Help! DS is a Jr. What to do to get ready for college

[MrsPete]

Our experience was a bit different, so don't discount the scholarship offers to private schools!!

Read again -- I'm saying that it does happen, but it's not something that you can count upon. It's not something that works out for everyone. Perhaps you were the "target demographic", and that's great for you. But having taught high school seniors for 17 years and having watched over 2000 students leave my classroom headed for higher education, I assure you that it's a rather rare situation. Private schools aren't falling all over themselves to offer inexpensive placements to students, even top students.

Look into it, hope that this -- along with other scholarships -- come together for your student. But don't "suicide it". That is, don't look into this and only this. Don't bank all your hopes on this rather rare opportunity, which may or may not come your way. Investigate this AND other avenues.

I've seen students get these placements, but I've seen more students go to expensive schools at full-price. For what it's worth, I suspect that my oldest daughter is going to receive offers like this; I think she, too, is the "target demographic". I doubt my youngest will have any chance of this type of scholarship; though her grades are good, she lacks the well-roundedness and the leadership spark that my oldest has in spades.

 

[malibuconlee]

I'm a big fan of the community college then onto the 4 year school plan. It worked wonderfully for my DH and many I know. There wasn't a big problem of classes not transferring either like some say. It costs half what the cost of per credit hour tuition there than it does at the state school.

One thing I found with a private school vs. public is when it comes time to find a job. The state schools have TONS of job fairs. Employers come in and set up booths and you can talk and set up an interview. My girlfriend that finished at a private school didn't have that. She ended up graduating and moving back in with her parents while job searching.

 

[tar heel]

dis-happy -- Are you in North Carolina? If so, the state stipend for private schools is no where close to what it would take to bring a top private school (say Duke or Davidson) down to the state university price. My son looked at both of those schools with a 99 percentile SAT (I'm saying that to make the point that he would have qualified for ANY SAT-based scholarship) and the $ just was not there. In SOUTH CAROLINA, Clemson would have given my son in-state tuition, which would have put it in the same range as our state universities. Several places he didn't apply offered free rides b/c they do that for all National Merit finalists, but he never seriously considered any of them.

When we started looking at colleges, we assumed that Duke or Davidson would be no more expensive than State or Carolina b/c DS would get scholarships to bring the $ down, and we were wrong. Certainly there were plenty of private and public schools in and out of North Carolina that would have given him plenty of $, but they were not schools he was interested in.

 

[EthansMom]

Dad dreams of MIT, but it's so far away. Sorry. Mom moment. I don't show him those too often.

MIT is an excellent school. DH went there for his Masters.

Personally, DH and I are both big proponents of state schools for undergrad work. Texas A&M is closer to you and has a great engineering program. Another wonderful choice for Aerospace especially is the University of Michigan.

Have your son apply to several schools... a couple that are "dream" schools (like MIT), a few that are more in the moderate range, and a couple of safety schools. It's a bit more work to make so many applications, but then you can make sure he has options.

In some cases, some of the private schools offer scholarships that make their total cost more competitive than a public university. Also, colleges like to have a "well-rounded" student body with lots of students who AREN'T local. So, your son *might* have a better chance of getting into the University of Michigan than Texas A&M.

 

[dis-happy]

dis-happy -- Are you in North Carolina? If so, the state stipend for private schools is no where close to what it would take to bring a top private school (say Duke or Davidson) down to the state university price. My son looked at both of those schools with a 99 percentile SAT (I'm saying that to make the point that he would have qualified for ANY SAT-based scholarship) and the $ just was not there. In SOUTH CAROLINA, Clemson would have given my son in-state tuition, which would have put it in the same range as our state universities. Several places he didn't apply offered free rides b/c they do that for all National Merit finalists, but he never seriously considered any of them.

When we started looking at colleges, we assumed that Duke or Davidson would be no more expensive than State or Carolina b/c DS would get scholarships to bring the $ down, and we were wrong. Certainly there were plenty of private and public schools in and out of North Carolina that would have given him plenty of $, but they were not schools he was interested in.

Yes, I'm in NC when I'm not in HH! My memory may be a little foggy, but 3 years ago when my dd was a senior I went to an college admissions seminar given for homeschoolers. The speaker was a provost from Queens College, tuition at the time there was around $20k, and from what I recall she said that they had tiered tuition rates depending on SAT scores, plus the state of NC gave you money to attend in-state private schools. The tuition alone (not including room and board) would have been brought down to around 10k, or half, in my dd's case. Queens isn't a top tier school though. We also did do the tour at Duke, and I thought they said a large percentage rec'd financial aid. Guess it wasn't all they made it out to be though, from what you experienced with you ds. Davidson has become highly popular the past few years; I guess they can charge what the market will take.

When looking at the numbers schools do seem to break out the room and board from the tuition cost and focus a lot of stats on just the tuition. I haven't found a school yet (from public to private) that doesn't charge another 10k for room board. My top option (if room and board is prohibitive) for anyone would be to do 2 years at home at community college then transfer to a state school. Some of the impossible schools (ie. Chapel Hill) can be easier to get into as a transfer student than as a freshman girl from the Charlotte area.

Interesting that you brought up the Clemson option. I only recently learned about this (high enough SAT score and you can attend out of state at in-state rates).

One thing that has changed in the past 18 months: schools' endowments, along with the economy, have tanked. I wouldn't be surprised to see less money available in the coming years.

 

[shortbun]

No kidding, Mrs. Pete--we have some good friends that have a son that is a sophomore. He was very quite and shy in high school and they worried about him in college. Well, the first weekend at school they saw him on TV with a big "U" painted on his chest cheering on the Boilermakers at Purdue . They stopped worrying soon after that.

Yeah, my good friend just experienced something similar with her now Freshman son - he's organized a cheer squad for his school's football team. And-he never had a date in high school but two months into college has a steady girlfriend.

 

[tar heel]

dis-happy -- The North Carolina Legislative Grant is less than $2,000. If tuition at Queens is cut to $10,000, you still have room and board, which makes it still several thousand more than all the state universities -- that would be a great scholarship, though. At this point, you can frugally get through any of the state universities for $12,000-$13,000. So far, we've paid for five years at State, two years at Western Carolina and are on our second year at UNCC, so it's my area of expertise.!

One of the problems with financial aid is qualifying. We're sure not rich, but the kids have 529s and we've got some savings, so no financial aid for us. My FIL is totally convinced that we can afford Davidson for our youngest son (optimistic Granddaddy is also convinced DS can get in) b/c it is now committed to meeting full financial need with no loans. The problem is that our definition of how much we need and how much the school thinks we need are going to be thousands of dollars apart. I'm pretty that when all is said and done, this child will go to Carolina or State.

 

[allison443]

Another homeschool friend was offered a full ride to Baylor (he turned it down to go to Wheaton), and another friend's dd turned down Harvard (would have been no cost) to attend Chapel Hill. Our state also provides state money to attend in-state private schools based on SAT scores which would have lowered to half the usual private university tuition up front (before any other offers of FAFSA money were brought into the equation). Alas, in the end she chose a private school out of state which we actually pay for, and are happy to do so, but other scholarship options did abound.

Regarding the person who turned down Harvard "which would have been no cost"-Harvard, like the rest of the Ivies, does not give merit scholarships. All their financial aid is need based. They are generous with financial aid, apparently, and some of the Ivies have a no-loan policy, where all financial aid is grants and work study, no loans.

For the OP and anyone else looking at colleges, I think it is very important to be financially aware of what you can afford, what the schools cost, what financial aid you are likely to get.
Be aware that financial aid can often be in the form of loans.

 

[angeluna]

Been busy lately. But, I'm back now. Wow, there's been a lot of great advice offered here. I'll try to respond to some.

I currently have a freshman in college, a senior in high school, and a freshman in high school. My oldest was interested in physics, so when we visited colleges, my husband contacted the physics dept. The faculty are very helpful. He took a tour the dept. and also was able to sit in on a class. This past summer we took our second son and he toured the computer science and music departments of a few colleges and sat in on classes also. I definately recommend visiting while school is in session. They get a great feel for the campus. Contact any departments your son may be interested in. Many colleges have information sessions not only for the whole school, but for individual programs. In our experience, the faculty have been very helpful. Both my sons enjoyed sitting in on the classes.

I hadn't thought about sitting in actual classes. Think we'll try that. Thanks.

If MIT is a serious choice, your son needs to be higher than top 5%, and he needs to have life experiences and interests outside of the school. MIT takes only about 10% of applicants, offers no merit scholarships (everyone there is brilliant, so they all would deserve one!) and doesn't offer much in the way of financial aid for the middle class. I believe they accepted only 500 out of over 5000 Early Action applicants. They also don't accept very many AP courses, even if the student gets a 5 on the exam. It really helps to have a perfect score on the math SAT as well.

It's doable, but there's got to be more on the application besides AP classes and school based clubs.

I doubt he'd get into MIT. He's got a chance, but you're right about the competition. But, you never know if you never try. He will be taking on more volunteer work, as well as, a small part time job in the near future.

As someone who went through this, I have to say, the best thing you can do is VISIT SCHOOLS!! Visit schools in all different areas, different sizes, tiny liberal arts colleges, large universities. After 5-6 or even less, he'll start to realize at least the basics of what he wants: size and location. Then, that narrows it down a bit and he can apply to schools that fit those categories!
As far as getting into his dream schools, the top things that help are 1) grades/SAT/ACT scores (obviously!) 2) ethnicity (completely true) and 3) uniqueness. Your son needs to make himself stand out with things that are quirky or unusual. One of my best friends in high school got into basically every college she applied to (Dartmouth, Colombia, Georgetown, NYU) because she did things that were off-beat. She had her own website where she reviewed computer games. She designed a website for our town. She travelled every summer to Europe. She independently studied 5 different languages. She had good grades, good standardized test scores. She wasn't the BEST in our year, (leave that to two of my other best friends-- valedictorian and saluditorian, who went to Harvard and Brown!) but she got into great schools because she was different and things on her application stood out.

The website thing, who would have thought. I've got to start thinking more out of the box. It really is the niches that make you stand out.

MIT is an excellent school. DH went there for his Masters.

Personally, DH and I are both big proponents of state schools for undergrad work. Texas A&M is closer to you and has a great engineering program. Another wonderful choice for Aerospace especially is the University of Michigan.

Have your son apply to several schools... a couple that are "dream" schools (like MIT), a few that are more in the moderate range, and a couple of safety schools. It's a bit more work to make so many applications, but then you can make sure he has options.

In some cases, some of the private schools offer scholarships that make their total cost more competitive than a public university. Also, colleges like to have a "well-rounded" student body with lots of students who AREN'T local. So, your son *might* have a better chance of getting into the University of Michigan than Texas A&M.

I was thinking about having him applyto range of schools like that. Glad to know our thinking is on track.

dis-happy -- The North Carolina Legislative Grant is less than $2,000. If tuition at Queens is cut to $10,000, you still have room and board, which makes it still several thousand more than all the state universities -- that would be a great scholarship, though. At this point, you can frugally get through any of the state universities for $12,000-$13,000. So far, we've paid for five years at State, two years at Western Carolina and are on our second year at UNCC, so it's my area of expertise.!

One of the problems with financial aid is qualifying. We're sure not rich, but the kids have 529s and we've got some savings, so no financial aid for us. My FIL is totally convinced that we can afford Davidson for our youngest son (optimistic Granddaddy is also convinced DS can get in) b/c it is now committed to meeting full financial need with no loans. The problem is that our definition of how much we need and how much the school thinks we need are going to be thousands of dollars apart. I'm pretty that when all is said and done, this child will go to Carolina or State.

I'm afraid we'll fall into that gap too. Doubt that we'll qualify for much because we "make too much". But, that being said, we will try anyway.


His high school is very proactive with SAT and ACT test taking. We'll try to do those in December. He did finally say that he wanted to probably stay in Texas and go to a smaller type school. We'll see.

 

[snykymom]

A DIS for colleges - you'll get a lot of good advice from people who have been there.

www.talk.collegeconfidential.com