Texas is our home state and his college list was developed after visiting schools that are known to be generous with merit scholarships. He will not qualify for much, if any, need-based aid, and is planning to go to medical school so the goal is to not go into debt for undergrad. There is a preference for staying in “the south” and he is not interested in small colleges (with 5,000 students or less). He plans to apply to Honors Colleges at most of these schools schools.
In state - Baylor, TCU, Texas A&M, Texas Tech
Out of state - Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas
Reach (for Admission and/or Scholarships) - Tulane, Vanderbilt, Clemson
Stats:
SAT 1550 (800 M, 750 R/W)
ACT 34
GPA 4.0
Rank 4/478
AP classes 4
Honors classes 9
Dual Credit 30 hours
EC: Varsity lacrosse-4 years, NHS, UIL Academic Team-Math, HOSA, Mu Alpha Theta, Young Life, Youth group
Leadership: Boys & Girls Club, PALS (peer mentor), Junior Leadership, Rotary Leadership
Volunteer: About 400 service hours in variety of organizations
Many have commented that with his scores, he should be looking at more Elite schools, but again the goal is merit aid. I appreciate your input. What are his chances for receiving full tuition/full rides to any of these programs. Anything we should consider dropping or adding that meets our criteria?
It looks like a good list to me. Good for him for thinking realistically about future debt! If he’s not bothered by the lack of ivy/elite schools on his list, I don’t see why it would be necessary to add more.
Pitt - it’s not the south but more midwest than northeast. Rolling admissions and they start handing out merit in November. The 1550 might get him full tuition and nominated for the full ride.
WashU - another midwest. There are several scholarships to apply for but the best you’ll get is Full Tuition.
In the south:
Emory - a reach and the possibility of scholarship.
UGa - has merit including full rides with lots of benefits.
USCarolina - has merit and I believe full rides.
All FT/FRs are super reaches but someone gets them.
Going to weigh in as my daughter has very similar stats to your son GPA/ACT and same rank haha. Anyway…those are all good matches for him and shouldn’t be an issue. I’m hoping that he (and my daughter) get offered some merit with those stats. I will also mention Pitt as a good fit for him (it’s my D’18 top choice currently), we are also looking at UDel (honors college) and Rutgers (honors college) along with Northeastern and Boston University. Only issue is these are north east and might not be amenable to him. I’d also agree with UGA and South Carolina as having strong programs and offering really good merit. Otherwise, honestly it’s a solid list! Best of luck to him!
Two things: (1) TCU is about to start a medical school, with a certain number of slots guaranteed to TCU grads; and (2) why not put SMU on your list–they give merit aid and he would be a very strong candidate.
We did visit SMU and he wasn’t feeling it or wanting to live in Dallas (we used to live there) but I have heard they are generous so it may be worth applying and revisiting. Thanks!
No suggestions, but wanted to provide support when you keep hearing “he could do so much better”. Heard that all the time with my son. He had no inclination whatsoever to apply to reach schools. He was very focused on graduating with no debt and with us having some available money for him to do things like maybe a little travel while in college. He knew the criteria he wanted in a school, and focused on those schools where he was well above the average, knowing that significant merit aid is only given to students who are among the top applicants.
Soooo many times well-meaning teachers, parents, and others made comments to him. Thankfully it didn’t bother him - he pretty much ignored it. When people made comments to me, I would just say that he knew what he wanted and he was smart enough to make good decisions. My take on it is you shouldn’t focus on going to the “best” possible school to which you can gain admittance - you should focus on the “best” school that is affordable for you. “Best” of course is a relative term.
Great point! Thankfully he is my practical kid and has always made good financial decisions. He fully realizes that some of these schools may not be an option if the scholarships are not enough. My daughter 2020 is another story! Thanks for the pointers!
I second the thought to look at Pitt. Very unpredictable merit though. This past year it seems the unhooked 34 crowd got 10-15k per year. 2018 could be different though!
Staying in-state in Texas makes a lot of sense, since it can help with access to medical school interviews at Texas public medical schools, which are low cost by medical school standards (private Baylor is also relatively inexpensive for Texas residents doing medical school there). A Texas resident who goes to a low cost undergraduate school and then a Texas public medical school is likely to have substantially less debt at the end than most medical school graduates.
With a top 1% class rank, all Texas public universities are admission safeties, though not necessarily for their competitive majors (although pre-med students can do any major alongside the pre-med course requirements).
While some may comment that his stats make him a possibility for elite-admissions schools, they may not necessarily provide any advantage for his goals, and are likely to be higher cost, since some have no merit scholarships, and merit at those that do tends to be extremely difficult to get. Elite-admissions schools also tend to need more than just high stats; exceptional extracurricular achievement (state or national level) and top-notch essays and recommendations are often needed beyond high stats.
He did not like UTD, which is where I went to graduate school. More of a techie feel and commuter campus. They do have excellent merit aid and are gaining in the rankings. UT Austin is out mainly for financial reasons – I have heard that you would be hard-pressed to get ANY merit aid from them (is this truth?) and the extra costs do not make it as affordable as A&M or Tech (off campus cost of living is outrageous and even the parking is way more). Bottom line is, at full price, he would choose A&M over UT so really no point in applying.