Advice for 11th Grader, the ACT, and College Admission

[bugs]

My dd is attending full-time at our cc as a dual enrollment child. Her grades have been pretty good (3.6 + avg). She is a bright child, who must work hard to do well. She has not done well on the ACT or PSAT. She really doesn't know what she wants to do, although wonders of wonders she said she might like to do something in the sciences (biology-type) (In the 9th grade she hated science.) She anticipates getting a general AA from the cc, then taking a gap year.

 

She will be taking the ACT in a couple of weeks but had no idea where to send her scores, so we just agreed on two state schools and two private schools in our state. I don't anticipate her ACT scores being above mediocre (esp. math). Has anybody been able to get a child into college, with perhaps a scholarship (or is that too much to hope for), with a similar situation?

 

I am not sure what my expectations should be.

[Musicmom]

She doesn't need to send the ACT scores anywhere right now unless she wants to. She can always send them later when she decides what school she wishes to apply to (there is a fee but it's not huge.) We waited to send scores until my dc were actually applying.

 

I would suggest checking the admission requirements for transfer students at the schools she might consider. It could well be that her GPA from the CC will be much more important than her ACT score. And if she gets the AA degree, she might not even need the ACT score. For example, our flagship state university (which is fairly selective) only considers ACT/SAT scores of transfer students who have fewer than 26 credits.

[creekland]

Have you checked at the cc? Usually there is someone there who can help decide the "what next" question and who will also know who has gone where (successfully) with what kind of finances. Transfer scholarships are tougher to come by, but some schools have them. The local cc would be your best bet for info I suspect. At ours you'd need to call to make an appointment, but it doesn't take forever to get one.

[Barbara H]

I agree that talking to advisors at the cc is a good idea. Is there a transfer advising center on campus? It depends a lot on your state, but in some areas there is a big move to encourage students with two year degrees to continue on to complete a four year degree. Some universities here offer really good transfer scholarships - for example 3.5 GPA and up from the community college and you can continue to pay the lower cc tuition at a four year regional state university - and that is with no ACT or SAT required.

 

Also, and you may have already done this, but make sure you have a really accurate idea of what a "not very good" ACT score is. Again that varies a lot based on the school and often parents really overestimate what that score is. Look at the College Board and see what the middle 50%tile is like for the colleges she's interested in.

[bugs]

Thank you all for your help. For some reason it never occurred to me to talk to the cc counselors. I guess I will have dd do that sometime before the quarter ends. I am in WA and we have many university transfer agreements. Off to do more research!