<p>My friend and I were having a discussion about the above and the lack of guidance our hs gives (Go to a state school-we are in NY). Other than US News, there is little information on schools for B students. I learned a lot over the past year from you folks about the process and the schools--even though my children are not HPY material. I know some of you have more than one child with different levels of achievement and I told her I'd post to see what you thought. </p>
<p>Consider:
Male, B average, SAT's 1050-1200, and anywhere along the East Coast </p>
<p>There are really more colleges for students like you. One drawback to CC is that most people on this board are focused on the most selective schools in the country--the top 100 schools out of more than 2000 schools. The reason there is so much discussion about these schools is that the competitionto get in creates much angst. In some schools there is such a bottleneck of highly qualified, impressive students that to reject any of them is shocking. It is not until you get into the admissions office of these schools and see stacks of applications all looking similar that you realize that the 4.0 with close to 4000 on the SATs is not so unique when he is lined up with everyone else in the country with the same profile. And though these students are definitely in the minority, the number of spaces for them are smaller yet These kids generally have worked for their admissions to a well known school for years, have had far more successes than failures, have had accolades galore, and selective college admissions is one of the first milestones where they do not necessarily have a sure shot at their first choices. That is why you see the boards peppered with kids applying to HPY, top 25, top LACs, etc.</p>
<p>As to finding schools in your category, I suggest you buy a cop of the USNEWS & World Report Ultimate college guide or the College Board College Guide, both are big fat phone directory sized books that list every college in the US. Take a look at schools where you SAT scores are in the midstream in the areas and price ranges where you feel comfortable. Many of the SUNY schools are available to you, many of the Catholic schools would welcome you and most of the many different kinds of private schools. Without knowing a little more about what you want and do not want, it is difficult to make any suggestions. THere are kids who are happily at Towson State and other out of state schools in PA and MD. New Jersey has Rider, Fairleigh Dickenson to name a couple of schools. Widener, Juniata, York, Westiminster in PA are good bets. McDaniel, Washington College in Md are some suggestions. We just looked at University of Hartford in Connecticut which is a good choice for someone with your numbers, Manhattanville College, Concordia, Hofstra, Wagner, Hartwick, are also some choices. Susquehanna, Ursinus are some other schools that come to mind. But stats alone are not going to narrow down your choices as your interests, type of school, size, location all come into play.</p>
<p>Are you familiar with Loren Pope's book, "Colleges That Change Lives" ? subtitle is: "40 schools you should know about even if you're not a straight-A student"
This book became our "bible" during the college search process. I could go on and on about the book, the schools, his philosophy etc, but let me just say it is a very good read even if you don't buy in to everything he is saying. They also have a website but you should still read the book.</p>
<p>Several of the 40 schools profiled in the book are listed by jamimom. There are many more than 40 great schools out there that are not highly selective, but it is nice that the author has done a lot of the work for you and narrowed it down to his top 40 choices. </p>
<p>Our college visits included, Roanoke, Randolph-Macon, Lynchburg, Washington College, Hartwick, Moravian, College of Wooster, Earlham, Ohio Weslyan, McDaniel, Clark .... and several others.</p>
<p>Male, B average, SAT's 1050-1200, and anywhere along the East Coast </p>
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<p>Actually, being a male he will have some advantage at some schools due to gender imbalances. In looking at the USNWR Ultimate Guide that Jamimom suggests, keep in mind that at schools where there is a gender imbalance of greater than 60-40, he may very well get accepted even if his stats are in the lower end of the median whereas for a female applicant this may not be true.</p>
<p>In addition to the great suggestions already made, I'd add: Goucher. Elon (NC), Quinnipiac, Marist, Manhattanville, Seton Hall, Hofstra, some programs at Alfred U, some programs at Syracuse (but NOT the Newhouse journalism school), Guilford (NC), Rollins (Fl), St. John's U, Randolph-Macon (the coed school, not the all female one), many of the SUNY schools (Oneonta, Oswego, Geneseo in particular), Eckerd (FL), Albright College, York College (both PA), Muhlenberg (does not require SATs), American U, Otterbein (Ohio), Hiram (Ohio) but there are many others to consider as well. As Jamimom notes, it all depends on the type of school the person is looking for, as well as his interests.</p>
<p>When I first found this board I kept wondering if I was ever going to see a post about one of the schools we were considering for my son. And I did see what I was looking for, although not frequently. I enjoy lurking anyway, and have learned so much about the "process". And I think my family has it easier than most of you, because my S is not applying to schools where they only accept 10-20% of applicants! These children with incredible stats (not to mention lives) are so deserving--it must be devastating to those that don't get in where they want to go. (And tough for the parents to sit by and watch helplessly). My son's best friend is in that category and unfortunately he does not think he will have a problem. But from what I read on CC, they might as well do a lottery of all qualified applicants, because there does not seem to be a true formula for choosing applicants. The funny thing is that I thought that the group of highly intelligent, all around students was small. Apparently not.
Luckily for us, S is done looking and applying to some of the colleges mentioned by all of you. He actually liked most schools, and prefers suburban or city. I found out about St. Joseph in Philly on this board and he loved it and applied. We also found Washington College which he didn't love.
The reason I posted was for an "unofficial survey"--a very dear friend of mine and I got into a friendly argument about good schools for B students. I told her that many schools that will accept kids like ours are well-known, and many we have never heard of. Believe it or not they have not applied yet, and have only looked at a few--too many reaches, I thought. I hoped some responses hear would prompt her to get on her son. He'll end up going nowhere if he doesn't get on the ball.
And Jamimom, we looked at a few no-name recognition smaller Catholic schools and most of them he loved. Especially Sacred Heart in Fairfield. These schools seem to market personal attention.
And yes NJres, I have read the Loren Pope book (and referred to it several times) throughout the process. Things have changed considerably in the last few years, and my son probably wouldn't get in to Allegheny or Clark--I don't know if B students are as common at either of these places any more. (Although S has been the recipient of many pieces of marketing material from both!)
Did you visit McDaniel? I'd love to know what your impression was.</p>
<p>My niece graduated from a small Catholic college that I have not seen mentioned on this site. And my daughter attends another such school in the Midwest. I know several kids at St Joe's and they seem to really like the school. My close friend's daughter is hoping, hoping that she gets in and gets enough aid to go there. Stonehill in Mass is still another school like that, Sienna in New York, Iona in New York, Manhattan College for those who want NYC, very good school. Providence College in RI is a top choice and they are getting picky, Duquesne, Gannon, ST Vincents, King, Scranton, Lasalle in Pennsylvania--so many in PA. There used to be a common app for the catholic schools--don't know if they still have this going but getting a brocure for the catholic colleges in Pa is helpful. </p>
<p>If you click on the New Posts, you can see the angst of these top students applying to the top schools. It is really a tense situation for them. For many it is the final culmination, vindication, recognition of their efforts in the past years at school. Thankfully, most will find a home at a college that they will like. Many will be disappointed before coming to that point. It seems like a nasty trick at the end of all of these years of working so hard and being so dedicated.</p>
<p>There re many schools that would work for your S. First you need to identify his needs/desires/ wants. Would he be happier at a lrge university, or a smaller one, or even a LAC. Threre are plenty out there. Does he want a private school or a public? Also how far does he want to travel, is the something else, religious affiliation or a sport, a special EC that he wants to have at a school.</p>
<p>Syracuse might be a good match for a medium size university, and Qunnipiac for a small school. But there are really too many to metnion, and you need to do your homework to make a list that works for you</p>
<p>Villanova in Villanova, PA. Good school.....and right on Philly's main line with Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swat.....so a reall college town feeling to the entire area, which is drop dead georgeous! Might be a reach on the SATs, but close enough to give it a shot.</p>
<p>Another one we haven't yet mentioned: Lake Forest College outside of Chicago. Nice solid school in a pretty location (but cold!) that does take B students, and even some lesser GPAs.</p>
<p>Another school that I find interesting is Oxford College of Emory University - it's on the original Emory campus. Students go there for two years then transfer to the main Emory campus so they get the best of both worlds - a small liberal arts school plus a big university. The Bachelor degree says Emory. The stats of Oxford College students are below the typical Emory student. Emory has very good history and business programs by the way.</p>
<p>My junior son and I just returned late this afternoon from an Information Technology/Computer Science Day at Juniata College in Huntingdon, PA. This is one of the Lauren Pope Colleges that Jamimom mentioned. We had a great time. I'm too tired tonight but will do a trip report tomorrow. We were told that the avg. student has an 1130 SAT and a 3.7 gpa. That sounds skewed with the gpa high, sat low but that's after their weighting system. The admissions person said they take out fluff classes (gym, drivers ed, mass media, band, etc.) and weigh more for honors, ap's or IB classes. more later. Even my unimpressable (is that a word?) son said positive things, including that he would like to apply!</p>
<p>I knew a lovely couple who graduated from Juniata (my age), who could not say enough about the school. Both very successful, very happy people who had met in college. I only know two kids who went there and they seemed to like it very much. I had read somewhere that Pope did an oversell on that school in a few areas but the info I have heard about the school makes it a sound bet in my book for kids whose stats fall in that range and whose parents want to send them away for a college experience.</p>
<p>My H's cousin was a C/D student in highschool with average SAT scores. A year at comm college upped the average, but she still was not going to be an attractive student for the more selective colleges, but the family and she felt it was time to go away for school, something. She looked at schools like West Chester in Pa, Towson and Salisbury State in MD and ended up at one of the small PA state schools, did well there and has done some master's work subsequently at Villanova. Has a good job, happy, self sufficient now. My nephew needed to go away and had a checkered, mixed record that, again, precluded any selective schools so he looked at schools like Fairleigh Dickenson, Widener, Rider, and did extremely well when he went away to college. Found a great mentor, and transferred to a selective school with a med school program. Now he is a doctor. So there are many roads to success for kids who are late bloomers or who are not strong academically in high school. The problem often is getting money for these kids to go away as those kind of stats do not usually generate merit money and the schools are not usually as well endowed and rarely give 100% of need. But these kids can benefit greatly with going away to college and growing up without the shadow of home there, and without wrankling mom and dad while getting those growin pains.</p>
<p>Fendergirl, do you play electric guitar? Some screen names induce me to make up the stories behind them. Alternatively, do you sit barefoot on the hood of a Dodge?</p>
<p>yes i play electric guitar, and no i don't sit barefoot on the hood of a dodge :) i have a 1968 electric guitar (fender).. tis my baby :) as well as an early 90's modeled Washburn guitar. I haven't played much this semester.. i was learning a new song a few months ago and haven't even finished that yet... been really busy with work and school and whatnot, since it is my senior year :)</p>
<p>i also am learning how to play the drums... one woman band, coming your way!</p>
<p>chocolate, my wife and S visited McDaniel twice and liked it a lot. I went with them the second time for an open house but my visit was very rushed. I thought the campus was beautiful - mostly nice old buildings on top of a hill. Everyone who spoke, whether administration, faculty or student, mentioned the feeling of community. I came away feeling very good about the place, as did my son.</p>