<p>To each his/her own, but I’m not sure I’d be willing to spend $40K per year on the off-chance that my S or D would suddenly develop a work ethic. I have a rising senior D who busts her tail altho she’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and I’m prepared to make significant financial sacrifices to send her to the best school she can get into. (To be fair, she’s in a drawer with a lot of incredibly sharp knives.) I also have a rising sophomore son who’s probably got more native smarts than his sister has but who is major league lazy. He’s been told that unless he turns it around soon (read: this year), there’s a CC in his future. </p>
<p>Simpkin: What about Susquehanna? I think they have pretty good retention/ graduation rates. I felt like this was a place that takes low achieving high school students and helps them be something more. YabeYabe can probably help on this school. It is out there in
PA, but there seems to be lots of stores and restaurants nearby. </p>
<p>Etaga, I don’t know for sure but I would think you’ll be fine for Indiana, just be mindful of their oos tuition increase. I don’t know about USC, but they might look at music majors differently. You should post on the Music Majors forum, the parents there should be able to help you. </p>
<p>Tangosmom: What is your D’s weighted GPA. With 8 AP’s it will by a lot better than 3.0. What GPA does your school put on the transcript? It sounds like she tests well but does not like the day to day busy work. College may be good for her. As hard as it is to believe there are a lot of schools hat may offer her merit aid. I also have an underachiever, mine has started to turn the corner, but as usual I fear he will be a day late and a dollar short.</p>
<p>Edie, I loved Susquehanna when we looked at the school, but at that time (have not been been there in 5 years) it really did not have enough things to do around the school for a college student if they did not have a car. There was not much in the way of stores or restaurants at that time. The school seemed pretty rural to us and the area lacked public transportation.</p>
<p>I think the area with all the stores in Selinsgrove is over on rt 11/15 about 4 miles from the school. A student would need a car, or a friend with a car to get there. I think they also have a zip car type program(not zip a competitor) that would work pretty well.</p>
<p>My son was in the same position-Hes attending RPI with merit$-don’t sweat it things will work out for best-he is just not made for Cornell-even with a 34 ACT and 2160 on the SATs-gpa does count</p>
<p>I’m very interested in Susquehanna and we will look at it in August. My son says he wants to go to college near a city, but I don’t know why it’s even an issue for him – we live near a city and he never goes there.</p>
<p>annasdad, I hear what you’re saying. My belief is that my son is a late-bloomer with a lot of potential. I think it will be to his advantage to get out of Long Island, away from some of his friends, and out from under the shadow of his high-achieving sister. I don’t see him thriving in community college. I’m hoping that the right college will bring out the best in him.</p>
<p>One of the things that many parents don’t understand is that B student CAN get merit aid. I would not/have not/will not pay $40,000 for any of our kids but all three have gone or will be going to colleges that offer significant merit aid for B students. It takes research to find those colleges but as Northeastmom can tell you there are many out there. We paid about the same as PSU in-state for my older two kids OOS private LAC’s. </p>
<p>Part of my research was to find schools that offer Institutional grants to the majority of the kids. Look at this for Guilford College in NC: [College</a> Navigator - Guilford College](<a href=“College Navigator - Guilford College”>College Navigator - Guilford College) You can see that over 90% of the students get institutional aid. Guilford offered significant aid for my son but he did not feel that his major was strong enough there. </p>
<p>I know a few students that are going or will be attending Susquehanna. Like NEmom, I looked at it with my oldest child so that was awhile ago. If I remember correctly, they have some great summer programs so you can get a taste of the college. We didn’t like the town of Selinsgrove very much but thought the college was beautiful. It’s kind of weird because the college is right in town, but it doesn’t feel like a College town. Which is the same feel (college in-town, but not part of it) that I got from Juniata.</p>
<p>Etaga13- you might want to look on some of the performing arts threads. I know I have seen discussions of audition and non-audition programs and grade requirements. You have special interests and I am not sure if most of us here know enough about music programs- but good luck.</p>
<p>Simpkin- You can also look at SUNY Purchase, LeMoyne in Syracuse, Marist, Champlain, and St. Michael’s in Vt. We had good luck with Manhattanville, LeMoyne, Siena, (which are Catholic or formerly Catholic) and believe it or not SUNY New Paltz (which D probably would have ended up at if she had not engaged with the interdisciplinary aspect at Hampshire College).</p>
<p>ETA- agree with Kathiep- D got significant merit aid at most of the schools (except for the SUNYs).</p>
<p>Etaga13 - Depending on how good you are :-), you could check out Eastman School. You can go across to UR and do classes there as well.
Also SUNY Fredonia has a strong music program.
Good luck!</p>
<p>Yes, I can tell you that. My son cast a wide net and applied to a lot of private colleges. He just finished his freshman year at a small private college. He received merit aid from all private colleges with the exception of one. He was a B+ high school student with some solid ECs. Standardized test scores were solid, but nothing special. Cost was very important to us. </p>
<p>We looked at schools with lower price tags as well (ie: schools similarly priced to Guilford). If one is applying to a school with a sticker price of 35,000, it is the same to me as applying to one with a sticker price of 50,000 and then getting 15,000 in aid for that year. All bets are off after the first year because a student could lose merit aid if grades are not there, EFC changes and FA is from year to year, and COA can increase at any school (and I think that you can “bank” on some increase every year).We kept all of this in mind when chosing a school. My son could have earned a gpa of a 2.0 and kept his merit award! Others set a higher gpa to keep merit aid, which can be risky for some families.</p>
<p>My son is currently at a school priced fairly similarly to Guilford. He also has a merit scholarship which brings the cost to less than our instate flagship (currently Rutgers is over 29,000/year). I will say that Rutgers has national name recognition and my son’s small college is more of a regional school. For my son, the small school is a much better fit and he is thriving there.</p>
<p>Hi, simpkin, my post was mostly in response to tangosmom. And as I said, to each his/her own. But I can’t help thinking about one of my dorm mates nearly a half century ago who did nothing but party his freshman year. As he was on his way our the door with his academic dismissal in hand, he was laughing about the nine-month party his dad had thrown for him.</p>
<p>I think each parent has to evaluate what they think is best for their kid. Some kids do thrive in college with less busy work. There are plenty of threads on CC about high achieving kids who crash and burn when they go to college so failing isn’t limited to B/C students.</p>
<p>Tangosmom, there is a Western B student thread on the Parent’s Forum. You might have to search for it but it would give you additional ideas. The Jewish B student thread also has some west coast posters in addition to all the east coast parents.</p>
<p>proudwismom, I would never be critical of another parent for deciding to roll the dice on one of their kids. I just wouldn’t do it with my own. I’m not saying I’d kick him out of the house and abandon him. I’d probably foot the bill for CC and keep him in burgers and Mountain Dews. But I’m not about to fork over $30-40K on the chance that he might straighten himself out. If he goes to CC and thrives, then sure, I’ll help in any way I can with transfer costs.</p>
<p>For those near the 3.3 GPA mark and/ or with an ACT greater than a 25, check out Truman State in Missouri. The academics are good and the price is fantastic with some automatic merit awards. We toured the campus this spring and came away very impressed. Son is 2013 class. </p>
<p>Drawback for Truman is the location. Kirksville is small and rural.</p>
<p>I get what you’re saying annasdad. Each to their own. I certainly wouldn’t think less of any parent who chose to have their kids start at community college whether it was due to grades or finances it just seems that on CC many posters shoot down the B/C students and tell them that’s all they can manage. Not that I’m in any way saying that’s what you meant.</p>
<p>In my house both an A+ honors student and a C student would get the same chance to go away to college. Their grades/stats would just determine the type of school they could be admitted to. Both would have the same provision that if they didn’t do well then they would be coming home and going to the local community college or junior college.</p>
<p>Haystack, thanks for the good report on Truman State. We’re scheduled to visit later this month. For those of us here in Illinois, Truman State’s OOS COA is a little less than our in-state directionals, and appears to be a better school. It’s going to be our financial safety, assuming DD likes it.</p>
<p>I know someone that visited Truman state and both she and her mother thought it was a wonderful college. She was offered significant merit aid. She turned it down for College of Wooster in Ohio, but it was a close call between those two and Elon. My husband’s cousin is a Prof. at Truman.</p>
<p>Thanks for your thoughts so far. To the question about our daughter’s weighted GPA, I’m not sure our school does it. I have to admit, we have not yet met with the college counselor (long story, too long to go into here) so I will be talking to her when she gets back in August. There is nothing on my d’s last report card–which still has an Incomplete on it. I did look up “weighting”, thinking I could do it on my own but I see it varies. I used the California University system’s website to try it with my d’s grades and she wound up with a 3.37, even with extra points for honors courses.</p>
<p>As for the $40,000 figure I threw out: we have had school IRA’s for both our kids that have been growing over the years. In my daughter’s case, a lot of the money in there came from the “support” the state gave us when we adopted her and so we consider it hers. She IS serious about doing well in college–actually had short periods of time when she did awesome in high school but has trouble maintaining it. She bores easily and her brain seems to go a mile a minute–which is why she excels as an attorney in mock trial competitions. Not making excuses, just saying that we want to give her a shot and there is some money there. It may not carry her all the way through but we never promised a full ride from Mom and Dad. :-)</p>
<p>I will check out the other boards mentioned, too. Thanks! My D would like to be on one of the coasts, if possible. My hubby went to Rutgers and we have family in New Jersey so we’ve considered trying there. Would it be a reach for us? I’ve also been looking at the Colorado Universities–Boulder and Colorado Springs. Maybe there’s more about those on the West Coast thread.</p>
<p>Hello parents, I am still a high school student, but I have found this support thread fairly helpful. I may or may not match your child’s stats, but I have a 3.3 UW, 4.0x W, 2140 SAT, and 800 SAT II Math 710 US History SAT Subject Test, just based off this alone, is there any school that I should look forward to applying to, that tests the limitations of my UW GPA? Thank You</p>
<p>Sorry, I don’t know about Rutgers. It was being discussed on one of the other threads but only in regards to the cost. I think COA was almost $30,000 for an instate student.</p>
<p>Do check out the other threads. There is a lot of activity on the Jewish B student one and the parents are extremely helpful to everyone. </p>
<p>Also, you could see if your daughter qualifies for the WUE discount at any schools. It might help keep costs down. It seems like other posters from the west coast have talked about Northern Arizona, U of Arizona and Arizona State a lot, though they are not on either coast.</p>
I did look up “weighting”, thinking I could do it on my own but I see it varies. I used the California University system’s website to try it with my d’s grades and she wound up with a 3.37, even with extra points for honors courses.</p>