I’m not afraid to say it. @DavidPuddy , I am 100% certain you are genuine, but there are many posts on this site that are questionable, and often they contain things like “I got a 790 on math, should I take it again”? or some other question.
The longtime posters have seen it all, twice, and are righteously skeptical by nature. They taught me fast: “Trust But Verify”. Since you are new here, as I was recently, I would recommend (with good intent) you do the same with everything you read.
I must repeat: I do not think your post is false. Nor do I mean to put words in the mouth of any other poster. The views and opinions expressed herein are solely those of Postmodern, and are not endorsed, tacitly or explicitly, by any other poster.
I was the one who pointed out “maths.” I wasn’t implying anything about the OP or his post. I merely wanted to assure him that if he was unfamiliar with the U.S. education system, he would find much help here.
Too many families make the mistake of thinking that the system here is exactly like the system in the country they came from, often with disappointing results.
It turns out that I was wrong about the whole thing. That’s OK. I’m often wrong. Just ask my offspring.
I will need to check this evening. Based solely on an online calculator, it looks to be just above the raw score needed: 221 vs 219 if I recall correctly. Again, I will verify shortly.
My older daughter is currently at Northeastern so we are very familiar with the Boston Schools and what they offer. Merit, significant enough to make a school in the NE affordable to us, is scarce there. Even half tuition at BU did not bring it down to our budget of 30,000 per year once travel costs were considered. D1 has a full tuition award at NEU that is no longer offered but they still seem to give a few bigger merit awards that would have made it possible for D2. Lafayette is also in the NE, but no other NE schools with merit significant enough for us matched what D2 was looking for.
Merit is usually found in places that may be less popular - the midwest, the south - if your student is willing to look there. Or you need to look somewhere where your kid is above the 75 percentile of admitted students. There are some great choices out there, just takes some searching.
@Postmorden, I absolutely get it. But sheesh, someone willing to type 8 paragraphs to get a rise out of strangers on an internet forum - who has that time? I hoped all the background I typed gave context to the questions. I do appreciate all the input!
@DavidPuddy, in regard to the PSAT, you will want to find out what his Selection Index score is. It will be on his score report. The scoring methodology for the PSAT is relatively new (first year for this scoring was for the kids who are graduating this year) so it’s unclear what the cutoff will be for the kids who are juniors this year. Last year’s cutoff is an indication, but that cutoff might move up or down for current juniors. Some think it may move up. In any event, we will know what the state cutoff scores are in September.
@DavidPuddy The number of folks here are super suspicious of others is only superceded by the number of shady folks who seem to have nothing better to do with their time than to post elaborate stories! lol!
Geez, there was no implication of false or the idea of falsifying intended - nor any I can find in the re-read - by the highlighting of the oddly placed “maths.”
It was an oddity. It struck me, struck my ears, and I nodded toward the impression it left me with. The ‘something off-ness’ of it all.
No implication of a lack of veracity at all. If anything, the truck-and-flag waving response suggested something deeper, something culturally sensitive (perhaps you yourself were raised by at least one parent from another culture?) that is only reinforced by the laser focus on that brief aside.
OP, I think we’ve all had similar questions to yours. I think we’ve all been asked for clarification when something in our writing has struck another member of the CC community. Welcome.
Thanks for the reply. My son has an acquaintance that is making his decision now, and Northeastern is the heavy lean because of the favorable package (they liked the Co Op? features) offered.
Only a few colleges require or recommend them, but these tend to be among the most selective ones. Those that do usually want to see two or three (note: if student is a heritage speaker of a foreign language, it is best if the subject test for that language is not counted as part of the two or three, but it can be taken as an extra one to show proficiency in the absence of high school course work). Sometimes, specific ones are asked for (e.g. math and a science may be recommended for prospective engineering majors). Some other colleges allow for high enough scores to be used for placement out of remedial course work in math, or into higher level than the beginning course in foreign language.
Check the web sites of various colleges of interest (in-state publics, big merit scholarship schools, those few private schools that may give enough need-based financial aid) to see if any are required or recommended.
@DavidPuddy Sounds like your kid is likely to meet the National Merit threshold and if he keeps his grades up, chances for NMF are good.
I am also in the Southwest and can tell you that Arizona State University offers full scholarships (tuition/room/board) for NMF and likely entry into Barrett Honors Program (highly rated). University of New Mexico offers a scholarship that requires a separate application that is also equivalent to a full ride. Somebody else mentioned the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) which is a consortium that offers discounted out of state tuition but most of the participating schools are not the top flagships of the region. (Think U of Washington, no; Washington State, yes; UC system, no; lesser Cal States, yes). TX is not part of WUE, if that’s where you are located.
Given that your kid has no burning passion for a particular course of study or a particular type of college, I’d steer him towards state universities with decent honors programs that offer generous merit scholarships for high stats kids. That would give him maximum flexibility with respect to eventual majors and honors programs typically involve perks like priority registration for classes and will help him to find other students at his intellectual level. Your son has a reasonable chance of securing full tuition scholarships, or perhaps more, so they’d be affordable.
Full tuition merit scholarships at private colleges and universities tend to be scarce and very competitive. If your son attempts that route, keep expectations low, and be sure to have some true financial safeties in the mix as well.
Finally, congrats on those superlative ACT/SAT scores. No need to retake. Schools that consider SAT subject tests typically like to see 2; Georgetown asks for 3. Your son can go on the College Board site and do some sample questions for each test to see which ones he might favor.
The good news is that a lot of the narrowing has been done for you, given the financial parameters. Though your son’s test scores make him a contender for the Ivies, super-selective LACs, etc, any school that gives purely or primarily need-based aid and no full-ride merit scholarships isn’t going to work, as you saw from the NPCs you ran. It doesn’t make any sense to apply to those. There have been good suggestions above about state schools with automatic scholarships like Alabama, and the possibilities open if he makes National Merit.
There are some special-application full-ride scholarships at LACs, though extracurriculars, leadership and essays are important for those. The schools will generally be in the South; here are a couple:
And there are some nearly-full rides at private colleges, though fewer, in the Midwest. Here’s Grinnell, with a top scholarship of $50,000 and a COA of $63k:
Given that the kid apparently doesn’t have any idea about what kind of college he might like, I just want to add my voice in support of the suggestion to start visiting different types of colleges sooner rather than later, even if they might not be final contenders and are only being visited because of their convenient proximity, but just to get him to start thinking about what sort of college might appeal.
My son had no idea about what he would like in a college until he had visited a couple different types. His first couple of visits were to nearby state flagship universities, but he really didn’t know what to make of them because he had nothing to compare them to – until he visited a top LAC; then I could really see him start thinking about the differences between institutions and what would appeal to him.
Why do all parents lament whenever their child doesn’t seem to be interested in science, engineering, and the like? . It’s almost as if parents these days are ashamed when their kids might want to, gasp!, study humanities.
Your son is obviously very bright, but a little unmotivated. That’s not terrible. It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t know what he wants to study or do when he grows up, and that is the beauty of the American college system. I would aim for colleges that offer a broad range of majors, and also that offer merit aid. lol at University of Rochester. Excellent school, and he can study whatever he likes. Really smart students and it gives great merit aid.
imo, i think your budget will be a challenge for a lot of the fancy places unless there is full tuition at a minimum. i’ll guess that your EFC comes in considerably more than the money you have to actually spend. you will need to look closely at places you can afford for real and probably craft a list that is heavy on auto-merit places, and light on competitive ones. (he is most certainly a contender for competitive ones, but so is the rest of the cohort he is applying against).
i would narrow the region, the types of schools he is interested in and the money before even continuing along the process. i personally DO believe there is a ton of value in touring local offerings to understand what size/type/location he would be willing to spend the next four years at. you arent necessarily looking at them to apply, just to narrow the list. there is little point to applying to a variety of rural LAC’s if your son is adamant that he will not live in the cornfields.
i’m more surprised that your private school guidance counselor isnt proactively making suggestions, particularly if he is a solidly potential NMF.
re: the visits- we also got a lot accomplished seeing local schools which weren’t particularly of interest other than they were local.
Kid 1 learned that he did not care a whit about location- urban, rural, suburban; ugly, attractive; smack down a main avenue in a city or arrayed in a pretty campus compound. That was helpful- we got to focus on the academic side of the house since nothing else seemed to matter. This was very much in keeping with his personality- easy-going, hard to rattle, good at making lemonade out of lemons.
Kid 2 learned that the campus and location was pretty important. Some places were just an immediate turn-off (“i can’t live here for four years, there is nowhere to escape and nothing to do”) and other places felt like bustling/happening hives of activities. Again- in keeping with the personality. Someone who likes things “just right”.
Etc.
Every college visit doesn’t need to involve hotels and expensive transportation.
Your son had worked very hard and has some wonderful stats. Congrats to him.
I found from my first foray into this process is that money is the limiting factor. One way to limit this factor is to get good merit aid. A couple of ways, 1) A school where the majority of kids are below him (a big fish in a small pond), 2) a faraway school that wants to diversify its campus, 2) schools with clear full ride policies like U of Alabama. Hopefully your student can accept these choices. Problems arise if he wishes to remain close to home or wants a smaller school experience. It will make the choices tougher.
Your student is very high in stats so you should be a recipient of strong merit aid. Good luck with the journey.
The choice of which SAT subject tests to take may depend as much on the high school curriculum as on the subjects in which your son excels the most.
For example, the SAT subject test in U.S. History assumes that the student took a broad survey course. But some schools choose to teach a course that focuses in greater depth on a smaller number of topics. That’s probably a better educational experience but it’s terrible preparation for the test.
It might be a good idea to ask the guidance counselor which courses taught at your son’s school have curricula that closely match the expectations of the SAT subject tests and which do not.
