<p>How are applications coming? We have made some progress here and I think he will be able to submit the Common App by 11/1 for EA deadlines. His essay is written; it’s nothing amazing but it’s fine, I just need him to spend 15 minutes revising it and haven’t made that happen yet. He also needs to write the short answer about an EC. Not that he has any ECs but he can write about his part-time jobs. Meanwhile, he got his Oct. SAT scores and they improved a lot over the first time. I’m glad I made him take it a second time. </p>
<p>He’s now ruled out applying to any LACs except the two he liked best. He’s added Pace, which doesn’t thrill me, and is talking about Temple. I thought he was going to apply to some SUNYs but now I think he’s only applying to Plattsburgh. I wanted him to apply to Oneonta and Oswego but he says too many kids from his high school are applying to Oneonta, and Oswego is out because it’s next to a lake. The first thing made sense to me but I’m baffled by the resistance to Oswego. Still, he is adamant that he doesn’t want to go to college next to a lake, so what can you do? Kids are strange. I’ll be so happy when these applications are in.</p>
<p>Congrats on the SAT progress and the essays. I think kids like this often balk at doing another draft–part of their power struggle. The “no lakes” rule seems similar. God forbid kids be sensitive to the cost advanatage of in state schools. </p>
<p>Temple may be a reach, as well as much larger than your goal, although having both kids in Philly might help. Would URI and UMass attract him? Both are less selective than Temple and much less urban, if that matters.</p>
<p>Yes, Temple is probably a reach, and it’s really big. It’s bigger than University of Kansas! I don’t know where he got that idea and maybe he will forget about it if I don’t bring it up. It would certainly be convenient to have both kids in the same city, though. Nothing could be much less convenient than Plattsburgh. I do have URI in mind as a possibility. The “no lakes” policy is so bizarre and unexpected that all I can do is laugh.</p>
<p>Congratulations on the better SAT scores! The ‘no lakes’ made me smile, especially because my son really wanted to be near water. At least progress is being made and soon it will be done!</p>
<p>My sons SAT scores went down ten points overall–bummer. He has six applications in and I am about finished with pushing him to do the rest. The community college looks pretty appealing some days. And it is free because I am a full-time employee. I really want him on his own next year.</p>
<p>My son was accepted by KU. No big surprise there, since he was above the cutoff for both GPA and SAT scores. Still, it was nice to get the acceptance. He claims that no one else at school besides the athletes has a college acceptance already. I said, then no one else has a mom as crazy as your mom. He also says everyone is completely baffled that he applied to Kansas. Well, at least he wouldn’t have to worry about going to college with a bunch of other kids from Long Island! </p>
<p>He has a lot of other applications submitted at this point but now we have a new problem – he will have a failing grade in math for the first quarter. I am really ready to tear my hair out. He does not understand the seriousness of this and says “it will all work out.” This is his mantra and it usually does all work out in that he will make the minimal effort needed to end up passing the class. But for now, it looks very bad and I fear that any college that is waiting for his first report card to make a decision is going to have a very negative view of this – as they should. He wants to talk to his GC about dropping the class but I think that would look pretty bad too.</p>
<p>Does your son’s school report quarter grades on the transcript? If not maybe he could pull the grade up prior to the end of the semester. I’m not sure if dropping the class would be better or worse than the failing grade. Perhaps someone with more knowledge will chime in.</p>
<p>Hmmm, that’s a good question. Some of his applications were due 11/1 and 11/15, so if the college office already submitted his transcripts for those (which they should have), it won’t show any grades for this school year. But I’m concerned that for colleges where he’s a reach, he’ll be wait-listed while they wait to see how this year is going. And if he drops the class, I guess he has to report that to the colleges where he already applied. The whole thing is really frustrating. I sympathize with his hatred for math; I actually failed math my junior year in HS!</p>
<p>Our h.s. only lists final grades on transcripts. S2 failed Spanish 2 in his junior year (retook it senior yr). He’s a college senior this yr. He did not apply to any selective schools though.</p>
<p>Congrats to Simpkin S on the KU acceptance :)</p>
<p>DS received his first acceptance this week from Rutgers. I think that the time between his submitting his application and getting accepted was less than a week! He still has not completed his 11/15 EA applications, so hopefully that will happen today. I have some serious reservations about Rutgers, but no matter what the outcome of the rest of his applications he is college bound!!!</p>
<p>Simpkin I think I would try to meet with GC and possibly math teacher asap, to find out his options. At our school quarter grades are not sent, but GPA’s are recalculated, and transcripts are automatically sent at mid year. Maybe the math teacher can tell you if there is a way to salvage a passing grade or even a C by mid year, or sometimes they can transfer to a different class to make this happen. Is he willing to get extra help or a tutor to try to bring the grade up or is he done?</p>
<p>deadline of Dec 1 coming up soon… for merit awards and relatively good oos costs for 3.0 gpa students… known for sciences and anything health related…but does have full compliment of majors</p>
<p>OOS costs:
Fall 2011 First-Year Freshmen Estimated
First-Year Freshman Out-of-State
Tuition and Fees* $14,256
Books and Supplies** $1000
Meal Plan $450 - $3,894
Total $15,706 - $19,150
Residence Hall (Blazer/Camp Hall)*** $5,200 Grand Total $20,906 - $24,350</p>
<p>OOS Merit (also has full rides for national merit, achievement and hispanic scholars)
Blazer Elite Scholarship
$15,000/yr
Based on academic achievement (28-36 ACT and at least 3.0 GPA)
Blazer Gold Scholarship
$10,000/yr
Based on academic achievement (26-27 ACT and at least 3.0 GPA)
Blazer Pride Scholarship
$5,000/yr
Based on academic achievement (24-25 ACT and at least 3.0 GPA)</p>
<p>tier 1 research university</p>
<p>urban campus</p>
<p>11k undergrads</p>
<p>ranked 5th for diversity, 11th for student happiness</p>
<p>wonderful honors colleges</p>
<p>great dorms (suite or apartment style)</p>
<p>150K sq ft rec center with huge climbing wall, lazy river pool</p>
<p>rolling admissions, no essay app (there is an essay for the honors college app)</p>
<p>Congratulations on Rutgers! I feel the same way about KU – serious reservations (as a good fit for S) but thrilled to have the assurance that he is really going to college. :)</p>
<p>As for math, his teacher thinks he is capable of doing the work so I do think a passing grade is salvageable. There is no other class for him; the class he’s in is already a grade below grade level. Math has always been his worst subject. I don’t think he needs the class to graduate, though he needs to pass the Regents exam to get an “advanced Regents diploma” – however, I doubt that has significance other than to the SUNY schools. He is unwilling to even consider a tutor but the teacher is available for extra help sessions every day so he knows he needs to go.</p>
<p>Well it sounds like the ball is in his court. That could both liberating and terrifying at the same time. </p>
<p>Parent56 is that UAB? It sounds like a great deal unfortunately it doesn’t fit my son’s newly imposed criteria of not more that about 2 to 2 1/2 hours from central Jersey:(</p>
<p>I have been trying to sell UMBC but it is outside the limit.</p>
<p>oops edienj… yes that is UAB…i copied and pasted from an old post and guess i missed that line. hmmmm might be a 2 1/2 hour flight? [oops nope southwest takes 4 hours]</p>
<p>deadline of Dec 1 coming up soon… for merit awards and relatively good oos costs for 3.0 gpa students… known for sciences and anything health related…but does have full compliment of majors… [UAB</a> - The University of Alabama at Birmingham](<a href=“http://www.uab.edu%5DUAB”>http://www.uab.edu)</p>
<p>OOS Merit (also has full rides for national merit, achievement and hispanic scholars)
Blazer Elite Scholarship
$15,000/yr
Based on academic achievement (28-36 ACT and at least 3.0 GPA)
Blazer Gold Scholarship
$10,000/yr
Based on academic achievement (26-27 ACT and at least 3.0 GPA)
Blazer Pride Scholarship
$5,000/yr
Based on academic achievement (24-25 ACT and at least 3.0 GPA)</p>
<p>tier 1 research university</p>
<p>urban campus</p>
<p>11k undergrads</p>
<p>ranked 5th for diversity, 11th for student happiness</p>
<p>wonderful honors colleges</p>
<p>great dorms (suite or apartment style)</p>
<p>150K sq ft rec center with huge climbing wall, lazy river pool</p>
<p>rolling admissions, no essay app (there is an essay for the honors college app)</p>
<p>Congrats on KU and Rutgers and I more successes yet to come.</p>
<p>I am sorry to hear of the math grade, as it you keep doing everything right for your son–looking for places that will be best for him, not for your car window decal; not making him feel bad about his more academically sucessful sibling; trying to get him to make his decisions while giving him excellent honest advice; etc. Perhaps this is a good opportunity to remind him that in college parents do not know kids are floundering until final grades are in and he will have to solve any such issues himself.</p>
<p>Exciting update! My son was accepted to McDaniel! I am very happy! He really liked the school when he toured. Though that was before he decided he didn’t want a small school, but I’m hopeful he will reconsider that position. The other good news is that he seemed to lose interest in Kansas as soon as the acceptance came. I guess we did the right thing in letting him send in the application. Once we said, okay, fine, go to Kansas, Kansas lost its appeal. :)</p>
<p>simpkin - on the math grade - do check if the hs has a deadline to drop a class without it appearing on his transcript. If that deadline has passed - and it would appear on his transcript as a withdraw failing (WF) - I would suggest tutoring and extra help to try to bring it up to a C for the semester.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that when a student drops a class - that has to be reported to every college that has already received his transcript. Let me explain further. When your son applied - that math class was included as part of his senior schedule. If he is accepted - he was accepted based in part on that information. If he drops a class - he has to send a brief statement to each college explaining the change in his senior schedule.</p>
<p>If he has colleges that are January/February deadlines where transcripts have not gone out yet - then it becomes more the issue of them seeing a withdraw failing on the transcript.</p>
<p>I previously worked at a high school and this issue came up quite a bit. The best solution was always to try and bring the grade up to a C for the semester - so as not to have a WF on the transcript or to have to send a letter out explaining the schedule change.</p>
<p>I would also say that McDaniel is the type of school that would be very sympathetic to such a situation. You might want to contact the regional rep and get their input before making any decision. You should ask them whether his dropping the class would impact their acceptance in any way.</p>
[oops nope southwest takes 4 hours]</p>