<p>sushi_error, I think Clark is still a realistic target for a B student, though perhaps a somewhat reachier target than it was a few years ago. According to admissions data posted at a well-known reference site, 29% of Clark’s entering students had GPA’s under 3.25, and 13% were under 3.0. Those data might be a year or two old, but I would assume they are still in the ballpark.</p>
<p>The numbers for Allegheny from the same source are more daunting–only 15% under 3.25, and only 6% under 3.0.</p>
<p>Liljay, in NJ, Rider has a reputation as a school where the kids go home on the weekends. You and sushi-error might look into Drew in NJ. Clark is a good school, provided you like its urban setting. Alleghenny has an excellent reputation. </p>
<p>You both might want to consider St Josephs; Loyola of Maryland; Scranton; Moravian; Alfred; McDaniel; Lycoming; and Albright, among the many others appearing earlier in this thread. Some of these are small and rural colleges, which may not be a match.</p>
<p>liljay, if you have not already, you might want to consider how you feel about schools which might offer very generous aid to you as an underrepresented minority but which lack diversity in their student body.</p>
<p>I feel as if I’m spending my time trying to play the odds! </p>
<p>At least half of the schools on my son’s list are around 60% female. Do you think this gives the males a slight advantage??? I wonder if 55% makes a difference?</p>
<p>Any suggestions for an African American male, hopefully an 1800 SAT ( okay, 160 PSAT as a sophomore), 3.0 GPA, with ADHD diagnosed around age 4 ( behavior a much bigger problem than inattention, so a little bit of a discipline record), who wants to play soccer in college? He’s pretty good, but not Division 1 recruited good, and nearby snowboarding would be a HUGE bonus. I think he’s pretty good at that too, but I really doj’t know how to judge. A middle class kid, but very interested in his African American / inner city roots. California would be nice, I was thinking a CSU, but am intrigued by LAC’s, and a Christian school wouldn’t be a problem for him. It’s all he knows. He has a decent graphic artist portfolio, and has gone along with journalism for three years ( youngest yearbook editor), but fancies himself in television.</p>
<p>warriorboy - I do the same thing. It seems that most LAC’s have a higher ratio of females to males. That can’t be too bad for our DS’s, can it?
Then I start looking at the minority numbers. Asian American here, so LAC’s with 3% or under Asian American start looking better…the numbers game for real! LOL</p>
<p>mom0809, I suspect LACs with low numbers of Asians are actively seeking more. I think the low numbers reflect that many LACs are in rural areas with low Asian populations and that Asians who are first generation US college attendees are often more familiar with larger schools</p>
<p>One of my son’s friends went to a small school with a low Asian population (I won’t discuss her ethnicity more specifically on this board). I will tell you that she was so unhappy and uncomfortable socially at that school and she did transfer after a year. She stuck the year out but she came home every weekend (btw, she did not live that close to the school, so it was quite an effort to come home every weekend).</p>
<p>Northeastmom, that is very sad. Many small schools in rural areas have very low percentages of blacks, hispanics, asians and Jews and some have very few Catholics. I am sure many parents and students struggle with the question of how to determine how this will work out socially, since no college would admit it is a problem.</p>
<p>Yes, it was sad. It lead to so many problems besides the student’s unhappiness (which was huge by itself). It meant parents had to meet her at a train station for drop off and pick ups, and they sometimes drove all the way to the school bc the train was not inexpensive. The drive was 3 hours RT for the parents! They drove that 3 hour RT so many times that year. This student did not have the gpa needed to transfer to the school that she wanted to transfer to (one with a large Asian population). She transferred for a year to a state school and commuted from home. She then achieved a high enough gpa to gain admission to the school she wanted to attend as a junior. Additionally, the year that she commuted meant that the family had to supply a car. This meant the expense of purchasing a 3rd car. You can see how the situation snowballed and added so much inconvenience and expense for a couple of years.</p>
<p>2boysima- GMU is not as difficult to get into as JMU. One of my best friend’s daughter went there. She really liked it and it has one of the most diverse populations. I don’t know if any of the Va colleges have more consideration for out of state students or not. Good question. I have heard that Christopher Newport University really likes to grab the oos students. However, they look at a 3.5 or better and there are other colleges much better than they pretend to be.</p>
<p>Hey Warriorboy are you still looking at VA colleges? Your son and mine sound a lot alike. A couple of the colleges we looked at in VA definitely had 60% or better for female enrollment. My son isn’t too thrilled with that. What colleges have you all narrowed it down to? I just wish I could get my son to show some interest. I have the enthusiasm, I want to see him spread his wings and experience college life! He is so laid back about it all:( His thing is all he ever wanted was to go to VA Tech and that is not going to happen with his grades. He thinks he is above everything else. He ever so often threatens to join the military instead. Whoa! It is going to be a long senior year.</p>
<p>marid4061 - We did look at colleges in VA. None of them made his top 5 but he will probably apply to a couple. My ds is very laid back and thinks I’m stressing for no reason. Of course 4 of his top 5 choices are reaches and probably not even reasonable ones!!!</p>
<p>My son is ok with the 60% female population. He has far more female friends. (I’m hoping for increased odds that he’ll find a wife to take care of him!!)</p>
<p>I’m hoping that my B student friends may be able to help me find some additional options for my ds. I’m looking for schools similiar to Franklin and Marshall that a B student would have a reasonable shot of getting into. (We have plenty of reaches)</p>
<p>Warriorboy, it might be helpful if you listed the 5 he liked and those he did not like, so we did not waste you rtime with schools already on your yes and no lists. </p>
<p>Oddly, with our son we have the opposite issue–he does not want to apply to any reaches, because he fears he might be overmatched, despite having finally earned very good grades this year. I can’t wait until this is over.</p>
<p>This makes sense to me. I feel somewhat this way about the schools for my children. My son will apply to one school that I feel is a high match. The others are all match and safety schools. I feel that stretching and growing are easy to do at match and safety schools, but finding success at a reach school may mean transferring to an “easier” major. I don’t want to debate what is an easier major, but I have seen majors change because students were not succeeding at the major that they chose. That can happen at a safety school too, but I believe that it is less likely than at a reach school. I do not have studies to back up my thoughts.</p>
<p>northeastmom - sorry to hear about your son’s friend. Luckily we’ve always lived in a multi-racial/multi-cultural setting. My son will not have a problem with this. If being an Asian American applicant increases his chances even slightly we’ll be grateful. He needs every edge he can find. Did I mention that he’s Catholic as well? LOL</p>
<p>mom0809, just wanted to say that this student attended a multi-cultural high school, and she was happy there. Good luck to your son. I am sure not everyone has the same experience that this student had, but I just wanted to write about one person’s experience as food for thought.</p>
<p>Trying to catch up on everybody’s posts here. Just got back from Alfred University (NY). First time I hardly lifted a finger to move in my Freshman! AU football team moves in the Freshman Class. (474 of them) Everyone is so super friendly at AU! During the course of the day many AU students or staff would just ask “Do you have any questions?” No matter where we were: checking in, in the dormitory, walking from one building to another, in the bookstore, in the student center and so on! I was also impressed by AU’s diversity as well. And at least it wasn’t humid, the weather was fine! So much humidity here in the Northeast lately.</p>
