<p>Hey,
Nephew is a senior this year...brilliant yet lazy . Thoughts on colleges...</p>
<p>He took all honors and AP classes...but somehow my brother tells me after three years my nephew has a 3.1 gpa. A few Cs in freshman year, mostly B and B+ grades.</p>
<p>He has taken 4 AP classes -- Calc, Stats, Chem and Bio-- scored 5 on all of them.
SATII in Bio, MathIIC and Chem 770 or higher in all
ACT, 34+ on all parts with 26 in English (ouch)
SAT 800 (math), 750 and 670 (writing ).</p>
<p>Usual math/science ECs plus he worked the past two summers doing research in a bio lab at Dartmouth where his dad is a Business School prof. He does not want to attend Dartmouth! Dad has a tuition exchange with some of the Ivies-- he was thinking long shot Cornell or Penn -- i told him forget about it with that gpa. I don't even think a senior year 4.0 would undo that...thoughts?</p>
<p>Wants to stay in the Northeast, Plans to be a Biology major. Wants a large school in an urban setting.</p>
<p>There is no explanation for the rotten gpa-- clearly articulate, bright as evidenced by standardized test scores and rigorous course selection. Don't want to discuss the gpa in this thread...done deal.</p>
<p>College Options:???</p>
<p>I suggested Boston U, Northeastern,Maryland, Case Western, Penn State
Any other thoughts?</p>
<p>My son, with similar SAT and AP scores and a 3.65 unweighted GPA (4.5 weighted), did not get into Cornell despite being a double legacy there. Just sayin’.</p>
<p>Some schools recalculate the GPA without freshman grades, and others try hard to recruit National Merit scholars. I think there was a thread recently on “lopsided” kids which might have helpful advice.</p>
<p>I think he shouldn’t go to college until/unless he feels less lazy. If he’s underperforming senior year, he’ll likely do the same in college, and those grades will follow him in a way that HS grades won’t. He will also miss out on learning that might happen if he entered the same program after 1-2 extra years of maturation.</p>
<p>If he’s determined to go next year, he needs to be thinking Pitt, Drexel, Suffolk. He might get into better schools than that, but he needs to be comfortable with that kind of school. I think Case and UMD out of state are big reaches – Ivies are a waste of time unless his dad has pull with someone.</p>
<p>"I don’t think he can be a NM finalist with a 3.1 " - That may well be true. But if not there are a few schools that offer deals for Semi-Finalist.</p>
<p>I agree with Hanna. He sounds like a good candidate for a productive gap year working a job or doing fulltime volunteer work.</p>
<p>If he’s that bright and is pulling only a 3.1 while under his parents’ roof, he doesn’t sound motivated enough to be able to pass in college living away from home. My perspective is based on having an older son with sky high scores, grades similar to the OP’s nephew, who got great merit aid to a tier 2, and then flunked out because he didn’t bother to go to class, do homework or take his exams.</p>
<p>At 26, he never has returned to college. He reads extensively on his own, and feels that college is a waste of time because he can learn on his own.</p>
<p>If he chooses to go to college, I agree with Hanna about the type of college that he may be accepted to and that fit what he wants in a college. I strongly suggest that his parents let him know that he will need to get an acceptable gpa (they should be specific about what gpa that is) in college for them to pay for his college. It also might be wise to have him put some skin in the game by taking out loans and working summers and during the school year.</p>
<p>I would encourage the parents to have this student evaluated for ADD. High test scores, high grades in classes the kid likes, and low grades in classes that don’t command his attention is practically a diagnosis in and of itself. If he is in the public school system, he has one year left to get free help from the school psychologist in learning the adaptive behaviors and tools that will help him stay on task.</p>
<p>He sounds like the son of a friend of mine. Perfect 800s on the SAT, lousy grade point average. He was accepted to SUNY Binghamption but waitlisted or rejected at most of the LACs he wanted to attend. He ended up at Colby off the waitlist. His Mom could not persuade him to take a gap year which she thought he needed. He ended up floundering freshman year and took a gap year between freshman and sophomore year.</p>
<p>Throw the Hail Mary pass. I mean if the KID is interested in Cornell or Penn, let him apply. Maybe Cornell’s School of Human Ecology rather than A&S? </p>
<p>This kid obviously understands the material. What’s the problem? Are his teachers sympathetic? This is one of those situations in which the reasons for the grades and letters of rec from teachers could make all the difference in the world. </p>
<p>Even if he doesn’t get into a top school–hey, I did say it was a Hail Mary pass–you’ve let him try and that could change his attitude. </p>
<p>Having said that, if he wants to go to college now, I’d look at some of the more structured programs at good colleges that might take a chance. Emory at Oxford, that special 2 year program of Liberal Arts at Boston University.(Here’s a link to this program <a href=“http://www.bu.edu/cgs/[/url]”>http://www.bu.edu/cgs/</a> ) I’m sure there are others.</p>
<p>I think ivies are out. If the problem was only a C or two in freshman year and the rest of his grades were A’s, that would be different. But, with a 3.1, that suggests mostly B’s with a few A’s to balance the few C’s. </p>
<p>Even a 4.0 for the first semester of senior year wouldn’t likely make a difference because it would look like a short-term effort that wouldn’t likely last. Second semester grades won’t help with admissions since that will be too late.</p>
<p>**
How much will his parents spend on his education each year? That answer along with the GPA issue will largely influence where he should apply.**</p>
<p>If the parents or student become frustrated that the student will have more limited choices than his natural intelligence would normally suggest, then the GPA issue should have been addressed a long time ago.</p>
<p>A 34 and a 2220 are excellent scores but not what would normally be called near-perfect. Near-perfect would be a 35 and a 2350 or higher.</p>
<p>As for colleges, has he thought about a community college? Getting a 4.0 for a year taking solid courses at a community college would go a long way in convincing a decent 4 year college that he has buckled down and can do college-level work. With that in hand and with those test scores he could transfer into a much better college than he can get into right now.</p>
<p>I have a nephew who applied to Duke a number of years ago and was denied. His father, a Duke alumni, called the school and was told in a rather I can’t believe you are even asking voice, “he got a C in Calculus.”</p>
<p>I am sure he will have plenty of options, just not necessarily Ivy league ones. I have always been told that the worst combination of grades and test scores are high test scores and low grades. It implies, smart but lazy. My son was in a similar situation and didn’t get into a big state school, even though both his father and I are alumni.</p>
<p>Is he a foreign born kid that the parents do not speak English at all and was here in the HS Freshman year? Looks like he still has a language problem, English and Humanities for that matter(I am guessing).</p>
<p>I’d agree with courer, community college. Some CCs have language classes for those foreign borns. Take the highest level one’s, it will help his English a lot.</p>
<p>You’ve got a B student who has much potential is how I read it. If he’s excited about going to college I would not “punish” a B boy with CC and staying at home, often it’s exactly those boys who need to get away. Many, many parents have heard the “does not live up to potential” only to see their boys thrive in college. If he has absolutely no interest in staying in school another 4+ years then he probably does need a break and maybe no school for a year. I’m a firm believer in letting high potential B students make their own decisions. He’ll have enough choices of college to research and plenty of colleges that will take a B student (especially if that is unweighted). If you live in the NE he may not be going to the Ivy League or the popular coastal colleges but there’s plenty of “big” colleges in the NE area that where he can apply. Life is NOT Harvard or bust. If he “blooms” he’ll be just fine. Read the 3.0 and 3.6 threads for many great ideas.</p>
<p>Well I started to reply since I have a DS like that. 3.1 GPA, 2370 SAT, 36 ACT … but then I saw the “wants to stay in NE” requirement so I don’t have much to offer. </p>
<p>DS did not get into the schools he wanted (MIT, HMudd, etc) but he got waitlisted at UMICH which might have taken him later (discloser, he had done a UMICH math program). </p>
<p>We did the debate about “lazy” and take time off … but my kid isn’t lazy, he was just bored out of his mind with HS. I think he’ll do a lot better in college.</p>
<p>There has been a great 3.0 thread for western schools … did anything similar pop up for eastern schools?</p>
<p>And tell the kid to FOCUS and WORK those essays, they CAN overcome a great deal. (ds did not chose to do that either.)</p>
<p>And in the end, we are perfectly happy with where DS landed (state university, not flagship, but second tier).</p>