For most folks, you should apply to at least the 1 or 2 or 3 public universities in your state.
Ask 2 teachers now for recommendations…by “now” I mean like mid to late August.
Write an essay. This takes awhile.
Once you’ve gotten the easy ones in, now begin really looking around…based on budget, merit, interests …you can apply to colleges in batches through October even for the earliest…
Very good suggestions/advice upthread. To potentially make things easier for you OP to follow see below:
example, if applying to engineering, where should we start?
As suggested above, how is the engineering program at your state flagship?
Good suggestions above for engineering schools.
Just based on your posted stat’s, your kid would be a strong candidate at many excellent schools.
As suggested above, run the Net Price Calculator on the website of the schools your daughter is interested in.
If you are middle to lower income, you might be surprised to find that some of the top private colleges will be
less expensive than your state or other colleges even after merit aid because of the generous financial aid.
is it the common app or a different app or the college website itself?
Most schools use the Common App. Start there using the search function. If the school does not come up,
go to the school’s admission website
Separately, it is a good idea to go to the school website in any event to double check requirements, dates and
even tips
at what point should we ask high school to send university the transcript?
The Common App provides for your high school counselor to send school reports through the Common App
to the school. You “invite” the counselor to your account through the Common App
Schools not using the Common App, follow their directions on their form
at what point should we ask college board to send scores (SAT, SAT subject and AP scores) to college?
Deadlines and requirements vary by school. Check each school’s website. We set up a spreadsheet
that listed required tests and deadlines by school.
Be careful in checking to see which schools allow you to pick and choose tests and scores (Score
Choice) and those which require you to send all scores of all tests or all scores of particular tests
For the most part AP scores are self reported on the Common App and official reports are not required until
you matriculate
what about teacher recommendations? how to send those?
Works the same way as the Counselor reports. You “invite” the recommenders who then upload
their recommendation to the Common App. You can invite multiple writers and choose different
ones/combinations by school if you want.
Non Common App schools may have separate procedures
how does someone know if they should apply to main campus or to another branch of the university?
The Common App or the direct school app will guide you
If applying for 8 colleges, then should all scores and transcripts to all 8 colleges be sent at once or can be done separately?
See above answer on counselor reports and tests scores
Each university has a “how to apply section” section. This will tell you what type of college application is used whether it’s the Common Application or their own application system.
The 2018-2019 Common Application opens Aug 1.
We didn’t visit lots of schools. We visited a few different “types” (ie urban/small/large). After acceptances, my kids attended the admitted student days of their top choices.
My kids used a spreadsheet to organize details for each university including deadlines, type of application, passwords, etc.
For engineering, you may also want to consider whether the school offers a direct admission into engineering or do you have to apply after you have matriculated. Similarly, is there a minimum gpa to maintain to stay in engineering. Finally, and especially if your daughter has a type of engineering in mind, does the school offer that particular major and do you have to apply to get into that major.
Some ivy league schools have good engineering programs and may offer a free ride if your income is below a certain threshold so don’t forget to look at those school as well as the schools that offer scholarships.
For engineering if she doesn’t mind a lopsided ratio both WPI and RPI may give merit scholarships, especially to a young woman.
I’m surprised the school didn’t give you some guidance this spring. Our school does a big presentation and have a handout with all the deadlines. When your daughter gets to school one of the first things she needs to do is to line up teachers who are willing to give her recommendations.
For engineering check each school if it is an application to a specific major, or if major is chosen later. If later are there requirements to meet?
There are lots of engineering schools. As long as the school is ABET certified they will meet national standards.
If she will be a National Merit Semi Finalist then look at University of Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Texas-Dallas for NMF scholarships.
With her stats University of Alabama (both Tuscaloosa and Huntsville especially if she’s interested in aerospace) have automatic merit $.
Not sure if you have a list or are still looking for suggestions.
Most state schools have engineering. So look at your home state.
University of Pittsburgh - rolling so apply early
Rose-Hulman
Purdue
Case Western
Harvey Mudd
Swarthmore
U Penn
University of Maryland
RIT
RPI
WPI
Smith (all women)
Olin
Colorado School of Mines (there are other western Mines school too)
For a huge reach if you qualify for need based (no merit at most of these)
MIT
Caltech
Carnegie Mellon (little bit of merit for those borderline need)
Brown
Cornell
Columbia
U Pennsylvania
Johns Hopkins (tiny bit of merit)
It is fine if you are just getting started. It sounds like she has the SAT done and will have lots of good options. Has she started to do any research? I would recommend that once you get the start of a list, create a spreadsheet to track deadlines, criteria that are important to her, and anything you want to remember about each school.
FAFSA-free app for federal student aid opens on 10/1. You will need to apply for numbers to log in and will need to have tax info for each of you available. It can all be done online and the app can pull over your tax return information as well.
D18 refused to seriously consider the process until October and accepted a college she’d only seen online. Thankfully she loved her choice when we attended orientation this summer. Just adding that so you don’t panic. It can be as involved of a process as you want to make it.
If she doesn’t have a clear pic of the type of school, or really even if she thinks she knows, I’d try to visit a few different types of schools. S19’s focus completely shifted after visiting.
Try to enjoy the process! It’s a lot of work but an exciting time!
@bopper overall I like your list but your ‘6 academic classes per year’ in freshman and sophomore years is definitely not the done thing at our school, unless you consider arts classes to be academic. Here the standard load would be English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Foreign language, PE, and some sort of arts class, at least for 9th grade. In 10th some kids drop arts and do add another academic class but that’s not uniform even among the high achievers (most of whom want to stay involved in drama or music the whole 4 years).
Olin used to have free tuition. That ended. Not sure how their aid works now but check it out. it is as selective as MIT, I believe, small and project-based. A wonderful school.
Is the student a young woman? Smith has engineering and she might like taking classes at the other colleges in the consortium – Amherst, Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke and UMass Amherst. She would be able to freely take classes at the other schools and there’re free buses in the area among the schools.
My biggest advice is to schedule a finances/planning meeting (if it’s not on the calendar, it won’t happen) where you review EVERYTHING- your last few years tax return, your checkbook/credit card statements, your retirement plan letters from your company’s HR department which you never open and just stuff into a drawer, your life insurance policies, etc.
It is a very common fallacy to think “Oh, when my kid goes off to college I can probably free up another 5k (or 2k or 10K or whatever the number is) to pay for tuition”. Really? Then do it now. Today. It is very common to say “we’ll be able to cut back on extras once she’s in college”. Yeah? Which extras and how much do they cost?
I have a neighbor whose college financing plan consists of cutting out HBO and meals out. (trust me- as good as it would feel to be “thrifty”, that ain’t bridging the gap). Another neighbor who was shocked to find out that her house isn’t worth nearly what she thought it was (you can figure out comps online- even if you think Zillow gives a lowball estimate, trust me, you aren’t getting twice what your zillow estimate is, and you CERTAINLY can’t get a HELOC for twice your Zillow estimate).
Get a realistic handle on everything financial. What you own, what you owe, how much it costs on a monthly basis to keep your household afloat, how much you’ve saved in retirement (or not), how many more payments until your mortgage is paid off (if you own a home), what the deductibles are on your various policies, etc.
You can’t come up with a plan without knowing your own reality.
Olin gives all students a 50% “merit” scholarship (towards tuition). They have a good rep when it comes to additional aid for financially needy students as well. http://www.olin.edu/admission/costs-financial-aid/
Thanks to all for posting advice and information.
It is taking a while for me to process this information and D to research these colleges that parents have posted on this thread.
Here are a few more questions:
If D wants to apply to early action (not early decision), is there a limit in how many such applications are sent? Is there any check box in common app or in coalition app that makes an application early action?
When to send SAT and subject SAT scores? So D wants to send a few applications by Nov 1st. I read somewhere that SAT scores can take up to 3 weeks to be sent. So if application is sent on lets say mid October, then should SAT scores sent by first week of October so that the SAT scores reach by mid October?
What if SAT scores and application are not received by colleges on same date? Will colleges know to wait for SAT scores or SAT subject scores or will they start the review of application as soon as application is received?
how to send SAT subject scores? So when sending SAT scores, “send all scores” will send both SAT and SAT subject scores?
I read some where that some colleges require self reporting of scores outside of coalition app. So please help me understand how to go about that process? after submitting coalition app, should we go the college website and create an account in college website? or will coalition app redirect to college website? is college account and coalition app account the same?
We do not qualify for need based financial aid. do we still have to submit FAFSA for merit aid?
Varies by school. Some schools are restricted or single choice early action, meaning if you apply EA at that school, you cannot apply EA elsewhere, although different schools have slightly different exceptions. Some schools have no restrictions. Many schools operate on “rolling admissions”, which means they make decisions on a rolling basis. You need to go to each website.
Most school websites will give you test date deadlines. Usually, you have some time after the app is due to get tests in.
Happens all the time. See 2 above on separate deadlines for submitting tests. Again you need to check by school.
You will have a menu of choices on the College Board site. What you have to chart are the individual school requirements and if they allow you to “Score Choice”.
Not familiar with the Coalition App. For the Common App, there is a section to self report various test scores.
Depends on the scholarship and school. Some merit scholarships also factor in need.
FYI — WPI no longer has a lopsided ratio… last year’s freshman class was about 45% female, and I hear that they have hit the 50/50 target with Class of 2022…
Have a look at the very helpful website BestCollegeFit.com . There is a ton of very helpful info and advice there. It’s run by a former college Dean of Admissions, Peter Van Buskirk. I’ve been to some of the presentations he does at public high schools and prep schools… he’s terrific and spot on with the advice for negotiating the application process and choosing the right school.
It sounds to me that you and your child would greatly benefit from hiring a private college counselor if you and he/she can’t rely on the high school guidance counselor for information. I say this only because you mentioned that you don’t qualify for need-based aid, so perhaps there are some funds available for the private counselor. It’s not because you have a lot of questions, but because the nature of these questions makes me think that there could be a lot of questions you DON’T ask that can come back to haunt you.
Check with the GC whether the school has a guide to completing the college application. Such guides often include dates to remember/turn things in. My son’s school does and it is posted online at the district website.
So far here is the list that D is thinking of applying to:
UMich
Pitt
Purdue
UMD
Carnegie mellon
Northwestern
maybe University of North Carolina, Georgia tech, MIT
Our school GC is very busy and usually sends very delayed replies to emails.
As many of you advised hiring a college counselor, I am considering that option.
Any idea how to search for a good college counselor whose fee is reasonable?
$30K per year including tuition, and other expenses is what we can afford.
D wants to attend OOS college.
we have not considered applying to any ivy colleges. Not sure if it is a good or not so good decision.
expensive tuition is a major factor for that.
@momofsenior1, if you do not mind, can you please let me know your D’s GPA and SAT scores.
Did you accept Purdue?