Urban or very close to major city with large sporting events, concerts, foodie scene etc
wants to stay out of the southern states as he is not very sun/heat tolerant. He would be fine with either coast or in middle.
larger school with possibly greek system
Lots of club or intramural sports (he wants to play but is not at college level ability)
Undecided on major, but strong aptitude for data, science, math, and culinary arts. Very interested in sports… so maybe something with sports management. He also thought Computer forensics sounded interesting.
3.75 GPA, not many honors/AP classes, but likely to hit a couple of AP classes before he graduates.
ECs are average to below average - rec soccer, school track and field, and weekly volunteering at animal shelter since freshman year. Works at student store.
hasn’t taken tests yet, but is reluctant to study and says he’ll go test optional.
No restrictions on tuition.
He’s fine with public, private, any religion, although would prefer that the school not be pushing the religion.
Not everyone needs to study for the SAT’s-- he can take a sample (timed) test and may find it’s easier than he thinks, and having scores will help show him off in the best possible light.
Are there any state U’s in your state which are urban/near a major city? Start there.
Oh - he took a PSAT and PACT and his scores are not projected to be great - like around the 1200-1250 and 29-30 range. So, he’ll take the tests, but he won’t study. As a result, his scores won’t be anything to write home about - and he most likely won’t submit them. Also - he very much wants to leave our state. My two daughters are very different knowing exactly what they want - smallish and highly rejective schools. So… his parameters are very different for me and I am not sure what to suggest to him to research.
How about University of San Francisco. SF is a great place to live if you want city life with concerts, great food, entertainment, and weather that rarely qualifies as “hot.” Lots of sports clubs, including recreational ones. It’s Jesuit, but I’ve never heard that they push religion. It’s not super large, but not super tiny, either. But you really can’t beat the location if you like urban environments.
Your son sounds great! And only on CC would anyone think about considering your son “perfectly average.” His extracurriculars show commitment (love the weekly animal shelter volunteering!) and having a part-time job shows responsibility. And his GPA shows that he’s mostly getting all As. He should definitely feel proud of himself.
With respect to schools, @momofboiler1 gave some great suggestions.
Some others he may want to consider include:
Colorado State: About 25k undergrads in Fort Collins. The metro area has about 330k folks, and in just over an hour he could be in Denver.
Indiana University: About 34k undergrads. Though Bloomington isn’t a big city, it’s way more metropolitan than one would expect. There’s just about every type of ethnic cuisine (including Afghani and 2 Tibetan restaurants), when Broadway shows tour, they generally stop here, and it has one of the top music programs in the country.
Marquette (WI): About 7700 undergrads in Milwaukee
Oregon, UNH (close enough to Boston), Pitt (may be reach), UNR. KU and U Oklahoma are “close” to major cities. If you look at U Ark on a map, it’s not really Southern and Fayetteville is a super cool city.
Yes, thank you! I agree that he is wonderful! In fact, his best quality is that he is so balanced - he is super responsible and helpful at home, and loves time with his friends, gets mostly As, and honestly is a genuinely nice, kind young man. I would also rely on him in a heartbeat be the responsible party in a crisis with friends or family. He’s super responsible and level headed. Just not the most motivated academically or interested in solving world hunger. He’s going to have a good life! I just don’t know where to point him in the college search. Thank you for your help!
Grand Valley State University would be a nice safety. It is in Allendale, MI, which is a suburbs of Grand Rapids. There is a bus that will take you to the downtown campus of Grand Valley, which is in Grand Rapids, for free and as a student, he would also have free access to the busing system in Grand Rapids. Grand Rapids has plenty of minor league sports going on like baseball, basketball, and hockey, lots of great food places and has a lot of concerts.
Grand Valley has about 16k students, so it is definitely a larger school, but also a manageable campus. Sports are big at Grand Valley and admissions is free for students. Club and intermural sports are also very popular. Greek life is definitely available for those who want it, but it is not necessary to have a good college experience. There are also a decent amount of professional fraternities as well, which are coed and more preprofessional, plus they are cheaper and have no housing associated with them.
Grand Valley has several great programs in everything your son may be interested except for culinary arts. However, they also have a major in hospitality and tourism management, where he could specialize in food and beverage management. He wouldn’t necessarily learn how to make the food, but he could learn how to run food services, if that would interest him at all.
Finally, I know that there are no restraints on tuition, but Grand Valley would automatically give him instate tuition with his stats, plus an additional 3500, which would leave the COA to be about 21.5k. In addition, they have so many scholarships in their scholarship portal that he could fill out an application for.
If you have any questions about Grand Valley, please reach out! I am a current Grand Valley student who has so far enjoyed their time there.
U of Denver has some top sports on campus (Lax, hockey, gymnastics)and is a 15 minute light rail ride to professional sports (football, basketball, hockey, baseball) in downtown denver, plus all the concerts, theater, conventions like Comic-con. DU doesn’t have football but other schools near Denver (CU, Colorado school of Mines) if he likes that and All City Stadium (high school) is across the highway from DU.
I don’t know if there are sports management classes in the business school, but lots of math and statistic courses.