<p>Alabama is missing because they have a merit calculator on their website and he won’t get any. They start merit at GPA 3.5. He has 3.4 W.</p>
<p>Good observation about big football/big classes. He has to think hard about that connection. </p>
<p>He is very interested in any VA and NC schools. I think that the only NC state school that has football is Chapel Hill and we know that is not possible. Offer any suggestions. </p>
<p>And he does not need “big” football, just football with an enthusiastic, supportive student body.</p>
<p>Kathiep, interesting strategy to start with the football aspect and work from that. Nice suggestion. </p>
<p>And I think you are right about ranking “must haves.” Football is a “must have” and size is not. In fact, for my son the only “must haves” are football and International relations/global studies major. He choose other factors to make the list of possible schools more manageable.</p>
<p>Smaller NC schools such as Elon and Appalachian also have football. In Va, James Madison does and check George Mason.</p>
<p>Most of the small PA schools are enthusiastic about D3 football. And you might look at Pitt.</p>
<p>If Bama would not offer merit, have you checked his chances at the other big state schools?</p>
<p>More importantly, do you feel he will do best academically at a school where his classes will be small and taught by professors, rather than big lecture halls with teaching assistants running breakouts?</p>
<p>yabyabe2, wise questions about school size for my S to ponder! I already have my opinion…small and personalized for sure. I like to see how he comes to his own decision. I will nudge him as needed! But he is starting to lean my way.</p>
<p>He researched Pitt. Very confusing info on the Int Rels program so we emailed and got an equally confusing answer. Best take on it is that it is only a certificate. </p>
<p>Elon is on the list. Appalachian and James Madison will be checked out this weekend. George Mason does not have football. Other PA schools are on the radar. </p>
<p>mompossible, I am a bit confused about how you’ve mentioned that your son does not want cold and snow, but you keep coming back to PA schools. We really do have cold and snow and fairly long winters up here. Not as bad as some places, but it won’t get over 50 degree’s for a good four months. There are so many good schools in the sunbelt that are more affordable that you might look at instead. Have you seen this site? [College</a> Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics](<a href=“College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics”>College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics) Great fast info about colleges.</p>
<p>ddd928 - ACT scores? I checked the website and says not available till 27th on line? Wish we had our girl’s - desperately hoping it raised a couple of points.</p>
<p>Back from a visit to West Chester University. Not for son, but for anyone looking for a nice public school in PA, West Chester would be a good choice. Great location less then an hour from Philadelphia with a busy and walkable down town. The only downside is it’s popularity - less then 50% acceptance rate.</p>
<p>I know, very weird as ds scores not online but I have the paper in front of me and a friend whose ds scores also mail but not online. Neither took the writing portion.</p>
<p>I had another conversation with son. I know the CC slogan “love thy safety” very well and son has two academic safety’s that he does love (or at least like a whole lot) but I’m concerned that neither may come through with the financial aid we need. I was hoping that today’s visit to West Chester would take care of that, but now that it’s off the plate, I’m not sure if we’re going to be able to find an in-state public that’s both an academic and financial safety. oh, and he also mentioned that he’s starting to feel strongly that he doesn’t want a big school and that instead of information science or technology he may want to major in network security. ay ya ya!</p>
<p>Is the point of this thread to give parents an opportunity to brag that they are missing on other threads? If so, great, everyone needs positive feelings. But really, to follow up on the original focus on the thread, some of the entrys are kind of funny for a “3.0 to 3.3 GPA” focus. Really? A weighted 3.8 GPA? A class schedule of AP Lit, AP Gov, Calculus, Honors Chem, seriously. Very high test scores? I’d just like to comment that a 3.0 GPA in regular classes throughout high school is not a “mind set”. It’s reality for a large number of kids. Some of whom would still like to go to college. Maybe you can help me think of a new thread name</p>
<p>Fiona - I totally understand your concerns. Perhaps the thread name is misleading - we have had “B+” threads, various “3.X” of one kind or another, and subsets of the “3.whatever” like Western schools, Jewish students, students who are reaching, etc., etc.</p>
<p>At some point in the last year, the “3.0-3.3” thread pretty much became the “B student of any kind” thread because people weren’t keeping up with all of them. We subdivided into years of graduation because it was too bulky, and the various years’ concerns seemed appropriate in their own threads. </p>
<p>People have had wavering “appropriateness” in this thread, and mostly we’ve allowed people to define their child’s “membership” themselves. For example, my kid is the one taking AP Lit, AP Gov, Calc and Honors Chem. Our HS does not weight grades, and we don’t know if schools will weight them when she applies - and she is pretty surely not getting all As, could possibly only get one. I’ll be forthright: my D officially has a 3.6 UW. BUT (and this is a BIG BUT) she only has about a 3.2 if you remove arts and electives, and even weighted I don’t know if she’d be over a 3.3.</p>
<p>Another point I’d make is that this isn’t specifically “3.0.” Most of the kids here do get A’s in some classes, and many have progressed from getting lower grades to improving their GPA as they got older. Some of them also have the lower GPA - as with my D - because they have taken the challenging classes for their own satisfaction, but can’t seem to ace them like the 4.0 type of kids.</p>
<p>We also have talked about test scores - that is a pretty open game, the point being that some kids might have scores higher or lower than their GPA suggests, but the schools in the match range tend to be about the same because of the GPA. Schools have all kinds of definitions, so we have allowed people here to do the same.</p>
<p>How’s everyone doing? Like many of you, I also participate on the general parents of class of 2011 thread, but I like to come here and talk about the un-CC Colleges that our kids may go to. </p>
<p>My son is one of the B kids that has taken fairly rigorous classes and is now taking two AP’s, Physics II and Calc, but his weighted GPA is 3.4, his SAT’s match those scores and that means he’s not applying to most of the schools mentioned in the above mentioned thread. Fortunately, most of the schools in this country are reachable by the B kids and it’s fun to think about the possibilities. </p>
<p>Is anyone else having second thoughts about adding one or two more colleges to the list just for the heck of it? Son keeps getting these free, streamlined application offers that make it seem easy. So, we look at their website and I start wondering how we missed them. Too bad they really do require those nasty supplemental essay’s and SAT scores.</p>
<p>I agree with Fionia. I was hoping this thread would be helpful but it’s overrun by parents of students with weighted GPA’s higher than 3.0-3.3 and AP classes. I don’t see any posts of students with B averages in regular classes. Is there a thread for that?</p>
<p>Jordcin-As Emmybet already mentioned, this thread welcomes everyone who thinks their student falls within its parameters. That DOES include a wide variety of people. There are others on the thread whose student is a B student in regular classes. Everyone here is (usually) very supportive of one another. We welcome your participation!</p>
<p>I don’t know about you Jordcin, but what happened with my son, is that when this thread was started his GPA was lower and even now it’s certainly not in the range of the top students, who often seem to be the vocal majority on this bb. In our school most kids do take at least one AP, even if it’s just AP Psych. It wouldn’t make sense to only post on the days when the grades are under 3.4. There was a thread for those kids with GPA’s 3.3 to 3.6 but my son was not in that when it started, and frankly don’t know what it will be at the end of this semester.</p>
<p>Yes, for some reason the 3.3-3.6 thread just didn’t take off the way this one did! When we started this process my d was hovering (UW) between the two threads. Now she would be in the other, but noone seems to post there. Her grades and SAT scores (and attitude) do not make her competitive for the “top” CC schools that seem to dominate the discussion on some of the other boards, so I feel much more comfortable here!</p>