<p>Hi I heard so much about this site from my son, friends and other parents, its fantastic! I need some solid advice so please feel free to respond if you think you have a good insight into my situation.
My husband and I did not go to college, well he went for one year then dropped out to work, I did not go at all. We are not wealthy but average, do not have a limitless budget to afford fancy tutors, and college advisors as some do. My son had a horrible start in his 9th grade year, mostly C's, one D and one F. He took both courses he did badly in over the summer and earned A's. He then started to take school more seriously and has been on a very steady upward trend ever since. Last year he had all B's and 1 A and this year is in all IB's and so far doing really great. He took the SAT for the first time in May and got a 1310 combined reading/math. He is a great kid, has done quite a bit of comm. service, has clubs/sports etc....wrote an essay that anyone who has read it said it gave them chills and is one of the best essays they have read in a long time. Not being highly educated but more self taught I have done my best to steer him as best we can. He has his hopes on some schools which I know SAT wise he fits right in but his GPA will be low due to his 9th grade grades. This has me worried sick about how this is going to play out in college admissions. He is taking the SAT again today and felt really good going in.</p>
<p>Question is, how do you think his situation will fare in the college admissions world? his first choice is BU and Northeastern. He is also applying to Syracuse, U of Miami, Villanova, St. Josephs, Fairfield and Quinnipiac. By far though BU, Northeastern and Villanova are his top three picks. Do schools consider the education background of the parents when making these decisions? He has gotten in a few packets from some very high end schools like Dartmouth, neither of us knows why so he would never dream to apply to schools like that, they are probably just sending it because he is on some mailing list. He has come so far and against many odds, we so believe in him and he is such an intelligent kid I would say to see him penalized for just being immature and not having a work ethic in 9th grade. Do many colleges not consider as highly the 9th grade?</p>
<p>I know I am all over the place, I am new to this......but any insight you have would be fantastic or any thoughts. Thanks.</p>
<p>Well, I'll start. First of all ... welcome to College Confidential. If you don't get worthwhile answers to this post you might consider posting the same thing in the Parents Forum. There are a lot of helpful and knowledgeable parents that frequent that forum that don't look here.</p>
<p>Colleges typically look favorably at an upward trend. Many colleges also don't count freshman year grades at all -- so that would be to your son's advantage. Of course, it will still get factored into his GPA. Colleges also tend to give a boost to first-generation applicants (kids of parents who didn't go to college), so that will also help.</p>
<p>You might want to ask your son's guidance counselor to explain his change in attitude and upward grade swing in his letter.</p>
<p>I don't have much advice about the particular schools your son is applying to, so I can't help you there. Just make sure that he's applying to a range of schools -- ones that he will likely get in (safeties), ones that he could get in given that his stats are comparable to the admitted students' stats (matches), and some reaches. Also be sure he's applying to schools you could afford financially.</p>
<p>Hope this helps some. Maybe others can add some comments. Good luck!</p>
<p>I'm not sure which schools do not consider 9th grade but there are definitely some. Where does he stand with class rank?
In looking at your list, I would go through and find some safeties. Northeastern's admit rate went down significantly last year, so they are probably a match/reach.<br>
What geographical area are you in? </p>
<p>Have you considered schools outside of your area? That may tip the admissions scale in his favor. Are there decent state schools he can apply to as safeties? </p>
<p>Additionally, you don't mention anything about financial aid. Please be careful here. There are always posts of kids who applied to their dream schools and then didn't get the aid and had no options. You should have a range of schools from a financial point of view, not just an academic one. </p>
<p>Post a little more, answer a few of the questions in my post and you will get some more good replies.</p>
<p>HI well thankfully due to a grandfathers will his college tutition is paid for so we are quite lucky in that respect, no fin. aid needed. He will apply to a state school, yes. He doesn't want to go too far, Miami could work as we have relatives there so we would both feel comfortable there, but none of us really want him to go too far from the Northeast. Is his situation better in the kinds of big schools we mentioned above or smaller LAC's? Here is where I become clueless, yes good idea on mentioning this situation to his g.counselor, perhaps she can include a small explanation with regard to his grades. We live in CT. moved from NY recently. That about sums it up.....I am very receptive to hearing what you "veterans" have to say. Thank you.</p>