Also, check your pre-paid plan. We are in the opposite situation as you. We have pre-paid in a state my S would never consider going to school. I was surprised to find that the instate credit hour cost could be used at any accredited institution anywhere. Even better, it literally paid that amount to the college, so it didn’t reduce scholarship money at schools that do that. There are plenty of true college experience schools that are and will stay test optional even after Covid. Sounds like you are in South Florida. Branch out to schools close to an airport with a direct flight from your closest airport. Try the ACT (for good readers, there is only one math section and the rest are really reading comp). And don’t underestimate merit at private schools. My other advice is to start an excel sheet with your research. I was only keeping track of schools that looked like they would work and I found I wasted a lot of time looking up the same “nopes.”
I had the same exact problem. I am just not great with standardized tests and I thought my scores were going to ruin my college application (I don’t have AP scores either since I took all dual enrollment classes so the SAT was VERY important for me). I ended up just applying test optional out of state and got into every single college I applied to including UVA, Northeastern, ect. The private out of state colleges seemed to give more scholarship money and out of state ended up being cheaper for me than anywhere in state. My recommendation would be to focus on getting good grades and taking rigorous courses as opposed to studying for the SAT/ACT. If she is a junior, most schools are already test optional for her year and it will probably end up being less selective than this year. Colleges understand not everyone is made for standardized tests, and high test scores are not necessarily an indicator of a good student. You can study for the tests, but make sure that doesn’t take time away from other important things that could help your application. The SAT takes four hours, where as your GPA and transcript takes four years. If she is a hard worker I promise you colleges will recognize it.
Thank you @Theaterforme I check our prepaid program, but from what other Floridians have said here I think all we can do is cash it out, which means the per credit hour price advantage is lost. I’ll still do more research though. Being close to an airport is a good tip I hadn’t thought about. Thanks! She is signed up for the ACT in April. We will do some prep for that, and yes, her math is the issue, the rest is better
@S2021S Thank you. It’s great advice and great coming from a student. What school did you decide on? I’m originally from Northern VA and UVA is a gorgeous campus and extremely sought after in VA. Congrats on that acceptance. You should be proud no matter where you go.
Question for those of you who have looked for schools OOS. I know many of the California schools are going TO for a couple of years. Are any of them worth looking into for merit aid, or are they all so expensive it really doesn’t make a difference? I’m keeping a running list of OOS TO schools to look into.
@MEC143 are you asking about the CA public universities? If so…please understand that these CA public colleges give no need based aid to OOS students and very very little merit aid to OOS students. The regents scholarship is about $2000…and that’s just a drop in the bucket for CA public college costs. If costs are a concern, I would suggest not applying to CA publics.
Have you considered some of the smaller LACs in smaller towns? Denison in Ohio is a great school and your kid might get merit aid there. Otterbein is another option. Both small, but good schools.
Look at the Colleges that Change Lives schools. Many provide decent merit aid that could bring your costs down to affordable.
I second the recommendation above for PrepScholar SAT prep. It’s 12 month online access for $400 and it’s tailored to your students strengths and weaknesses. Based on a pretest, the program identifies where your student needs to spend their time. If she’s able to self-study, which it seems she can based on her academic success, the program may work well for her. If she struggles in math, it will start her with the easier lessons and work up to the harder ones. Even mastering the “easy” questions should give her a nice bump in her score.
@thumper1 Thank you! That’s exactly the answer I needed. I know some OOS TO schools are better than other about aid, and I don’t want to waste my time looking at California if in the end it’s not going to be an affordable option for us. I need to concentrate our efforts on schools within reach. Thank you!
She is signed up for live online classes with Princeton Review for six weeks. I wish I had done Prep Scholar now that so many have mentioned it. In any case, we get access to all their videos, books, and a personalized study plan for a year. I’m hoping between that and Khan, which also builds a personalized plan, that we can improve her scores. She will take the SAT again in May,and the ACT in April. We will prep more in summer, and she will likely take it again in August. After that we may call it a day and just work with what she gets. I’ve read taking it more than 3-4 times isn’t helpful. Thanks for your advise!
There might be some private colleges in CA that could work…but I honestly don’t have a suggestion about affordable ones.
@twoinanddone She would like to study pediatric speech pathology. It’s a masters program though. She could study something related for under grad. Then again who knows if she will end up changing majors.
Seconding the above - Denison and Colleges that Change Lives* prize course rigor and grades over test scores and have both need based aid and merit aid.
California, overall, won’t be a good state to target: so many students live there or want to go there, there’s very little incentive to provide merit aid; the California publics have need based aid for state residents but use OOS students as full pay wallets; and your daughter is unlikely to be a serious candidate for Stanford/The Claremonts (that meet need).
Beside CTCL, look at women’s colleges and LACs in the Midwest, plus a few puvlics like Truman State, UMW, UArizona (merit for GPA)…
*website
https://ctcl.org/request-copies-of-how-to-choose-brochure/
Not for public universities. For private - some.
My son took it 6 times. Hated me for making him take it that 6th time. Bumped up his point and his scholarship at Alabama by…I think 6K. So you never know.
Statistically, I’m sure it’s true. My D took the ACT 4 times and likely wasn’t getting better. You never know though with superscores.
My son got a 24 on science and a 34. So it can get zany, very opposite.
I’d recommend Khan Academy or even a book she can study from if the Princeton Review thing isn’t great for her. There’s a lot of ways to improve your score.
Frankly, you’re not learning - your figuring out how to cheat the test with little gimmick strategies - is what both kids explained to me.
There’s so many great private schools out there giving aid. Good luck. Bradley in Peoria, IL - very regional - but they have a calculator - they’ll tell you what you’d get in scholarship up front.
@MEC143 I am a speech language pathologist. Your daughter would be best served where she can either major in undergrad communication disorders OR be guaranteed the ability to take the prerequisite courses for applying for that masters program…which she will need as you note. You really want to keep undergrad debt to a minimum.
Grad SLP programs are quite competitive for admissions…and most masters students do not receive free money funding. My grad program had about 30 students and only three received funding.
Look at the instate options in FL. It does not have to be the flagship university. I am from CT and our flagship has an undergrad program but one of our directionals has a more robust one.
Look on the American Speech Language Hearing Association website in the area for the public. There is a section about schooling.
@aunt_bea did I miss anything?
Excellent. Thank you!!! It really helps to get advice from people in the field. I worry she might change her mind so I don’t want her to pick a school only for that specific program, but I also agree that ideally it should have a communications disorders under grad so that she can figure out if it’s what she want to really do. I think if she gets her SATs up both USF and UCF offer this and that’s where we’ll send her. It would certainly help keep undergrad costs low. FIU would be a third option, although she wants to leave South Florida for undergrad. I know their program goes through to the Masters level so it may be where she eventually ends up for grad school.
Another thing to find out…some undergrad communications programs do not admit students as incoming freshmen. Students apply at the end of their freshman year and have to meet a certain GPA bar to even be considered. My undergrad did this back in the Stone Age. More are doing it now.
She needs to find out if she will be able to take the prerequisite courses for applying for a masters in speech language pathology if she is not an undergrad major.
And yes…she might change her mind!
@thumper Thank you! I’ll make sure she looks into this. Important!
Does anyone have a link to the Alabama chart of merit scholarships? I remember seeing one that said 4.0 got $35K, 3.9 $30k, and so on that someone posted earlier this week but all I’m seeing on their site now is one for 3.7+ for $28k.
I’m pretty sure it is the University of Arizona, not the University of Alabama, that gives the scholarships you mentioned ($35K for 4.0, $30K for 3.9).
Oh. That plains it. LOL. Sorry.