2plustrio - My older student had a great experience attending NAU. Feel free to message me if you have any questions.
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My older DD goes to UofA in Tucson, just on Mt Lemmon, about 40 miles away is a Ski Resort. The state is amazing and surprising. You can play golf or swim in the morning and ski in the evening (Mt Lemmon Ski Valley).
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I got a peek at the common app this weekend, helped her figure out what activities and awards to enter.
Question, if her school doesnât have official APâs and doesnât weight grades, how can they compete for scholarships where colleges say they use weighted GPA?
And observation- it is so hard to make a reach/target/safety list when you are using the Tuition Exchange list. There are some academic safeties whose TE scholarship percentage is less than 10%!
I have no doubt my son would love NAU. However its our most expensive option so likely not a true option.
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I agree use of TE list makes things very complicated.
Add in music and low gpa and its worse.
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Itâs super frustrating because I will find a school that looks good for a target or even a safety only to find that even with TE it would be too expensive, or the chance of actually winning the TE lottery is low. And they need to have a decent dance program. And be on the East Coast. Also, the big merit scholarships donât seem to be for pointy kids- they all want kids who have done ALL OF THE THINGS. Mine has danced 20 hours a week all through high school and taken extremely rigorous schedule, so no there are not a ton of volunteer hours and extracurricular academic competition awards. But I think I am more stressed than she is. We are making her apply to Alabama, as I think she could get good merit there.
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@AnonMomof2 - for the most part, schools will evaluate your child in the context of their own school. Because schools have different scales/weighting, etc, the colleges will recalculate the GPA based on their criteria.
The AOs also have a profile for your HS and have a good sense of what an unweighted gpa of X.XXX means at your school
Another thing to remember is that for feeder schools to rejective colleges, a student will be always compared to his/her peers on top. My friendâs child went to one and basically every kid applied to the same 30 schools. Even state flagships here in NC appear to do that. So, @AnonMomof2 something to consider when your kid is making her final list of colleges.
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Are you looking at Mt Holyoke - TE, Dance and East Coast.
Yes, agree, and we are finding it so tough to navigate as no one knows exactly where everyone else is applying, they are encouraging kids to apply to more schools than just 2 years ago, and specific rank is not given (or at least not yet: half-deciles is about it, which is only somewhat helpful). The only thing known is which kids are in the most rigorous classes with each other. The level of competition within the school is fierce this year. Trying to ignore all the chatter and just go for the schools that fit her best even if we know many others are applying to the same.
Yes, I know that a lot of these feeder schools are no longer ranking. But nothing is stopping AOs from comparing two applications (or multiple). Usually, the same 1-2 AOs are assigned to a particular region/state.
The easiest way to screen out schools is to not apply to the T20 schools. But if you must play the lottery, then buying as many tickets you can afford to buy is not a bad strategy as long as there is a financial fit. Some fields of study are very egalitarian â this includes engineering and medicine. As long as you attend a decent school, you should be in good shape.
Also, many excellent schools have chosen not to play the rankings game. William & Mary come to mind. I am sure there are many others. Smart selection of colleges can help.
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I do wonder if AOs understand how intense it is to dance 20 hrs a week!? Ours has expanded well outside the East coast to get more schools with the dance and academic mix she wants, and none are âperfectâ fits. I have a colleague whose kid was a finalist for Morehead and they felt as though it was ALL very pointy kids who were picked, based on the ones they knew, and his well-rounded one was not(but still got to the last round and got decent merit $). TE sounds very difficult to navigate with the needs of a performing arts kidâhopefully she will end up with great options despite the hurdles.
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Not looking at Mt. Holyoke, doesnât want a womenâs college.and still too expensive after TE.
My D17 was a competitive dancer and that schedule is no joke.
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In your case, youâve delegated these things to the boarding school. The counselor only has 25 kids. Our guidance counselor has 125, which is not as bad as schools that have 500.
So, your kid is having their hand held yet just not by you.
That is awesome she has so much support from her GC!
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Whoa. He is already admitted? Am I understanding you correctly?
Yup! Contingent upon final official transcript, but thatâs it. Honors app & scholarship stuff is separate/comes later.
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Every college tour Iâve been on has touted their writing center and how the students there can provide editing. Itâs okay to get editing from others, and universities encourage it in order to improve writing.
Thanks for the comments. Heâs been warned about the pressure at Princeton; one of his cousins was pre-med which was extra crispy, while another relative was an Economics major and gave him another perspective. He knew about ORFE, but I had not seen it. That would be very much in his wheelhouse.
He has interest in working for a team as a manager, preferably basketball. Heâs done stats work and video work for our national team and its something heâd like to continue in college. Being a manager at either school is not a walk in the park, but weâll cross that bridge when we get there.
Agreed those students get a ton of support in their apps and someone makes sure everything gets done and on time and is reviewed. We have a lot of that (though not to same extent) in our private academic day school. And lots of kids have private counselors in addition. It is true lots of parents try to stay out of it to avoid the fights and stress but that doesnât mean someone else isnât helping the kids.
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