Does anyone have time to spare to help us with college strategy?

[Anonymous]

Divorced mom of an 8th grade DS here. We are in CA. High school is competitive and highly ranked, with many well off and well educated families, but also some student population from low income,
mostly URM and first Gen families.

We are not URM, but low income (below $25k per year). I am an immigrant but the child was born here. His first language wasn’t English but now it’s his native language.
I have a degree from abroad so first Gen definition varies I guess.

I consider DS an average student; his GPA fluctuates between 3.25 and 3.75.
The goal is to have a close to full ride at any decent school really. Money is the greatest consideration.

I would appreciate any advice on HS strategy for him. Namely:
- does it make sense to take honors classes if they don’t provide a GPA boost in the UC system? (Some AP classes do but not all). He is bright and might appreciate the content and the classmates but it might lower his GPA
- DS likes to draw but other than that he isn’t too great or passionate about any extracurriculars. Would it be a good idea to develop a profile where he gets a part time job early on to help his family, rather than trying to excel at some extracurricular activity?
- he is free lunch kid (his whole school gets free food but he also is one by application). Will he be automatically identified as a low income kid in HS and maybe get some extra support for college admissions?
- one of the counselors from his school also works as a private college counselor. Does it make sense to reach out to her for paid consultations? Or will she have a conflict of interest?

To add, I am aware of programs like Questbridge but I am not sure how competitive DS is for them, and they don’t start until later anyway.

Grateful for any and all advice from knowledgeable people here!

[Anonymous]

Apply for UC and Cal State schools. On $25K a year you should get full financial aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apply for UC and Cal State schools. On $25K a year you should get full financial aid.

I keep reading stories about high achieving kids not getting in. He is not URM. Not sure if he is going to be top 9% as the high school is strong.
Does not have any big hardships except for surviving on this income in CA lol

[Anonymous]

It’s better to take more rigorous courses even if the grade is lower. That’s the whole point of weighted GPAs. Even if your school doesn’t weight the courses, admissions officers see the rigor.

[Anonymous]

Community college is huge out there. over half of my graduating public high school class did it. My nieces also did CC and transferred to USC and the other to a California SLAC. I grew up out ther and graduated under the system so am first in line to say it is NOT like other state systems for a variety of reasons but an excellent choice for Californians. It is not comparable to other states (in a good way - plus it has the three-tier system i including the Cal STaes). You must remember that California is a "new" state so went heavily with the three-tier model.

[Anonymous]

Are you willing for DS to attend college out of state? Both public and private universities try to have geographic diversity and many give both financial aid and merit aid to attract kids with scores/grades above their averages who also round out the class. You would have to factor in added cost of travel home.

[Anonymous]

I was a free lunch kid. Your child should qualify for full financial aid at any decent private college. The MC/UMC are the ones who get squeezed with tuition. Your child should be able to get need based aid.

[Anonymous]

OP we're also in CA. There are enough CS and UC colleges that your son will get into at least a few of them. Look at Sonoma, it claims it has the best housing of all the California colleges and certainly looks that way. Long Beach & Fullerton. Also look at UC Riverside, and Merced. They're all possibilities.

As for your kid, if he enjoys art, let that be his EC from now through HS.

[Anonymous]

Here's the UC Merced Freshman admit stats:

https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses-majors/merced/freshman-admit-data.html

and the UC Riverside

https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses-majors/riverside/freshman-admission-profile.html

Bear in mind the GPA is weighted and the middle 25%-75% of admits. Some kids attending will have a lower GPA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP we're also in CA. There are enough CS and UC colleges that your son will get into at least a few of them. Look at Sonoma, it claims it has the best housing of all the California colleges and certainly looks that way. Long Beach & Fullerton. Also look at UC Riverside, and Merced. They're all possibilities.

As for your kid, if he enjoys art, let that be his EC from now through HS.

A part time job or paid internship is always considered favorable. He’s only in 8th grade. Next year in HS, he should check with the business department or even the art department. If he’s passionate about art he can start out at a local studio or workshops for kids. If he finds something business related like a shared work hub, he can work his way up with more responsibility plus meet many types of business owners. Local l businesses tap into high schoolers looking to intern. My son had a paid internship throughout HS related to his major. It definitely boosted his essays and EC’s. And he easily got internships in college from summer of freshman year to now junior year because of his high school internship. Bonus: he’ll have some money to contribute or for his own needs, taking a bit of the edge off for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apply for UC and Cal State schools. On $25K a year you should get full financial aid.

I keep reading stories about high achieving kids not getting in. He is not URM. Not sure if he is going to be top 9% as the high school is strong.
Does not have any big hardships except for surviving on this income in CA lol

He definitely won’t qualify for 9% and he will likely not get into a UCs, but apply anyway. It’s sometimes random, so you never know. Concentrate on the PIQ. Target UCSC. Cal States are a really good fit for him. As mentioned, CSU and UCs will be tuition free for him. What is his intended major? You have good choices. I am in California too. If all else fails, he can do CC and transfer. But since you are low income, and he has your support, you can do better than that. I would not bother with anything OOS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s better to take more rigorous courses even if the grade is lower. That’s the whole point of weighted GPAs. Even if your school doesn’t weight the courses, admissions officers see the rigor.

You need to be a little nuanced about this since UCs cap APs. So take APs or Honors in classes he excels at. UCs/CSU also love students who take DE classes.

[Anonymous]

Also: UCs like students who have adversity, a job, who are engaged/volunteer in community. He may also have to take a summer class before 9th grade to get a class like PE/Health out of the way. This will allow him to take an extra elective or A-G class.

[Anonymous]

Do not pay a college counselor.
There are MANY free programs for students of low income. You might be able to see them promoting themselves in the local high school so if they have a website or newsletter sign up for it.
Your child may also get a bump / 2nd look at some colleges if they know the applicant worked with these programs.
Also - California does not consider race in applications. So if you are applying to a CA school -it does not matter that your child is - or is not an URM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you willing for DS to attend college out of state? Both public and private universities try to have geographic diversity and many give both financial aid and merit aid to attract kids with scores/grades above their averages who also round out the class. You would have to factor in added cost of travel home.

Yes, by all means, unless the cost is prohibitive (I don’t mean the travel home cost, this one we can afford).
Do you think it’s realistic for him to get a full ride or close to it OOS?