I have always loved the comments on this site…My son is in his Junior year…Soph. year pulled his grades down terribly, but they are on the upswing. He made honor roll this past 9 weeks.
We are leaning more for smaller-medium size schools (under 25K students)
We are open to anywhere, BUT he loves nature…very outdoorsy. Ideally we need to stay in a budget under 27K. We are in Florida, but he is not 100 sold on FL as his college destination. How important are the essays…he has been through some traumatic life experiences he will talk about on his essay…but how much do colleges look at these in their decisions or do they have weight.
*We need to know the college has some disability center that has experience with students. Some do and some don’t.
Computer Science
2.9-3.1 weighted
24-28 ACT (he got 24 on first time, but 32 on practices) hoping for higher scores…
High functioning autism (aspergers/ADHD)
AP classes
Several letters of recommendations
City Volunteer for years
owns his own business
JROTC, Cross Country Team, Band
Spartan
Would love to hear any ideas on good colleges you have learned about…
we are tossed with starting at CC or going straight into a college and getting the college life experience…
Florida is a big state. Nature - look at W Carolina. Southern Illinois. U Wyoming. Maybe some other directional stuff like U of North Alabama. Truman State a large reach.
Your problem is low stats don’t = merit.
I’d find schools with other interests. Upwards of half of engineering and CS kids don’t make it and this may happen to yours given his scores. So you’d want fallback majors.
Have you seen the College Navigator website? (ETA: here’s the link: College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics) It’s done by the federal Department of Education and I think it might be helpful. I looked at FL, GA, SC, NC, TN, AL, MS, LA, and AR and had the upper limit of the 25th percentile for ACT set to 26 and tuition maxed out at $20,000 and came up with 57 colleges (excluding for-profit universities). Most of the colleges are directional publics, but there are some private ones, including Birmingham-Southern, which is featured as one of the Colleges That Change Lives and had a tuition “reset” a few years back.
When you say your son loves nature, does that mean you want a rural campus? Or a wooded campus? Or a campus a certain distance from state/national parks? That can help narrow things down some more. Additionally, if your son does want to leave Florida, how far away is he interested in going? A certain hour drive? Or with a direct flight from your nearest airport? Or…? Does your son want a primarily residential campus? Heavy sports or not?
On College Navigator I reduced tuition to $15k (as I think with room & board you’ll be getting closer to the $27k mark). 24 colleges made the list (same restrictions as above):
Alcorn State (MS)
Arkansas State
Austin Peay State (TN)
Bethune-Cookman U (FL)
Elizabeth City State U (NC)
Florida A&M
Florida Atlantic
Florida Gulf Coast
Henderson State U (AR)
Jackson State U (MS)
Life U (GA)
Mississippi Valley State U
Southern Arkansas U
U. of West Florida
Tougaloo College (MS)
U. of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
U. of Florida Online
U. of Memphis (TN)
U. of New Orleans (LA)
U. of North Carolina at Pembroke
U. of North Florida
U. of North Georgia
U. of Southern Mississippi
Western Carolina U (NC)
That being said, some of the schools that are a bit more expensive might still be possible to get into your financial zone. For instance, Birmingham-Southern is $33,650 for tuition, room & board, but 65% of its students receive merit aid averaging $8,751, bringing the cost down to $24,899. It’s ACT range is 22-29, and if your son is able to raise his ACT score higher, then it seems quite possible that he could make BSC fit within your budget. Also, I would run the NFC for each college to get an estimate of what your family’s cost would be at each school, as that number can vary, and their systems usually will include an approximation of how much merit (if any) would be provided.
Okay, with no geographic restrictions, here are a few I would consider with tuition at less than $15,000:
Slippery Rock University (PA )
Western Carolina U
University of South Dakota
Florida Gulf Coast University
Lake Superior State University (MI…practically Canada)
Mansfield University of Pennsylvania
Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania
Ferris State University (MI)
If we up tuition to $20,000, these are some other possibilities I would consider:
Grove City College (PA )
SUNY Oneonta (NY)
Truman State University (MO)
Central College (IA)
SUNY Plattsburgh (NY)
SUNY Brockport (NY)
Mississippi Collge
SUNY Oswego (NY)
Westfield State U (MA)
SUNY Fredonia (NY)
University of Wisconsin - Whitewater
Louisiana Tech U
California State U - Monterey Bay
College of the Ozarks
Sonoma State U (CA)
University of Wisconsin - Stout
Bridgewater State U (MA)
University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point
University of Wyoming
Tennessee Tech
University of Wisconsin - Platteville
Minnesota State University - Moorhead
SUNY Polytechnic (NY)
Murray State University (KY)
They’re all either in a wooded, natural area, or within an hour’s drive or less of state/national forests/parks, or right by a large body of water (ocean, Great Lake, etc), and have a computer science degree, and have at least a 50% graduation rate.
My oldest son is a self-described “computer geek” with high-functioning autism (aspergers/ADHD). He is a junior at FAU. He has had a terrific experience and their Student Accessibility Services group has exceeded our expectations. He got in to UCF, USF and FIU but loved the campus and his specific IT program at FAU. This summer, he has an internship with a global consulting firm. He is very happy there.
we visit UNF next week - he got in
FAU is in our back yard. He LOVES it and amazing services too
Slippery Rock- gorgeous.
Western Carlina - waiting to see if he gets in in 3 weeks.
