Reply to Early start: How do I prep my child 4 college admissions re: extracurricular projects, initiatives,

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Moving to Iowa and signing up for football worked wonders for my kid. Had we stayed in DC, he wouldn't have gotten even a glance from his current college.[/quote]

I want to hear the rest of this story![/quote]
Lol... On travel for work but stay tuned and I will share tonite when I'm back at a keyboard![/quote]
We moved to Iowa at the end of DC's freshman year. He attended one of the DCUM approved "big" schools. He struggled a bit academically (well, a lot) freshman year so his grades were rather poor. His small private HS in Iowa was much easier, he managed to pull almost straight A's for the last 3 years. He really wasn't a sporty kid but he is a big kid. He decided to play football as a way to make friends. He took to football like a fish to water. For the  next 3 years he played both sides of the ball. Apparently, huge kids are hard to find and huge kids that can play both sides of the ball on the line with good grades and a decent ACT score are even harder to find in the world of D3 football. So when college time rolled around, he was pursued by several D3 coaches (yes, I know D3 does not carry academic scholarships, but they do recruit).

DS was clear that he wanted a SLAC, he sorted through various admission with merit aid offers from several top SLACs. He finally chose Carleton because he loves the twin cities, he could be within a couple of hours from home and it's a great school. Carleton does not offer merit aid, but they were able to make the total out of pocket cost work. Oddly enough, 4 boys that he hung around with at his DC school were all turned down by Carleton.

Had we stayed in DC, he would be another face in the crowd... a kid with decent grades from a world class HS with EC's, leadership and AP's out the wazoo. But his school was so small the sports were no-cut so after football he wrestled, his friends played baseball so he joined the team. No one wanted to go to HOBY so he told the guidance counselor that he would. He literally got a chance to do EVERYTHING because his school was small, everyone in his class wanted to to to Iowa or Iowa State, and they were practically guaranteed admission, so the other kids didn't really put any effort into EC's, leadership or even prep for the ACT. At the end of the day his profile was a well-rounded kid from a no-name HS in the middle of nowhere, who was good at playing a hard to find position on the football team who also took advantage of every chance he had for advanced coursework, lettered in 3 varsity sports, academic decathlon, volunteered, chaired the tech team, went to HOBY, pulled good grades for 10th, 11th and 12th and an ACT of 30. He interviewed like a boss and had a great essay. It sounds like he was crammed into a hectic schedule but he wasn't. Moving to Iowa and playing football was the deciding factor in him getting into several great colleges that have NEVER taken a kid from his HS.[/quote]

I'm the "I want to hear the rest of this story!" PP.  Congrats to your son on shining so brightly at his new school (an at Carleton, I bet)!

It was for work but I will soon be transferred to Cincinnati and I'm actually a bit sad that my daughter won't have the same advantage.
What does he want to do post-grad?  Also, why did you decide on Iowa -- was it for family/work or for his college admissions prospects?[/quote][/quote]

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