It sounds like the college planner was working from a script that probably serves his/her clientele seeking Ivy and/or acceptance to top-20 schools.
My D heard the similar advice in an initial consultation with a highly respected planner in our area and it totally stressed her out. She ended up following the spirit of what the planner said, but ignored the concrete suggestions. It came down to a matter of packaging what she had already accomplished with respect to her academic interests and ECs, which she was able to do on her own. She did just fine admissions-wise.
I mainly went for advice on what courses to take for the next two years and the consultation was free. I know others that have hired her and are happy, but they are also applying to some really competitive schools.
Congratulations to your daughter! Put this meeting behind you and have faith that your daughter will continue doing well in HS. Don’t get hung up on the PSAT score in 10th grade. Both of my kids took it in school, didn’t study and their scores were what they were (lower than your daughter’s). Both ended up taking the ACT ended up with very good scores. My D17 was accepted at UF as an OOS student and did not start her own non-profit. Best of luck in the next couple of years!
And we wonder why kids and parents get so stressed about this whole college app process! This constant rhetoric about what you “need” to do to get into a good school is just nuts. If there was only one way to do it, we’d all be doing it the same way. Let her continue to excel where she excels and follow her EC passions.
Most “College Planners” are a waste of time and money. Worse yet - they often give bad advice. A good example is this one. The idea that a kid needs to do something “start a business or open a non profit” to be qualified to enter UF is silly.
A 1230 on PSAT 10 isn’t bad. It is a practice test for a practice test. If this was your daughter’s first PSAT, it is a good score. Her score will probably be a good bit higher for the PSAT/NMSQT, and higher still for the actual SAT, just by virtue of familiarity with the test and the additional stuff your daughter will learn in the meantime. The average SAT for incoming UF students is 1364, and I think that a PSAT 10 of 1230 indicates that she’s well on her way to that or, more likely, a better score. The fact that she is at the top 5% of her class is an even better indicator that she is doing pretty damn well.
So do yourselves and your daughter a favor - dump this “College Planner”, and ignore their crappy advice.
Your daughter is doing extremely well, and I would be very surprised if her PSAT/NMSQT wasn’t substantially higher than her PSAT 10, and I would be even more surprised if her SAT wasn’t at least the mid 50% for any of the schools that you mentioned.
IMO, your daughter is well on track for any and all of the schools that you mentioned.
@jenwyman30. If your daughter could solve world peace and find a cure for cancer then maybe she has a shot ;).
We have a friend that is a college counsler at a known school in our area and on the side does advising to kids trying to get into elite colleges. She would balk at least at that advice. You can’t cookie cutter all kids.
Schools want to see personalities and the essays should be unique, interesting and personal. Her love of theater will most likely do that and combine that with her proposed college interest… That could be unique.
Let her be a kid and have fun. Sounds like she’s working hard. It’s her only chance at high school and her memories also.
As far as the psat, I just laughed. My son’s results were somewhere maybe a bit higher but not great. He ended with a Act 34.
If we did it all again it would be prepping for the SAT/Act like now. His friends took their Act at the summer of their rising junior year or fall of junior year and were done with great stats. He waited to spring. Take it when everything is much fresher.
You should get pretty solid advice on this site and anything you would of spent on a college advisor can now be used for college…
Was talking to a friend the other day. Her D20 has a perfect 4.0 unweighted GPA, a couple of very strong ECs, and two different hooks at a T20… and she (D) is terrified she won’t be able to get into anywhere decent - which got us talking about how some college advisors seem to drive their business through the “fear approach” to college admissions. I think this is one of the ones OP stumbled across.
I took my kid to a college admissions counselor because I hoped hearing advice from another adult would prove that I wasn’t just nagging. We were doing great until she said, “Some moms think they know more than they really do about the college admissions process.” Hello, mom sitting right here with the checkbook. Needless to say, in one free hour, she confirmed that I did know more about the process.
The good advice would be think about spending some $$ on test prep. Private tutor if you can afford it. The advice you got is a bit weird.
She’s staying in state and seems plenty qualified now. Better test scores and she might get some aid or into honors. That would be worth the price of a tutor.
Save the money on the planner and get a SAT/ACT tutor, and have her take both exams. All three of my kids bumped tp 5beir scores significantly. Dd17 started the summer before junior year, and took her final SAT this fall.
She doesn’t need to start a non profit or company. She just needs to embrace what she already loves to do. And it doesn’t have to do with her intended major.
If she is doing theater she should go for more challenging parts. Colleges want leaders and people that will out themselves “out there”.
We did use a college counselor and it was money well spent - he did wonders with focusing my kid on what he needed to think about and who he wanted to be. He did advise going to a summer program in engineering, my son’s intended field - it was great advice since my son discovered at this program that aerospace wasn’t his thing but mechanical was. He never ever suggested my child do anything as bizarre as start a business.
While I’m not sure that she needs any extra SAT prep, I’ll agree with those who suggest that she do SAT prep if it will make her feel more prepared. However, I do not think that paying for tutors of courses is required or helpful. The free online prep course from Khan Academy is as good or better than anything that requires payment.
The differences in admissions between UF and most other “holistic” public universities and elite private universities (those with extremely low acceptance rates, usually less than 15%), help explains the “start a non-profit” advise.
UF is interested in kids with strong grades and EC’s. If your grades are over the middle 50% range, have taken a rigorous schedule of classes, and have significant spent time on your EC’s, you’re likely to be accepted. The same applies to most public universities.
Elite privates have way to many applicants that all have great grades/test scores/ECs. That’s why they also look for “SPIKY” applicants, where the student has excelled in one or two areas. The student somehow standout. That’s the origin of the “start a business, non-profit, solve world hunger” advise.
For UF (or any other Florida public universities and almost all OOS public universities), all she needs to do is keep up on her ECs, work to improve her test scores, and keep up her GPA.
The advise for Harvard, MIT, Brown, CalTech,etc, would be different, in that it would include all of the above, plus working to make your application more “spiky”.
There are many excellent college counselors. Most are not a “waste of time and money”. It may depend on what any student/family wants and needs. In this case, if a student like your daughter is clear with their instate plans, has a good list of likelies, matches and potential reaches, and is on track academically, don’t need an outside person to help with essay brainstorming, keeping on track time-wise, etc, then a student like this probably does not need a counselor. But, in this case, to help enhance the power of the student’s presentation, it would , IMO, be helpful to get some solid SAT/PSAT prep and see if the October PSAT (the one that counts) can be in range for NMSF/NMF. That may help with consideration for admission and the Benacquisto scholarship at UF. What was your daughter’s selection index in last year’s PSAT?
I do plan on getting her prep and also taking practice tests this summer to see if she does better on the SAT or ACT. Her stem score for the ACT in 7th grade was a 21 so maybe she will do better on the ACT.
She is only a sophomore. I suggest just letting her evolve naturally and be there to support whatever interests and activities emerge. You can certainly help find possible things to do but only if she asks and if they follow an interest she wants to develop.
I would forget about college and not talk about it for a year. It can really distort high school experience to think too much about college admissions. Ironically colleges value “authenticity” and this kind of packaging advice can be counterproductive anyway.