Colleges and College Visits

Hi. Did all my education abroad so have no clue about how it works here. D is a Junior now but as she was getting into HS younger D had medical situation so had to pull older D out of all EC’s. Hence EC’s for her are not that great, she does have some like tutoring kids in Spanish, volunteering at church but nothing significant. We are in Texas. She got a 2370 on her only SAT attempt and got a 225 SI on her PSAT that came out this week. She has a 4.6 weighted GPA with around 3.7 -3.75 unweighted. The 3 areas we can consider for college are NY/Boston region/Bay area and Texas. Could folks suggest if based on her stats she may stand a chance in the top colleges or should we just go to UT as she wants to. She is an introverted person but am trying to get her to think of other colleges so she can broaden her horizons. Money wont be an issue if she could get into one of the top schools. Am looking at suggestions and also if we should do campus visits and how folks who have done those have gone about doing them . Sorry for the broad nature of the post but am trying to understand how other families have approached such decisions so we do right by her. Thank You for any insight.

She should have her guidance counselor address in the GC recommendation the cause of her limited ECs. But even with that, I think her odds at the very top colleges would be quite slim without them, especially because her UW GPA is also on the lower side.

Will she be an auto-admit to UT? I think it is top 7% this year, is she comfortably within that percentile?

Is she sure she wants a large college? You may want to take her to visit a LAC and a larger school to see how she likes it. You might take her to a women’s college, too – Wellesley seems like a possibility – near Boston, well known, very strong academics, beautiful campus. If I were arranging visits, I would choose more schools where her stats are on the higher end due to the lack of ECs.

What is the reason for the geographic restrictions? Those are highly competitive college areas.

Finally, I’d suggest that you get a copy of the Fiske Guide to Colleges if you don’t have one yet, and have her go through it. It is a great way to review a pithy description of a few hundred top colleges. Very readable, and we have found it to be quite accurate in the descriptions.

She will be auto admit. She is currently top 3% in class of around 980 at a very competitive school. She will be National Merit Semi Finalist not sure if she will get to finalist but her school has around 20-25 kids who are NMF every year. The reason for the geographic restriction is because those are the areas we have family around so figured she would be close to family. She has honestly said she is happy with UT but I was trying to get her to expand her horizons. She is not sure what she wants college wise or career wise so we are trying to figure both out. Know she is good in Bio and Sciences and she thinks she wants to do Eng.
I was suggesting we apply to the schools and see if she gets in and if she does then we can decide but otherwise we can go to UT. I will look into the Fiske guide.

Sorry the unweighted is more in the 3.9 range and not the 3.75 that I mentioned in my first post. She saw the post now and corrected me.

I would encourage you and your daughter to do college visits at some point in the process; and go when the schools are in session, so that your daughter can see and get a feel for what the student body is like, and whether she can see herself as part of that student body.

The Fiske Guide is very good and helpful; I have also found The Insider’s Guide to the Colleges to be helpful as well.

Congratulations to your D for her HS performance, and to you both for doing some research into where to go from here. My D was in the same position a few years ago, and drawing on that experience points out that whether or not your D wants to pursue engineering - and which engineering discipline - does make a difference, and it is a question that should be addressed before deciding which colleges to consider and/or visit.

Your D’s interest in engineering almost automatically eliminates LACs from consideration - so that winnows down the schools under consideration. It is also worth pointing out that large state schools that have engineering are not going to care about ECs, although that might be important for admission into the Honors programs at the larger schools.

Keep in mind that using the “sort” program part of CC might be helpful in further reducing the schools that you are considering. After you narrow your list down then you can get more specific information and plan visits. Good Luck!

Is she sure about engineering? She might consider a summer program to help her decide. My D2 was thinking about engineering, attended a summer engineering program after junior year, and decided it was not the major for her. It can bring some clarity to the college search.

I am curious what types of schools your daughter might be considering and what your financial constraints might be. When you say “money won’t be an issue if she gets into one of the top schools” what exactly does that mean? Will your family qualify for FA or will you be full pay? If you are full pay are you saying you are willing to pay for a “top school” but not a similarly priced lower ranked or less prestigious school? What is your family’s idea of a top school?
As you probably already know the most selective/competitive private schools do not (generally speaking) give much if any merit aid.

Decide how much your family can pay for college. Note that what you think you can afford and what colleges think you can afford might not be near the same number.

Run the NPC for a few schools to get an idea of affordability.

In Texas, your daughter should consider Rice, Baylor, Trinity and of course UT Austin. I’d suggest you tour these schools very soon. Your daughter would receive a lot of money from Baylor if money is an issue for you. Rice provides excellent financial aid (but not for higher income families) and some merit awards. Trinity has some engineering and I’ve heard the science are excellent. Again, your daughter might get a significant merit award.

http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com
From this list, look at Alabama, Boston University. Northeastern University and UT Dallas among others of course.

If your income looks like you will qualify for significant financial aid, these colleges provide terrific help.
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2015/09/14/colleges-that-report-meeting-full-financial-need

Please consider what your D wants as you work on the list of possible college options. My D had a strong desire to stay within a 2-3 hour drive of our hometown, and we honored her request. We found 10-12 schools in that range to start our search.

The emotional adjustment of college can be a huge factor in student success. Don’t think that substituting family relations in another state will automatically fill the emotional void of leaving home. Learning to live in a new city, adjust to new weather patterns, etc. can be an added stress to college life. Plus, you know you have an introvert on your hands, so add that into the equation. Give your child every possible opportunity to succeed in college by thinking through her needs.

It doesn’t mean you automatically wipe the other regions out of your search, and a visit to the families you have scattered about would be a good use of your vacation days. Plan to spend a night or two with your relatives, as it will be your D’s relationship with them that matters. (I have found that as an aunt, I am sometimes more emotionally attached to my nieces and nephews than they are to me. So, although I would be thrilled to have one of them move close to me, I am not so sure that my presence would reassure them much if they were homesick.)

Geographic location for college is a choice. Some kids want to strike out on their own and attend a far away college. Others want to stick closer to home. It is not an indication of failure to stay in a familiar place.

Go and visit several colleges that are close by to your hometown. Ask your D what she likes/dislikes about the campus size, location, types of students, majors offered, class size, and the student population size. What is her reaction to an urban campus vs. a remote location? Can she live simply, or does she need the excitement of a big city close by? Does she prefer a beautiful campus with large, green open spaces, or are concrete sidewalks in a campus that blends into a big city suit her better? Use those comments to narrow down the school choices.

Think Big Picture here. You want your child to graduate with a college degree. You hope your child will engage with her fellow students, rise to the academic challenges, interact with professors and become passionate in her major subject areas, and grow and mature into an adult. You want her to develop friendships, find some joy in this college journey, and hopefully be an employable adult when she receives her college diploma.

Those things can happen at a lot of different colleges. Some colleges may appeal to your D more than others. Love the child you have, and view the college process through her eyes. Don’t look to college rankings to determine which college is best for your child. Use college guides to determine which colleges have the things that are important to your child and which colleges are affordable to your family. Don’t go into huge debt to fund undergraduate education.

With your child’s stats, she could do well with merit aid at some colleges. Look for colleges where her stats are in the top 10% for best chance at merit aid.

Consider the college road trips with your D as mother/daughter adventures. Try your best to hold back your opinions so your D can feel comfortable forming and expressing her own opinions. And try to limit your college talks to once a week, maybe set a time on Sunday afternoons to go over whatever details you need to. And be sure to talk about lots of other interesting things throughout the rest of the week. HS students are overwhelmed, it is a lot of pressure to pick a college while still in the midst of rigorous academic studies. Be sure she has some fun ways to blow off steam occasionally.

Best of luck to you. It sounds like you want what’s best for your D.

Sorry. Just saw that money is not an issue. My post is more about money, but you should go visit Texas schools because we do have an a nice assortment in state.

Looking at a variety of college types will help your daughter understand what she would like in a college.

“She got a 2370 on her only SAT attempt and got a 225 SI on her PSAT that came out this week. She has a 4.6 weighted GPA with around 3.7 -3.75 unweighted…Could folks suggest if based on her stats she may stand a chance in the top colleges or should we just go to UT as she wants to.”

Ask your high school if they have naviance. You can use it to see which top schools that students from your school with your daughter’s stats have attended.

She should be able to get admitted to a reasonably top college. How top of a college will, in my opinion, how adcoms view the situation that came up and caused her ECs to be weak. If you really want to pursue this route, I would be sure that the GCs recommendation letter covers the issue. I also believe that her essays will be an important opportunity to convey the situation. If it were me, I would want to get some help for your daughter from someone who is experienced in explaining special situations like this one and giving the Adcom a clear picture of the situation. While that may seem straight forward, I have learned that it is not.

Thank You all very much for your posts. To answer some questions: Merit while helpful is not a criteria for the collefe. Do not get us wrong we would like to get the merit but If needed we are okay with spending in the 140-150K range. We will most likely be full pay but are okay with that budget. We are hoping that should allow her to hit most top tier schools. We are trying to get her into a summer program this summer so she can get an idea of her choices. We will try and see if she will agree to getting help on her essay. In the past she has refused to do so thinking it is not right but am hopeful we can convince her to have it reviewed so the challenges we had in are presented in a proper manner.Our thought was that the school would have to be Ivy or near Ivy for her to go out of state as opposed to UT.

And by “Top Schools” if you mean only Ivy League schools, MIT, and Stanford, then you need to understand that these schools are all very different places.

Also you will need to budget $65,000-$70,000 per year if you don’t qualify for financial aid.

Seconding Rice and Trinity if her preference is to stay in Texas. If you want to pay $140-$150K total over 4 years, Trinity is the better bet. She’d get fabulous merit aid there (looks like at least $23K per year), and would be eligible for their Tower Scholarship, which is full tuition. Their new science center is nothing short of spectacular.

Rice is one of the finest schools in the country, but if you’re full pay, you’re looking at $55k/yr or $220 over 4 years (assuming today’s tuition, which is a low estimate since it’s sure to go up). If you start looking at highly selective private schools outside of TX (Ivy’s, etc), as @txstella stated, you’re looking at $60k+/year.

Also, contra @nugraddad, wanting to do engineering doesn’t eliminate all LACs, but it does substantially narrow the field. Swarthmore is top of the heap (does Philly qualify as NY area?), but, as stated above, it’s very expensive and offers no merit. Then there are schools like Harvey Mudd (not in one of your preferred geographies) and Olin (right outside Boston), which are small and exclusively undergraduate, but more tech focused. Olin, where one must major in some form of engineering, offers a pretty unique value proposition, in that it’s an elite school at which every kid who’s admitted gets a half-tuition merit scholarship. At about $39K/yr, it comes very close to coming in within your budget. It’s tiny, however, and a pretty different universe than UT, so whether or not it’s a good fit for your daughter is something you’d need to figure out.

Sounds like running net price calculators will be an important step for you. They are on the financial aid webpage for each college.

Thanks All. Great points for us, Net Price will be big for us, did not realize that 65-70 is what we would need to look at for MIT and the other Ivies. Was hoping it would be in the 50K range and was trying to figure out how to meet the other 50K or so we were short but 70K a year would make it unreachable for us. Philly area is ok for us to look at. For right now we were planning to go with the Ivies and see if we get anything in aid to bring it closer to the amount we are willing, along with visits to the Texas schools. Thank You again for all of everybody’s help. Makes the stress a little less with all the great points that folks have pointed out.