UT (Austin) is a great school, but how many “B students” are accepted there?
Oxford College of Emory, anyone?
@whenhen for ^ …
not sure if it’s for B students.
UT definitely isn’t.
What other Texas universities would be good for Jewish kids with a 3-3.5 GPA (hence, NOT top 10%, NOT top 7%, and perhaps/probably not top 20%)?
Is UT-Dallas an option, or is that too competitive too?
@MYOS1634 Probably not for strictly “B” students, but it has slightly lower admission statistics from Emory College, the other undergraduate facility of Emory University.
Does anyone have experience with the University of Tampa and Hillel or Jewish life at Tampa. DS is attending this fall.
After reading pages of content in this forum, I finally signed up this morning. The original posting years ago by rockvillemom could be written by me almost word for word today.
DD is getting ready to enter her soph year of college and the process was so stressful and so full of unknowns, that I have taken the opposite approach in the college search for DS who is getting ready to enter his junior year of high school. We learned a lot of do’s and don’ts in our first search which I feel gives me a head start this time around, but my children’s personalities are so different, I feel like I am starting from scratch in some ways.
My DS is very laid back and has a hard time making decisions of any kind so I am hoping that by joining this forum and bouncing ideas off of everybody on here, it can be a group effort to at least steer him in a direction.
Some preliminary criteria for his search has been mentioned in offhand comments here and there:
A larger school (he will be graduating w/54 kids in his grade and he is ready for a big change)
He loves to be outside, where his primary interests are fishing and golf so probably somewhere where the weather is on the mild side for most of the year.
A school with a football team (he went to one at his sister’s school and loved it)
A school with a basketball team (which he has mentioned is even more imp than a football team)
Somewhere where he can major in something that ‘might’ have to do with the outside (possibly…Marine Bio, Environmental Studies, Ocean or Environmental Engineering, etc…)
A decent Jewish population (whether it is Hillel or an AE Pi fraternity- somewhere where he would have an immediate connection and feel comfortable)
As far as where we stand now- he is a B student who has just begun working with an SAT tutor once a week and whose personality is fairly shy and reserved until he feels comfortable. I run colleges by him based on the bits and pieces I have gathered from his random hints and usually get a maybe, I don’t now or a no thank you. The indecisiveness is going to be our downfall!
@VaNcBorder You may want to check out College of Charleston .While it doesn’t have a football team, it checks off many of your other boxes. It also has a new kosher dining hall, great marine sciences program. It does have a basketball team. Full disclosure , I am not Jewish, but last week during orientation there seemed to be a strong Jewish presence at the info fair. It may be worth a look.
Thank you carolinamom for the response. While we love the city of Charleston, we have several friends that have visited CofC and have said the same thing- it doesn’t have a ‘campus’ feel. It is more of a spreadout campus with academic buildings and dorms mixed in with city builidings. I have read that you even have to look at the pattern on the pavement to differentiate between a CofC building and a regular city business. What were your impressions of the campus itself? I don’t want to rule it out because, like you said, it has a lot of what we are looking for, but a visit may be in order before he can put it on his list.
One of the things we did learn from our 1st college search was to visit at least 2 schools back to back so the comparisons are fresh and it is easier to do side by side checks. So we could combine CofC with our visits to USC (also has a lot of what he is looking for) and Clemson (a reach, but he loved it when we visited it w/our DD).
University of South Florida, maybe?
@VaNcBorder CofC is an urban campus. As with many urban campuses, the school does flow into the existing city seamlessly. The herringbone pattern of brick does define the campus , wherever there is herringbone , you are on campus. Even though it is an urban campus, it is easy to navigate .If your son is wanting a traditional campus feel, then CofC is not the best choice for him. My impression of the campus is it’s a beautiful combination of old and new architecture . It is convenient to everything. The school offers many innovative programs . The faculty is responsive , but fosters independence in the students. The opportunities for internships, volunteer opportunities , community involvement and study abroad are stellar . My son will be part of the Honors College as a William Aiken Fellow. He was accepted at Clemson , as well as Calhoun Honors, and after visiting both schools CofC was a much better fit for him. It certainly is a personal decision , that’s why I strongly suggest making school visits to really assess where your child’s needs are best met. As an aside, Clemson is a great school as well, but has become more and more competitive for admission . We are instate , and we’ve seen classmates of my son waitlisted or offered Bridge to Clemson with 4.3 GPAs.
@brantly thank you for the suggestion, but USF has a 47% acceptance rate which probably makes it an unrealistic option for my B average son. In looking at schools in FL, we have found that the schools are too small or too large and the ones that have a just right number of students are much harder to get in to. But, FL (esp the east coast of FL) would be great for him.
@carolinamom2boys you have brought up some impressive inormation about CofC and we can add it to our school tour list that we plan to get through during the course of this next school year. I know a visit will be the ultimate determining factor. As far as Clemson, I knew it would be a reach for him and it is on our very rough draft of possibilities. He (and all his classmates) will meet with his school college counselor towards the end of his junior year with a rough list to be given a reality check on what might be a good fit and what is beyond his realm.
@VaNcBorder Good luck to your son. I’m sure he’ll find just the right fit for him .
hello i have followed this thread for a long time and currently have a D who was a class '15 if you like USF do not take it off of your list…they calculate gpa by transcript and a 3-3.5 maybe a lot higher than you think…D’15 was solid 3.4 coming out of a private prep…they do tend to look at test scores. They give you the grid for admission and how to calculate usf gpa on line. She had a great first year last year and can not wait to get back…we are from the midwest…
Great price for OOS and with automatic scholarships it makes it cheaper than many in state universities.
@vaNcborder: seconding CoC and USF. Adding UNC Wilmington, basically checks off all of your boxes except football.
Eckerd doesn’t have the sports but definitely the strong Marine Bio and Environmental Science you seek. UTampa could be good, too.
@hoosier96, I appreciate the feedback on USF. It sounds like it has been a great match for your daughter.
@myos1634, UNC Wilmington is on our list. His concern w/both UNCW and CofC is the high ratio of girls to boys, but I don’t know if that is a deal breaker. Eckerd sounds ideal except for the size. DS is looking for a larger school.
I am curious if your username means you went to IU? Even though it is north of us, it has so much of what my son is looking for that it has been added to the list as well.
FSU and UCF would also be on the list if their acceptance rate wasn’t so low.
I really appreciate the suggestions so far.
@VaNcBorder While we were on campus for orientation last week at CofC, I thought that the ratio of females to males would be much more evident , but it really wasn’t to my surprise. I would suggest if you do visit, take a trip while school is in session to get a good idea . They usually have an open house in Oct on a Sat, just FYI.
Does anyone have experience with the University of Tampa and Hillel or Jewish life at Tampa. DS is attending this fall.
We have been looking South for colleges but both University of New Hampshire and University of Rhode Island offer a lot of what my son is looking for. Does anybody have any first hand information about either school?
I live in Rhode Island. URI is a good school. Medium sized with around 11,000 students. They do have a fairly active Hillel.