<p>When I read the posts on CC, I sometimes get the feeling that I'm the only parent with a child at a public school with little or no help from the guidance office. We live in a Missouri town of 75,000, with primarily blue-collar or service industry jobs. The largest employers are the local hospital and a pork processing plant.</p>
<p>Our high school has 1700 students and about 55 percent of the graduating classes go to any college. Most stay in town at the local "directional" state university. Maybe five students a year go to competitive colleges. One Harvard and one MIT in the last four years--the first ever. A couple at Vanderbilt and Tulane (southern transplant legacy families!) The college counselor is a former admissions rep at the local state university. She knows the ropes of schools within a three-hour driving radius. Beyond that she is no help.</p>
<p>Surely there are more of you out there in our shoes? If so, what sources, other than CC and collegeboard.com, did you use to help your student search for the right school?</p>
<p>(Probably TMI but here's our situation): Our son is a junior, second (or maybe first now) in his class of 450. He wants to major in nuclear engineering. He is a science and math "geek" in a class where the smartest kids are writers and artists, so none of his friends are looking at similar schools. Our school does not compete in the contests I read about here. He has an ACT of 33 as a sophomore (and will retake) and attended the state's scholars academy last summer. Don't know his PSAT yet because we had three snow days last week and they delayed giving out the results until Tuesday. He excels in public speaking/NFL competitions.</p>
<p>He is dreaming of MIT, Purdue or Michigan with an inherited interest in Mizzou, although nuclear engineering is only a minor there for undergrads. Any other ideas from other parts of the country for schools we should consider?</p>
<p>Not sure what your other parameters are. Looking at your posts you are thinking of a more conservative environment? FWIW, back in the day, my roommate at Berkeley was a Nuke E (as well as NROTC). Gotta have a thick skin to do that, but it is possible. </p>
<p>“When I read the posts on CC, I sometimes get the feeling that I’m the only parent with a child at a public school with little or no help from the guidance office.”</p>
<p>I came to CC years ago because the GC at S’s school was inept.</p>
<p>Based on the info I gathered on CC and through books, I ended up offering free college and scholarship workshops at S’s school.</p>
<p>Don’t give up hope. CC has given me so much additional information about college and scholarships that I would have never found otherwise. I attend a rural, 400 kid HS in PA. Our GC is great, but doesn’t know a lot about schools outside of PA.</p>
<p>My kids did not want to go to any in-state schools so no help from the schools. In their defense they each have over 300 kids 9-12 to deal with so I wasn’t miffed when I got an e-mail that basically said “Your kids don’t need help do they?” Stick around here you’ll learn everything you need to know and then some. Michigan is very good for Nuke E but can be pricey for out of state. Son should apply very, very early ASAP in September as there are a small amount of very good scholarships that he could conceivably be in the running for, since U of M is rolling the early birds get the worms. Out GCs mandate that the UofM apps be finished and in by the end of September and we’re instate.</p>
<p>OWmom: we’re in a similar setting. 5-600/class, very few going out of state. Had no GC help, in fact, GC gave out erroneous information at times. Didn’t seem a bit upset when it came to light she had been wrong. Got my information from here, books, and the web. </p>
<p>Become the resource and advocate for your child.</p>
<p>The school district is the largest employer in my town of 100K :)</p>
<p>Of the kids in my son’s very small high school who go to college, a very small percentage go out of state. The in-staters split up among the major state public unis and the nearby community colleges; the out-of-staters, mostly either religious schools they know well or a single application to a school where the outcome isn’t much in question.</p>
<p>geek_son’s choice (a Tier 1) and process (Common App, ED) were relatively unfamiliar to them. Fortunately, we had a heads-up on this in his sophomore year, when we scheduled a meeting with the GC to ask her advice on summer programs and she advised him to keep his grades above a 3.0 so he could get a merit scholarship at one of the state publics.</p>
<p>I became geek<em>son’s college counselor and took charge of the process. The GC supplied a checklist to all seniors; we used this as a road map, but changed the dates. I scheduled another meeting with her right after the “senior parents” meeting to lay out the plans geek</em>son and I had worked out and the resources we’d found along the way. Told her I was asking her advice on the plan – but mostly I was just letting her know what to anticipate from us. She had nothing to add, except to say it looked good.</p>
<p>Every step of the way, we told the GC exactly what paperwork we needed by when, and she came through for us. This was a great partnership for us, and maybe a refreshing experience for her (one less family she had to ride herd on). We just had to make the mental shift to fending for ourselves (CC, collegeboard.com, and lots and lots of books) rather than relying on expertise the GC didn’t have.</p>
<p>My kids went to a school with a wonderful guidance department. It was a small school and many kids went out of state. That being said, I received much more and detailed information from CC. I wouldn’t worry about your GC and the school. You will be able to guide your S and his Guidance Office through this.</p>
<p>I do want to say something about nuclear engineering. My H works in the power industry although not at a nuclear facility. We know lots of people who have worked in the nuclear power industry. I don’t think that any of them have their BS in Nuclear Engineering. Most but not all, went in the the Nuclear Navy after college or did graduate work in NE. My H had a boss who was a Naval Academy graduate (don’t know if your S would have any interest in the naval academy) and worked in the Nuclear Navy. He had a D who wanted to be a NE and went to Michigan. She dropped the NE major and decided to major in ChemE. She was advised that the best way to go in NE was to major in ChemE and go to graduate school in NE.</p>
<p>Don’t give up hope. I’m a student in a similar situation- though most students go to college from my high school, the counselors know the local public schools… and pretty much nothing else. Since I’m interested in small, private LACs, I’ve had to do a lot of my own research. Few of my classmates have even heard of the schools I’m applying to, let alone are applying to the same places. But, with a little elbow grease, I found several lovely schools where I would fit in and feel confident about my applications. Just remember that you aren’t alone- we’re here to help!</p>
<p>With 450 students in a class and one college guidance counselor no wonder that you’re not getting the kind of support you want from your kid’s high school.</p>
<p>I think all of us go to CC because we want more information and analysis than we can get from the usual sources. At your school it sounds to me like there is a systemic problem: not enough FTEs being devoted to college guidance. But even overworked GCs have value to add and can assist you - see post 8 by geek mom.</p>
<p>I guess what I’m saying is to hate the sin (lack of sufficient resources for CG at your school ) and appreciate and use the CG officer for what she can provide.</p>
<p>For selecting a school, some kids have a wider set of criteria to find a good fit than other kids. Some of these may apply to your child, and some may not . . . in our household one child was interested in many of these factors and other was not, which made the college searches very different. Here’s the criteria we used in discussions with the kids to get a better idea of what kinds of schools they were interested in:</p>
<ul>
<li>offers the kind of rigor that you want</li>
<li>gives you a chance to be in the top 25% of students (= you can be a star)</li>
<li>offers you a smaller, more intimate learning experience<br></li>
<li>gives you the chance to work with people smarter than you (= you’re in the middle 1/2)</li>
<li>offers the kind of social scene you want</li>
<li>lets you live in a part of the country that you want to live in</li>
<li>is fairly generous with merit scholarships</li>
<li>has the size you want</li>
<li>has the kind of living atmosphere you want </li>
<li>is larger and has a wider set of disciplines than smaller schools</li>
<li>is particularly strong in the discipline that you are interested in</li>
<li>it’s “list price”" is something your family can afford</li>
<li>has the kind of sports culture you want</li>
<li>has the generalized prestige you or your parents want (e.g., HYPed schools)</li>
<li>has the discipline-specific prestige that you want for your career (e.g., UCSC for marine biology)<br></li>
</ul>
<p>Thanks to everyone for their responses. I don’t feel quite so “alone” now. And it seems we are doing all the right things that you suggest. That’s good to know.</p>
<p>Goaliedad: you asked if money was an issue. Can’t answer that question without knowing what the market will do in the next 18 months. Do you have a crystal ball?</p>
If you have to ask that question, money is an issue. And not that this is investing advice, but generally accepted money management principles suggest that stocks are not good investment vehicles for money needed in the near term, as there is too much volitility in principle to be made up in a short time window. This is why most retirement accounts start shifting more of their investments to bonds and and money markets in the last 5 years before retirement. If your son’s 529 money is 100% in stocks, you are a high risk investor. Let’s hope he is a bit more risk averse in his chosen profession. ;)</p>
<p>I asked the question because Nuke E is a highly competitive major, attracting a very select slice of the engineering talent pool. You may want to focus your efforts on a publics with relatively low OOS tuition or from schools that award merit money independent of the engineering specialty.</p>
<p>Not knowing more about him (so take this w/a grain of salt) I’d suggest he consider Physics with the Nuclear Eng. minor at Mizzou, a great school.</p>
<p>*OP Quote:
Goaliedad: you asked if money was an issue. Can’t answer that question without knowing what the market will do in the next 18 months. Do you have a crystal ball? *</p>
<p>Goaliedad quote: If you have to ask that question, money is an issue.</p>
<p>Very true. And, since some top OOS publics can have annual COAs of $40k-50k+, that can also be a concern.</p>
<p>Keep reading CC. You’re starting early, that’s good.</p>
<p>I did not go to college, and my D’s counselors have far too many kids to actually do anything helpful for them. You get 15 minutes and you’d better already know what you want to do for college and have your questions ready. We’ve even approached them with things about which they have no clue. It hasn’t been pretty. They didn’t even ensure she had the proper HIGH SCHOOL classes…though I repeatedly questioned one particular situation and finally had to go above their heads to get FIXED, what they’d messed up (LONG story).</p>
<p>BUT…I have learned SO much on CC. I don’t know HOW anyone did this before the Internet, when you have no experience of your own. </p>
<p>OWmom, Don’t feel bad…S1 was 6/455 in his class. His guidance counselor had no clue who S1 was. Under “how would you describe this student” on one app, the GC wrote “good student”…that was it! The GC’s at our 2700 student h.s. spend more time on discipline issues than academic ones.</p>
<p>For nuclear engineering at an oos public u. with relatively low oos cost…check out NC State University. A little prejudice here, DH and S1 are both alums and loved NCSU. DH has worked in the nuclear power industry for 27 years. NCSU has it’s own Nuclear reactor on campus!</p>
<p>OWmom-My situation sounds identical to yours. I come from a small town where the vast majority of kids go to trade school, community college or work. IN the past 4 years, we’ve seen 1 to Dartmouth, 1 to Princeton, 1 to Penn and 1 to Notre Dame.
Our GCs are overworked (4 for 1700 kids) and aren’t used to writing GC letters, let alone ones that wil help get you into a good college
My town is rather poor and very blue collar. There really isn’t an emphasis on education and it leads to it all being on my shoulders(I didn’t even have a supportive parent like your child clearly does)</p>
<p>Here’s my advice:
-Stay on CC: get as much advice as you can and learn as much as you can
-Bug your GC: call and make sure they are aware of your child’s plans and do everything to make them happen. THey work for you, so make them do alot!
-Collegeboard is a good resouce, but also, send away to colleges for brochures. and call admissions offices</p>
<p>Bascially, info is your friend. Ask alot of questions, and if you’d like, PM me.</p>