If DC has no interest in activities…

[Anonymous]

If he doesn’t want activities he needs to get a job and keep it until college. He also needs to study a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL "large merit"
I would not count on that OP

When colleges give merit even if it is large the amount is still higher tuition than a instate school.

Apply to data only schools like UMD, UF, Univ of SC, Univerity of Michigan etc.. then the extra's do not matter much. DCUM won't agree with me.

The bolded is usually true, OP.

My ADHD/ASD kid who is very intellectual and only interested in his academic topic of interest had nothing but a pandemic dog-walking business and his native language weekend school as his extra-curriculars. He received a laughable $1k merit offer from UMD, but was offered Honors College there (in-state cost of attendance around 30K). He got 17K knocked off the 50K or so of cost of attendance at his safety, St John's College in Annapolis. He got into McGill on a whim, but never seriously thought of going, and didn't apply for scholarships (that's what you have to do over there). He got no merit from W&M's dual degree programme with St Andrews (very selective). The OOS cost of attendance would have been $65K a year. And finally he received 20K a year from GW, guaranteed 5 years, which reduced the total cost of attendance to 65K. GW knew what it was doing. Since his major is International Affairs, and their local competition is Georgetown and W&M, both at 65K, they didn't have to offer more merit than that. They gambled that all prices being equal, he'd pick them. And he did: they have nicer food and dorms, and he liked the professors better.

It's a little insight into the calculations that go into offering merit aid to students.

Sorry, forgot to address test score. That's too low for merit aid. He has to prioritize test prep to increase it to near perfect, especially as colleges start paying more attention to tests again. My kid had a 35 on his ACT, which is equivalent to a 1540-50 on the SAT.

[Anonymous]

Try Texas Tech & Oklahoma State

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC has no interest in activities, and never really has. Has maybe 1-2 that are mostly just on paper. No real hobbies either.

Course rigor and GPA are both very high, but test scores are middling (1100-1200).

Better to encourage SAT prep or activities? Both? Neither? DC is very resistant to parental suggestions.

Goal is a large merit scholarship at a good college (T10/Ivies not of much interest.)

There are colleges that give good merit scholarships for test scores for tests scores a few hundred points than DC's, but you haven't heard of them. I suggest you google "guaranteed merit scholarships"

[Anonymous]

A part time job is a good idea. I would try to get him to do test prep too

[Anonymous]

This is what I'd recommend but YMMV:

Have at least some activities, even if it's just one off volunteer events or participation in a club. There are ten spots in the common app that need to be filled for activities. Better if your kid can fill them and if they tell a story. Like if your kid is interested in majoring in biology, volunteer activities for the environment, attend a few environment club meetings, write about their interest/activity re the environment in their common app essay.

Test prep will be needed if your kid hopes to get merit and the school requires test scores. If your kid has those high grades and rigor, then the low test score is probably due to some procedural issue like slow processing? I'd have that checked out and addressed and that might cause test score to go way up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS didn't have much in activities -- mainly a long running monthly volunteer thing that we do with the whole family + a summer job. He got into all the big state Us he applied for except for UVA. Merit awards at a couple OOS schools brought the cost down to about $40k, so in line with the most expensive VA colleges but still more than VT where he ended up.

The standard "automatic" type of merit awards seem to be more based on stats so definitely get the SAT up. But the more competitive scholarships, where the school only gives a few out after additional applications, possibly interviews, etc. are going to be looking for the whole package of stats + extensive resume.

For the non-joiner, I'd say a summer job is required.

I agree. My son is a non-joiner, but he got a job at Chick-Fil-A. I sparked a firestorm here with my query on whether it was a liability. Well it turned out to be a boon in college admissions. Make him get a job and make him volunteer with your family at a food bank.

Serious question: how do you know the effect his job had on the strength of his apps? Also, what were his other attributes and stats? Did he apply recently and to what schools? Would love to know what schools might appreciate this profile. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I have a really introverted spectrum kid. Good grades. Good PSATs/SATs. I knew from the beginning of high school I’d have to “encourage” things for college, and I knew they wouldn’t be the typical things because my kid isn’t a joiner. Things we did…
1. I did make them join lit mag and they did it 3 years with increasing responsibility.
2. State wide stem program you had to apply to. It was long term (5 months) all online.
3. Unusual seasonal job fall of junior year. Made a good story.
4. Long term research project junior year.
5. Summer art program. Submitted their stuff to scholastic so they won a few awards.

Honestly, my kid is a very good student but would have done none of these things if I had f basically arranged them. They did well at all of them. Got into their top school ED with merit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC has no interest in activities, and never really has. Has maybe 1-2 that are mostly just on paper. No real hobbies either.

Course rigor and GPA are both very high, but test scores are middling (1100-1200).

Better to encourage SAT prep or activities? Both? Neither? DC is very resistant to parental suggestions.

Goal is a large merit scholarship at a good college (T10/Ivies not of much interest.)

should do both but focus on SAT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL "large merit"
I would not count on that OP

When colleges give merit even if it is large the amount is still higher tuition than a instate school.

Apply to data only schools like UMD, UF, Univ of SC, Univerity of Michigan etc.. then the extra's do not matter much. DCUM won't agree with me.

The bolded is usually true, OP.

My ADHD/ASD kid who is very intellectual and only interested in his academic topic of interest had nothing but a pandemic dog-walking business and his native language weekend school as his extra-curriculars. He received a laughable $1k merit offer from UMD, but was offered Honors College there (in-state cost of attendance around 30K). He got 17K knocked off the 50K or so of cost of attendance at his safety, St John's College in Annapolis. He got into McGill on a whim, but never seriously thought of going, and didn't apply for scholarships (that's what you have to do over there). He got no merit from W&M's dual degree programme with St Andrews (very selective). The OOS cost of attendance would have been $65K a year. And finally he received 20K a year from GW, guaranteed 5 years, which reduced the total cost of attendance to 65K. GW knew what it was doing. Since his major is International Affairs, and their local competition is Georgetown and W&M, both at 65K, they didn't have to offer more merit than that. They gambled that all prices being equal, he'd pick them. And he did: they have nicer food and dorms, and he liked the professors better.

It's a little insight into the calculations that go into offering merit aid to students.

Sorry, forgot to address test score. That's too low for merit aid. He has to prioritize test prep to increase it to near perfect, especially as colleges start paying more attention to tests again. My kid had a 35 on his ACT, which is equivalent to a 1540-50 on the SAT.

Has anyone in history brought their test score up from 1100-1200 to a 1550? Seems unrealistic.

[Anonymous]

I would have a frank conversation with my kid. Have them take ownership. It's their future application process, have them start to think about what that looks like? What do they think are goals for the kinds of schools they might like to attend, and what steps they think might be necessary to get there? Roughly, even, at this stage. It's going to involve some sort of job or community service - but they need to think about what moves them, what they will want to convey about who they are. It's a step towards growing up - this process has a lot of that. Set expectations realistically, work towards goals. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL "large merit"
I would not count on that OP

When colleges give merit even if it is large the amount is still higher tuition than a instate school.

Apply to data only schools like UMD, UF, Univ of SC, Univerity of Michigan etc.. then the extra's do not matter much. DCUM won't agree with me.

The bolded is usually true, OP.

My ADHD/ASD kid who is very intellectual and only interested in his academic topic of interest had nothing but a pandemic dog-walking business and his native language weekend school as his extra-curriculars. He received a laughable $1k merit offer from UMD, but was offered Honors College there (in-state cost of attendance around 30K). He got 17K knocked off the 50K or so of cost of attendance at his safety, St John's College in Annapolis. He got into McGill on a whim, but never seriously thought of going, and didn't apply for scholarships (that's what you have to do over there). He got no merit from W&M's dual degree programme with St Andrews (very selective). The OOS cost of attendance would have been $65K a year. And finally he received 20K a year from GW, guaranteed 5 years, which reduced the total cost of attendance to 65K. GW knew what it was doing. Since his major is International Affairs, and their local competition is Georgetown and W&M, both at 65K, they didn't have to offer more merit than that. They gambled that all prices being equal, he'd pick them. And he did: they have nicer food and dorms, and he liked the professors better.

It's a little insight into the calculations that go into offering merit aid to students.

Sorry, forgot to address test score. That's too low for merit aid. He has to prioritize test prep to increase it to near perfect, especially as colleges start paying more attention to tests again. My kid had a 35 on his ACT, which is equivalent to a 1540-50 on the SAT.

Has anyone in history brought their test score up from 1100-1200 to a 1550? Seems unrealistic.

PP you replied to. Drastic improvements can be made. My kid went from a 29 on his mock exam to a 35 after test prep. In SAT terms, he started from a 1340.

[Anonymous]

Unless I missed it, OP, you didn't mention your kid's grade/age.

It has been like pulling teeth getting my kid to do much outside of his sport. He's at end of sophomore year now and I see an uptick just recently in signing up for activities at school, volunteering, etc.

I think it's a combination of making more friends, finding out what they are doing and joining in, and realizing that he doesn't have a lot of time left to get out there and do something. Maybe your kid will come to this realization soon too?

[Anonymous]

First, ignore any posters who uses "YMMV." It's just so annoying.

Second, they're not handing out large merit scholarships to kids who have nothing other than good grades. Not gonna happen.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks, all. DC is interested in getting a job. Does it matter if it’s retail and not related to anything “rigorous”?