@jhmoney Nope not at my D’s private high school. She took 1 semester DE’s off-campus over the Summer which were 1 credit college courses and unfortunately we had an inexperienced guidance counselor who did not know and actually changed two of the students SSAR from 2 grades to 1 grades (for the 1 credit classes) on their SSAR reporting. It was a mess and the college encouraged my D to appeal based on inaccurate reporting. They even told her exactally what to say in the appeal letter. It was the perspective college who was the one who actually advised the GPAs were diluted and why it happened. We would have never known. With all that, her appeal was denied, the college admissions officer felt awful but did encourage her to transfer in next semester. No chance. In my daughter’s instance, she had 4 - 1 credit DE’s which were taken in the summer which were marked as 1 grade instead of 2 on SSAR. She also had DE’s and AP’s taken at her school throughout the year as well. It was amazing to us that FSU caught the error and re-evaluated. My son in 2012 did not have to deal with self-reporting on SSAR, back then it was traditional send in all your transcripts and we will evaluate. All his admissions were seamless.
It was a life lesson for my D and I let others know to just be aware. Unfortunately, it didnt make sense to us and we had no idea. All-in-all she is in the perfect school for her. Sometimes what they think they want, wouldn’t have been a good fit. When she visits her friends at the other school she realizes she is at the best college for her and despite the distress at the time last year, everything played out the way it was meant to and she couldn’t be happier.
Understand… I truly think unless you have someone who understands the apps, the SSAR and other nuances , you are at a disadvantage… i cant tell you how many people called me during the process on what box to check, what to do etc… i only know because i read this site, i ask a ton of questions and read up on it… but i can totally see someone missing that double entry… I’m guessing more than half the people or more put it in once. back in the day we sent the transcript via the mail lol… too many mistakes for the negative can occur entering manually… but thats the process and we work with it… i hope everyone gets in… would love for the schools to build more building more dorms to allow so many qualified kids to get in.
Got the packet, stickers, poster but DS only has eyes for UCF, same Benacquisto either way. He doesn’t care to visit FSU after great UCF NM visit. NMF 1570 SAT 4.0 UW GPA.
UCF really rolls out the red carpet, he feels he will really have opportunities with the housing and BHC there but FSU not the same in apparent interest.
@CFLdad so after the UF debacle. One of the boys was offered engineering but had to go to Sante Fe and then transfer to UF. Both of the other boys got very nice packages (and so did my daughter) from UCF. The boys both went to UCF and are very happy. Being a gator family, never and I mean never in a million years did I think we would have a Nole and happy at that. I am going to admit we have been pleasantly surprised with FSU, the teachers, staff and lots of opportunities. She had the option to transfer to UF and she is so happy that she is staying put and loooking forward to summer abroad at FSU’s campus in Florence. FSU is truly an amazing college with such a caring, helpful administration! (Gulp! I never thought I would say that - lol!!)
@jhmoney I agree. So many hard-working, intelligent kids but colleges are getting just packed. I think the 3 Florida State Schools, UCF, FSU and UF are all great options. My thought is with Florida Prepaid and 100% bright futures a Florida free education was the best option for my D. My daughter can pick and choose wherever she wants to go for law school, but hoping she stays in Florida. BTW UGA and Vanderbilt were amazing Admissions offices as well. If she was offered more money she would have went to UGA. Was so impressed by how much they care about their students.
my S got a fun packet with stickers in the midwest the other day. He was accepted OOS with a tuition waiver; so instate prices, which are really reasonable! Thanks, Florida!
@Happy4u2 - still trying to fathom taking 4 HS full year credits in the summer. That would be like 8 college classes in the summer, right? Was that crazy? Or split between two summers? . . . we did have a friend take a full AP physics class crammed into one semester . . . would that have counted as 1 pt or .5 on the SSAR? still trying to wrap my finger around this for my D23’s sake.
@bgbg4us that was total for all her summers. She started end of 8th grade summer as soon as she was eligible to take classes. She worked real hard, which still paid off because she is able to get her Masters in 4 years and Florida Prepaid will pay 1 semester of that too.
The DEs she took on her high school campus (was a private school) counted as .5 for 1 semester i.e DE Calculus so with the DE Calcus the next DE class taken the 2nd semester (i.e DE Trig) filled the other .5 credit when reporting on SSAR to equal a total of 1 credit for the year. So because my daughter had other DE’s worth 1 full credit, it should have been entered on SSAR twice. So 2 A’s for 1st semester and an A 2nd semester. That is how UF explained same to us (after the fact). The SSAR deficiency was not flagged or caught before acceptances were released when I talked to the UF admissions counselor. This is why she said my D had a very good case for appeal. Especially since Our highschool was clueless and said they will see that all the DE credits from the local community college’s transcripts and will weight them all as worth 3 credit hours This was not the case because perspective colleges (UF and FSU) dont ask for DE college transcripts until acceptance. They rely totally on the SSAR reporting. The APs are pretty clear cut since they are taken on the high school campus. It was quite the learning experience. Most will have no problem with normal DEs on their SSAR, she even had friends who were not offered any college admissions to any Florida college because of an 1150 SATs but did get offered PACE because of 1st gen. Like I said everyone lands where they need to.
I’m an FSU grad and had the same feelings when our daughter went to UF! They tried to get the parents to do the Chomp at orientation, but I just couldn’t do it. Thrilled our son is going to FSU!
We are still waiting on the packet, too! We are excited that my daughter was accepted with OOS waiver. She’s visiting a few top choice schools now, but FSU is definitely up there.
We are in PA and my DD got her packet a few days ago. She also got the OOS waiver and it’s one of her top two choices. Now to get those honors essays done in the next two days!
They strip down the GPA to only grades in core classes, DE, AP, IB and AICE. They toss all electives or non core class DE like speech and those are the grades they look at.