Is Indiana at Bloominton even an option?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Indiana University - Bloomington
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<p>Several of my dd's friends who were not exactly academic stars (2.8, 2.7 at Los Angeles Private schools) all got in this year. I had never heard anything about it but with so many local kids going we decided to check it out. My dd actually has visited because a national swim meet was there and she spent a week on the campus. Here is the good the bad and the ugly:</p>

<p>Rough stats:
Minority student
Girl
Current overall GPA 2.65
GPA for this year 3.9
1875 SAT
Serious athlete
HUGE community service
Having to do a PG year</p>

<p>My dd has been someone of an academic disaster after middle school. She is a very young high school senior now and next fall when she should go off to college she will still only be 17. I fully believe that she was not mature enough to take on many of the responsibilities of high school especially as an elite athlete and attending a private school with higher grading standards. She is an internationally ranked synchronized swimmer.</p>

<p>She currently has a weighted GPA of 2.65 after a not so good freshman year and pretty bad sophomore year and a horrible junior year. Junior year she left home to live and train full time in Northern California. Since it was an olympic year she got to spend most of the year training with Team USA. She was either in the pool or in the weight room or other training 6-10/day. She got very good at synchro but school was a complete failure. She was exhausted and homesick and acting out in order to come home. She left at the end of the school year last year burnt out as an athlete, injured and with no academic prospects except JC. We started home schooling with courses thru BYU to get her back on track so that she could graduate with her friends. </p>

<p>At this point she has repeated every class that she failed or got D’s in and her GPA for this year is a 3.9 including the college courses she is taking as a high school student. Our local JC allows kids to take two classes per semester and the local colleges count those as AP credit. So far she has three A’s and one B in the college courses and has A’s in all of her core classes from BYU except in a couple.</p>

<p>This summer she will finish calculus, AP Physics, the first semester of university level II French and several humanities electives (she has an easier time getting A’s in those courses). In the fall she will take a couple more college courses at the JC and do applications for the fall of 2010. The spring semester will be either abroad or interning in a professional sports agency. Her proposed major poli-sci/ sports management hoping to get a background in the industry before going to law school.</p>

<p>Given that Indiana is a public school that doesn’t much beyond numerical stats should she even bother applying? She is getting warm fuzzies from schools with synchro teams and they basically only care if she is breathing but she says she is toast when it comes to synchro. If she stays here and enrolls full time at the local JC she could move on to USC (they take everyone with a 3.5 at the local JC) after one year but there is a huge price difference in USC and IUB. Also IUB would give her the chance to have the full 4 year, live away from home college experience at a price her poor beleaguered parents (with one at Ohio Wesleyan and two little ones in Catholic school) would appreciate especially since we don't get much in the way of aid. Advice would be appreciated.</p>

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<p>I’d try to get her in all her choices via the athletic department. Her gpa won’t matter as much to them and they will understand about the grades suffering due to training and competing. GOOD LUCK!!</p>

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<p>I would say apply and do what Swissmiss suggests. What harm could come?</p>

4

<p>It sounds to me like she knows that staying in “synchro” is a major mistake. (Your comment on how she says “sychro is toast” and how it basically ruined her opportunity to do well in her studies accentuate this).</p>

<p>Given this, I’d explain the circumstances to Indiana–and try to get her in a major where she doesn’t have to do sports competition. Indiana will probably not accept her based on her history if she plans to continue to compete. If you know anything about the Indiana basketball team’s recent history, you’ll realize that the school at this point is very pro in accepting academically inclined athletes; and very con to athletes that can’t cut it academically and are just planning to stay at the school for a year or two.</p>

<p>Plus, let’s be blunt–sychro isn’t a career choice for an athlete unless you are planning to be a teacher of the art.</p>

<p>I’d look at either getting her into a sports teaching major or else into a major unrelated to sports but one where she has done well in school. If she can get a 3.9 GPA when not competing in a sport, she can handle it at Indiana–so this is what I would emphasize in her application. A 1875 SAT also says that she has the academic smarts to handle classes at IU-B, so use that also.</p>

<p>Best of success.</p>