Senior year course selection for “awesomely average kid”

[Anonymous]

In NJ, all kids are required to take 4 years of PE (no exceptions) and they do fine on college apps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if you’re aware, but awesomely average is under 3.5, and that score is kind of high. Another year of PE is fine for awesomely average. What schools is he considering?

Long list right now:

UVM
UNH
University of Maine
WVU
CU - Boulder (likely out of reach)
Colorado State
Appalachian State
University of Oregon
Oregon State
University of Denver

He thinks he wants to study psychology, environmental science, or maybe something around outdoor recreation mgmt. I know public schools don’t give much merit. Happy to hear suggestions for private mid size-large schools with “outdoorsy vibes”. I actually think a smaller Jesuit school like St Joes or Drexel might be good for him but these are too urban for him.

Connecticut College offered my DD $38K in merit and has an environmental science major. Her stats were higher but SLACs love boys so I’d check it out.

[Anonymous]

You will get merit at Miami of Ohio. And a ton of merit at Ohio University. I think your kid gets into Penn State and Ohio State without merit.

Stay below 40 in the liberal arts rankings to get merit.

[Anonymous]

OP here - if he can get his SAT score up to 1400 would it make a significant difference for admission and merit at the schools I listed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - if he can get his SAT score up to 1400 would it make a significant difference for admission and merit at the schools I listed?

Going from a 1290 to 1400 would help, yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - if he can get his SAT score up to 1400 would it make a significant difference for admission and merit at the schools I listed?

I think he's in a good place for admissions to many of them (maybe all, but I can only speak to the ones we also looked at). But I think that getting the score up will help with merit.