FL public schools for a B average student [3.0 GPA, 1420 SAT, political science]

You have to decide if a school is worth the price. My daughter went to Florida Tech when BF paid about half of what it does now, but it was just one of her grants and scholarships. At the time, there was also a resident grant of $2500 (now it is called EASE and has a need component to it), but most of her money came from the school.

If you want/need for full tuition to be paid by BF, he needs to go to a public school. To get the higher award (full tuition and $300/sem books), he’d need a 3.5 gpa. For the medallion award (75%), he needs a 3.0. There are other requirements too, like 2 years of foreign language and community service hours.

2 Likes

As a father of an OOS kid that was accepted into USF, I think there is a >50% chance of acceptance into summer at one of their satellite campuses.

2 Likes

Miami is a reach and he didn’t like it.
NPC for Tampa gives $4k merit grant.

NPC for St.Leo gives $13k merit grant. It is backup safety if FAU fells through.

Have you considered FGCU as a safety?

We evaluated and visited FGCU, he didn’t like it.

Yes, he wants to study political science and we know that undergrad major doesn’t matter for law.

We don’t know the budget and I don’t with a 3.0 if you get Bright Futures - but have you thought about a school like Valdosta State - they have a waiver for OOS tuition for Florida residents.

Just a thought.

We couldn’t find a good 3+3 J.D. and he wants to go a top law school (preferably OOS). We understand that it would be tough ask to get a high GPA and LSAT score with good ECs, essays etc.
We have done the basic homework.

1 Like

Yes, you get 75% for 3.0 GPA and he is working on a plan to hit 3.5 at graduation (lot of hardwork to go). That would help to get 100% in Bright futures.

2 Likes

St Leo would be less good than FAU - less range, less depth -50% classmates would have HS GPA below his own (2.5-3.2) and 40% were in the bottom half of their class. That’s not even tackling his SAT score.
The professors’ target questions&assignements wouldn’t prepare him well.
(Tcc2fsu/Aspire would be better because the “top” program’s rigor is strong, classes match prep for FSU, and candidates do transfer.)
The trick is to find a college where he’ll have the challenge he needs to prepare for his goal.
While students at top 14 law schools do come from everywhere, there’s going to be one from FIU, one from Fau, one from Rollins… at OOS law schools (and probably one in 10 or 15 years from St Leo, Barry, etc.)
UF will have a large intake from FL (60% are FL residents but they may have attended college OOS) and is a top law school, median Lsat 169/median GPA 3.9. These medians indicate high rigor.

That’s why I suggested FIU Honors. FIU is a safety but Honors would offer more motivated classmates, more challenging material, etc. That would push him.
He could email the person in charge, ask about an Honors Tour, talk about what he loves in Politicl science and History or his favorite books…

At all colleges under consideration, he may want to ask how many pages of reading are expected for each session of the Freshman seminar or Freshman English. If less than 30, it’s not good. (At colleges where kids aim for top law schools, 50-80 per session or 150-180 a week, is common. It forces them to read effectively, evaluate, synthesize, right from freshman year - in short: up their skills right away then improve.)

What do the NPCs indicate for Rollins and Eckerd?

2 Likes

Thanks for lot of good information.
St.Leo is not in the list he plans. Given his lower GPA, we want to keep our options open.
I liked FAU on our visit and hope it is a good safety.
We are not sure of FIU acceptance but he likes that school and the city.
NPC for Rollins/Eckard are high and our approach is to save $ in UG and stretch the $ for law school later. We learned this from friends who sent their children to medical schools.

1 Like

FIU is a safety and due to rigor+score, especially if he can demonstrate that he’s well-read, thinks, has intellectual curiosity, I’m willing to bet on Honors.

The advice wrt to $$ for Undergrad+professional school is solid, with 2 caveats

  • med school is paid with loans. Law schools offer scholarships, sometimes full tuition, to their best applicants.

  • premed courses are hard everywhere. Poli sci/History courses, not so much. They depend a lot more on peer quality and preparation because the level of academic challenge is not built-in. The higher caliber peers the higher caliber the class (professors will be excellent everywhere because it’s incredibly hard to be hired in poli sci, history, etc. So only the best of the best make the cut. But they can’t make up for slow reading speed, poor background knowledge, etc. So they adapt to what will stretch and challenge their average student. Think regular English v. AP English for instance. )
    To give you an example, if the average reading level means the professor assigns 15 pages and has to check whether students understood, list and explain key points, etc, you’re not getting the same class at all as a 50-page assignment where it’s assumed the pages have been read and understood so after checking that the students have highlighted the key points, the professor focuses on analyzing/synthesizing/relating to other authors, thinkers, periods -,in short, critical thinking, then the students move on to examples or case studies or in-depth work. The students in class1 will take 1 week to get -best case scenario/if ever-to what the students in class2 got to in just one period.

For these reasons, it’s worth investing a bit more at the undergrad level in preparation for law school, compared to undergrad+med school where any top 100(200?) University/LAC will be okay.

At a large, public university, the Honors college will offer such a structure even if the average student is closer to class1.
Smaller, more selective colleges may also work (those would be reaches but boy+Humanities+rigor+test scores = valuable to many colleges so it’s worth trying in my opinion. They may not come in within budget but they may work and would be worth the investment as long as funds aren’t used up and ofc as long as you avoid parental loans.)

You said he didn’t like UMiami. What DOES he like?

Can you run the NPC on St Olaf, Beloit, Loyola Chicago, Kalamazoo, Knox, Trinity CT, Skidmore, Southwestern (TX), Austin College (TX), Hendrix?
Does any come in within budget for you?

5 Likes

I’m not sure this is true. Not saying he won’t get in but based on the stats I quoted in post 4 that 68% have a recalc’d 4.0 or more and the student won’t be close - I’m not sure it can be labeled a safety.

FAU far more likely but FIU, at least to me, seems a bit more uncertain.

1 Like

If you look at the grid no public university is accessible with a 3.3. Based on the grid, a 3.7 GPA correlates to about 1100 SAT. So if the same weighting system is used for this student and the result reallyvis 3.3 (or 3.5) it’ll be flagged for review bc the SAT is typical 4.2+ territory.
The formula typically involves GPA (weighted for rigor)×SAT score and the SAT score will make FIU a safety -the TOP 25% FALL admit threshold is 1350, the TOP 25% Summer admit is 1160. Incoming FIU Honors freshmen need a 3.8 recalculated GPA and 1180, though the average is 4.2 and 1330.
Crudely, 3.7×1350 =3.5×1420. (It’s more complicated than that but it gives you a rough idea.)
The discrepancy between GPA and score will require an explanation- eg., freshman year failures due to covid -best provided by the GC, especially if GC can detail all the good work in 10th and 11th grade.
So, while universities like UF or FSU are out of reach, we can be reasonably sure FIU is a safety (super likely if you prefer…) and Honors quite possible.
It would be especially useful for the prelaw interdisciplinary seminars.
https://honors.fiu.edu/about-honors/

@mango2school:
If you recalculate the gpa using +.5 for each honors, pre AP, advanced, pre IB, pre AICE or non core DE class and +1 for each core DE and any AP, IB, Aice class, what result do you get?
If you recalculate with ONLY 10th and 11th grade results, what’s the result?

2 Likes

OK - that’s pretty detailed. Thanks

2 Likes

Really helpful.
His Sophomore GPA is 3.8 (no AP/honors rigor)
Junior is 3.9 W (3 AP and 1 honors)

The acceptance in USF, FIU, FAU depends on GPA and SAT only. So, any pragmatic officer would discount his poor freshman year with Pandemic (extraordinary world ) situation into account and admit him.
I’ve heard USF will admit for summer B in those cases.

2 Likes

Every other kid his age faced the pandemic (extraordinary world). It has nothing to do with an adcom being “pragmatic”- colleges have a certain number of seats (or beds) and they try to shape the best class they can out of the applicant pool. So just understand that your son- who had extenuating circumstances- is competing against OTHER kids who also had the same extenuating circumstances.

As long as your son knows his reaches are reaches- and your safe bets are affordable-- you’re in good shape!

5 Likes

And make sure you apply early, especially for USF and FAU.

1 Like

Totally, it should be applied fairly for all students.
I hear CA schools ignore freshman year anyway.
There should be weightage for the grade trend so older years have lower weightage in GPA.

Yes, I’ve told him on the importance of applying early. Especially USF, FIU, FAU all do rolling decisions.