Help expand our list- especially need safeties.

College Search & Selection
1

My daughter is a senior and we seem to be narrowing in on what she likes and what is realistic. Unfortunately this overlap isn’t quite as large as we might have hoped.

The kid is sitting at a stinking 2.7 GPA but a 32 ACT and SAT score coming soon that is expected to be pretty good. She’s brilliant but clearly inconsistent as the GPA shows. It is a somewhat competitive private high school but that doesn’t account for the low GPA. It isn’t one subject that causes her trouble but rather she excels when engaged and when she’s not she can’t be arsed to work at it. Frustrating but water under the bridge…

Her ECs are good:
Academic Team 4 years, Team Captain now
Regional Student Theater Critic 4 years, Lead Critic now
Theater 4 years acting and crew work
Competitive spoken word poet 4 years
Regional finalist, runner-up in a juried creative writing competition
summer internships/volunteer work in medicine, community organizing, nonprofit management and activism around women’s issues
paid office work

Looking for small to medium LAC, progressive atmosphere, lower % greek. Open to women’s colleges. We are a full-pay family and $$ are, luckily, not a major consideration.

We need more safety ideas that will feature smart, ambitious kids but still accept the dismal GPA. Also, please shout if you feel our categorization of match/stretch is way off based on her stats.

Match to slight reach:
Hollins
Alma
Hobart and William Smith
Millikin
Ithaca
Albion

Big ole stretch but she interviews well…
Kenyon
Bard
Kalamazoo
Skidmore

Safety:
Xavier

2

Earlham College? (Not necessarily a safety, but might be worth a look.).

3

As a strong writer she might want to apply to Bard using the alternative application process, which wouldn’t require her to submit her grades.

4

I like this list. I like that you recognize that the “big ole stretches” are exactly that, though both Kalamazoo and Bard could surprise you. Kenyon’s a tough admit, and Skidmore is also a tougher admit than many realize (and I know of one student who felt that her financial situation hurt her at Skidmore, despite her very strong stats).

As for safeties, the CTCL schools are popular choices for a child like yours: exceptionally bright but with a GPA that doesn’t necessarily reflect her abilities. You have Hollins, so I would strongly suggest looking at Agnes Scott. How this is not a top destination for those open to women’s colleges stuns me. Agnes Scott is in a beautiful suburb of Atlanta and is literally a block away from public transportation to the city. Agnes Scott also has merit money to give.

I like your choices of Albion and Alma. Albion should be a CTCL school. I also like Hobart and William Smith, a rare northeast LAC that is very strong academically but not as cutthroat, admissions-wise, as its peers.

I’m not sure why Milikin is on the list (your D would be a shoo-in here; it is not a reach). I’m from IL, and it’s the one school on your list that is not at all like the others. Really, though, for a full-pay family looking for merit, the midwest and south (regions derisively referred to as flyover country) should be your target. The schools in these areas are already 10-15K cheaper than schools in the northeast, and merit is typically plentiful. Your post says that money is not an issue (or am I misreading), but most families won’t turn down savings!

Way too many schools to mention, but some of my faves.

PA: Juniata, Allegheny, Ursinus, Lycoming, Muhelnberg.
Midwest: Beloit, Cornell, Knox, Lake Forest, Lawrence, Earlham, Luther
OH (deserves its own category, like PA): Ohio Wesleyan, College of Wooster, Wittenberg, Denison (this would be another reach)
PNW: Lewis & Clark, Willamette, Whitman

5

Another thought: University of North Carolina–Asheville (public liberal arts college in the UNC system).

6

Some of the public LACs listed at http://coplac.org/members/ may be places where a 2.7 GPA student is admissible.

7

Puget Sound is no more a stretch than some of the others. A 32 ACT is top 25%, and nearly 10% of students entering fall 2017 had a GPA in your D’s range. Greek percentage is high for a LAC, but it does not define campus life there. Progressive atmosphere. Values theater/arts. Beautiful campus and Tacoma has growing waterfront district on gorgeous Puget Sound and is near enough to Seattle to make that a plus.

8

Susquehanna,Washington & Jefferson, Wheaton (MA), Sarah Lawrence?

9

Guilford (Greensboro, NC), Goucher (Baltimore), and Eckerd (St. Petersburg, FL) are other possibilities. Hendrix could be a good fit, though her GPA places her at the lower end of the applicant pool.

You’ve gotten great suggestions above, especially @Hapworth’s recommendation of Agnes Scott. Your daughter sounds a lot like my sister, who struggled to decide between Kenyon, Agnes Scott, Hollins, and UNC Asheville before ultimately settling on UNCA.

10

@sarapheena: In two prior threads you wrote that your daughter’s ACT composite score was a 33 and that her GPA was a 2.9 & a 3.0. It would help to know if you are certain or guesstimating her current numbers of 2.7 GPA & 32 ACT.

Also, it is important to know her intended major & of any career goals.

P.S. Full pay with high standardized test score & solid ECs & with leadership roles should go a long way in college admissions. Plan to apply to at least 12 colleges & universities, but 20 would not be unreasonable in her situation.

11

Not a safety but if you are full pay I’d look at Goucher. Sarah Lawrence may be a bit of a reach but it could work. Franklin Pierce may be worth checking into as well.

12

Kenyon, Skidmore & Bard . But her intended major is important to know because if it matches up with her demonstrated interest, the upper level targets expand considerably, in my opinion.

13

Clark in MA, Lawrence in WI.

14

Your daughter’s reported GPA, ACT score, and behavior pattern together positively scream executive function issues. Has she been screened for ADD and other learning issues in the executive function range? If not, why not? This struggle will follow her in college, and the time to get a handle on it is while she still is in high school.

15

I don’t believe it is always executive function issues - says the person who was very similar academically to the OP’s daughter in high school. Some times it is just what it is - lack of interest in stuff that’s not interesting, maybe a bit of laziness, not a rule follower, maybe a little stubbornness, not placing a high emphasis on pleasing others through grades. It often doesn’t follow students to college because in college students have a lot more choice in choosing classes that interest them.

Sure, you can test for learning issues but I don’t think one can assume that is the cause of a lackluster GPA. A mismatch between grades and test scores isn’t that unusual.

16

“Your daughter’s reported GPA, ACT score, and behavior pattern together positively scream executive function issues. Has she been screened for ADD and other learning issues in the executive function range? If not, why not? This struggle will follow her in college, and the time to get a handle on it is while she still is in high school.”

My comment is not any more solicited than this one ^, and the one above is well-intentioned, but my two cents is that the OP didn’t ask for this sort of advice and, if offered, perhaps a PM would have been better. GPA plus ACT and one sentence about her D’s “behavior pattern” from the OP (“It isn’t one subject that causes her trouble but rather she excels when engaged and when she’s not she can’t be arsed to work at it.”) yields an unsolicited diagnosis and a challenge to a parent about what they have or have not done and why? Again, if compelled to offer it, why not PM it?

No big deal. Just hit me the wrong way.

17

Is the GPA on a 5 or 4 point scale. That makes a difference.

18

Coming from a competitive private school, grading could be much tougher as well. GPA doesn’t mean a lot without knowing the school in question. Many public schools have ridiculous grade inflation.

19

How about Bennington? It offers “The Dimensional Application”, “an open-form application which allows students to choose the materials and format that will best demonstrate a readiness for a Bennington education.”? (See website for more info). Admit rate is about 55-60%. Similar in feel to some women’s colleges (former women’s college, still heavily tipped female). Great place for a self-directed learner.

20

@Publisher The earlier posts were before I had the latest info. Now that we are deep into the search and the GPA was even lower than I’d anticipated I thought I’d ask again. 33 if you superstore on the ACT. I almost referenced those earlier posts in case anyone was a deep reader :wink:

Thanks for wonderful suggestions…again! You all have such great ideas.

She is likely a poli sci, public policy or government and advocacy major. She did a summer program at Georgetown in social justice and public policy and it was so nice to have her potential direction confirmed as she loved the work over the summer. She has toyed with literature and creative writing but I don’t think appeals in the longterm.

@Sue22 - how did we not know about Bard’s alternative app process?!? That is potentially very exciting because she loves Bard on paper and we are headed there in a couple of weeks for a visit. Thanks for the heads up.

She has had an ed. psych eval and does not have ADD. She scores very poorly on visual/spatial tasks but no other red flags come up. This spatial processing issue makes some things more difficult for her- don’t ask her to be your navigator- but the psychologists weren’t certain that it had anything to do with her inconsistency academically. I don’t mind the question and appreciate the concern.