Hi All. I’m new here and in need of your thoughts on this. Background: Son goes to a very small, private HS. His ACT score is top 1%. His GPA is uw 3.56. Only 4 students have rec’d a 4.0 at his school in the past 15 years. I discovered that our state’s flagship tracks state high schools for gpa transition from HS to post freshman year gpa in an effort to make gpa comparisons b/w high schools. DS school is #1 in the state (has been for many years) and it is only one of two schools in the state where the average gpa of the student increases at college (.5 average).
I know that our college counseling office does a good job at representing the rigor of the school. However, based on Naviance scores for college acceptances and comparing to other area schools for which I have Naviance codes, I do not believe the students get the gpa consideration they should. DS’s HS was not aware of the flagship study until it was given to them recently and i’m concerned they haven’t communicated rigor as well as they could/should.
My issue is two-fold: One- We will not be able to get finanical aid, nor can we afford the private colleges my son is eager to apply. Many schools that give merit money have gpa requirements that are higher than his gpa and the rigor of grading at his school will affect him. Secondly- he was very disillusioned and sad to be discouraged from applying to his dream school (legacy) which would be a reach for anyone due to selectivity. He feels with his gpa there is absolutely no chance. No one has gotten into this school from his school with below a 3.89. (And this is a similar gpa to other accepted students from other area schools).
Sad, but you all need to deal with the realities of the situation. He needs a new list; he needs a new dream.
The decision was made to send him to this small private school (I’m not criticizing, I sent my kids to a small private as well). But, when you did that, you have to accept how that school grades and the ramifications.
Tell him not to have a dream school, have a dream life. There are many schools that have the potential to be a stop on the train to that dream life.
Figure out the parameters that mom2collegekids asked you, and people here will help you obtain some good options that you might not have thought about.
I agree don’t have a dream school if you can help it. But I’d go ahead and apply to the school where he’s a legacy, you don’t know if any of the students who were accepted in the past were legacies, he may set a new low GPA-wise. Naviance is helpful, but it’s not perfect. My younger son set the low GPA point for a couple of schools where he was accepted.
^^ If he decides to apply to the legacy school, I think, with his GPA he needs to apply in the early round to have a fighting chance. Can he afford to not using the early app for a school he has more chance to get in? If so (for example, the state flag is rolling admission), then why not.
Thanks all. I appreciate your replies. When I said he had a ‘dream school’ I would have added more detail but was trying to be brief in an already long post and I think this may have ruffled some feathers with that term and overstated his position. I should have used the term ‘reach’ or one of his ‘top choice’ schools. I think ‘dream school’ may be a loaded term on these boards. The legacy school (as many legacy schools are) has been in his vocabulary since birth due to very strong family legacy of 7 relatives…years of football games, visits, graduations etc. Whether or not it is the right fit or ‘dream school’ for him is not clear as he hasn’t officially toured though he has been there many times.
He has been very realistic about his odds of being accepted to this school (and other reach schools due to selectivity) but I think it is one thing to not get into a very selective school and another to be discouraged from applying. That is very deflating. And yes, chin up and move on there are many amazing schools. And yes we selected his high school and we knew grading was rigorous, though admittedly I did not know the significance of the grading difference at the time we selected it.
He has many schools at the top of his list, but honestly, I think he will have the same issues with his gpa. He doesn’t know his major yet, though is extremely politically minded and is leaning toward International Relations, Political Science etc. His school does not weight grades or rank, no honors, no ap, no honor society. He has a 34 ACT. We are still crunching numbers trying to find a comfortable place financially. Applying ED isn’t an option as finaces will play a part in our family decision where he attends school. We will need to weigh and balance his acceptances. Mathmom and panpacific your concrete advice is what I am looking for, thank you. Do you have advice on how to address the gpa in his common app for schools that give merit money, but he is below their cut-off? Should he recalculate a weighted gpa based on those classes in which he took ap tests or that his school considers honors level? Also, flagship is not rolling.
You reset or recalibrate the college expectations for your child. Don’t throw out the legacy school - just make it the ONE “unrealistic” reach (who knows, he may get in). But it sounds like your son will need some guidance compiling a college list. Start with answering @mom2collegekids’ questions.
It’s easy to dream big. It’s hard to find something within stricter parameters.
Seems like your son might have been in a better position financially and academically if he had switched to a public school for junior / senior year. Since that ship has sailed, you need to map out a list of affordable options, mixed between reach, match and safety.
momdotorg, I would say you should not panic. How many graduates of your rigorous, small private high school apply to the state flagship, and to the legacy school? Below a certain number, you don’t have a large enough sample to draw conclusions.
What is his rank in his class? For small private schools that are known to be rigorous, that can be more important than GPA.
Yes, some state flagships seem to admit purely by numbers. On the other hand, selective private colleges often have admissions departments which admit on a holistic basis–which means the admissions officer will know how to compare an unweighted 3.56 to a 4.00 from other high schools.
With the high test scores and legacy connection, there is no harm in applying to the legacy reach college. Do not assume you will not get merit aid, until you’ve had a chance to run the numbers. It’s a very complicated topic. There is a difference between need-based aid and merit aid.
ClarinetDad- Yes, that is what we need to do. His safety and reach schools are clear. It is the target/match schools that we are struggling with- esp. those that give money. I’d like to stay positive and consider what he can do for his apps and not dwell on choices made. His school was the right choice at the right time and has given him a phenomenal education for which I am grateful. He does have some auditory processing issues which made choosing a school with small classes important. Just trying to figure out how best to move forward and how to best present his data. He has done well in that setting with no accomodations… Thanks.
Thanks Periwinkle. I will be spending some more time on the financial end in the next few weeks hoping to get better perspective. My understanding is that we won’t qualify for need based aid. I am not complaining about this. We are very fortunate and will figure things out. But paying 60k a year isn’t going to work for our finances either.
His school does not rank. You are correct that there is very limited data. Our flagship is one of his safeties and while nothing is guaranteed, I can’t imagine him not getting in there. The average gpa enrolled at the flagship is well below my son’s gpa. He would likely apply to the honors program there and we met with them last week. The program was very familiar with his school.
Does anyone know if scholarship gpa’s are fixed based on what the transcript says or are they also viewed in the context of the school the gpa is from? Will the schools unweight the other high schools gpas, or potentially weight my DS’s gpa?
Most schools recalculate GPAs in some proprietary way, but if the overall grading is tough at his school, it may not help him. Maybe talk to the counseling office at the school to find out a list of colleges that are familiar with the school and where many kids have gone? They may be more apt to look at his scores holistically and provide merit because they know a 3.5 there is like a 3.9 at most other schools.
Class ranking or not, I don’t think nowadays legacy by itself can make as big a difference as a GPA of 3.56 vs 3.89 assuming similarly rigorous curriculums. For merit based scholarships, I think private colleges are more flexible. They use scholarships to attract the best students they could recruit, so let’s say there is a not well known small LAC locally. They know the rigor of your son’s school and would love to have some good students from there to enroll. If few students with better Academics than your son’s would apply there, then your son would have a better chance of getting a merit based scholarship. Then of course that is based on the assumption that your son’s grades + test scores would make him competitive to be admitted to higher tier schools, making the said LAC feel that without the incentives they wouldn’t be able to recruit him. Just one scenario as a starter
I taught at a tiny private school that had graduating classes ranging in size from 5-15 students per year.There were no weighted grades, and a 4.0 was unusual. The college counselor had fabulous relationships with area schools, and those schools would often call her about borderline students personally (despite extensive written recommendations). She’d also call schools that might be unfamiliar with our school. The students often got in on her word. Would your counselor be willing to pick up the phone too? I think the nuances are better explained in a conversation.
Seven legacy relatives is pretty hefty! Like other posters have said, I see no harm in applying there as long as he won’t be crushed by a rejection.
The merit money-I’ve seen it be all over the place from friends who sent their kids to college this year. And not just all over the place, but illogically all over the place. There really seems to be no telling why one college likes a kid more than another college and offers so much more money.
Most of our friends are pretty up front about money, and we’ll talk about how much we’ve saved and how much the schools are offering-it’s an eye opener for us (we have a junior and sophomore in hs).
From what I’ve seen around me, the best advice I can give (and that I plan on following), is make sure your kid has a wide range of schools picked to apply to-from financial and academic safeties to the super reach.
Or financial rejection (admission, but net price after financial aid and scholarships is too high to be affordable). Unless those seven legacy relatives are willing to put their money where their mouths are if they really want the OP to attend…