<p>Another success story!!! I’m now very hopeful that my S, who’s just likes your’s, will also surprise next yr!</p>
<p>DeirdreTours, how involved where you in the applications process? Was he somewhat independent at this point? Or did you find yourself guiding him to apply to these schools?</p>
<p>Deirdre,
It just goes to show that none of us can gaze at our navels and predict results with any sort of accuracy, in an admissions climate like this, without having the essays, recs, etc. in front of us. Clearly your S put together an impressive application and had the other goodies to show for himself, too. I don’t think 13 was too many, given your concerns about his uneven profile, and it gave him some excellent choices (and merit $$, too).</p>
<p>Also glad to see he applied to UChicago. Is he going to stay on any waitlists?</p>
<p>lilmom-- I dragged him on a spring break college tour last year. I forced him to go look at six school “types”-- large public, large private, small LAC, big tech, ivy, etc. That got him to at least start thinking about what he was looking for.</p>
<p>He received tons of college mail-- which was pretty effective in getting him to apply. I don’t think he applied to anywhere that didn’t write or email.</p>
<p>Reed College seems to specialize in brilliant underacheivers</p>
<p>“I dragged him on a spring break college tour last year. I forced him to go look at six school “types”-- large public, large private, small LAC, big tech, ivy, etc. That got him to at least start thinking about what he was looking for.”</p>
<p>DeirdreTours, I was hoping you were going to say that because that’s we’ve been doing - SoCal last break and east coast this summer. He seemed to respond favorably to the smaller LAC’s and did not like the large campus atmosphere. Thanks!</p>
<p>OMG!! I’m so happy I found a home!! My DS fits right into this mold. He is truly the 'classic" gifted kid syndrome. He cares almost nothing about his grades( doesn’t even ever know what his grade is at any time) but will read everything and anything whenever he can. I worry incessantly about his college plans because you hear from everyone that high test scores coupled with mediocre grades is a huge res flag for colleges. I’m so happy to hear about your son’s acceptances. My S REALLY wants to go to Colorado College and I am planning on taking him on a trip this summer to hopefully motivate him a little more. I’m reading a book called “Admissions” and there is a kid in the book that truly is just like my S. He calls himself a true autodidact. I haven’t got to the end yet but he applied to Princeton and the admission committee has no idea what to do with him. Basically he failed high school but got perfect test scores and all 5’s on his AP test without ever taking the class. I don’t know how it will all settle out for my S but it is so great to hear that he will probably get into some college somewhere and will do great in life. He is a true love of learning kid.</p>
<p>What happened to the bio fuel cell research??</p>
<p>Still an interest?</p>
<p>I have a similar creature living here in my house, OP. And his GPA did hinder his acceptances into his first choice colleges. MIT and Caltech. However, I feel he will succeed at his next in line college and eventually may care about the outward trappings of performance. But for now, I think he comes by it honestly. I did not care about grades when I was a teen (my teachers were shocked by my SAT scores) and when I went to college, I specifically chose a school that did not have numerical (or letter) grades, but instead had Pass or Fail and one had to write and receive evaluations. My S has chosen a school that does not emphasize grades and in fact gives NC/NR (no credit/no record) for any grade below a C so that students try things from which they may otherwise stay away because they are worried about their GPA.
Your son sounds very centered to me <smile> and he will be a happy successful individual</smile></p>
<p>oops - see this was an old thread that was resurected. I guess I need to read the whole thing to see how things ended up</p>
<p>Ok I finished reading the thread
You did what I did, guided S to apply to cast a wide net and to apply to all types of schools (we did not have it together to visit prior to applying) He was accepted at 2 very small LACs with great merit aid, 3 large publics (all with merit scholarships), and 3 polytechnics (and also waitlisted at one) Again all with merit aid. But his poor GPA did hold him back and I think that was a decent “lesson”
Your S has some great choices. Congrats</p>
<p>My DS would love a college with no grades or at least not as much focus on them. Would you mind enlightening me as to what colleges out there are like that. You seem to have already researched them.</p>
<p>mominva-- Yes, he is still working on that a bit-- But I didn’t describe it very well-- His project was using bacteria to convert plant cellulose (like wood) into digestible human fuel for hikers/backpackers. He has designed some weird little contraption, that he thinks will do the job, but has run into a practical wall on how portable it is. Lately, he has become intensely interested in societal conflict and foreign policy.</p>
<p>New college of Florida is one like that.</p>
<p>Reed is another that hides grades; students must ask to see paper, class, or transcript grades, and the culture is not to look at them.</p>
<p>Well if he still has that interest, I’d recommend that he contact the bio departments to see if anyone is doing similar research. (Or see if there is a government/private lab in the areas of the colleges). Jut in case it is a factor in deciding.</p>
<p>That is probably a good idea…but I am not suggesting any other considerations to him…he is already having a terrible time making a choice!</p>
<p>Colleges that don’t stress grades
Look at Amherst, Marlboro, New College of Florida, Colorado College, Evergreen, and I think there are others that de-emphasize grades. Look at the book (or website) Colleges that Change Lives. Many of them are listed there as well</p>
<p>My kid is a lot like this as well, although he did really well in the grade department so has no handicap as far as GPA. He is a very self-propelled learner and always, always has a project going. He absolutely refused to jump through the college admissions hoops. He took the SAT’s exactly once just because he had to, and refused to entertain the idea of taking them again (math was his weakest score, but he easily could have cracked 700 on a second try). He refused to do the subject tests, which closed a lot of doors to schools that required them. </p>
<p>He was really clear that the only thing he was interested in was going to our state flagship school, which is fine, but I kept thinking he could “do better.” Finally I just gave up and figured that as an independent learner, he will wring value out of any education and he does not need a small environment or lots of individual attention from faculty to do well. Sailing along in a sea of 35,000 other undergrads will be OK for him as he has his own compass and map.</p>
<p>And hey-think of all the money we are saving since he’s going in state public! Hard to argue with that.</p>
<p>I was a smart underachiever. Highest SAT’s in my school, but not even in Honor Society. Went to local college for a few years, got mediocre grades, got married and worked full time for a few years while putting spouse through Caltech. Finally I decided upon a goal- Med School. I went back to college, got straight A’s and got into a great school and lived happily ever after.</p>