Good Guidance Counselors

Parents Forum
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<p>I've posted on here just a few times and received excellent advice. You are all good guidance counselors. You are the only ones we have since we are a homeschooling family.</p>

<p>We did not expect to be in this situation, (shopping for a top college), but our oldest daughter has been very self-motivated for years and has done much better than we expected. I expected her to go to the local university which I can afford.</p>

<p>So now she is a senior with good SAT 1 scores (800 verbal, 700 math) and more mediocre SAT 2 scores, (Math 1C 670, Math 2C 740, Physics 650, Writing 780, Lit 780, Spanish 610). She is also an NMS semi-finalist.</p>

<p>She would like to study Astrophysics in grad school and so is looking for a school that has both physics and Astronomy. </p>

<p>To complicate matters, we cannot afford to pay for much of her schooling and don't expect much need based help. My income is erratic (sales), but averages just under $100K. We have a large family and live in an expensive state. Excuses for not having much in savings...</p>

<p>So we are helping her look for a good science college where she can get a full ride or almost full ride scholarship.</p>

<p>She has been applying to some schools and recently was accepted to Embry-Riddle. We are not sure about the scholarship chances there.</p>

<p>After all that the questions are:</p>

<p>Should she not even apply to schools that do not have a decent astronomy program along with the physics major?</p>

<p>Where would she have a good shot at a merit based scholarship along with the physics/astronomy program?</p>

<p>She has already declined to apply to some good colleges because they do not seem to have much in the way of astronomy and I am afraid she may be missing out on some good scholarship chances because of that.</p>

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<p>I would not call your D's SATII scores mediocre. Her 3 top scores are 740, 780 and 780. These are excellent scores, although the 650 in Physics is less good. However, colleges look at the top 3 only.
Is your D interested in a smaller school, a medium-sized one or a large university with an Honors program?</p>

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<p>She is most interested in a smaller school but is forcing herself to be open to any school that will give her the good science along with a good merit based scholarship.</p>

<p>In addition, she does seem to be biased toward warmer locations. Growing up here in Alaska seems to do that to some people!</p>

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<p>Have you done an estimate for financial aid? With a large family you may qualify for more than you think. Here are a couple.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.finaid.org/calculators/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.finaid.org/calculators/&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.act.org/fane/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.act.org/fane/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>U of Rochester has a good physics department and gives 10,000 merit for SATs over 1350.</p>

<p>Franklin and Marshall has a number of good merit awards, also a good physics department.</p>

<p>UMichigan has an excellent astro department, and gives a few merit scholarships. I think your D would have a shot.</p>

<p>Last year at this time, my S thought he wanted to major in astrophysics. We were told in various sources that the important thing was good undergraduate physics. These school above were three we researched. the first two were probably safeties for him, as for your D, which is why they'd both have a good shot for merit. The third would be a match for her, and she'd have some shot at a scholarship--S was awarded one with similar stats, ultimately turned down for his ED school which of course didn't award merit scholarships--sigh.</p>

<p>Incidentally, he's since decided that though he loves reading about astrophysical theory, he really does not enjoy physics, and is now considering an English major---a warning to look at the whole school, not just the particular department!</p>

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<p>Thanks Garland for the advice. D is obviously great in all the verbal stuff, but I can't seem to get her into it. It's just extremely easy for her. She is an excellent writer to my and my wife's amazement. We both struggle.</p>

<p>Like your S she has always been absolutely fascinated about astrophysical theory. </p>

<p>Perhaps that is a good reason not to go to Embry-Riddle. It is so focused.</p>

<p>And thanks Over-30. I'll try those calculators</p>

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<p>Besides Garland's list, I'd add Duke and Rice (much warmer than Rochester!). I believe they give good merit aid.</p>

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<p>Marite:
Duke is a great school. However, the merit aid is extremely limited. (Unfortunately, we know.............)</p>

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<p>1sokkermom:</p>

<p>Aww. Thanks for the correction, though.</p>

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<p>I tried the financial aid calculator and as I suspected it says we likely will not be eligible for Pell grants.</p>

<p>I notice at Rice we have already missed the ED and EA deadlines. Does that make a difference in the chances for merit aid? Rice does seem to have a good science program.</p>

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<p>I don't know too much about physics and astronomy specifically, but have you researched the school that will give NMS finalists big tuition scholarships? I know that there are quite a few of these schools out there, some which are very good, and I'm sure others on this board have a lot of knowledge about this and could tell you more.</p>

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<p>Yes, We have printed out the list of schools offering scholarships to NMS finalists off this board and spent quite a bit of time researching them on the net.</p>

<p>Because of that we are looking at the two Arizona schools as hopefully safeties. They are both large schools, (over 30,000), but the meet the other criteria of offering physics/astronomy and good merit scholarships along with being "warm".</p>

<p>I want to thank whomever made that list. It was extremely helpful.</p>

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<p>Although it would be a definite safety for her, friends of mine who are astrophysics professors have mentioned Trinity University in San Antonio as having a good physics program. Trinity can be VERY generous with financial aid for top students. You might also want to take a look at Harvey Mudd or Pomona College, both part of the Claremont Consortium in Calif. to see what types of merit money they might offer. <a href="http://www.physics.hmc.edu/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.physics.hmc.edu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Rice gives a lot of really great merit aid and i'd definitely recommend it - some people do get merit when applying early, but i think the norm is to give out more merit aid in the RD rounds when they are trying to convince students to attend. </p>

<p>If you are lucky, you might get an offer to be in this program, check it out:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.ruf.rice.edu/%7Ecentscho/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~centscho/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Also, to see what kinds of things are going on in the department, you could look at this, if you haven't already:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.physics.rice.edu/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.physics.rice.edu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>If you have any questions about Rice, please e-mail me!</p>

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<p>If she is interested in warmer climates, she might also want to look at Tulane which would likely offer her pretty decent merit aid.</p>

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<p>Our friend's daughter also studied astrophysics and went to U Chicago undergrad.</p>

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<p>Try Caltech, in Pasadena, CA. JPL right there. 5 physics classes are part of core requirements. Has she done any research? That helps with admissions. Once there, she can begin research first year. Being a female will help a little</p>

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<p>She was in the summer science program at Ojai. They did research there. It was finding the orbit of an asteroid I believe. Will that help do you think?</p>

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<p>The big Harvey Mudd scholarships require a 750+ in both math and verbal and require the application to be in early. You may have already missed the deadline--by all means, check.</p>

<p>This points out one aspect of financial aid that I've had some parents mention to me. It's hard enough to find time to research schools in senior year--but some very hefty school-specific scholarships also have ED-type deadlines.</p>

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<p>Yes...we are finding that out! Like I said, we don't have a guidance counselor to help us and since this is our first one we found ourselves behind the curve.</p>