Need help revising list as D18's sense of self evolves

College Search & Lists
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D18 has a 3.3 UW, all AP or honors core courses, and a 26 ACT. She’ll retake the ACT again in Sept., but I don’t expect the score to go up much because she just has issues with the time constraints. She’ll try the SAT this month, but for now I’m assuming her level of competitiveness will remain as is. Over the past few years, she’s experienced injuries, surgeries, and the discovery of a rare clotting disorder, so ECs are thin, as free time was taken up by medical issues and eight months of PT.

She wants a degree in Exercise Science or Kinesiology in preparation for grad school, with the goal of becoming a strength and conditioning coach at the college or professional level. We began a year ago with a whole database of schools offering those programs and developed a list of safeties, matches and reaches that was okay, but which I privately thought really reflected her friends’ choices. After college visits, a mission trip to Honduras, and an evolving sense of what really matters to her, however, we are revising the list so it actually fits who she is. But I’m just researched out now and could use some help while fall fast approaches and we’re running out of time.

She’s a t-shirt, sport shorts, ball cap and chapstick kind of girl whose only shoes are sneakers and Birks. She was a star athlete, but concussions, a hip injury and the blood disorder put an end to contact sports and XC. Her “sport” is now strength, conditioning and weight training, so good facilities for that are key. Her first list of priorities was D1 football, >25k students, warm weather, Greek life, Southeast, CA or AZ. Today her wish list is:


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10k students
Great athletic program, not necessarily D1
Excellent student rec facility
A library that inspires one to hang out and study (D18: “not just books on a shelf”)
Casually dressed, mostly liberal students
Bike-friendly campus
School-spirited area (not town & gown)
Cold is fine, but must have a majority of sunny days (e.g. Denver)
Not in a huge city (suburban, small city, college town, rural, etc. okay)

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Our state flagship (KU - we’re in metro KC) fits much of that, but she knows so many people there it’s like home transplanted, which isn’t what she wants.

I’ll run the NPCs, so I’m pretending cost of attendance is irrelevant for the purpose of garnering suggestions.

Thank you!

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Would she be eligible for extended time on the ACT/SAT? I know two students who greatly improved their scores when taking them with extended time. I know signup deadlines for the upcoming ACT/SAT tests are probably coming up soon.

Some that come to mind: Ohio University, University of Louisville, University of Kentucky, James Madison University, UNC-Wilmington, and San Diego State (weather!).

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She’s got Wilmington and SDSU on her list, but I hadn’t looked into the others. They all have her program, so I’ll definitely consider them. Thanks so much!

I doubt she’d be eligible for extended time. She scored 32 in ACT reading on one test and 30 in English on another, but she isn’t consistently at that level with every try. If she could just get math and science up and be consistently in the 30s on the others, she be okay. I wish every school superscored the ACT. That would bring her up a lot. Maybe the SAT will go better.

Anyway, thanks for the help. I really appreciate the suggestions!

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Oklahoma , Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Iowa State, Colorado State, Colorado, Texas Tech, Louisiana State, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Auburn.

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You should give serious consideration to Colorado State. Fort Collins is a great college town. Also CSU is one of the bike friendliest campuses in the US. The rec center is awesome too. It’s bigger than what she wants. It’s sunny most of the time.

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SDSU admits by eligibility index and major. Also SDSU does not offer financial aid for OOS students, so running the Net Price calculator will give you an estimate of $36-40K/year in costs. San Diego is also a very expensive place to live when she has to move off campus Junior/Senior year.

She needs to calculate her CSU/UC capped weighted GPA. She also needs to make sure she meets the a-g course requirements to apply to a Cal State.

https://www2.calstate.edu/apply/freshman/getting_into_the_csu/Pages/admission-requirements.aspx#hsReqScroll

She can use the Roger Hub calculator for the CSU/UC capped weighted GPA. Since she is OOS, only AP/IB or DE courses taken 10-11th grade count for the maximum 8 semester Honors points.

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

Eligibility index calculation: (CSU/UC GPA x 200) + (ACT composite x10).

She needs to aim for an EI of 1050+ for the best chances.

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Thanks for the suggestions! We’re going to visit Colorado State and Northern Colorado in September, so it’s great to hear that CSU might be a great fit. She’s ruled out ISU, Ole Miss, Nebraska and Oklahoma, but Auburn and OSU might work.

Thanks again!

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Yeah, we visited SDSU in March and met with the OOS admissions rep. She figured out my D’s EI and said she had a good shot, but I take that with a large grain of salt. It’s only on our radar bc we have vacationed in Encinitas CA every summer for many years. She knows it’s a reach and it’s not a first choice, as their program doesn’t completely fit what she wants, but she’ll apply anyway. We just love the area and have several friends in La Jolla and Leucadia, so I know she wouldn’t be totally alone so far from home. That’d be a big plus for me!

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IU Bloomington may be a little colder than she wants but fits a lot of her other criteria. Great bicycle friendly town.
My D was interested in the sports medicine and kinesiology programs they had before she decided on a different major.

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S is going to KSU but since she wants out of the area Colorado State was his second choice and a GREAT town. She might love it there. Seems to meet everything on her list. Auburn and Texas Tech were also high on DS’s lists.

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The key thing to look for when looking at Exercise Science/Exercise Physiology programs is to look for one that has a required full-time semester long internship as part of the curriculum. Exercise Physiology was my first degree and that one semester internship (almost always in a completely different town than the school) makes a HUGE difference when it comes to jobs and grad school.

Colorado State is supposed to have a strong program but last I knew they did not require the semester-long internship. We have a family member who graduated from their program and it just hasn’t worked out well for her. Could be due to her not really have a focus on where she specifically wanted to go after the program. But still—ask around and make sure she pushes for a program that has a strong exercise physiology lab and also an internship.

Texas A&M has a great Exercise Physiology program with tons of hands on experiences—for instance their students do all of the exercise testing for the firemen in the state. The students go all of the stress testing, agility testing, etc. It’s fantastic. And they have a required one semester internship. However, this doesn’t check some of your boxes understandably.

Just as an aside–you need to reassure her that even though tons of kids from her hometown may got to your state school, it is highly likely she can disappear into the crowd and never seem them again. No need to pass up a great program at a great price with all the boxes ticked off on the list just because of the local kids.

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I concur that Fort Collins is a great college town. I can’t speak to her specific program.

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How about UCF? Tampa/St. Pete area has strong athletic and health-sciences network, sunny weather, great sports culture . . . I’m not sure about Greek life there, but suspect there’s some. Clemson comes to mind immediately, but it might be a bit of a reach. Arizona State seems like an obvious choice, also.

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Thanks, everyone, for the great suggestions! We’ll check out the CSU program carefully and make sure it would actually fit what she needs before getting too excited about it. Sure wish they had the internship, though. Fort Collins sounds perfect.

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@imgmom99 Things may have changed in the past few years. Also, this could vary by student. Lack of motivation and not being willing to really push for an internship may have been an issue in the case I cited above. With the right student who is motivated and willing to push, I’ll bet some fantastic opportunities can be created.

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UCF is Orlando, not Tampa.
USF is Tampa