Intended Major(s): Psychology – maybe a clinical neuropsychologist?
GPA, Rank, Test Scores:
UW GPA 3.90, W GPA 4.60, No rank, 33 ACT (31M/31S/35R/35E)
- Took ACT w/o studying, plan to take again aiming for 34-35
- Struggled on statistics for Math/Science sections – will take that class next year and
hopefully do better - did decently on the other sections of M+S
No AP classes offered at school
Have taken 7 Dual Enrollment classes so far
Chosen for Accelerated track at public school (2 of us out of 160ish)
Honors and High Honor Roll at current school
Extracurriculars:
Performings Arts Discipline
- 30+ hours a week
- Summer programs every year
- Invited to top schools nationally for programs
- Invited to train at a top international school
7 years of classical piano training
(My first extracurricular is very special to me, and thus I don’t have a lot of time or energy for others. I am slightly worried not having extracurricular activities related to my intended major will negatively impact me)
Cost Constraints / Budget
Aiming for a ½ tuition scholarship
Preferably <$50,000
Hopefully this is enough information – I can provide more as needed. Thank you!!
Has she taken any practice SAT tests yet? You might have her prep for the PSAT to see if she can get a score high enough to be a National Merit Semi-Finalist. She has to do very well on that test to qualify as a MD resident.
One doesn’t need to have extracurriculars that relate to their potential major. Many college students change their majors or come in undecided. But a 30+ hour commitment to a discipline is impressive. Depth and commitment to one area is better than a flurry of activities with very superficial involvement.
As others have mentioned, community service would be an area that your D could improve upon.
Right now, whenever you’re in the area of a college, I would visit. So, visiting U. of Maryland - College Park, Salisbury, and St. Mary’s might be in order. That would expose your D to large, medium, and small colleges as well as rural, small town, and suburban, all of which would be in budget, so there would be no “falling in love” with something out of reach. Perhaps add in a visit to Johns Hopkins or Loyola Maryland or GW or Georgetown for an urban campus. But again, if those schools already mentioned aren’t convenient, then think about McDaniel, or Hood, or Towson.
The main goal is for her to start getting a sense of what college campuses are like and what her preferences are. Does she find a small geographic footprint claustrophobic or does she find a campus teeming with people everywhere invigorating? Does she think that a small population is super boring or that she’d love the increased opportunities for intimacy that would provide? None of this needs to be with an eye toward whether she wants to add Campus A or Campus B to her college list. Just figuring out the things she likes (and just as importantly, dislikes) so that as the spring of junior year approaches, it will be easier to craft a list of possibilities that are more tailored to her.
Additionally, there should still be wiggle room left for evolution and changing her mind. People do so from the fall or their senior year to the spring of their senior year, so there’s definitely room for change from sophomore year to senior year!
This is my understanding also. I think that the ECs listed in the original post are impressive.
In seeing “Preferably <$50,000” my first thought is UMD, which is a very good university. My second thought is that most of the most famous highest ranked universities do not have merit based aid. Many other schools do have merit based aid (including ASU if I am remembering correctly), but it is not obvious whether any of them are significantly better than UMD.
The next thing that I wonder about is what sort of need based aid, if any, would be possible at schools that provide need based aid. @tinydancer2 have you run NPCs for a few schools?
And of course psychology is a major that tends to lead to some sort of graduate school (such as either a master’s degree or PhD or both), and many (probably most) students change their major at some point between being a high school sophomore and being handed a bachelor’s degree.