<p>Giat – A B student wit decent test scores and average involvement with his/her school community has a great chance of being admitted to most SUNYs (and definitely to Albany and Cortland). The toughest admits are Geneseo, Binghamton and New Paltz, but I’ve known B/B+ students from our area (just north of Dutchess County) to be admitted to all three of them in recent years. Not all of them are taking the most rigorous curriculum offered at their schools. One young woman we know who was just accepted at Geneseo has taken primarily basic Regents-level courses; no APs and just a few dual-credit courses. Especially if your son is on an upwards trajectory GPA-wise I’d think he’ll have his share of options.</p>
<p>simpkin- good luck on the Ithaca results! I can’t wait to hear if your son gets accepted and if they offer aid. Please let me know. So far, this seems to be my sons first choice since they have the exact major he wants. </p>
<p>hudsonvalley51-thank you for replying…your post gives me some hope! When we visited Suny Albany as well as Cortland, the HS averages they said they look for were considerably higher than my S has with his 80s. Also, a child of a friend of ours was rejected at ALL Sunys and has a much higher gpa than my son. I’ve heard they are much more selective now, as the total # of applicants has increased due to cost. We just don’t want to take for granted that any Suny is a safety, only to get rejections.</p>
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<p>As I recall, it costs $50 to apply to each SUNY, so I sort of doubt he was rejected from ALL of them – there really are a lot of them. The ones our GC suggested might accept a student with my kid’s GPA were Plattsburgh, Oswego, and Buffalo State (not the university; the other one – it’s confusing!). Oneonta is a little more selective than those.</p>
<p>You are correct. When I was told this, she probably meant he was rejected at all of the Sunys he applied to…not all of them in general.</p>
<p>Giat13, my son is a 3.2/1860 SAT and was accepted to Ithaca (and all of his schools for that matter). He only took 2 AP courses, so his unweighted GPA would not be much different. Once you get your son’s first SAT score, I can suggest more options for you. There are many schools for him, but the key is to get him interested in enough safety and target schools so merit aid is more of a possibility. </p>
<p>My son received merit aid at several schools, but not Ithaca. Also, my S is interested in outdoors and environmental studies. Since your son is interested communications, and that is Ithaca’s strong suit, there will be competition for merit and scholarship there. If the is particularly strong in film making or other communication-like things, it is a great school.</p>
<p>Here’s my son’s list, sorted reach down to safety:
St. Lawrence - accepted and attending (small merit award, yay)
U. of Vermont - accepted (in state, so great deal cost-wise)
U. of New Hampshire - accepted
Ithaca - accepted
U. of Maine - accepted w/ 10K per year merit (out of state)
U. of Montana - accepted w/ 7.5K per year merit (best deal since tuition is very low)
Roger Williams - accepted w/ 10K per year merit
U. of Southern Maine - accepted (Honors program)
U. of New England - accepted w/ 16K per year merit</p>
<p>Hi Giat, I am at the same place you are–D is a junior, similar GPA, similar interests, also taking SATs on Saturday. But I have an older D so this is my second time around. I echo what others have said about the SUNYs. My older D is at a SUNY–though we are OOS and I think that is an advantage since they like the higher tuition OOS students pay, plus she is a legacy and I think that helped. There are so many of them–no one has mentioned Brockport, Fredonia, Potsdam–go to the SUNY web site and you will get a listing of all of them. See what has his major. Also–I suggest you look at the common data sets for the schools he is looking at. Most schools have it on line but it’s hidden–google it on each school’s web site and it should come up. It will tell you what % of admitted students had SATs in the 500-599, 600-699 range, etc. Same with GPA. You may be surprised that your S’s chances are better than you think.</p>
<p>Giat, along with Hudsonvalley, I am a little north of you in NY. D went to a kind of alternative public h.s. and was in the top 50% of an albeit small class. She had some distinctive ECs but not an amazing amount of them. She had between a 3.0 and 3.2 (87%? 88%?) in a school with grade deflation. She got in (with merit aid at all the non-SUNYs) at the following:
Siena College
LeMoyne College
Hampshire (where she is attending)
Manhattanville
SUNY New Paltz
SUNY Albany
Elmira College</p>
<p>She was not admitted to SUNY Oneonta (but at least in part because she took off first semester senior year and they kept on asking for mid year grades- of which there were none. We gave up explaining and it was apparent they never really read her app.) </p>
<p>So I will reiterate what previous posters have said re the SUNYs. I actually hear good things about Plattsburgh too. You might also look at Champlain College, and St. Lawrence in NY and St. Michael’s in VT.</p>
<p>My son went off to school today wearing a tee-shirt from SUNY Plattsburgh. Not sure what that means . . . . </p>
<p>I have probably checked the Ithaca portal ten times in the last 24 hours. I wish I was kidding. It is driving me crazy to still have this ONE decision still out there . . . . Meanwhile my S says “I don’t think I’d like Ithaca. Everyone says it’s ‘artsy.’”</p>
<p>Silly Simpkin! Don’t you know a watched portal never boils… :)</p>
<p>Ha. I just checked it again. Nothing, except that a very cute girl friend-requested him and sent a message wishing him luck.</p>
<p>The only way he’s going to get in is if I stop checking the portal and resign myself to him not getting in. That worked with Hofstra.</p>
<p>Hmm, simpkin, my D found Ithaca too “whitebread”/jocklike/ I think. Yes there is a lot of music but the rest just did not resonate with her. Of course, visiting a school for her pretty much made sure she did not apply, so YMMV. ;)</p>
<p>Snowflake, kinder, & eastcoast- I just saw your replies. Thank you so much! You guys are all giving me such valuable information! Did you ever feel like you’re putting more work into this than your child did? It’s a bit frustrating bc I’m doing all the work & researching…and my S is kinda going along for the ride. My H thinks he should be doing all this…but if I leave it to him, I don’t think it’d get done! 
simpkin- good luck! So exciting…any news yet??? :)</p>
<p>giat… a bit far but found this out today</p>
<p>a person asked me to check about whether merit was still available at uab. [UAB</a> - The University of Alabama at Birmingham](<a href=“http://www.uab.edu%5DUAB”>http://www.uab.edu)</p>
<p>here is the reply i got.</p>
<p>We will continue to award Freshman Academic Scholarships to out-of-state students as long as our funds will allow. However, no awards will be made after May 1, 2012. (The December 2011 ACT and SAT test scores are the last scores we will consider for scholarship purposes.) Unfortunately, scholarships for Alabama residents are no longer being awarded. Those funds have been exhausted. Please feel free to refer students to <a href=“Error 404 | Not Found”>www.uab.edu/scholarships</a> for more information.</p>
<p>Tier 1 research university, 11k undergrads, urban campus, very strong for sciences and anything health related.</p>
<p>Total cost for oos student…20-25K (tuition, room, food etc)</p>
<p>UAB is a destination for academically talented students, and we love to reward your hard work. We recognize National Merit Finalists, National Achievement Finalists, and National Hispanic Scholars with the following scholarship, which is renewable for four years. The details:</p>
<p>Full tuition, required fees, and housing (up to 15 credit hours per semester) for a total of eight semesters (fall and spring)
A one-time $2,500 stipend to be used for experiential learning (Study Away, internships, co-ops, etc.)</p>
<p>automatic merit:
Blazer Elite Scholarship
$15,000
Based on academic achievement (28-36 ACT and at least 3.0 GPA)
Blazer Gold Scholarship
$10,000
Based on academic achievement (26-27 ACT and at least 3.0 GPA)
Blazer Pride Scholarship
$5,000
Based on academic achievement (24-25 ACT and at least 3.0 GPA)</p>
<p>Giat, with respect to your Northeast list of UDelaware, Susquehanna, Monmouth U, Temple, Ithaca, Suny Buffalo, and Quinnipiac, my thoughts are:
First, given your description of his not caring about classes which do not interest him, I would avoid the large schools for fear he will sit in the back of big lecture halls and fall through the cracks.
UDel requires a better than 3.0 GPA out of state and if he wants to play football there, he needs to be pretty good (which would also solve the GPA issue). Nice campus, large school, expensive OOS.
Temple requires even more football skill if he wants to play. It is very urban, diverse and large–as opposite from Juniata as possible.
Susquehanna is very similar to Juniata (except more business-oriented, somewhat less selective and less artsy). It is where my son attends. Its PR major is well liked by kids and its football team does not require a great HS football career. I was pleasantly surprised by the merit offer.<br>
Monmouth has a reputation for kids clearing out on weekends and not working very hard. A friend’s son enjoy playing football there.
Ithaca is well regarded by artsy kids who don’t mind a LOT of cold weather. I don’t know if it has football. I recall it being good in communcations.
SUNY Buffalo requires strong football skills to play–and even more love of cold weather. It is rather large.
Quinnipiac has a boy/girl ratio your son will love (helped by a large physical therapy program), a pretty campus and a reputation for major parties. I don’t know if it has football.
I know you have more schools than you want already, but if you liked Juniata, consider Alleghenny, Muhlenberg, Lycoming and Gettysburg.
I think your key needs are to find out whether he wants a large school or a small one and whether he wants to play football (which, even at small schools, helps with admissions and aid) and, if so, whether his coach thinks he can play at a Division 1 or strong Division 3 school.</p>
<p>Best of luck–he will find a good option!</p>
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<p>Nope. Their website says “by April 15” and I think they are going to make me wait till the very end. </p>
<p>I am the ONLY one here who put any work into this process. I really should have insisted that S do more. The only college that S applied to on his own initiative was Drexel, and here is the research that went into this: S notices Drexel as we are moving his sister into Penn, decides that he too would like to go to college in Philadelphia, and submits the free application that Drexel sends him (incorrectly, so I had to redo it later).</p>
<p>Last weekend, he was griping that he doesn’t want to go to any of the colleges that admitted him: he doesn’t want a small college, he doesn’t want to go to college in New York (anywhere in the entire state, apparently), he should have applied to colleges “like Hofstra but not in Long Island,” he should have applied to colleges outside the northeast, blah blah blah, “You chose all the colleges I applied to,” grumble, grumble. I said, I told you to do your own research and you did nothing. He said, “I know, but that’s because I was too lazy.” [here I need a little smiley-face that is madly rolling its eyes]</p>
<p>I just said, Okay, why don’t you take a gap year and spend some time researching colleges, and then reapply next year. He said, fine, that’s what I’m going to do. This entire conversation took place in whispers during the opening remarks at RWU. And then an hour later he decided he liked RWU and would be happy to go there. It’s always a roller-coaster with this kid. I should have made him take ownership of this process, somehow.</p>
<p>I have one bit of help for you though sadly not animated:</p>
<p>:rolleyes: - the word rolleyes surrounded by colons.</p>
<p>Excellent, thank you. I will employ him in all future posts about my dear son. :)</p>
<p>On all the B student threads, I do not recall every reading about a girl who put virtually no effort into the process–but I have read it over and over again re boys (almost all of whom later blame their parents for poor choices). I have no idea as to the reason why the girls do not abdicate responsibility.</p>
<p>My theory with the boys is that many of them strongly dislike high school and assume they will dislike college. They have often not taken homework asignments with great seriousness and college research seems similar. They may be secretly upset that honors kids look down on them and those kids bragging about their Ivy visits (and, often, the lack of effort B students receive from guidance counselors, especially if they ask about private schools for B students) makes these boys want to pretend the whole process is not part of their lives. Some feel they have screwed up their HS careers and fear they will do the same with their college search.</p>
<p>These boys are often not motivated by the prospect of big frat parties, which may make them better people, but removes one element which excites many kids about going to college. They are also often either not excited about going to a big sports school or do not have the grades to get into them, thus removing another motivator for some kids.</p>
<p>And some are scared by the prospect of leaving home, but can’t admit it any more than they can admit having made mistakes in HS, so they act as if it doesn’t matter at all and seem lazy–but are paralyzed by fear.</p>
<p>They can’t complain out loud about their poor choices; their snotty classmates; or their fears–so they complain about us.</p>
<p>End of Male B Student Psych 101 Rant.</p>
<p>^^^^ like!!!</p>
<p>I am not exactly sure how my GPA got so low. It is 3.188 weighted, around 2.75 unweighted. I have this fear of failure that has been present ever since I was very young. However, I never labeled success in the conventional sense and had this romanticized view of success that is hard to describe. I have always been a learner; the only books I would read would be encyclopedias and general nonfiction books. I could rarely stand reading any novels that were works of fiction. I still have serious problem sitting down and reading “literature” while I can chew through technical books like candy. </p>
<p>Looking back, I am trying to look for the cause of my terrible performance in school. </p>
<p>I am an immigrant; I immigrated here from Korea in January of 2001, and surprisingly, I was reading and writing at my grade level by early 2002 (I actually did not start school until September of 2001). There was this English learner program that I was put in and I have been removed from that status in 2004 and then soon placed into the gifted and talented program later that year (I probably was eligible even before, just my english learner status prevented me). Obviously, being an immigrant, my family income of low. I had average grades in elementary, but performed in the “advanced” bracket of every subject in the California standardized tests. Scored 98th percentile in the IQ test, which really does not mean much IMHO. Even then, I was faring well. My 6th grade teacher recommended me to take an accelerated pre algebra class for the summer. I was never very fond of the idea of having school during summer. So I ended up never doing my homework and ended up with a C in the class. Of course, the teacher would not allow me to pass onto the next class. That moment might have been when it all started. I started acting up in class, I had actually failed the exact same class I had taken during the summer in 7th grade. I signed a waiver to allow me to proceed to the next class, and then the same story, I had failed Algebra. Due to my rebellious period, I had been kicked out of the gifted and talented program, despite the fact that I kept acing the tests they based my status on. I took Algebra a second time in high school during summer before freshman year. It might have been the more serious nature of high school, but I ended up acing that class with an A, despite the fact that the class was more strict and I had 4 hours of football practice every day. </p>
<p>I thought that I was on a good track, but I ended up getting a 2.66 GPA freshman year. It might have been my rather nonchalant attitude about school, it definitely was not the rigor of my classes. Sophomore year, I ended up with a 3.0 and 3.16 GPA. However, it was Sophomore year that I joined Robotics. I had essentially become the lead programmer since the programmers had graduated the year before. Keep in mind, I have been programming since I was 11; C++ is not exactly the easiest language to start with, but I did it. Robotics, at that time, seemed like just a fun thing to do on the side, but it turns out that it changed my life. It was run by my AP Computer Science teacher, who had a doctorate in EE. He had quit his job at NASA as a systems engineer to pursue teaching. He first tried balancing between school and his former job for 5 years until he just decided to teach full time. He seriously has been the biggest influence on my decision to pursue a doctorate and become a professor. </p>
<p>My Junior year, with 2 APs, I fared no better in school with a 3.33 GPA. I got a 32 on the ACT, with 30 in English, 34 in Math, 32 in Reading and 30 in Science. Not too shabby; all the sections are 97th to 99th percentile. Also getting a 750 on the physics SAT. Robotics had engulfed my life by this point, I even quit football to pursue robotics full time. it has become my so called “passion”. I received a letter in robotics, an award only given to students who made a significant impact on the team. In the team’s 11 year history, I am the first programmer to successfully program an autonomous robot. I then bought a calculus textbook and watched the MIT lectures. I had essentially learned a new branch of mathematics to give the team the best David can offer. So, earlier this year, I wrote and implemented algorithms which undergrad and grad level students use. I got a 3.66 GPA the first semester, the highest I have gotten. However, I got a C in Calculus, mostly due to the fact that I never memorized the trig identities. The teacher gets infuriated at me because she knows that I know all the concepts and intuition behind everything to the point that I help other students, who have higher grades than me, grasp the concepts. The other C, I got in English. I got an A in Physics C, AP Computer Science (my second round, I am currently learning undergraduate material, data structures and algorithms) and Ceramics. I received my only B in government. Perhaps, this shows that I much rather do things on my own say and not allow others to impose their agendas on me. </p>
<p>This whole situation might have been my disrespect, or even hatred toward institution that made my grades suffer. It equally might have been my friends, who I can say were not exactly star students. However, I had no plans on excelling in school. Perhaps, I never really had the right motivation. I much never liked the college process, as I have seen a lot of students do a lot of superficial things. </p>
<p>Even till now, I had rejected all my parent’s offers to get me a tutor. I gave them a try a few sessions and drop them to just please my parents. (I had always hated wasting their money anyways) I never needed a tutor, perhaps, I just needed a moment to just sit down truly think about my future. </p>
<p>I often get asked how I do not have a GPA over 4.0. Some people truly think I am joking when I tell them my real GPA. I guess my friend puts it the best: “David may not have the best grades, but he knows his ****.”</p>
<p>I had lost a lot of respect from my peers; I had went from being the biggest, buffest, strongest guy in my grade to becoming this robotics nerd… I guess high school was just a period of soul searching and searching for an identity.</p>
<p>So far, I have been accepted to 4 schools, rejected from 2 and still waiting on 10 more. </p>
<p>I applied as either an electrical engineering major or computer science, depending on the school.</p>