<p>Northeastmom, I agree kids without ECs matter, but think kids “get a real hard time” without ECs more at the very selective schools that your son’s friend sought. At those schools, Admissions is often looking for a reason to whittle down their huge pile of applicants and lacking ECs gives a handy reason. At the match schools serving B students, where more than 50% of students are accepted, I think Admissions is looking for reasons to accept kids. Not having ECs is a minus (obviously more so at a reach), but should not be fatal unless the college thinks your high school is one where you can get Bs without effort and views a 3.0 and no ECs asd a sign of a total slacker.
Warriorboy, knowing the PA schools you are seeing, I am confident your son will find very attractive campuses and persuasive presentations, although “fit” can be harder to assess in the absence of students. Good luck!</p>
<p>yayabe, I agree that Naviance is great - if your school has it. Our school just got it and was just starting to enter data last spring for last year’s class. So very little to go on.</p>
<p>I’m confused about my chances dot net, because they have D as a 54% chance of getting into Lafayette, and only 34% chance of getting into Elon. But Lafayette’s admitted student stats are higher than Elon’s. Her weighted GPA and ACT score are in Elon’s 50% mid-range, but below Lafayette’s. Unless it’s calculating in her “legacy” status at Lafayette pretty heavily, this makes no sense.</p>
<p>The other schools seem about right. Schools that I thought were a match/reach are shown as 63% chance of admittance. Another match is 73%. Her two safeties are 79% and 80% (ack, not as safe as I thought!).</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>In my experience, the results at my chances are all over the map (way above, below and right on with my own subjective assessements). I would not take it seriously at all, especially if you’re looking at a school where there are few data points. </p>
<p>We’re in the same boat with respect to Naviance. It’s the first year my son’s school has participated. But there are a number of schools in our area that admit guests to their Naviance sites, which can be very helpful. Somewhere on CC there is a list of schools that do this. Just do a quick search and I think you’ll find it, and with any luck there may be a school near you whose site you can use (albeit with limited access).</p>
<p>We have the same Naviance problem. Fortunately, my friend’s son is at a local hs that has been using it for years. It is somewhat helpful but I’m not sure how our schools compare. The other problem is that many of the schols that we are looking at are not the mainstream schools for our region so there is no info about admit rates.</p>
<p>My chances dot net seems to give a very inaccurate picture of an applicant’s real “chances”. This appears to be true for both public and private schools. </p>
<p>Take a look at a good B/B+ student candidate public school in the west - University of Arizona in Tucson. The my chances dot net average SAT (per score) is 625, yet the university posts 620/630 as its 75th percentile scores. The result is the same for University of Oregon. My chances dot net shows the average SAT as about 650. The university posts 610/620 as its 75th percentile scores. </p>
<p>The same is true for GPA. A 3.4 “guarantees” you admission at UOregon. At my chances dot net, 3.4 would put you on the extreme low end of accepted students.</p>
<p>The database is clearly skewed toward higher performing applicants, which makes it an inaccurate predictor for B/B+ applicants.</p>
<p>
I think it must depend on which schools you are looking at, because I got a different impression. It seemed like the gap between the very top schools and the next tier was exaggerated, and then the second- and third-tier schools were squeezed together in the 60-75% range. </p>
<p>For instance, Cornell showed up at 6%, Brandeis at 60%, and Goucher at 73%. The Cornell and Goucher figures seem reasonable, but I would have expected Brandeis to fit closer to halfway between the two, in the 30% range. U of Rochester, George Washington U, and Bard also showed up in the 60 percents, and I would have expected all three of those to be under 50…maybe not far under, but under.</p>
<p>So it seemed like for us, the site was mostly making the second-tier schools look a little easier than I think they’re really going to be.</p>
<p>I’m going with Johnnydoe’s take on mychances. It makes me feel better. :o</p>
<p>Hi! I’m new to this site but I already have read tons! Anyone looking at Florida schools? We’re OOS but S truly wants to go to a Florida school.<br>
My S has a 3.2 gpa, SAT CR is 500, Math 620 and writing is 540. His ECs include Habitat of Humanity, a job and Community Sports (baseball, basketball) and the H.S. Ski Club. He’s looking at UCF, Flagler and University of Tampa. He is interested in majoring in Accounting.
Any advice on these schools?
Any other schools to add to the list?
I looked at Stetson and Rollins and they’re too expensive. Trying to cap it at $30k or so.</p>
<p>Any help would be appreciated!!</p>
<p>TSMom - I don’t have any advice on the Florida schools but it’s great to have you join us!!!</p>
<p>TSMom, look carefully at Flagler’s residence hall rules-your S won’t get that typical college experience at Flagler. No alcohol and no visiting students of the opposite sex residence halls. Beautiful campus though, from their website.</p>
<p>TSMom-You should look up posts by JerseyShoreMom and send her a PM. Her D is a new OOS freshman at UCF. I believe that after initially being deferred, she applied for summer session, was accepted and is attending. They looked at several FL schools and she is very happy at UCF.</p>
<p>Well Flagler is definitely a cheap option and it is a block from the beach. ;)</p>
<p>Did you take a look at Eckerd? It’s a CTCL and looks pretty decent (on paper at least).</p>
<p>Does anyone have some information on Seton Hall? I’m possibly considering the school as it may be a match for me, but I’m not sure as I have heard mixed feelings about Seton Hall.</p>
<p>Sushi_error, my daughter is using Seton Hall as a safety and loves, loves, loves it. The campus is very nice, it’s in the right location for her (which is, to my sorrow, her number one priority). We’ve had a fair bit of contact with admissions department and professors in her preferred major, so if you have any specific questions ask away. What are you considering majoring in?</p>
<p>A couple of my old neighbors are Seton Hall alumni. They liked being students there. Also, my plumber’s D went to Seton Hall. None of these people were students, but they did graduate (one I know had to do at least one extra summer), they enjoyed Seton Hall, and they went on with their careers. None of them have great jobs, but they did eventually find solid employment. I know that one grad did have trouble finding “a real job” for a long time. I believe her major was in the area of communications.</p>
<p>I think major does matter at Seton Hall. The businessey people often do well and the programs have good reputations. Same with international relations (assuming that there are jobs in that field at all), the education folks do well, also, and the nursing majors are in high demand. My D actually is a student, plans to go on to a doctorate in either Classics or Medieval History, so I’m just not sure. But as I said, location is king for her.</p>
<p>Seton Hall has lots of enthusiastic NJ alumni. A somewhat similar school to consider is St Josephs of Philadelphia, which is harder to get into (but not as hard as Villanova), rated higher academically and has very fervent alumni.</p>
<p>Is anyone familiar with nursing program at Seton Hall?</p>
<p>D is looking for a similar safety (in or near City), about the same size as Seton Hall, and with a good nursing program.</p>
<p>(Needs safety for a B+ student, with 1200-1300 SAT (math/CR))
Lots of EC’s…</p>
<p>Seton Hall nurses do very well in getting jobs in NJ and NY</p>
<p>^Thanks.</p>
<p>Anyone have suggestions for other similar schools with nursing?</p>