<p>DD graduated with a 2.95 gpa, already accepted into BFA program at a very well established art college with a scholarship. What I learned in the process of getting her into college is that there is a college out there for every student. Having finished her freshman year, she is also another example of a student who was bored and struggled in HS but loves college and is doing much better grade-wise. God bless our America for many things…including a college system that supports all kinds of students.</p>
<p>I’m a former slacker who graduated hs with around a 2.6 - 2.7 GPA and ranked in the bottom half of the class.</p>
<p>Coe College and Drake University were both good schools that not only admitted me but gave me a merit scholarship. Other good small to medium sized schools I looked at that were not considered huge reaches by my GC included Marquette University, Bradley University, Kalamazoo College, DePaul University, Loyola University Chicago, University of Redlands, and Elon University.</p>
<p>As someone else mentioned, Calvin College (as well as Hope College) are excellent LACs that admit almost everyone, as long as you don’t mind the religious aspects. My parents and the majority of my extended family attended one of these schools. (Yes, I’m Dutch! ;))</p>
<p>Has anyone looked into Temple?</p>
<p>Temple has many fine teachers, a very diverse student body and a wide variety of courses and activities. You need to be comfortable with its large size and North Philadelphia location. It has been an avenue to success for many prominent Pennsylvanians who did not have stellar GPAs or a lot of money. It is part of the state system, so its costs are very reasonable.</p>
<p>hayze -</p>
<p>Many thanks to you – and others with similar stories – for the report on your son’s success. It gives me hope!</p>
<p>One of the issues related to my son’s underachievement is a tendency to blame others when things go wrong. It’s an obvious ploy to escape responsibility. High school teachers were a frequent target, but my husband and I, his sibling, and anyone else convenient have been used as excuses at various times.</p>
<p>We call him on it when we see it, so he knows he isn’t fooling us. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to “reroute” his thinking on this? Or is this largely a maturity thing?</p>
<p>Packmom and Hayze - I don’t know if you mentioned it earlier, but where are your children attending college? My S has similar stats and it’s reassuring to know that there are schools where he can succeed.</p>
<p>Kajon-you said your son’s issues were time management and poor reading skills. I would be very careful about sending him to college unless he’s getting help in those areas–both reading and time management are critical to success in any college. Can he do a year at a community college that offers support for non traditional students (lots of help with study skills, time management, etc)? </p>
<p>I would also be careful about business school if he is not good at math-college level business is extremely math-intensive. Calculus and at least two college level stat courses are prerequisites. A high school friend of DD’s failed out of Drake U. business school because of the math expectations. It can be done, but again-make sure he has a SOLID base of math at the college level–again community college math through calculus may offer him learning support.</p>
<p>Look at Coe College, nice little campus with friendly staff that care about your sucess.</p>
<p>Delamar, My S2 also tended to make excuses/blame teachers for problems in school. It drove me crazy. When he went to college and did so poorly the first semester, for the first time, he didn’t blame anyone else. He finally aknowledged that the failure was of his own making.<br>
He made a great turnaround in the Spring semester and has done well in summer sch. so far (keeping fingers crossed for 2nd session). I am hoping that some maturity is starting to kick in. Also he really likes his school and being on his own. He desperately did not want to come back home and go to the CC. That might have been his biggest motivator,lol. We are still “holding our breath” but hope that he is on track now that he knows what is required to be successful.</p>
<p>michone, We are in NC. We don’t qualify for FA. Since S2 was obviously not a merit scholarship candidate and we were not willing to take out loans based on his often lackadasical approach to h.s, we told him that we would give him a shot at any in state public that he could get into. He applied to the only two that he was interested in attending (there were a couple of others I thought he could get in but he wasn’t interested in them). He was admitted to Western Carolina University and East Carolina University. He is attending ECU.</p>
<p>Packmom - I sent you a PM.</p>
<p>PackMom -</p>
<p>My son also hates the idea of going to our local CC. But we’ve made it very clear that if he doesn’t have the GPA he needs to keep his scholarship at the end of freshman year, then 1) he doesn’t go back to his residential school as a sophomore and 2) he goes to our local CC until he shows us that he can do the work.</p>
<p>So we are giving our son his shot too. I’m glad to hear that your son has stepped up. I’m hoping mine will do the same!</p>
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<p>I’m a current Temple student, so feel free to PM me any questions. Anything near a 2.5 will not get you into Temple, however.</p>
<p>Mombot - agree with you 100% about the math and business school issue. My son is the one who wants to get a business degree. I think he would be better served getting a communications or advertising/graphic degree. But…as you know when they are 17 they think they have all the answers.</p>
<p>lol, S2 is just the opposite. He and math dislike each other so much that a criteria for his major choice was that it require as little math as possible. He only had to take one semester. It was a sigh of relief when it was over in May.</p>
<p>To a limited extent, standardized test scores can compensate for grades, or at least strengthen an applicant’s academic presentation. If your son has only taken the ACT once, I would strongly suggest he take it again. My kids both took it once on their own and a second time through the school (our state mandates that all juniors take it) and raised their scores 2 and 3 points with no extra prep. They simply knew what to expect–largely they knew how to manage their time taking the test better. Also, Carthage is one of those schools with automatic set levels where gpa + ACT= $X merit aid–it’s on their website.</p>
<p>Not sure there are many who “LOVE” the idea of CC, but then who “loves” the idea of their kid having to work things out when they’re at a very expensive school and not really ready on many levels? Our family was glad that D was able to go to CC & get grades, confidence and small classes with instructors who taught the same coursework at larger flagship U charging a lot more in much larger classes. It has worked well for her & allowed her to transfer to her dream U & saved us a lot of $$ because most of her courses & credits also transferred.</p>
<p>Oh, S2 would not have minded the going to the CC part as much as the coming back home to live with us part. </p>
<p>The part that concerned us about the CC is that the kids (that we know) who go fr. h.s. here to our little branch CC with intentions of transferring after two years usually don’t make it. They get sidetracked with gf’s/bf’s, decide to buy things like cars and then have to stay here and keep working to make the payments, don’t like CC so end up dropping classes and making very little headway and finally just quit and end up with nothing to show for two years of dilly-dallying at sch. </p>
<p>Going to CC and taking a trade/vocational track was def. a consideration for S2. We would have fully supported that idea and told him so.</p>
<p>In the end, it turned out to be best for S2 to get away fr. our town.</p>
<p>Packmom, I completely agree with you regarding CC. For a while this year we were sure that would be our son’s only option, but he managed to pull through the end of his junior year with C’s and B’s - a major accomplishment for him and a very humbling experience, also. We will be sending our son away to school despite his less than stellar performance in high school, because we firmly believe that being on his own will HELP him to learn to take responsibility for himself and manage his life without us “helicoptering” over him. His ADHD has been an ongoing issue, but he has learned somewhat how to manage it, and I don’t think it will be that much of an issue in college. He still has another year to mature and grow, which will help too.</p>
<p>There are a lot of state universities that will admit a student with a 2.9 gpa and decent (around 1500-1600) sats. He doesn’t want a small school, so we are looking at the big ones. I have done tons of research and have found schools that are good possibilities, including the following:</p>
<p>University of Nebraska
University of Kansas
Kansas State
Oregon State
Washington State
Arizona State
University of Arizona</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone with your “average” students!!!</p>
<p>elizabethh, thanks for the list. We’re looking for west coast schools and will look into them. I think some of them have a special tuition program for west coast students?</p>
<p>Once he’s in class, your son will decide if he is able/willing to learn the calculus and statistics that are required for a business major. If it’s too demanding, he’ll change his major, so he needs a school that offers business and a variety of other majors.</p>
<p>Of greater concern are the time management and poor reading skills issues. It is unclear if these skills are lacking because of immaturity or because of inherent inability. If the former, it might be more productive to defer the residential aspect of college for a year or two. If the latter, it might be useful to seek out a college that supports learning disabilities.</p>