@DavidPuddy Many selective schools (the ones with great financial aid) require that the whole testing history be reported on applications. I think an Admissions Officer would look askance at a student re-taking the SAT who has already earned a near-perfect score, as well as a perfect ACT. Those 5- 6 hours one Saturday could be used for beefing up his ECs or looking for an internship or research project.
Take a look at University of Texas at Dallas. They have a very generous NMF scholarship. While they are known mainly as a STEM school, I was very impressed with some of their other departments - especially the political science and business school. (There may be others, of course, I just happened to have an opportunity to hear alumni in these fields speak…) There are lots of opportunities for internships and study abroad. Study abroad funds are included in the NMF package. They are a medium size school. (27000 including grad students.)
And unrelated, but since it came up, my son refers to “maths” as well. I don’t think it’s a specifically British thing. In IB, they are referred to as maths so I’m sure the discipline is in other places as well.
@delilahxc – interesting fact about IB using the term ‘maths’. I had not known that as I have no exposure to IB (but some exposure to Brits!). Thanks for sharing!
Note about the SAT sitting - it could come in lower, too.
I agree, no reason to retake that. I’m sure he has better things to do.
In addition to the generous NMF scholarship, the McDermott Scholars program at UT Dallas also offers lots of
benefits:
Full UT Dallas tuition and fees
$1,400 monthly stipends, year-round ($400 for frosh as room and board is covered)
$1,000 yearly textbook stipend
$12,000 fund for scholar-designed study abroad
$3,000 fund for individualized professional development
Travel expenses for cohort trips to Santa Fe, Austin, and Washington, DC
Tickets to the Dallas Symphony, Dallas Opera, Texas Ballet Theater, Dallas Theater Center, and other cultural events
Travel home twice yearly for domestic students, and once yearly for international students
http://www.utdallas.edu/mcdermott/about/award
Your initial post was about the starting line and saying you feel behind in the process, suggesting nothing had been started in terms of college planning. At our public high school, the counselors start talking to kids about their college goals in sophomore year for junior year course planning and would have meetings set with parents and student by this point in junior year. That was why I questioned how the well regarded private school hadn’t provided any guidance to this point.
I agree that he should look for something for the summer that might beef up his resume in terms of showing passion, learning or true service if he is really looking for merit money at top schools.
Beyond the national merit awards, many colleges offer some merit money to students that are NMF. He would be eligible for those as an NMF as long as he lists the schools as his first choice. However, that would not likely be full tuition which is what you would need to afford a private college where room, board and other expenses would exceend the $10K you have available.
Nobody is getting dinged for taking the SAT twice. Maybe if you take it three or four times. Someone asked this question at College Night at our school. That was the answer that Vassar gave, and the reps from Cornell, Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth and a couple of other very selective schools that were at the panel all agreed.
For McDermott, it is important to also have a varied extracurricular, significant volunteer hours and leadership experience. OP’s son’s limited extra curricular might prove a challenge but he certainly has time to develop a passion (or two…) before the scholarship deadline.
I really don’t think Editor of a school pub and a varsity sport is too light. Maybe dig into something he did volunteer with previously? Or a job. It is hard to create a passion. If he had just one burning passion, he might be more likely to know his major;). He may have more you don’t recognize as ECs. A job? Does he babysit his siblings after school?
Many many kids don’t have superstar ECs. That’s ok. If he needs merit aid, it limits the choices a bit though. (If he applies to a school where he need ls full tuition but the give out very few, I think that’s ok as long as he is clear that it is a long shot to get and the merit is required before accepting).
I think you are right on schedule! Enjoy the process. There are threads of schools that provide auto merit, and those that provide a lot of merit. There is also a thread on college’s that are under $25k all in, which if you get merit would work. I can see a few schools where you get full tuition and the room and board would be near 10. It’s do-able.
Thanks @HRSMom
If folks knew the hours spent on his position as editor (Yearbook), it would shock them. He is committed to that role personally, even though it restricts his available time to do other ECs especially when a Varsity sport is added to the mix. We will come up with a smattering of other ECs and “volunteerisms” because they are required by the school, I just happen to know the profiles of similarly scored kids from his school who are Seniors now. Not right or wrong, not good or bad, but his compares a little thin and he doesn’t have a demonstrated passion away from school. Thanks again to everyone for the thought provoking contributions.
‘However, that would not likely be full tuition which is what you would need to afford a private college where room, board and other expenses would exceed the $10K you have available.’
The OP’s son can take out $5000 in loans each year, which can reduce the OP’s expenses to around 10K/yr,[ if he is awarded a full tuition scholarship]
.
I think a HUGE distinction needs to be made between admissions and being competitive for merit at top schools. Keep in mind the actual “will be admitted” applicant pool at competitive schools and then narrow that pool down to the top 20 or so students that have applied. Let’s use the Robertson Scholarship at Duke and Carolina as an example. They select 18 students at each school.
This is how they describe their selection criteria:
ETA link: https://robertsonscholars.org/selection-criteria/
These kids are the kids doing the exceptional in high school.
That is why I posted earlier in this thread that there needs to be a reconciling of his ECs and his college list. His ECs are fine for a lot colleges and even a lot of colleges’ competitive scholarships, but the phrasing of ‘I am hoping for options a little more …targeted/challenging… than the typical WUE schools" implies to me, anyway, that the goal is more “elite.” To stand out in that group of peers, ECs are what makes the distinction, not test scores. It is an absolute given at the outset that all of them are fabulous students. What makes them stand out amg the accepted pool is what they are doing outside of the classroom. **"Transformational engagement’ **is what the committees are looking for. (Definitely apply to competitive schools with merit, but he needs to apply much lower as well.)
Helping your child target large $$ merit scholarships means really considering the qualities of the applicant pool and being objective about what their accomplishments are in terms of the profiles of previous scholars. It also usually means stepping down in selectivity if you absolutely have to have scholarships. There is a radical difference between applying to schools and thinking it would be nice if they were awarded a scholarship, but acceptance is the goal vs. applying to schools where being awarded the scholarship is the goal b/c acceptance without the scholarship may as well be rejection.
It can be eye-opening to some kids just what levels of accomplishments other kids around the nation are achieving. It can be even more eye-opening to understand the significant level of talent at schools outside of the tippy top. It should never be taken for granted that kids at your avg state flagship being awarded top scholarships are less competitive than elite admission students.
We are also in AZ and went through the application process with D last year. She wanted a small school, and was less sure of a major but leaning toward social sciences. She had high grades and test scores but not quite as high as your son. Great EC’s. Our budget was similar as well. She applied and got into ASU Barrett and UA honors college. The rest of her list was LACs that offered competitive full tuition or full ride merit scholarships. That was a LOT of essays. It was not an easy way to apply to college. She was accepted everywhere she applied, and was a finalist for top scholarships at three schools, and got one of them. One. We visited UA last minute before deciding and came away very very impressed, but it was just too big for her. She chose the LAC that offered the scholarship and loves it. But we never felt like we had a safety that she loved, only ones she would have made the best of had it been necessary.
Try and visit an LAC or two (maybe he’d like Trinity U in San Antonio?) and see what he thinks. It’s harder to find small schools with big scholarships, but not impossible. Western Washington U is on WUE. We know a top student from my daughter’s class who went to UWyoming with enough scholarships for a nearly full ride and is absolutely loving it. They have a very well-funded study abroad program.
@HRSMom - I didn’t mean to disparage the accomplishments of @DavidPuddy child. I was only taking him at his word that the ECs might be thin and pointing out that McDermott might not be the best fit. It’s certainly still a possibility - I very much worried about my son’s ECs as his sports was an incredible time suck in the same way as Yearbook sounds like it is for this student. Even my son’s volunteerism (which I thought was strong) ended up being about half the average of finalists (finalists average was close to 1000 hours.) My son has some eccentric interests but really I have no idea which part of his resume made the difference and ultimately whether or not he will be chosen. So while applying to McDermott is not something I was discourage, I would encourage expectations to be mitigated. Plus, it’s way more awesome if you assume your kid won’t make it to finalist weekend and then they do.
For merit aid, I think those in need of merit aid that are fortunate enough to have NMF status would be best served focusing their initial search on schools that give very good packages for that status. Then, any competitive scholarship is a bonus.
My son was largely indifferent to what type of college he attended. He had test scores similar to the OP’s son and was NMSF. He had a couple of outstanding EC’s – debate and journalism, in both of which he won state-level awards. Despite our encouragement, he didn’t want major in science in college. He ended up majoring in economics, which allowed him use his math-head to do applied statistics. Combining that with his interest in sports (as in spectator + fantasy sports), his interest in journalism, and his background in debate, and well you can make quite a variety of careers out of that combination. I would also suggest to the OP to think about his son’s hobbies and general interests, his intellectual strengths including but not limited to math.
The OP’s son doesn’t have to know what his major will be. He should probably choose a college that gives good opportunities in first year to explore things, to lay down a foundation in science, social science, math, literature (humanities). That is one reason why I like small liberal arts colleges, and “residential colleges” within larger universities. The latter, by the way, reduce the sense of anonymity that one can feel at a megauniversity. Look for honors colleges, residential colleges and the like, some of which have their own application-admission process, i.e., while you may be applying to the university it can be important to identify a residential colleges on the initial application.
Hello, Was it the Dean’s Honors List at Tulane that your D was offered? Thanks
@DavidPuddy Consider Grinnell College, in Iowa. It’s a wonderful LAC that offers good merit aid for high stats students.
(Edited to add that I just saw that someone has already mentioned Grinnell. It’s worth a look.)
@DavidPuddy I wouldn’t dismiss NMF too quickly. If nothing else, the prospect may motivate him to keep his grades up. From what I have read here, as long as there are no Cs on the transcript, it’s likely. A few scattered Bs are OK.
Regardless, I can sympathize with your dilemma. My D is a high-achieving student with high-achieving friends. In her cohort there is a considerable gap between the EFC and what the family can pay. So compromises had to be made. Three families that I know were limited to room and board costs and had to seek out full tuition merit scholarships. One ended up at ASU Barrett. One got a full ride scholarship at UNM. One is likely to end up at UT-Dallas, where she also got a full tuition scholarship. These are girls with near 4.0 unweighted averages, standardized test scores in the 32-35 range for ACT and commended or above for SAT.
Rest assured that wherever your son ends up, he will find intellectual peers because many families are exactly in the same situation you are with regards to cost. @Mom2aphysicsgeek is a terrific example. Her kids are AMAZING, with deep knowledge in specific areas and have placed very well to advance their academic interests. Both have gotten great deals, one at Alabama and the other at South Carolina, I believe.
I agree that there are few alternatives among the WUE schools that compare academically ASU and UA. However, if your son is interested in matriculating at a smaller campus, some of the better picks are Western Washington University, where your son would be almost assured of WUE discount plus admission into the honors program. About 15K students, gorgeous campus, surrounded by outdoor recreation opportunities. Not brown, hot, or dry, if your son would like a change. Washington State is also a reasonable choice. Still, that would probably bring your costs down to 20K, which isn’t quite enough.
Some LACs/smaller universities that offer small numbers of full tuition scholarships are Denison (OH), U of Puget Sound (WA) Grinnell (IA), U of Richmond (VA), Southwestern (TX), Colorado College, Case Western (OH), Wash U (MO) and Vanderbilt (TN).
As should be evident by now, if you go down in the rankings, the possibilities for merit increase. In our experience, a 25-30K merit scholarship at a 25-80 ranked LAC or college is a reasonable aspiration for a high stats kid. But with sticker price at 60-65K, that wouldn’t be enough. A much smaller subset offer full tuition awards, usually by separate application, and there may be only a handful available at each institution.
Good luck and you are by no means behind the curve in the process. Standardized testing is mostly done. I recommend the early June testing date for subject tests and I suspect your son would do well on the Math II (he can try to get his 800 aspirations fulfilled there, perhaps?). My D took three and then sent the highest two scores. She ended up not needing them but that’s hindsight.
@delilahxc no worries, was not addressed at you, but at the OP. What some people think is light can be skewed by looking at all the crazy stuff superkids do, right? But editor of the yearbook, a varsity sport and some volunteering is nothing to sneeze at:)
Yes menloparkmom but room and board at many top 20 colleges(and other schools) far exceeds $10K and the loans would be required to cover the excess cost as well as books and transportation. The student may also be able to get a job for the summer, but likely would not earn very much. Thus, the need for full or very close to full tuition merit scholarship to attend with parental input of $10K.
This student has very good ECs and will likely have good admission results, but may not be enough for full tuition scholarships at elite colleges, as the dad acknowledges.