<p>NJ and mom60, maybe I missed this info, but do we have to contact the school directly for rolling summer admissions. He has a very short list of school right now - all in socal area and most are state schools. I know UC Riverside has something like that because he received an email about it.</p>
<p>I would like to know which rolling admit summer schools are out there as well. Right now D has nothing rolling on her list, but she is looking at a few EA (as well as one ED). A September acceptance would be fabulous, however.</p>
<p>really dumb question here: How does one apply to a “summer rolling school” if your HS doesn’t release transcripts/recommendations until at least school starts in September (if you’re lucky at that)? (Always wondered how the UMich kids in the midwest got their apps out before September…)</p>
<p>lilmom-for my son the rolling school was Northern Arizona U. We were not officially notified but were told that the application would be available in early July and the decisions would be made rolling. I was surprised at the quick turnaround. I think he might have even heard before school started in Sept.
I can’t recall how quickly my D heard back from Univ of Oregon but I do know it was pretty early in the application process.</p>
<p>Rodney- our high school office is open on a limited basis in summer. You can request a transcript any time of the year. It just might be processed quicker during the school year. Also some of the state schools don’t actually ask for a transcript but you self report your grades and courseload. Getting the teacher rec would be more difficult unless you had some way of reaching the teacher. From what I have seen some of the summer app schools and express apps don’t require essays or teachers rec.</p>
<p>thanks mom60; good to know!!</p>
<p>UCF in Orlando is rolling admissions. Kids apply in July, send transcripts as soon as their HS offices open and get a decision in late September/early October. My daughter had a wonderful senior year of HS with her college decision done by early October. </p>
<p>[University</a> of Central Florida](<a href=“http://www.ucf.edu%5DUniversity”>http://www.ucf.edu)</p>
<p>NJ Paladin - When you apply in the summer, do you need to send in the teacher’s recs or can those be sent at a later time? Our teachers are gone, so we can’t get any of his recs yet.</p>
<p>Sorry I guess this was already asked!!!</p>
<p>Many waive the teacher recs on these early applications, but in all cases you can submit your application and then supplement it with recs later and transcripts later. If they are required, the college will simply postpone the decision until all materials are received. My daughter also applied early and was fortunate enough to receive several acceptances by September/October. It relieved a lot of tension, although she still struggled over her final decision because she had many good choices. Of course this was a happy problem to have.</p>
<p>Both of my S’s(3 yrs. apart) applied early (Sept)at my urging. Both applied only to big public instate u’s. No teacher rec’s were required. Both were accepted (these were their first choice schools) by first week of Nov. No more pressure. They knew where they were going. Both had more fun in their senior yr. than all the other years put together.</p>
<p>I am a long time lurker on the CC Parents forum, and have benefited greatly from it. So I think it is time to step up and share my experiences, which are relevant to this thread.</p>
<p>My son graduated from high school this month with an overall 3.0 unweighted/3.3 weighted GPA. They are each about 0.2 points lower for academic courses only. Standardized test scores are basically 1200 on the old SAT scale (he took SAT & ACT; did slightly better on the ACT). Math is higher than Reading.</p>
<p>He is going to one of the Colleges That Change Lives (CTCL) schools in the Fall. He applied Early Decision after visiting and really liking the school (we had been to five other schools of varying sizes and locales). When we received the letter about the fairly large scholarship that he was awarded, it specifically mentioned his early interest in the school as an important factor in the amount of the award. His GPA is in line with the colleges freshman average; his SAT/ACT is significantly higher. </p>
<p>Positive factors 3 honors courses per semester; 3 years of an Asian language (we are Caucasian), albeit with Cs; a 4 on the one AP exam hed taken when he applied.</p>
<p>Negative factors only 2 APs (with a C minus average in both); only one significant EC; did not get recommended for calculus senior year after precalc in junior year. </p>
<p>I think that the college is seeing that fact that he went to a very competitive, top 100 (in the Newsweek national rankings) non-magnet high school as a mitigating factor. Id guess they are feeling this kid did OK in a very tough school. What they dont know from his transcript is that his GPAs probably would have been at least 0.3 points higher if hed just COMPLETED AND TURNED IN ALL HIS ASSIGNMENTS.</p>
<p>We think this CTCL school is a good choice in that it offers support for kids with the time management and study skills problems that our son clearly has. But, of course, he has to be willing to take advantage of that support, and Im not convinced the maturity is there. I think there is a very high probability that he wont make it past his freshman year maybe even past the first semester. </p>
<p>My husband is more optimistic about the likelihood of success than me. But weve told our son that if his GPA at the end of freshman year is below what he needs to keep his scholarship, then he comes home and takes community college courses until he shows us that our money will be well-spent at a residential four-year school. Im not thrilled about taking the financial gamble that he might end up with very few college credits after weve paid for a semester or year of residential college, but we can afford to take the hit if that happens. On the positive incentive side, weve told him that if he does well at his CTCL school and decides to transfer (hes floated the idea of a bigger school already; he knew Id never let him go to a really big school to start), well happily pay for the school of his choice. </p>
<p>So there it is; sorry for the long post. I know many of the parents on this thread will recognize this high school story (particularly regarding their sons) and hope others will find it informative.</p>
<p>Ill try to keep you posted (in all senses of the word) on how things go in the Fall.</p>
<p>Sounds like you’re very much on the right track, delamer. Your son got into a school that he likes and that seems likely to provide a supportive environment for him, you have a pretty clear idea what the game plan is for freshman year, and you have a fallback plan if things don’t go as well as you’re hoping. Life is good. Happy Friday. :-)</p>
<p>Delamer,
Thanks for posting. My S is in excatly the same situation as yours was last year. He was almost overqualified for this thread w/ a shaky 3.4 GPA but quickly fixed that this term and is now down to a 3.2. Certainly by choice - not turning in assignments, immaturity…things that make teachers and parents shake their heads. I’m feeling really numb right now after having seen his report card (I already knew the grades but seeing them on paper…) He really had a chance to raise his GPA but chose not to. The silver lining, if it can be called that, is that he scored a 1900 on the SAT (w/o prep, of course, why change now?) So, there is a ray of hope that he’ll get into the schools he applies to. Its hard to guide him right now. After years of talking about 4 yr. universities and taking college tours, I am resigned to sending him to a jr. college. Please, cc’ers, before you speak out, I know that there’s nothing wrong with jr. colleges. It just isn’t how we planned it. If he stays home, it may be more of the same, just like high school. But if he goes away, I’ll be wondering if we’re just wasting our money w/another child graduating just 2 yrs. later.
Thanks for letting me vent!</p>
<p>Good luck to all of you Delamar and I mean that in the best way. My son(s) are both highly similar and the oldest has thrived in college without the “homework grind” dragging him down. S2 may very well choose a larger school than S2, only fall will tell, but the small schools are very special. You’ll have to “check in” after first semester and let us know how all is going.</p>
<p>Delamer and Lilmom</p>
<p>Thank you for your posts and your candor. With respect, please try not to convey your pessimism to your kids. Kids often blossom in a year–my GPA rose significantly in my freshman year at an Ivy League college from what it was in high school, because I was freed of the busy work assignments and professors were much less into rote learning and students who never disagreed with them (and perhaps I somehow matured :)).</p>
<p>Have you considered working with your kids to set positive goals with substantial positive rewards, for example, instead of punishment for not reaching 3.0, a reward for a each grade above B? Our child responded very well to that this year.</p>
<p>Delamer, are you comfortable sharing which CTCL school he is attending? And, with acceptance and scholarship in hand (and congratulations on both!), is there a support team at the college you can approach now so he does not dig himself a hole off the bat?</p>
<p>Lilmom, in addition to not thinking there is anything wrong with junior colleges, I am not sure why one bad term has you aiming for that, rather than a supportive school where he might find inspiration–and will be woken up if he slacks off. My fear would be that sending a boy with 1900 SATS to a JC will signal to him that you have given up on him and he should give up on himself–or that he will be able to coast through a JC without changing his habits. </p>
<p>My best to you both–and to your sons.</p>
<p>Dela</p>
<p>We found that for S1, college was a welcome relief from the multitude of petty assignments that were completed, but were never turned in and as a result, pulled down grades. (I hope that extends to S2, a rising HS senior, when he heads off to college.) </p>
<p>What we surprised us this year was that S1 skipped classes in one course where he thought he could magically pull it out via reading the online notes and cramming. (This is a kid who skipped one class in all of HS and was promptly caught! He was in the computer room doing HW…) S got a rather rude awakening when his grade was posted. Be sure your kid goes to class. A good bit will sink in just via having the butt planted in the classroom.</p>
<p>Delamer, I think it is EXCELLENT that you have laid out the terms and conditions for S’s performance vs. what you are willing to fund. I hope the scholarship $$ also gives him good motivation to keep up the grades.</p>
<p>I agree that it seems a little extreme to assume that a downward-trending year + 3.2 GPA = junior college (chorus: “not that there’s anything wrong with junior college”). I mean, going from 3.4 to 3.2 may have knocked some schools off his realistic wish list, but there should be plenty of decent 4-year options left for him, especially with those SATs.</p>
<p>It’s funny how where you are always looks different depending on where you’re coming from. My son just brought home final year grades that will pull his average up to a 3.2 from a 3.1, and I’m over the moon–especially since he escaped C’s in English and precalculus, both of which seemed almost inevitable after he managed to pull term D’s in both subjects earlier in the year. (It’s amazing how good a B- can look when you expected to see a C+.)</p>
<p>RE: rolling summer applications/admissions. By rising senior son has received two of these so far. Both schools were schools he was considering. Both he had scheduled visit dates this fall. Both schools indicated based on his self reported ACT scores and self reported GPA scores that he would most likely be admitted upon receipt of the (pre-fillled app), no essays needed and a transcript through junior year confirming his self reported scores. Both were fine schools (I had applied but didn’t choose one of them back in the 70s.) He was pleased and I do think it takes a ton of pressure off the kids. Frankly, he has one school that I’m guessing will get dropped in process from his list because he simply won’t want to wait until April to be done with the entire process and make a decision. History may well repeat itself because the same thing happened to S1. He totally lost interest in one of his schools that didn’t send decisions until April. Obviously this would not occur for kids that apply almost entirely to those April decision schools and utilize a rolling admit school as a safety, but for the kids that have the majority of EA and rolling admit schools the love fades during senior year…at least I’m guessing in our family. I find it interesting because our school really encourages the kids to apply early in October because of the situation with our flagships so I wonder why the April decision schools haven’t pushed their decisions forward like the EA schools. There are still kids right now, end of June, waiting to hear from some of these April decision schools to firm up their classes. Doesn’t make much sense to me in this day and age to drag the process out 10 months.</p>
<p>LILMOM - If you’re anything like me, every year you’ve thought “This will be the year that he gets his act together.” I’m still waiting. I wish you good luck; it’s tough.</p>
<p>We have a well-regarded community college in our county. The problem is, because our immediate community is pretty affluent, that the only kids who go there from my son’s high school are the kids who can’t get into a decent 4-year school. My son isn’t familiar with the good students from elsewhere in the county who are there for financial reasons. So his perspective on the place is very negative.</p>
<p>MOMOFTHREEBOYS – I have some hope that the lack of the “homework grind” will be good for my son. But his organizational skills are poor enough that I have trouble imagining him doing the planning and work for a 10-page (or longer) paper. I also can’t see him successfully studying for a final exam covering many weeks of material without the high school study guides, etc. And I’m afraid he won’t ask for help. We’ve tried in the past, but you can lead a horse to water, etc.</p>
<p>YABEYABE2 – Believe me, if there’s a positive motivational tool out there, we’ve tried it with our son. He would even agree that a particular “carrot’ was a perfect motivator for him, and still not step up. For college, we’ve left it at “We know you have the ability to do it, only you can decide if you have the will.”</p>
<p>I’m not comfortable naming his CTCL school. I told his story to give others ideas about what was possible in the world of college admissions, rather than to give a specific recommendation. I thought that the fact that he got a large scholarship because he expressed early interest in the school was contradictory to what you usually hear – that ED admits lose advantage in the scholarship sweepstakes. (We’re not eligible for any kind of need-based aid, by the way.)</p>
<p>COUNTINGDOWN – One problem we have never had with our son is skipping class. The sponsor of his major EC sent him a graduation note lauding his dependability, and he’s been given increasing responsibility at the summer camp where he’s worked for the last few summers. If we could find a college where he just had to show up and do what he’s told under close supervision, he’d be golden!</p>
<p>Thanks for the reinforcement regarding our terms & conditions. We learned a lot from a friend who had all sorts of trouble with her son who had a scholarship at another small LAC. She was so focused on just getting him graduated that she ended up entirely funding his last year of school when he lost the scholarship due to a poor GPA. In retrospect, she wishes she’d pulled the plug earlier when it became clear that he was doing the minimum he could to get by. Now she is out something like $125,000 for four years; he’s ended up in summer school to complete his graduation requirements; and he will graduate with something like a 2.3 GPA in a humanities major with no job prospects. My husband and I place great value on being an educated person, but one with a decent job. Unfortunately, the friend’s son will be/have neither.</p>
<p>Misery definitely loves company. I was sitting here feeling really bummed out after receiving my son’s report card. I also keep thinking that “this will be the term that he pulls it together”. I’m using a lot of self control and keeping quiet. I would love to give him a huge lecture. He had the only A on the final in the history of his AP Environmental Studies class but still ended up with a B- (you all know what happened here)… I won’t bore you with all the details. </p>
<p>His GC believes that he needs to live with his actions. He doesn’t seem to get upset about any of it. His response - “Mom, there are tons of schools that will take me.” I’m thinking - will they give you $$$, will they motivate and stimulate you so that you will do your work?</p>
<p>As you can see, I am also just venting. I am praying that he likes some of the schools that we are visiting that he has a decent chance of getting into. (at least I’m hoping that he has a decent chance).</p>
<p>I am so thankful that this thread was started.</p>