<p>My D is a current junior. UW GPA is 3.2 and weighted GPA is 3.45. I think she can get it to 3.5 by the end of the school year. She has taken the ACT but scored poorly--only a 21. She is working with a tutor.</p>
<p>She's taken several honors classes and dual credit courses in which she got A's that will be on a college transcript. </p>
<p>She is a varsity athlete and captain. Has close to 300 hrs of community service.</p>
<p>She is interested in attending only large schools. Any suggestions on schools that have decent academic reputations, good alumni programs that may help with future grad school and employment, Greek system, located in a safe area but a city that offers more entertainment than bars?</p>
<p>Large schools with what you are asking about is generally are the state public universities. What region of the country are you in? How far is she willing to travel and do you have a budget for out of state publics? Will she take the ACT again? While 21 is generally considered the minimum for college ready, anything she can do to raise her 3.2 GPA and her ACT will open more doors for her. </p>
<p>She is retaking the ACT as well as the SAT. She hasn’t taken the SAT so not sure which test she may score better on. </p>
<p>She is most interested in psychology and intends to attend grad school. She is open to any area of the country, but has been most interested in the southern and New England areas. </p>
<p>We do have budget for out of state publics or private schools. </p>
<p>Welcome,
There are a few threads on this issue
3.0-3.3 GPA for classes of 2013, 2014, 2015
Plus the thread: where did your 3.0-3.3 kid get in? whereby parents post this info</p>
<p>The Arizona publics are not very selective at the baseline, although she would not likely be a scholarship student there. UA and ASU do have respectable rankings for psychology graduate study, if you are using that as a criterion.</p>
<p>If she were to apply this summer when the app opens in late June/early July, Alabama would accept her. Bama is very lenient at the beginning of the app season. At that point, if she has a 3.0+ and an ACT 20+…and the req’d high school classes, it will accept her.</p>
<p>Bama has all the things you listed. I think that if you visit, she’ll be very impressed and see how it would work for her. The campus is GORGEOUS, over half of the frosh classes for the last couple of years have been OOS. The people are friendly and the academics are strong. Their students do get into excellent grad schools and med schools. Both of my kids went to Bama and the older one got into every PhD program he applied to and my younger son went on to med school (applied to 6 med schools and got into 3).</p>
<p>Remind your D that grad schools are HIGHLY competitive and GPA is VERY important. So once she’s in college, if she wants to go to grad school, then her college GPA (and GPA within major) need to be very high.</p>
<p>Mom2collegekids, we have visited Bama and I was impressed. It was during the fall and football was all the hype. My D is concerned that spring is a bit dead when football isn’t in season. Since you have experience with Bama and Tuscaloosa, can you give me some insight on college life and things to do in the town?</p>
<p>Well, I’m in Ttown this weekend and it’s hardly dead! lol </p>
<p>There were major sports events going on so the Game Day employees were out directing traffic. Both Basketball and Gymnastics (and women’s softball) are popularly attended. </p>
<p>If your D isn’t interested in watching sports other than football, then there are other things to do. What does she like to do? Intramural sports? Hiking? Biking? Gaming? Sounds like she wants Greek Life and that’s ALWAYS busy. Bama offers a full-range of intramural and club sports which students love to participate in. My younger son ran two intramural basketball teams, a volleyball team, and a tennis team. </p>
<p>Does she play an instrument?</p>
<p>Does she like to sing or act? If so, she has options that are more serious-minded or low-key.</p>
<p>Does she like going to performances? theater? symphonies? voice performances? bands? </p>
<p>She actually isn’t into going to football games, but when we visited that was what the students we met continually talked about. The atmosphere on campus was exciting with football season. I’m sure the time of year and season are why it was the focus of conversation. She is interested in Intramural sports and live music and concerts. When we looked at some concert schedules it didn’t look like many well-known performers go there, or many non-country performers. I am very impressed with the school and do believe it’s a good match, but need more info to give to my D. We may need to make a trip during spring.</p>
<p>Twoinanddone–then there isn’t much studying in the fall! That campus was rockin! That’s why we asked what the campus and town were like in the spring when football season isn’t happening. </p>
<p>Small college towns like Tuscaloosa, Iowa City, etc just don’t have the numbers to attract big name tours on a regular basis although Tuscaloosa has the amphitheater but it seems to mostly attract country and classic rock. Small college towns trend to attract up and coming performers (college alternative music is the norm; often sponsored by the college radio station) or less popular performers that are willing to play at bars and clubs and other smaller venues. We have recently seen or will see bands like Head and the Heart, Fitz and Tantrums, Cowboy Junkies, Chuck Ragan, Greg Brown, etc…all national musicians performing in our local college towns.</p>
<p>Our college town sponsors 3 big music festivals each year, 2 in the summer and one during the Spring.</p>
<p>My son’s very small college town sponsors 2 big music festivals each year, one in September and one in April. They both attract a wide range of local and national performers. </p>
<p>Some of the best college towns for students that love music are Nashville, Madison WI, Athens GA, Austin TX, and Minneapolis. Unfortunately, your daughter doesn’t have the stats for their local big universities.</p>
<p>Tempe AZ has a nice music scene and Phoenix is big enough to attract national acts and ASU within reach for your daughter.</p>
<p>U Montana in Missoula has an awesome local music scene. Small town but pretty cool and hip place.</p>
<p>If your daughter is mainly interested in big name performers then I don’t think a small college town will work. My son, wife, and I prefer the alt and local music scene, so college towns are perfect for us. We have lots of friends in bands and see them play most weeks at local bars and clubs.</p>
<p>What kind of music does your daughter like?</p>
<p>LSU would be a really good school for her. Its a fun school with good academics as well. It has eveything a state college can offer from a real tiger on campus, football tailgating to good academics. </p>
<p>If she can get her ACT up a bit then TCU and SMU may be possibilities. We have had students from our area with similar grades get accepted to those schools but their ACT was a bit higher. If you DD could keep or raise her grades first semester senior year that would also help. A great website that could help you with her college search is collegedata.com using the match feature. Look at avg. gpa spread and it will give you percentages of acceptances for each gpa or test score range. Dallas is of course filled with a lot to do. Although SMU may not be a large school I have visited and you can get a large campus feeling to it. </p>
<p>Also College of Charleston may be a possibility if she raises her ACT score. I know they are actively looking to increase their out of state student number. Also check about gpa because I heard South Carolina high schools grade on a different scale that 4.0 so avg gpa for schools like CofC may be skewed and your D may actually be in the running there with a higher gpa. Also look at LSU-it is a really nice campus and the students seemed very happy when I visited the campus. George Mason-Louisville- Virginia Commonweath may also be possibilities. </p>
<p>As others have suggested be sure to have your D apply early action where possible. This year I definitely saw better acceptance rates for those students who applied early in the process. Also check your DD’s psat score and had a zero to it and that will give you a pretty good comparison as to whether the ACT or SAT is the better option for her. Do not have her take the SAT unless she has some prep-those scores become part of her file and you can get an idea now with her PSAT. If you search the internet you can find conversion tables which will tell you which test she scores better on; look for act versus sat conversion. My own children were terrible on the ACt and did 500 points higher on the SAT so they avoided the ACT. </p>
<p>Thank you for all the info. We have been looking at some of these schools but you’ve given others to consider.</p>
<p>Itsv-- you said Do not have her take the SAT unless she has some prep-those scores become part of her file and you can get an idea now with her PSAT. It only becomes part of her file if we report the scores, correct? </p>
<p>We aren’t reporting any scores, ACT or SAT, until we see how she does. </p>
<p>It depends on the school. Some say send us all your scores; others say send us your best one day test score and others say just send us your best scores and we will superscore. Plus some high schools put all of a students test scores on their transcript and then send the transcript to the college and it now becomes part of the student’s application file. </p>
<p>I never like to see a student sit for a standardized test in a formal setting as “practice.” These tests are only given a limited time during the year. Better to do a “practice” sitting in the non-formal setting and then decide. My DD’s high school every Oct. holds a practice ACT on a Saturday. When DD got back her ACT practice score she said “well I am keeping up the family tradition of terrible ACT scores” and she focused on the SAT. Colleges do not care which test it is so it is best to focus on the test where a student does their best. Also be sure to check if any of those colleges your daughter plans on applying to requires SAT subject tests. </p>
<p>One thing I forgot to mention are those colleges that are “test optional” schools. They do not require standardized test scores. A list can be found at fairtest.org</p>