New 3.0 to 3.3 (GPA) Parents Thread

<p>I agree, yabeyabe2, looking at lots of schools is very beneficial & our daughter’s choice turned out to be Alfred & it wasn’t on anybody’s radar screen! It was a “sleeper”. There is probably a benefit to the school’s mailing campaign. Maybe if you keep sending out the literature, the letters etc. the prospective applicant just might take a look!</p>

<p>My son refuses to look at anything that is not huge with great sports teams. Does anyone know of a medium sized school that might have a good athletic team? I’m talking about a school with 4,000 to 6,000 kids, probably no smaller than that…</p>

<p>(Reminder: GPA: 3.2 (some honors, only one AP next year), SATs: 1450/2070, ACT: 30), good ECs</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>ReadyToRoll, is he looking to participate in the sport or to attend home games? What sport or sports need to be good. For example, sometimes a school that size might have a good basketball team but not such a great football team.</p>

<p>That is a tough one, ReadytoRoll, when we think of sports, we think of Division I schools with a much larger undergrad population! Quinnipiac University (CT) comes to mind. Have you tried that “Counselor-O-Matic” on Princeton Review? It may help to see what schools are that size.</p>

<p>Does the great sports team have to include football? Roanoke has an excellent Lacrosse team that is usually ranked in the top 5 for D-3.</p>

<p>A larger school that a B student can get into (no aid though) is Towson University of Maryland. Great location near Baltimore.</p>

<p>Creighton, Gonzaga and Coastal Carolina might fit at least part of the bill. Tougher to get into, but not impossible, are Providence and Villanova. Of course, these are better known for basketball. If you want “Big Time” FBS football you have few choices. Wake Forest is one, but it will be a reach.</p>

<p>I suggest you find out which sports he is talking about. I suspect he is referring to either football or basketball, because they are the only ones that he has seen often on ESPN and which commonly draw thousands of spectators. I am not aware of any medium schools with big time football (although many Division 3 schools play it, they do not draw large crowds and a major party atmosphere). Many medium and small schools, however, have prominent basketball teams, especially among Catholic colleges–St. Josephs; Siena, LaSalle, Marist, Fairfield and so on.</p>

<p>It is certainly a lot of fun sitting in the stands at a big event–no wonder applications to Villanova, UConn and UNC have exploded compared to similar schools–and for boys, it is what they know best about college life, even if college is meant to be more about academics.</p>

<p>This is the list that I was talking about. (sorry)</p>

<p>Washington College (MD)
U of Richmond
Lynchburg
Roanoke
Emory and Henry
High Point
Elon
Guilford
Furman
UNC - Asheville</p>

<p>He has a 3.1 wGPA, 29/30 ACT, He is taking 3 AP’s this year but 2 of them may end up as C+'s. No hooks! He is in the top 30% of his class. He is not looking for a sports oriented school, and is interested in bio (at this point). He’s only belonged to 1 club for all 4 years, but has volunteered at the same place for a couple years. He is like many of the kids on this thread and likes intellectual pursuits but hasn’t worked out the organizational skills yet.</p>

<p>warriorboy, as a parent, my educated guess would be:
WC-in
U Richmond-reach
Lynchburg-in
Roanoke-in
Emory and Henry-in
High Point-in
Elon-reach
Guilford-in
Furman-reach
UNC-A-in</p>

<p>What does his GC think? Oh, the schools that I listed as reaches, I think are very reasonable reaches (meaning he has a decent chance).</p>

<p>His SATs are VERY nice. I think that serves to pull him up at some schools, particularly Richmond.</p>

<p>I think northeastmom has nailed it. Richmond and Furman are probably going to be tougher admits than Elon, but since Elon is getting more selective each year I might be underestimating the difficulty of admittance.</p>

<p>As far as Elon, they accept so many from ED I believe (also EA). It is a “hot school” too, and the sticker price is lower than many private schools. All of those factors make it more selective. For Warriorboy’s son, it is a very reasonable reach, IMO.</p>

<p>WB, if you are from NC (don’t know, but see a lot of schools in NC on this list), how do you feel about Queens of Charlotte, not for your son necessarily, but in general? Do you know anything about this school. You can post here, or send a PM about this school if you prefer.</p>

<p>Thanks for your opinions. I was looking to create some reasonable reaches and hopefully some matches or safeties. We are also going to visit Penn, New York and possibly Oh. He also has schools on his list from KY, Arkansas and other random states. He will apply to at least 1 state school, but it would take desperation to send him there!!!</p>

<p>When a college says that it “considers” level of interest, how does it determine that? Is a visit required… not sure how else you can show that you are interested</p>

<p>Desperation for UNC-A?? I have read that it looks like a private LAC.</p>

<p>Colleges that require a visit and/or interview will tell you. Those that “consider” usually expect a visit IF you live within a reasonable distance of the school. If you live in North Carolina and are applying to a college in northern New York it is unlikely they’d expect a visit. Another way of showing long distance interest is to call/write/e-mail the admissions office with questions that may not be answered on the web-site or in the available literature. Try to get hold of the admissions officer responsible for your state/region. They will often log such contacts, which may help a bit come admissions decision time.</p>

<p>Something to consider in all of this is cost. Students with these gpa’s might gain admission but often are not given any merit aid. Many schools post the min GPA and SAT scores for their awards.</p>

<p>Bassdad, et al. Thanks. I think we are mainly talking about football and basketball. He plays varsity football right now (has for all years of hs) and if he is not playing a sport, he is watching one…he does go to all games at the hs, including basketball, lacrosse, even tennis…but I think that football and basketball are the real “rah rah” sports. He will not be playing a sport, unless there are intramurals. </p>

<p>Mom60, you’re right about cost. We are really looking at public schools for that reason, which makes is even more difficult to find something not huge! The other issue with large is this: He had been an officer in the student government at hs every year, and likes the aspect of planning/organizing school events and being in the “center” of things. I’m thinking that there is no way he would get involved in student govt. in a giant school…I don’t even know that there is a viable student govt. in a giant school!</p>

<p>ReadyToRoll – Please keep in mind that public schools can be just as expensive for out-of-state students as a private college, since publics usually have very limited scholarship/grant funds for the OOS kids. With the privates it is a mixed bag for the B/B+ student. In some cases the 3.3 kid with high SATS/ACTS stands as good as or a better chance than a 3.6 student with low test scores of being offered a decent merit offer.</p>

<p>northeastmom - we are actually in the northeast also. I would love to have UNC -A as our in state public. We are checking out schools in the mid atlantic/southeast. There are very few schools around here that my son is interested in.</p>

<p>ReadyToRoll - your son and my son sound identical - varsity football throughout hs and leadership in clubs. We live in NY and looked at Hofstra, Towson and U of RI as schools he could get into with big sports. Also looking a WV this summer and Quinnipeac. NY state schools have a lot to be desired, school spirit wise, and are increasingly difficult to get into if you are an average student. It kills me that most other states have wonderful in state schools with viable sports teams and tons of school spirit (not to mention beautiful campuses) while SUNY schools are lacking in all these factors.</p>