South Carolina surprised more than a few above-average-stat applicants this year with deferrals. The high number of applications is giving even the “ole reliable’s” a chance to up their acceptance game.
UGA, although not known as a safety school for most people, was harder for some to get into this year than UNC & UVA. The bar has been raised at a lot of places.
What will be interesting is to see how the yield is at that these schools, and whether or not the more competitive admissions process results in more acceptances among top tier students.
The South Carolina Honors program must be popular and/or have a good reputation, I know several tip-top students in our town who landed there.
I second Saint Louis University as worthy of a look.
Part of it is that USCe is very generous with money, sort of like the University of Alabama. If you go to a big school like that, you definitely want to be in an honors program/college.
If you are looking into USCe, you might also want to look at College of Charleston (a public university in South Carolina), which has the Aiken Honors College. I know some fairly recent grads from there, who have had a really good experience; and it would have (for your son) a very favorable male/female undergraduate ratio. And, Charleston is such a lovely place to visit!
The consensus on U of SC parent FB pages is that they were much less generous with merit than they usually are (due, I’m sure, to the large increase in applications and having spread the money out to more qualified applicants).
My D got received less than I thought she would, based on her stats, but then received an additional $5k when she was admitted to the Capstone program. I’m also hearing that Clemson has significantly reeled in its out-of-state merit. Unfortunately I think reduction in merit awards may become a trend - at least until the large volume of applications level out.
Both U of SC and Alabama have highly regarded honors programs. They lure plenty of exceptional students away from higher ranked colleges.
You might look at the Watauga Residential Honors College at Appalachian State. It’s a mid size public and should be in your price range even OOS.
Lots of good stuff on this thread. Wanted to contradict the above which I think has not been addressed. One EC is fine if it shows great depth, which I am assuming 4 days a week means it does. (My D got into a T30 with one EC, and we had a few admissions sessions among the hmm T20-T40 range or so say they were more interested in depth than breadth of ECs.) Student is not aiming at HYPS, I don’t see any issue at all with this especially in the context of excellent academics.
OP, you mentioned a gap year, I may have missed this but any particular plans for what to do in that yet?
U of AL Huntsville has auto merit and mid-sized. It was D21s second choice…no football team, big in engineering. Maybe check out Drake in Des Moines.
First of all,
That’s not “average” - that’s a serious commitment, much preferred to the standard-issue set of Model UN/Debate Team/whatever_else_is_supposed_to_impress_Admission_Officers.
1400 is an awesome springboard. It will go up, and with superscoring, 1500 seems completely realistic (from our own and circle-of-friends experience).
You base your pessimism regarding top schools on the fact that a lot of kids in the same school also have very high GPAs and a lot of APs. But that’s not your son’s competition for college admission - it’s just that he’s in a school with plenty of smart kids. That doesn’t lower his chances, quite the contrary, again, speaking from our own experience, D is about to graduate from a public selective enrollment HS sending 50% of kids to the top 50 or so, and it has served her well in the admission game.
So the only apocalypse I would be afraid of is the cold reality of the diminished post-COVID financial aid.
Was Grinnell College mentioned? Love this school. Open curriculum, merit scholarships, huge endowment, lots of resources, diverse student body. Very selective, but holistic admissions.
Thank you for the EC comment. His Quick Recall team is treated like a sports team with an even longer season! I don’t know what he will do for gap year - something academic for sure. I’ve looked into the PG programs at boarding schools but those may be too socially advanced for him. If I really was determined, one option would be to transfer schools and repeat junior year at another private school but son lost his mind when I suggested that - and I don’t really blame him. I know the recommendation is to apply for college fall of senior year like normal and then afterwards ask for a one year deferment.
I suggest you get your hands on one or two good college guide books (ex. Fiske, Princeton Review) and read up on different schools.
If Catholic schools are OK you may want to look into some of the Jesuit colleges which are generally mid-sized universities with smaller classes often in urban locations. Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities--Jesuit Colleges and Universities
Have you considered UK schools? Sounds like he would be a good fit. Degree program is only 3 years long, so even at full pay, it will be less than $150K total.
He could also apply via UCAS and simultaneously apply to American schools via EA/ED.
UK schools require to know very precisely what one wants to study.
For those who aren’t specialized yet, there’s Scotland (4-year, 2 years with 40-50% courses chosen from a large list and 50-60% in your “course” ie., major+2 years in one or two subjects) plus some “Liberal arts” programs (Queen’s Belfast, Durham, York have them, I think, all requiring AAA so several AP 5s).
Another option is Ireland for the “Arts” undergraduate program: you choose 3 or 4 subjects when you register, then 2 for your second year, then either 2 or 1 for 3rd year.
Maynooth, Cork, Galway, Limerick have this. UCD has interdisciplinary Humanities programs with lots of different subjects and Trinity has European Studies.
Maynooth, Cork, Galway, and Limerick are all fun college towns and the “Arts” programs are easy to get into.