New 3.0 to 3.3 (GPA) Parents Thread

Parents Forum
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<p>No one is talking about not giving kids a chance to reach. I think the majority of folks are talking about making sure they find a safety school their kids like.</p>

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<p>A 3.0 to 3.5 unweighted GPA kid who is taking honors courses is going to have a weighted GPA that is far higher, possibly a 4.0 The kids to whom this thread is devoted are kids with <strong>weighted</strong> GPAs of 3.0 to 3.3. (In my initial post, I was trying to make the point that for some of these kids, who are not taking any honors/APs, their unweighted GPA is exactly the same as their weighted GPA.)These kids will be looking at a very different set of schools versus a “3.0 to 3.5 unweighted” kid, unless the 3.0 kid has no or very very few honors or APs.</p>

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<p>My son has 15 schools on his list, and not one has a free application. </p>

<p>Sorry you can’t relate, but with all due respect, the point of this thread is to be able to relate to the issues that may be surrounding parents of a very specific group of kids, and to offer any input or advice in support of that. If you kid doesn’t fit the description you’re welcome to post of course, but it is important that you understand the <strong>very big</strong> difference between a 3.5 unweighted and a 3.0 to 3.3 weighted.</p>

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<p>Don’t get me wrong, I can relate. My oldest and second are 3.3-3.4 unweighted kids with slightly above average ACT/SATs. They are most definitely in the “thick of it” as far as B students. My second has Colby as a favorite school and personally I don’t think he has a chance, but I"ll let him apply. I just wondered if people would not let their kids apply because they thought they didn’t have a chance, the conversations about Franklin & Marshall made me wonder. So sorry about the app fees, double check as I was surprised the other day when S2 was checking his common app schools, none of them required a fee, two of his schools that are not common app sent a “free app” last month. I was surprised as some of the schools his older brother applied and did have app fees just 3 years ago.</p>

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<p>slumom - we loved Hobart…it is number 2 on S2’s list. I’m hoping he gets in, I’m hoping they put a decent financial package…I’m just hoping! His third favorite he will have no trouble getting in so we’re he’s feeling OK.</p>

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<p>My last child to send off to college is only a junior, but I’m pretty sure we’re going to go a similar route with him as we did with the other two and that’s STRONGLY encourage a couple of financial and academic safeties, a few matches and just one or two reaches. I see absolutely no point in having multiple reaches if you need financial aid that has to be merit based. It’s like going car shopping and instead of looking at Chevy Cobalts, you spend all your time at the BMW lot.</p>

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<p>Ha, I just reread my post - I don’t know what happened - it’s so disjointed…so sorry.</p>

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<p>I wrote a huge response and then lost it!!!</p>

<p>Anyway, we are back from our Penn trip. My son will probably apply to Susquehanna and Ursinus. Of the drive bys that we did, he wants to do official visits to F & M, Lafayette and Quinnipiac. It seems as if these schools are a reach, high reach and match. Does that sound right?? Also, would CT be considered geographic diversity to Penn schools? We haven’t had any students apply to these schools recently.</p>

<p>My son has agreed to do some ACT prep to bring his score up. He also knows that he needs to work hard next year and get good grades, especially since he will have 4 AP’s. If he doesn’t there isn’t anything that I can do!!!</p>

<p>So if he applies ED to a school, does he still have the same shot at FA or do schools use this as a chance to be stingy with the $$$??? </p>

<p>We are suppose to visit Hobart this summer, but I’m getting tired of all the driving. Can you compare it to any other schools that you have visited? Can you describe the campus?</p>

<p>My son is now thinking that he would like to visit some larger schools. Any suggestions for larger schools for B students that have nice campuses? </p>

<p>He was also asking me what types of colleges there are besides liberal arts and what the difference is… I’m not sure. Can someone else answer this for us?</p>

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<p>warriorboy…has he not seen UConn? That’s pretty close to you, isn’t it? You could drive over there and show him what a big school is like…or even UMass. I view the difference between an LAC and a university to be breadth of majors available, as well as perhaps breadth of extracurricular opportunities available. But I wouldn’t call a college like, say, Babson an LAC or a university since it’s a business college. Then, of course, there are colleges that have co-op opportunities, like Northeastern (another one you could look at with your son’s scores). They all seem slightly different to me.</p>

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<p>I’m sorry, Warriorboy, can you refresh me on your son’s stats? I’m pretty familiar with Lafayette and Quinnipiac, but I can’t judge without his stats. And he will have 4 AP’s next year? That’s pretty ambitious for most 3.0-3.3 kids!</p>

<p>If you’re from CT, you won’t be considered geographically diverse in eastern PA. </p>

<p>The usual “contrast” with LACs is Universities. They offer a broader range of majors, and more importantly they also have Grad schools. The plusses - they may have more advanced lab facilities, libraries, etc, and seniors may be able to take some grad classes. The minuses - faculty may be more dedicated to/interested in working with grad students then undergrads, and grad students may actually teach some classes.</p>

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<p>I would let my son apply, but I do not know if I would send my son to a reach school. When he was put into AP or honor classes that “stretched” him he did rise to the occasion. College is a whole other ball of wax. I do not want to place my son in a school where the odds are not with him thriving. I feel that he can only be “stretched” so far. I guess for every student, every parent, every family, that decision needs to be a personal one. Other factors that may play a role are FA and merit aid. For example, my older son has a friend who comes from a wealthy family. The friend has never been a good student and he was allowed to go to a very expensive private college that was a reach for him. He was not offered merit or financial aid. He has failed classes and retaken them. The parents are fine with that. They can afford to keep paying and paying the full freight. He might take 6 years to graduate, but he will graduate.</p>

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<p>I did a pretty long review of my son’s trip to Hobart. It’s in the college review section. I liked the kids we met. I like what I’ve read about the President and almost every single kid we met mentioned that they “liked” the President and that he was very engaged, teaching a class here and there, available to the kids, etc. It’s a beautiful campus. The boys have a few frats, the girls voted no to sororities. There are interest houses for the upper class kids in some of the lakeshore mansions. The requirement for the interest houses is that the kids who petition for them must have a service component to their request. As a parent I would say the kids are very clean cut and “good looking.” My son thought they were all really easy to talk to and nice. The ones that were talking when I was around were really engaged in their school which was nice. We arrived just as classes were letting out on a Friday, one of the first really warm, nice days so the kids were everywhere outside. If you have a kid with piercings, tats and multi colored hair, they might feel alittle different. Those kids might be there, but they weren’t outside on a beautiful warm day and they weren’t grabbing food in the pub. As a parent I would not say the kids were jocks…just healthy and relatively clean cut looking. Pretty old buildings, pretty new buildings, lots of green. Gorgeous original Smith campus at one end. Lots of variety for housing. We live in a smaller resort town so Geneva reminded my son very much of our “home town” and it’s similar in size, maybe a touch larger. Large enough to have one of everything you need but not so small that you would feel like you were on the ends of the earth. Maybe alittle more upscale than Waterville (where Colby is.) I guess Hobart has a very good Lacrosse team, although my son is a skier and sailor and not so much “into” other sports so I think some of that went over his head. In general, though, the kids get behind their teams, especially Lacrosse. My son loved Colby and this was the first school that he said reminded him of Colby from the kids to the campus to the town to the profs and administrators so on the list it went. My son was in Cincinnati, OH a couple months ago and an alum stopped him on the street and talked to him. That has happened to him in his Colby T-shirt but has not happened in some other t-shirts. We’re not on the east coast so I think my son is quiety measuring which t-shirts cause stops on the streets LOL. Hobart is a very expensive school compared to comparable midwest colleges, so we’ll see what happens as I’ve told my son that we wouldn’t pay full boat for Colby or Hobart when some of the midwest colleges are significantly less.</p>

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<p>Lafalum84 - My son has a 3.13 (I believe it is a weighted average, the school reports weighted and unweighted as the same score) His low(er) GPA is partially because of a health issue that became very chronic in his sophomore year. He missed over 40 days of school and just couldn’t keep up. I was more concerned with his health and didn’t fight for the extensions that he probably could have received. This year he was allowed to take 3 AP’s because his teachers felt that he was capable of the work. His health was better and he is getting better at organizing around the times that he is sick. His grades improved but still are not what they should be. (He took 2 AP tests and received a 4 and a 5) So next year he is taking 4 AP’s due to his teacher recs). His ACT score is a 29, but he put no time what so ever into prepping for it. (he is going to prep for the retake.) </p>

<p>So I don’t think my son is a closet genius but he’s a bright kid who is capable of doing well in a more selective school. All of his friends are kids who are in his AP classes and those are the kids that he is most comfortable with. So your opinion on F&M and Quinnipiac would be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>momof3boys - thanks for your write up on HWS. I have tried to convince my son to look at schools in the midwest. He won’t look any farther than Ohio. His guidance counselor thought that he would love Carleton. Most of the NE and NY schools are expensive. It makes the difference between affording and not affording a school. I have heard that HWS was not good at giving FA. But you never know. </p>

<p>So now I am trying to decide if/when we should do some other visits. My feeling about going back to Penn is to wait and see if he comes through with the grades that he thinks that he will and maybe visit either NY or Ohio for now. We’ve never been to Ohio so that might be a good trip to make. I just wish flights would go down so I wouldn’t have to drive!!!</p>

<p>RTR - my son has seen Eastern and parts of UConn (he was there for a geography bee). Are all larger schools pretty much state schools?</p>

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<p>Warriorboy,
I think Quin is a safety for your son, and agree re F&M and Lafayette. Re larger schools, have you seen schools of about 4000 students (I forget Quin’s size, but know your PA schools were about 2000)? St Joe, Fairfield, and Marist are good schools which will be possibilities (Marist being the hardest) and have nice campuses (although one side of St Joe borders a less nice area).
I think many schools do stint on ED aid, absent being an athlete, URM or stellar scholar, but do not admit it.
The only negative I have heard about HWS is the weather.</p>

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<p>We haven’t looked at Fairfield because originally my son did not want any NE schools. He has since changed his mind. We visited Marist and he plans on applying. I’ll have to check out Fairfield and St Joe’s. I wish I could figure out what makes a school click for him.</p>

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<p>Maybe, following the success of your PA trip, you can ask him if he now has a new list of aspects he likes and dislikes to help focus the remaining search? By reputation, Marist and Fairfield are pretty similar, although Fairfield is said to have more preppy kids who like to party. St Joes is the most urban, most Catholic, most middle class and most hospitable to B students of the 3. At all 3 basketball is a big deal.</p>

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<p>I just lost a post, also, so if I double up I apologize in advance. If you can get a cheap flight to Minneapolis, Carlton and St. Olaf are about an hour or so drive. Carlton is quite trendy right now so I mention St. Olaf. Macalester is in downtown St. Paul…it’s more of an urbanish school rather than the traditional college on the edge of town type school. Schools my son glanced at in the midwest were Miami of OHio - which is about 14,500 students I think so “big.” He sorta kinda liked Lake Forest which is just outside Chicago. A couple hours northeast of Chicago is Kalamazoo College which is a true liberal arts college with a long and strong history of grad schools acceptances and 2 hours north of Kalamazoo is Hope College, also a strong Michigan liberal arts college accepting very similar kids stats-wise to K. There are so many in the east and mid-Atlantic you’ll have a fist full of places to apply I’m sure even if you “stop at Ohio” But if you get cheap flights to Chicago or Minneapolis, those are two places you can hit a few schools in a couple of days…and no Wisconsin isn’t “fly-over” but less cheap flights into Milwaukee LOL. I wanted to do an Ohio swing with S2, but the schools that were interesting were very far apart and I just couldn’t get S2 excited about Ohio because it was too far away from skiing (his passion.)</p>

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<p>Thanks for the midwest suggestions. I think he would like the area once he visited. Maybe if he looks at some websites???</p>

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<p>Warriorboy, if your school reports weighted and unweighted GPA the same… I’m confused. It sounds like he’s taken a challenging curriculum, so weighting might make more difference than you think. I suggest you round up his report cards from 9th, 10th & 11th grades. Take his final grades in his 5 academic classes. Give him a 4.0 for every A, 3.7 for an A-, 3.3 for a B+, 3.0 for a B, 2.7 for B minus, etc. Then average them. That’s his UNweighted GPA (or pretty close to it). Then do it again, but add 0.5 to every honors class, and 1.0 to every AP class grade. That is a very common way of creating a weighted GPA, although weighting methods vary. If your son has taken a lot of honors and a few APs, this will raise his GPA quite a bit. For example, my D has an unweighted 3.16, but her weighted GPA is a 3.55 (which is why RTR keeps threatening to kick me off this thread, ha ha). She has yet to take a single AP class, but most of her courses are honors classes. It makes a big difference. </p>

<p>I think the decision to apply to Marist is a good one, if your S likes it, that’s a strong match. We toured there last spring. </p>

<p>Quinnipiac is probably a match too - especially if accompanied by an explanation of what happened academically sophomore year. A lot of B/B+ kids from our hs go to Quinnipiac. Its considered “up and coming” so I know it’s getting tougher to get in there, but I’d still consider it a match for a B/B+ student with good test scores (and I think a 29 on the ACT is good) and a challenging course load like your son is taking.</p>

<p>Lafayette is DH & my alma mater, and my S is a rising Jr there. It’s hard to say how your son would fare in admissions there - it’s definitely a reach, but perhaps not ridiculous. Again, a good explanation of the difficult sophomore year would help. His ACT score is good, and he has a very difficult schedule with all those AP’s. 4 & 5 on last year’s AP tests is great. With strong first half-grades this year I’d say it’s still a definite reach but if he likes it, why not apply? Stranger things have happened… If he’s seen it and loves it, go ahead and let him apply. If it was just a passing thought, I might skip it and focus your time and attention elsewhere. </p>

<p>If your son is willing to look at New England and wants a smallish school, I’d throw Stonehill into the mix. Really nice campus, and more of a B/B+ student profile. I wish my D would look there, but she says it’s too small and too close to home. (sigh)</p>

<p>The nice thing about small schools is that they take the time to read every complete application. At some of the huge schools my D likes that get 30,000 apps, I am sure that they make the first cut based almost purely on numbers, then sit down to read the essays and EC’s of the students whose GPA and test scores make their cut. But a smaller school should be able to take the time to look at the whole picture and your S’s extenuating circumstances.</p>

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<p>I agree with this and is probably the reason I would let my kids figure out where they wanted to apply. Of course all kids applying to college need a safety school, financially and admit statistics, that they would be willing to go. In son #1’s case his safety was ultimately his first choice at the end of the day so all is good. We will know in less than a year about #2. I keep wondering if I have the energy to recalibrate S2’s transcript as we have trimesters and some classes are 2 trimesters, some are 3 and there is no “end” grade, only trimester grades…ugh…not sure it’s ‘worth’ the effort to try and figure out a weighted GPA. To me, he’s a B student in a solid, rigorous, for our school, curriculum. All the “boost” in GPA really doesn’t turn him into an A student.</p>

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<p>Lafalum84 - My son is very interested In F&M and Lafayette. I’m not visiting until I see his grades from the 1st quarter. We did drive through Stonehill and something about the campus turned him off. I thought it was very nice. We also visited Wheaton and Clark and they were just OK. </p>

<p>My son’s school weights by multiplying times 1.1 for an honors class and a 1.2 for an AP. So a B only becomes a 3.6 rather than a 4.0. I’ll have to check it out. </p>

<p>We’ve decided to take 1 more trip this summer. My ds wants to checkout some schools in TN/KY. His GC thought that he would like Centre and Transylvania and that his geographic diversity would help. She also thought that a visit (if we could swing it) would show a serious interest. We have a friend going to Belmont next year who just loves the school so I added that to the list. We’re flying out of Louisville for the trip home so I thought we could add Bellarmine… Anyone know anything about these schools.</p>

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<p>Dont waste your time with St. Joe’s unless you like wasting money. School is a joke.</p>