Northern VA
Large competitive HS (>2500 students)
White Male
Interested in Business
4.17 W GPA / 4.0, county doesn’t rank or calculate unweighted GPA, 1290 SAT
6 APs including 3 Sr Year
2 DE courses
Focus on business and marketing
Extracurriculars
2 years HS team sport
5 years AAU basketball
-2 years DECA
** Volunteer, Leadership and Work experience
President of student club that also is a volunteer org
3 years of youth sports coaching
2 years of summer job camp counselor
Essays/LORs/Other
General essay is solid but some of the supplemental ones that DC has done are stronger or at least more compelling
LORs from English teacher and Marketing teacher as well as counselor. DC believes these will be strong but who knows
Cost Constraints / Budget
Not counting on any aid and won’t qualify for need based. No constraints
Schools
Applying EA to all schools if available (none have ED)
Interested in larger state schools with strong business program
Wants to stay in the region or go further south (not northeast)
Won’t assume any of these are safeties and some are far reaches. Will swap a couple of in-state that would be more likely. Applying into the business school if available.
Please give chances on these and any others that we should consider swapping before the window closes
Does your son’s school use Naviance or Scoir? If so, use those scattergrams to categorize schools. I would also have his HS counselor help categorize schools.
What’s the unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale, core courses only?
What math does he have senior year?
Test scores are required at UTK, Auburn, UF, FSU, UGA, and GT. All are reaches, but UTK and Auburn may be matches. Clemson’s a reach too, apply TO.
SAT score is below Kelley direct admit criteria, so he will have to file the petition for direct admission. If that doesn’t work, he could try Kelley standard admit after first year (i think he will be accepted to IU).
If any of his schools require 2 LoRs (double check), I might rethink the marketing teacher and get another core LoR. Ok to send the marketing LoR to schools that accept extra LoRs.
Other schools to consider that are good for business and less selective: Miami Ohio, Mich State, Alabama, U Dayton, U Cincinnati, Pitt, U Delaware.
The county does not calculate an unweighted GPA. When parents ask about this in counselor sessions for seniors, we are told not to attempt it or use the online calculators, etc. Not sure what the resistance is. I’ve heard that some colleges will take your grades for core courses and apply their own formula. He has made 1 B each year and that has been in his math course. Also made a B in Spanish 3 (sophomore year was a little rocky post COVID). Otherwise A’s in honors or AP classes. Highest math is AP Stats this year.
Thanks for feedback on LoR. I made the same comment to DC but may be too late to get another one going at this point. I will calculate unweighted GPA but grades have been A’s or A- except for math each year and Spanish 3 sophomore year. Clemson and Auburn apps already submitted and scores were provided. For Clemson and Auburn I believe the app made it seem like going TO was not really advised (need to provide explanation and special circumstances or something to that effect).
The unweighted GPA is easy. Take core classes or even all - and give a 4 for an A, 3 for B, 2 for C and then divide by # of classes in the calculation.
I’ll assume with 6 APs but only 3 so far - he’s a 3.9-4ish.
VT - match
JMU - likely
Penn State - likely but i don’t understand the choice. You want to stay in region or go South…hmmmm
UTK - likely
Clemson - low reach
UF - unlikely
FSU - low reach
UGA - unlikely
GT - unlikely - vs. the others, it’s in a big city - just stands out
Auburn - match - needs an early app and it’s getting harder.
IU Kelley - no but IU - yes.
So I’d ask - if you want UF or UGA, where is the very good Culverhouse at Alabama. That should be on your list. You’d get $8K off tuition - so you’d be high 30s/40k-ish all in. But if you take the SAT again or ACT you can grow it. You might also add UCF but it might be too big.
If you like Auburn, add Ms State - they’re similar (to me).
If you like IU and are ok with the midwest, add Miami of Ohio.
Since you have FSU, what cross shops a lot seems to be U of SC.
You’ve got some for sure admits here with JMU and UTK so you’ll be fine with your current list but you could expand it to get in a few more.
Thanks for the thoughtful feedback. Agree USC and perhaps Alabama should be added. The reason for Penn State is that the business school is pretty well regarded (actually ranked the same as GT and UGA in latest USNWR undergrad bus program) and there are lots of Alumni in the DC Metro area that promote it.
Auburn, Clemson and Penn State were submitted last week.
Re: IU Kelley - he knows he’ll have to request a review for admissions. I have been seeing some grumbling about overcrowding and students having issues registering for core classes so that is concerning.
Will take a look at Miami of OH, MS State and UCF.
When it’s all said and done, I do start to wonder if it’s just better to stay in VA if possible unless the OOS program warrants the extra cost and logistics hassle. If you’re familiar with the VA schools, you know that’s become challenging for IS students in the last few years. The GA and FL schools have appeal because of where in-laws and extended family live.
Thanks again for suggestions - just wanted to make sure there wasn’t something we were overlooking and these are good ideas.
Major within business isn’t firm yet - maybe management, supply chain or marketing. I think it’s important for there to be a good “infrastructure” at whatever school he attends for internships and general development opportunities. Probably what you mean by traction. That’s a bit of a concern with any of these really large schools. Guessing it’s easy to just get lost. Have seen that with a few students even at JMU.
County does not rank (no valedictorian etc). He has estimated that he’s at least in the top 10% in high performing school with over 670 students but that’s not anything that can be validated or reported. I imagine that AO’s at Clemson are familiar with our county/school so they’ll know how to benchmark.
Question to the group: for the couple of schools OOS that are test optional, what is the thinking about going TO versus reporting? Two examples: IU Kelley: he doesn’t meet DA SAT criteria (by a long shot) so is it better to just go TO since review request is needed anyway? Also looking at USouthCarolina - they are test optional. For OOS students his SAT is in the mid range but not blowing it away. They say they TO does not hurt you but is that really true? I’ve heard that you should submit if you’re in the upper 25% of their range but otherwise go TO.
That could be last year’s advice though. Thanks for any thoughts about that.