<p>The University of Scranton looks like an interesting possibility for my daughter. She is a B student who wishes to transfer from a community college. She would like to major in philosophy and from the website, that looks like a strong department. Would she be comfortable there as an older student (22) and also minority and not Catholic? I have a very good impression of Jesuit Universities and would personally consider this affiliation a plus. Thank you!</p>
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<p>Both my kids go/have gone there (1 graduated, 1 there now). We are not Catholic either, but are very happy with the Jesuit schools (my H got his master’s degrees from Fordham) It is a very welcoming community. My S transferred in for second semester freshmen year and by the time that semester was over, the guys in his dorm had forgotten he was “the new kid”. </p>
<p>The Philosophy department is excellent. D doubled majored and one of the majors was Philosophy. She has nothing but good things to say about it.</p>
<p>I also don’t think your D’s age would put her at any disadvantage. Most juniors are 20-21, so it isn’t a big difference.</p>
<p>It sounds like it could be a good match for your daughter - if you plan a visit, ask if they could set up a meeting for you with one of the philosophy profs. who may be on campus. The campus itself is lovely with a beautiful new student, new sophomore dorm, and they just broke ground for a new science building.</p>
<p>In addition to Goucher and McDaniel, consider Salisbury and Mary Washington in MD. Your being West Coast will help, but at our highly regarded East Coast HS, none of Lafayette, Villanova, Gettysburg or F&M/Dickinson (except possibly early decision) are regarded as below 3.2 weighted GPA student schools, unless there are good boards, athletics, etc. </p>
<p>In NJ, consider Drew</p>
<p>^^ Are you referring to the University of Mary Washington? That is a state school in Virginia.</p>
<p>Sorry–I meant Washington in MD and Mary Washington in VA, not mentionb Washington & Jefferson in PA (but not George Washington in DC and I do not think Washington & Lee in VA).</p>
<p>Yes, I think U. of Mary Washington, Washington College, and Washington and Jefferson are good possibilities (as well as Salisbury and Drew, which you had mentioned in the earlier post).</p>
<p>I think Washington and Jefferson are a lot more competitive than Salisbury (which is a safety for D based on her school naviance). Washington College is a good possibility. We have to go see it. I wonder if we could do Washington and Goucher in one day? Anybody know? They both look fabulous on paper.</p>
<p>We visited Goucher & D didn’t care for it, that was her reaction. H & I were not that impressed either. One thing that was a turnoff was the “Princeton Review” survey that “Everybody Smokes” seemed to be true! It had recently rained & the ash tray stands near the entrances to all the buildings & dorms were filled with water & cigarette butts! What a memory! Where we parked made it seem like we were going to a community college, not a residential 4 year college, just that kind of feeling.</p>
<p>The community college feeling is a vibe I seem to get from a lot of “safety” schools. I think in part it is because on the lower end (remember if it’s a safety for your B student what kind of students get in as a reach?), the students are just not particularly serious.</p>
<p>My D is an extremely serious student and ants to be with others like her.</p>
<p>I’m not sure that some of these schools would be considered a safety for a B student. Goucher unweights the GPA, so that the grades look lower than they actually are. I was also told that Washington College is more difficult to get into than Goucher or McDaniel.</p>
<p>We recently visited Goucher and our tour guide spoke a bit about how difficult the science majors were and that those students were always busy. My son thought that he would apply, but then we visited McDaniel and U of Mary Washington and he liked them both a lot more. </p>
<p>McDaniel had us grouped with another family and then gave us 2 tour guides. It was a very interactive, personal tour. We were very impressed. Even though we have visited schools with higher “stats”, this is one of my son’s favorites. My only concern is the high number of in state students. I would want to be sure that the campus doesn’t empty out on the weekends.</p>
<p>I feel as though we are making a judgement after spending such a short period of time at a school. The plan is to revisit the schools that he is accepted at, that we can afford. I think that visiting classes is a must. </p>
<p>I believe that you can visit Washington College and Goucher in the same day. We visited Goucher and McDaniel and they are about an hour apart. Not sure if Loyola is a good match for a B student, but I loved the school and it is also near by.</p>
<p>One more comment… Is the best way to figure out if your child will qualify for merit aid to go to each individual website? Is there a way to search for schools that will give merit aid based on our kid’s stats? Lastly, does anyone know of school that gives aid based on test scores??</p>
<p>Based on D’s school’s naviance, no one with a weighted 3.0 average or higher was rejected from Goucher. For Washington that number looks about 2.9 and McDaniel at 2.7. That makes them safeties for a B student (remember these are weighted averages) IMO. Am I wrong?</p>
<p>I don’t think that they are safeties, but I do think that they are all matches. For example, the average ACT score at McDaniel is 24, and the average gpa is a 3.5 (I really do assume that is weighted, but I am not 100% certain).</p>
<p>I am not sure I believe the colleges’ numbers. I can never tell what’s weighted, how it’s weighted. They all seem fudged to me. I think it was earlier in this thread we were discussing Elon and their weighting is completely ridiculous (1 for honors; 2 for APs). I do believe the naviance data. If everyone has gotten in if their grades are over a 3.0 (weighted), then I think it is logical to assume that everyone with a weighted average over 3.0 will get in in the future. Now this only applies to my D’s school (which is a top 100 school if that matters) but I have to think that for my D those schools are safeties.</p>
<p>Sometimes you can look at people’s stats & merit aid (by class year) at the collegedata website. I found it helpful to see students’ acceptances, rejections, waitlisteds & many posted their merit aid. Just another tool to use. </p>
<p>Some schools are up front about merit aid on their websites, others are not & just state to apply & you are automatically considered for merit aid.</p>
<p>No, seriously people…I am completely confused. What is a safety? I know I asked this before but apparently what I consider a safety a lot of people consider a match. I really do not want to be wrong about this come April and D does not get in anywhere because I am steering her wrong.</p>
<p>Queen’s Mom…I think we had established early in the thread that your daughter has a much higher weighted GPA than 3.0 to 3.3 which is why your matches may be others’ safeties. (You stated that your daughter has “over a 4.0 weighted” - post 762 in “The B+ student parents’ thread”) Again, this is why I created this thread, so that those of us who have children with similar GPAs can discuss these schools on similar terms. In fact, I believe you either started or contributed fairly early to a whole different thread designed for children who are taking a large amount of honors and AP courses and whose weighted GPAs are much much higher than what we are talking about here. You are of course welcome on any thread, but in all honesty, I don’t understand why you keep coming back to this thread since your daughter doesn’t fit the criteria and will have opportunities that our children may not have. Again…your matches are not our matches.</p>
<p>RTR, I am not necessarily specifically talking about my D here. The numbers I posted are from naviance from D’s school for weighted averages above a 3. I believe that is exactly what the content of this thread is.</p>
<p>Besides, after seeing some of the SAT scores posted in this thread, I have a feeling some of your children may have opportunities my D may not have.</p>
<p>Queen’s Mom, you are stressing too much. A “safety” is a school you can afford where there is a great deal of certainty that your child will get in and you child is willing to go. some people only need one of these on their list, some prefer a couple. For many it is the state schools and for some it it is schools where statistically the child is in the upper quartile. I define matches as schools where we are fairly certain we can afford and where our kids are in the 50 percentile or above and fairly certain of a probable acceptance. We define reaches as schools where the kids have only an outside shot of getting accepted. There are over 3000 colleges and universisites in the country. It’s not horribly difficult to put a reasonable reach/match/safety list together, even for a B student. As someone on the second time around, don’t worry, you’ll be just fine. If you want to line up stats use unweighted GPAs, then you will be certain you have schools where your child will be admitted, if the schools recalculate and weight…well…bonus.</p>
<p>Queen’s Mom, I think Ready to Roll is trying to get across that perhaps your D is overqualified for this thread. Haven’t I seen elsewhere that your D is involved in 6 or 7 A/P courses? With that many A/P courses wouldn’t your D’s stats really put her out of the ballpark on this thread? </p>
<p>Schools we have been discussing would be a safety for your D, she would have no trouble getting in: like Washington & Jefferson, Goucher, Drew, Washington College and others. Whereas some of us parents are viewing these schools (& others previously mentioned on this thread) as matches for our children! </p>
<p>One reason why I started posting on this thread that Ready to Roll started was that my S’s GPA will fall into this range, and he probably will have one A/P course, that’s all. He has decent SAT scores, but certainly not perfect scores & a high GPA like so many of the outstanding college applicants on this website. There really needs to be a thread for parents like us! I can understand Ready to Roll’s comments completely!</p>