<p>Hello, this is my first post and I am hoping to learn from experienced college searchers and parents.</p>
<p>Our D is a junior in a private HS in Poughkeepsie, NY (thanks, grandparents!!) Her grade average without math and science would be good but she has an uneven record:</p>
<p>Spanish -- 100% on Regents, currently in AP
English Honors -- 94% consistenly for three yrs
Global/History Honors -- 93% and 93% on Regents</p>
<p>HOWEVER, she failed Chem Regents (passed Bio, Algebra and Geometry) and struggles, now in Earth Sci and Algebra II/Trig which she will take over the course of 2 years.</p>
<p>We are interested in SUNY New Paltz, esp Honors Program. Also Marist and Siena which are not as diverse as I would like but seem okay for her. A reach which she liked is Skidmore. Any other schools people recommend?</p>
<p>We will need LOTS of financial aid and our EFC is 0. My own experience (20 years ago!) was the private LACs offered me more money than my own state university. Then again my grades were better and it was a different era (!)</p>
<p>We lived in Mexico for three years when she was in grammar-secondary school which I think is part of her being behind in math and science but which might make her an interesting candidate. Possible careers public health, journalism, maybe education or psych but definitely want to start out with liberal arts/sciences.</p>
<p>Would appreciate any feedback! Sorry, results from PSATs not back yet -- can post them later. Thanks for reading, please respond.</p>
<p>PS Current average is 90 but at a HS where 99.9% of the kids go to colelge, competitive.
Volunteer activities - migrant farmworker health clinic (translating); organic CSA farm
Clubs - Art and Spanish</p>
<p>If you are considering Marist and Siena, I would add Hartwick to that list. Their merit money is fairly generous.</p>
<p>Does she need to stay in NY? Again, since you have 2 privates on the list, it wouldn’t matter what state the private is in. Cost would be the same for in state or out of state.</p>
<p>Her failing a NYS regents could hurt her chances of being admitted to a SUNY honors program.</p>
<p>Are you a NYS resident? Keep in mind that even though your daughter is graduating from a high school in NYS, if you reside outside of NYS, then your daughter will not be eligible for in-state tuition or a NYS TAP award (with a “0” EFC this would be ~$4995)</p>
<p>Mass college of liberal arts in NW Massachusetts is a public honors college that gives NY residents a tuition break, so you might want to look at them. Also, have you considered William smith (coordinate college of Hobart) upstate? What does your HS counselor say about the chances of New Paltz?</p>
<p>Re the honors program: I’m not sure if it’s the same criteria, but there was a hard and fast GPA requirement at SUNY Stony Brook when my son applied in 2010. He was awarded a full ride Presidential scholarship because he had very high SATs (2360) but did not get into the Honors Program because his unweighted average was only a 92%. It really bugged me because he had taken something like 14 AP courses, which brought his weighted average up to a 96%. But according to the program criteria he didn’t make the GPA cutoff.</p>
<p>Megmno does bring up a valid point. The honors program at New Paltz is looking for a gpa of 95 and a 1280 SAT. A 90 avg may put her out of the running at a lot of the Honors programs.</p>
<p>Wells College in Aurora, NY might be worth a look-see.</p>
<p>Small (500 students), was all-women’s until around 2005 then went coed.
It might be a nurturing setting for her with 1:9 faculty:student ratio. </p>
<p>I don’t know what kind of financial aid they offer. I was just keying off your other interests in Marist and Siena.</p>
<p>“she failed Chem Regents (passed Bio, Algebra and Geometry) and struggles, now in Earth Sci and Algebra II/Trig which she will take over the course of 2 years.”</p>
<p>Do you have a good sense of why she is struggling with these classes? That is where I would start. There could be many reasons, and each of those reasons would have a different “fix”. Make an appointment with her school counselor and the classroom teachers, and find out what they think is going on.</p>
<p>Chosing a college major is also going to be very critical for your D. She looks to me to have significantly higher verbal as oppossed to nonverbal abilty level. Important for her to stay away from science / math / visually dependent subject areas. Trig, ES, & Chemistry all require a good deal of visual memory for tests. As far as “fix”, there are strategies to help develop visual memory but the reality is these subjects will be difficult for her, she must get through them & then aviod them like the plague when she gets to college</p>
<p>I’ll put another plug in for Hartwick. My son was accepted at both Hartwick and Marist and he got no aid from Marist but a very generous (Merit) amount from Hartwick. We visited Hartwick twice and found the atmosphere to be extremely friendly. We also visited Marist twice, and while we loved the look of the campus, none of the people that we dealt with seemed to care if my son attended or not.</p>
<p>I am new to this so please forgive a blanket reply, but know that I really appreciate everyone’s comments.</p>
<p>-- One-on-one tutoring did help a bit with math and science but yes avoiding these subjects is a good idea. That is why if it were possible a LAC with few core requirements would be so wonderful. </p>
<p>-- We will look into Hartwick</p>
<p>-- That sounded crazy on the part of Stony Brook, not to mention illogical, what is the motivation then for students to take APs? Sorry to hear about that but glad t hear about the scholarship.</p>
<p>-- No, she doesn’t have to stay in NY. On the other hand more than a three hour drive discourages us from Hobart and others which we would otherwise consider (we are near Poughkeepsie.) Taking her four younger siblings on long car drives is not fun. Not to mention cost of gas and hotel and eating out, would add significantly to expenses.</p>
<p>-- A requirement for Regents diploma is passing two science regents exams, so yes it will be BAD if she does not pass Earth Sci Regents! Teacher assured us that Chem and Physics are the most “evil” of the regents exams and he expects her to pass earth sci.</p>
<p>Naive to ask but… 20 yrs ago I was a terrible math and science student but similarly aced Spanish and English and was offered scholarships at three private colleges, more than the state university. Is it worth considering Connecticut, Lafayette which have great fin aid? Her stats are low I think for them. Muhlenberg? Sarah Larence?</p>
<p>Yes, that’s correct — the only thing which might keep her from the “advanced regents” would be not passing a second science exam, hopefully she will pass earth sci as teacher believes she will. The test is in June.</p>
<p>Since you only have a gpa through 10th grade, and no SAT or even PSAT scores, I think it’s premature to speculate about honors programs or merit aid. I would focus on helping her connect with a few good peer tutors to help her stay on track in math and science. As you know, her junior year grades are important and by spring you’ll likely have a better idea of what schools may be in the ballpark for admissions and merit money. I think Regents scores are fairly meaningless outside of NYS and whether she earns a Regents diploma or one with advanced designation will probably not influence admissions as much as good scores in all of her classes and on the SAT/ACT. Just my $.02!</p>