My son just finished his freshman year at a private independent college prep high school.
He is getting 2 B-s (2 B minuses in English and in physics), 1 B (geometry), 1 B+ (history)and 1 A- (Spanish 2). He also takes an art class to satisfy his VPA. He is a very hardworking student who was deeply affected by study skill decline during COVID so his test scores aren’t great, but his homework is nearly at 100%. He wants to stay in California for college - how bad are these grades for schools like LMU, Oxy, Chapman, Santa Clara, etc.? I know the UCs don’t look at freshman year grades but the others, I believe, do. He has great ECs, a part time job, and tons of volunteer hours working with children. Any and all advice and opinions are welcome. Thank you.
He has a couple more years to show an upward trend and improve his high school GPA.
Your best advisor is probably the guidance counselor at the private school who can put the grades in the context of your child’s HS.
But IMO it is way too early to be looking at specific colleges - there is just one year of grades and no standardized test scores. For now let him do the best he can in the most rigorous courseload he can manage comfortably, continue with ECs that are meaningful, continue the part-time job, and enjoy family and friends.
He sounds like a great kid!
Thank you so much for this incredibly kind response. It’s so hard not to get wrapped up in the college frenzy. So thank you.
My kid’s (excellent) guidance counselor in our competitive HS strongly suggested that we not mention the “C” word until early junior year so we tried follow that advice.
It is important that your S work hard and do his best and things will fall into place.
If anything, if you see a deficit in study skills that is something you may want to address now.
UCs do not use grades from 9th grade to recalculate HS GPA, but the courses and grades are visible to admission readers. Also, the grades need to be C or higher for the courses to count toward a-g subject requirements. CSUs just plug the recalculated HS GPA into a formula, so 9th grade course grades just need to be C or higher to count the courses toward a-g subject requirements.
Private colleges tend to be less transparent about their policies, but an upward trend is better than a downward trend for non-4.0 HS GPA.
I can only go by a sample size of 1 - my D23, who only applied to colleges in the Bay Area.
She had a bad-ish freshman year, including a C in math and a B in bio (the rest A’s). Starting sophomore year, she was a straight A student.
Results:
UC Berkeley - admit with Regents
Santa Clara - waitlisted
USF - admitted with merit scholarship and honors college invitation
Accepted to all CSUs to which she applied (CSU East Bay, SFSU, SJSU)
So conclude what you like from that.
It’s in the rear view mirror and very typical adjusting to Freshman year. We also all get caught up about kids on here with just As. The grades are good. Just have him do his best and if needs help go to the teacher early in the process. Many schools do discount freshman year if there is a nice upward trend.
Too early to say - but there will be colleges out there for him. And makes you are thinking about now vs 3 years from now maybe be very different.
Admitted to UCB and waitlisted at Santa Clara. It’s so hard to predict these days, huh? Congratulations to your daughter. What a wonderful young lady she must me…
Yeah, I think the take away from that is…You never know. So the best thing is just to do your best, pursue your passions, try to be the best version of yourself that you can, apply to a range of schools (including sure thing safeties that you can live with), and then you have to let the chips fall where they may. As long as your son has a safety or two on his list that he would be happy with attending, then he will be totally fine. The great thing about California is that we have so many great schools - including those with a very high acceptance rate (UC Merced, some of the CSUs). And they really are solid, highly respected schools. There are ALWAYS decent options.
Regents at Berkeley and waitlisted at Santa Clara. Go figure. You just never know!
Although if SCU considers level of interest, perhaps SCU decided that the applicant was too “overqualified” and would be admitted to more selective colleges and choose one of them over SCU.
You just never know is right.
Someone recently was in at Berkeley, not at SDSU.
Same with another - in at MIT, not BU.
We can question yield protection or more but you are right.
You just never know !!
Back to topic please
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