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Just keep in mind that the UCs do not give financial aid to nonresidents. I think out-of-state cost of attendance is around 65k-ish though perhaps it varies by campus.

Loyola Chicago has a beautiful, cold campus and the NPC gave us a price around 40k (21k merit estimate off 60k COA, when I ran it last spring; that may be outdated by now). I'm not sure how reliable the NPC merit estimate is, but my sense is that bigger scholarships are not uncommon.

The comparison of a homeschooler's transcript to a private Christian high school's transcript may not be super helpful because these high schools have relationships with the colleges. The colleges have particular rigor expectations for the students they select and some familiarity with the high school's rigor even for regular, non-AP classes. (Private high schools do vary in rigor.) Homeschooling is outside that box but I imagine less frame of reference for the admissions officer. With the disclaimer that I am truly just guessing, I'd think there are plenty of kids with few APs from pr

Just open a parent practice account. https://www.commonapp.org/whats-appening/college-counseling/whats-common-app-practice-account

Next summer, just do a practice test to see how close he might be. That would be the best approximation. https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/psat-nmsqt-psat-10/practice/full-length-practice-tests I'm not positive, but I think the second practice test was the 2016 administration. If you decide he should prep, use SAT prep. In our house, ACT and SAT results are not comparable (i.e. the concordance is not helpful) due to personal strengths and weaknesses that render the ACT unsuitable (speed). As far as comparing PSAT and SAT, in theory, a student should receive the same numer

What an admissions officer will infer from a graded AP course without a self-reported test score is an open question. That would be really interesting to ask an admissions officer someday if I ever get the opportunity to do so anonymously. From what I have read, this varies by school - some super-selective schools care, others do not. I have a hard time imagining that a great deal of attention is paid to data points that are not present in the short time an app gets read, but we are not looking at extremely selective, HYPS-level schools. One anecdotal example I read about was U Chicago, wh

Maybe just ask for a copy of the transcript. At my kids' school, the transcript reports two semester grades for a year-long class (which I thought was typical). I agree -call or email guidance. You don't have to say which class you're thinking about.

One of the possible ways is by placement test. What other way are you thinking about that isn't offered? I was under the impression that at most colleges, a math placement test is to be expected, unless the student has AP credit. Shouldn't the student who took calc in high school be able to pass the placement test (that is likely precalc content)?

I had it all mixed up; my apologies. https://pre-ap.collegeboard.org/frequently-asked-questions

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Mind if I ask what colleges asked for AP scores to be sent from College Board? I was under the impression that no colleges require an official AP score report for admission purposes, but only later, for placement and credit.

Look better for admissions? My understanding is that scores are self-reported on the common app. It's unclear to me whether officially-sent AP scores are even seen by admissions or are sent directly to the registrar's office for credit and placement. When self-reporting, a low score can be omitted, looking as if the student didn't take the test, or took it and scored poorly - colleges are not going to know which was the case. While I've seen some people suggest that the college will assume the worst (low score), intuitively I imagine that app readers aren't devoting time to conjecture

There is wide variation in competitiveness by school https://admissions.illinois.edu/Apply/Freshman/profile