VMI is a military institute and its initiation rituals for rats (or first year) are brutal. I mean, West Point is a piece of cake compared to what would be called hazing elsewhere. However, the alumni are tight and support each other. So, like for any college that has a very specific culture, it’s important to think of fit before acceptance rate or admission likelihood.
I would add that many colleges that admit B/C students, from the Penn State branches to WVU to Ole Miss, share a strong sense of pride. There’s more to spirit and pride than acceptance rate.
@MYOS1634 It seems like @MomStudent2017 is looking at in-state schools for her junior S. I think it’s reasonable to look at VMI and see it can be a fit. As you correctly suggested, VMI is not for everyone. For example, kids who go there just because their father went there leave during the first week when the hazing becomes intolerable.
It could be a fit but @MomStudent2017 and S should visit the school first to see if it can be in the running for applications next fall.
I think I may be in the minority about Naviance…I found it was absolutely useless when used for specifics of comparing my kids stats with their fellow students. (I will temper my statement by saying that your school district/school specific information is only as good as the person who is responsible for inputting the statistics makes it and I guess our school district needs to hire someone else to input our statistics!) Certainly the overall national averages and the 25% - 75% information was more helpful for us (but I also wonder how accurate the information is if it is based off of the info inputted by the high schools?). If we had followed the information we gathered about our district’s acceptances/denials/stats My D16 would never even have applied to over half of her schools. We cross referenced the national averages with our district averages to make a decision. So far she has been accepted to 10 schools. Most of which if we just went off of the school districts stats she had NO chance of being admitted. So be sure to look at the national information not just your school’s stats. I also did not like that there was no way to track if the teacher has received the recommendation request, was working on it or what day it was submitted. There are a lot of little glitches to Naviance that are irritating IMO but in general it is an OK tool, just not the comprehensive tool that our school district touts it to be.
Don’t be afraid to try for those reach schools because your stats are not about the 75% or even 35%. You may be surprised at what schools are really looking for in a student. I honestly think that some schools look at a kid with B’s and a rigorous course load as a good bet.
I don’t think you are alone with your reservations about Naviance, @labegg.
Our experience probably isn’t typical because my son’s high school was small enough that they only posted acceptance/waitlist/denial information and not actual scores/GPAs. But the biggest issue was that we had no idea which students were hooked when reviewing the statistics. My son was denied and wait-listed at schools where he was at or above the 75th percentile for admitted students and where his HS had a good track record. I think we may have been fooled by the number of athletes/legacies/URMs admitted to these schools.
When colleges and universities have separate tracks for hooked and unhooked students (which I have no issues with), it would be nice if they and Naviance were transparent about that information.
I also find the Naviance data incomplete, at least in our district. In some instances, I think they don’t list anything at all if it’s a very small number of applicants, but in other cases, I think the data just isn’t there to begin with. That’s certainly the case for schools where I know more than zero of the applicants for this year. Still, overall, it’s helpful.
@bjkmom, thanks for the feedback on Towson. S and I really liked it during the college tour, and I think of the two he’s been accepted to I like it better. It’s always good to hear how people’s experiences are since the tour is not really a good picture of what it’s like to be a student there! Originally he had no interest in S, but I’m glad he decided to apply and visit so he has 2 schools to choose from.
Today I got accepted at Scranton University and I am surprised but really happy. I had a 3.1 GPA and a SAT score between 1600-1700. What’s surprising is I got a scholarship for $10,000 which is a complete shock because I thought I didn’t qualify for a scholarship. I also applied to their DPT program and got wait listed but at least I got into their College of Arts and Sciences. I don’t want to get B students too confident but just saying there are tons of schools that are okay with B students. I think the bottom line is that you should put the best application possible to these schools no matter what your grades are especially if your a B or C student. I am currently at a competitive High school in my state which is 3rd in my state and a Top 20 ranked school in the country. I mostly took honors and 1 Ap class which is an ok course load. I did Boxing and some community service so not really all that much ECs but I believe I put good amount of effort in them especially Boxing which I do year round. I don’t know about essay but peers and teachers said it was good. Bottom line I hope this gives at least hope for average students and give them hope that as long you put your effort in applying to these schools you definitely have at least a shot at these schools.
Why does it always have to be full time? Here is the link to Boston University’s Metropolitan College. You can get a BS in Economics part time. No SAT requirement, and they basically take in as many as enroll. Like $1300 per course.
Boston College has the same thing. I graduated from Boston College Woods college in 1992. I have the exact same degree on my wall that someone now pays $240,000 for.
I’ll admit I’m no fan of Boston College at this time. So I suggest you send your B & C students to BU and pay a cheaper rate. In case your wondering, BC deemed my daughter inadmissible to BC and I’m completely upset with that university.
@VAOptimist – thanks, we have a tour scheduled @ West Virginia U during spring break.
So far most of the colleges that fit the criteria are part of the U of PA system, which I know very little about.
We haven’t run the #'s, but hubby doubts S’17 will qualify for any $, which is why we haven’t focused on colleges outside of VA. But, once he takes the SAT & receives his final GPA in June, I guess we may have to re-group.
For OOS colleges, we will try to visit East Carolina U & NC State during spring break. Towson U is also on our list to visit.
Looking to the the future, I have bookmarked this thread for my son who will need it when his time comes. I am curious about Towson. I looked it up after reading about it here and it looks good but I wonder if it is mainly a commuter school? Are there enough OOS students to provide an active social life on the weekends?
We have the same reservation–not sure what magic # makes a college a commuter campus. The CollegeBoard lists Towson as a commuter college. USNews indicates that 26% of the 18K students live on campus.
@MomStudent2017 I can recommend ECU, one of my friends is going there for grad school and another one has applied for this upcoming fall. They think its pretty great. I toured University of North Carolina Greensboro and I thought it was really nice.
@me29034 and @MomStudent2017, we took a tour of Towson and learned that the reason it seems like there are so many commuter students is that many of the students live right across the street in apartment housing that caters to college juniors and seniors. So, even though the percentage living off campus looks high, in some cases, their apartments are closer to the classroom buildings than students living on campus. The campus guarantees housing for the first two year for all full-time students now, so I think most tend to stay on campus and then move across the street after that.
@lifegarding – good to know! This is one of the reasons I tell S’17, and others who ask why we’re visiting so many campuses, that it’s important to attend the info session/tour because you may learn something not found in the glossy brochures/e-mails he receives or the on “information overload” college websites.
I appreciate all the comments. I’m scouring all the websites I can to find the right “fit” for him. On the other hand, my hubby wants to hire a college counselor. Has anyone done this – pros & cons?
@MomStudent2017 You may have financial constraints, so apart from those, many of the Catholic schools are nice options for B/B+ students. They offer a very comprehensive college experience that you will not find at state regional schools.
Hi. I hired a counselor for my children and she was worth every penny. She was very big on FIT. That was her first step - learning about your child and what THEY want. I knew their guidance counselor at HS wouldn’t be helpful because she told me that she recommended two colleges to ALL of her students. She also said to stay away from smaller schools! Really? So smaller colleges like Tulane, WashU and SMU are too small! Funny. She doesn’t even know my children and what their passions are. In fact one of those schools that she recommended didn’t even offer any of the classes that they’d like to learn.
At first I tried to do it myself and I literally gave up. It is a lot of work to learn about each college and what their culture is like. I even had a list and discussed it with our private counselor. She literally went one by one with why it wasn’t a good fit and she told me to throw out the list. Funny. For example, she would tell us that college is way too cut throat and competitive and that my child would hate it there. Another college doesn’t give out A’s which my D would hate too. Several schoold don’t want OOS students - they have too many to begin with. On and on… So she gave my children a list of colleges that FIT them and offered what they were looking for (i.e. foreign languages, majors, etc.). Then she would tell them to visit and give feedback so she would know if the list needed to be modified.
I had a professor friend tell us the FIT is the most important so visiting is definitely important. He is right. You will feel the vibe, get a feel for the campus, etc. You’ll know pretty quick if it fits. We literally left one college because we knew right away it didnt’ fit at all. He said if you can, try to pick the collge that makes you the happiest because happy students are successful students. Its so true. My kids literally LOVE their colleges and they are SO happy too. They are also very successful because of that.
You can do it yourself but it will take a lot of time and effort whereas hiring someone who knows the answers saves time and money. The private counselor has 20+ years whereas I have none. So you get what you pay for. For example, we were about to visit a university and our private counselor told us not to because they dont’ want OOS students and it is even harder to get in. They expect perfect scores and you’ll have to pay full price too. So we didn’t visit!
@MomStudent2017 I forgot to mention something funny. When I told my son I hired a private counselor he got so ANGRY! It took a long time to convince him to work with her. At the end of the whole process he was SO THANKFUL she helped him. He said it was worth every penny and he said she made it happen! He got accepted to his #1 choice because of her. That’s what he said. Very sweet.
You can have them help with various aspects of the college process. The college search, the college application - including essays, all 4 years of HS (guidance), when to take all the exams (SAT, ACT, SAT subject tests), EC’s, etc. We chose all of it. You can get help with whatever you need help with.
Also, another big thing is she motivated them to complete their applications early which I know I would haven’t had any success at. She set up due dates and they grumbled but got it done. The essays took up so much time and they had to rewrite them many times. My D is a gifted writer and she had to rewrite her common app 4 times (to go deeper)! My kids had their applications and testing completed before they started their Senior year and that alone helped them in getting admitted.
