<p>We are going to do the EFC, but I already have an idea of what my parents can and can’t afford. The Middle Georgia is said online that it is for Georgia Academy of Mathematics, Engineering & Science. I am not interested in that at all though. Also, I would have to have a 3.5 GPA will just academics for West Georgia. That seems like a reach, because my GPA will go down if you don’t count electives.</p>
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<p>You need to SERIOUSLY look at your list of colleges if this is really the case. Most colleges recompute GPA using English, Science, Math, Foreign Language, and History courses only. They do NOT include elective courses like drama, band, orchestra, culinary arts, etc.</p>
<p>OP, You must do FAFSA to find out your EFC. What your parents feel they can pay is, in some ways, irrelevant. The schools will decide what your family will have to pay based on your EFC. Once you have that you can see how it matches what your family feels it can pay. Then you can see if each school you approach is affordable. </p>
<p>Listen to Owlice and Thumper. If you really want to attend college early then do something besides debate it online, and work on your grades.</p>
<p>You can use an online finaid calculator to ESTIMATE your EFC…but I have to tell you…the EFC is the MINIMUM amount your family will be expected to contribute and it may not come CLOSE to what your family is able and willing to contribute.</p>
<p>You need to start by having a frank discussion with your parents about college finances, recognizing that YOU are not the only one in your family who will be attending college SOON. This very much could limit the amount they can contribute for YOU as they will be contributing for your sibling too. </p>
<p>And if you need or want to qualify for MERIT aid, you have some very serious work to do on your grades. Merit scholarship GPAs are almost ALWAYS recomputed NOT using elective courses. To qualify for these, you typically need to be at the tippy top of the accepted applicant pool. At this point in time, I would urge you to discuss your GPA with your GC and find out what it IS without your electives. This could make a HUGE difference in crafting your application list. Simply put…schools like Yale are going to expect a significantly higher GPA than a 3.0 or so. </p>
<p>I know you want to move on…many students in high school do. BUT you also are presenting a sense that if you go to college early “all will be well”, especially since you are talking about a school that you have never seen, and you know nothing about. It’s in a hugely different part of the country with very different weather. I don’t know how conservative or liberal your current location is…but Simon’s Rock is more towards the liberal side (I’m sure there are conservatives there too…but generally speaking it’s viewed as liberal…Owlice can elaborate if I’m wrong).</p>
<p>Most schools don’t allow you to do dual enrollment until you’re a junior because they want to be sure you can handle college-level work first, and honestly, most high school students aren’t ready to handle college-level work until their junior year.</p>
<p>If West Georgia and Middle Georgia look like a stretch, how is Simon’s Rock less of a stretch? Although it does seem that a substantial percentage of Simon’s Rock attendees have a GPA at your level or higher (35% had a GPA between 3.0 and 3.24), only a small percentage submitted SAT scores and they were above-average scores; Middle Georgia and West Georgia are much less selective schools. They’re not for gifted students; they are for above-average high school students (like any early college program is, even Simon’s Rock).</p>
<p>Don’t take this the wrong way but I think you think you are more “different than the average student” than you actually are. There are thousands (probably millions) of high schoolers across the country who are kind of over high school, and who always work their hardest and are inquisitive during classes.</p>
<p>I also agree with thumper…you have some really selective colleges on your list for your “back up” if you don’t get into Simon’s Rock, and a lot of students with your grades would have a hard time getting into those schools witha 3.2, not to mention something lower.</p>
<p>I have never heard of college’s not counting your electives with your GPA. A foreign language is an elective and they count that. I do know that the Hope Scholarship only accepts academics courses. It sounds to me that they only take electives out for merit scholarships though. My electives this year were AP Human Geo, Health/Gym and Theater.</p>
<p>I have done lots of research on Simon’s Rock since last August/September. I wouldn’t say I know nothing about it. I know lots of stuff about the Rock even though I haven’t visited it. I have spent hours on their website and talking to current/former students. I do know I need to visit, but I do know a lot about the college. I do live in a state where the majority are Republicans, but I am not. I was a huge Hillary Clinton fan and my views are far more liberal. I am Roman Catholic, but it doesn’t mean I am conservative. I am not use to the cold weather, but it’s not something which I think is a huge deal. The only thing I think of is that the size and location of the school. My school is big and I am from the suburbs of South Florida and Georgia. I know the Rock is in the country, but when I think of the country I think of rednecks and Republicans. I don’t know much about the area, though I do have lots of family in NY. That is the only thing I don’t know much about the school.</p>
<p>West Georgia minimum GPA is a 3.5 with just academic courses. Overall, it is not a better a school at all. Though, their early entrance program is harder to get into. You also need to submit an SAT/ACT score too. Also, I plan for my GPA to be about a 3.4 the time I apply to Simon’s Rock. And yes the other schools on my list are competitive, but I still have two years of high school to bring my grades up. You guys act that my GPA will be the same when I’m a junior, which I dought is true. Also, I am different it is just hard to explain my whole life story online.</p>
<p>thumper: </p>
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<p>I’d shove it over to the left more than that, even. It struck me as quite liberal.</p>
<p>early_college:</p>
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<p>Colleges count your academic courses; foreign languages are academic courses, and health/gym/drama/chorus/etc. are not.</p>
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<p>Perhaps those hours would have been better spent on your schoolwork.</p>
<p>Your electives are still counted as your cumulative GPA. I think it depends on the college, because I have read that some count it and some do not. </p>
<p>I have gone on the website a lot, but schoolwork always is first. My point was that I am not clueless about the college.</p>
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<p>This is true for how your HIGH SCHOOL computes your GPA. It is not uniformly true at the college level AND it is absolutely NOT true for computation of GPA for competitive merit awards. High schools have tons of different formulas and ways of computing GPA. Colleges even the field by using the SAME method regardless of where you go to high school. Colleges that recompute GPA use ACADEMIC courses only to do so. Remember, a lot of academic courses are considered “electives”…but they are in the core areas of math, English, science, foreign language and the humanities (history and such). Core courses do not include drama, music, band, culinary arts, art, P.E., photography, etc. They are not considered core courses AND high schools do not really have a standard by which they teach and award grades for these courses. </p>
<p>Early_college…no one here is saying you can’t get into college. A 3.0 or so GPA will gain you entrance into many colleges and universities. What you asked for on this thread was about financial aid…merit in particular. AND what we are telling you…you MAY find merit aid at some schools, but your GPA would need to be well above the 75%ile of accepted students. This is true for Simon’s Rock too…unless you have some drop dead fantastic experience that they just can’t refuse (you mention film as being an interest…have you worked with Steven Spielberg? Are either of your parents famous actors or actresses? Have you won any national or international film awards?). A “very special” thing MIGHT trump your grades. BUT it would have to be VERY special. Simons Rock is filled with gifted, young, and talented students.</p>
<p>I am confused now. I thought college’s re-do your GPA for merit scholarships, which makes sense. Do they re- do your GPA for admission too, or do they re-do it just for the scholarships? Also, doesn’t depend on the college and their standards? Wouldn’t you expect every one’s GPA to go down if you do not count electives? It is an easy course and would actually help your GPA. Also, some schools require health/gym and the arts for graduation. In my Theater course we did indeed did have grades and we had structure. We had a final exam and everything that my other courses had. AP Human Geography is an elective, but wouldn’t that be an academic course? </p>
<p>I have around a 3.2 GPA with all my courses. Also, if I would stay in high school my GPA wouldn’t stay the same prob. It could go a lot higher in two years. Also, the film market has got a hit from the recession. I haven’t got much auditions lately and no one I know has. I am also not in LA or NY, so I will not be in any top movies or work with Steven Spielberg.</p>
<p>Some colleges recompute GPA for ADMISSIONS as well. They are not interested in having the “fluff course” easy A’s inflating the high school GPA for their admitted students. Some colleges do not recompute GPA from what I have heard.</p>
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<p>So what? If a college doesn’t consider gym and theater academic classes, it doesn’t. It doesn’t matter whether the courses are required for graduation – they still aren’t considered academic courses by colleges.</p>
<p>You are confusing electives and academic courses. A course can be an elective and still be an academic course, as thumper has already pointed out. The microbiology and genetics courses I took in high school were academic courses, even though they were elective courses. My son took AP Computer Science as one of his elective courses; this is also an academic course. He took health, because it’s required; that is not an academic course, even though it was required. He took guitar as an elective to fulfill his fine arts requirement; that is not an academic course, either. </p>
<p>Just because a course is required doesn’t mean it’s an academic course. Just because a course is an elective course doesn’t mean it’s not an academic course. </p>
<p>French is an academic course. Theater is not. Gym is not an academic course, and neither is health, even if they are required.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t necessarily expect a kid’s GPA to go down if electives are not included. If one chooses an elective such as AP Computer Science and gets an A in it, I would expect the GPA to go UP, as AP Comp Sci is a weighted course at my son’s high school. </p>
<p>I would expect a college to consider AP Comp Sci an academic course, so an A in that course will count when the college recalculates the GPA; an A in Theater wouldn’t count, however, so a student who took Theater may very well see his GPA drop when a college recalculates his GPA.</p>
<p>If you are trying to get merit aid, you need to make sure that, firstly, a school offers it; Yale does not. Secondly, you need to have stats that are above most other applicants, and that includes not just your grades, but which courses you took. </p>
<p>The kids I know personally who are admitted to Simon’s Rock are gifted kids who took more advanced academic courses in 10th grade than you will be taking (and more of them), had higher GPAs as freshmen, and had SAT scores (from middle school) above what West Georgia is looking for. THEY are your competition for AEP.</p>
<p>I understand now, thanks for explaining it well. If I would have Theater for 4 years, would that look bad? I could have took AP Art History next year, but I really like acting and it’s my passion and it’s an easy grade. I was going to take journalism (newspaper) next year, but I didn’t get it because most of the kids who get it our juniors and seniors. Also, my GPA can go down since I got a 96% in gym and a 95% in Theater. I already took one AP class. I also tried other things which can make my academic courses better, but it seems like the gifted kids always get number one priority for everything. I always hate it that I am looked down upon because I’m not “gifted”. I also want to point out that I am taking the most difficult academic courses. I cannot take any course load that is harder. I’m already in all honors classes and one AP class for next year. I will have two AP courses on my transcript by the end of sophomore year. I plan on taking two more AP classes junior year. I can only take 6 classes in my school and 4 of them are required. If you add the 5th and that’s French. I get one extra class and I would like it to be something I enjoy. Thanks again!</p>
<p>Also, I have read that some school will give you .5 added to your GPA for honors classes. I read this on the New School of Florida’s website. I already took 3 honors classes this year, so that may add some points to the GPA. I have got an 83 and 85 in Honors Language Arts and an 84 and 86 in Honors Bio. I also got a 72 in accel math both semesters, so it might hurt the GPA. I got a 90 and 92 with the 10 points in AP Human Geo.</p>
<p>Have you sat down with your parents yet to figure out your EFC and how much they will be able to contribute to your college education?</p>
<p>I am going to try and do it tonight. I have been in bed lately because I’m still recovering from my surgery. Is there a website we go to fill it out?</p>
<p>I found it online, 
lol.</p>