I have a daughter who is a rising junior who may be graduating a year early. We’ve just decided this. She currently has a 30 on the ACT, but I am fairly confident that she can pull this up to at least a 32 by December. Her grades are wretched, with a weighted gpa of 3.5 and unweighted of 3.29. She is going to be finishing up through dual enrollment, and I have high hopes that she will earn A’s on her coursework (on pain of death). If so, her grade point will increase slightly. Obviously we can’t afford for it to go below 3.5.
FWIW, she will take the PSAT this fall as a junior, and I think she has a real chance to make the NMSF cutoff. Her grades are crappy enough that I have doubts about whether she will get NMF, but there are many schools that treat NMSF very well. Wondering whether a gap year might be in order if her score is high enough.
I’m aware that Ole Miss and Alabama are the obvious choices with these scores. Daughter is interested in sorority rush, but wants a less “intense” experience, and a smaller school overall. The University of Louisiana-Lafayette has an incredibly good merit aid package and is on our list of places to visit. Just looking for other schools of a similar nature with good merit aid. Any ideas?
My understanding is if she graduates early she’ll need special approval to use her Junior year PSAT. IIRC the written rule is “the year before graduation”.
@ClarinetDad16 She took the PSAT last year as a 10th grader and had a selection index score of 209. The Mississippi cutoff this year is likely to be 212 or 213. Her verbal score was 750 out of 760, so her weakness is in math. With some work I think she can pull this up.
I wouldn’t think “admission” would be a problem. If she gets her ACT up to 32, as I think she probably will, she would be eligible for the Presidential at Alabama, and full tuition offers at a number of schools. She says Alabama is too big and the sorority scene too intense, but there are merit possibilities out there, with a 32 on the ACT being the magic number. She currently has a 30, and in fact that is good enough for merit aid, but no full tuition offers. We’re not interested in an expensive elite college.
@MotherOfDragons Auburn is on the short list, although I worry a bit about the size. She has visited and likes it. Even more so if she should be so lucky as to score a 33 on the ACT.
You might consider Samford University (in Birmingham).
Your daughter might be competitive for their University Fellows program, which includes a substantial merit scholarship, along with a number of other benefits (including a paid-for trip to Italy over winter break).
What makes you think that a 3.2 student is going to suddenly become an all-A student “under pain of death”? In my experience, threatening a student, even a VERY bright one who may be under-performing to force better grades doesn’t end well for anyone. What if that doesn’t happen and you don’t get the merit aid you think you’re going to get, but where other doors might have opened had she stayed in HS for all 4 years? What if she gets those A’s but so resents you for your straight-arm parenting that she opts to go much father away than you’d like? What is she only gets great aid at a school where you think she will not find the right husband (as alluded to in other threads)?
My D graduated early, but was a top student at a small HS which did not have grade inflation or weighted grades. I didn’t have to threaten her. She was never a contender for NMS so that wasn’t an issue. She applied to colleges where we knew they had a long history of accepted young students, including those who graduated early and which gave good merit awards for less than 4.0 gpa’s. We’re not worried about her future husband. BTW, you’re not “last-minute”. D’s second choice in the end was one she hadn’t even considered until late fall of her final year of HS. Not everyone has their college list finished and their apps in by September of their senior year.
But I urge you above all to consider your D here-it’s not just about “getting out”. Graduating early requires a whole lot of extra work AND the application process. It’s not for the faint of heart. If you add in “pain of death” studying to raise her gpa a huge amount, it could make everyone, especially her, miserable for the rest of the school year. Do it ONLY if you will finish with the family harmony intact. Trust me on this.
Furman is 60,000 a year and the higher awards are difficult to get . With her current stats she would probably be offered between 20,000 and 22,000 merit. In order to be competitive to be invited to participate in the interview weekend, you need to have at least a 32 ACT or 1400 SAT. Last year out of 1200 applications for scholarships , they invited 48 to interview. As you can see, Furman is extremely competitive and expensive. The 20,000 Belltower scholarship is not one that requires an interview. It is offered when accepted. http://www.furman.edu/admission/EngageFurman/FinancialInformation/Pages/merit-based-scholarships.aspx
You may want to look at Wofford. They are a small school ( about 2000 students) They are less expensive than Furman , about 49,000 a year. They also have a Wofford Scholars program that your GC must submit an application in the Spring of the Junior year. If selected as a Wofford Scholar, your daughter would be required to visit Wofford and then be invited to participate in interview weekend in Nov of her senior year. As a Wofford scholar, she would be guaranteed at least 5000.00 renewable , then offered the opportunity to interview for up to 45,000. I’ve included a link. https://www.wofford.edu/scholars/
How much is this about a “social” fit, the various definitions of that?
Because kids do a lot of growing between now and the end of junior year and then from that spring into the fall. The criteria you’re searching on today could very well change. For many of us- and even some kids you see on CC- the wants changed radically by the end. If she isn’t happy today, how can you project she’ll be so satisfied over the four years of college, if she jumps too fast?
If her current hs isn’t the right fit, what about the rest of her days, broadening in the community?
@sseamom My daughter’s weighted g.p.a. is 3.5; unweighted is 3.29. Prior to this year is was substantially higher. There is no way that I could endure another year like the last one, and I don’t think my daughter could, either. That’s why I was so eager for her to take three dual enrollment classes and only two classes at the high school. Understand that a 3.5 weighted g.p.a. and a 32 on the ACT is the key to a lot of very good scholarships. My “pain of death” comment was meant to demonstrate that I don’t intend to allow her to blow it.
Graduating early really isn’t going to take a lot of “extra work.” My daughter only needs five Carnegie units to graduate. The work is going to be in doing the college applications, taking the ACT, visiting schools, etc.
@austinmshauri I’m not self-directed enough to homeschool. Homeschooling is the exact opposite of a college classroom, where you go in at an appointed time, sit and listen to a lecture, and do any assignments.
@EarlVanDorn, If she’s taking college classes, you’re homeschooling through use of a vendor. Using an online service is a similar concept but with a different vendor.
But you say her grades suffered this year, in a context where you go to class “at an appointed time, sit and listen to a lecture, and do any assignments.”