I love this idea! I had just been thinking that instead of competing for a library spot, she could just email the local soccer association and see what she could do there. They also have monthly board meetings she could attend to see what goes on behind the scenes and learn how they function. I think she might really enjoy this! Kassia, I am glad to know I’m not the only one trying to figure this out. You had good questions and the responses were really helpful. Your dd has a VERY interesting EC!

Okay, that’s good advice! I feel like that new homeschool mom who wants to buy the full preschool curriculum when all of the older moms are saying, just read to them and play with legos, lol! I’m definitely listening.

She might be interested in volunteering at a nursing home. I’ll talk to her about it and also have her ask her doctor. She’ll be doing science classes for kids if she gets a position at the museum. I really think she will love it! It’s good to know I don’t have to have plan now. We’ll keep our eyes open. Thank you! Oh, one thing she is really interested in right now is sports and concussions. She spends her free time reading about it and is working on a research paper for fun. How does someone take an interest like that and turn it into something more? I not sure how to steer my kids when they have interests because I’m honestly not that curious, and I never have been. I am more of a doer.

I’ve been talking to dd (rising freshman) about high school plans. I think we’re good on academics, but really trying to think about ECs. Dh took the oldest 2 kids to a college visit on Monday and said the AO said he wanted to see depth and passion. Not a list of activities, but deep involvement in something over 4 years. So in order for that to happen, wouldn’t a student have to choose a passion and activity NOW? Dd loves being active and is interested in a variety of things. Right now she plays competitive soccer, works as a soccer referee, helps coach her younger brother’s team (actually coming up with practice drills and ran practice when coaches were out of town), summer swim team, student council secretary for co-op, church youth group, and volunteers at seasonal HOA parties for the kids and twice a year with a local ministry. She enjoys all of it and will probably do all of that next year. It honestly already seems like a lot to me for her age, and looks great to me, but I don’t know if it’s enough. I know she has a lot of soccer stuff, but I’ve been told that’s not enough when it comes to depth/passion. She is interested in science/medicine and applied to volunteer at a local hospital, but didn’t get in. A lot of the volunteer positions here (even at the local libraries) are very competitive. Students have to submit an application, resume, letters of rec, and interview. It boggles my mind that this is required for 8th graders! I even went to the volunteer site for the next city over and it said no opportunities available. Dd did land an interview with the science museum, so we’ll see if that comes through. She e-mailed Special Olympics. She’ll apply to the library. There are other hospitals she’ll be old enough to apply to in the next couple of years, but the competition for those is stiff, and based on recent experience, it doesn’t seem she stacks up. (I’d love to know what the other resumes look like!) I looked for science olympiad and didn’t find one. Any other ideas for a kid interested in science and medicine? How have you helped your kids in this area? Also, on applications, I see that the kids needs academic honors and awards? How does one do this as a homeschooler? To be clear, I’m not pressuring her at all, and I often have to slow her down. I just don’t want her to get to the end of high school with ECs that aren’t good enough. My oldest could have used more guidance, but I honestly didn’t know any better.

Actually, I saw when checking e-mail tonight that there WAS one that said "Yale is affordable!" There was another that said, "You can afford Harvard." The one from Yale linked to the "Quick Cost Estimator." It came back $5,000 cheaper than Harvard. I guess these schools really need our apps to lower their admission rates!

True!

I said Yale, but just went and checked and it was from Harvard. I did run the NPC, and the COA was only about $10K more than our state flagship. I guess that is a good deal if you have the stats and get in. Ds received quite a bit of mail from schools he doesn’t have the stats for. I am so glad I’ve researched enough to know better.

Those stories are so encouraging!

What criteria did you use to find matches in terms of scholarships?

Ds just got an email from YALE with the subject line, “Yale is affordable!†Hahahaha! He is not even close to having the stats to get into Yale, and we can in no way afford it. Made me think of this thread!

I was VERY detached from the process as I described above, but ended up very involved on campus and graduated with honors. The process was totally different then. I can’t believe all of the things kids are doing to get into college nowadays. I had never heard of the level of involvement some students have in the process until I started reading here and on CC - emailing professors and department heads is something I didn’t even know students did, lol! I have probably made ds sound like a big loafer, but he does his schoolwork totally independently, he’s an A student, he plays competitive bball at a high level and has some regional awards for that, worked a 30 hour summer job, etc. He is not a tippy top kid, but the schools on his list are not tippy top. Our state’s flagship and top 5 schools are not on his list. A couple of the schools make the top 10 on some lists, but not all. I *think* that makes a difference, but maybe not... I want him to be interested in the process, but one thing I’m not sure about is encouraging him to get excited about specific programs/organizations/etc. at specific schools when his options might be limited by finances. Couldn’t that set him up for a big disappointment in the end? I appreciate the reminder not to be overly optimistic. I do want to be realistic so I hope I’m painting an accurate picture. I appreciate all of the advice.

Sounds like this could be really good for ds. If he doesn’t get the scholarships, he will at least see the ways in which he needs to up his game! He is looking considering a business degree, and the business world is competitive. I was just thinking that one advantage ds has is that he is 6’ 4†and very athletically built. He gets SO much attention everywhere we go. We joined a new church and he was instantly popular in youth group. Because tall. He is instantly memorable even to adults - everyone notices and speaks to him. I never knew the many advantages of height until having ds, lol!

Root Ann, having financial limitations creates a lit of uncertainty. Ds is auto admit to most of his schools, but we just don’t know how much money he’ll get. At first, I thoight we’d apply to as many schools as possible, but then I heard about application fatigue and thought we’d better whittle it down. Thankfully, he really is okay with community college as a safety. He has a lot of homeschool friends that went that route and had good experiences. It’s a solid school with guaranteed transfer agreements and acceptance of credits to some good schools. Arch at Home, 8’s post caused me to go back and carefully consider whether or not ds has a chance at the scholarships he’s aiming for, too. ALL of the advice in this thread has been extremely helpful!

That’s really encouraging! Congrats!!!

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I really appreciate the help thinking things through. The match school and the small private school scholarships are the only ones that have competition weekends. We can afford the match school with just the automatic aid he should get. The big scholarship would just be a bonus. His stats are very high for the private, but I heard it’s a good school. It also seems like the kind of school where he really could contribute. He’s applying to a summer camp at the match school, and we’ll visit the smaller one. The school I have listed as a safety (I’ll move it to match), says the average SAT score of x gets y amount. My ds got x score so it’s likely he’ll get that scholarship if admitted even though it’s not guaranteed, right? This school is big enough to have a forum on College Confidential and I did see some students with his scores get the scholarship we’re looking at. I’m trying to get him into a free summer camp there, but the department is still waiting to see if it will be funded. The situation with the reaches other than the private is that he qualifies for $5,000-9,000 in automatic merit at these larger state schools. They each also offer seperate scholarship apps through the school of business where he could get additional merit. Just a bit more aid would put them under budget. So these are not tippy top scholarships that would make him the face of the school. I think they just want the highish test scores. I did cross off one reach, and moved the safety I had listed to match. Going to look for a true safety and another match. It’s okay if it all comes down to one school in the end, but it will be nice if he has a few choices. I really appreciate the feedback. Hopefully, ds will become more interested with more exposure. I actually think this process might light a fire under him and help him mature. Dd, OTOH, already knows her major, what school she likes, etc. I’m sure she’ll have a list ready and will NOT want my input. And she WILL shine at competitive weekends. Just hope she has the test scores, lol.

Janet, I actually don't like it either, but he is kind of just this way. Super laid back and doesn't have too many preferences. Even today when I asked him if he'd be okay with adding a small liberal arts school to the list of larger schools, he said sure, sounds good. I explained that the curriculum would be a little different and he said fine. I've asked him to look at websites and stuff, but he's not interested. I think he's just super practical and knows we'll have to see how the financial packages come back. We have asked if he wants to go to college, and he assured us that he does. He did voluntarily spend a lot of time studying for the SAT and brought his scores up a bunch. I am trying to get him excited and involved. Monday, he's going to a college day where they'll do a tour, talk about the application process, and sit in on seminars in different departments. He also decided he's leaning toward a finance or accounting major, and he's applying to 2 free summer programs about accounting and 1 for business. I was concerned about how he'd answer the "Why do you want to do this?" and "Why are you good for this?" questions because I really did badger him into applying to the programs, but he did a really good job. He's still working on the essay. I just remember being his age and having no plan. My mom told me one Friday night that she was taking me the next morning to take the SAT. I went and took it. My math teacher approached me one day and said where are you going to college. Blank stare. He said, "If I help you get a scholarship to xyz, will you go?" Okay. He told me to write a letter and fill out the app, and that's where I went. I have been disappointed in ds' lack of interest, but I was kind of the same way. And I did really well in college and had a great experience so I'm kinda just prodding ds along hoping everything will workout. He is doing everything I'm asking him to do. He's just not doing the research. To make the list I just made a list of schools in a radius around our home, looked at the graduation rates to rule out any really bad ones, looked at the college websites for the stats for acceptance, tuition rates, and merit awards to see what would be affordable. There are some specific department scholarships at the reaches. I just don't know if he'll win them. The only colleges I've crossed off that met all of that criteria were the two safeties I mentioned above. I got some negative feedback from people on those two. I don't think a gap year would be good for him. When he has a goal or something, he'll work toward it, but with no goal or plan, he's not going to find interesting things to do.

Safety #2 does not have guaranteed admission, but acceptance rate is 60%. Is that safe enough? He has assured admission at the match school, but needs merit aid. The college website says it awards aid over a certain SAT score (ds is above it), but doesn't state a specific guaranteed amount. At the 2 safeties I'm not crazy about, he is auto admit, and automatic merit makes them affordable. Actually, I could add back in the safety I haven't heard any negative feedback on. The only reason I wasn't crazy about it is because it's OOS. It's still an easy driving distance, automatic merit and automatic aid.

I am trying to narrow down ds' list. He wants to go to college but says he doesn't care where he goes so I'm making the list based on finances, and he'll choose from whatever options are reasonable. We have a high EFC so we are looking to get merit scholarships. Is the following combo sufficient: Safeties 1. good community college w/2 year transfer agreements to great schools 2. very good university, affordable if he commutes, offers competitive tuition scholarship that would allow him to live on campus (ds' stats are right in the middle for this school) Match 1. good state university w/automatic aid that should make it affordable, also offers competitive full tuition plus 2 yrs R&B scholarship (ds' stats in top 10%), we have 2 family members who have gone here and had good experiences Reaches 1. small liberal arts school that offers competitive full ride (tuition, room & board, study abroad), otherwise unaffordable (ds' stats in top 5%) 2. big state university where ds could get some automatic aid, but would need to win a competitive departmental scholarship to make it affordable (ds' stats in top 10%) 3. same as #2 (stats in top 25%) 4. same as #2, but OOS w/tuition waiver (stats in top 10%) 5. same as # 3 (stats in top 25%) Is this a good list? There are 3 safeties I can add where could definitely get in and we could definitely afford it (1 commuting, 2 residential), but I'm not crazy about the schools and have received negative feedback on two of them. Should he apply to these also just to be on the safe side? Do I need to continue looking for options?

I looked at the Common Data Set, and for two of them it said essay required. However, I took your advice and called the admissions office, and was told no essay required for either one. So I'm doing the happy dance over here! Yay!

Haha! I was thinking about telling him, “Think about how your dad would act and do that.†Dh claims he is an introvert, but just has a way of turning it on.

Did you have any issues with overlapping scholarship weekends? For two of the scholarships I think he’s eligible for, the competition weekends are on the same dates.

I am wondering how to know for sure which colleges require SAT w/essay. Some of the websites specifically say they want to see the SAT w/essay. But this one does not mention essay, just SAT scores. Does that mean essay is not required? http://www.utdallas.edu/enroll/freshman/admission-requirements/

He IS stubborn and competitive. And he isn’t introverted to the point that having a roommate will be a problem. In his co-op classes, his teachers often say he does great when called on, but is otherwise, “quiet†even though they know he’s prepared and paying attention. (This is just during class, not when hanging out with classmates.) When he first started riding with friends’ parents to activities and stuff, they would say to me in a surprised way, “I didn’t know he could talk so much.†Not meaning that he dominated the conversation, but that they had previously thought of him as being quiet. He’s actually pretty talkative, but for some reason gives off the impression of being quiet. In a group setting, there will always be those who are natural talkers (I have a couple of kids like that), and I think he is content to let them do the talking. So I could see him NOT shining in a group interview even though he has a lot to offer. Maybe it’s something we should aim to work on.

Thank you, that is encouraging. This is not are not tippy top prestigious schools, but I think one of them might be a very good fit for him, and that one is a full ride (tuition, room and board, study abroad) scholarship.

I found a couple of competitive scholarships that fit my son’s stats, but they require attending a competitive scholarship weekend. Ds is friendly, likeable, personable, etc. We laugh about the fact that everyone wants him as a friend. But it is because he’s just a steady, faithful person who works hard and is a good listener. He’s also fun and funny, but not extroverted. I would imagine extroverts and those who like to be in the forefront would do extremely well at competitive scholarship weekends. Does an introvert have a chance at those?