Colleges for "B" Students

<p>Any ideas for the average "B" student with a 3.2 average. We live in the northeast, but willing to travel up to a thousand miles - which means midwest and southeast. Since my son hasn't taken the SAT yet - only a junior - I can't post those grades. He's interested in a school with active sports teams (prefererably Division 1) and at least 5,000 students. Doesn't know what he wants to major in yet, but probably business related. Any ideas?</p>

<p><a href="http://www.usnew.com/aplus%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.usnew.com/aplus&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br>
Don't know how many D1 schools are in the mix. What other interests besides sports?</p>

<p>Is that weighted or unweighted GPA?</p>

<p>Take a look at Alabama.</p>

<p>So far, unweighted. He has a slight learning disability which involves reading comprehension. He has made great strides in his academics, but I don't think he will take any AP classes. He has a resource room class once a day and that, combined with the fact that he had to take his first year of Spanish over again, doesn't leave a lot of extra room for AP's after meeting his requirements to graduate.</p>

<p>is he interested in playing D1 sports, or watching??</p>

<p>3.0 is a B average
3.2 is close to a B+ (3.3)</p>

<p>Did S take the PSAT last year (sophs in NYC public schs took the exam last week)?</p>

<p>If S is interested in D1 sports as a spectator:
Syracuse
UConn
Fordham
Penn State</p>

<p>stronger academics than sports (but still D1 teams):
UMass - Amherst
Northeastern
UWisc - Madison</p>

<p>3.2 unweighted may not be so bad if any of the courses were at least honors. Here in Florida, if he (eventually) has reasonable SAT or ACT scores and is OOS, UCF or USF are considerations if he had some honors courses. For in-state they are getting more competative, but the higher the SAT, the lower the GPA can be and still be accepted. And they weight for honors.</p>

<p>You might want to look at Coastal Carolina's website.</p>

<p>Alot is going to depend on his SAT's/ACT grade. My kid was a B student and really crummy SAT's but average ACT of 23. I liked the Book- "America's Best Colleges for B Students" by Tamra Orr. It had a variety of schools (large-small-urban, rural etc). I know some may suggest you check out the Lauren Pope book- colleges that Change Lives, but I found that was mostly directed to small, rural colleges.<br>
There are pelnty of great choics out there, but you may need his SAT grades before you can give a school serious consideration.</p>

<p>Some good suggestions:</p>

<p><a href="http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/aplusrankindex_brief.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/aplusrankindex_brief.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>He did not take the PSAT last week. I know he is much stronger in math than verbal, however.</p>

<p>If your son wants business, and you are out of state for UConn, it is really a reach school, in my opinion. Also, I think that Syracuse for business is reach, but a reasonable reach. Same with NEU, Fordham, and Penn State (very likely to get into a campus that is not the main one at Penn State, which he won't like if he wants D1 sports). I think you need to investigate some match schools, and safeties, but those suggestions are good for reach schools. Sorry, I don't know which schools have D-1 to give you suggestions.</p>

<p>If you go to the NCAA websit portal page, you can list by division by sport. There are many small Div I universities. They are often snacks for the bigger schools but it is worth $$$ for them to be eaten alive.</p>

<p>If he is looking for athletic scholarships, Div II may be of interest to him</p>

<p>My middle son is at the University of Denver, where he is very happy. Other schools he considered/got in to with stats like your sons: Michigan State, University of Pittsburgh, Syracuse, George Mason, University of Arizona, Arizona State, Indiana</p>

<p>Some other possibilities:</p>

<p>Hofstra (much less selective than the schs in my first post)
UVM (a safety for many and has D1 sports)
UPitt
Indiana</p>

<p>You might want to spend some time on <a href="http://www.collegeresults.org%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.collegeresults.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>It will let you search by median ACT/SAT, size, location and private/public.</p>

<p>If you can guesstimate his SAT score, it will give you a sense of the kind of schools within his range.</p>

<p>If by Division 1 he means big-time football programs that are now called "BCS" (formerly Division 1-A) schools, that is a universe of about 120 schools. With a 3.2 and reasonably good standardized test scores he would have a decent shot at Indiana, Purdue, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio State and Michigan State in the Big 10. All of them have very good to excellent business schools. He should also look at South Carolina, Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky and Tennessee in the SEC. Other schools to consider are Cincinnati (Big East), Ohio University (MAC) and Memphis (C-USA).</p>

<p>If he's not looking for big-time football, the universe of D-1 programs gets much larger (more than 300) and includes a lot more schools in the northeast.</p>

<p>My son is looking for big-time football as a spectator. Thanks for all your great suggestions.</p>

<p>West Virginia U
South Florida
Florida State
South Carolina</p>