: books, room supplies, off-campus costs, lab fees, transportation, etc.</p>
<p>My brother in law used to teach in a Utah high school (and has taught in a few other states, so has seen a variety of situations). He said that most high schools in Utah do not do a very good job at all of preparing students to go further than the state universities (I don’t mean academic prep, I mean college counseling). Maybe the OP is lucky and his kid is in one of the few schools that are strong in that, but I think as a state Utah is not historically so great at this.</p>
<p>Yes, her high school has some of these resources but I agree that Utah is not very good at preparing students for out-of-state schools. The students at her school really succeed academically but many choose schools in Utah.</p>
<p>My BIL taught AP classes and ran the school’s academic decathlon team. He wrote a lot of recommendations, and informally supplemented the college counseling office. He helped a lot of students get into schools like the ones your D is considering – but all too often even after the kid got in, the parents decided the state universities were good enough and the kids ended up turning down admissions to places like Brown & Stanford. Good for you to be willing to look beyond that for your D! Hopefully you can find someplace that works academically for her and financially for you.</p>
<p>Your Financial Aid strategy will be different depending on whether you will look for financial aid (need-based) or if you make such a good salary that you can’t quaify for financial aid yet can’t afford to pay full price (often, if you make more than $150,000/year but less than $250,000.)
Some schools will give you money based on need (your EFC), some will give you money based on merit (SAT score and GPA, so it’s a very good investment to study hard - same thing for the PSAT by the way, if she can make NMF she’d have automatic scholarship offers at some schools) and most will give a combination.
The top 25 LACs and universities will only give need-based aid though. However they’re more generous than many state schools (some even offer a no-loans policy if your income is below a certain level) and if you’re middle class it’ll probably cost you less than other schools, and certainly less than OOS public universities.
At Princeton, there’s financial aid up to a quarter million dollar/year, and if you make $60,000 or less/year, your daughter will go essentially for free. Of course, her odds of getting in are 1 in 10. Those are the odds for excellent students…</p>
<p>OOS public colleges DO NOT meet need (ie., their FA goes to in-state students so they may admit the OOS applicants but expect them to pay). That’s why WUE is a good deal, although the most popular schools aren’t on the list so it may be useful financially only for her OOS safeties where she can get into the Honors College. (DO apply to Honors Colleges at the public colleges, since it’ll usually bring advantages such as smaller classes, special sections, both leading to better recommendation letters for scholarships/grad school/internships; better dorms; special scholarships… it depends on the school.)</p>
<p>Outside of the WUE, it’s better to apply to OOS private colleges which do not distinguish between in state and out of state applicants - in fact, applying to schools far away gives the applicant an edge at private colleges. Not at Princeton though and typically not in New England (although since Utah students often don’t apply OOS, she’d have a nudge thanks to geographic diversity) but that leaves lots of other regions (Midwest, South, Mid Atlantic especially). Look into top LACs: since they rarely receive applications from Utah, your daughter would get a huge boost. (If you’re Mormon and she hopes to go on a Mission abroad, Middlebury with its top-notch intensive language program would be a great place to apply to.)</p>
<p>Outside of these reaches and her safeties, does she have match schools (excellent schools with an admission rate of 30-50%?) </p>
<p>If your daughter is first-gen (ie. neither adult who raised her received a 4-year degree), look into Hamilton. They have several faculty members who are first-gen, even their president, and they provide excellent (need-based) financial aid to first-gen students.</p>
<p>If she can’t take another AP at her school this year, would she be allowed to take one online? Some of the easier ones to self-study for would be Human Geography or Psychology, for example.</p>
<p>Wow thank you so much. From the numbers you’ve listed, it looks like we will be able to get quite a bit of aid… I will run these calculations today thank you so much. She has quite a few “match” and “safety” schools I just didn’t list them because I am already pretty sure she could get in. Some of these include Wilamette University, St. Lawrence University, Westminster College, Fordham College… I have no idea if she can take AP’s online. I doubt it though. I will look into that. She will take more next year for sure though.</p>