<p>The reason CC’s aren’t mentioned is because they vary widely from one to another and 99% of the people don’t travel to attend one out of their area so it doesn’t make sense to talk about individual ones on a national forum like this. The CC’s close to me are very good and quite popular with kids at our area High Schools and there are articulation agreements with nearby State Schools so one can do the first two years at the CC and then go in as a Junior at the University.</p>
<p>I will echo kathiep on CC’s- they make a lot of sense for either financial or academic reasons for some students. One of our local ones actually has a program affiliated with RPI for students that can’t financially or otherwise go to RPI for four years. I have advocated this approach for a friend’s son who has LDs and could use a bit more maturity to move forward. The alternative they are looking at is an EOP program which has counseling and tutoring, which may help keep him on track. So fieldsports- you may not be missing anything, in fact be clearly assessing your S’s best chance for success.</p>
<p>I appreciate the feedback. My concern about the EOP program is simply that you get out of it what you put into it. You’re considered an adult. So if you’re a serious striver, well aware of your LDs and willing to say no to a lot of parties and goofing-off time in order to stay in and work harder than most, a good EOP program could help. But colleges don’t make anybody do anything. The help is there if you want it (in the best-case scenario) and if you squander the opportunity, oh well, you just have to stay longer and pay more. Or flunk out. And then, of course, it’s possible for a college to overstate what it offers. If he goes off on a very tight 8-semester budget, and mismanages his time, or the help turns out not to be much help, he will run out of money before getting the degree. This is not what I wanted for him (and not what I started saving for in 1995) but I keep coming back to this same conclusion. County seems to be the only break the government (or anybody) offers the high EFC family with an academically unimpressive kid. Not that I expect anybody to feel sorry for us. But there is a very dangerous discrepancy between some computer’s EFC algorithm and what I know we can really afford to do for him while still taking care of our other long-term financial responsibilities. I would be more inclined to “go for my lungs” on college if I really thought he could go somewhere great, do a stellar job there, and come out ready to beat the world. In his case, I see that’s not realistic. What kind of a wacky world do we live in, where as a parent you can stand ready to drop $80,000 to $100,000 educating someone who doesn’t take any particular ownership of his schoolwork or his future, along with planning to continue to support him well into his 20s, and people think the parent is not doing enough?</p>
<p>Hi fieldsports! </p>
<p>May I make a suggestion? It is much easier to read posts that are separated in small paragraphs. Maybe it’s just me, but I always get lost reading posts that are formatted into one long paragraph, Lol :)</p>
<p>Some good advice above. I think the CC option can be a good one IF it is a good community college you are talking about and if it has transparent, easily understood articulation agreements with 4-year publics (sometimes privates also). If live in the same part of NYS as Kinderny and as she noted, our students have two nearby choices of community colleges. One of them IMO is clearly superior to the other, both in terms of academic opportunities and caliber of students (both have some excellent professors). </p>
<p>If you do choose community college it can be very useful to have some idea where you plan to study for Year 3 & 4, and to investigate which course work is transferable and which is not. An acquaintance’s daughter chose to attend CC for the first two years and then transfer to her dream school, a Top 100 LAC. Only after she received her AA did she find out that the LAC would only accept her as a second semester freshman. Eventually she settled for a second tier OOS public in the same town as the LAC that allowed her to enroll as a second semester sophomore. </p>
<p>If you do your homework and the CC does indeed offer the educational quality you seek and a clearcut path to the 4-year school of your choice then this may well be the most affordable viable option.</p>
<p>I only yesterday learned that there is a difference between our local community college and our local “regional campus of state u”. They actually share a campus here, but one guarantees transfer to our state flagship U after one or two years with a certain GPA, and the other does not.</p>
<p>Theoretically, one can attend the regional campus for four years, but only for a couple of majors.</p>
<p>Good points about the articulation agreements and being clear in 12th grade about transfer protocols to different target 4-year schools. If anything holds us back in this process, it will be his uncertainty about what he wants to do – and he can be uncertain and dabble at County. But he cannot afford missteps at a 4-year school.</p>
<p>One aspect of trying to plan the whole bachelor’s degree before starting at County would be to consider the foreign language graduation requirement at the 4-year school. Given S’s particular LDs, I expect this to be a very difficult hurdle for him. Some 4-year schools have a work-around, others are rigid about it. The dilemma will be, do you let your efforts to avoid that requirement become a driver in your selection of 4-year programs? Do you attempt to get it out of the way at County so that it won’t be a driver? If so, and you score badly, it is part of your transcript baggage for life, and then does it undermine your transfer applications?</p>
<p>I think Step 1 is for him to dabble in work experience and courses at County to figure out what he wants to do. Step 2, if it becomes clear that college foreign language is inevitable, then it might be best to get it out of the way at County, toward the end of the time there, as part of a lengthy-enough transcript to put a bad FL grade in context. If it really cannot be done, then you may have to reconsider your selection of 4-year programs, and you would have compelling reasons to avoid the FL requirement, at that point. When an LD candidate for a bachelors lets the FL go to the end of the program, and then cannot graduate, it spells financial and academic disaster.</p>
<p>I just wanted to brag that my son (just barely) made the honor roll for the first time in high school (he’s a senior!) Honestly, I figured those here may be the only people who would understand how awesome this is. ;)</p>
<p>He is waiting to hear back from 2 schools that specifically told him they wanted to see his first semester grades. Hopefully, this may be good enough to tip the acceptance scale in his favor.</p>
<p>Also, he is taking the some fairly rigorous courses (not honors or AP, mind you) but 2 math classes, 2 sciences courses, and English and language. In fact, his guidance counselor warned him that he thought his senior schedule may be too ambitious for him. From my son’s previous years, the GC was only being realistic, and I was worried, too.</p>
<p>WooHoo! (Sorry if I’m being obnoxious, lol…)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I certainly do! Congratulations! Mine made it once . . . .</p>
<p>The first half of junior year was my son’s best semester. It really seemed like things were on the upswing. So much so that his GC said he would be eligible for four AP classes senior year – very big deal for someone who had never even taken honors classes before. And then things fell apart . . . he had two classes spring semester with a teacher he didn’t like . . . GPA sank again. He ended up in only one AP in senior year – and this is his best class. There was a point mid-semester where he was (temporarily) failing all of his classes except gym and the AP class. It does make me wonder if he should have been taking higher-level classes all along – of course you can’t get into higher-level classes by getting Cs in lower-level classes.</p>
<p>Simpkin, It is ALL about liking the teachers for my son as well. I guess he likes them this year 
Though, I cannot brag for long, as S2 go C’s on 4/5 midterms! Ughhh! He had B’s to begin with… I am not ready to go through this all over again! Ughhhh!</p>
<p>Simpkin, I’ll bet you are banking on the hope that your son will LOVE his college classes like I am?</p>
<p>I love how “real” this thread is. Congrats familyof3 and fingers crossed for those last few acceptances.</p>
<p>Keeping it real in the 3.0 thread. :)</p>
<p>Yes familyof3 boys that is exactly what I’m hoping for – that once he can choose his classes, and take classes that interest him, he’ll do okay. I guess he also has to like his professors.</p>
<p>fieldsports-
</p>
<p>Maybe this is the issue. If you have a student that isn’t much into school, perhaps taking ownership of his college education means you DON’T pay for it for him…</p>
<p>Anywho… How are all my 3.0-3.3 friends faring? (And by the way, my son doesn’t even qualify as his GPA is <shockingingly!> less than 3.0.)</shockingingly!></p>
<p>Thought I would chime in – S is high school senior with 2.95 GPA (in college prep classes) and 3.17 overall. No honors or AP. Going to local CC in fall (his choice). Like fieldsports above, we ca easily drop $$ for a 4-yr education but S has taken very little ownership of his schoolwork and has taken no ownership of his community service requirement for graduation and has no real career goals. To top it off, I asked him to come sit at the computer today to get his CC app submitted to be considered for early admit. Not sure he would have done it without my coaxing, despite the fact that the CC is his choice. What to do with kids like this???</p>
<p>An unrelated question–are there any other 3.0-3.3 UW kids/parents with kids applying to Ivies or highly selective schools?</p>
<p>BfloGal–get him a job on an assembly line or similar…Spending a few weeks over the summer doing a job like that is often motivation enough to kick it into gear. Our son got a job cleaning bathrooms one summer, best thing that could have happened to him!</p>
<p>I have been reading our thread and the 2013 and feel things have taken a negative turn. These kids do make us crazy, and this thread is a wonderful outlet and a place to find people suffering the same problems. </p>
<p>I think by definition these 3.0-3.3 kids are not perfect. My son had an average freshman, followed by a terrible sophomore year,followed thankfully by a very good junior year. Senior year has been less than stellar with the quarter that followed him being accepted to all of his early schools showing signs of senioritis. :(</p>
<p>I really wanted to make one point</p>
<p>A 3.0-3.3 GPA is not terrible anywhere but CC.</p>
<p>I think these kids, mostly boys although we do have some girls just seem to need more time to get their acts together. Several seem to have high achieving older siblings and feel that pressure, even when we think we don’t compare. My older D was just so different thinking ahead from a very young age. DS just seems to live in the moment. </p>
<p>I do feel that in some ways my S is as smart or smarter than D, and finding a way to help him reach his potential is my ultimate goal. </p>
<p>We are fortunate that he has been accepted at some very good schools, and we are weighing the pluses and minuses of each. </p>
<p>For new parents of younger kids reading this thread; Hang in there, wear your seatbelt, and go back and read the old 3.0-3.3 threads(it may take a week or 2)</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/707436-new-3-0-3-3-gpa-parents-thread.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/707436-new-3-0-3-3-gpa-parents-thread.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/939933-3-0-3-3-gpa-parents-thread-2011-hs-graduation.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/939933-3-0-3-3-gpa-parents-thread-2011-hs-graduation.html</a></p>
<p>For the most part they are tales of success, although not without the drama that these kids seem to provide in our lives.</p>