college search in a unique situation

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Does anyone have ideas for my son. Here is the lowdown.</p>

<p>Just entering 10th grade (sophomore). High school is fairly competitive (ranked by Newsweek in the top 1000 or top 3% of the country).</p>

<p>His GPA weigted after the first year is 3.3 (without is about 3.1). All A's and B's but a C- in Spanish, which really hurt. I believe he will do better by the time he graduates high school, hopefully 3.7 weighted (he will be taking alot of honors classes and some AP's). However, he is currently only in the top 45% of his class and I figure he will, at best, finish in the top 30%, and more in the 30% to 40% range.</p>

<p>He should do much better, but he has shown little interest in doing any studying. He picks up whatever he knows in class - he is also more motivated on project-related assignments (more hands-on), then memorizing facts (history). </p>

<p>When he was an 8th grader, he actually took the SAT's (not PSAT's), and scored 620 in math (top 1-2% for 8th graders) and 440 in verbal (still well above average). He won an award from Johns Hopkins for his scores as an 8th grader. </p>

<p>He also goes to Hebrew High School on weekends where he will eventually get a second high school diploma, (this is a 5 year program of study of his own choice), is involved in some clubs (Engineering Club, Computer club), has already done some volunteer work (including Katrina related). He also works. (he likes making money).</p>

<p>I predict by the time he applies to collleges in two years will be a B to B+ student, with good SAT scores (I don't think it unreasonable to assume 700-740 in Math and 570-630 in Verbal). Clearly, his GPA versus his SAT, shows he is somewhat of a slacker in school.</p>

<p>He will need to find a college to fit his stats and one that hopefully gives some merit (scholarship) money based on SAT scores if he goes private. Otherwise, with no scholaship, in-state or out-of-state public would do. We live in New Jersey and he would prefer to stay east coast. </p>

<p>I think to play to his strengths, the college will have to have alot of hands on, project related classes as opposed to "study and memorize".</p>

<p>He is interested in Architecture or Engineering, maybe Business. </p>

<p>Any suggestions for a preliminary list of colleges? Thanks for your help.</p>

2

<p>Let him relax and be a kid. You have AT LEAST a year, if not a year and a half to begin thinking about this. So many things will change between now and beginning/middle of junior year. You really don't need a preliminary list until more or less Spring Break of junior year. Chill... :)</p>

3

<p>You're really in the wrong forum. You should post this on the Parents Forum, where you will get lots of support and advice from parents nationwide who are wrestling with the same issues. It is not too early for you to be investigating colleges, particularly if you are seeking financial help. </p>

<p>You can start looking at these colleges: <a href="http://www.ctcl.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ctcl.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

4

<p>wow... these are the sorts of people who ruin their chilrens' lives.... :(</p>

<p>just let him be a kid, have fun, and slip up (yes, in school) every once in a while :)</p>

<p>getting into the perfect college won't grant him the perfect experience or job placement, not even Harvard. Honestly, I think parents who's kids aren't AT LEAST seniors, shouldn't be this involved.... let them decided what they want to do with their lives; if he feels he wants to go to some ITT Tech or vocational school, let him!</p>

<p>please....this is how my parents screwed me over, if you want the best for him, don't make him have to go through it too :(</p>

5

<p>Many overbearing (and often Asian) parents ruin their child's lives because they want them to become Ivy-league pursuing drones.</p>

<p>Hopefully this parent is just concerned that her son is lazy and doesn't care much about grades. I'd look at US News top 25-top 50, considering how broad the interests might be. Come back after his PSAT scores come in, figure out what sort of personality he has (fratty? intellectual? prolly can't tell with a 15 year old), encourage him to study and facilitate his participation in extracurricular activities. </p>

<p>At the same time, my little brother is a rising sophomore...do you happen to have another son at Duke....I'd be so angry if my mom posted here</p>

6

<p>"He also goes to Hebrew High School on weekends where he will eventually get a second high school diploma, (this is a 5 year program of study of his own choice), is involved in some clubs (Engineering Club, Computer club), has already done some volunteer work (including Katrina related). He also works. (he likes making money)."</p>

<p>Can't imagine why he doesn't have time to study.</p>

<p>He's a kid for goodness sake. Give him a ball and let him throw it at stuff or something.</p>

7

<p>Relax people and be reasonable. While it may be too early for a kid to start thinking about these things, it is certainly not too early for a parent to begin learning the process and gathering information, which is exactly what the OP is trying to do. </p>

<p>There is no evidence that this parent is running his son's life, making unreasonable demands for his kid or making his son unhappy. On the contrary, his son seems to be pursuing things he likes in a way that suits him, perhaps at the expense of his grades, and the parent is supportive of how his son is living his life. OP is simply trying to get information, so give him a break. </p>

<p>My D also does a Hebrew HS program also because she wants to. She loves learning Hebrew and doesn't want to stop. At the program in the Boston area, there are close to 1000 kids that get up on Sunday mornings to go to this program coming from as far away as New Hampshire and Rhode Island. That doesn't mean she isn't being a kid! There is a whole social aspect, community service aspect and intellectual aspect to these programs, and most of the kids who are there really want to be there. </p>

<p>To answer the original poster's questions, I'd look hard at the flagship state schools near you. Maryland, Penn State, Rutgers, Delaware, UMass, UConn. New York doesn't really have a single flagship, but Stony Brook and Buffalo (brrrr) have good engineering. SUNY schools have one the cheapest out of state tuitions in the nation. As for privates, RPI or WPI might give him merit money. I know you said east coast, but I remember reading that Case U in Cleveland gave a lot of merit money. Coop schools like Northeastern or Drexel might be great places especially if he prefers hands-on work to textbook. I think you go 5 years but a significant amount of that is working in industry where you get paid, so that helps a lot with tuition. The synergy of alternating between learning on the job and learning in classes works really well for some.</p>

8

<p>Lewmin is right to do preliminary research early. Knowledge is power. If you know where to head, you can plan. I am doing the same thing. This kid sounds a lot like my nephew, who is a rising senior. Worchester Polytechnic is a great hands-on school. It is project oriented as opposed to lecture hall oriented. Cooper Union is also project oriented, but is very competitive admission-wise and very intense. Olin is hands on, but also competitive. If a kid can show creativity in engineering, there still may be a chance at the competitive places. Worchester accepts 85% of applicants, so those who are poor testers or had a few grade problems still have a chance.</p>

9

<p>Many boys have a bumpy adjustment to high school and don't buckle down until they mature somewhat. You can help by introducing (not pushing!) the idea of college and other post-HS ventures, but don't get to the point where he tunes you out. Your aim should be to inspire him, and get him used to the idea that the choices he makes now in school will impact his college decision.</p>

<p>Is his goal of engineering or architecture a reasonable one in your eyes? Those fields need a great deal of attention to detail, and architecture can be especially competitive in admissions. </p>

<p>If he needs merit aid, he will have to look at schools where he is in the top 20% of applicants. It's way too early to determine what those will be, but you may want to visit one or two of the suggested schools next summer or fall. I would also recommend Northeastern since my nephew enjoyed his years there, and just graduated with two years of excellent co-op experience in business.</p>

10

<p>Kettering University in MI is a great choice for engineering ... as long as he is willing to study & memorize what is necessary in order to be an engineer. There are no engineering programs anywhere that one can get through without buckling down & studying! But if he wants the degree, chances are he'll do the work. Kettering has a great hands-on approach to engineering, with lots of labs that are used by all. In addition, co-op is what the school is about ... so he might like the balance of work/school. It's a small, personal school. Grades can be discussed with an admissions person.</p>

11

<p>Asians are the new jews...Andrew Golden</p>

<p>That said, anyone who thinks 10th grade is too early to look will find out they were wrong later. You need to plan out lots of things for your best possible shot.</p>

<p>With the SAT scores you project, he would have to go to pretty low tier schools for merit money. Take a look at the merit schools list on the parents forum.</p>

<p>Many OOS publics are as expensive as privates unless your state has an agreement with the other state. </p>

<p>Staying on the East Coast will lower the rank of the school he gets into. You may want to rethink that.</p>

<p>So top 30%, 1350ish, needs money. For engineering, I'd use your state school. For architecture or Business, I'd look further. Cal Poly SLO is a match for architecture and probably cost $25K OOS. </p>

<p>For business UMichigan is a slight reach and it's also $40K but worth a shot as the best B school he has a shot at with his stats. Indiana is worth a look. Emory as a reach.</p>