My junior son seems a little overwhelmed by the process. I’m trying to help. The only feedback I get is that Clemson is his safety and that he wants football (doesn’t have to be great football, but some spirit). Sciences- maybe engineering, chemistry, biochem, bio… Grades 4.0 UW so far and probably will be like a high 5 or so weighted. SAT shaping up to be over 1500 hopefully. XC 4 years, track freshman and baseball sophomore and junior (no captain etc… just on the teams). Plays beautiful classical guitar but not much to show for that (never entered competitions or anything). Has played for nursing homes (pandemic a problem for that), encouraging him to work on that. Some volunteer work, again trying to focus that a little info a particular area. Very hard core outdoorsy summer camp, not your typical camp- lots of serious canoeing into Canada. But all in al, I’d say mediocre on the ECs from what I read from others. Not into school clubs- thinks they are dumb (they really do sound kinda dumb) but is NHS and will likely be Spanish NHS this year. Certainly no leadership there. He’s kind of an agreeable but flies under the radar kid. I feel like this board has so much institutional knowledge, looking for advice and managed expectations. He loves Dartmouth and Vandy. Plans to visit Northwestern and UVA. Those would all obviously be high reach, would ED one of those. Then Tulane and Wake considering more “targets” (loves) - but geez is Tulane a reach too now? I went there! Any thoughts on the above reaches, or suggestions for other targets and safeties? Duke out of the question I guess even as ED reach?Thinking about VA Tech, U of Georgia, u of Florida, Davidson, Furman (last 2 might be too small?) He did not like Brown or Harvard (not saying those were options) because too urban. Says some options too cold (Michigan) yet loves Dartmouth (drawn to the winter sports). I’m kind of thinking will full pay for a T20ish but otherwise would just go with Clemson (in state) or would want big money. Medical school is current plan, so I think about that in terms of $$ and also making good grades. I think we have a good start here but need to manage expectations a bit (husband etc just don’t get what’s going on today!) Penny for your thoughts (sorry that’s a lot of info but it seems necessary for a complete picture).
Sounds like a great kid who will have a lot of options. Suggest you focus on finding more safety and targets-can your school provide naviance or history of past acceptances? Can you run NPC to make sure all are affordable? Perhaps start visiting different types-Davidson, a tiny liberal arts college, would not be appealing to most students applying to Wake, and the reverse is true. You have identified a lot of reaches but should make sure he is happy with attending a safety if need be.
My daughter is at Clemson OOS. She received a lot more merit from other schools but fell in love. She’s a freshman and now has two advisors (wants to be an actuary but is a finance major so they’re going to collaborate and map out a plan for higher math courses and getting some of the tests completed before gradation). She had great stats but we can’t afford $70,000+ a year for prestige.
Thank you, all great advice. He’s so agreeable I honestly think he’d be fine with whatever of these, if we work with his limited parameters (not urban, school spirit…) We will get no need-based aid. We can afford 70K a year, just a matter of whether we want to. He goes to a very good high school with very high achieving kids and it’s hard not to get caught up in it. That said, probably half of them go to Clemson since they are smart kids who understand that it is a good financial move (and they all love Clemson football). I’m great with Clemson, we are big fans, but just want to make sure we are looking at different options. I personally think it’s a little big, but it’s not my decision. Also it becomes a bit of high school part 2 for his high school, and I think he needs a fresh start. But there’s a high likelihood that he’ll go there. I think for now we’re just wanting something a little different. And he wants to pick one of the top tier schools for an ED- just for slightly elevated chance.
Glad to hear your daughter loves Clemson- it’s definitely a special place and we’ve spent a lot of time there (hubs went for grad school) and we go to a lot of football games.
Furman is small, but a wonderful school, especially in the sciences. Furman does have a football team, but it is also close enough to Clemson to watch the Tigers play.
I am starting to see that and seems like costs could end up comparable. I’m a fan of a smaller school. (I’d prefer around 5-7K students but I think that’s just because I went to Tulane so it’s all I know!) My husband is from Greenville and says he doesn’t think Furman is the one. But I don’t know, we love Greenville, I think he could study chemistry, do lots of research, do well and it would be a great springboard for med school. Seems like they have a great track record there. My only concern is social aspect… he’s not a social kid now and needs all the help he can get in that department.
UGA is a great choice if your child is interested in school spirit and football.
My kid turned down Emory and UGA for Furman and thinks it was the best decision she ever made. I can’t say enough good things about the professors. If your son is interested in chemistry, have him connect with Dr. Sandy Wheeler or Dr. Laura Wright.
If your child has a 1500 and 4.0 UW with lots of rigor, then anything is on the table and the UGA, Clemson, and UF would obviously me your safeties.
Simply because you mentioned medical school, I might throw out (in regard to large schools) Alabama (McCulough Scholars) - with #s like that tuition will be just a few thousand $$, Arizona - same reason - tuition will be just a few thousand $$.
U of SC Honors College is another cost winner and Miami of Ohio is too. FSU another to look at.
When you’re looking at 8 years of huge expense, if you can save 25K or ore a year - it may be worth it - and those are really low cost (with his stats) and all have fine Honors or LLCs.
McCollough Scholars – Pre-Medical Studies at the University of Alabama (ua.edu)
Your son has a very similar profile to my S22. It can be very overwhelming reading about all of the kids with seemingly impossible extracurriculars. Seems like everyone has founded a school for orphans in Pakistan or published a best selling novel. My kiddos main ec is his sport but he is not a recruited athlete. Don’t down play what your son does outside of school. Spending his time playing guitar at nursing homes is wonderful and much more interesting than being a member of sixteen school clubs. My son is a talented photographer and spends a good bit of time volunteering his skills for charities.
My best advice to you is to visit, visit, visit. We focused most of our efforts on match and safety schools. I didn’t even take him to visit Duke because it is just too easy to fall in love with it 
There were many schools that dropped off of his list after visiting and a few that weren’t on his radar that became top contenders. He found UGA’s campus to be too big and sprawling. Ditto for VA Tech and Chapel Hill. He liked Clemson,Auburn and UVA because they don’t feel as overwhelmingly huge. He loved Davidson and Furman,both of which are small but have D1 sports. Ultimately he decided to apply early decision to a midsize school because he felt that the course offerings for his major would be somewhat limited at the small schools.
FWIW, his early action acceptances were Clemson ( out of state with scholarship), Auburn (presidential scholarship and honors college), UGA, Georgia Tech and Furman(Townes Scholarship of 35k per year). He withdrew his applications to University of Richmond , Rhodes and Case Western after his ED acceptance. All three of those might be possibilities for your son as they have a good track record for pre meds and offer merit scholarships. Case has engineering, the other two don’t. Your son will have lots of great options. Good luck
For an outdoorsy kid who flies under the radar and is interested in medicine I would suggest UVM as a safety. If he gets in the Honors College he will get a Presidential scholarship worth $20000 per year making it similar in price to many in state options and he will find many students who are pretty hard core into the outdoors.
My kid has very different interests, school-wise, from your son, as she leans exclusively to small colleges. She applied EA to six schools and was admitted with significant merit $$ to all of them. I mention this not to brag (though I am proud), but because she didn’t have a single HS club in her list of ECs. She played sports at school, but all of her other ECs were volunteer work and personal outdoorsy stuff (lots of backpacking) and music-making on her own. Two of her admission letters mentioned the backpacking and another mentioned the music, so I think her ECs struck a chord, so to speak. Your son sounds great --and I don’t think his ECs are “mediocre” at all.
I love this. Sometimes a passion can be fulfilling and keep you busy but isn’t as easy to show on paper. So many of these “Harvard bound” kids’ ECs seem like they were done solely for the purpose of landing admission, not because they were truly passionate about them.
If you read Selingo’s book Who Gets In and Why, you will learn that Tulane weighs demonstrated interest very heavily.
If he wants to go to Tulane, he should not miss any AO visit to his high school, visit, open every email and link, attend virtual presentations, etc. If he does those things, my hunch is he will get in.
Yes we are definitely keyed into this re Tulane! And easy to do since I’m an alum… he’s been there a lot and has had no choice but to hear endlessly about it. He’s been doing some online stuff and has an official campus tour coming up.
People that go to Tulane love it. Really really love it!!! My daughter “hated” the campus but loved New Orleans. She didn’t like the dorms that were motel 6-ish 
So she didn’t apply.
Guess you’ll see. But everyone I know who goes there adores the school.
Since you are looking at big football schools, if you have an extra half day, you might head over to LSU - also has big merit. My daughter liked the campus much more than Tulane…quite nice - but obviously it’s far beneath from a perception POV what you’re looking at - but like every flagship, there’s plenty of smart kids and when we were there they made it a point to say they were ramping up merit aid big time to compete…not sure if it happened.