New 3.0 to 3.3 (GPA) Parents Thread

Parents Forum
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<p>We’re probably on the bottom end of folks in this thread (and probably on the very bottom of those perusing CC in general).</p>

<p>Our son’s GPA is 2.9/3.2 (un- and weighted), and his SATs are mid to high 500s. Classic underachiever AND lousy test taker.</p>

<p>Still, I have found this thread (and similar ones) extremely valuable. I’ve gotten a lot of good suggestions and then checked them out on my own. Some worked and some didn’t, but you all came up with stuff I’d never have considered. </p>

<p>For what it’s worth, here’s the list of schools we’ll be seeing this summer:</p>

<p>Hartwick
Juniata (probably a real reach)
Lebanon Valley
Susquehanna
McDaniel
Hiram
Ohio Wesleyan (another reach)
Ripon (a reach, but geography may help offset)</p>

<p>Others we may see later:</p>

<p>St. Anselm
St. Michael’s
Merrimack
Western New England
Eastern Connecticut</p>

<p>Thanks to all.</p>

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<p>Payfor…you are right…I wasn’t clear in my OP, because I was thinking of my own son, whose unweighted and weighted GPAs are very close together in a similar range (3.0-3.3) because he has only taken a few honors courses. It became more clear that there was misunderstanding when a few folks came in with kids in the weighted 4.0 range, who are very different than the kids here, and at our school (which only provides weighted GPAs) would be kids that are headed to places like Vandy and WashU. (And…kids that have plenty of threads devoted to them here on CC.) Even kids in the weighted 3.5 range have many more options and better acceptance rates at our school than the 3.0 to 3.3 kids. There is something magic about that 3.5 number, I think!</p>

<p>Sorry for the confusion…wish I could go back and clarify in the original post.</p>

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<p>//I was thinking of my own son, whose unweighted and weighted GPAs are very close together in a similar range (3.0-3.3) because he has only taken a few honors courses. //</p>

<p>That’s my son’s situation. I don’t have access to his official unweighted GPA–the school only publishes the weighted GPA on Naviance–but since the only weighted courses he has taken are in honors math, the unweighted GPA should be 1/6 of .5 (.08) below his weighted one, or 3.0.</p>

<p>I’m sorry if posting my son’s scores came across as one-upping; I thought cherryhillmomto2 was just trying to get a sense of what the range was. As northeastmom said, there are a lot of different ways to be a B/B+ student. Anybody who covets my kid’s test scores should know that I likewise covet their kid’s organizational & time-management skills. The grass is always greener.</p>

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<p>^ “The grass is always greener.”</p>

<p>Yup.</p>

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<p>gweeta- we are looking into some of the same schools. Are you seeing several schools at one time? Also curious if you are flying or driving…</p>

<p>My friend’s daughter was accepted at St Anselm with a 3.2 GPA, only 1 honors class AND received a good amount of $$$. She used it to get her favorite school to give her more money. </p>

<p>Lastly, why are you thinking of looking at Eastern Connecticut rather than Central or Southern?</p>

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<p>PA appears to have the best supply of good schools for B students on the East Coast. In addition to the ones you mention, check out the websites of Washington & Jefferson; Alleghenny; Lycoming; Moravian; Albright; Scranton; Bloomsburg; Arcadia; York; and Kings.</p>

<p>Best of luck–and please post your reactions to the schools.</p>

607

<p>Allegheny has been mentioned before as a good school for B students. After doing some research, it seems to be a bit of a stretch. 50% of there students have a GPA of 3.75 or above. 26% are above 3.5, leaving a very small percentage below 3.5. Am I missing some info???</p>

<p>yabeyabe2 - do you know kids that were able to get in with a B average???</p>

<p>I tried collegedata and my son was not a “good bet” for any school unless I changed his GPA to 3.5!!!</p>

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<p>Gweeta, Hartwick: not good with financial aid if that is a concern for you. You also need to be a mountain goat with all the stairs! On the plus, I think they give students a laptop, but havent’ checked recently to see if that is still true.</p>

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<p>warriorboy, I think that you need to figure out how that gpa is computed. I know someone who was accepted a year ago to Allegheny. This student’s stats were a 480m, 560v, 600 writing. Graduated high school only having completed Algebra II. The student was not only accepted but was offered about a 12,000 merit scholarship. As far as gpa, the student had a 4.0, but on a scale of 4.5. I don’t know what that means, but I was told by the student that it is equal to about a 3.6 on a 4.0 scale. I don’t know if the gpa was weighted or unweighted. I just know that the student’s weak area from SATs and courses taken was math. Remember, Allegheny is very close to OH, so in my mind it is more of an OH school than a PA school, even though it is still in PA. The nearest “main” airport is 1.5 hours away (Pitt), and Cleveland airport is 2 hours away. This makes flying a bit inconvenient. If a student’s plane is delayed so that they miss the shuttle back to school, or if they’d like to fly home on an “off” weekend when college airport shuttles are not offered, it will be difficult without a car. There is a smaller airport, I think it is Erie (?), which is 40 minutes away. The school stopped offering shuttles there because the flights from Erie tend to be much more expensive so students were mainly flying out of Cleveland or Pitt.</p>

<p>One more thing, I don’t know the breakdown of their merit awards, but from what I have seen posted on CC, they don’t give much more money. I think that I read a few top top kids get a few more thousand, but most of the merit awards seem to be about 12,000 or 12,500 (not sure which it is and I don’t want to investigate it over $500).</p>

610

<p>Just had to share an anecdote that kind of sums up my son, this year particularly: We get in the car to go to school this morning. About halfway there, he suddenly swears loudly. I ask what’s the matter. He says, “I forgot my physics binder.” His physics final exam is today, and one of the things in the binder is what his teacher calls the “toolbox,” a student-generated and maintained list of equations etc. The students are allowed to refer to their toolbox during tests.</p>

<p>He forgot the physics binder because he had taken it to bed with him to study for the exam, and he left it on his bedside table.</p>

<p>So, I say, do we want to turn around and get it? At this point, if we do that, he will certainly be late for homeroom, which means a “tardy detention,” which means coming to school 45 minutes early on Monday. But we might still be in time for first period (which is when the physics exam is).</p>

<p>He says, “no, really, I don’t need it, it’s just a crutch.” He proceeds to rattle off a couple of dozen equations from memory. The ones that I remember are all correct. I press him–are you sure? (Of course, we’re getting further from home and closer to school all the time.) He says, yes, I’m sure, and goes on to insist that he hasn’t had to refer to the toolbox for a test all year long.</p>

<p>OK. Have it your way. </p>

<p>On the way home, I realized that this is how it’s going to go: for the most part, he’s right, and he will do fine from memory. He understands the concepts pretty thoroughly. But there will be two or three questions that will hinge on equations he’s forgotten, and he’ll get those wrong. So he will wind up with an 85 on the test where he should have had a 100.</p>

<p>And that is how a kid with 2230 SATs becomes a B student.</p>

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<p>nightchef, just to compare notes, my son took physics also. He was allowed 10 minutes to copy formulas from the blackboard (at least nobody could forget them). Then all cards were collected and handed back for the final. Of course, many students felt badly because it was not enough time to write down all of the formulas. There were a few students who decided that they could cheat and rewrite their cards at home and use those instead of the ones that were allowed. Several students were caught for cheating, but I don’t know what the consequences will be. I do know that they were allowed to take their exams without their “cheat cards”. I would have a thought a zero would be put on their papers and they’d be asked to leave the room, but that did not happen.</p>

612

<p>nightchef – I can relate to your anecdote because those kinds of things happen to my son all the time. In elementary school he often quickly re-did his homework in the morning on the school bus because he had forgotten it at home. He’s taken many a test without a calculator because he forgot it at home. He’s the top performer on his Academic Challenge team, but more than once he’s shown up at the wrong time or the wrong location for a competition.</p>

<p>Are most of the students on this thread boys? Just wondering.</p>

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<p>//He was allowed 10 minutes to copy formulas from the blackboard (at least nobody could forget them). Then all cards were collected and handed back for the final. //</p>

<p>This seems kind of Rube Goldberg to me. I understand the logic behind the system my son’s teacher is using, because the point is to make the kids take responsibility for keeping their list of equations up to date as the year goes by. But just sticking them up on a blackboard, having the kids write them down and hand them in, and then giving them back to the kids on exam day? What’s the point? Why not just give them all Xeroxed sheets with the formulas on them?</p>

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<p>All it meant was that the student who is better at copying and writing faster had more formulas for the test. My son could not remember which ones were written and which he missed. This made him sit and memorize all of them anyway.</p>

615

<p>It appears that Hartwick no longer “gives” students a laptop. On their website, they list their suggested models for purchase, along with the price. They also have a page where they ask you to list what computer you will be bringing to school so they will know what software to load on it for you.</p>

<p>When D and S were looking at Hartwick, their merit money seemed pretty good. I don’t remember about their need based aid, because D was the only one who went through the application process and that was 7 years ago. But Hartwick had fallen to third (and last) on her list anyway. It is expensive if you don’t get much FA.</p>

<p>I liked Hartwick, particularly for S, because when we were visiting we met a faculty member in S’s desired major who was very friendly and welcoming and presented a great overview of his department. It seemed like it would be a good place and program for S. But S and H were not impressed, even though they did like the faculty member. S did not even want to apply.</p>

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<p>Ah, it must be on the Y chromosome :wink: ?</p>

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<p>Phew, not just mine. I never understood why he would forget these details. I always thought that when it was important enough that he would remember. Now I’m not sure if that will ever happen, lol!</p>

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<p>“Are most of the students on this thread boys? Just wondering.”</p>

<p>I think I have the lone female of this group and she is hanging on by a very thin thread (B’s, B-'s for the most part)…</p>

618

<p>On the good news front, my son has actually started to wake up on his own to an alarm clock. Not quickly, mind you–it takes him 15 minutes and 3 or 4 pushes of the snooze button–but at least I don’t have to stand there shaking him and calling his name for all that time. I had begun to despair of this ever happening. Maybe he’ll survive college after all.</p>

619

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<p>Mine did manage to survive FIVE 8:00 classes his first semester away at school. He set his cell phone and never missed a class. Now after 4 semesters I don’t worry about him waking up! But this is still the kid who might not have a pencil or pen on him. Eh, details!</p>

620

<p>Some of these posts are giving me a feel for what’s in store for me with my 11yr old son! I have to wake him up every single day, calling his name constantly! Forgets his homework - or to bring home books that were needed for his homework! Very bright smart kid - top of the class currently, but I can see that sliding if he can’t keep track of the small stuff.</p>

<p>Never had this issue with my almost junior D - she’s incredibly organized - without any reminders.</p>

<p>Is it just the Y chromosome? Or is it just different kids/personalities??</p>