I was all set to post about colleges, but really she’s a rising junior! It’s way to early for college lists. Let her enjoy her junior year. Work at bringing up her scores - which will probably go up on their own - my younger son’s PSAT math score improved by a lot in a year without any extra studying. If one is naturally talented at math, it’s a very easy score to raise with some targeted studying.
FWIW you can go to a place like RPI and not major in engineering. A good friend of ours had a daughter there who majored in biology. They were generous with AP credit and she graduated early - which is in itself a big cost saving!
@mathmom@compmom It’s not too early for an athlete. “The biggest mistake I see is athletes and parents who wait too long to look at colleges - start early. In your Freshman year start compiling a list of colleges and begin reaching out to coaches by the end of your Sophomore year - get on their radar!” Brian O’Neil. See article below:
The first step is to run the NPC on a variety of schools, using the numbers that will be in effect (retired father?) when she is applying to schools. Typically, schools which award both financial aid and merit aid to a family do not “stack” the awards – the family’s contribution remains the same, what changes is on the school’s contribution side of the equation. So, an EFC of $10k remains $10k, and the school may use merit award to replace loans or work study, typically.
For a family which is determined to have substantial financial need, merit aid may not be an important part of the application strategy – unless it is full tuition merit or even better, full ride (tuition and room and board). As I understand swimming, it is an “equivalency” sport – a coach has the equivalent of a specific number of full athletic scholarships to be divided among the entire team. Barring the world class superstar freshman, most students do not get much the first year, and it can increase based on athletic performance, but rarely becomes the full scholarship parents dream about. @twoinanddone has a D2 sports daughter whose athletic and merit and financial aid stacks, but that does not seem to be that common.
Start work on the spreadsheet – schools which offer her academic programs of interest, and then start researching and identifying the swimming times, and run the NPCs for those schools. Visit some schools, meet with coaches, to start getting her comfortable with the process. My kid was looking to play D3, and we figured his process was accelerated by at least 6 months, as he needed to be basically finished and know where he was recruit and where he wanted to go by October of senior year. Some of those early coach meetings during college visits were a bit bumpy, so it was helpful to have some time for him to smooth it out as he moved though the process.
D3 schools with engineering include Rose Hulman and Union. Schools that are smaller universities – student body size is closer to small colleges than large universities – but have engineering and D1 sports, include Bucknell, Lafayette and Lehigh, all in PA.
It’s been mentioned above, but important to reinforce - if your D is considering an engineering major, graduating from an ABET-accredited program is very important. You can see the list of programs here:
When looking at schools that offer engineering, be sure to verify the student stays at that school throughout the course of earning the degree. Many schools offer 3-2 programs for engineering, where you take 3 years of classes at the school you start at, then switch to another university for the final 2 years to get the engineering-intense courses. That likely wouldn’t work with her swimming, and also there is no guarantee of aid when you switch schools. You could be full pay the final two years.
Also think about the likelihood of her needing an extra semester or even an extra year. It’s not uncommon for engineering majors to need extra time as the required courses and prerequisites to take them are substantial. It’s much harder when the student is also an athlete.
It’s also worth looking at what else the school offers of interest as many students change their majors. With her strength in writing and communicating, having strong programs in those areas could be important.
If swimming is important, I believe the best way to build her list is to look at the season ending championship times and see where your daughter lands in her best event(s). So I have a freshman daughter and when I look at Rice she would score in the B final for her best event at their C-USA championship meet. That’s where I would start for my daughter but she’s so early in high school.
If $$ are important, merit may actually be a better option for your daughter as swimming is an equivalency sport and the athletic dollars available at a D1 school would likely be sliced and diced unless your daughter is already making Olympic trials cuts. From what I’ve heard making junior nationals is a big deal and doing that during recruiting season as a junior will get her some attention.
So far, the calculators i have done give an EFC that I would say we can meet… around $11k. Princeton’s calculator separated work income from our other income sources (pension and investment income) and therefore said we qualified for near full ride. Husband has started doing work for my brother which raises our income a little and seems to raise our EFC a lot. Makes it seem not worth it.
I’m not so concerned with swim money as I am finding a school that meets all the other criteria and where they want her to swim. I figure FA and merit money will be bigger factors. We are going to look seriously at Bama since she already has qualified for full tuition there and could end up with full ride. I have heard the honors college is like a small school until itself and not so much “roll tide” culture.
She competes at Speedo Sectionals which is considered national/developmental. I think she will qualify for Junior Nats by her senior year. She is a distance swimmer so not quite as sought after as a sprinter. Many of the smaller Engineering schools I would say she is too fast to enjoy swimming there. She wants to continue to develop in college in a decent swim program not be the big fish in a small pond.
I will try to stop saying we. I said it in reference to her score because she and I both felt the same about it. I may have said it other places. To be honest, she is either swimming, studying, sleeping or eating 98% of the time. So I research, share my opinion, find out if she agrees or disagrees with my thoughts and move forward…so it does feel like a “we” process.
She would have made C final in 500 free and placed 17th in 1650 with her current best times at Rice’s C-USA conference championship. She has a lot of work to do.
That is fine for a parent to help do research and present opportunities. But the major choice should come from the
student imo. And it can change multiple times as time goes on and experience increases.
Also whether to continue with a sport, musical instrument, EC should be up to the student.
My son quit band in 10th grade, he now is in chorus and enjoys it a lot more. Playing an instrument was his idea, but he changed his mind later.
My D has a friend who was set on being an engineer, but switched to Statistics instead. Another friend started out in Art and Sciences, then transferred into engineering and then switched from chemical to industrial engineering.
They found and chose what interests them.
Swimming is very important to her. She says she has to swim. She has never once grumbled about a 4 am alarm to be at morning practice or the 25 hours a week she is usually in the pool, or the parties, games, events she has had to forego due to swimming. It is her passion. She is thinking about the question of whether or not she can be satisfied competing at club level in college. That is up to her.
I am pushing her to consider if she is 100% sure on Engineering and to keep her mind open. She says she is sure. Time will tell if that changes. She drives this bus, I try to do navigation and find the gas stations.
I second those who say that we are not at all early on figuring this out according most of the swim timelines. She is due to be writing coaches this summer…we are probably a little behind actually. And I have learned so much on here over the past year that I’m glad I have started the learning process. And since she really can’t miss school/swim during the year for visits I’d like to do some quick looks during her swim break in August.
@BertieMom She sounds like a great girl. I would hate for her not to have affordable options that she likes so planning is great. With the reality of (merit, athletic) scholarships not stacking many times, swimming $ being modest if you can get it, OOS public schools not giving much help to OOS students, the list needs to be strategic. Private schools look at your assets not just salary so if you have home equity, their “solution” to meet your need is sometimes, you taking out a loan against that.
Right, a sports scholarship is not a big factor, a school that is a good fit and provides aid and merit money where she can be a good fit on the swim team is. I’d rather not depend on athletic money, even if it came, because injuries happen and engineering is time consuming. I need to know the finances work without swimming but want her to be able to swim.
MIT does meet full need. But they are not as generous as places like HYPS.
The family can run a Net price calculator to get an estimated net price. MIT will expect the family to pay their family contribution…and a student contribution as well.
Plus…Boston is an expensive city in which to live.