<p>And by the way I am impressed by the college confidential community. And I’m thankful for for all your comments. I did not have anyone to discuss with him details and I thought the guidance counselor at the school he will be competent enough to deal with it.</p>
<p>I think you are right that her weakness is her GPA. </p>
<p>Also, you were asking if she didn’t take a lot of APs. Maybe it was better for her that she didn’t take that much otherwise her GPA could have been lower since she probably was overwhelmed with the workload? Again, I’m just basing it on her GPA UW and W. </p>
<p>Her ACT though is really good. If she re-apply next year, don’t submit her SAT if it’s not required. There are schools that doesn’t require SAT II if you submit the ACT. But there are schools that want you to submit everything. Then there are some that you can select which one to submit through score choice.</p>
<p>Edited pronouns. For some reason I thought you have a son for some reason.</p>
<p>What’s interesting about D is that her grades picked up to straight As when she started taking AP classes in junior and senior year especially in math and physics. That’s why I said more APs might have been better. She did not submit her SATs</p>
<p>@ MYOS1634 “She is allowed to take non credit classes though (CPR and first aid, community education, etc.)”</p>
<p>Question: Can a student take community college courses that are remedial and nontransferable, but which offer credits at the community college transcript, and still be considered a 0-freshman at another college? They’re courses that are sub-college level. </p>
<p>What does remedial mean? What I has in mind is courses that will help improve GPA for next applications round</p>
<p>I don’t believe any courses taken after HS graduation will impact the cumulative HS GPA. Her HS GPA is what it is. Once she graduates, it won’t change.</p>
<p>That makes sense to me although I heard otherwise from non expert resources. Anyone know how PG year work in terms of GPA?</p>
<p>I agree with @momofzag. The GPA is set once graduation occurs. Gap years are generally used to work on some other aspect of the application package (ECs) or to just retool the school list. The two classes of students I’ve seen attend Prep Schools after HS graduation were for Service Academies to help prepare them or retime for when a slot would open up, or athletes to get them NCAA qualified. </p>
<p>I think some of her choices are just fine. What would be other schools of interest? As others have said, from what I have seen, getting into a school that rejected you the year before does not seem to happen much. The only time I’ve seen it happen is with transfers who ace that freshman year, and the school to which they are reapplying takes a reasonable number of transfers. My friend’s daughter had the same experience as yours. Did not get into any schools she wanted. She picked the one that had the best selection of courses and opportunites and transferred the next year She did get into schools that WLed her, none that had rejected her, and some new possibilities, and she took up on one, a top 25 school where she is today. </p>
<p>Unless she has some very good ideas for a gap year that would open up some eyes at admissions offices, I don’t think it’s going to do her a whole lot of good. Also a true gap year means committing to a school many times and just having the option to start a year later. Often such contracts include language attesting that you DO NOT take college level courses for credit in that time or apply to other schools. </p>
<p>BC and ND are not matches for your DD in any sense of the word. Michigan was, and it’s unfortunate she did not make the cut but I define match schools as those where you have a half a chance, so it’s no surprise to get rejected or WLed at half ones match schools. I think NE was a match. That has become a hot school in last few years and there is a wealth of possibilities there. I’ve known kids who transfered out of UVt to selective colleges, by the way. </p>
<p>Here is the problem: it appears to me that your DD wants to go to a college that is a reach for just about anyone. By definition, her chances are small for getting accepted to one of those schools, especially if her picks are running under the 25% accept line. That she has no outstanding hook, puts her at about half of that in terms of chances, so that statistically speaking she needs to apply to 10-12 such school for a chance of getting into one just as a perfect example of the stat. But it doesn’t always work that way, and she just might be a type where her chances are lower yet, simply because there are just so many kids in the category where she falls. I think being a knock out transfer applicant would give her a better chance. Plus she may end up enjoying her pick.</p>
<p>diyu: as far as I know, any credit-bearing college class, remedial or not, taken after HS graduation, “counts”. It does not count if taken while in high school.</p>
<p>cluelessly: your daughter was probably underachieving due to being placed in classes at a lower level than what her abilities required.
“remedial” means “to catch up”. For instance, if your reading skills are at the 8th or 9th grade level and you’re in college, you’d have remedial English.
A PG year WILL add a GPA since it’s high school. Some schools add the PG GPA to the HS GPA, others treat it separately. Even if they don’t add it, it provides one more year for A’s in challenging coursework. Families with kids with middling GPAs and who can afford it choose this option for precisely that reason. It’s far from cheap though. In addition, I would think application deadlines have passed. Investigate the prep schools in your town or within driving distance.</p>
<p>Do you need financial aid (need based) to pay for college? Are you looking for scholarships?
There are excellent honors programs at public flagships that offer scholarships and great academic experiences: Penn State Shreyer, USCarolina Honors, ASU Barrett, plus the famous-on-these-boards UAlabama automatic honors scholarships.</p>
<p>@MYOS1634 The deadline has passed for the PG year in the boarding schools in our area and yes it is a very expensive option. My D did much better on her AP subjects. I agree she was simply under-challenged and she also matured over the last 1-2 years and became a very strong student. My concern for her in the large schools like BU or even Northeastern is that she will be with several thousands students and she does much better in small classes when her teachers know her personally. I am not confident that she will be able to navigate a large classroom in a large school successfully. And that is why I am hoping she would take a year off and reapply to smaller schools that are known to be academically strong. Duke- like school in terms of size and hands on guidance for kids would be the best scenario. </p>
<p>@cptofthehouse Can you please tell why you think BC was not a match for her in your opinion? I was looking at the threads and I felt that she fares well compared to others who were accepted. BC is a favorite of mine.</p>
<p>We are looking for scholarships for sure. We would love for her to stay within New England or the DC area. I am not sure need based financial aid works for us. I feel we are just above the cut. One of the reasons I think she should reapply is to investigate the scholarships. I felt I am prepared to go deep in debt if she gets into a school that is selective and boosts her chances for getting a good job. But if she is not getting into those schools then it is a lot less attractive to suffer financially to pay for college. I hope I am not coming across as unappreciative of some of the excellent schools out there. </p>
<p>I really liked Northeastern but she did not :)</p>
<p>
I would only take this approach after some research. I am assuming that her boarding school will graduate her at the end of the yr. Many colleges consider students that take any classes after graduation as transfer students.</p>
<p>Which school did she deposit at?</p>
<p>Did she get into Honors programs at any of the schools? </p>
<p>Lawrence University is still taking applications. </p>
<p>University of Edinburgh has a Freshman Year abroad program. </p>
<p>I hate the idea of taking a gap year because you didn’t get in where you wanted to. </p>
<p>I too thought that BC would have been a match. </p>
<p>She deposited at BU a school with close to 5 k students. I know it is a great school but I am very concerned that it is a poor fit for her. She surprisingly did not get into any Honor programs or even scholarships. Althought I am not sure if she even applied for that. Remember she is in boarding school abroad and I am clueless as my name implies :)</p>
<p>My son’s school and the catholic schools in my area as well as that in the north east corridor basically have the entire top 10-20% of the class applying to BC. A lot of those kids have some connection via legacy or knowing someone. It’s a hot school. The other thing is that the numbers are slightly skewed against females. Yes, I’ve tracked this over time. Your DD would have less than half a chance of getting accepted to BC, in my son’s school’s scattergram, and I am sure, in fact I know that a good number of those accepted have some contact, some hook. I’ve had 2 kids accepted at BC, both males, one with nearly perfect SAT scores, the other an athlet. Both with schools with strong ties to BC–the gcs knew they were accepted before they did. My current kid who is applying to colleges next year is considered a low reach for BC which means he has less than a coin flip chance, and his stats are close to your DD’s. </p>
<p>The other issue here is the type of curriculum this European boarding school has and what its record in in terms of what the kids get on the AP exams or even if they tend to take them after taking the courses. Can you look at any info that shows acceptances to colleges over the past few years, US ones? Not just anecdotes. I can glance at my son’s school’s Naviance charts and pretty much tell you what the chances are for a kid to get into a a particular school, the ones that have a lot apps from that school. BC is at the 48% point from there with a lot of cluster points, so I cannot consider BC a match for him. Your DD might have the advantage for of diversity as most applicants from son’s school get a yawn, but a dis for gender. Though half a chance might be a match for some people, I look more at 60% as that point, and it just don’t do it. </p>
<p>Also look at the female and ED/RD breakdowns. More females apply so the accept rates are less than those for the male. ALso if she applied RD, the over all chances of RD students is a frightening 26.3% and for females, my guess is that they are even less than a quarter. When you are looking at numbers below, say a third for acceptances, that is NOT a match school unless she was one of the very top kids in the college pool. </p>
<p>I like BC too, but am also struggling with the cost of it. It would cost us a quarter million, probably more And transportation is not up there in cost for us. Chances of merit a virtually zip as he would lucky to get accepted and the bro with the top SATs did not get offered a dime. We don’t qualify for fin aid. The school is really out of our league price wise. </p>
<p>For financial aid, you shouldn’t “feel” that you won’t qualify for aid, you should know :). Go to the collegeboard website and complete the net price calculator for each school listed on this thread plus the schools your daughter may reapply to. Unless you have a complicated financial situation (rentals, small business…) the numbers you get should be pretty good.</p>
<p>Note that community college don’t offer AP classes.</p>
<p>Duke is a crapshoot, meaning her odds right now or next year are about 1 in 10 at best. In addition, it is NOT a small school and isn’t very nurturing, although it’s certainly much better in terms of faculty ratios, staff numbers, etc. than public flagships. Might you be confusing it with Davidson?
Read this thread and have your daughter read it, too:
<a href=“Not Quite Over, But This Story Shows How Drastically Lists Can Change Over Time - Admission Stories - College Confidential Forums”>Not Quite Over, But This Story Shows How Drastically Lists Can Change Over Time - Admission Stories - College Confidential Forums;
<p>A match is a school where your odds are 50-50 and based on her profile BC is indeed a match. However, the lower the admission rate, the lower the odds. The closer you are to top 10%, the higher the odds so that would be mitigated (not completely erased but mitigated) for your daughter since an SAT 2100-2130 or ACT 32 is the the top 25% mark - so her ACT would definitely help her reach the top 10%. The primary factor is course rigor (5 core classes, 4-8APs/IB, mostly Honors classes). With an admission rate below 30% (30% and under = should be treated as an automatic reach) and perhaps fewer “rigorous” courses as expected, this may explain the results.
In addition, some colleges practice yield protection: if a top applicant hasn’t demonstrated interest, they worry that the school isn’t viewed seriously so they turn the applicant down.</p>
<p>If you want scholarships, you’re going to have to relax your geographic criteria. For unhooked applicant the only “mini hook” they can get is that of geographic diversity, ie., for schools with admission rates above 30% it helps to apply from 400+miles away. For schools in the 18-30% rate, it’s just a little nudge.</p>
<p>It is never useful for a parent to go “deep in debt” for a child’s college, unless we’re talking Harvard, and even that isn’t advisable. There are lots of colleges that would love to have your daughter and would provide her with enough scholarships. However, none of the most famous schools have merit aid, so if you earn more than 200K and won’t qualify for aid (DO check the net price calculators on each school, since each calculates differently) don’t apply for aid at need aware schools. And make sure she demonstrates interest by filling out the “'request info” forms for each college she’s looking into. It doesn’t commit her to anything and it’s entirely free.</p>
<p>When did she turn in her UMich app? That one does surprise me as I know some kids from here accepted there with stats comparable to your DD’s. In fact I don’t know anyone rejected with those stats. Again BC favors EA heavily (40% accept rate) Same as Michigan. The reach schools on your DD’s list are lottery tickets as is ND. BC a low reach, but a reach nonetheless. She would have been highly unlikely to get into her reach school and ND from the Naviance chart I am viewing, and they have very strong clusters with a lot of data points. She would have been a low reach for BC. A match for Michigan, but you know, with match defined even as a 60% go, you need about 5 such schools for 3 hits there, and it could just be the luck of the way odds fell there. Match does not mean sure thing. You will get rejected from at least half of your true match schools. </p>
<p>I honestly regret not finding this site 18 months ago. You are all so knowledgable and your comments are very useful. Is it possible to create a parent account for the college board website?</p>
<p>She applied early action to U Mich and deferred. As I said her GPA went up dramatically over senior year so she submitted an application with GPA of 3.6. It was also a hasty application in my view. Her application qualities afterwards steadily improved.</p>
<p>^That’s why the gap year can be useful: you’ll have all this information in hand and be able to help your daughter. 
Is there “City Year” near you? it’s a good volunteering program.
<a href=“http://www.cityyear.org/”>http://www.cityyear.org/</a></p>
<p>Anyone can open an account on the collegeboard website (Big Futures).
You can also enter your numbers on each college’s website and see the results, which is tedious but you don’t need to create an account (if you prefer).</p>