California girl applying to uni this fall! [3.9 UW, 36 ACT]

Chance Me / Match Me
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FWIW, UC Davis’ Dressage Club disbanded after their Fall 2025 season. (I looked when I first saw this thread, because I always think of Davis as the most horse-friendly UC.)

There are some interesting schools on this list, though!

I wonder whether the St. Andrews + William & Mary Joint Degree Program might be of any interest. W&M doesn’t have a formal dressage team (though they do have club equestrian), but St. Andrews does, and the combination of the academics + equestrian there sounds like it could be an amazing experience… but you’d still get time in the US to make domestic connections. It’s a highly competitive program to get into but you’re well qualified.

Effective fundraisers will always be in demand. IMHO, you can study business as an undergrad if that’s the field of study that most interests you, but this isn’t necessary for the kind of career you want, and it doesn’t sound as if it inherently fascinates you all that much. Study what you love; you can always tack on a business minor to tie into that world. For example, if you did the St. A’s/W&M thing (which I realize you haven’t verified an interest in, lol - I’m just fangirling over the idea of dressage in Scotland :joy:), history is one of the six majors offered for joint-programme students; you could be all about history and horses when at St. A’s, and still get some business content through W&M.

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The OP is a long way from needing to decide any of this, but I wonder if something like a Masters in Public Administration could eventually be of interest (although that is the sort of thing where you could start a career after college then decide later if an MPA would help).

And yes, traditional majors like History at good colleges are a fine background for that path.

My two cents is the biggest factor in being able to follow such career paths is simply being able to accept what the entry level positions for college graduates might pay. I think you can still end up with a comfortable career, but if you are coming out of college with a lot of debt and such, that can get tricky.

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Yes, MPA, MBA - plenty of options for a professional credential at the grad level.

I agree that entry-level positions are likely to have an inverse relationship between pay rate and experience-value, so it’s good to be financially positioned to play the long game.

But when it comes to internships and entry-level jobs, young people who not only aren’t afraid of fundraising roles, but who are actually good at them, are at a great advantage IMHO. And being effective at the fundraising piece can get a young professional’s foot in a lot of doors, in terms of professional advancement.

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I suspect it’s because in post one she says History, Spanish, Communications or Business. At 17, you likely don’t know
I’d apply Wharton if business remains an interest - because it’s easier to go out than in.

I don’t believe in safest path to a university. You go major ahead of school so you can study what you want. If you get rejected, so be it. The student has a list of many acceptances.

My guess is at this point, though, the student simply doesn’t know. And even students who pick a major often don’t know what that major entails.

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correct. In fact, some school districts, for the sake of equity, I have read, have talked about taking away any acceleration in middle school so that nobody can take calc as seniors… (needless to say, the kids most likely in AP are white and rich). They are doing this, in part, because they know colleges care, and it puts the other (poor, non-white) kids at a disadvantage in admissions, when looking at context. I am not advocating this, just pointing it out.

Plenty of college counselors are on my instagram reels telling people to start math progression in 8th grade… and parents near me are fighting math directors at LPS over the 6th grade math test to ensure their kids can get in the algebra/geo sequence in middle school.

If a HS offers BC calc, tippy tippy top colleges want to see applicants’ BC calc in general. Think about it as … if the top 20% in your context are taking BC, then you aren’t in the top 20% of your class…these schools (when talking WHARTON level) have so so so so many amazing applicants, they have to cut people off somehow. It isn’t always going to be easy… or really “fair.” Now, if the school doesn’t offer BC, that is another story….then you want to be at the top of what is offered…

It never means “you can NEVER get in” but the context matters, and this is a high-income kid, from CA (an over-represented state) in a private school. I actually didn’t read the whole thread about if school has BC or not..which matters a lot.

She is SUPER impressive, and she should be super proud of herself and she will get in TONS of places.

As an example of my kids is took Calc 1 (AB basically) over the summer so they could take Calc 2/ MV as a senior, so they could be “middle of the road” at their HS. An entirely different context. Top 10% in BC in 9th (or earlier). Calc 1 as senior is in the bottom 20% or so. My kid wanted to do this to be able to take a specific science class, but their college counselors (former AOs at top schools) were sure not against the idea for admission purposes and suggested it after my kid already decided to do it.

Also, for context, I went to an ivy 25-30 years ago and nearly everyone, even then, had taken AP calc in HS regardless of interests (maybe more of a mix of AB and BC than now, where BC is more prominent), but this “requirement” for AP calc is not really new to me. I knew one person in my close friend group who didn’t take any calc - they were a double legacy and an art history major.

Note, this is all wacky, and I don’t like it, but I don’t think that makes it untrue. And it is all for a VERY VERY tiny fraction of colleges. My older kid goes to a top 100 university, and a school highly regarded for their major (well above top 100) and didn’t take AP calc (and it is directly related to their major!). etc. etc. etc.

Should parents of high achieving middle school students push for maximum math acceleration?
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Started a new thread for the talk about whether parents of high achieving students should push for maximum math acceleration in middle school in order to be on the highest math track in high school for highly selective college admissions:

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