Extreme upward trend in grades - What to expect?

Parents Forum
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<p>My son had about a C- average after five semesters of high school. In his fifth semester - fall semester of junior year - he was doing so badly that we transferred him to a boarding school where he is now doing incredibly well, probably an A or A- minus average. </p>

<p>He hasn't taken his SATs yet but let's predict about 650 for each, based on past test performance. He has scored 99 percentile on some tests and most recently about 90 percentile on the PSATs.</p>

<p>FWIW his first high school is an extremely competitive public school which is dominated by very bright and hard working first generation students. He couldn't excel so he didn't try. At the boarding school they pay a lot of attention to him and it's just what he needs.</p>

<p>Also, they love him at the boarding school so I think he'll get rave recommendations. And he's good enough to be a Div III athlete.</p>

<p>So what could he expect in college admissions? Will there be places where they take the time to notice the details and overlook three to five (if they look at freshman year) bad semesters? Do any of the bigger schools take the time to do that, specifically UMDCP or Pittsburgh or Penn State? Does he even have a shot at a better LAC where he could contribute to the sports program?</p>

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<p>It would be difficult to COMPLETELY overlook 3-5 bad semesters, but the rec from GC at the boarding school could have big influence in getting them to focus on the upward trend in grades. The kid of a friend had a similar situation and the college he ended up going to wanted to see first semester senior grades before saying yes. He also took his ACT again and got a higher score.</p>

<p>Definitely look for a college that mirrors the supportive environment you’ve found at the boarding school while doing your college search. Ask the GC for recommendations. It could be that she or he has a relationship with admissions from some of these colleges.</p>

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<p>ditto what ellemenope posted; LACs are prob the way to go and ditto to talk to the college counseling/guidance office to find out what schools they think would work…</p>

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<p>It’s wonderful the new school environment is just what your son needed. Hats off for recognizing he needed a different approach and making that happen.</p>

<p>A few colleges expressly state they don’t consider freshman grades. I recall past threads on that topic, including some attempt at list-making. A keyword search of the archives should pull them up, or you can Google it.</p>

<p>A good place to get a feel for this boarding school’s historical college placement is their “Profile,” which should be published on their website. Sometimes, you can identify strong connections by the numbers. Those colleges may represent opportunities for your son in that they may give a tip in admissions based on the strong track record of your BS students who have matriculated there. Your GC may offer some insight on this point.</p>

<p>(As an aside, private school GCs are often conservative in their approach to admissions–obviously, they are conscious of protecting the individual student’s and overall class’ acceptance numbers at the end of the admission cycle. You may end up adding some reach schools to the list that are beyond the GC’s comfort level; by the same token, you may end up with applications to some excellent GC-recommended safety/match schools that you wouldn’t have come up with on your own.)</p>

<p>Setting aside the sports angle, an admissions scheme that is premised on holistic review will be much kinder to your son, so his list may need to be longer on private research universities and LACs. Do you recall the SSR coming into play with your first son? Frequently, it’s either unused or under-used by public HS GCs. But it’s generally considered to be a critical piece of the application process for kids coming from private HS/BS. Part of what you pay for with privates is the GC’s time, effort and thoughtful deliberation in preparing the SSR. Parents are often asked to submit information about their child to assist the GC in preparing the SSR–and in your case, I think it will be especially important to supplement the GC’s file because he/she will not have as much to work from compared to the BS “lifers.” (The parent feedback is often referred to as a “brag sheet,” but it’s more about providing a candid assessment of your child as an individual, detailing out-of-school activities and interests and sharing anecdotes and other information that make your kid jump off the page, but won’t be readily apparent from the school-centric info the GC has at hand.) Here’s a link to the SSR on the Common App site:</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/docs/downloadforms/SSR_School_Form.pdf[/url]”>https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/docs/downloadforms/SSR_School_Form.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>As a very general rule–there are always exceptions–publics are more stats-driven and rely less heavily on holistic review in admissions. They often prefer residents, which ratchets up the competition for OOS. Sometimes, there are legislative guidelines that impact admissions. </p>

<p>You can go to the websites for each of the three schools you’ve listed to get a quick idea, e.g., GPA accounts for 2/3 of the decision at Penn St. University Park - their middle 50% GPA range is 3.52-3.97. The Common Data Set suggests the top 57% had GPAs of 3.5 or better. They are fairly generous with OOS admissions - 34% - and evaluate on the same standards as in-state.</p>

<p>[Penn</a> State Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://admissions.psu.edu/academics/majors/requirements/50percent/]Penn”>http://admissions.psu.edu/academics/majors/requirements/50percent/)
[A</a>. General Information](<a href=“Error Page”>Error Page)
[Penn</a> State Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://admissions.psu.edu/facts/studentbody/]Penn”>http://admissions.psu.edu/facts/studentbody/)
<a href=“https://psu.intelliresponse.com/admissions/?interfaceID=10&id=-1&requestType=&source=1&question=out+of+state[/url]”>https://psu.intelliresponse.com/admissions/?interfaceID=10&id=-1&requestType=&source=1&question=out+of+state&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>If your son is really D3 caliber, then playing the scholar/athlete recruitment game is a very unique admissions path with its own set of rules. By now, in the spring of junior year, most families are already far down that path. If you’re not, you may wish to spend some time on that sub-forum here (College Admissions>Athletic Recruits) and talk with your son’s GC and coaches pronto. Through that process, you can also gauge the degree to which his athletic talent will be considered if he’s NOT a recruited athlete and get some lore about walk-on and other non-recruit scenarios that may apply.</p>

<p>This journey will be different from the first one. Enjoy!</p>