Thank you for that. That 32 should come up a bit by the time he actually finishes algebra, does some test prep, and applies. There won’t be enough time to boost gpa much, but he studies like a mad man & doesn’t complain so we’ll see.
The top 20 or 30 elites have never crossed his mind (except for Duke, but then again, I have thought about George Clooney once or twice for a second and we know that isn’t happening either) as they don’t offer merit and we will not pay full price.
If he is not considering top 30 schools, I can’t see him having any problem getting into a boat-load of schools that he applies to.
And, just for fun, if he wants to add Williams College, Middlebury College, or Carleton College, he’ll be in the mix. Their eyes will widen when they see that Louisiana zip code. BTW, being from Louisiana is his hook.
Ha! Who knew all his many hours kayaking among alligators & cooking gumbo would be appreciated? We had no idea.
Somebody else just commented about the LA factor !Never would have dawned on us! Unless it is particularly frigid, he’s ready to enjoy a new climate… hills, mountains, rivers, lakes are a plus. He loves to kayak, hike, camp, and we’re exceptionally flat down here close to Nola. What we lack in elevation we make up for in butter, though.
My 2 cents - your kid has amazing and unique ECs, and if all those ivies meant what they said, that they don’t have GPA/test score cut-off and that they are truly holistic, he should have a shot at the ivies and the likes. Have him write heartfelt essasy with his applications and go in details about his ECs, he should have a decent shot.
I personally know one kid who had very low stats (B average), but I cried when i read her essay. It was so beautifully written and so honest and so moving and made you take a look at yourself through her eyes. She didn’t have much EC either, just stay home taking care of her sick sibling. She got accepted to Harvard
What a lovely thing to say. Thank you. People have asked me why he spent so much time digging up old mortgages, looking for the enslaved. He doesn’t plan to study antebellum history and despite being a history buff, has zero interest in the civil war. I just know that it bothered him for years that we’d drive past the gorgeous alley of oaks where the slave quarters were once located but there was nothing to remember the families by. He was 6 years old when he heard old stories about the slave cabins and every single time we went past that spot, he’d bring up who might have lived there. Honestly? I think that because he grew up idolizing a big brother who couldn’t speak for himself - and who others tended to treat poorly - maybe he wanted to be the voice for those families. He told me that now that those historical markers are up, he feels like they can rest in peace.
The first time he went through one of the mortgaged lists of names, I was with him to help translate the French writing. When he pointed out the two year old boy, Lucien, who was put up as collateral on the mortgage, he got choked up. From that point on, there was no stopping him. He ended up getting a C in geometry last year, mostly because he spent a hundred or so hours researching the enslaved. But you know what? GPA be damned. Good colleges are a dime a dozen. This experience was priceless.
As the parent of a kid who would wholeheartedly agree that “GPA be damned. Good colleges are a dime a dozen. This experience was priceless,” I will say that big-dollar merit hunting benefits enormously from either a kid who happens to care a lot about the things colleges are interested in paying for, or a kid who is willing to hoop-jump.
I suspect your kid will have no issue finding good colleges who will want the kid he is. But those colleges might not be willing to pay $40k a year (to get down to a $30k net price) to get him.
That’s precisely the ticket - you get it - finding the non-70k a year schools for whom my kid would be a good match. Would we go 40 for super duper absolutely fabulous in every single way university? Probably. But I’ve yet to hear of one.
And then there are not so fabulous but wonderful in one or two ways schools that he’d be happy with (and who would be happy with him). Maybe I’m misinterpreting the various insights on CC (this is maybe my fourth day using the site), but folks (not you) seem to be slightly fixated on top 20 or top 30 schools. That isn’t his focus at all.
Thanks for the insights!
@PolllyDactile Where are you located? How far is he willing to go? What is he interested in majoring in?
We are in south Louisiana.
DC, VA, NC, SC, TN, northern AL, & northern MS are where he’s looked. PA would work. We’ve visited Boston and NH on vacay - he loved the history in Boston & also the White Mountains - but he believes it would be a stretch for him to go further north than PA. We will probably take him skiing somewhere over Mardi Gras break to see how he deals with the cold. Is not into the midwest or west. Does not care for super urban campuses - is an Eagle scout, so the whole hiking, kayaking, camping thing as opposed to night clubs or frat parties is more what he’d prefer.
Majors of interest: public policy or poli sci, international relations… will at least minor in history if not double major. Shows an affinity for foreign languages, but then again, our Louisiana high school only offers Span & Fren - he might be awful w Russian or German, but would like to possibly take a stab at them.
Thanks for asking about him.
He might want to consider looking in locations where students from Louisiana are rare. California. Maine. Massachusetts. Michigan. Colorado.
If you are full pay, or even close to full pay, I agree that you will not find a super duper fabulous in every way school for $40k.
In November of my kid’s junior year, she had a 31 ACT, 3.9 UW GPA, and was on track to have 20 “advanced” classes by graduation. So similar to your kid, but with better grades and weaker ECs - and the big merit schools care a lot more about grades than ECs.
Looking back at her sophomore year Mom-list which assumed similar stats, the list of coed schools whose NPCs showed merit money sufficient to get under $40k a year in 2016 prices, not the 2021 prices your kid will be looking at were, from least expensive to most expensive:
Lake Forest College in suburban Chicago - https://www.lakeforest.edu/academics/programs/politics/
American University in DC: https://catalog.american.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=12&poid=6220 (I know this is on your list already)
Kalamazoo College in Michigan - https://www.kzoo.edu/programs/public-policy-urban-affairs/?id=34&type=1
Knox College in IL - https://www.knox.edu/academics/majors-and-minors/political-science
Lawrence University in Wisconsin: http://www.lawrence.edu/academics/study/government (we visited and all loved Lawrence - it’s a great school for smart kids who aren’t hoop-jumpers. Trimester schedule makes foreign language hard, though)
The College of Wooster in Ohio: https://www.wooster.edu/departments/polisci/
Willamette University in Oregon: https://willamette.edu/cla/politics-policy-law-ethics/index.html (the state capitol is literally across the street, and legislators eat lunch in the university cafeteria)
University of Denver in Colorado: https://korbel.du.edu/academics-advising/programs-ug/ba-minor-public-policy
“Less snow” leaves him with Willamette and American. I think part of the “not so fabulous” is going to have to be dealing with snow. (My kid initially requested tons of sunshine. None of the schools on her list at the moment are in sunny areas.) Primarily-residential college campuses are the best places to live in a snowy climate, because someone else shovels the paths and there’s a bus to the airport so you don’t have to drive yourself.
Go forth to the Net Price Calculators, bearing in mind that they’ll be two years out of date by the time your kid is a freshman. See what’s affordable. Play around with the GPA and test scores you put in, and see how things change.
My kid was only looking at private schools, because she wanted an LAC-like experience. There are public schools that will pay good money for a 3.5 and 32, though - I just don’t have a list handy.
I know quite a few southerners who really enjoyed learning to ski and skate and stayed north after college.
The C in geometry might come back to bite him, but my kid had a C in honors chemistry freshman year and many schools overlooked it. I think American would likely give him merit money - it’s a great school for his interests.
That is really helpful, particularly since our students are/were in similar alignment. Thank you!
Yep, he may absolutely love skiing, so there is method to our madness! I’ve no idea or even whether the admissions people take more than a cursory glance at the grades, but his is one of those schools where an A is a 93 or higher, a B is an 85 or higher. He had an 84 for that C (and in an honors class), but I don’t think any of them will care.
Oh well! There are students who work just as hard and have UWs less than the 3.5. It is what it is… I’m stll keeping him 
When culling, look at the course catalogs and prof backgrounds and their own active research interests. D1 was interested in a period of history. At some colleges, fewer course choices. Or teachers were really specialists in another subject area.
Some other colleges to look at for potential merit:
Juniata (access to hiking trails/mountains, for a bonus)
Gettysburg
Denison
Lafayette
Allegheny
University of Delaware
Thank you very much!