Hi @fwtxmom, happy to hear from you. My bright ADHD boy, a freshman, is still in the blowing off homework phase - it helps to know that sometimes they grow out of it and start thinking about their future.
@Gatormama , Iām sending you a pm. As PA resident with kids in private school eating away at any chance of real college savings, I think our search for DS class of 18 may be of help to you
I also have a DD in 19, but, meh, sheās losing focus.
@fwtxmom I have heard on CC that Lawrence University is a good choice for students who need extra support. Pretty sure they offer CS last I checked. Check out this link:
@twoinanddone and @EastGrad thank you for your comments about Univ of Utah. I forgot to come back here to reply. S19 is still very unmotivated with the college process. Dh and I have been asking him for weeks to sit down and provide us with a list of schools he is interested in so we can at least start vetting some. He finally texted me a list last week and Utah is still on there. Though the distance is a bit daunting, it seems to fit in many ways some of the criteria that is important to him. I wouldnāt necessarily care him being that far (D is freshman in San Diego), but if he ends up playing a sport, Iād want him close enough that we could go see him play sometimes!
So far his lists all over the map. A couple of SEC/southern schools, a few local schools, one in New England, a few local schools in MD, several West Coast schools and all the service academies. The problem - his grades/test scores are too low for the service academy so only way heād get in is through one of his sports (slightly possible for one of them), some of his other schools heād never get in to plus way too expensive (UCLA/USC). I have made my own list of schools that are not on his radar that Iād like him to at least consider but of course, he is just not motivated!
Kind of on a whim, I decided to take him up to Temple this past Wednesday to take advantage of a day off from school. It was not on his list, and he did not want to go as it meant getting up at 6:30am on day off. I had hopes of also doing at least a drive through of St. Joeās also, or possible a quick stop at Univ of DE, but by the time we were done at Temple, we had to head home. Temple checks many of his boxes - itās a fit academically (also found out during the tour that itās test optional), has a good D1 football team, good size and diverse school, not rural, has ROTC. We were 1 of two families there for the info session and tour, so we got to ask a lot of questions. Since S has NO idea what he wants to study, we did not bother visiting any of the specific schools, but I was impressed with the resources. There was a lot of activity going on - lots of clubs/vendors out providing goodies to the students for Valentineās Day. I could not tell if S was interested - heās the kind of kid who does not say much and can often look bored though thatās just his quiet personality. He did ask a couple of questions though. And since cheese steaks are his FAVORITE thing to eat, I of course made sure to stop on the way home to pick up a Philly cheese steak on South Street. A kid of few words, I didnāt get much out of him other than, āIt was better than I expectedā and āI didnāt expect it to see like a campus since itās in the city.ā Even though the campus is not enclosed and just sort of blends in with the community, there were SO many students walking around that even though there isnāt really a quad anywhere and buildings are all along the city streets, I still felt very much at a university. While Temple is not necessarily a school I think he should apply to, I wanted to at least get him to start looking at schools to get an idea what kind of campus he likes. Heās only ever been on one college tour, when D was looking, but he has been on multiple campus for a variety of reasons, mainly with playing sports, so he hasnāt really looked at them from the perspective of ācould I see myself here?ā Anyway, the end result was that it didnāt wow him at all, but he said it might be just a little too urban.
Lax season starts Tuesday so no more college tours until June. He does not get any time off for spring break, so this was it. He has a three day weekend so I may possibly try to take him to Towson on Monday. I think we may try to do a southern school tour after school gets out. Iām a little worried that most of the schools on his list are very big - he goes to a small private h.s. and really benefits from having smaller classes, teachers who know him and are approachable outside the class during office hours. Not that you canāt get that at a big school, but easy to get lost in the mix and for him, distracted by the big social scene.
Forgot to mention he took the SAT and did awful, even after taking a class this summer. However, he did not prepare at all after taking the class, no review or anything. I think he might do better on the ACT so signing him up for the April test and making sure that he reviews several times a week from now until then.
@Longhaul Iād be interested in hearing about your college search as we too have limited savings (four kids in private school, one of whom is now in college so will have two in college and two in private h.s. at same time). With S19s stats, not sure how much, if any, merit aid he will qualify for unless he starts looking at some different schools.
Would he be excited about looking at colleges if he were a recruited athlete? If so, he should talk to his coaches about the level heād fit. The coaches usually know if heās top D1/D3 or if heās more of a mid D1 level. Towson probably isnāt going to work if he wants to play lax but is not a top player. A school like Dayton might work and may consider the tuition of the younger siblings as a necessity since it is used to seeing parochial school tuition on the applications of many families.
We had to adjust the types of schools we were looking at to find a better match athletically, and it turned out that it worked out to be a better academic fit too.
@stardustmom I really like the look of Lawrence but they only have 2 CS faculty. Many of the CTCL have small CS departments, 4 or 5 profs even, but two seems uncomfortably small. Thoughts?
Lawrence is a very small school. IMO, two professors is a very small department. We stopped looking at small schools when we kept running into this issue of 5 math professors or 4 in the psychics dept. Also look at the offerings per semester. Are there enough classes in the right sequence?
@fwtxmom If you are in Texas, have you checked out Trinity University? The CS department is well-regarded, and is probably small enough that he would get the attention he needs. They have a beautiful new science building and small student body. I know they mentioned support services during the information session we attended, but I donāt know specifics.
@twoinanddone after playing lax since 5th grade with one of the top clubs in MD, and now playing h.s. lax in what is considered the toughest h.s. conference in the country, he told us last summer he did not want to play lax in college. I donāt think he is burnt out but rather, his club team had him playing d-middie for several years, a position his coach said is one of the most impt positions to play but also one that is not highly recruited. Due to the nature of the position, his playing time depended on his team not doing well. IOW, he played much more when his team was losing since itās a defensive position. Needless to say, during recruiting tournaments, where his team was most often playing well and making it to the championship, he wasnāt getting much time on the field. He decided not to play this summer, his last recruiting season. He is still playing for his h.s. team - he got a ton of playing time as a fresh/soph as he was playing middie rather than d-middie and loved it. So a little disappointing to see him decide he didnāt want to pursue it in college (other than playing club).
However, at the same time, he is interested in pursuing football. He never played football (we wouldnāt let him). Without going into too much detail, he got ārecruitedā onto the team as a freshman when another player got injured due to a specific talent we didnāt realize he had. He has since been working with a specialized coach, not necessarily to get recruited, but to enhance his skills for his h.s. team. He recognizes that he could definitely play in college, but it would obviously depend on the school. Letās just say he wouldnāt get recruited by Alabama, but possibly could play for Towson and even more likely a smaller school team. He most likely wouldnāt get any scholarship money as that money is saved for other positions, but, it would be more for the chance to just play. That said, when asked if he wants to play in college, his response is ādepends on the school/teamā so that is making this process SO hard. For instance, perhaps he could play for Salisbury, but he doesnāt want to go to Salisbury. He would rather go to say, Georgia and not play, but be at a school with a great football/basketball or lax team from a fan perspective. The biggest issue is that for football, most kids donāt really commit until senior year, so kind of hard to narrow down the list! So I guess there will be two listsā¦possible matches athletically and desirable schools if not playing football. He also hopes to do ROTC. The one thing he has said for sure is that he does not want a rural school or a school āin the middleā - he prefers to be on one of the coasts. Utah being the one exception.
My daughter didnāt want to play lax in college so skipped all the summer camps after sophomore year. Then she decided she DID want to play, and thought maybe the top D1 programs would be good. Umm, sorry kid, itās too late. She was recruited by some lower d1 teams, lots and lots of D3 teams, but settled on a D2 team that worked out well.
I lurk a lot on this thread because my current senior has stats just a little higher than these parameters and this seems more active than the 2018 thread. May I pass on what Iāve learned this year? Try to get your kids to apply EA to the schools on their list that have it. Even if theyāre hopeful for a reach or an ED school, having some match or safety āyesesā early in the year takes a lot of pressure off. DD applied ED to a school āeveryoneā thought would be an acceptance and refused to do EAs at the same time. Then she got deferred. She has gotten into 2 schools now and that helps, but I will remember my own advice for my youngest.
I have been fairly absent lately but want to weigh in on the EA strategy.
- Money goes to the early birds. Apply early if you can. From a merit $$ perspective it makes a huge difference.
- The only reason to wait, in my opinion is if 1) merit $ is unlikely or not offered at the school and 2) junior year grades aren't what are needed and it is better to wait for a strong first quarter or semester senior year to show upward trend.
There is a lot to be said for having all applications in, done and acceptances in while other kids are scrambling around finals time to get theirs in. It will really vary depending on your school list but my S17 applied EA everywhere he could, which was most of his list and had all acceptances and merit awards by mid Feb.
@WWC4me @eandesmom Completely agree on EA. Last year I pushed my son to get in his EA (he only did one RD if I recall). Two of the EA acceptances came in at the beginning of November. Took the big pressure off (since he knew he would be happy at either of them) and the pressure only came back when he was waiting for his RD school. Iām a HUGE fan of having some EA schools in the mix.
@stardustmom we are touring Trinity in early March. The school is very attractive but we need some merit aid to make a small LAC work for us. I am trying to work every angle to position S for merit (considering his less than perfect grades): lots of personal visits and demonstrated interest, maximize test scores, but he doesnāt offer Trinity any geographic diversity since itās in state for us. I have no idea how big a factor that might be but if it matters for aid, we may need that extra nudge.
Itās a challenge with CS as a lot of the LACās are, in many ways, better for the late bloomer, under performer (ok speaking of my kids a bit here lol) ADHD or otherwise semi-challenged kid and CS being a popular and competitive major. It becomes more so when hunting for merit. There is a LONG results thread from our 2017 30.-3.4 cohort that shows admittance by major to a ton of schools and the stats those kids had.
For my ADHD kid(s)ā¦of which I have two (though my 19er doesnāt agree with the diagnoses and we have additional testing scheduled) I do believe a smaller school helps quite a bit. How small though, is subjective. To your point, many LACās that offer CS will really only have about 2-4 professors. My S is also interested in CS and ideally there are some music opportunities as well. Iām guessing you are from TX so am not sure our list will help a ton but ones on our radar are:
University of Washington Bothell (in state) - safety
Western Washington University (in state) - safety
Northern Arizona University (WUE tuition exchange program for western states) - safety
Drexel - safety
Seattle University - safety
Portland State - (WUE tuition exchange program for western states) match
University of Portland - match
RIT - match/low reach
Virginia Tech - reach
Santa Clara - reach
University of Washington Seattle (in state) - high reach
Macalester - uber reach
As you can see not all fit the small school category and only 1 true LAC right now, but are ones my son wants on the list. There are also some on this list he is not yet convinced of and are mom picks. He wants urban and away, Iām not convinced at all away is a good idea. In fact Iām not convinced going straight to college is a good idea and a gap year is on the table. Heās a bit of the reverse of your son, junior year first semester is by far his worst gpa, with a really not so fabulous D on there and 5 AP classes. He does hit high on the rigor scale though so that offsets the 3.3 UW a bitā¦by how much Iāve no idea. We will have ACT scores on Weds so will know more then. Lawrence was on our list for a bit but I really donāt think it makes sense and heās decided it is too remote anyway. St. Olaf may have some potential but isnāt officially on the list. My personal gut instinct is that he will do best in a school thatās 5-15k size wise.
When I began the college search process with S2, I wasnāt sure which schools he would have the stats for, so I complied this list of schools that offered CS and had a high admit rate. He actually improved quite a bit at the end of junior year, so he was able to consider other schools like Trinity (got a scholarship, but we are OOS). This list might be a good place for you to start looking as well. I would also suggest looking at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. As with eandsmomās list, on mine many WA and OR schools are featured since that is a great locale for CS majors.
Note: some of this info may have changed.
Lewis and Clark College - Portland, OR - offers Comp Sci, 63% admit, 29 ACT.
Willamette University - WA - 78%, 3.6 GPA.
University of Puget Sound - Tacoma, WA - 79%, 3.5 GPA
University of Portland - 62%, 3.65 GPA
Gonzaga University - WA - 73%, 27 ACT. Engineering
Rochester Institute of Technology - NY - 57%.
Denison University - Granville, Ohio - 3.5%GPA, 28 ACT., offers Comp Sci
Very helpful @eandesmom and @stardustmom. I think small schools are a good fit for the ADHD kid. S especially thrives with more direct contact with teachers. He is naturally curious, energetic and articulate-teachers usually love him and he works best when he has that connection. He is not picky about location or rural setting at all, so we are visiting the following in April: Allegheny, Wooster, Earlham (trip 1) and Knox and St. Olaf (trip 2). He is also attending a 2 week camp this summer at WPI which is on the list. I hope that some of those will gives us enough boost to be within financial reach. I havenāt looked at WA or OR because of greater distance and my perception of greater demand. I am iffy on Denison because of the prevalence of Greek life there. I donāt see that in Sās future.
My S17 looked at Allegheny. It is a wonderful school for a certain kind of kid (and really great food!) he absolutely loved the program there, possibly his favorite but couldnāt get past the location and it really wasnāt his tribe. He was also not impressed with their music or theater programs (he was looking at both for EC). They were quite generous.
You might want to look at Ursinus. They fell short for S17 on merit but we were very impressed overall with the school and even though the program (ENVS) was small, they really sold S on what they could offer and we were both impressed with the theater program. Had he ended up there I am sure heād still be doing tech.
Iāve looked at WPI (and RPI) for S19, in theory both are on S19ās list as wellā¦at least in his mind. RIT has a reputation as being very good for ADHD and other LDās and really good support services. Iām not pushing either as they seem high reaches to me given where he is at right now.
You might want to look at UVM for CS. It is getting more competitive, looks like it was down to 60% for males for the 2021 cohort but they do offer CS and while itās pricey, they OOS scholarships can bring it in range with some of the LACās after merit. Itās the right size at 10K students, I have a very happy S17 there.
@eandesmom Does UVM have good opportunities for kids who want to pursue music (at least a minor)? I am struggling a bit with the search for S19 and like the idea of a medium sized school.
Actually, I like the idea of a smaller school, but my ADHD kid would hate the extensive distribution requirements at a LAC, but smaller tech schools may not be the way to go because of his interest in music (and honestly, Iām not sure he would put the work in for engineering - so far, he gets by without studying). I think the best I might be able to do is find some āunder 15000 studentsā schools.
@eh1234 I have to be honest, I donāt know on the music front but I believe so. The theater program S17 felt was lacking and he decided not to do music this year which makes me a bit sad but they definitely have it or it wouldnāt have been on his list in the first place. As a minor it would likely be ok. I know they had some class cuts this year that folks were unhappy about but that would be far less impact as a minor. Bottom line sounded like enrollment wasnāt high enough for the course load and it was a budget issue. Chairman of the music dept resigned but it still there as FT faculty. Seems to be a very solid engineering program though. S17 is doing a radio show instead (well if he can remember not to sleep through his graveyard shift lol).
Getting by in HS without studying and then trying that in college for engineering can really bite some kids. It is hard to find engineering and music in a medium sized school, I can go back to our old list for S17, there might be something there when Environmental Engineering and music were on the table.
Ones to look at, off the top of my head, might be RIT, Santa Clara, University of Portland, and Drexel.
We have a good friend at U of Portland, Engineering and ADHD, very strong music kid. Not sure if he is doing music (S17 would know). Heās part of the reason Iām trying to push S19 to consider U of Portland.