Tell me matches for my junior

Parents Forum
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<p>Our daughter is looking around New England only right now. I am new to the lingo and abbreviations, so I will probably mess this all up, but here goes:</p>

<p>Public High School -- top 2 or 3 in Massachusetts -- no class rank (but if I had to guess I'd say she is top 10%--the school is full of overachievers)
Weighted GPA 4.2 this year so far, with slight upward trend
Varsity math team 3 years -- will be 4
Model United Nations -- will be 2 years
Rotary youth leadership conference
Academic Bowl team 3 years -- will be 4
Worked at local preschool in summer will be 2 years
Teaching assistant at a residential camp (at worcester polytechnic institute) last summer for 2 weeks, focussed on middle school girls who are interested in math and science -- will be 2 years
Girl Scouts -- working on the gold award which is sort of like the equivalent of eagle scout
NRA rated marksman at our local sportsman club and she is the club administrator for the youth program</p>

<p>And now there is an unusual activity: she is a volunteer ski instructor for children with disabilities at a mountain 120 miles from our home. She has over 500 hours already in her high school career -- will have close to (or over)1000 hours by graduation. It is a peer to peer program and is a total commitment from November to April. She is a mentor this year and next as well. Huge family commitment as well...so I am hoping that our many sacrifices to get her there will pay off beyond the intrinsic good will. Again, this is community service.</p>

<p>Taking 1 AP and 5 honors (including 1 virtual high school honors class -- environmental science) Next year she will take AP stats, AP calculus and hopes to take AP physics, but I am thinking that may be alot with all of her college applications too.</p>

<p>Her PSAT's and SAT's are not great -- she has taken the Kaplan course, so we are hoping for improvement -- but no idea yet how that will go yet. Although she is a strong student, she is not a great standardized test taker. </p>

<p>then a possible liability...
only 2 years of a foreign language (Spanish) -- this is a long story.... but she is hoping to take a college Italian class over the summer...and she studied Latin at a local monestary for 3 years before the Spanish disaster!</p>

<p>She would like to major in math possibly. </p>

<p>What do you think about the following choices:</p>

<p>Brown
Providence College
Holy Cross
WPI
RPI
Dartmouth
Northeastern
Boston University
Amherst
Williams
Colby
Bates
Bowdoin
Bennington
Middlebury</p>

<p>Safety schools will probably be UVM -- honors college, UNH or St. Anselms
I am so worried after reading the many stories here! Any assistance or advice is greatly appreciated. </p>

<p>Best of luck to the '09 moms and dads and grads!</p>

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<p>Just curious... What does she think of the volunteer ski program? What kinds of kids does she work with?</p>

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<p>She adores it...gets up at 5 a.m. to be there for set up at 7:30 every single weekend day. Her students range from severely autistic to moderate cerebral palsy. She is also very interested in biomedical engineering -- loves the adaptive equipment. </p>

<p>My daughter loves it because so many of the students are isolated from peer to peer relationships -- their teachers, aides, therapists are all adults. These 25 kid-coaches are trained over 75 hours per year to adequately be prepared for any situation. It is a highly competitive process to even get into this coaching program and my daughter is totally engaged by it. Some of her students are her closest friends. She is going to a prom at one of their special schools this spring. </p>

<p>I am concerned it will be hard to explain to admissions people...the amount of commitment is nearly superhuman to get that many hours in a short season 120 miles from our home!</p>

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<p>Cool. As someone with moderate/severe CP who skiied in a similar program growing up, I loved it! I'm a bi-ski skiier and have really been amazed how the technology has blossomed since I started skiing at age 6.</p>

<p>Sorry to get off track... :)</p>

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<p>Good for you! It is a wonderful thing to be outside in the weather and to be part of a peer group that really loves being with you! Good luck this season...we are hoping for alot of snow!</p>

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<p>How many AP classes does your D's school offer? Her load looks a little light compared to some, but that could be mitigated if her school doesn't offer many? Also, what's her UW GPA? A lot of schools use that instead of W GPA as the latter varies so much in how it's calculated.</p>

<p>If you're looking for merit aid, you may have luck at WPI, Providence, and RPI, and possibly BU, depending on UW GPA and test scores.</p>

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<p>Several of the schools on your D's list are SAT-optional, and have a very holistic admission process. Check them out. Her EC is very interesting and she should write her essay on that topic.
AP-Calc and AP-Physics are a good pair of courses, AP-stats may be a bit of overkill if taken together.</p>

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<p>You have plenty of time to finalize the list. Why not wait to see what her best scores are. This last round with my youngest was very different than with my oldest 7 years ago. These days the schools are getting so many applications from around the world, numbers really matter. </p>

<p>You don't mention where the SAT scores are, but if they are sub 2150 and she's not being recruited or a minority, Bown, Dartmouth, Williams, Amherst, Midd...even Colby will be tough. You may want to focus on the SAT optional schools as we did with DD. </p>

<p>Trinity would seem a natural on your list but coming from a good MA school you'll have lots of legacy competition in the NE, so why not look at schools less popular with E. Coast kids like Wake Forest, Nova, Davidson, Scripps, Pitzer,Whitman?</p>

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<p>Her school does not offer AP's till Junior year and SATs are low -- but she was really sick that day (with pnuemonia!) so...1770 I consider ok under the circumstances. We will see what they look like next time. Also, she will take the ACT's too because I have heard that sometimes kids do better on those. </p>

<p>Trinity is a no...she doesn't like CT...possibly because it is too far from skiing! We went to Trinity and Hartford didn't thrill any of us. ANy other school she considers has to be within 2 or 3 hours of the mountain she volunteers at so she can be there easily for a "fix" (her priority!).</p>

<p>We are not minority and she will not be applying to the school I went to . She will be applying to the school my husband went to -- WPI and I know she is a sure bet there. She has been working as a TA in one of the camps and they have been heavily recruiting her since middle school! Seriously! Which of course means that she thinks she wants something different! (sigh)
She will write her essay on her EC and is already working on it because she is applying for all sorts of community service scholarships and awards so has draft essays ready to go. She is a total type A and very highly organized. It frightens me a bit.</p>

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<p>I think the tone on CC is cautionary because nearly EVERYONE here has an experience where an absolutely qualified applicant gets denied. My D was waitlisted at a (very good) school where her stats would have placed her at the 92nd percentile of accepted students. Unfortunately (or not, depending on one's point of view) she was one of those bright but unhooked suburban OOS females the school WASN'T looking for that year. C'est la vie. What we did for her, and I suggest you do for your D, is to let her know that getting into a specific elite is a bit of a crap shoot -- and encourage her to apply to a number of schools that she'd enjoy attending.</p>

<p>I can't comment on prospects at the schools listed until the next set of test scores come in. Has your D considered taking the ACT?</p>

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<p>hm, welcome. It's still early in the game for your daughter and she has a solid foundation. Her grades and rank are very good. Her overall ECs are strong and reinforce leadership and character. Her involvement with ski instruction for disabled kids is especially compelling. All of this will make her a person of interest at all of the schools on her preliminary list. Obviously some are more selective than others, but I think for the most part she's understood the overarching personality and put together a well balanced list.</p>

<p>I have no statistical basis for this opinion, but I feel that LACs are more forgiving of imbalanced grades/scores than larger universities. I would suggest that she take a look at Hamilton, Kenyon, Smith and Mt. Holyoke as well.</p>

<p>As for the language thing -- most schools like to see three or even four years of the same language. Perhaps she could ask her counselor to address this gap in the his/her recommendation. I'd also bear in mind that some colleges have a language proficiency requirement, meaning that unless you test to a certain level you must take language at college. For a language challenged student, this could be painful and that was one reason that my son liked Williams.</p>

<p>Did you mention your financial situation? Many of these schools offer good need based aid, but on the other hand only a few of them offer merit aid.</p>

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<p>I was a math major at Holy Cross. I think she should definitely get into HC with those credentials.</p>

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<p>Providence College is SAT optional for admission but, it could be required to get into the honors college. And they are all about volunteering and giving back to the community, so her dedication to the ski program should be a real asset to her application. Hopefully, she can convey to the schools just how dedicated she is and what a huge committment this program has been in her life.<br>
I do remember the admissions officer telling us on the PC tour though that they really encouraged 4 years of a language, but if she takes the college Italian you spoke about, it could be helpful. Although my kids all did about the same on the ACT as SAT, I do know several who scored much better on the ACT, so I agree you are right to encourage her in that direction. Good luck!</p>

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<p>hi Harvardmum, on the standardized tests- I agree with others to look at the SAT optional schools, 3 Maine schools are in that set but I'm not sure which mountain she volunteers at, I know Loon has a big disabled skiing program but there aren't too many colleges close to that. Another point to consider is that there are some schools which will take 2 or 3 SAT II tests in lieu of SAT I or ACT. Middlebury is one of them but the 2 yrs language might be a deal breaker there. You said she did an SAT prep course, how were her grades from the tests given during that? And when did she take the SAT? As a Junior she is still early enough in the game that her scores could improve.</p>

<p>And try to get her to reconsider CT colleges. With RI colleges on the list, CT would be faster to get up to VT I would think.</p>

<p>Other suggestion is to talk to a GC at your HS or if that can't be arranged until they are done with the seniors maybe some parents of recent grads or current seniors. See how she stacks up in the context of the student body because as you say Harvard is a very high performing school district.</p>

<p>I agree the ski program will make a compelling essay/focus. Is her Gold Award related also, if so that adds even more aspects to it.</p>

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<p>Of the schools in Worcester, we liked Clark the best. Great community involvement, good merit aid.</p>

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<p>^^ I also meant to add to my comments about talking to the GC, see if your school has Naviance and use that to assess your D's chances among the context of her schoolmates.</p>

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<p>AP stats is considered a second tier AP by the highly selective colleges, especially if your D is interested in majoring in Math. A kid who presents a very strong profile in math/science is often forgiven on the foreign language dimension, so I wouldn't sweat the Spanish too much... but that would mean very high scores on both the SAT 1 math section as well as the SAT II. I would strongly urge you to encourage the physics. Her schedule will look a little "lite" for a math kid without it.</p>

<p>I don't know your HS but I would encourage her to think about other parts of the country where there is skiing, mountains, snow, and kids with disabilities. She will have geography working to her advantage once she reaches beyond New England....</p>

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<p>Thank you all so much for all of the input! </p>

<p>I actually graduated from Clark, but it is not a good fit for my daughter. I went there because of the merit aide, actually. We ski at Loon Mountain in NH. The CT driving route traffic is terrible -- the RI trip is not so bad - - so that figures into her geographic preference too. She is not even considering any place outside of new england...which is ok with us -- mainly because she has a certain comfort level which we need to respect. We may be able to get her to consider a NY school or 2, but it would be a longshot. She is going to look at RPI, Cornell, Hamilton in the Spring. So we will see. Also, she does not want to consider a single sex school--and I agree with her preference. We are a house full of women, (except for dad, who travels much of the year) and I think she needs the co-ed exposure. Even our dogs are girls. Poor dad.</p>

<p>Again, I appreciate any guidance since she is our 1st.</p>

<p>Financially, we would LOVE any help, but I think we will not be getting any--unless she gets independent scholarships or merit aide. She is aware that it will also be a fiscal decision based on where she gets the best offer...unless it is ivy. If she can make the reach to an Ivy, we will find a way. I may have to sell a kidney, but we will find a way.</p>

<p>I am trying to have faith that it will all work out for the best.</p>

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<p>My motto about all of this is also that it will work out for the best. </p>

<p>Because three of my spouse's siblings are RPI alum and loved it, I have to put a vote in for it! It really is a great school.</p>

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<p>ha! I guessed Loon :) Since it is just up 93 from Boston, I think any of your Boston choices would be doable if she plans to continue this great activity in college and I can see where the RI schools would be more workable than CT or even ME. You mention in your first post that you sacrificed to get her there, will she have a car in college? If not, maybe Boston might be the best choice for any transportation issues.</p>

<p>What else is she looking for in a school besides a math major and co-ed? Why is Clark not a good fit (just curious as it might lead to other suggestions)</p>