Limited counselor assistance-suggestions appreciated

My daughter is a Junior at Lake Forest, IL high school. Facts:

  1. GPA is weighted at 4.7;
  2. She’s been invited to be a National Merit Scholar;
  3. She takes 1-2 AP classes each semester;
  4. She plays varsity basketball and varsity soccer (Not scouted);
  5. She perform 45-65 hours of public service each year on a working trip in rural areas-repairing houses;
  6. She was also in the school’s band program for two years.
  7. Standardized tests are challenging . 1st ACT score was a composite 24, but she’s seeing a tutor and will test twice more and hopes to raise her score 2-3 more points.

She’s a bit all over with her search. We are a little worried about the ACT score. She seems most interested in attending a school in a warmer climate or on the West coast. She’s likely to major in chem or bio. She’d like to be at a medium
to large school located in a city or near one and if she’s not in a city she’d like to be at a school with a nice college town and D1 sports. She’s applying to U of Iowa and U of I.

Does she have a chance at U of F or Tulane or UC Santa Barbara or U of Washington? Is there anywhere out East we should consider that could be a safe school? I don’t want to overlook any school and I think she agrees that we need to be open to all options. The Naviance program we are using tracks applicant admitted from our school but sometimes the sample isn’t large enough to get a feel for whether or not she has a realistic shot at admission.

We appreciate your comments and suggestions. Thank you.

Let her have a look at schools in Texas. Several schools meet her requirements.

As an OOS student for the California UC’s, are you prepared to pay $65K/year for her to attend with little to no financial aid?

What is her unweighted GPA? UCSB’s 25th-75th ACT percentiles as of last year: UCSB: 28-34

I’m aware of the out of state costs and I think we can manage it up to $50k year

As the parent, your first task is to do some financial planning so that you know what you can afford to contribute for her college costs (while not compromising college money for younger kids or your retirement).

Then you and she should check the net price calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest to get an idea of what may be affordable. Out-of-state public universities typically give little or no need-based financial aid (some may have merit scholarships). Your in-state public universities have lower list prices, but Illinois historically has not been good with college financial aid even for in-state students.

If she has National Merit Finalist, that could improve the possibility of merit scholarships at many colleges.

Thank you. Were you thinking SMU, Texas Christian U, U of TX? W a 24?

@jsflaw: That still leaves at least $15K/year gap for the UCSB not including traveling costs. UC’s do not offer merit scholarships for NMF.

Do you think UC San Diego is less? I’m told it is overall. We have what I consider to be a substantial sum set aside for our two children without compromising our income or retirement but i appreciate the suggestion about the aid calculator. I’ll use it.

All UC’s will be comparable and give good need-based aid to in-state students. Definitely run the Net Price Calculators for all schools of interest as suggested by @ucbalumnus.

The UC’s all have the same basic tuition costs. Anything along the coast is going to be very expensive.
Your costs for the UC’s will run around $65K+. The costs for insurance and fees will continue to increase. OOS students receive no funding. California does have a large number of National Merit winners.

The UC’s will be an issue for your daughter because they are very competitive and that ACT score is problematic.

Thank you. Other schoool recs appreciated What are we overlooking?

Did you mean National Merit Scholar or National Honor Society?

Sorry-National Honor Society. My fault.

For West Coast California schools, I would probably focus on private schools for merit aid. Some suggestions are the University of San Diego (USD), University of San Francisco (USF). Also University of Southern California (USC) has 1/2 tuition for NMF’s but she would definitely need to bump up her ACT scores.

University of Arizona (good NMF scholarships) or Arizona State would be possible options.

Thanks. Should Santa Clara be one we consider?

Did she work for the ACT of 24? Has she any AP scores? What was her PSAT score?

I don’t think she’;; get into UF unless her ACT goes up to a 28 or 29, but there are a lot of other schools in warm and sunny Florida. U of South Florida in Tampa is nice. FIU is nice. Both have D1 sports There are also a lot of private schools that are smaller but still nice and will have D2 sports. Florida southern has a lot of sciencey stuff (bio, nursing) and Rollins.

For this year’s class (accepted students), the average SAT score was 1,338, with a median SAT score (middle 50% of accepted students) of 1,330-1,460. The average ACT score was 31, with a median ACT between 29-33.

Has she thought about taking the SAT? If she did well on the PSAT, she should on the SAT. Otherwise she should be shooting for a 28+ on the ACT with UF. UF has holistic admissions, and that should work to your daughter’s advantage, they put more focus on GPA, class rigor, the essay and ECs, than on test scores. OOS students have about the same acceptance rate as in-state students, so being OOS doesn’t hurt her chances. UF also doesn’t consider her choice of major in admissions.

Good Luck!

Santa Clara could be a good option but they are not known for good merit aid.

Arizona sounds good to me. California is going to be tough. A bit of a boost is going to be needed in those test scores for the California schools. You may also want to take a look at Nevada’s state schools.