Does anyonee of have any knowledge of these 3 schools and their cities? The price tag of all 3 schools for OOS students is outstanding. Mo St is about $24,000 and rewards OOS students who are in the top 25% ( soley based on GPA and class rank - no ACT) with a $7400 a year OOS waiver. SE Mo St is a little cheaper ( $22,000) and offers $5000 OOS waiver and SDSU is about $20,000 with no OOS waiver but still a great price tag.
MSU - 26,000 students and D1 sports, 167,000 pop of city
SEMSU - 12,000 students and D1 sports, 40,000 pop of city
SDSU - 12,000 students and D1 sports, 25,000 pop of city
Son has a low ACT of 21 but a GPA of 3.64 ( top 25%) and 4.04 weighted( top 17%). He loves the Univesity of Arkansas but it will be too expensive and ACT score needs to be a 24 for the OOS scholarhip of $10,000. He will take again this fall but has a lot of anxiety on this test - he has taken 3 times already, last time he had a tutor and did well on all the practice test but when it came down to actual ACT test he did not do as well. We also live in Kansas but son does not like KSU, which is a good college.
His interests are landscape architecture and environmental science but more leaning towrds landscape. KSU is too intense and needs a 25 on ACT to get in that program. South Dakota St has an unaccredited program but are working on accreditation. Nice campus and nice smaller town. He’s going to visit Mo St and SE Mo St within the next week. They both have horticulture progarms which tie in with landscape but Mo St has plant science, horticulture, and art/design which all tie into to landscape.
My ex-wife and me can afford about $9000 a year from each of us and we are hoping for sometype of cancer scholarship too for my son as he is 11years out of dx and 10 yrs out of cord blood transplant. We also have an older son who will be a soph at U of Alabama and were are fortunate to only pay $5000 a piece for him due to his great OOS scholarhips.
Based on your post, and my limited knowledge of Missouri schools (never been to SD), Missouri State sounds like the logical choice (program, price, location). Unless there is some reason your son greatly prefers a smaller school/town, or cold winters in SD. He can try ACT again for Arkansas, but knowing he’ll get MSU tuition waiver with no pressure is peace of mind.
It may be worth looking at the various degree programs’ courses to see if his interests strongly lean to one type of program (landscape architecture at SDSU) versus another (horticulture at MSU and SEMSU).
Some Nebraska colleges have terrific deals too. Missouri State or Sdsu should be his priorities.
The act is stressful sue to time constraints - have him try the SAT and see how he does with less pressure.
If he’s willing to join his brother down south, check out major offerings and costs at Troy, UMontevallo, Alabama A&M. Further away, USouthern Mississippi?
UCA or UA Little Rock don’t have his majors?
Also good odds of admissions at Adams State, UNorthernCol, Kansas Wesleyan, Lindenwood, Doane, UNebraska Omaha, Chadron. Not sure about major offerings.
In my sons view, he wants a nice college campus that has his major interests, D1 sports to spectate, a nice city to go with it ( doesn’t matter on size), a good scenary drive, and out of state. The starting point for cost needs to be no higher than $24,000 and than start subtracting OOS waivers based on GPA and class rank or outside scholarships from there.
We actually spent a week in colorado touring colleges for environmental science; UNC in Greeley ( which he loved but had to get a 24 on ACT to get $5000 scholarship) Western St in Gunnison ( beautiful but isolated) and Adams St in Alamosa ( it was ok).
Oklahoma St, and U of Arkansas have landscape architect but need the 24 on ACT to get $10,000 knocked off to get at or below out starting point goal. He loves Mizzou but way too expensive.
Central Arkansas was really almost the perfect fit but their environmental science major has to be 1 of 3 tracks ; biology, chemistry, and planning and administration.
So…checking for clarity…you want a school that COSTS $24,000 a year…and then you hope to get get a reduction on that amount?
Read this thread…but it hasn’t been updated for a while…so you will need to check for current prices…and potential for aid. I think his current ACT will be a problem…as you have already noted.
Wyoming is a good choice, but he will get money with a 22 ACT, and more money the more it goes up. There is also department money in engineering (but I don’t think a 21 will get it) and environmental design. The D1 sports are better than most of the schools you have named (Quarterback this year is very good, expected to go in the first round, maybe top 10). Basketball is decent.
He can want all those things - OOS, D1, city, major, etc., but he has to get his ACT score up or go to a school that doesn’t care about scores. Those are not usually public, urban schools.
He does plan on taking ACT again in Sept and can also take in Oct too. He has not taken the SAT but we’ll look into that. He did have a tutor for ACT and did well on all practice tests but has some anxiety on the actual test.
Did look into U of Wyo, which is about 10 hrs away but only 2 from Denver. They will actually give a $6000 OOS for a 21 and a 3.6 GPA (if i read that right on the website). They do have environmental/natural resources major and minor in horticulture but he would prefer to have the plantscience/horticulture/landscape major with a minor in 1 of the 3 he would not major.
Southeast Missouri State is actually known as SEMO.
Many students from our area (out of state) attend with fantastic scholarship offers. I’ve never visited but heard it is a beautiful campus. Don’t know much about their programs. It’s worth a look.
I’m saying to have him, right now, take a diagnostic SAT on Khan Academy to see if he does better without the time pressure of the ACT (which is more stressful than the sat due to the differences in time pressure.) If he does Better than on his practice act, he could switch to the SAT in October (or even go and see at the August SAT).
He has to think in terms of compromises : what is a need, what is a want, and what 'wants" can be erased if the ‘need’ criteria are respected - and, drafting a revised list, keeping even imperfect choices that are better than community college. It may mean compromise in size, location, major, etc. If he gets into the perfect school for him and it’s affordable, terrific. But he needs affordable options in case that does happen, affordable and acceptable colleges that don’t have one favorite trait.
Make sure he applies to 2 safeties, 3-5 matches, and a couple dream schools, focusing on finding affordable safeties and matches.
So all three colleges you listed would be matches, he needs to find two more, plus two safeties.
We’ll take the diagnostic SAT today and see how that is. I think he will have to compromise a couple of things but most important will be where he might see himself for the next 4 years. Where he is most comortable, how he fits in, and majors/minors that he he leaning towards. He also understands the financial piece to all of this but a good school that will still give him some merit $$ based on his GPA and class rank, without all the pressure of the ACT will be a good piece of mind and possibly boost him at the next ACT test.
More ideas to explore:
There are test optional colleges where he’d be evaluated on his grades, curriculum rigor, essays, recommendations, demonstrated leadership. Examples of the best for his GPA would include Hiram, Elmhurst (near academic safeties and Hiram has scholarships based on EC’s and leadership), a bit harder but good matches for his UW GPA Muhlenberg, Hobart-and-WilliamSmith, Clark, Kalamazoo, Gustavus Adolphus, even American, Denison, WPI, Connecticut College as reaches… However his precise major may not be offered and they may not be within price range, so add to list with caution. Most offer EA (non binding early application) so it may be a way to increase odds of a positive outcome (wrt to admission AND financial aid).
Do you know your EFC? If its low to medium low, some of these private universities, especially the most selective ones, have excellent need based aid.
Other colleges to explore: afaik, Mankato State and St Cloud State as well as Wisconsin Superior do not have an OOS surcharge so it’s like getting an automatic instate tuition scholarship.
My step daughter goes to MSU - it is a fantastic value for sure. She is taking the 5 year masters of accounting program, the 5th year being affordable because of her scholarship and the school’s price tag. She is going into her 3rd year and loving it.
We re going to Missouri St on Thur for a college visit and than SE Missouri St next week. So we’ll see how it goes. That will be 11 schools total that we have visited since last fall. Don’t think he wants to take ACT text again even though he could have nice options without it and was hoping it would take pressure off if he took it again. Nothing to lose but not going to force him to do so.
I have 2 siblings and both parents who graduated from SDSU (in Brookings). My sister had a dual major in agronomy and range management, and my brother was an agricultural engineering major. (Dad was agricultural education major and Mom was Chemistry…) For environmental and agricultural type majors, SDSU is great! Brookings is a very typical small Midwestern town–nice people and you can find things to do, but you have to look…
I tried to convince my boys to look out that way (We’re now on western NY) because they would have family nearby and the price was right, but they wanted something different–S15 wasn’t willing to go far from home, and S17 wanted a bigger college experience…
We visited last month and son did like school ( landscape, horticulture, and env science) and Brookings is a great smaller town. Price is def right. It’s on our list for sure. Thks!