I’m not complaining or blaming anyone. I understand why merit aid is given to those with academic merit.
But I disagree, VERY STRONGLY, with the idea that “the majority of those (B and C students) could not succeed.”
By the same token, I’m not sure you can equate my B-average son from the 'burbs with an “underprivileged student from the slums.”
Over the years, I’ve taught any number of kids who didn’t mature at the prescribed rate, and whose poor grades reflected that fact. They hit college, grew up, started taking their studies seriously, and their much higher grades reflected THAT fact.
You know how just about every student on this board is on the high end of the bell curve? Believe it or not, there are colleges just filled with kids from the “hump” of that bell curve, and quite a few colleges filled with kids on the lower end.
Some kids fall below the median-- it’s the nature of statistics and of human behavior. Those kids find success, just not by the end of grade 11.
There are plenty of really solid schools for B students. Many parents and students simply won’t consider them. B students don’t need community colleges. In the east there are lots of great schools with tradition, great alumni and lots of character. St. Anselm, Siena, Le Moyne, St. Bonaventure, Canisius, St. Michael’s, Scranton, Susquehanna. Many great choices.
But the question is, for B/C students from non-wealthy families, can they afford those schools, since they are unlikely to get good merit scholarships, and those schools probably are not great with need-based financial aid?
The local community college and state university may be what are both within affordability and admissions reach for many such students.
@ucbalumnus I didn’t look at all I posted but the average net cost of St. Michael’s and St. Anselm are $23-$25k, that’s average. St. Bonaventure is about $18k. That’s for a school with one of the best business schools in New York state.
I think there is a big difference between a C student and flat B student, so for some CC might be the way to go initially.
As noted in prior posts, there ARE affordable schools! Those schools are not well known in CC community, but they are good schools. For example, these were discussed in a different thread.
Here are some of the schools we considered at some point. Most have 25th percentile acceptance SAT scores in the low to mid 400’s for math and verbal. (one or two are in the high 300’s, one or two are reaches.) Some were eliminated from our list because of size or price or distance from our Long Island home, but all are worth looking at for a B/C student.
Albertus Magnus
Alvernia
Anna Maria
Bridgewater State (MA)
Cabrini
California State (PA)
Castleton
Daniel Webster
D’Youville
Eastern CT
East Stroudsberg
Edinboro PA
Fitchburg State (MA)
Framingham
Holy Family
Johnson and Wales
Keene State
Kean
Keystone
Kutztown
Lock Haven
Lyndon
Mansfield
MA College of Liberal Arts
Medaille
Mitchel
Mount Ida
Mount St. Mary (NY)
Mount St. Vincent
Newbury (MA)
Niagara
Plymouth State NH
Rhode Island College
Richard Stockton
Robert Morris
Russel Sage
Salem State
Salisbury State (MD)
Shippensburg
Southern Connecticut
Southern NH
SUNY: Delhi, Morrisville, Alfred State, Cobeskill
St. Bonaventure
St. Thomas Aquinas
Westfield State (MA)
Western New England
Worcester State (MA)
Wilson
York
With the classic B student I think it’s crucial that they be in school with better students and not stigmatized as chronic underachievers. I also think high-touch smaller schools are better. I realize I posted virtually all Catholic schools but this is a strength of these schools and educational philosophy, a much broader type of student body from B- to A students. College also needs to feel like college, with parties, sports, strong residential atmosphere, alumni, tradition and history.
I don’t think sending a flat B student to a generic school for flat B students is a good approach.
But I think the first step is finding a school you can get into. Then you can narrow down you list by major, price, distance, and fit.
Right now my son has a list of about a dozen schools that look like they’ll be good choices. We’ve seen 4 of them so far; the remaining 8 are this summer’s project. A few—including one he LOVED-- are still reaches at this point, and that’s great. He should be reaching.
But I guess my point in starting this thread is that a low B student, joining this board for ideas on college, would quickly become discouraged. The vast majority of kids who post here are A+ students, looking at schools that the average kid can’t consider. If you don’t break 2200 on your SATs, you’re advised to run to your nearest community college, as though no other school would take you. (And, again, I went to CC. It was the right choice for me. But it’s NOT the ONLY choice for the average kid.) I wanted to start a thread for those kids, for the kids in my Junior homeroom who didn’t do well on the SATs, for the kids in our lowest academic track who simply haven’t figured it all out yet, for the son of my friend. There are schools-- lots and lots of them-- where these kids can and will find success.
I agree: the schools we’re looking at for my son are small, many are Catholic, and the majority are relatively nearby (Translation: within about 200 miles.) CC would NOT be the right choice for him; he would quickly get lost in the other 23,000 students there.
That’s what’s right for HIM. Not what’s right for everyone, but for HIM.
@BatesParents2019 You are correct that there are many good private colleges that accept B students. However, as others have said, many parents of B students cannot afford the net price of these schools. Many of these schools have a net price of $15000, $20000, or even $30000 for families with a a FAFSA EFC of 0. If a low-income student has the grades and scores to be admitted to elite schools with excellent need-based aid, it’s perfectly doable for the families. Two of my adult kids received very affordable financial aid packages from Haverford. One also applied to Bates and received an excellent package! For my S15, a B/B+ student, there were relatively few private schools where he could have received both acceptances and sufficient financial aid.
Hi. I am going to revive this thread, and hopefully someone replies!
I am a student from FCPS (A notoriously tough school system in VA) I have a 2.89 GPA but am wanting to major in theatre. I consider myself very creative and socially mature however, I have horrible time management issues (which I am currently working on. To prove it, I have a 3.6 GPA so far this senior year). I have an exceptional portfolio and got a 30 on the ACT. Fortunately, money is not an issue for me. Is it possible to get accepted in arts programs at middle to upper tear schools such as Ithaca, Pace, Penn State, and VCU?
I wanted to share my application story on this thread because I think it could give some hope to someone else in a similar situation. I graduated high school a part of the class of 2015.
My final grades for all 4 years were as follows:
Clearly, I was a very average student. The majority of my A-'s were in classes such as gym and health, classes not typically counted in college admissions. My SAT score that I submitted to my colleges was a 1670. The colleges I applied to were as follows:
Temple University
UMass Amherst
Keene State College
Roger Williams University
University of New Hampshire
University of Rhode Island
Marist College
Quinnipiac University
Emmanuel College
Boston University
Northeastern University
I got accepted to every school except Northeastern and I am now a freshman at Boston University. I didn’t have a magical number of EC’s, I did 2 clubs and cheerleading for 3 years of high school. I only had 40 community service hours. My application was nothing special. I just want those people out there with similar looking scores or grades to know that there is hope! A lot of the time on CC it is kids posting with 3.8 GPAs and 2010 SAT’s. It can really make a B student nervous. Put effort into your application and show a lot of interest in the schools you really like and you will be okay.
@laurrodes Hey, I got into Quinnipiac too!! I was also denied at Northeastern like you, but also rejected from UMass.
This is my story: 2.8 W GPA, 2.7 UW. Family lost our home during my sophomore year, adding even more trauma to what had already been a very wretched schoolyear for me. However, I turned it around as an upperclassman and wound up getting a 2000 on the SAT on my first crack at it. As for myself, I applied to:
Rider University Stetson University
Clark University
Fordham University
Northeastern University Quinnipiac University UNC Wilmington
UMass Amherst Hofstra University
University of Pittsburgh (main campus) University of Pittsburgh - Johnstown
Bentley University
Binghamton University
Syracuse University
I was accepted to all of the bolded schools, all of which were in different states. I decided to attend UNCW, where I am currently a VERY happy freshman. I couldn’t have picked a better school for me. I truly was meant to be here and am grateful to God for every second that I’ve been able to spend at this wonderful, fast-growing university.
My advice: apply far and wide, but also apply wisely. Show the schools you like how much you like them, and be interested. Don’t treat ANY school as a safety, even if it actually is. And, most importantly, don’t take ANYTHING for granted.
^This is a very important indicator too, because students who need financial aid are held to higher standards than students who are full pay and if they’re lower income, they are hurt by their financial need at all “need aware” schools.
BU is a great choice for your stats, as a full pay student.
This is such a great thread! I thought I would share my S1’s experience. He graduated HS in 2012, and is currently a very happy college senior.
He had a 3.2 weighted GPA (HS doesn’t provide unweighted). His SAT scores were CR 660, Math 570 and Writing 730. Of course, no school seemed to take the Writing score into consideration…
We looked at schools that aligned with his SAT scores, that were near us, offered merit aid, small campuses and offered Journalism (his intended major).
He applied to: Colby Sawyer, Franklin Pierce, Lasell, Quinnipiac, Western New England. He got accepted to all! He received a lot of merit aid to all except Quinnipiac, where he would have to be a full pay student.
He picked Western New England and has been very happy there. He just loved it from the beginning when we first visited and said he could definitely see himself going there! He received their 2nd highest merit scholarship, which is based on SAT and GPA. They have a scholarship calculator right on their webpage. He ended up changing his major to Business/Marketing in sophomore year. Most surprisingly to us, he buckled down and finally started to apply himself. He has made Dean’s List every semester and even made President’s List last semester. He worked two different internships this summer in Marketing. Quite a success story!
