<p>My daughter is a junior and we are looking at schools for next year and I am stunned at the resumes of all these students on this website.
We are just a regular family who volunteers at church and spend a lot of time together doing family things. It never occurred to me that my daughter should have been spending hours a week preparing for college at age 13. I feel education is education. She is a very smart child who skipped a grade so is very young. Socially school was hard for her but academically she has never had to lift a finger. She is a 3.97(UW gpa) with a 34 on her ACT (first time no prep).She could graduate this year but will dual enroll next year for 4 classes. I really feel that should be enough to prove to any college that she will be able to be an asset.
I feel ridiculous having her even apply for scholarships or U of Chicago without having a ton of volunteer hours (besides events at church) or being president of some club. Should she even bother apply to Uof Chicago? She runs cross country (all area honors), captain of Mock Trail and in the chorus of the musicals each year. To me she is just a regular kid, do regular kids get into "good" schools?</p>
<p>I don’t really understand your post. You said your daughter doesn’t have any ECs, then you rattle off a rather long list of ECs (volunteering at church, cross-country track, captain of Mock Trail, chorus of musicals every year). She’ll be fine. No one is guaranteed a shot at any college, but your daughter sounds like she has the grades, test scores, and outside activities to be a competitive applicant at nearly every university in the country. Don’t sweat it.</p>
<p>I agree with Gardna. Your daughter will have lots of options.</p>
<p>I’d be less concerned with admissions than finding the right environment for her, and the right pricetag for you (assuming money is an issue–if you have an unlimited college fund, then you are set!)</p>
<p>Be aware that some schools are a crapshoot for even the best students with the best ECs. So be sure that your daughter’s list includes some schools where she will be a solid match, and one or two that are absolute safeties (your state flagship/honors program, perhaps).</p>
<p>She sounds well-rounded to me. Take what you read here with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>Right, she has at least four ECs, with leadership and accomplishment.</p>
<p>I think perhaps you might have been put off by the descriptions in some of the resumes, and that’s something you can learn. She shouldn’t put “volunteering in church” on her applications–rather, it should be something like, “participated in fundraising drive for hunger in Africa, served as an acolyte at weekly church services, spent x hours repainting classrooms at church” etc.</p>
<p>^Agreed. Don’t be so quick to lump everything together, especially if her involvement in church is in multiple areas (community service, youth group leadership, etc).</p>
<p>@ gardna, Compared to some of what I have read on this site ( particularly the “can I get in posts?” It doesn’t seem like a lot of EC and certainly not as impressive. Besides the stuff at school, she has only about 25 - 30 hrs a yr at church (if she is to be completely honest, we don’t keep track). It makes the community involvement page look very blank. </p>
<p>And yes money is an issue. Our income puts us just over the majic $60,000 income so our expected contribution is quite a high percentage of our income. We would love to see her get a scholarship of some kind. There are several smaller schools in MI that I would love to see her go to, but she is aiming at Chicago. I have been realistic with her about the odds of about getting into Chicago, and being able to afford it. I just wonder if I should just tell her to forget about it all together.</p>
<p>I think if you read a lot of threads here, one thing you will see is that if a kid wants to apply to school that she won’t be able to attend without financial aid, it has to be made CRYSTAL CLEAR to the kid before she applies. Don’t say, “we’ll see,” or “we’ll work it out somehow.” Say, “If you don’t get aid of at least $x from Chicago, you won’t be able to attend. If you can’t live with that, don’t apply.” Otherwise, you could end up as one of the unhappy parents who post here.</p>
<p>Thanks Hunt, we have been clear, but probably not “crystal clear”. Also she didn’t have any leadership roles at church (quite honestly she is not really the outgoing type). I think I can break things down to look a little more impressive though, thanks.</p>
<p>I don’t think she really gets how hard it is to get scholarships. The 34 on the ACT was quite a surprise and I think she thought it would be money in the bank. I realize now, that to get scholarships she really needed to be volunteering at the food bank and hospital since freshman year. I feel like I failed her somehow by not researching and making her volunteer earlier.( a mistake I will not make with my son.). I was not a good student so scholarships were not an option, I just figured if you got good grades and good ACT scores you were in the running for scholarships. Oh well, the journey begins.
Still a year to go, we will have to see what we can do.</p>
<p>That ACT score and that 3.97 probably is money in the bank–but perhaps not at U of Chicago. There are many schools, however, that will offer substantial merit scholarships for that kind of academic achievement. You have to cast a wider net to identify them, though.</p>
<p>She could be in the running for scholarships at a tier lower than UChicago. At this point, find schools where her stats stand out. Is she a NMSF? Many schools give huge scholarships to NMSFs.</p>
<p>^^agree with others. She has a lot to work with here and it’s just a manner of how you “package” the EC’s. Make sure she does a lot with her summer what ever she does. Go ahead and print off the Common Application just to see how she will “look on paper”. The dual enrollment courses look great and there’s a space for that (make sure you send transcripts from the community college when she applies to schools, often times no one mentions that you need both HS transcripts and CC transcripts for DE). Make sure she takes some SAT II subject tests if she hasn’t already. U. of Chicago requires 2 if I’m not mistaken. And yes, by all means have her apply. I would rather my S be denied knowing he at least tried then to wonder whether he could have gotten in and regret not applying (for us it was Brown). If she is just finishing AP exams then she could take a couple SAT II’s she’s already prepped for, but mainly the best idea is to take the subject tests in areas she excels in. Have her start getting her resume written up to use next fall and make sure she asks for teachers recommendations earlier from teachers that will give her great recs. She’ll need to give them a copy of her resume to write them well. Take her on college visits as soon as possible if you haven’t already. For my S it really motivated him to start getting his resume more in order (more volunteer work, added a sport, became president of a club, etc.) and to work harder when he fell in love with UNC Chapel Hill. It’s’ not too late, and she does have some EC’s! I could trade you my D2 who takes yoga, pilates, GSA, and plays ultimate frisbee ;).</p>
<p>With stats like those, she would probably get good merit at schools like College of Wooster, Kalamazoo College, Earlham, Case Western–how much merit would you need to make a 45k-55k/year school affordable? Great schools, many others along those lines out there who would give a kid w/ varied interests and a 34 ACT nice merit. I am suggesting those because they are in or close to Michigan, and great places. </p>
<p>She would probably get in (I can’t imagine not) U Michigan, which is an awesome flagship school. Would that be affordable, being instate? Or are you looking for smaller schools?</p>
<p>UChicago is going to be hard to get merit aid.</p>
<p>If you give an idea of what she wants to study and (roughly) what you think you can spend, and area of country/size of school…you’ll get suggestions I’m sure!</p>
<p>Also check out in Financial Aid forum --there are some threads there about merit aid that are well worth reading!</p>
<p>If it makes you feel any better, my D with a 31 ACT (but perhaps stronger ECs–but she didn’t cure cancer or anything) got large scholarships to 6 of the 9 schools she applied to.
The ones that she didn’t get scholarships at were top-top LACs, and she didn’t get admitted to the one Ivy she tried for.</p>
<p>She is blissfully happy at the out of state flagship she decided on (with merit that made it less than in-state). She got great merit to some LACs/private Us that made them just a bit more than staying in-state would’ve been.</p>
<p>Reading CC sort of freaked me out, too! But you do not have to be perfect in all ways to get accepted and get scholarship money if you are a top performing student like your D. You do have to research and apply to schools that she’ll get merit aid at though.</p>
<p>And essays are very important factor I think. My D is an excellent writer, I think that really helped her get the merit offers she got.</p>
<p>Best wishes to you!</p>
<p>I sent you a PM, OP. FYI. ;)</p>
<p>[Academic</a> Scholarships - Denison University](<a href=“http://www.denison.edu/admissions/academic_scholarships.html]Academic”>Denison University | A top liberal arts college located in Ohio) Denison (OH) </p>
<p>Denison (OH) list of merit aid possibilities, but must have application into Admissions by January 15th.</p>
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<p>These “can I get in” posts are thinly veiled (nay, rarely veiled at all) brag fests. I, for one, find them distasteful. I give the posters the benefit of the doubt on the assumption that they’re young. But still! Didn’t their mamas teach them the value of humility? (“I took B/C calc in 8th grade; what can I do now to impress ad coms? I’ve been trying to prove the Riemann hypothesis. OMG. It’s REALLY tough but I’ve already solved several other quote-unquote unsolvable math problems so I think I have a shot! Last summer, I saved 25 kids in Africa from death by starvation. Does that count as community service?”) I frankly would like to have seen my own child push herself a bit more, but the kid is amazing. She’s socially poised and a delight to be around, she studies diligently and efficiently, her grades are terrific if not stratospheric, she can bake a cake from scratch and she makes me laugh. She’s going to find a college that’s just right for her and they are going to be thrilled to have her. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.</p>
<p>Your daughter sounds like she will do just fine competing for positions at competitive colleges and even at U of C. You should run one of the financial aid calculators to see if you are prepared to pay the estimated expenses at U of C or an equally competitive school. U of C does not seem to publish its common data set letting us know if it gives out any merit money so you may be limited to need based aid there and that is what they think you need and not necessarily what you think you need. Those stats should make her eligible for full tuition merit awards and you should definitely make up a list that includes “financial safeties”. If some of those boastful “chance me” threads are tiresome to CC readers and perplexing to good parents like yourself, you can imagine how the adcoms feel after reading thousands of them.</p>
<p>“She runs cross country (all area honors), captain of Mock Trail and in the chorus of the musicals each year.”
“no EC’s”
this is what CC does to people… -_-</p>
<p>absweetmarie, I like your attitude.</p>
<p>Those ‘chance me’ threads made ME feel crazy, I am glad my D never got into reading them.
While admissions is a competitive game, all you can do is present yourself (or have your kid present him/herself) in the most positive light. </p>
<p>Comparing to yourself or your kid to others is generally a recipe for stress and is not productive. You are who you are. Be the best YOU can be. OP, your D sounds like a wonderful kid, who got into the ECs she got into for the right reasons–because she wanted to, not because it would read well on a resume.</p>
<p>I really think she’ll be a happier person for not having been on the merry-go-round. Some of my D’s friends got majorly depressed/etc from all the stress of trying to do it all.</p>
<p>I completely agree with @stressedouttt: don’t let CC intimidate you. Your daughter seems like a very strong applicant. I will be the first to admit that my ECs are VERY mediocre. During the school year, I do piano (private lessons), band (this is actually a period during the school day), NHS (which is pretty much pointless), and math club. I am the president of math club and I have a few minor awards, but in terms of time commitment, I only commit a few hrs a wk to ECs. However, I managed to get into UPenn, Duke, and a few other top 20 schools. I do not know what kinds of colleges your daughter is aiming for but I certainly do not think her ECs should deter her from applying:)</p>