<p>My second daughter was a B/B+ student in high school who worked very hard for her grades. She got an 1800 on her SAT (560/580/660) after three tries and a private tutor. She was accepted at and now attends her match school (UCF in Orlando) where she currently has a 3.4 GPA (in tough classes like chem 1 and 2, Bio, human anatomy). I don’t think she could have handled attending a reach school and having to deal with peers for whom academics come easily. The academics themselves may not have been more difficult but the peer competition and class curve would have been brutal.</p>
<p>Does anyone happen to know when UConn’s application is coming out, or if the essays are generally the same from year to year?</p>
<p>On the topic of getting into a school and then not being able to compete with the academic population…what do all of the sports or other special recruits (who wouldn’t get in otherwise) do?</p>
<p>RTR, they usually have tutors & people to attend class with them to take notes! This usually occurs in the Big Division 1 sports! They also have to attend class! One of my kids told me someone checked on the Basketball players all the time, would walk by the classroom and peek in & confirm the B-Ball player was there. After that person walked by, the athlete would get up and leave the classroom!</p>
<p>RTR, re recruited athletes competing at their academic reaches (I am not suggesting all athletes needed the hook to get in), many schools give them extra academic support and advice. At some schools, this borders on farce–steering kids to gut classes and pressuring professors to pass them. In Division I, there are many academic scandals every year–just today, Memphis had to forfeit 38 games for academic violations. Some are gifted students and some are content to get Cs.</p>
<p>Warriorboy, you visited so many of the schools mentioned frequently on this thread that I hope you will post comparative visit reports. I found one by Nightchef very helpful.</p>
<p>northeastmom - High Point is his safety at this point. (We hope!!) We had an excellent tour guide who spoke quite a bit about the academics and the admissions rep did a good job of selling the internships. My son agrees that he needs to sit in on classes and see the quality of the teaching. The interesting thing is that High Point is criticized for it’s kiosks, but UMW had the same thing. </p>
<p>My son loves foreign language so that’s not an issue. We have heard that Quinn was not good at giving out aid. I’m not sure if we will qualify for FA, but if my son shows that he will put the effort into his studies then we will find the way to pay</p>
<p>UConn is on our list because it’s the state flagship. He will probably apply to CCSU also, just in case!!</p>
<p>warriorboy, I think that Quinnipiac’s average FA package met about 65% of need (last I checked anyway). You can double check this.</p>
<p>I did visit UMW and I never noticed kiosks, so that is an interesting observation. I just picture a lot more marketing at HP (perhaps unfair, but I feel that seem to sell a lot of gimmicks that have nothing to do with education).</p>
<p>northeastmom - We heard alot about the marketing too, but as I said out guide focused on the academics and the various departments. It seemed like all our other tours except that we didn’t have to walk. The campus was beautiful and everything was pristine. Campus cleanliness is important to my son. (I wish he felt the same way about his room).</p>
<p>I have heard that HP’s campus is just amazing.</p>
<p>Today’s Times has an article about many colleges hiring consultants to grade their tours–including a suggestion that tour guides not walk backwards and not memorize too many facts. Hendrix is quoted as not allowing another CTCL schools to sample a tour because they are competitors.</p>
<p>Slumom - Thanks for the info on Alfred U. I hope that you keep us updated with your thoughts and experiences on this school. It’s definitely on our radar…just have to figure out the weather thing!</p>
<p>mom0809 - The weather thing is a bit of an issue for me also (and I live in New England).
My son likes the snow, but he has had some serious issues with asthma. He is never bothered by it in the late spring/summer so I thought he should go to a school in a warmer climate.</p>
<p>How does your son like Elon? My D is looking at Elon and some of the other schools your S considered (Roanoke, High Point and COFC).</p>
<p>"Today’s Times has an article about many colleges hiring consultants to grade their tours–including a suggestion that tour guides not walk backwards and not memorize too many facts. "</p>
<p>What’s the problem with tour guides walking backwards? How else are they supposed to communicate with the group? (Unless the group walks backwards, as our Hampshire guide jokingly suggested for a change of pace?)</p>
<p>The Times reported the consuiltant saying that walking backwards made many visiting moms fearful and distracted that the guide would fall over. The reporter quoted some guides saying they would still walk backwards to allow eye contact. Ohio State was quoted as rejecting the advice</p>
<p>Tour guides that walk backwards really freak me out. I preferred the ones who didn’t.</p>
<p>QM, how did the ones who didn’t walk backwards make themselves heard? Did they walk alongside the group like a drill sergeant? I think that would freak me out more. Or did they stop every time they had something to say?</p>
<p>They stopped to point out important buildings (as did the ones who walked backwards) and we could hear them as they walked as well. Most of the schools we visited had small tour groups. I did go on a massive tour at Georgia Tech (50 kids plus parents) and the tour guide had to get up on a stone or something whenever she wanted to be heard.</p>
<p>erlemeir - not sure who you are asking about Elon, but we visited there also. (I didn’t realize that we had visited so many schools.) My son is on the fence about the school. I think it’s because we visited when it was at least 90 degrees and we had just left a school that had wowed us. I think that Elon has a pretty campus and some good bio opportunities. </p>
<p>We also visited Loyola. (I was ready to enroll.) We had the “perkiest” tour guide. She walked backwards and actually did it quite well. Our tour guide at Lynchburg made me very nervous when she was walking backwards. </p>
<p>I have thought about writing up visit reports but my son seems to have a strange outlook on schools. I’d hate to have someone read what he thinks and have it sway them.</p>
<p>Warriorboy - would that be Loyola in Maryland? I like that school as well, and the weather’s not as extreme as Alfred, NY.
Last college app season, DD and I visited Guilford and UNC Greensboro in the Fall before acceptances had gone out; then UNC Asheville, UNC Charlotte and Belmont Abbey College in the Spring after acceptances.
We visited Guilford because it was one of her top choices, and it may have been a match or slight reach for her. We decided to make the effort to do the visit so that they knew we were particularly interested. UNC-G was nearby and a much different size/type of school, so we went there as well. Her SAT scores were 450M/550V, by the way.
Guilford’s campus was pretty, the admissions staff was very nice, students friendly enough, the weather was great, and we were fairly impressed. Something was missing, though, but couldn’t quite figure it out at the time.
Then we drove over to UNC-G. Totally different. Well, it felt as if the sun had come out (it didn’t seem to be missing while we were at Guilford LOL), and there was so much energy around. It was STUDENTS that were missing at Guilford! I’m not talking about being totally devoid of students, but it was very quiet there. Greensboro came out on top that day.
The UNC-Asheville visit was very similar to Guilford. Again, the campus seemed to be very quiet. I understand though, that UNC-A tends to feel like a commuter campus where people just disappear on weekends. I believe that we visited on a Friday, so this may have explained the absence of students. We came away very impressed with the academic support that is offered, and the way the professors are easily accessible.
Guilford and UNC-Asheville were my DD two top choices. She was accepted by both, but decided to attend neither.
UNC-Charlotte was great, but HUGE. New buildings were springing up everywhere, and I understand that a new engineering building was just completed. For those who are interested in engineering, mechanical engineering is a big deal there. Apparently the students can build their own cars and then test drive them on the nearby Lowes Speedway. Also, although they’re contractually obligated to maintain an 83% in-state/17% out of state acceptance ratio, admissions admits that they’ve never reached their out-of-state quota.
Belmont Abbey College was one of DD’s match schools. Rolling admissions, accepted in December. Small campus, lots of friendly students around, great admissions staff, and professors who really teach, and interact with the students (so we were told, and now that DD’s a student there, it has proven to be very true). Very decent financial aid package. DD has also told me that there are a lot of home-schooled students there, and there’s a wonderful honors program to which many of the home-schooled are a part of.
I hope this will help a few 3.0-3.3 students :)</p>
<p>mom0809, this is a very nice review of some schools in NC. Did you look at Queens U. of Charlotte, or Lenoir Rhyne? Are you familiar with them?</p>
<p>BTW, UNC-Asheville has a low graduate rate. I have not been able to really get a complete answer to why it is so low.</p>