<p>Have him go to the state flagship. That’s usually the default for good students it seems.</p>
<p>My S had no interest in the college preparation or selection process. He was a strong student, taking quite a few AP classes. He took the ACT once - in school, as is required in our state - and scored a 33. However, he had no interest in EC’s (other than his band and writing/recording his music). I warned him that this would be an issue when it came to college admissions, but he didn’t care. He was completely disinterested in selecting colleges, although he applied to several. He was waitlisted at our state flagship - and knew quite a few less academically-qualified students who were admitted (I bit my tongue & did not say “told you so”). He went to a state school that was good for a particular program he thought he wanted to study. Spring of freshman year, he decided he didn’t want to stay in that program, and there was no reason to remain at that school (not strong for what he decided to study, instead). Too late to transfer to the flagship … so he went to a state U within commuting distance of our home. He did “fine” last year. This year, though, the maturity seems to be kicking in. He is studying, doing very well, and thinking about grad school.</p>
<p>I never pushed, and I never bugged him. I simply explained what was needed in order to be competitive for admissions. He chose not to do some easy things that would have helped. His choice. He knew that he either had to go to college after high school or he would have to begin his adult life … a job, his own place, etc. He knew he wanted to go to college, needed to go to college. He lacked the maturity to do much with that knowledge, though. I do not believe in “making” a teenager do things that involve a personal commitment to himself. I felt that he had to decide to do it for himself, and he had to find his own way (even if that HAD meant that he might have chosen the non-college path … although I was 99.99% sure that wouldn’t happen, so I was pretty safe in that regard). He IS finding his way, on his own terms. It is his life, and he is doing just fine living it his way.</p>
<p>And just to give the whole picture, my first-born is an over-achiever who graduated magna cum laude from a top school. Each child is different.</p>
<p>"not to mention the expense of taking the tests 3x each. " - That’s a drop in the bucket compared to college expenses and merit scholarship opportunities. But it can be a distraction and mental grind.</p>
<p>labbydog- you pretty much described my S two years ago. There are just some kids that apparently can’t seem to get their ***** together for whatever reason. I ended up doing ALL the research and planning for visits. S did very little by choice, and I wasn’t willing to let him throw away something so important because of his laziness and immaturity. </p>
<p>He missed SAT registration dates, college counselor deadlines, and had to take schools off of his list because there just wasn’t any time left to apply to them. It was really, really bad, so I sympathize with you.</p>
<p>We finally had to ground him to get him to stay in and actually work on applications. And I’m talking about a kid with an MIT intelligence level! </p>
<p>I have no explanation for it other than to say, your S is not that unusual, but you may have to work harder to make sure he stays on target. Try the tough love approach - he’ll thank you for it later (when he’s speaking to you again).</p>