My daughter is a junior. She has a possibility of doing a sport in college, so with that whole issue/process aside I need help. She has a one track mind. She has one school she is interested in. That’s it. Being an adult, I know that is not a good idea, she needs a plan B if the sports does not work out. I don’t know where to steer her. She has a 3.86 weighted GPA. soon to go up a bit as she is ending this marking period with a 4.4 GPA. She has taken the ACT 3times and gotten a 25 each time and got an 1190 on the SAT. I think she may retake that in June. She would like to go into sports medicine for her profession. She has been very dedicated to her sport but does have a few extracurriculars (NHS, etc). I would like to keep the price tag for college at or below $35,000/year. Open to anywhere in the country. Smaller to mid-sized school is what she is most interested. Help. Can anyone think of somewhere I can suggest she starts looking into? I just am overwhelmed trying to even find suggestions for her. Counselor is not helpful.
@michoff - start with your state flagship - though it might not be small or medium sized. However, it may not be easy to get into the state flagship with these ACT and SAT scores. Hope she is preparing before she retakes. Even for recruited athletes - standardized scores are important.
Thank you for the reply! She is familiar with our state flagship. Her older sister attends there and she knows she may end up there. She is NOT in favor of that. It’s just not the best fit for her. It’s huge and honestly I agree with her, it’s not a good fit for her.
She has previously taken a Kaplan course which did nothing for her score. It’s like she has a complete knowledge void on these standardized tests. She does great at her pretty competitive school (especially with her crazy busy schedule) but then can not do well on either the ACT or SAT. She knows she needs better scores and just can’t seem to get it. She has taken the act 3x and the SAT once and gotten essentially the same score every time, including after taking the Kaplan course. So frustrating.
@michoff - some students have such issues with standardized testing. Instead of online courses - see if a local tutor can help. Not sure how much those help, but may be of use to ward off some of the stage fear!
Also - look at some schools where standardized testing is optional or not required (like https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/07/27/a-list-of-180-ranked-schools-that-dont-require-act-or-sat-scores-for-admissions/?utm_term=.7bdac193b378)
Did she complete 2 full length practice ACTs and 4 additional over time? If not, that would go a long way on the test score issue.
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She would like to go into sports medicine for her profession.
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Physical therapy? Or what?
Look at LACs outside the NE and the west coast. A lot of them may offer significant tuition discounting, even more so if your kid could help fill out a roster.
I would suggest looking at schools that are $35,000 or less and under 25,000 student population, and has her course of study. Also look at minimum of 25 ACT to get in. My son is a junior and was set on 2 schools until I shopped around and found others that had his interests and had theses schools mail info to him. When he asked why these schools sent him stuff, I said that is just common practices for schools to recruit. We looked at 2 of them which he really liked and will look at 3 more this summer.
“start with your state flagship - though it might not be small or medium sized. However, it may not be easy to get into the state flagship with these ACT and SAT scores.”
Many states have multiple in-state schools. The #2 and #3 schools are often quite good also. In Massachusetts the state flagship (Amherst) requires the SAT or ACT, but the state #2 (Lowell) is also a good school and does not require the SAT or ACT. Also, even if the SAT is low for the state flagship, her grades are very good for many or most state flagships.
What state are we talking about?
“Open to anywhere in the country.”
If you are open to anywhere in North America I can think of multiple good choices in Canada which easily fit under $35,000 per year, including some very good small SAT-optional ones. However, in the health profession the extent to which credentials are valid across the long US/Canada border is something that I don’t know for anything other than MD and DVM degrees.
A lot of the smaller LACs, especially the test-optional ones which might be a better fit for your daughter, don’t have a sports medicine major. Could she major in Biology or Chemistry and then do sports medicine later? A lot of the larger state schools, like Michigan and UW-Madison, have sports medicine, but are probably going to be more expensive if OOS, and you said your daughter prefers smaller schools.
I would recommend that you hang out in this thread:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1951765-parents-of-the-hs-class-of-2018-3-0-to-3-4-gpa-p1.html
I found the thread for the 2017 class way too late :(. It was a real wealth of information for kids that are not headed for the nation’s top 25 colleges. My D17 ended up at our flagship school with a low ACT, but it was touch and go. Your D’s athletics is another wrinkle. Is she a good fit to play at the school she really wants to attend? Is she really good? Many coaches have a say in admitting recruits that may not have a GPA or ACT/SAT that would normally get them in.
In any case, you are right to have her extend her search past the one school.
How have the talks gone up until this point? You standing at her door trying to engage her in college talk? Or a sit down “big talk” at the kitchen table complete with the spreadsheet of numbers, a printout of the budget and admissions and financial statistics for the one school she is interested in?
In our house, it took a big family meeting where everything was laid out on the table and we all got on the same page in order to make some forward progress in the process. If she’s not willing to engage in a realistic process, then maybe that’s a game that you as a parent can refuse to play? You have that right to put your foot down and tell her that’s not how it is going to go down at your house. She’s behaving like an immature child if she continues with her “one school” plan.
It’s hard to tell from your post if this is a reachy reach school admissions wise or financially? Also, did she just go to the Kaplan review course or did she actively participate and put in some hard core practice time at home? Nothing changed with D until she started hitting the section tests on her own motivation.
My son raised his SAT score over 300 points by taking practice test after practice test. He took a review class, but said that didn’t help nearly as much as just sitting at the computer for hours and practicing. It gave him a lot more options.
^ My D1 said the same. Classes did not help much while practice tests do.
I would be careful of taking the sat again making five tests, I guess you could just send which ever of the two is better, but if you’re required to send every test, sat or act, that’s going to be a flag of someone who’s too test focused. Find out from the colleges you’re interested in what their policy is.
She’s interested in being a sports med MD. She’s definitely not being an immature child with the one school thing. I think she really doesn’t know where to start and at this point things are looking good for the recruiting. She has all the skill and results to be recruited and is being actively recruited by several schools. Every athlete is always one major injury from being out of sports though so we have always focused on school and choosing an academic environment that is best for her. The one school she is focused on is not a real reach academically (she is above the average GPA but 2 points below the average ACT and 100 puts lower than average SAT score). Being an athlete her numbers are above what they would require. Money wise we can pay for whatever school she chooses, we just think it’s silly to pay $65,000/year for undergrad. If it came down to it being her dream school and we thought it was a perfect fit though we would pay it. She did sign up to take the SAT in June last night so I guess we will just see where that ends up. Thanks for all the responses. Things were just much more straight forward with my older child.
@michhoff - one thing to note about MD admissions down the line is that MCAT is one of the most important parts of that cycle. If your daughter is not comfortable with standardized testing - MCAT might be a stumbling block.
Anyways, from your other posts, looks like your D has good recruitment offers already. Good luck.
Look at test-optional colleges.
Thank you again for the responses. Yes, we had another conversation today making sure she understands about the MCAT and the fact that she is going to have to take that. I’m trying to let her steer her own path and just pointing out things she needs to keep in mind as she does. Ultimately, the truth is she may not choose medical school. She may. Who knows. A lot of developing is done between junior in high school and undergrad graduation. For now this is the path she wants to go.