I have been reading CC for a couple years and am finally in the hunt (gulp). I am the parent of a soon to be high school junior.This summer’s plan is to get ready to look at colleges next year. Is there anything I’m missing?
Finalize what colleges have her probable major - nursing - and assess if they are direct admit (that's the goal) among other criteria. Right now, just in talking, they are mostly state schools but I am not averse to a private here or there for kicks.
Run the NPC on all of them (have done one as practice). I have a magic number in my head that won't make me puke too badly, but it will still be a wake up call. I've run a sample FAFSA and my EFC is zero, so I'm still trying to figure out the relationship between that and the NPC which never says zero on my part.
By the end of the summer, have a list (10-12?) of colleges to keep an eye on next school year and plan to visit. We went to one last summer while visiting relatives that has a great program, but she wasn't interested in nursing at that point and didn't get much out of the general tour.
Do some practice PSAT tests and start getting in that mindset. She took the PSAT this year as a sophomore for practice and she agreed she needed to take some time over the summer to review/practice in a low-key way. I don't know what to make of her score as a sophomore but there is always room for improvement. Also start looking at the ACT but not focus too much on that.
And yes, she has a summer job (lol).
Any other things I/we may want to look at? Besides winning the lottery, of course. Thank you!
Some alarm bells went off in my head when I saw that nursing was only her “probable” major and that she wasn’t considering that field a year ago. She may not be considering it a year from now, either.
So while I think your game plan is sound, I would also add that she and you may want to give some thought to whether she would want to attend a university on the list you’re putting together even if she decides on a different major or switches out of nursing once she’s there.
Good point @Marian . Most students change their mind about a major, even once they get to college. While still in high school? Very likely. We made the mistake you warned about. Daughter wanted an uncommon major fairly close to home, and that limited her choice to 3 schools. Changed her mind about that major first semester freshmen year. (And ironically–for purposes of this thread anyway–switched to nursing). Definitely make sure the schools on the list have options in case nursing isn’t the path your student ends up taking.
Exactly - we’ve already had that discussion about the possibility of switching majors in school and how easily that can be accomplished wherever she attends. I say “probable” because I want her to be open to the possibilities, but she tells everyone who asks that she wants to be a nurse.
If she has the time this summer, I would suggest she totally study for the PSAT/ACT. How did she do on the PSAT she took? If she is anywhere close to a decent score, I’d really work on studying for it. Being a National Merit Finalist would open her up for tons of scholarship money. There is no better time to prep for the ACT as well. The kids have time, they have taken all the courses they need to, and if you wait until during junior year, they will have so many other things going on. If you wait until summer after junior year, you may have only one shot in fall of senior year(and I think those direct admit nursing programs have early application dates). Studying for these tests has a better payoff than any summer job. Direct admit nursing schools usually have a specific ACT cutoff score–you want to have that comfortably done early on so she can concentrate on applications during fall of senior year.
Are there ways she can get a more realistic understanding of nursing? Shadowing, volunteering, talking with current nurses who will be honest about the pros/cons of nursing? My cousin always wanted to be a doctor, and he volunteered at the hospital for many years, starting with just wheeling patients in and out of surgery. He never wavered in his desire, and is now a doctor.
Good luck to you and your daughter as you navigate this journey. It is fun and exhausting, thrilling and a bit scary, and you have a chance to draw closer to your child as you make road trips to college visits.
A school’s NPC is more useful, primarily because it’s school-specific. Some schools simply don’t have the financial resources to provide grants for expenses in excess of FAFSA EFC for all families.
Keep in mind that the NPC is still just a swag. The really detailed info is provided on the CSS PROFILE, for those schools that use it.
Thank you all! She is currently volunteering in the memory care unit of the nursing home that is associated with our local hospital. She is getting real hands-on interaction with residents, and she will hopefully job-shadow a hospital nurse this summer. A doctor friend suggested the nursing home over traditional candy striping at the hospital - we know one girl who is a candy striper, and she doesn’t seem to have the interaction with patients that my daughter wanted.
Oh, and she is also going to do honors career mentorship next year - it’s a quarter-credit course that hooks up honors students with people in their desired field. They meet once a week, job shadow, talk, etc one on one outside of school hours.
Her volunteer work at the nursing home sounds like a great idea.
If you are willing to share her sophomore PSAT score and the state you live in, people here can probably tell you whether she’s even close to the ballpark for being an National Merit Semifinalist. If she isn’t, studying for the PSAT may not be worth the trouble.
The only class like that is through the high school’s career center (what my generation used to call vo-tech). The problem is that the periods there are on a different schedule, and any classes there would conflict with being able to take some of the lab-intensive science classes she wants to take. She decided against going that route.
She took the new PSAT in October. As a sophomore, with only a practice test under her belt, she got a 960 total (Ohio). She will take it “for real” next fall as a junior. The guidance office was more concerned with the juniors this year and didn’t give the sophomores any indication what the numbers meant.
Yes, you want to run the NPCs. But you can save some time by starting with schools that meet full need or offer merit grants. (Have you seen the long running thread about merit?) The EFC (from Fafsa or one of the calculators) is really a fed figure. What the colleges will expect from you- and what they might offer in grants and the etceteras- is from their NPCs. remember this can be thrown off by divorce, self-employment, etc.
You can also start visiting now, even just a casual Sat am drive through or walk through some local colleges. It helps many kids to start building a sort of idea list (reactions, what they like or what turns them off.) Have fun.
You may want to find a way for her to explore the wide range of allied health careers that are NOT nursing- most HS kids don’t know about PT, OT, Speech, etc, not to mention careers in public health, hospital administration, health care marketing, etc.
Nursing is nursing. But there are tons of health related fields that are not nursing, don’t require a nursing degree, and will give her a lot of more flexibility academically in college. Don’t rule those out just because she doesn’t know about these options.
You are missing the fun. Enjoy the process, the time together. I wish I would have enjoyed it more and listened to my kids more. They each found a school and that was enough for them. I was the one thinking they should look at more, try to find more money, consider schools that were better known (not necessarily more prestigious, just better known). They were fine with what they’d found. They are fine at those schools.