<p>Being from Nebraska can be helpful in applying to colleges far away from Nebraska. Many schools like to say they admitted students from all 50 states and I have heard that Nebraska students are pretty rare in the applicant pools, probably not at the Ivies but at other pretty selective schools. :-)</p>
<p>She lost the arbitration, so she retook the ACT. Rcvd the same composite score, so her original score was included in her report.</p>
<p>It sounds like the OP’s son has shown steady improvement over high school; many colleges will take that into account. Some states (like CA) discard freshman grades altogether. </p>
<p>I second the referral to the 3.0 parents thread linked above, those parents know a lot of good schools that offer merit aid for not-stellar GPAs. If the parents have $9k a year and are not eligible for any/much need-based aid, looking for merit may be key, and that means finding schools at which your S would be high in the applicant pool for GPA and scores, and also perhaps add geographic or other diversity.</p>
<p>Look at some of these: <a href=“http://www.ctcl.org/[/url]”>http://www.ctcl.org/</a></p>
<p>Or, in-state may work, or the midwest exchange program. Your $9k plus his loans ($5kish) plus some merit may get him there.</p>
<p>Don’t discount private colleges either, many - especially in the midwest - offer generous aid to attract students.</p>
<p>Take a minute to look at The University of North Dakota. Good value and your son has a good chance of acceptance.</p>
<p>If your child got off to a rocky start and then had improvement, be sure to find teachers who can address this in their recommendations. Many times, I have seen students mature and be totally different individuals in their later years (for a variety of reasons). I always address this in my recommendations and focus on the positive. I think this shows the type of student they can expect NOW and helps them focus less on the overall GPA.</p>
<p>I agree, eerboco. My daughter’s math tutor actually wrote a recommendation. She addressed how it will never be D’s strong subject, but how diligently she works at it and how great her attitude is.</p>
<p>He has a Geometery teacher he used to work with after school once a week and he is considering asking him for a recommendation.
We have visited University of Iowa and Iowa State already. We are going to visit Kansas State, UNO, and UNL in the spring. I’m not spending money to visit far out of state schools unless he gets accepted to them and we know there’s a possibility we can afford it.</p>
<p>Also I’m asking about grants and financial aid because my son has Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. Although it is mild JRA and we may make more than we could qualify for we spend A LOT on medications, doctor visits, blood work tests. Ultimately I’m afraid that because of this we will not have enough to pay for his schooling. He will be applying for the Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis Scholarship when the time comes but we spend thousands a year for these medications. He’s had it since he was three so in time it really stacks up how much we have actually paid.</p>
<p>Unless your son gets 4 years of OUTSIDE scholarships, then many/most/all of these OOS publics will not be affordable. </p>
<p>Only UNC-CH and UVA are known to meet need for OOS students. </p>
<p>And, it also sounds like you have an EFC that is much higher than you can afford. That will be your biggest hurdle. If your EFC is close to $20k per year, and the school costs $35k, then any merit or grants or loans will go towards that $15k of need…they won’t reduce your EFC. </p>
<p>*He has already committed to himself he would not stop taking the ACT until he got a 26 or higher to increase his chances of getting in. *</p>
<p>Getting accepted and getting merit scholarships are two VERY different things. Most or all of these schools will accept an ACT 26. </p>
<p>However, merit scholarships from public univ is mostly all about test scores and GPA…you need to be high in both. Schools don’t give good merit to most of their students. They give good merit to about the top 5-10% of their students, therefore “getting in” doesn’t mean “getting merit.”</p>
<p>It works like this…</p>
<p>There is a LARGE pool of kids with high GPAs</p>
<p>There is a smaller pool of kids with high test scores (high for the school…well-penetrating the top 25% of the school)</p>
<p>There is a much smaller pool of kids with high test scores AND high GPAs. These are the kids who get merit (if the school is know for giving merit).</p>