<p>My son is already accepted to our community college on early entrance (currently a high school junior). However, he made it clear that he wants a 4 year university and does not want to attend the community college, even if only one year and then transfer. I am anxious about upcoming SAT and ACT scores and if they will be high enough to get into the schools of interest (Towson and UT Dallas). Any advice? Thanks.</p>
<p>get “real tests” books for both, and do some practice tests</p>
<p>If he’s taking classes at the CC to supplement his HS coursework, that won’t hurt him in the application process, especially if they show an interest continued outside what was available in his school.</p>
<p>Until you have scores though you won’t have all the pieces - when you do get the scores, compare those and his GPA with the average stats admitted to Towson and UT Dallas. You can also contact someone in admissions at both schools and ask them about the CC classes and what may/may not hinder/help him in the app process.</p>
<p>My son is taking an SAT prep course. He has strengths going into the applications, but the practice test scores are not high. I worry because I hear about the many thousands of kids applying to these good schools, making a more competitive situation. I am hoping that perhaps if he writes a strong essay, that this will help him, but don’t know how much essays really count.</p>
<p>Not at the schools you are talking about.</p>
<p>All I hear about at UT Dallas and Towson is GPA and SAT scores. We are going to look at Salisbury and need to find some other safety schools that don’t cost $50k a year.</p>
<p>There are some very good schools that do not require test scores. If his scores are not high enough, you may look into that option as well.</p>
<p>Towson and UTDallas are fairly different schools… are there others under consideration?</p>
<p>Montana State University costs much less than $50k a year and does not require SAT / ACT scores. Single rooms are available to Freshman.</p>
<p>It’s not close to you, though, so that might kick it out of the running.</p>
<p>The only other school under consideration is Salisbury. My son seems to want a medium size school with a good Business program. We eliminated Stevenson, UMBC, UMCP, American, GWU. Except for UT Dallas (has great chess club and Actuary Science major), seems to want to be close to home but realizes he will have to move away. He is interested in George Mason–I don’t think it is right for him.</p>