Best place for not super studious kid

[Anonymous]

DD is very smart but not super studious or academic. Has ADHD. Cares about grades and doing well but has no clue what she wants to do, bare minimum to get good grades. Has little motivation to explore and says no to most suggestions for a major. Possibly business of some sort but can’t see her hustling or networking. Wants warm weather. Rah rah. But hard to compare to other go getters who lock in and study and are focused on a goal. I think she would do well at a good school but not crazy ranked. She is applying to Clemson UGA UTK UF FSU SC as far as the warmer climate ones go.

[Anonymous]

Any other thoughts on fit? Or motivating their kid? Did great on ACT and good gpa but mid EC and no leadership.

[Anonymous]

JMU
Elon

[Anonymous]

Smaller schools? Giant southern flagships not great for unmotivated, non-hustling, non-networking kids. South Carolina probably the least challenging of the set you have listed there, but would look at smaller schools for sure.

[Anonymous]

OP here. ACT 34 and gpa UW 3.84.
Wants Greek sports and warm

[Anonymous]

Honestly, if you don't think studies are a priority, then somewhere cheap or an instate public. A friend of mine has a kid like you described and the kid is not happy at the "dream" school (big sports, big rah-rah)... didn't know what to pursue for a major in and now is hating all the classes and wants to change out. My friend also didn't want the kid to go to a large OOS public for "don't know what I want to do."

It's not clear on the academic statistics your child has, but UTK is not test optional and much more competitive now than 3 years ago. Last year (e.g., this year's freshman class), I believe their out of state acceptance rate was around 33%.

Best shot would be South Carolina for an admission.

[Anonymous]

I think a gap year would be worth considering for a student with this profile.

Otherwise, in-state public or community college.

[Anonymous]

High Point has lots of supports for ADHD but is expensive. I would suggest a state school with a strong disability services office. We did GMU for our ADHD kid

[Anonymous]

This might sound extreme: I would recommend community college for a year, giving her time needed for figuring out what she wants to pursue, then transfer to a college that supports her identified interest.

[Anonymous]

My ADHD student with no clue what they want to do but does want to go to college, is required to do research if they want us to pay application fees.

So, frankly, I wouldn’t advise any applying to college without her doing some career exploration (whether it’s online tests, talking to people you all know about their jobs, browsing BLS Occupational Handbook…SOMETHING). At minimum, she should be able to tell you whether or not a STEM field or education is a yes or no. No to both of those knocks out many majors.

Also, I’d look at CDS for some of the schools you’ve listed. Unless weighted GPA is much higher, some might be a stretch OOS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. ACT 34 and gpa UW 3.84.
Wants Greek sports and warm

Not super studious or academic? Jesus CHRIST.

[Anonymous]

SMU 💯

[Anonymous]

Furman
Rhodes
University of San Diego

[Anonymous]

ECU
Alabama
Ole Miss

[Anonymous]

So, surely you know that those stats are very good???

From your initial post, I would have said that those schools were mostly reaches. But having seen the stats, I think she'll get into a few.

But I agree with others that smaller, regional state schools would probably be a better fit. It's easy to get lost/not go to class in those huge, fun environments.