Small Schools With Strong STEM Programs And Stats-Driven Admissions

College Search & Selection
21

There is definitely a LOT of work to do on the software side in FIRST! Not that she might not end up doing some other things as well (people tend to pitch in where needed), but most FIRST teams have a specific group focused on the software for the robot. (My D2 made a face when asked about FIRST, too, but a guy she was friends with was the captain of their new team and talked her into it, and she ended up really liking it).

The other thing I would say is that kids change a LOT during their high school years. Both of my kids ended up farther away from home than I would have expected if you had even asked me junior year. D2 ended up at a STEM school, and that is not really what she was looking at overall (only STEM school on her list, and she is happy as a clam there, who knew?). Their interests can change a lot, and you don’t really know what test scores you are working with until they are actually in hand.

22

Ninth grade is far too early to look at schools and their admission stats. Worse, this is backwards. Focus on your child, not the colleges. Forget getting college names, class sizes, class schedules, stats versus holistic admissions. It’s too early for that level of detail.

When your daughter is older, make a list based on her grades, test scores, activities and interests. Please let those things happen first. Enjoy watching her grow as a teenager and high school student. Support her interests and activities as they happen but don’t force or even “strongly encourage” her into ECs because they look good on college apps. That’s not fair to her or the kids who actually are interested. If she doesn’t want to do robotics, that’s fine.

Many here say kids change a lot between the fall and spring of senior year alone. How can you not expect changes between her freshman and senior years?

Right now, as a parent, I would focus on college costs. In four years, those private colleges likely will cost $70,000-$75,000 a year, including tuition, fees, room and board. I’m trying to figure out how to pay for a college freshman and save for a middle schooler (I’m projecting a COA of >$75,000 a year by the time he’s ready to apply).

23

Sorry for the very delayed response, and thank you for the very informative reply.

I’m going to check out Illinois and Pitt. Also, thanks for the sanity check. It cracks me up that a bunch of people who are obviously obsessed with college selection(like me), are so bent on telling me I’m way too early. Maybe it’s a compliment :slight_smile: The really obsessed think i’m obsessed. OK, I think I’m on the right track :slight_smile:

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For those of you telling the OP that it is too early to start looking at colleges, you are way off base. It is never too early. You assume that mom hasn’t given the necessary attention to her daughter to this point. But if, as a parent, you have faith in your child’s academic direction, and recognize their future collegiate and professional potential, then why not start the search early and be on the ball when the time comes. I know way too many HS juniors and seniors (and their parents) that have not prepared themselves and are trapped into making uninformed decsions when it comes to college choices. My son is currently a Sophomore, and due to his drive, focus, and planning, he is getting much more attention from his teachers and counselors in his college preparation.

25

I agree 100% with @bluecker. Its very important to somehow map out the first three years of the college selection/application process so you end up completing everything prior to your senior year. There is so much to do it can be daunting especially if you wait until the end. My D took the SAT/PSAT in October of her Sophomore year (practiced over the summer), Subject Tests as she completed her AP courses, visited colleges in between and applied to all of her colleges prior to her Senior year. She had over 27 essays for 9 colleges and she did it over the summer prior to her Senior year. Having a well thought out plan really helps (including what courses are you going to take). You basically have a couple years left to fit all this in and that’s good. :slight_smile: Having a well rounded college selection helps too - just in case your child decides to change their major. Unfortunately, most students aren’t aware of what the college process entails so they are scrambling to fit everything in the last minute.

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It isn’t too early to start thinking about it, but students do burn out if it is a huge focus for four years. There is a balance to it.

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We seem to have revived an old thread, here, but, in case the OP is still lurking around, you might want to add Trinity University to your list. Excellent CS department, one of a small collection of LACs that does offer an engineering major, and they have excellent merit aid as well. Their new science center is spectacular.

And speaking of Trinity’s, Trinity College also offers an engineering major, though it sounds like engineering may not be an ideal fit for your daughter, based on your description of her likes and dislikes.

28

Hi rayrick, I am still lurking. I have Trinity U on the list. It looks like a great school and the COA is incredible if you get some of the merit aid that they offer. I wish it were closer to us, but I think I’ll still encourage her to take a look when she gets to that point. Trinity College is also on our list. Probably not a possibility because of cost, but things could change.

Thanks for the encouragement newJersey17. I hope we manage to stay on the type of schedule you kept to.

True about burnout, intparent, hence my username.

I apologize to everyone who took the time to respond on the second page of this thread. I totally abandoned it. I got busy at work, and with everyone telling me I was too early, I just went silent and started doing research on my own.

I do want to update everyone, though, and also for the benefit of people who read this thread in the future, I wanted to explain why I was taking the approach I was taking.

A high stats kid with almost no interest in any ECs is a very specific, and I think kind of rare, situation. If you take the normal approach of letting the kid do his or her thing, and just create a list of schools in junior year, you could end up with a very short list, that might not contain a single school that’s even close to a good fit. I know that now, and I suspected that back when I started this thread, and that’s why I started it.

I was worried that if I left it up to my daughter to pick up ECs on her own, she might inadvertently remove herself from consideration at many schools that would otherwise be a great fit. After doing a lot of research, I think this is undoubtedly true. I think I didn’t stress in my first post how uninterested my daughter seemed in pursuing ECs beyond her one sport.

I wanted to know if there were stats driven schools that could be potential fits for her, even with very weak ECs. If there were, I was going to leave her be. I personally think that the focus on ECs has reached the point of insanity. No offense to any highly accomplished kids on here who may be reading this, but I think the kids who post a page worth of ECs sound like pretty weird kids. I’m not saying bad, just weird. I don’t think I’d want to hire one of those kids. And for the kids who are doing it just to get into an elite school, I think they’re robbing themselves of their adolescence.

Of course, there’s a happy medium. I would like to see her do more, but I also think it’s very normal for her to want to have some down time. I need it. I think most adults need it. I don’t see most busy adults filling every spare moment they have with ECs :slight_smile: They lay on the couch and watch football all weekend :slight_smile: And then they’re ready to do some more hard work on Monday morning.

My daughter hangs out with her friends all weekend, except when she has track meets. Sometimes I go into her room on a Saturday morning, expecting to find her studying for her test on Monday, and instead there’s one or two other girls in her bed with her. She usually has her head laying on top of one of the other girls, and is taking a picture or listening to music, being all silly. I, of course, get worried that she’s not studying, or working at a soup kitchen that day, but that’s normal 15 year old behavior, and I wouldn’t want to steal that from her. At least not all of it, no matter what school she could get into if I did.

On the other hand, I do want her to grow as a person, and that’s what I’ve tried to keep in mind while trying to advise her about ECs. How is it going? Not great :slight_smile:

We’re now almost halfway through sophomore year, and she still hasn’t added anything substantial. She does have a few ideas though, which is good. She added a few small things on her own, but also quit one thing that I thought was great. She added it back in after our last conversation about ECs. Anyway, I’ll keep trying.

I appreciate everyone’s advice, even the people who said I was doing it backwards :slight_smile: I agree that for most people that would be true, but this situation is kind of unusual. I had to try to do both things at the same time - advise about course selection and ECs while searching for schools that she could still get into if I didn’t get through to her. I wanted to be able to go to her and present that short list of schools she’d be eligible for without ECs. I didn’t do it that harshly, but I did gently explain to her that she might be closing doors.

The good news is that I’m totally ready for junior year when the college search starts for real. I think it’s a real advantage to start on this part early. I can’t believe how little I knew about colleges before I started all of this. When other parents are scrambling in two years to find schools that might be a fit, I’ll be way ahead of the game. I think the biggest advantage is in the informal gathering of knowledge that you do when you’re just living your life around town, seeing people you know at parties and at sports events. In the past, when the topic turned to older siblings who were applying to, or currently in college, I used to tune out.

You can get a lot of information about fit from conversations like that, and it’s not like you’re going to run around to everyone’s houses in junior year and start interviewing them. Those opportunities come up sporadically over the years, and if you have some background information about what colleges interest you, you know when to tune in :slight_smile:

Sorry for the long post. Just wanted to get it all down in case anyone else is going through this.

I’ll update here if there’s any good news on the EC front. Otherwise, I’ll probably go silent, and post all of the SUNY schools my daughter’s applying to in two years :slight_smile: Not that there’s anything wrong with that :slight_smile: