New 3.0 to 3.3 (GPA) Parents Thread

Parents Forum
961

<p>_me, regardless of where you are staying in Geneva, park by the Ramada Inn (big blue roof) and take a walk on the path along the Lake-wonderful! To the right of the Ramada is an ice cream stand which seems very popular. Downtown we visited Ciccono’s, wraps, pizza, salads, subs etc, eat in or take out-reasonably priced. </p>

<p>Alfred is tiny, but there are a few restaurants there, taking D#3 for her Freshman Year on the 18th, so we will have a chance to patronize these places, I am sure. </p>

<p>At SLU, McCarthy’s is a very good restaurant, open all year and a great gift shop downstairs. We ate a lot there over 4 yrs D#2 was at SLU. For pizza, downtown is Sergi’s, which is a very popular choice for the locals and the students. </p>

<p>Warriorboy, HWS doesn’t have full Concert Band or orchestra, just musical assemblies like Woodwind, Guitar, etc. and S feels competition would be fierce to get into an assembley like that. In the future HWS is supposed to build a big Arts facility. So we will keep looking & he may apply, but he did like the town of Geneva overall. HWS is “test optional” I was very impressed with HWS, but I am not going to be the one enrolling! </p>

<p>Two reaches have concert band or orchestra type things - Conn & Skidmore. Sometimes my S is hard to read & doesn’t fully express opinion until some time has passed. :cool:</p>

962

<p>Thanks for the information - I just booked all the hotels.
EconoLodge in Hornell (Alfred & RIT)
Ramada in Geneva (HWS)
Comfort Suites in Canton (SLU)</p>

963

<p>_me - I can’t wait to hear about your experiences at these schools. Good luck and have fun.</p>

<p>I may have asked this before but I’m trying to figure out if there is any value to the selectivity index on Princeton Review. For instance, I was looking at Furman and Franklin and Marshall. Furman’s index is 97 and F&M’s is a 95. I thought that it would be the other way around.</p>

964

<p>Has anyone thought about using essays to talk about your grades, or is that a risky strategy?</p>

965

<p>RTR, I’m thinking it would be a risky strategy under most circumstances. Every admissions rep at the info sessions we’ve been to keeps saying that the essay is the chance to demonstrate two things: your writing skill/style and your personality. Basically it’s your chance to make the adcoms fall in love with you (I don’t mean “you” personally, of course).</p>

<p>So my instinct would be to avoid using the essay to address a weakness, unless you could do it in a way that illuminates a corresponding strength and throws the emphasis on that strength–and that sounds pretty tricky to pull off.</p>

966

<p>So in that case, how do you explain one really lousy semester?</p>

967

<p>I would think, QM, that a really lousy semester would come up in an interview, if an interview is required, as would a crappy grade in a subject. At least, that has been my kids’ experience with something on a transcript. I also recall that there is a place on the Common App for something like that, wording similiar to “tell us something about you that you want us to know” If you put something there, all the schools will read it. That is of course, up to the student if they want to put something there.</p>

968

<p>RTR, I would not use the essay to discuss grades or academic performance or to explain anything of that nature. The essay is an opportunity for the applicant to show who they are and to demonstrate their attributes by telling a story that will show these attributes. And the attributes would be strengths. </p>

<p>If it is necessary to explain something about the academic record, often an application has a question that is optional such as “has anything affected your academic performance?” or “is there anything else you would like us to know?” and that is where a brief statement can be made. Another place is to ask the guidance counselor to address whatever it is in his/her school report letter.</p>

<p>PS…I would be very careful about explaining grades and would not do so unless there were compelling factors to mention. For example, if in one semester, the child had mono or their parent died and the grades dipped, I would explain that. If the grades have been about the same all four years and are not the best but there is no clear cut valid excuse, I would not go explainin’. I would not blame teachers for sure. I would also turn a weakness into a positive such as “during soph year, I struggled in math but got extra help after school and was able to turn things around by my junior year when my math performance improved.” Again, I am not talking about using the essay for this either.</p>

969

<p>I would never use the essay to address poor grades. There is usually a page for supplemental information. If you have a good excuse (like mono, or a death in the family, or a divorce) that’s the place to address it as briefly as possible. It’s even better if you can get the counselor to address it, and with as positive a spin as possible. </p>

<p>It’s not my experience that this is a typical interview question.</p>

970

<p>Re: essay - I remember reading somewhere how a student worked in an illness that they suffered in sophomore year and linked it to an EC. Did not mention grades specifically but it was sort of a round about way to let admins. know something went on during that year.</p>

971

<p>Soozie…by the way, I tried to PM you and your box is full.</p>

972

<p>I can’t keep up with my PM box which fills up constantly. I much prefer email. I already have a personal email account and two work email accounts to deal with (not counting also a FB account) and so PMs is just another thing to check. So, if you click on my name, you can choose “send email to member” rather than PM. That said, I volunteer a great deal on the forum to help many at once and cannot handle all the individual emails/PMs asking for individualized advice as I have my real job to do which is advising students and parents who have contracted services and I only have so many hours in a day. I don’t know the nature of your PM but if you wish to resend it, do it via email, thanks.</p>

973

<p>Actually, it had to do with Vermont…lol…it was a couple of days ago.</p>

974

<p>My son wrote an entertaining essay that did talk about his grades but mentioned other things too…just for one particular school since it was relevant to the question. I like the essay and the school is a long shot, so I was thinking he might just want to send it since it is so personalized to the school. But it’s hard to judge…</p>

975

<p>RToR…please send it along via email. If you sent it a couple of days ago, that is odd as I got the notice of the PM box being full just this afternoon and that you had tried to PM. Weird. Anyway…let me know…I do indeed live in VT.</p>

976

<p>I tried again today after I saw your post as it reminded me that I hadn’t been able to get through before. I don’t do the e-mail thing but it wasn’t that important. It’s just that I happen to be in Vermont right now.</p>

977

<p>RtoR…I made room in the PM box for you if you wish to resend it.</p>

978

<p>I started at Pg 1 and got about half way through this thread. Wow, some really good suggestions for schools. </p>

<p>D has visited Kent State, Marshall University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Slippery Rock and Toledo. These are larger schools which offer the potential for financial aid to students with a 3.2+. Marshall has a surprisingly low cost, and a family-feel for such a large school (D really liked it and even watched the movie We are Marshall after visiting). Many of these schools are in rural or out-of-the way places, but offer a great college experience. The University of West Virginia has a lower cost and lots of majors, but still has a big-party atmosphere IMO. Of these schools, I believe that Toledo had the friendliest people, from the students who met us in the parking lot and offered to show our kids around, to the Admissions Office and the parking department that forgave our parking ticket when we said we were visiting the school with a prospective student. </p>

<p>I’m sure others mentioned them, but Indiana University of PA, Slippery Rock, Edinboro, Kutztown, Lockhaven, Clarion and other PA state schools (beside Pitt and Penn State) are good values even for OOS students. </p>

<p>There are numerous schools in our area that get little or no national attention, but which would be pleased to receive applications from the students described in this thread: Robert Morris, Waynesburg, Carlow, LaRoche, St. Vincent, Seton Hill, Mercyhurst and more. Towards the higher end of the 3.3 and 1200 applicant range, there are Duquesne, Gannon, Cleveland State, John Carroll and others. The biggest problem is identifying these gems, and then doing research into majors, quality of life, size of library, placement office resources, and all of the other info that is published more widely for nationally known schools. I can help my D research schools for about an hour at a time before my eyes cross and the schools start to look alike.</p>

<p>I had never heard of Marist until I read this board, and now – never mind my daughter – I want to go there based on the beautiful pictures on their website.</p>

<p>One thing that I’ve noticed when visiting schools is to be watchful of the directions. If a school’s directions are a little indirect, there may be a bad neighborhood that they don’t want to you see or their directions are giving you the most scenic route to try to impress you!</p>

979

<p>Yes, S2 attends a directional state u. that he loves. It is a pretty 100 yr. old campus with a historic neighborhood across the street. To get to his campus from the direction that most visitors would take, one must go through the absolute worst neighborhood in the city.
I have often wished there were some way visitors could by-pass that part. It’s hard not to form a negative opinion before even reaching the entrance to the school.</p>

980

<p>I also appreciate this thread. I have perused it a bit (not every post) as I am working with some students in this academic range and many have mentioned some schools I have noted and have looked into further which are often not colleges that are in the big fat college directories or not mentioned a lot on CC either. So, it interests me (even though I don’t have a kid of my own in this ballpark) what colleges people are discussing and what they are saying about them for a 3.0-3.3 student (or student with low SAT scores too or not a very demanding HS curriculum).</p>