@PolllyDactile You also mention 19 APs. First, many very selective colleges don’t consider APs much, if at all. Without wanting to sound mean, I think your son’s UW GPA has probably suffered because of too many AP courses. Colleges give money mostly for stats. Thy will use the UW GPA in their decisions. A UW 3.5 GPA is good, but it might not be good enough for the kind of money you’re hoping for, and the 27 in Math might be a little low for some colleges, though the 32 is good, but not super good.
Merit money is a tool colleges use to entice high stats students to matriculate at their schools. Your son has very good stats, but they are not exceptional. You said you will pay as much as you can for the right school, if he gets enough merit aid. I am sure he can get merit aid, but I’m not sure he will get as much as you are hoping for, and I’m not sure he will get enough merit aid at a school you feel is good enough for him.
I suggest he focus on getting the highest grades possible in the hardest classes he can take. If that means dropping an AP so that he can work on getting really high grades, I see no issue with that when he already has a huge number of those classes.
Another option, if saving money is a priority, is that he can use AP credits at some public U’s to enter college with advanced standing. He could finish college in maybe three years, instead of four. That very much depends on the college, of course.
I would take UVA off the list. It’s a reach school and he would be full pay… unless they consider your special circumstance… but academically it’s still a reach.
What about George Mason University? Not sure about merit there…
You’re spot on about the advanced classes impacting GPA, and the reality-check is exactly what I’m here looking for. Thank you! He could have dropped to honors or even regular ed to get straight As, but loves the smaller classes & discussions in gifted & AP. He’s never had an on level “core” class in his life, but being in required on-level classes like health, art history, and speech reinforced that he’d rather stay with the gifted program. He gets straight As in both foreign languages without even blinking, so he might bump up to a 3.6UW but volumetrically, he has 15 classes behind him… If he were to get straight As this entire school year, the overall GPA would only come up to a 3.7UW. As it stands, I think he’ll end this semester with 4 or 5 As, 2 or 3 Bs.
On the current 32 (w 27 in math), since that’s from beginning of junior year and he is just now in Alg2H, we believe he’ll boost that by the time he’ll apply to schools. Guess I should have waited til end of junior year to post his stats, but we’re trying to get a head start on all this. Thanks!!
You need to run net price calculators. You may be expected to pay much more than 30k at most OOS or private colleges unless /until you request the financial aid office for special judgement/consideration is given for the special needs sibling. You may be able to ask for financial preread.
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Raising the ACT to 33 or higher (or equivalent SAT) would increase the available scholarship at Mississippi (HS GPA only needs to be 3.0): https://finaid.olemiss.edu/scholarships/#8
For Alabama, he needs to maintain a HS GPA of at least 3.5 (they used to say that weighted HS GPA on transcript counts, but that is no longer mentioned). To upgrade the scholarship from what he would get with a 32 ACT, he needs to raise it to 36: https://scholarships.ua.edu/freshman/out-of-state/
He is currently out of town, so I called Alabama’s admissions office for him yesterday. I was told that they use weighted GPA, not unweighted. His HS transcripts lists his cumulative as a 4.0 and she said that is what they use.
I see no reason why he wouldn’t get the ACT/SAT equiv up, assuming he didn’t really work for that 32, What was his PSAT score? Will you get him some prep? This is one thing that seems really in his favor IMO, but I would get that in action soon. It is nice to sock away a solid score before the apps open in summer. Have him focus on the math part of the ACT as he really can improve that 27. Science is also strategy, look at that part as more reading comprehension and less scientific knowledge. Read the questions before the data. I would not bother doing any more prep on the other areas.
Your list is a lot like my DS19s and some of your impressions are the same as ours. He had a 29 ACT, 3.9W, 3.7UW GPA, and got merit at: Elon, Furman, Loyola MD. Since your DS has higher stats I would imagine the merit would be higher, and at Elon he would be competitive for Fellows which gives additional $6000 off Elon’s relatively lower sticker price.
I’m not sure if you put your home state in anywhere, but for my DS, W&M was a reach anyway and we read over and over that you have to be tippy top to get merit as OOS there.
Good advice. Yes, the 32 was cold. PSAT scores don’t come out until next week. We will get him into a prep class of some sort for next summer’s testing. He would love for the science portion to actually include some science - straight As in gifted chemistry this fall. He said it was the interpretation of graphs that was the most bothersome, but that likely ties to his “non-mathieness.” Once he finishes algebra this spring, he ought to organically improve some.
The HS tests all the juniors in March for ACT, so that’ll be another data point.
For Fed jobs this is vey true. Another option are Laboratories (federally affiliated/fed funded places like Sandia Lab, Lincoln Lab, RAND, etc.) They are all over the country and each specializes in different things-- many are science/R&D but most have a policy shop too. They pay way way better than federal employment, but they generally care about academic pedigree. Doesn’t have to be tippy top, but colleges thats are nationally recognized for the field of study.
Being that Im in the geosciences and the hub is in finance, we are clueless other than what the son & I have researched relative to these schools. If you know of those that are recognized for his field of interest/study, would you be able to list a few? We’ve searched for public policy undergrad programs, but that may not be the be-all, end-all in the way to search for them.
Yes, U of Denver has both the I-70 weather and decriminalized pot laws - as does DC, so if he’s cutting Colorado off the list, then he’d need to cut out all the DC schools, the west coast (California, Oregon, Wash, Alaska), some of the best schools in the country in Michigan or Mass.
Please don’t think that Colorado is one big rager where everyone is walking around in a haze. College kids have the same access to pot as they did 40 years ago. One has to be 21 to buy pot legally, just like alcohol. You haven’t eliminated VA or NC because alcohol is legal at 21.
DU is a great school for PP/Int Studies. It’s a gorgeous campus with access to downtown or the airport, but lots of green lawns, a great athletic complex that the community uses, a concert hall. But last week we had 12" of snow (all but gone now).
If you are looking at Towson, look at Goucher. They can be very generous with money, and it’s right outside DC. They do a 3-1-3 academic calendar and the January month can be abroad or a government internship type opportunity.
I’d love for him to attend DU and have offered to fly out to visit (cheap flights from our airport), but he’s said no thanks on multiple occasions. He’s the one with the mild disdain for legalized pot. I’m not denigrating anybody’s states or schools - please do not take offense. I’m merely being honest so as not to waste the time of kind people who’ll suggest these schools.
Look. He’s got a brother with major intellectual disability. We live in a big party town where he has witnessed a decent bit of drunken Mardi Gras behavior. The idea to lower one’s functioning because it’s fun or makes one feel woozy hits him differently than it would you, me, most people. I’ve offered him sips of adult beverages before and he absolutely refuses. Surely, he’ll change his mind in college or sooner than that, but I respect his viewpoint.
If you’ve got any friends who are adult children of alcoholics, then maybe you’ve seen similar sentiments. He knows he’ll see underage drinking in college but would prefer to not also see underage smoking.
My son was offered a very nice merit aid package at DU during last year’s application cycle. I believe it was $17,000 a year. His ACT was 34 and his UW GPA was about 3.6 with a good number of rigorous courses. OPs cost of $30k is going to be tough unless her son can get a really big merit award, which means, I’m guessing, at least a 3.7 and maybe a 35 on the ACT. What both Gonzaga? My son didn’t end up applying there, but the AO told him during the interview that they would probably offer him $20k a year. That’s a good school with a lot of school spirit and not too cold.
In that same spirit, he might want to visit a couple schools where doesn’t anticipate loving with an eye towards figuring out what theoretical dealbreakers are actual dealbreakers. My kid went from “I don’t care if other people drink and smoke (cigarettes or other)” to caring a lot after visiting a school (Lawrence U) with an on-campus bar in a city where the townspeople had a high cigarette smoking rate. But weather became less of an issue after visiting New England schools on blustery damp days - turns out she likes that. OTOH, “no schools with more than an entirely nominal religious affiliation” has been so ingrained in her personality that no visit was required, and having people arguing that one school or another wasn’t so religious that she should mind was really annoying.
Even for a kid whose parents can afford their EFC, being too Goldilocks too early makes coming up with a list difficult. Adding financial restrictions necessitates a longer-than-average list, and “meets all the non-negotiables but none of the would-be-nices” is probably an appropriate bar at this point.
I still say…he and you need to forget Public Policy. Fine if he finds a school at your price point with they major…but really, this is not essential to getting a job with the federal government.
Would University of New Mexico be a possibility? He would I think qualify for the Amigo Scholarship. Sandia is close enough, and perhaps there are internship opportunities for someone who is not a scientist. @WayOutWestMom Yes he will see snow there in the winter, and he will need a winter coat.