<p>The average GPA of admitted students at many schools, including 5 UCs, is over 4.0! That should tell you that a 3.3 doesn't mean what it used to at most schools. NM uses percentages.</p>
<p>Agree with you, marite, about being so hasty in dismissing documented LD. I took notes for a quadraplegic friend in law school, so I know first hand how hard it can be to do simple things like take a written test. That kind of physical disability is something that any adcom will feel comfortable factoring in and can make arrangements at the school to accommodate.</p>
<p>But an LD that makes it hard for the student to reason from premise to conclusion? How do you factor that in?!!!!</p>
<p>Ellemenope:
That one made me laugh! Maybe it's a syndrome known as terminal indecision? Or illogicia, you know, like dyslexia and dyscalculia and dysgraphia?</p>
<p>Ellemenope - That's what I thought --- which is why all of the discussion on the "what are my chances" section needs to be taken with a grain of salt. One person's 3.3 isn't necessarily the same as anothers.</p>
<p>Lisa - I am simply amazed at how many kids have 4.0 and above GPA's these days. At my daughter's school it is nearly impossible to maintain a 4.0 average, even with weighting for honors/APs. The top 10%, according to my daughter's guidance counselor, usually have GPAs in the 3.8 range.</p>
<p>Not sure I understand op. Does S need aid to attend a private school? </p>
<p>If not, the choices are wide open. </p>
<p>If he does need aid, the 2.9 GPA will eliminate most opps and the best bet is to find the CA university that suits him best.</p>
<p>As for computer gaming, we know one of the founders of EA. He has a university degree. </p>
<p>I don't know. Boys get addicted to those games--but is it a meaningful life? </p>
<p>For me, nothing can compare to the mind broadening experience of university life and I'd hate to see this 'recalcitrant' student limited to CC or a gaming program.</p>
<p>Just a quick note..."Discover Chapman Day" is this Saturday, October 30th.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone...yes, cheers, he will need aid as our savings were literally wiped out due to almost two years of unemployment...I think that,although he loves computers and the whole game thing, he slowly deciding that his career goal is not in that field. He has become very interested in psychology - taking
AP Psych and really getting intrigued. He may well go the CC route at first...but do want him to have options and hope the NMSF will help a little.<br>
Momofonly, we will look into Chapman...thanks.</p>
<p>Carolyn - your point is exactly why the author of one of those admissions books - I think it was "A is for Admissions" - says that schools that don't rank essentially wipe out four years of their students' work. Unless it is a school well known to the adcoms,
a straight grade average (like "3.3" or "93") is completely meaningless. There is no way of knowing whether that 93 puts you in the top 10 or top 500. That is, there could be massive grade inflation, or not. The author says the adcoms (she was one at an Ivy) must then pretty much ignore the course work and look at SAT IIs.</p>
<p>Our school is like yours, with kids in the top 10 averaging around 95 - and we routinely get kids into the Ivies, MIT, etc.</p>
<p>I don't think that ranking would help adcom deal with grade inflation. School profiles do.
I talked to an adcom officer at MIT recently. She told me that her child goes to a highly-regarded suburban school that does not rank (does not even provide percentile ranking). It, too, routinely sends students to uber-selective schools.
Ranking has problems of its own. We know that students game the system by taking certain kind of courses over others; that some students can be separated by something as meaningless as .001 of a point (as if grading was entirely error-free and entirely objective).
What does it say for someone to be in the top ten at a mediocre school with SAT of, say 1200, and someone to be not in the top ten of his or her school but with much higher SATs? Or for a student to get As in AP classes (taken because they carry weighted grades) but bomb on the exam or not take the exam at all? Sure, to be top ten at any school testifies to some quality in the student; but there is a limit to the usefulness of such thinking.</p>
<p>Marite, while I agree with you 100%, I was only quoting the (former) adcom (Michelle Hernandez, I believe). While she does say the school's profile helps, the Ivies A.I. numerical index uses rank as one of its three inputs. The AI is apparently quite important; she lists the percentage of acceptances for each level of the AI and a top score looks like a guaranteed admit.....</p>
<p>Nedad:</p>
<p>I believe that colleges recompute grades before using them in the AI. That, of course, does not take care of grade inflation, but it helps colleges focus on core classes.
Our high school does not weight grades because, I was told, colleges recalculate according to different systems anyway. Rank (or percentile rank is one of three components of AI). How important AI is depends on the college and on the student.
My S, who is graduating early, cannot be ranked, because the school does not rank until May of junior year. Furthermore, his GC said he would be including a note in his report about the different types of classes my S has been taking (8 college classes). While my S has been taking more college classes than his schoolmates, it is pretty common for students at his school to do so, usually after they have finished the math sequence.</p>