Son at top HS, 13 APs (mix of 3-5 for ones taken thus far), GPA 3.91 UW, ACT 35.
Four years basketball, varsity captain this year…blah…blah…blah otherwise just a lot of club basketball since 2nd grade.
Original plan: play basketball at academic rigorous D2 or D3 school. Probably would get nice merit scholarship and likely additional other grants or even athletic scholarship to D2.
New Plan: No basketball…wants to go to big U with great D1 sports to be a fan. Schools like Michigan and the like are now on his list.
Fearful his lack of xtras may harm him. Ideas to maximize chances or school ideas greatly appreciated.
You could include a few nonD1 colleges?
Temple would be a safety with good basketball and merit if - do a good job on the regular essay+honors essay.
Your flagship and its honors college.
Don’t think he needs to add any. He was /is heavily involved in basketball and had leadership position. I am sure he taught /mentored the underclassmen. Explaining he wants academics over sports is not a bad thing. BTW - at Michigan he can play intermural leagues at different levels. My son played flag football and softball in fun leagues and had a blast at Michigan. Michigan likes to know he wants to be there.
It is my understanding that Michigan is brutal when it comes to OOS merit $$. We are personally aware of two grads who went with same high grades, etc and received $0 and $3000/yr respectively. If that holds true Michigan will not be affordable. Especially since my son could go to ASU Barrett Honors College tuition free. He has zero problems going there. Going to Barrett (where his sister is) would be the simplest for all, but we thought he could/should apply around just to see where he could get in and maybe get some $$ and make the decision later.
He would get $15K based on stats alone, and maybe more, from MSU, the real basketball school in Michigan (and apparently football). He may get even more from the Honors College and could compete for the ADS, which is a full-ride I believe. The HC at MSU is quite good. You could also get in-state tuition from UofSC and a few others if willing to go south. Barrett is a great option.
Michigan State honors used to be instate tuition but about half tuition for OOS with research. Study Abroad $5,000 and a good professor mentor or something like that. It would of cost us around $30, 000 OOS. Which was about the same for most OOS schools we looked at and got merit.
Indeed it is an awesome fallback! Nevertheless, this is the one time in their life they can see if they can get into reach schools and then (parents) decide if paying some $$ is worth it.
The extracurriculars won’t hurt him for these schools. Merit at U of Michigan will be tough. I’d look at Ohio State. He may qualify for the the Buckeye Scholarship though it’s not automatic.
@ignoramusdad Ok, I thought the walk-on were pretty much the practice players with the exception of the preferred walk-ons which were considered to have the potential to be scholarship one day.
