I'm put out--vent

[minkydog]

I used to be a financial aid and scholarship counselor for a public university, scoring scholarship applications. A lot more goes into reviewing them than just GPA/SAT/ACT. In fact, those scores were automatically calculated and were just a portion of the overall score. We cared about difficulty of courses, breadth of extracurriculars and well-roundedness, depth (how many years involved in the extra-curriculars, versus joining everything senior year at the last minute), whether they also held a job, community service activities, leadership demonstrated in those extracurriculars or elsewhere, and answers to essay questions (uniqueness, well-written, grammatically correct, actually answering the question, etc), just to name a few.

I was a student at the same university where I later worked as a financial aid counselor, and I did receive a full ride academic scholarship to attend. I had a 4.0 unweighted GPA with an honor's diploma and rigorous courseload, 1300/1600 SAT, no ACT - lots of extracurriculars, leadership positions in those extracurriculars, no music, no athletics, a part-time job, and *lots* of community service. I also put a lot of effort into my essay, knowing it's not a lot of work with a potentially really large payout. I am sure there are people with higher SATs than me who were also involved in more athletic/musical things than me, but a lot goes into an application review. It also depends on your school, the aid they have available, and the applicant pool. Things are more and more competitive and lots of students with the same grades and GPA scores also need to sell themselves and set themselves apart in other areas of their applications. I would frequently hear parents say, "So and so's daughter got a scholarship and mine didn't and they had the same grades and SATs!" Every aspect of the application is scrutinized and small things can make a big difference. The best advice I can give is to start early and encourage students to be very involved in the things that interest them, be involved in a variety of activities, serve their schools/communities in some way and take positions of leadership and demonstrate initiative - in addition to being a great student. It can pay off greatly, but the competition can be very stiff - students generally have to want it and been working hard for it for a long time for that to shine through in their application, and even then there's only so much money to award.

Admissions can be a different story - most schools will allow you to petition for admission if you don't meet basic requirements, but you would typically need a good reason in your essay, not just "I slacked off." OP, you sound like you have done what you can for your daughter, but she also has to be self-motivated. Remind her that what she does now in class and school might not be much fun but could have a big impact on her future. That's not to say starting off in a community college would be bad for her, or that college at all is a requirement. It still isn't for everyone, and it's not a requirement for success, though it can make it easier or be required for certain fields. Community college might even be a better place for a mediocre or unmotivated student to attend - if they decide it's not for them, they haven't laid out as much money to learn that lesson. They often have theatre programs as well that your daughter could take advantage of while completing some general ed requirements that could transfer to four-year state schools if she decides to pursue that degree (academic advising can help with that.) Getting out on her own and reaching a different maturity level might increase her motivation for success in school or give her a greater clarity about her personal goals. As long as she's happy and successful in what she does, that should make you happy. But if she has certain goals or visions for herself, she'll need to be realistic about the path she needs to take to get there, and what alternatives she might consider if that path isn't feasible for her anymore. A lot of people change their minds along the way, and she has time to do that; it's just good if she can set herself up to have a lot of options if she wants or needs them. It might be a good idea to do some college and community college visits and have her talk to admissions, academic advising, financial aid and theatre department representatives so she can hear from someone other than "mom" about what's realistic for someone in her situation - it might give her a little wake-up call if she's really serious about college.

Thanks for this info. I talked a little with her today about looking at the 2yr colleges. Keeping it light, just talked about the financial advantage of going to community college, smaller classes, more academic assistance, etc. Three of four state 2yr colleges in GA do have theater and music, and one of them is a feeder school to the university she's interested in.

DD16 has a lot going for her, academics aside; she's very well-rounded. She performed with a professional children's choir for 9 yrs and she's is a teacher's assist for their annual Choral Festival. She has done some volunteer work with local charities and a no-kill cat shelter, and she has performed twice for Partnership Against Domestic Violence at the MLK Center in Atlanta. She has been performing with her show choir going on 3 years and teaches acting/singing/dancing in the summer. I know it sounds like a lot but most of these things are spread out over the course of a year so they don't have a huge impact on her school stuff. I really do think that if the admissions staff will give her a chance to prove herself she would be a good candidate.