Preparing my daughter for college...

Get her enrolled in a good SAT prep course. If she can still take the PSAT, then she should take a PSAT prep course and then take the PSAT.

Smaller colleges can be good, too. UT is huge, and students there are just a number.

Just to show how motivated she is, she signed up, paid and took the PSAT on her own. she was signed up before I even knew about it.

Good advice, will keep this in mind.

Prep courses make a large difference in how well students score. As much from them understanding the instructions prior to the test as from vocabulary or math tricks that they learn.

I agree with drewdad on the prep course. We had two classes - that is, two sets of 45 minutes each - on it in my high school back in the day. But later in life, prep courses for my boards were tremendously helpful, so I get the idea. Besides understanding, speed is a factor in some tests.

Things can go too far, so that life gets crazy around this stuff, or I gather so from that NYT article. (Sorry, no link). There are probably a lot of books about this in the chain bookstores, and much online chatter.

I still don't get the counsellor re her gpa. Is a strong A now equivalent to a low B? It doesn't make any sense.

Just read Jespah's post. Couldn't agree more, it ain't possible. Whatever school, flexability within it. The beginning years are for exploration for many, no matter that education, largely because of the expense, has gotten to be more and more about job training than real education - not always, of course.

People live longer than ever (well, we can argue that) now and many burn out on an early interest. A good foundational start is lifetime useful.

Also just caught that daughter had already worked out the psat maneuvers.
Good for her.

Further, if she started out with more of a B average (just supposing) and worked up to a high A, that's a good flag for admissions reviewers - or I'd think so.

I would hope so. Good on her re the PSAT course. Clearly she wants to go, which is fantastic. That's the first hurdle, is the desire to go. So she doesn't want to go to St. Louis. Perhaps that could be a part of her decision-making process -- thinking about what she doesn't want. I found that was a part of mine, e. g. I didn't want to go some place too cold so Vermont was out, that sort of thing.

My folks also gave me a limit. They said anywhere within 500 miles so that I'd be able to readily get back home if I needed to. For Long Island, that was a radius that went as far North as McGill and I believe as far West as Ohio, the South to, I think, DC or so. A lot of schools in that area. Not to say you have to do that but it did help me to focus.

Osso,
I have something unrelated to ask you, can you go to my profile page and shoot me an email???
Thanks.
Sorry to derail the topic....

Sure, Marty. Right now.

I agree with what has already been so well said about her finding a school
with a lot of options and expecting to spend at least the first year finding out what really interests her.

Visit schools!