I know a woman who sent her son to Grinnell for $2k/year using the following site. They also do the same for Princeton, MIT, USC, others:
QB is an interesting program. However, it’s very rare for kids to match if their EFC is over $500 (so very low income). It works best if you are highly qualified, very poor, and you do not care where you go . . .you’re willing to list 14 schools, including some that may feel beneath you.
This, so much this. Especially since the vast majority of undergrads never do this. Lots of professors, even famous ones, like undergrads with enough initiative to approach them.
And of course for the most part the better schools are going to have more professors with significant reputations, though you might find someone good at a not so great school. Less competition there, which is a plus.
I have no advice to offer but just popped in to say that this thread has been eye-opening for me. Twenty-plus years ago, I did the two years of CC, then transferred to a private four-year college route. I am one of @MandaJo’s 16% that finished their degree within in six years, although I changed majors along the way. It’s fascinating to learn how different going to college is now.
Thanks for the education!
I’m going to agree with those recommending a four year college- and I’m going to point something else out. Depending on where you live and whether commuting is possible , a four year public college may not cost much more than a community college. The four year colleges in my city and state public universities are only about $2K more a year for tuition than the community colleges.
Posted too soon…
Expanding on this a bit, Kron, one thing which we worked on with Sophia is building a narrative, i.e., the ‘story of Sophia’. There are plenty of bright-eyed kids with good grades who want to go to school X with no idea what comes after… “Uh, I heard this is a good school and I wanna be a lawyer?”… and part of this is because they have never bothered to integrate their past with their present, and future. And, to be fair, most kids don’t. They have to be led to this.
I’ve always been a big believer in the value of having a purpose in life, even for a child, and this purpose is easier expressed via a narrative that explains how you got there.
‘So, why do you want to be a photographer, Sophia?’
‘Like a lot of children, I watched my share of movies, TV shows, and more, but even more, I wanted to make my own. Starting with my first movie, a short film about vampire zombies which I made at the age of 14, I moved to film editing for 2 years, building an Instagram follower base of over 2,000 people, who wanted to see my latest works. However, I turned to photography when, as a Junior, I was asked by a friend to do a photo shoot for prom. The pictures turned out so well that I began doing this for pay, earning over 4 figures even during COVID quarantines.’
It’s something we’ve worked on since she was a young kid, this sense of purpose with my daughter, and her ability to express it. And, seeing that yours, Kron, has a similar drive, when it comes time for this, work with her so she can readily say who she is and why she wants to be there. It helped Sophia a lot to do this and she did so well during her interviews that she got into schools where her grades maybe wouldn’t have done so just by themselves.
Thank you all for the excellent advice. I’ve been sharing a lot of this with her over the last couple of days.
Today we are finally getting discharged from the hospital (22 days now), and when we get back home, we are going to start hitting this hard.
A little about her: she is a senior, 4.0 GPA, plays flute/baritone sax/bassoon/cello, works really hard and absolutely loves school. She is taking AP classes as well as college english and college history (concurrent high school and college credits through the local college). She is very worried about this hospitalization and the effect it is going to have on her grades, but she is definitely a hard worker in school, so all of her teachers are working on plans to get her back up to speed.
I don’t know what constitutes a “good” or “acceptable” ACT score; I never had to worry about that (I pulled a 33 back in the day, without taking it remotely seriously). I believe she got a 23, and wants to retake it.
More discharge stuff to work on now, but I just wanted you all to know we’ve been reading your advice avidly, and thank you again!
It’s been a while since I had to worry about test scores since like you I always did well and I’m not quite there with my kids yet. According to this pdf it seems a 23 ACT puts her about 70th percentile. That isn’t a bad score but it is probably local state college good unlike your 33 which is 98th percentile. Its probably worth her retaking it.
This is fascinating. I still remember my application to CalTech 20 years ago. I picked structural engineering as a major and one of the questions was why do you want to be a structural engineer and my essay was terrible bullshit about wanting to design roller coasters. Of course, I had no idea what I wanted to do for a living until my grad school application 10 years later. The only school I applied to that I actually knew what I wanted to major in was UC Davis where I turned down a football scholarship as the dumbest decision I made in high school.
Congratulations!
If she is a senior, she needs to get going on college applications ASAP. Some deadlines (like priority consideration for scholarships) may be relatively soon (like December 1st). For UConn, this meant getting all of your application materials in by this date. Every school is different, though.
She can set up an account on the College App website and start filling out the application info. A personal essay is required, too. Note that nothing actually gets submitted to a school until you finalize it and make the irrevocable decision to submit the application to a given school (rather like filing taxes using TurboTax). You can then make edits again (if you wish) and send it off to another school.
Retake the ACT. Study for it, 23 seems very low for someone of her caliber. But, anyone can have a bad day testing or overthinking the answers. The more practice ACTs she takes the better.
Agreed. My son took the SAT twice and the ACT twice. The first time was in the spring of his junior year, and the second time was in the fall of his senior year. He did better on both tests the second time.
I would actually consider not submitting that ACT score if possible. Many schools are waiving the requirement for test scores this year because of Covid-19.
ETA: Or at least compare this score to the average score at the school(s) she is considering.
It’s weird that you say this because my CC (well, technically just a very small 4 year college) had a dual accrediting thingy specifically for engineering and it was specifically a feeder to Georgia Tech. Many students with B-tier college applications and budgets got degrees at a prestigious engineering school after doing 2 years in the minor leagues.
I agree with the “here be dragons” aspect of CC, but I think mileage definitely varies more than that.
If she is a senior, you can go ahead and fill out the FASFA and file it. Do that.
Don’t submit the ACT anywhere that doesn’t require it. A 23 is low for a kid with straight As. As mentioned, most private schools are test optional this year .
She’s missed the Early deadlines. That’s not great. If she has a 4.0 (unweighted?) and a compelling personal narrative (life with mom only 14 years older is probably better than this hospital trip), she could apply someplace like BU, Grinnell, Northeastern, Case Western, Oberlin. All of those have good need based aid. I thonk in the other thread you said household income was low. Poor first generation kid, very young teen mom, still has great grades . . .that’s a good story.
She will need recs from 2 teachers and a counselor. She should ask soon. Most deadlines are like Jan 1st.
Some schools have something called ED2. Deadline is about the same as regular. She agrees to go if they accept her, basically. But they have to offer her enough money. She will be more likely to be accepted if she goes ED2 to her first choice.
There are test-free colleges, so someone with a strong GPA and a less strong ACT may want to think about checking them out. From what I’ve read, GPA is a stronger predictor of college success. Both our kids were the opposite; GPA around 3, SATs of 1460 and 1320. The one with the higher SAT has struggled, partly due to school burnout, anxiety, and depression. He seems to be getting on track, though. Younger brother with the lower SAT has been kicking ass. I’m not saying she shouldn’t take the ACT again, just that a score that is “merely” above average doesn’t mean she can’t pursue her dream.
The list of test-free colleges (those for which SAT and ACT scores are either optional or not at all solicited) used to be much smaller. This year, however, with COVID, a bunch of the top schools made the test scores optional, including most of the Ivy League. The University of California is supposedly phasing out the test scores permanently.
When my nephew was about to graduate high school in 2012, he had pretty good grades but did terrible on the SAT. So I sent him a list of test-optional schools (found via a Google search). Many were so-so academically, but Connecticut College was a pretty good small private New England liberal arts college on that list. So he applied there, attended and did really well, with a bunch of awards at commencement and a good experience with the study-abroad program. From talking to him, some of his classmates went onto things like med school or law school, so if your daughter is looking for a good school that doesn’t require the SAT, I recommend considering Connecticut College.
Is location an issue and are you going to try for schools within driving distance? I know that many families and students are fine with being a plane ride away, but that’s not everyone.
Take a look at Creighton in Omaha, Nebraska. They’re well-ranked and test-optional, and even though they’re a private school they do offer merit scholarships and financial aid that could bring down the costs to the same as a state school. They also have a medical school as well as other health profession programs.
Creighton is Catholic (Jesuit) but don’t let that put you off if you’re not religious. Their emphasis is on service and ethics, not conversion, and there are lots of non-Catholics attending. When my kids applied to private colleges in our area that are similar to Creighton (Fairfield U in CT and Loyola MD) they were offered excellent merit scholarships. They had high SATs but not a 4.0 which also counts a lot.
Regis in Denver is a similar school, but it doesn’t have a medical program. U of Denver is a bigger private school that’s test-optional this year and according to their site, 81% of students get some kind of merit scholarship.
Application fees can really add up BTW, with most schools asking at least $50. Some schools have fee waivers based on income, so definitely ask if they can grant an application fee waiver.
[quote=“robby, post:71, topic:925253”]
If she is a senior, she needs to get going on college applications ASAP. [/quote]
a little off topic, but may I suggest that she NOT apply this year? Because of covid.
She’s 18…no reason to hurry.
If she starts college at 19 she won’t suffer anything.
A huge part of college is the social environment.
But with the restrictions of the pandemic, college students are stuck in their rooms , alone, watching lectures on zoom.
Paying tens of thousands of dollars, but they are missing out on half of the “college experience”. And I don’t mean fraternity parties and beer…I mean the whole social experience, the maturity and personal growth that comes from meeting dozens of people with similar interests: Studying together, chatting over coffee, and hearing the advice of students a year or two older who can provide life-changing advice: everything from how to study , to which prof is important to get to know and visit during his office hours so you can get a letter of recommendation when you’ll need it .For an 18 yr old with zero family experience in the world of academics, these kinds of lessons can be as important as the lectures in the classroom.
It 's doubtful that by September 2021 the world will be cured of covid and university life will be back to the usual routine. If the OP waits till Sept 2022, there is a better chance of truly getting the full education that she needs.
She can always defer a year after she’s accepted. For a smart kid with a incongruous ACT core, this year is a great opportunity.