Needs some thoughts regarding ACT scores/potential tutoring

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>My daughter 17 is highly leaning towards Mizzou (well its the only one she is considering at the moment). She will be a Senior next year and she wants to do the Journalism program. I'll know more for sure in 2 weeks when we visit.</p>

<p>She has takent he ACT's 2 times so far:</p>

<p>Dec 08 - Composite 25 (English 25, Math 23, Reading 26, Science 24)
Apr 09 - Composite 25 (English 26, Math 25, Reading 24, Science 25)</p>

<p>Her GPA as of the end of last year is:
GPA: 3.531<br>
Weighted GPA: 3.906 </p>

<p>The first semester of this year she got a B in one class and eeked out a C in Honors Biology. In hind site, I don't think she was meant for Biology and she really struggled with the way this teacher taught this class. Other than those two scores she has A's in everything. Not sure how her GPA will go up or down based on her classes. I also don't think Mizzou looks at weighted. All of her classes except for things like Gym, electives and Health are Honors. This semester she has straight A's. I know at the end of last year she was ranked around 20% in her class (very large class of over acheivers). </p>

<p>I know she will easily get accepted as pre-journalsim and we have the rest of her Senior year that she can re-take the ACT. I also have plans to have her take the SAT in the fall just to see how she does.</p>

<p>She really would like to be accpeted into the Journalism program, and I'm not sure about honor's. Someone on my husbands side of the family tried to talk her out of wanting to do that because of "why do something harder and possibly get worse grades when it doesn't matter". She likes a challenge though and takes all Honors classes now. At this point though, getting into Honors will only come into play if she gets accepted into the Journalism program. If she doesn't get into the Journalism program, she can't petition to get into Honor's.</p>

<p>So we have a delima. Huntington Learning Center has a program where it's around $200 to get tested, evaluated and they recommend a program. Then it's $79 hourly for 1:1 personalized tutoring -but they can't tell you how long you will need to go (how many hours till after the test). </p>

<p>From what I read, she will have a chance to get into the Journalism program based on grades and even kids already in the program have to have the same grades to get in. She still gets to take the same classes as those who are in the program. It sounds like the only real advantage is getting into one of the FIG's with other Journalism accepted students and maybe having the chance to get into the Honors program. Not getting into the Journalism program only sounds bad if there are no openings, but it sounds like there have always been enough space. It could affect her getting into the area of emphasis she wants. </p>

<p>What are your opinions on how important it is to be accepted into the Journalism program compared to being a pre-journalism student? Is it worth us to take a chance and spend the money. She was really close to getting a 26 on her ACT this time, but she went down a little in reading due to not finishing the last section. </p>

<p>I would love to know what your thoughts are.</p>

<p>Just have her go in as pre-journalism. There is absolutely no difference between a pre-journalism and journalism freshman. Your not actually in the journalism school until you’re a junior (well spring semester of sophomore year for some).</p>

<p>She then can still petition for the Honors College, and pretty much all who petitioned got in as far as I know. Just on a probationary (don’t do bad in the Honors Classes period).</p>

<p>I found the honors courses I took to be easier than my regular classes. I think they want to inflate the honors students GPA’s. The Honors Classes at Mizzou, I don’t think, can be considered hard. IB courses were harder than anything I’ve encountered at Mizzou so far.</p>