PUI: my kid's ACT score

[funksouljon]

Man, more power to him, but I really don't want that to be her. We've resisted starting any college classes. She's already about the youngest in her class. I don't want her to feel any more awkward by being another year or two ahead in college. As it is she won't turn 21 until after she's started her 4th year of undergrad. She doesn't need to be rushed and put in a spot where she's out of place.

I agree. It's hard enough being a kid, but to be years younger than peers. 38 to 40 isn't a big difference, but there is a huge difference in 14 and 16.

That said, we had plenty of college courses through TCC my senior year in HS. Took them at my high school so my classmates were my normal class mates, the courses just allowed me to knock out my first semester of college at Leon. Course, I also didn't have classes all afternoon and went to my job so my senior year wasn't traditional.

 

[NDallasRuss]

I agree. It's hard enough being a kid, but to be years younger than peers. 38 to 40 isn't a big difference, but there is a huge difference in 14 and 16.

That said, we had plenty of college courses through TCC my senior year in HS. Took them at my high school so my classmates were my normal class mates, the courses just allowed me to knock out my first semester of college at Leon. Course, I also didn't have classes all afternoon and went to my job so my senior year wasn't traditional.

I know her school district offers some dual enrollment courses, and she can take community college classes online through the school district (I think). She may want to, but she's also planning to take a bunch of AP classes, so I don't want to push too much. She still needs a chance to be a kid and do her own growing up, before it's all planned out for her.

 

[FSU_UCLA]

One of my graduate school classmates graduated from Yale at 19 and went straight into the PhD program at UCLA. She definitely had a bit of rough time with the transition. Nevertheless, she ended up doing well for herself: she earned tenure shortly before her 30th birthday.

She had an interesting backstory: she became friends with Claire Danes while they were both attending an elite French immersion high school in Los Angeles and were subsequently roommates at Yale. Danes became the first celebrity with whom I had an actual conversation when I met her at my classmate’s place.

 

[mcgrawfsu]

I know her school district offers some dual enrollment courses, and she can take community college classes online through the school district (I think). She may want to, but she's also planning to take a bunch of AP classes, so I don't want to push too much. She still needs a chance to be a kid and do her own growing up, before it's all planned out for her.

I applaud you for not forcing too many things on her. A lot of people do and screw their kids up. However, most of the schools she’ll be looking at are going to look beyond academics for admission. They turn down kids all the time with perfect scores because they didn’t do anything outside of school. Are there any clubs or teams she’d be interested in? Debate, math, science, robotics, etc.? Finding something she’ll enjoy and not burn her out will help with admissions.

 

[62Nole]

Very smart, Russ. Let her grow up at her pace.

 

[NDallasRuss]

I applaud you for not forcing too many things on her. A lot of people do and screw their kids up. However, most of the schools she’ll be looking at are going to look beyond academics for admission. They turn down kids all the time with perfect scores because they didn’t do anything outside of school. Are there any clubs or teams she’d be interested in? Debate, math, science, robotics, etc.? Finding something she’ll enjoy and not burn her out will help with admissions.

So far she's doing Model UN and Latin Club. She enjoys both of those. Outside of school she does Muay Thai and has been learning to play guitar. The latter may become a school activity next year, as her school has a guitar club that plays at school functions. We're trying to find things she enjoys, rather than just stuffing her application with a bunch of fluff that doesn't mean anything to her.

 

[OrlandNole]

One of my graduate school classmates graduated from Yale at 19 and went straight into the PhD program at UCLA. She definitely had a bit of rough time with the transition. Nevertheless, she ended up doing well for herself: she earned tenure shortly before her 30th birthday.

She had an interesting backstory: she became friends with Claire Danes while they were both attending an elite French immersion high school in Los Angeles and were subsequently roommates at Yale. Danes became the first celebrity with whom I had an actual conversation when I met her at my classmate’s place.

Let me guess...all she wanted to do was talk about her so-called life.

 

[RTM58]

Man, more power to him, but I really don't want that to be her. We've resisted starting any college classes.

Stay in college as long as you can, without becoming an educator. - Anonymous Wise Man

Let me guess...all she wanted to do was talk about her so-called life.

Always liked her without really knowing why. She's not particularly good looking, but I've always liked her wit. It turns out she's from a pretty smaaaht family and is pretty sharp herself. Dad went to Brown and RISD, mom went to RISD and her grandfather was Gibson Danes, a former dean of the Yale School of Art and Architecture. Good genes.....

She graduated from the Lycée Français de Los Angeles as previously mentioned. Danes began studies at Yale University after her high school graduation and one of her letters of recommendation was from Oliver Stone. After studying for two years as a psychology major, she dropped out to focus on her film career.

 

[Nole Lou]

Nice! You said she was getting letters after her psat, remind me what she got on that. Boy just took it.

My boy just got his score on the freshman run of the PSAT. His high school has freshmen take it as a run before the "real" one as a sophomore.

They've changed the scoring in just the few years since my girls took it, but he got a 1400, which appears to be pretty strong. From what I can tell, it appears much better than either of my girls did on the PSAT, neither of which sniffed national merit. One of them ended up with a 33 ACT and the other a 1540 SAT, so hopefully his PSAT indicates good things.

Having been around this rodeo a couple times now...the only thing I'll caution, and I've already mentioned this to Russ, for anyone in this situation with their kids, keep a very level head and set very reasonable expectations with kids. The decision making around these college admissions is largely inscrutable at times. I always get nervous about kids getting "set" on elite schools...not because they aren't good enough, but there's no such thing as "good enough". At the highest levels, EVERYONE is good enough, and the selection process is always, from the outside, awfully capricious. In other words, there is a significant element that is outside your kids' or your control.

My oldest got a full tuition scholarship to Alabama (not full ride, but $0 tuition) with her grades and 33 ACT. Appalachian State didn't offer her a dime, literally not a dime of aid, or consideration to any of their scholarships.

My second, with a 1540 SAT, got rejected outright by Tulane and Vandy. She got offered a generous and significant scholarship from University of Pittsburgh, an ok scholarship at Clemson (but $15k off a $55k nut annually wasn't going to make it any more doable), and not a cent from NC State.

It happened to my oldest in graduate school. She got admitted to a top ten program for her degree at Rush Medical School in Chicago, and rejected to a top nothing program at Georgia State.

However competitive you think it is to get into first and second tier schools, or to get merit aid...it's tougher. There's just no way of really wrapping your head around who's going to accept them, and even less about who's going to give them any money at all. With the exception of third or fourth tier schools, and a few of the public flagships in the south (Alabama, Ole Miss, LSU) merit money is very hard to land.

 

[NDallasRuss]

My boy just got his score on the freshman run of the PSAT. His high school has freshmen take it as a run before the "real" one as a sophomore.

They've changed the scoring in just the few years since my girls took it, but he got a 1400, which appears to be pretty strong. From what I can tell, it appears much better than either of my girls did on the PSAT, neither of which sniffed national merit. One of them ended up with a 33 ACT and the other a 1540 SAT, so hopefully his PSAT indicates good things.

Having been around this rodeo a couple times now...the only thing I'll caution, and I've already mentioned this to Russ, for anyone in this situation with their kids, keep a very level head and set very reasonable expectations with kids. The decision making around these college admissions is largely inscrutable at times. I always get nervous about kids getting "set" on elite schools...not because they aren't good enough, but there's no such thing as "good enough". At the highest levels, EVERYONE is good enough, and the selection process is always, from the outside, awfully capricious. In other words, there is a significant element that is outside your kids' or your control.

My oldest got a full tuition scholarship to Alabama (not full ride, but $0 tuition) with her grades and 33 ACT. Appalachian State didn't offer her a dime, literally not a dime of aid, or consideration to any of their scholarships.

My second, with a 1540 SAT, got rejected outright by Tulane and Vandy. She got offered a generous and significant scholarship from University of Pittsburgh, an ok scholarship at Clemson (but $15k off a $55k nut annually wasn't going to make it any more doable), and not a cent from NC State.

It happened to my oldest in graduate school. She got admitted to a top ten program for her degree at Rush Medical School in Chicago, and rejected to a top nothing program at Georgia State.

However competitive you think it is to get into first and second tier schools, or to get merit aid...it's tougher. There's just no way of really wrapping your head around who's going to accept them, and even less about who's going to give them any money at all. With the exception of third or fourth tier schools, and a few of the public flagships in the south (Alabama, Ole Miss, LSU) merit money is very hard to land.

Thanks for that, Lou. I just wish there were more defined criteria! I get that there can't really be, but it makes this whole process SO difficult! So basically it seems like she's going to have to apply to 20 different schools across every different tier, and then wait and see which one(s) she gets into (and hopefully some financial aid toward), and that the results may lack much rhyme or reason.

 

[mcgrawfsu]

Thanks for that, Lou. I just wish there were more defined criteria! I get that there can't really be, but it makes this whole process SO difficult! So basically it seems like she's going to have to apply to 20 different schools across every different tier, and then wait and see which one(s) she gets into (and hopefully some financial aid toward), and that the results may lack much rhyme or reason.

Seems like a lot of schools have eliminated any firm criteria for admission. There are a bunch of blogs that will point out the admission statistics. Best bet is to send out a lot of early applications. Seems like most schools are a little more flexible with early apps.

Depending on the school, you may be able to negotiate the tuition. I have no idea how this works, but a friend just told me about getting his daughters tuition reduced by 40%. She is going to some school in CA with a $50k tuition. He said he’s also knocked some off his other 2 daughters paying out of state rates

 

[Nole Lou]

Thanks for that, Lou. I just wish there were more defined criteria! I get that there can't really be, but it makes this whole process SO difficult! So basically it seems like she's going to have to apply to 20 different schools across every different tier, and then wait and see which one(s) she gets into (and hopefully some financial aid toward), and that the results may lack much rhyme or reason.

Yeah. My kids didn't go after super elite schools, but it more about the merit aid, but it was a similar situation. Once I realized how out of our control it was, I tried to make it my job to constantly try to pump up the pros of all situations so no matter what happened they would see the positive of it. I wanted them to be able to look to the bright side of however it worked out. I talked about the up side of being one of the smarter kids at a medium school, being one of the dumber kids at an elite school, being close, being further away...every school they might have ended up at had it's great selling points out of my mouth.

They paid lip service at least. They ultimately got into the schools they most wanted, so I don't know how much they would have bought into it if they hadn't, but they at least acted like they saw the positives of the other outcomes.

Graduate school did not work out the way my oldest wanted, and she's pushing through, but I can tell she's a little bitter about it. But it's graduate school...it's basically her first job, she just needs to get the paper.

 

[RTM58]

Seems like a lot of schools have eliminated any firm criteria for admission.

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[Gonolz]

Hummm...I dont see UF listed as a public Ivy school

They claim it is the Hartford University of the south.

 

[NoleFan2U]

They claim it is the Hartford University of the south.

Ohhh. And to think I had it wrong all these years!

 

[MagNoleA]

Did Maury tell you that, yes, you are the father??