Colleges for my little brother to consider/advice
Hey all, I'm posting as the 26 year old older sister. I went to NYU and am applying to law school, so I know a lot about the admissions process, or so I thought! However, coming onto this r/ made it clear that there's a lot I don't know.
I'm looking for advice regarding where my little brother should apply, and what he should do to maximize his chances where he does. He's 17 and soccer is his life, though he's not necessarily dedicated enough (not derogatory... who is? lol) to get recruited or really even try for D3. Most of his time is spent on video games. We had a tumultuous and neglectful home life, and I've tried to help him as much as I could, but my divorced parents have been insistent and all-encompassing in their neglect, leaving him stranded without any real guidance. In any case, it's college time, and he has no motivation or ideas regarding college, just that he does "want to go to college." I've been placed in charge of making this all happen, and I want to do it to the best it can be done.
HIS STATS:
1240 SAT (he's retaking in September-- he got a 750 in reading, and the resulting score in math... I think he can/will bring this up to a 1320 at least with superscoring).
3.65ish weighted GPA
2 ap classes in junior year, 2 in senior year (got 4's on his 2 AP tests)
All honors other classes except for his math classes and random electives
Top, feeder public high school
Probably fine recs from his APUSH teacher and AP Spanish teachers. He's talented at Spanish and the APUSH teacher taught me as well as him, so she loves our family.
His 4 ec's are as follows
1.) Club soccer (a few inter-club awards regarding this)
2.) Varsity soccer (player)
3.) Volunteer, not leadership, in 11th grade for a local soccer org that helps kids with disabilities play soccer
4.) We just signed him up to volunteer with a therapeutic horse riding program in our local stable, because he went to a horse riding camp this summer and loved it (how would we include this camp, if at all?). This will be all of senior year.
I'm trying to help him with his essay but it's like pulling teeth to get him to contribute.
His current school list is probably not the most realistic in all cases, but it's what his (problematic) mom, who has no clue what college admissions is like, has put on it. Believe me, my culling (completely unrealistic, of course) UVA and UNC already had her acting like I'd kidnapped her firstborn rumplestiltskin-style. Sigh. He wants to stay on the east coast, that's all he knows. He was born in VA and has family there, so some attachment both to CT and VA. His dad lives in NY.
College of Charleston
Clark
CT College
UConn (in state)
Hofstra
Loyola Maryland
Marist
UNC Wilmington (we grew up going to a local beach there)
URI
Roanoke
Siena
St. Lawrence
Stony Brook
UVM
VTech
How can I maximize his college admissions experience, based on what I've told you? We'd love to get some money or low-ish tuition for him, but no cost is necessarily out of the question (my parents don't make a lot of money but I have a very much retired grandmother who could help if things got rly dire). I really want the best for him and love him so much. Feel free to suggest anything. Thanks all!
Posted Aug 4, 2025, 4:30 PM UTC