LAC suggestions for a kid with a 2.9GPA at rigorous private high school, 33 ACT and good ECs?

College Search & Selection
1

My daughter is bright and super curious but her 9th and 10th grade years were rough on the GPA. It has been steadily climbing but that was a mighty big hole to dig out from. She has been in theater, has a ton of volunteer work, internships and is active in school clubs. She’s a fantastic writer with several creative writing awards.

She knows she wants a LAC but her first action when looking at a school is to check their average GPA and get discouraged. Any ideas for LACs that don’t weight GPA and have a progressive vibe. I just need to show her a few options that feel do-able to kick the search into high gear and push past the fear of rejection. We’ve explored Macalester but the winters seem a little deep and long up there!

2

Any of the schools listed in http://coplac.org/members/ in-state or affordable to you and admission-accessible to her?

3

Look at Bard. They have several ways to apply.

One involves writing essays over the summer if I recall properly.

If her grades have been improving, schools like Earlham, Beloit, Knox, (basically, the Ctcl schools - look at the full list) could be a great fit. Denison, Union, st. Lawrence, Dickinson, Gettysburg are all more traditional. Muhlenberg and Ursinus might work. My sense is that all of these are willing to consider a student’s story so it’d be important that she tell it in her essays, LORs, etc. It’ll be important for her to finish strong if that’s how she is explaining the GPA. But if hER grades are on the rise, she should not be throwing in the towel. (Btw, colleges usually look at unweighted grades and apply their own formula for rigor, so don’t get stressed by everyone else’s GPA.)

4

Have you talked to the college counseling office at her school? Given that she attends a rigorous, private school, they are likely the best source of info for you. They’ll know which colleges favor students with her profile. Do they offer access to Naviance?

Consider some of the women’s colleges like Bryn Mawr. Clark University. Not a LAC but University of Vermont. St, Andrews in Scotland seems to put more weight on test scores than GPA.

5

Bennington, in Vermont.

6

Depending on the breadth of her academic interests, the aforementioned Bard as well as Sarah Lawrence might appeal to her. For a more traditional environment, look into Wheaton (MA).

7

Maybe what she needs to feel better is a safety where she knows she could be happy.

Southern Oregon U is a public LAC, very progressive and artsy (in Ashland, home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival) - lovely residential campus. Based on the Prepscholar calculator, odds of getting in there with a 2.9 GPA and a 33 ACT are over 99%! (It’s also a WUE school, if you’re in a Western state.) I know several bright and energetic students who are very happy there.

The Prepscholar site is a good tool to show to your d, so that she can get a ballpark idea of her chances at a given school based on her stats. If she can write killer essays, her odds will tip upward from that baseline, but it’s a good way of making objective comparisons, keeping in mind that things like geographic diversity can help too, if you’re from an under-represented region for that school.

Starting with SOU as an example of a sure bet, there are other really nice LAC’s in the same region where she would have a a good chance. U of Puget Sound - Prepscholar says 72% chance of admission with her stats. Lewis & Clark, 30% chance. Whitman, 15% chance.

In SoCal, Occidental sounds like her kind of place - 37% chance.

Try using the Colleges That Change Lives list as a starting point: https://ctcl.org/category/college-profiles/
UPS and Whitman are both on that list. Others that jump out at me for your d are Agnes Scott (61%), Earlham (41%), Centre (53%), and Knox (51%) The CTCL profiles (on the website or in the print book) do a great job of describing the schools in a way that helps kids to get excited about the experience of being a student at a given school (vs. just comparing rankings and “reputations”) There should be many great options for your d. If she starts with true safeties (to reassure her that she can go to college and be happy there!) and works up toward picking some “reach schools,” she should be able to assemble a good list.

8

As a parent of kids who went to a rigorous, private school, I found those online sites pretty useless as grads from their school certainly punched above their GPA weight. It really depends if your child’s school carries some weight with colleges or not.

9

That’s true - the numbers from sites like Prepscholar should be considered “worst case scenario” when you’re coming from a grade-deflated school. Strong teacher and counselor recommendations could open doors that would defy the statistics. But the statistics are still not a bad starting point for identifying solid safeties.

10

OP,

Macalester is a very tough admit. I’m not saying that it is impossible for your D, but it will be challenging. Sure, there’s a chance that because of her high ACT score that if every part of the rest of her application is stunning, maybe Macalester would take a chance. Go for it as a reach if you like, but Macalester is a tougher admit than people think.

If her private high school is indeed very, very well-regarded and competitive, that’s a different story. Is her 2.9 the equivalent of, say, a 3.7 kid elsewhere?

But there’s good news! As @gardenstategal has noted, you need to look at the CTCL (Colleges that Change Lives) schools. It’s a book and now a non-profit organization; the forty schools profiled in the book are terrific LACs that are often overlooked, mostly because they are located in what is derisively referred to as “flyover country.” The midwest in particular is a treasure trove of terrific schools: Beloit (I applied here and was my second choice), Knox (my alma mater), Lawrence, Earlham, Ohio Wesleyan, College of Wooster, Kalamazoo, Cornell C., In western PA there is Allegheny and Juniata.

Honestly, there is no significant difference, educationally, between Macalester and, say, Lawrence. CTCL schools are attractive because they offer educations on par with more selective colleges, but A) they are easier admits, and, B) they offer more merit money (this is especially attractive to families with very high EFCs or families that do not qualify for aid but cannot simply write a check for 70K per year).

Not all CTCL schools are easy admits. Reed, Whitman, and St. Olaf have all become very selective. In fact, I’m sort of stunned that Reed is still in the book, especially when Grinnell, Bard, and Franklin & Marshall were booted from the book for becoming too elite.

Finally, there are plenty of terrific LACs that are not CTCL schools. These are schools that easily could be (and probably should be) included, places like Luther, Lake Forest, Lewis & Clark (lots of “L” schools!), William and Hobart Smith, and maybe even St. Lawrence.

Your daughter has a lot of options. She has many terrific schools that she could attend. You’ve already mentioned Macalester, and, really, the schools I’ve mentioned above could offer your daughter the same quality LAC experience. Best!

11

Muhlenberg was my first thought.

12

Depending on whether the location and budget work, Lebanon Valley College in PA comes to mind. I believe they’re not completely GPA-driven, and seem to have a heavy emphasis on making graduates actually employable. Looks like they have an awesome internship program for a college that size.

13

@doschicos , I often love your posts and advice, so please don’t take this the wrong way, but Bryn Mawr? Shouldn’t we be pointing the OP to schools that are less brutal admissions-wise?

As I noted in my long post, sure, there are kids with 3.5s who still get into very selective colleges because an adjustment must be made for their secondary school environment. I wouldn’t be surprised that a high-achieving, super-bright student at Harvard-Westlake might gain admittance to Wesleyan or Bryn Mawr despite her “sub-par” GPA of 3.3 or higher.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m wrong. Without knowing more about the OP’s D’s school, I would say that a reach might be Macalaster or Whitman. Matches might be Beloit or Wooster. Reed could also be a reach, as Reed is so idiosyncratic that they can be unpredictable, rejecting students who get into Ivies but then accepting that B+ student who just screams “Reedie.” Then again, Reed is such a unique environment that most students don’t even look at Reed.

If women’s colleges are an option, I would aim for Mount Holyoke, which is much more flexible and holistic in who it admits. Even then, Mount Holyoke would be a tough admit. It would still be a reach. Agnes Scott would be a match, probably a high match/safety.

I like your other suggestions, especially Clark and U of VT.

@intparent , I love the suggestion of Muhlenberg. Excellent school with a terrific theater focus. Also a great choice for a kid who might want an east coast experience but is worried that the schools there are too cutthroat. Another school that should be in the CTCL book but isn’t. That reminds me: @merc81 mentioned Wheaton C (the one in MA, not IL), which could be an option if the OP’s daughter is interested in eastern LACs.

14

@Hapworth, as I stated in my previous post, it really depends on how rigorous and well-regarded this private school is. We don’t know that info. Depending on that answer, I honestly think many of the schools you recommended would perhaps make good safeties but could be reaching too low. Hard to tell without knowing more about the daughter’s high school. I know for my kids’ school, they would be. I think many people here on CC would be surprised where a student with a 3.0ish and a 33 ACT could get into from a top notch private school. Hence, my recommendation to speak to one’s own college counseling office and use Naviance if available. Regardless, the OP’s daughter will need reaches, matches, safeties/likelies like everyone else.

“Without knowing more about the OP’s D’s school” as you yourself say, I think your wanting to categorize what might be a reach, match, or safety for OP’s daughter is pure speculation here. You don’t know enough to make those categorizations IMO. Many of the schools you target as reach or match would fall into the safety range for graduates of certain competitive high schools. Without understanding what a 2.9 means within the context of a particular high school, it really isn’t wise to speculate and make cuts at categorizing.

15

I would definitely consider Muhlenberg, Gettysburg, Dickinson, Ursinus, and Albright. I’ve had friends with similar stats get admitted. Good luck!

16

Agreed, @doschicos - my thought was just that it’s easier to raise expectations as you go along, than to lower them. If OP’s daughter can see that there are schools where she could be happy and challenged, that she can certainly get into (even without the “rigorous high school” adjustment), then she can breathe a little and know that she’ll have good options no matter what. If she can get into even more competitive schools, based on the known rigor of her high school and the support of teachers and counselors, even better - adjusting her expectations upward won’t be painful or demoralizing at all!

17

Clark University in Worcester, MA

18

Seconding suggestions for schools like Earlham, Kalamazoo, Knox and Beloit in the midwest – all filled with bright kids who may not have the stats for schools like Skidmore or Wesleyan, but have engaged, lively minds. Those schools are all test optional as well, so pulling in a high ACT score kid can also nudge up their admitted student stats on test scores. Those are also schools where sitting down with the admissions rep who handles your state can go a long way to getting your story told. If there is a CTCL tour that comes to your area – go, and meet the reps for these or other schools. If you can visit the school, email the admissions rep for your state in advance and see if you can set up a meeting – not necessarily an admissions interview, but a meeting to find out more about how your whole portfolio will be perceived.

Wooster in Ohio and Centre in KY may be worth a look-- not test optional, but again, those scores would be appreciated, and both schools have bright kids who are not necessarily cookie-cutter high school success stories.

Use the Common Data Set for research – not all schools include the high school gpa data, but those that do will show the percentages of students with gpas at various ranges, and also various class ranks – those may help her understand that kids with a gpa like hers do get accepted. Another factor to keep in mind – with the dismal job market for tenure track positions for professors (I’m a faculty spouse, I’ve lived this) – profs find themselves teaching at schools that wouldn’t have been on their radar before – so schools like Knox, Earlham etc. have talented, wonderful faculty who will challenge kids.

19

Have you looked at the matriculation report for your child’s school? It your school doesn’t publish it, ask to see it, and then gather some information about the general GPA distribution and you’ll have a decent general sense of where kids in the lower half of the class go. I suspect it’ll ease your mind a lot!

20

You guys are amazing! Thank you so much for the thoughtful and complete replies. We are less than two hours from Centre, Denison, Wooster etc. so I think they suffer from the too-close-to-home-to-be-good problem. I’d LOVE to have her that close but I’m playing it cool!

You have given us some really good ideas and new places to put on the visit list. The balance between encouraging academic stretches and focusing on places that seem to be a home run is tough but you’ve helped. We are far less concerned about prestige than we are about fit and happiness.