Son is 2 months in 11th grade. GPA at end of 10th grade was 3.0. We are hopeful his GPA will increase but at best we’re figuring on 3.2. He is really a B- student and will most likely get a 20 on ACT, not expecting anything higher. No honors classes, no AP. Yes college prep courses however. Some extra curricular activities and the push to increase more school involvement. We are out of state as well.
Are University of Hartford, Hofstra University, Manhattanville College realistic choices ? Does test optional mean that GPAs need to be much higher or are schools looking at a lot of factors for determining admission?
Out of state as in not located in Connecticut or New York where Hartford, Hofstra and Manhattanville are located.
Thank you for those links. I will check them out.
The HS rankings are not that big a deal. What’s more important is how well the student engages the offerings. However for the likely target schools for your son, they’ll most focus on the GPA & test scores.
ECs will only be of very little to no consequence. Encourage them but they won’t assist his admittance per se. They help him grow as a person and of course, there’s value there – but his joining some resume padding clubs will be a time waster.
EC as in extra curricular ? So a B / B- is the new C / C- is the message I’m getting across most of these forums.
The 2016 definition of a struggling student is anyone below a B / B+ Very unnerving.
If your HS has Naviance that would be a good place to check. You can also google the average ACT for the schools you are thinking about.
I would have your S prepare for the ACT – take a class, get a tutor, or at the very least get the book and do some practice exams (and go over wrong answers).
And test optional just means that if standardized test scores are not sent then an admissions decision will be made based just suing the other factors in the application (so GPA, course rigor, essay, recommendations become more important). An applicant is not penalized for going test optional when it is an option.
Yes, due to grade inflation in many high schools, B/B- now seems to be fairly equivalent to C/C- back in the age of the dinosaurs when I graduated from high school. However, that does not necessarily mean a struggling student, any more than it did 50 years ago. Currently the schools with the best chances for admission for average students appear to be the less selective “directional” (PASSHE in PA) universities and private colleges, of which there are many in PA. Especially if you can afford to be full pay, your son should have a number of good schools that would be happy to accept him. If you haven’t already done so, check out the “Compare Colleges” feature on the College Board website for a side-by-side comparison of various schools and range of SAT/ACT scores.
Thank you. Yes he has Naviance and I’m starting to use it as well. He has been in an ACT prep class since the summer and he was approved for extended time for the Dec 10th test. We also paid for what seems like the test results - answers that were wrong. While I know the tests are not the same of course, we figured it would be good to see the results.
Most of his peers are taking the ACT this Saturday 10/22. I found College Board and College Navigator to be helpful with that average too.
As a junior, he can take ACT once per sermester through next fall without burning out. Don’t ignore SAT. Some students are better at one than the other. There is often a decent jump from first to second seating of a test.
We really hope that is the case. There is an ACT limit per semester? He is registered for Dec 10th and was expecting to register for Feb 2017 and April 2017.
Kidsncatz - That C / C- is the new B / B- has been blatant in all our research so far. My husband and I went
to PITT almost 30 years ago. I was a B+ / A- student with not great SAT scores and I got in without any trouble.
Such a different world. What is PASSHE ? I am sure it is something obvious that I am overlooking.
Thank you for the PASSHE link and yes - I had to re-read the post. I glanced at it too quickly. I am sure nothing
good becomes of taking the exams more than 3 times.
Yes right the PA State schools. I am familiar with all of them and West Chester is the only one my son is interested in. The rural locale and in some cases commuter campus is the biggest drawback.
Whether or not you’re in-state only matters for public colleges. The three you mentioned in your OP are all private.
Do you have a sense of your budget? I’m sure there are many private schools that would be interested in your son, but I’m not sure about their affordability for your family. West Chester, with room and board, is roughly $20k a year.
Are you comfortable with him considering schools in other parts of the country?
A Penn State branch campus would be another idea, if you’re comfortable with the COA. After two years, assuming he does well, he would be eligible to move up to University Park: http://admissions.psu.edu/apply/statistics/
LucieTheLakie - ironically $ is not our primary concern. We’ve been saving since our son was about 12 hours old! If only he could get into Temple - it would be paid for completely or almost completely. To go to a branch campus such
as Temple Abington - does that seem like a 2 year requirement? I usually thought a branch campus transfer student could move (of course with decent grades) to main campus after 1 year. Our widest net is PA , NJ, NY, CT. Train and car… just not up for a plane ride away. I thought that in state / out of state admission would apply for private schools as well.
Penn State almost always requires that branch campus students stay at the branch campus for 2 years before transferring to main campus. I don’t know Temple’s policy regarding transferring to the main campus. In fact, I never even knew Temple had branch campuses until very recently. I think the Ambler campus is Temple’s largest branch.