<p>Greetings! I'd like to introduce myself and ask for direction/guidance on the journey my junior and I are embarking upon! </p>
<p>stats: Me (mom) darling son (HS junior)
goals: good college, pre-med or heavy science and math departments
pros: excellent student, taking all AP courses, very high SAT/ACT scores
cons: accelerated student, will graduate at age 16. Attends a highly ranked high school, but isn't very involved in school activities. Did one year of student council, too young/small to participate in school sports. Involved in drama club/student productions. </p>
<p>My concerns - he's an excellent student and will be a great addition to any college campus. His lack of involvement in school activities worries me as far as admissions go. He is active outside of school, mostly outdoors. He fishes, hunts, skis, volunteers, has a job. </p>
<p>Any advice or suggestions will be appreciated! I am looking forward to reading the boards and getting to know some of you!</p>
<p>Do you have any idea to what his preferences are: Large University, small college, Flagship State University, Honors programs. Urban Suburban, rual? Does he want to be on the east coast, west coast, south, midwest?</p>
<p>Is $$ going to be an issue? Are you looking for need based FA or Merit $$.</p>
<p>Has he taken the SAT or ACT.</p>
<p>We are more than willing to help you with some suggestions.</p>
<p>Welcome. More info would be appreciated, and then we can offer suggestions. I would be less worried about the lack of ECs, given his acceleration in school. I think colleges understand that the young student is not going to be as involved, especially if he/she skips a year. Hunting, fishing, working, are all excellent things to discuss in college essays, and show involvement in less common areas. So, give us a little fuller picture of your kid, and we'll try to help with some suggestions.</p>
<p>His SAT scores are: 740 Reading, 630 Math, 640 Writing (taken spring of 2007)
His ACT scores: 32/36
PSAT: 215 (National Merit Scholar applicant)
Current GPA: 4.467</p>
<p>He is a serious science student very much interested in Clinical Psych (or as he says - he's interested in how the brain works). </p>
<p>He's asked to take a spring break trip to California to look at Claremont-McKenna and Stanford. He would like to be somewhere warmer than where we are now. He would do better on a smaller, more compact campus. He has, however, done a summer session at Northwestern University and enjoyed that too. I like the idea of an honors college so that he has a sort of "school within a school" environment. </p>
<p>I'd like him to be within a 4 hour drive, but I'm sure that I won't be given too much consideration (grin). </p>
<p>$$$$$ is no object. It would be nice to get academic scholarships, but price will not make the decision for us. Thankfully, we are financially able to take that out of the equation. </p>
<p>Since he is a junior, I would suggest he retake the SAT and raise his score so that he can be competitive for colleges such as Stanford or the Claremont colleges or Northwestern. He should also take SATIIs. He has time between now and application time to do all this.
There are great colleges in the Midwest he could consider including Carleton and Grinnell to begin with, but hardly limited to these two.
On the West Coast, he could consider Occidental and Reed besides those he has already on his list.</p>
<p>Thanks Marite. I look forward to everyone's advice! This is my first child through the process, so I'm sure that I'll be learning a lot! One more to go after this one.</p>
<p>The scores your S has received are terrific for a 15 year old. But keep in mind that adcoms will not look with greater indulgence on a young applicant. To the contrary, they will consider that he has time to improve his profile given his youth. For the colleges he is aiming for--and given his age and smarts he should aim high-- he should and can shoot for the mid 700s. This applies particularly to math if he wants to go into a science field.
Since he last took the SAT in spring 2007, he should be able to raise his scores without much difficulty at all one year later. He should prepare a bit. The Xiggi method--posted in the SAT/ACT preparation section is great for his purpose and costs nothing.</p>
<p>DS and I both graduated from hs at 17 and went to four year college early. I guess it is because of that I would be concerned about the social aspect of any school for someone graduating from hs at 16.<br>
It sounds like academically he will have choices, I would definitely bear the young age in mind when looking at the social life on the campuses you visit.</p>
<p>Social life is such a big part of college. Is it apparent that he is much younger than his classmates now? One of my kids was moved up many years ago despite my objections and I think a gap year or an extra senior year at a good prep school might be preferable to going directly to college.</p>
<p>Muffy has a good point. I know we tend to think of attending college right after hs grad but your son may really profit from a student exchange or some sort of gap year program so that he can develope that one more year of maturity before going to college. I never had heard of a gap year between hs and college before I started coming to CC but now I know that there are many students who would benefit. </p>
<p>Rotary International does high school exchanges. It may be interesting to explore a Canadian exchange where he could get some awesome outdoor experience. This would help his college application process too. It's just a thought.</p>
<p>He has been an accelerated student since 3rd grade, so he's always been younger. He is (and always has been) a very mature kid. There is no difference that I or his teachers see between him and other juniors. </p>
<p>I have presented the idea of a gap year to him too, and he's certainly open to it. It would be great if I could get information on how to accomplish it. We have a great Rotary connection (his German IV teacher). However, I'm still "sending" him somewhere - KWIM?? At least with college he'd be stateside.</p>
<p>If he has been with older kids all along, there shouldn't be much of a problem. I agree that he will need to raise his SAT scores to be a realistic candidate for schools like Stanford, and class rank is important also. What is his rank in the class?<br>
For many younger college students it helps to go to a smaller univ/college, with a strong on-campus social life, nurturing professors, etc. so Grinnell, Carleton sound like good fits.</p>
<p>ebeeee - I see your point, and it is something I worry about as well. </p>
<p>anxiousmom - he's ranked either 1st or 2nd of a class of 687. He goes back and forth with his best friend vying for first. I was thinking that a smaller campus/smaller environment would be good for him too. </p>
<p>I really appreciate all the input I'm getting. I am so wanting this next year or so to be a fun exploration of his wants and needs for higher education, and not totally stressed out by the application process. Not to mention that I'm going to be a pretty tearful mom knowing that he's all grown up and going away.</p>
<p>Awwww, they grow up, but they come back, and back, and back, and back ;) Lots of holidays and short semesters in college! Class rank is great; if he works on improving his SAT scores he should have a shot at the schools he is interested in. If you have some strong colleges within 4-hour driving range, encourage him to apply to a few of those also. When April rolls around, quite a few kids decide they want to go to a college a little closer to home than they had originally thought. Maine can seem kind of far away all of of a sudden. It's good to have lots of choices in April!</p>
<p>Hey Carbon, Welcome!
Deciding on size could be a significant issue for your S. First of all, he's young and so his preference may change a lot over the next couple of years. His need for structure/support may also diminish during that time. More importantly, "small" is a relative term. Is a school one-quarter the size of UFlorida or UWisconsin or UMichigan that small really? I'm a huge fan of Occidental College, but that wonderful insititution has less than 2,000 students. Getting the classes one needs can be an issue, and taking a year abroad requires very careful planning lest your S drift into that dreaded "Year 5." Good luck with the search!</p>
<p>forgot to mention, my youngest is a hs junior....having done this once before, now is the time to do some college visits. Over spring break is always a great time...don't leave it until the fall of his senior year. By then the kids are busy and it is too late.<br>
Go visit some schools that are within a days drive even if they are not his top choices. It will give you a feel pretty quick about his gut reaction to schools of different sizes, etc.</p>
<p>This is kind of a small side issue, but if you look at comparison charts, your son's ACT is enormously superior to his SAT I score. It seems as if he is a kid for whom one test is much easier than the other. Virtually every college in the country accepts the ACT instead of the SAT I, and many college don't even require the SAT II's if the student submits the ACT. A 32 is good enough for virtually any college or university, probably close to or well into the top 25th percentile. Given all this, my advice would be to have S retake the ACT and forget about the SAT altogether. SAT prep is time consuming, and S is already way ahead of the curve on the ACT. (32 at 15 -- wow!) I'd have him retake the ACT to see if that can go any higher instead.</p>
<p>This advice stems from experience with one of my kids, whose first ACT was similar, and whose second was even better. Her SAT's were strong, but not in comparison to her ACT's. She didn't even write her SAT Iscores on her college application (on the advice of her GC), just her ACT's, even with application on which she wrote down her SAT II's. The colleges could see her SAT I scores (which the College Board sends along with SAT II's, unlike ACT scores, which allow score choice.) if they wanted to, but could also see that the ACT was all she was submitting. It worked.</p>
<p>Also, in our experience, EC activities outside of school are fine. If these cluster in one area, or related areas, demonstrating a deep, long-term interest, so much the better. Also, according to every college info session we attended, a job is great. And as for volunteer work, or community service, that isn't generated by the school or a school requirement, I think that shows more initiative and independence and it's hard to imagine that this will be a problem.</p>
<p>IMHO "how the brain works"= Psychiatry ( MD+residency),"how people think and act"= clinical Psychology, and "how the brain works" PLUS "how people think and act"= GOOD Psychiatry; (as opposed to "Psychopharmacology"), but then I'm biased!</p>