Hello! This is my first post but I have been reading up on several posts by the highly informative members on this forum! I do need some help pointing me in the right direction please for my son who is currently a freshman in HS.
We just received his Feb ACT scores (he has taken the test the last 2 years as well - started in 7th Grade as a DUKE Tipster) and a teacher/mentor suggested my son take the ACT every year for fun/practice. He has not studied at all or taken any practice exams or courses. His composite was just returned at a 34 - his English was a 35, Science 36, Math 32, Reading 31. He has always been a straight A student takes all honors or AP courses - he is pretty well rounded, plays sports, involved in clubs, etc.
I anticipate he will take the test again by his junior year and could potentially get a 35 or 36 if he studies and puts some time in; he will take the PSAT and SAT as well. I do feel he may be a candidate for National Merit and as my husbands company participates in the program, he most likely could be awarded that even if he not a finalist as he will compete among all eligible seniors who are employed in this medium sized company (and these kids don’t need to be semi- or finalist to receive the award - they compete among each other).
He is strong in the math/science field but is unclear as to what his career path will be - engineer, scientist, lawyer, stock broker, orthodontist are all areas he has considered and expressed an interest in but he is not sure. We live in Florida and have prepaid tution for 4 years and he has already achieved the state funded tuition based scholarship if he stays in Florida. We will not qualify for any need based or minority scholarships. My son is interested in going to a medium to large university in a college town or one that has a football team – he wants that type of experience.
With all that being said, I have 2 questions…
What should I do over the next 2-3 years to help my son narrow down his course of study and potential colleges? Any quizzes or assessment parents can recommend?
How do I determine which colleges will provide him with the most merit based funding -- in state or out of state? I do not want to see my son go into debt (even to go to an ivy league school) I personally do not feel it is worth the financial burden for an undergraduate degree.... I just do not want to limit him to a Florida school if there are other schools who will provide him merit awards - I am specifically interested in a full ride scenario where housing is covered...
@dancingnancy I just want to commend you on getting started early. That is so helpful for your child. I have 4. 1 at Stanford and 1 graduating this year. We are playing the waiting game right now.
My feedback on the course of study is internships/shadowing. My daughter was interested in medicine. She shadowed a family doctor and knew instantly that she was too introverted to tell the same joke 20 times a day. That was huge for her. She began to focus on lab oriented positions and fields like radiology that weren't quite so extroverted. That 1 day saved us a ton of time. While she did get a summer internship at the hospital, for the radiology and anesthesiologist they just said come shadow me for a day. Nothing formal.
As for colleges, for us, it was helpful just to visit a bunch. We visited ones that we had no desire to attend just to get the kids talking about it and to have something to compare to. We made special road trips at spring break and summer with a parent that included a visit, again just to get them talking and thinking of what a future at someplace might look like.
Next, I would say we avoided college brands and just focused on who gave 100% of demonstrated need. We needed major financial help and this was one of the first criteria. We have a goal to do this thing debt-free and have steered our children that direction. So, this drastically reduces the number of schools to look at. Once we get acceptance letters, we will regroup, talk about the visits to those places, what we liked and compare aid packages.
So, for instance, looking at these schools is different than what you mentioned because you said “merit-based”. The ones I am talking about are strict if you get in and you meet certain financial criteria, you get money. For example, if your child was accepted to Stanford, and you made under $65,000 you would receive tuition and room and board. Essentially, books and travel you would have to pay for. *PS - Please verify these numbers because they always update them. If you made under $120k, you would essentially have tuition paid for. Above $120k and you get pro-rated. This is because Stanford has a 22 billion dollar endowment and are extremely generous. There are other schools out there that are similar as well.
You can do this! What a great example you are setting. Wish you the best of luck.
The merit aid situation can change quite a bit between now and when your son applies, so the most important things you can do now are:
Be honest with yourself about the money so that you can hole the line with him. What is the dollar limit? You say no debt for him, but what about the standard federal student loans ($5,500 freshman year, $6,500 sophomore year, $7,500 junior year, and $7,500 senior year)? That comes to a whopping $27,000. He can’t borrow more than that on his own. You would have to borrow it yourself (probably with a PLUS loan), or you’d have to co-sign with him as a private loan.
Help him find a solid true safety (auto admit for his stats and guaranteed to be affordable) that he is excited enough about to know that he could be happy attending if all else goes wrong in the application cycle. To that end, visit the FL universities where he could take full advantage of Bright Futures. Explore the campuses. Sit in on classes. Attend some football games. Heck, buy the Gator gear. If he does get lucky and end up at a “dreamier” institution, it won’t hurt to have some home-state loyalties.
When you run the Net Price Calculators at the college and university websites, pay close attention to the level of detail required, and whether or not the results include information about merit aid. Some do. Many don’t.
The folks in the Financial Aid & Scholarships Forum will have more ideas for you. Don’t forget to spend some time there.
Wishing you all the best as you launch yourself on this adventure!
Asking for merit implies full need based aid wont be sufficient, that income and assets are too high. Or another issue like owning a business or unusual family circumstances.
If OP has run the NPCs/Net Price Calculators, he/she would already know this. Hence the ask about merit.
OP, inform yourself as much as you can about what the eventual targets are about and look for. It’ll help you self assess where he matches what they want, as the holistic colleges don’t go just by stats superiority. Help you gauge, eg, how strong the club and other activities are. (Overall, rounding and some fun, peer interactions, etc, are good, as well as more purposeful ECs.) There will be great public colleges that won’t dissect the activities, will mostly admit by stats,but you want to be prepared in case you find a generous holistic that does.
Pay attention to where colleges recommend course areas, so he gets the right balance of these, not just overloaded by what he thinks he might major in. And understand the difference between cores and electives.
IMO, it’s too early to be searching for specific schools. A LOT can change in a few years in terms of which schools are giving big merit awards.
It’s great that you have affordable instate options. Generally speaking that will be hard to beat. I would personally get him excited about the FL schools.
I wouldn’t worry about trying to narrow in on a college major now. Be sure your son is taking 4 years of core courses, not just the state minimum for graduation. 4 years of math, 4 years of science (bio, chem, physics, and at least one of those being AP), 4 years of english, 3-4 years of history, 3-4 years of foreign language.
Wow! You all are so helpful and I can’t thank you enough for your thoughtful responses !! You have given me a great start and I appreciate you taking the time to respond to a mom new to this! My freshman is my oldest of 3 this is all nee - many thanks !!!
As other posters have noted- the merit aid landscape changes so quickly, it’s really not worth the time and aggravation to get focused on specific schools now. And similarly- the kid who wants to be a policy analyst focused on clean water today becomes the kid who wants to create robotic prosthetics tomorrow. So I wouldn’t get too caught up in finding a major or a focus for his interests right now.
Two suggestions though:
1- Get your financial house in order. It is never too early. I know parents of seniors- who are about to send in a deposit to their “first choice” or second choice college- who LITERALLY do not know where their August payment is going to come from. For the last four years it’s been “we’ll figure it out” or “We know we can cut back”. Well- that’s an awful lot of lattes to cut if you’re hoping to pay your EFC out of spare change. Do it now. Learn where every penny comes from and where every penny goes. If you are overpaying for car insurance, home owners, haven’t looked at your property tax bill in years to see if you’re paying for a five bedroom with a finished basement when you’re living in a three bedroom with a crawl space- do it now. It takes time to understand your finances, and it takes time for any meaningful cutbacks to yield actual cash which you can put into savings. Make sure you are not giving the government an interest free loan (otherwise known as a tax refund)- the time to adjust is now with a call to your HR rep at work.
2- Your son should become the most interesting and self-motivated version of himself. Not just for admissions although it helps. Not just for merit aid- although it helps. But because launching as an adult is a lot easier if you’re sending your kid out into the world with self confidence and knowledge and the ability to learn new things. Encourage him to read (lots of studies that show boys stop reading for pleasure at around age 12. But top colleges are filled with young men who do in fact love to read. Do the math!) Encourage family time where you explore interesting places and historic sites and cool events. Encourage community involvement (this does pay off big time with merit aid- not the “I did 500 hours at an organization I don’t care about” kind of involvement, but kids who are really engaged in the community and with people and causes they care about.
And I agree with momSenior about checking the curriculum at your son’s HS. Just because the guidance counselor is OK with a kid taking “Issues in society” instead of European History sophomore year, doesn’t mean that it’s the right class for your kid. (or maybe it is, but verify). There are lots of parents of hardworking kids in HS who discover fall of senior year that when it comes time to check the box “Student took the hardest course of study” the answer is no. The GC says “he hates Spanish so he dropped foreign language last year and got an extra study hall”. And it’s too late to rewind. Colleges like the traditional curriculum- bio, physics, history, etc. And taking a lighter schedule may in fact be the right call for some kids but if your kid is up to it, and doesn’t seem to suffer anxiety from a heavy load- then tread carefully if you sense he’s not taking the most demanding schedule.
I do not agree with the advice to keep taking exams btw. Your son did great. Now it’s time to focus on other things. Get a job, or take pride in taking care of grandparents after school, or volunteer to read with third graders who are just learning English. Your son wants to present himself as more than a good test taker and colleges will see how many times he’s taken the tests.
Good luck and enjoy the journey- it ends WAY too soon!!!
@dancingnancy you have gotten some great advice. Florida is such a wondeful state for NMSF and merit $. As others mentioned, the merit landscape can change frequently. We personally found merit can fluctuate up to $10k per year based on the school’s budget, so be flexible if looking OOS. Some merit offers were pleasantly higher than expected, others surprisingly lower than the NPC. Try not to get too attached when chasing merit; look for a few your DS can picture himself attending. Here is a list of NMSF schools to give you some general info. Try to enjoy the next 3 years; they go by so quickly.
Really great advice so far. I just want to reemphasize the comment above about getting him excited about FL schools. You’re fortunate to live in a state with good public schools. Get him comfortable and excited about them, to the point that when he’s making a list as a Junior it doesn’t feel like he’s settling if he ends up at one, and that it’s perfectly fine if he doesn’t even explore other schools.
Aside from all the great advice about finances, just one piece of advice - while it is never too early for parents to think about college finances, it is too early for your kid to be narrowing down his choices of major.
Most kids barely know what major they want while they’re in college, so narrowing it down at this stage is putting way to much pressure on your kid, and can be meaningless as well.
As for the colleges he would like - that can also change. The type of college my kid wanted as a high school sophomore wasn’t the type she wanted as a Junior. The one she is attending was not even on her radar until the middle of her first semester as a senior.
Your kid is brilliant and a high achiever, and will likely do well enough in school that he will be able to choose from a large range of possible colleges. You are also lucky in that you have some amazing in state choices, and the ability to pay for them. If your son continues the way he is going now, there will also be a good chance that there will be all sorts of opportunities at OOS colleges and at private schools.
So your son is doing well enough that he doesn’t need to narrow his choice, or even worry at all about college. If he continues to work this hard and achieve this much, he will be able to make whatever choices he needs a few years from now.
You’ve done a great job, BTW, as a parent, so you already can be proud of yourself, as well. Good luck, and take care.
As an aside on NMF - he should take at least one PSAT as practice, since the format of those tests are different than the ACT, and even very smart students can be thrown off by this. So doing the PSAT 10 or even a practice one at home in real time constraints will be very helpful. There is no reason at all for you to pay for him to do the SAT. I would be surprised if your son didn’t manage to get an ACT composite of at least 35, if not 36, by his senior year, so why fix something that ain’t broken? Only if he gets higher than 1500 on his PSAT/NMSQ would it be worthwhile even to think about him taking the SAT.
