<p>I have a specific thread on the "college chances" board, but I'm interested in people's opinions on the more general issue, so thought I'd ask it here.</p>
<p>My son has a pretty low GPA, and yet when he interviewed at somewhat competitive colleges, the admissions officers have all told him "yes, you'll most likely get in here." A couple have gone so far as to say "I've never seen a kid with your stats not get in." We now have to decide to which of them he should really apply (the money even for apps is not limitless). </p>
<p>My husband says the schools are stringing him along and just want to better their stats. I'm having a hard time believing they could look right at a 17 year old kid and lie to him if he's not a decent prospect. He does have an excellent ACT score, so it complicates the assessment. </p>
<p>Do you put any weight at all into what these admissions people tell you?</p>
<p>“the admissions officers have all told him ‘yes, you’ll most likely get in here.’” </p>
<p>Is this what you yourself heard or what your son relayed to you? I’ve never heard any admissions official say that, esp from very competitive schools, and especially after an interview. What are your son’s stats? What are the sorts of schools he’s interviewed at?</p>
<p>T26E4, I was in the room with him for the “yes, you’ll most likely get in here” statement. </p>
<p>We’re not talking ivy league competitive schools here. He’s looking at small, Midwest, liberal arts schools like Augustana and Knox. He has a 2.5/4.0 grade point and a 29 ACT.</p>
<p>Hmmmm… in my experience, the smaller LACs need to push hard and sell hard – because they are fighting against big names like Notre Dame or Michigan State or OSU. Perhaps it drives their admissions reps to push hard to get the apps. I guess some research into their common data sets could get you some good info. That being said, a 29 ACT will catch many colleges’ attention. Good luck to you and your family.</p>
<p>I agree that some (most?) smaller LACs will be open to admitting your son. I doubt it was Knox that told you he would most likely get in. They are more selective than that and his GPA would be in the bottom 2% of admitted students. If you’re full pay that would likely be a draw in this economic climate.</p>
<p>If your family is likely to be full pay, and/or if the LACs in question are facing a serious imbalance in the numbers of male and female students, then yes, it is entirely possible that the admissions officer wasn’t lying. Maybe Knox wouldn’t like him, but there are a whole bunch of other nice, small midwestern LACs (Augie possibly among them), that would be happy to take him.</p>
<p>The question that I would ask though, is whether or not your family truly believes that a kid who has a high school GPA of 2.5 is going to be able to get (and keep) his act together once he arrives at college. Do you truly want to be out a bunch of money (and/or with a kid with a boat-load of student debt) without a college degree to show for it? Note that I’m not even asking about a decent college GPA here, just the diploma.</p>
<p>Pick up the phone. Call his high school guidance counselor. Make an appointment so that you can all sit down together and talk about your son’s future. Chances are that counselor has seen many kids like yours over the years, and so has useful ideas for your son and your family.</p>
<p>The short answer – like everything else in the world – I’m sure that some admissions officers view their job as to ‘sell’ and get your child to apply if there’s even a remote chance of getting in; others will give you a more straight answer and would not encourage a student with little chance of acceptance.</p>
<p>happymomof1 has given you the best advice you’re likely to get – meet with the GC. S/he is a professional and more qualified than any of us.</p>
<p>However, I do think that some recruitment/college admissions people do put a positive spin on admission chances in order to boost applications.</p>
<p>Recently, an OOS high school student posted that UCI told her that she would very likely get admitted to their BSN program…and her stats were ok, not super. </p>
<p>Either the student “heard what she wanted to hear,” or that UCI person outright fibbed to her. The BSN program is impacted and there’s no way to adequately predict acceptance. </p>
<p>Plus, the admittance is a two-step app process. First you apply to UCI…and admission is not guaranteed for an OOS student. Then you also apply to the BSN program…an iffy proposition at best. Admissions to the BSN program is highly competitive, because the program is impacted. </p>
<p>So…I would say take these people’s words with a grain of salt unless admissions is assured or almost assured for stats.</p>
<p>look at it this way…the Admissions/Recruitment person would NOT want a prospective student telling their boss that they didn’t bother to apply because John or Mary told them that they wouldn’t likely be accepted.</p>
<p>Knox and Augustana admit about 70% of their applicants. His GPA is low for both, much more so for Knox than Augustana where he is probably within the middle 50% range. His ACT score is good for both and in upper 25% for Augustana. He actually has a very good chance at Augustana and a decent but more like 50/50 chance at Knox.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone. I definitely agree that there’s an issue of whether he can succeed at this type of college. We have had talked with both his counselor and the college counselor at his school and both do feel that he <em>could</em> succeed in this environment. Their comment was that students like him often find college easier because the nit-picky daily work that so often influences grades is lessened. He is a very good test-taker, so the 50% final exam grade type class works in his favor. And, he does very well in interactive/small class environments - he’s had a couple classes like that where he’s truly excelled.</p>
<p>But I do hear you. It’s an expensive potential failure. We will definitely be looking at his senior grades before deciding the best route. I do feel better, though, that perhaps the admissions people were not just stringing us along. (And no, it wasn’t Knox.)</p>
<p>I do have a question though: my understanding is that the FAFSA is not completed until January, yet applications are due now. How would they know if our family was “full pay?” (We don’t actually know that ourselves at this point - it depends on the school tuition and the year!) Do they just make assumptions based on the zip code of the student?</p>
<p>Run the Net Price Calculators at each college/university website, and put your numbers through a FAFSA (and CSS Profile if necessary) calculator to get ball-park estimates about the costs of each place. That will help you determine whether or not some kind of aid would be necessary in order for your son to attend. If you know for dead certain that your family can swing it without any aid at all, then your son can check the “not applying for aid” box on the application.</p>