<p>Hi all,
My sister doesn't have a CC account so I'm using mine. </p>
<p>Core Problem: How can my sister consider more colleges?</p>
<p>Details: My sister is a senior in high school now and she wants to major in Journalism. I talked to her about American University, and she immediately embraced the idea- maybe because it was in D.C., or because it has a journalism major. We are not against her applying to AU, but she wants to apply to AU early decision. We think that she should aim for her reach school for ED (parents suggested Tufts), but she does not want to. She is stubborn and is set for AU, and she has barely considered other colleges. We have told her other colleges that have great journalism majors, and even brought up the idea of her majoring in English, and then switching over to journalism later. However, she did not like the idea, saying that an English major is not like a Journalism major (we are not sure if that is true). We feel like she's committing herself too early- she doesn't know what American is like at all (campus, resources, etc) and we are worried that her views may be a little too narrow. </p>
<p>Other Details: 3.5 weighted GPA, 31 ACT, 1850 SAT (awaiting new SAT scores), 3 AP Bio (considering not to release AP scores)</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your time & responses.</p>
<p>ED is for when a school is one’s clear first choice, and there is no need to compare financial aid offers.</p>
<p>Looks like she American is her clear first choice, but you do not agree with it or think she is not well informed in making it her clear first choice. But your suggestion that she apply ED to Tufts does not make sense, since it is not her clear first choice.</p>
<p>If you believe that she should not commit herself too early, you should try to convince her to not apply ED anywhere, as opposed to apply ED to a different school.</p>
<p>In any case, she needs to find a safety. She should prepare an application to the safety. If she gets admitted early anywhere with enough financial aid, she need not apply to the safety, but if she gets deferred or rejected from her early schools, or does not find out before the safety’s deadline for application, scholarships, etc., or the safety is a rolling school that may prefer earlier applicants for admission or scholarships, she should send in the application to the safety.</p>
<p>Your parents should sit down and run the Net Price Calculator at AU and at the other places on her list. If AU would only be affordable with financial aid, then she should not apply there ED. She should wait and apply in the RD round so that she can compare all of her aid packages.</p>
<p>Some people really hate to look at long lists and then sort through them. The just don’t have the patience for that kind of thing. Your sister could be like that. If so, try to get her permission to do the pre-screening for her for whatever factors are important (price? location? size?). As mentioned above, she should have a back-up in case AU doesn’t work out.</p>
<p>You know, assuming ED is not a bad idea for financial reasons, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with your sister’s approach. She found a school that she likes and that she’s qualified for and she wants to get the process over with. If I were your parents, my only concern would be that her major is a poor choice for any hope of future employment. These days, with newspapers and magazines in decline, journalism grads are competing to write for online publications for little or no compensation in hopes of establishing a career. It’s very tough out there.</p>
<p>That last one sent to fast but if ED is her first choice she should apply ed as she will have better chances of getting in. She might also want to consider gwu and they are in DC and have a world class journalism program.</p>