Second, if you haven’t done so already, get to know your child’s guidance counselor. I mean, get to know him/her really well: be sure to get a good amount of face time with the GC, and get the e-mail address and direct dial telephone number of the GC. (The squeaky wheel does get the grease here.) If your child is at a private/independent school, this may be easier to do than if your child attends a large public school where the GCs may simply be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the students to be responsible for.
The reason that I think this is important is that GCs are usually the ones who nominate students for certain competitive scholarships at certain universities; so make amply sure that the GC knows of any potential interest that you or your child may have in a certain school. For example, every Fall our school GCs send out a questionnaire to students (and their parents) regarding universities that offer competitive full-ride or full-tuition scholarships and for which a student must be nominated by a GC; examples of these are the Jefferson Scholarship at UVA, the Morehead-Cain at UNC, the Belk at Davidson, the Danforth at Washington University in St. Louis (and there’s one at BU but I can’t think of it). Often only one student from a given school can be nominated (although a school can nominate 2 students for the Belk); so having a good line of communication to your GC can be helpful in that regard. But even if your child may not necessarily be a viable candidate for one of these very competitive nominated scholarships, some colleges and universities offer other scholarships for which GCs must nominate students but which are not limited in the number that may come from an individual school; all the school needs is for a GC to send in the student’s name.
Also, GCs may have personal relationships with admissions counselors at various colleges and universities; and a good word from a GC can be helpful not only for admissions purposes but also for financial aid purposes. If your school has Naviance, that is a tool that may be useful as well, and also something that a GC may help with. A GC can be a very good resource for you in many ways.
So if you haven’t yet had a sit-down with your child’s GC, I recommend that you do it sooner rather than later. (And should you already have a good working relationship with your GC, please forgive my presumption in this post.)
I too discovered the CC community in D1’s junior year, and was similarly overwhelmed by but grateful for the wealth of useful advice and perspectives. D1 also tested better on the ACT with much less prep than for the SAT.
We visited schools in three waves - NE, Mid-Atlantic and the Midwest - over two summers and one winter break, tying them into summer programs when we could. We hit schools in NorCal and SoCal over three-day weekends. Though my kids and the poor friends we dragged along complained volubly, we had fun comparing dining hall food, college museums, and made a point of collecting water bottles from bookstores.
May I suggest Lynn O’Shaughnessy’s The College Solution book and blog? Her webinars may or may not be worthwhile for you.
Lynn steered us to Michelle Kretzschmar’s “DIY rankings”. For me, $40 was a bargain for access to the spreadsheet, which you customize by the variables relevant to you and your daughter (though you could tease out the IPEDS information yourself from other sources). As Lynn puts it:
…“the family developed a process and they did not choose schools based on their general reputation. In whittling down the list further, the family, who would not qualify for need-based aid, was interested in schools that would give the teenager a merit scholarship”.
I would also second women’s colleges such as MoHo and Scripps, which do offer merit aid. While checking out MoHo, I was impressed by how frank the college was about addressing addiction, putting diversity into practice, etc. That kind of transparency is rare and refreshing.
Hi, reading your posts reminds me so much of myself last year! I was a little lost when I came to CC too, but the good news is that you have come to the right place! By the end of the college process, I understood it pretty well, and we ended up with a good outcome that my son and I are both happy with (he’s now a freshman in college!). Oh, and we didn’t get started until his senior year of high school, so you are really doing great!
As for your choices, it sounds like you have some good possibilities already! I would try to get that 35k number down a bit, because you have two more kiddos who will need college educations, and there are always hidden expenses, like travel, books, dorm supplies, etc. So being closer to the bottom of your budget might be a good idea. Some schools I would suggest are:
PITT: A great choice since you are in PA, and they are known to give good merit aid.
ALABAMA: This is a really beautiful school in a lovely setting (glad you are visiting, you will see!) and they give fantastic offers to good students. UA was high on my son’s list, and they offered him nearly a full ride!
TULANE: I know it’s not on your list, but it has a ton of charm and they give fantastic merit aid.
MIAMI U (OHIO): Another school with really great merit aid, and not too far from you.
Also, have her work really hard on her essays for the applications. I feel that my son’s essays were rather weak, and this is the one area that a person can really shine and stand out from the rest, so they should definitely put as much effort as possible into the essays.
@novicemom23kids, we too were in SE PA (Lehigh Valley area) for 22 years. My older D did her undergrad at Pitt and she loved the full college experience so much that she decided to attend Med school there as well… did not apply anywhere else! My younger one, who is a sophomore studying Mech Engg, did not want to apply to CMU as her sister would have been too close. But she too is happy where she is.
You can’t go wrong with Pitt especially if your D is interested in majoring in Biology. Be warned though that there are quite a few pre-meds thinking likewise and competition is stiff!
BTW, similar to your D, the one school both my Ds refrained from applying to - Penn State
