Parents of HS Class of 2024 3.0-3.4 GPA

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
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Potential mishap avoided yesterday. Realized that we hadn’t received any “here’s where to check in” emails from NMSU for their open house on Monday. Then realized that we had actually cancelled the registration in Jan when we thought we were going to attend the open house at NM Tech instead.

Ack!

Side note: NM Tech is off the table because their BS Biology degree requires engineering physics and engineering calculus.

I scrambled before my Fri 8 am meeting and sent email to the NMSU admissions office. Checked email again 30 min later after my meeting and what do ya know…there’s a reply from Justin in Admissions basically saying, “No problem. We’ve added you back. See you Monday!”

I don’t know who Justin in Admissions is but I could just hug him right now. :rofl:

DH violated the “no college talk except for Sundays after dinner” rule yesterday by telling D24 that his physical therapist has offered to take her on as an intern if she’s interested. It would be a good way to get patient care hours for PA school down the road. D24 said, “Daddy, it’s not Sunday. This is college talk. We don’t talk about college stuff until Sunday.” Big sighs of frustration from DH. But D24 was right! :joy:

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Just popping in to say I look forward to your updates. Good job, Mama!!

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Made it to Las Cruces. Rained most of the drive through NM but it wasn’t monsoon rain so it was fine. Staying at the Drury Inn and Suites. It’s very clean. Beds very comfortable. Free hot snacks 5:30-7 pm and free breakfast 6-9 am. Headed to Rad Retrocade for dinner. DH will be happy because he’s a gamer at heart. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Glad your trip is going well!

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Back home. Posted a lengthy report at Colleges your child crossed off the list after visiting, schools that moved up on the list. Why? - #6685 by sbinaz.

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D24 said today on way to school that right now, she really wants to stay in state for college because she wants to have at least 1 HS friend to hang out w/at college.

I can understand why her 16 1/2 yr old brain thinks that way right now.

What she also doesn’t realize is that the people you hang out with in HS don’t always end up to be your BFFs for life. But I’m holding off on saying that right now.

D24 also said to DH that she’s afraid that she won’t be able to easily make friends at college, so she figures that if there’s 1 HS classmate also going to her college, then it’ll be a little easier.

On the way TO Las Cruces, DH said, “I don’t get it. Why are we even LOOKING at OOS colleges?” Then when we were in the car driving back home, he brought it up again and I opened 1 of the booklets we got from the school, I read out the AZ HS student COA and then DH said, “OH! So what you’re saying is…it’s way cheaper than in state…hey D24…(insert a bunch of commentary talking up NMSU).” :rofl: Then followed by D24 saying, “Yeah, whatever, Daddy, I’ve been dealing with several hours of college talk at this point, so I’m kind of done with it and I don’t care and I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

…THEN later on, DH started in on the “And WHY are we going to look at any of these LACs?” We’ve had this conversation many times before. He just has goldfish brain about it. So I reminded him. And then he said that he thinks that NMSU should now be in the #1 spot because it’s the cheapest so far.

I told him and the cranky children that you can watch all the videos you want online, but what you don’t experience online is the actual vibe of the campus. THAT is why you go to see it in person.

Next one is UNM in March during spring break. Got email from their housing dept yesterday confirming a late afternoon dorm tour, which you have to schedule separately from the regular campus tour. My family is going to be cranky by 4:30 pm and will protest. But they’ll just have to suck it up and do it anyway…like, why would you buy a pair of shoes that you hadn’t ever tried on before? You wouldn’t know for sure if they fit.

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NMSU just moved up on my Mom’s List of Favorite Colleges. Dean of Honors College already emailed me back this morning in response to an email I sent last night saying thanks for the honors college info session. In his reply, he added “Since you have some time in your exploration, do keep us in mind and consider coming back next fall for a more personalized introduction to life at NMSU. If you alert me directly, the odds are good we could set something up a little more personalized!”

Dang.

Color me impressed. We are totally going to do that. SO GLAD we went to go visit there.

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1 more post then I’ll be quiet for a little while. LOL.

Trimester 2 report cards came out this morning. The good news:

  • D24 maintained her B- in AP Calculus AB, which I think is impressive given that there was NO teacher from mid-November until 1st day back after Christmas Break. AND she’s been adjusting to the new teacher since then. If she gets a 3 on the AP exam in May, that’ll turn the grade into an A (school policy).
  • She brought her AP Music Theory grade up from a B- to a B+.
  • She also brought her Honors Physics grade up from a C in Trimester 1 to a B- in Trimester 2. Honors Physics, Music Theory, and Calculus are her 3 hardest classes. She’s been working her butt off this trimester in those…attends lunch tutoring 1x/wk + student hr 1x/wk for physics, goes to student hr for calculus, etc.

The not so great news:

  • AP English Lit grade dropped 3 % points from an A- (90) to B+ (87). BUT this can be overcome. She got a 3 out of 5 on the mock AP English Lit exam that they all took 3 wk ago on a Sat a.m. Teacher gave her a 5 out of 5 for the longest/hardest of the essay questions in that exam. I think odds are high she’ll get at least a 3 on the AP exam for this.
  • AP French dropped from a C (75) to a C- (72). I know that this is because she’s been focusing on math, physics, and music theory. This subject will need to be added to the focus list, though, to stem the downward trend.
  • AP USH dropped the most from B (85) to C+ (78) between Trimester 1 & 2. Again, likely because of math, physics, & music theory. She’s been trying to coast in this class and you can see it. She’s close to finishing the US History semester 1 Modern States lectures, so hopefully she’ll be able to take the CLEP exam for that soon and get a confidence boost from that.
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I went to that other thread (my first time there), read your excellent/long NMSU post… and stayed for several hours going through hundreds of the 6500+ posts. Realizing this to be a popcorn bag I couldn’t stop eating from, I vowed to spend however many hours (until 2:30 am as it happened) and then never(?) return. It’s a potential near-infinite time sink for me: So many schools I had heard of but didn’t have any sort of feel for… and then (almost) everyone posting has a different experience.

Congrats again on your thorough NMSU writeup. I’m sure it will be of great benefit to many people, either saving them a long drive or justifying the effort to make one.

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I posted a longer post on the regular HS Class of 2024 thread about this, but wanted to mention some of it here in case anybody doesn’t follow the other thread quite as much.

Senior college counselor at school gave an awesome presentation yesterday evening on an intro to college counseling. Covered a lot of topics. Including presented a few different student profiles of various students over past couple of years with a wide range of stats.

I jotted down the info about a student who did NOT have high stats at all. Here’s where this student applied to and got in:
2.79 GPA, 22 ACT:
Denied:
Univ of Utah

Waitlisted:
Cal Poly Pomona

Accepted:
ASU
U of A
Univ of Hawaii-Hilo
Idaho State Univ
UNLV
Univ of Redlands
SDSU

(we’re in AZ, hence a lot of the western US colleges)

Anyways, it gave ME a lot of hope and I thought it might cheer everybody else up, too, in case over the coming months, your kiddo gets frustrated.

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Thank you so much! This is a relief. S24 had a stellar first semester, however this one isn’t going as well and I am a little stressed and trying not to project on child. I still feel admissions for the 3.0 cohort is easier than admissions for the 4.0 cohort.

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The counselor also shared an example of a high stats student (something like 3.98 GPA, 1500+ SAT) who was going after a cheap education. Why? Because her parents figured out ahead of time what they could afford and told her what that target amount was.

Student applied to a good range of schools. Got accepted almost everywhere she applied. Ended up at Univ of Tulsa on a full ride and she’s really happy there.

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I’ve heard great things about the University of Tulsa!

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I just watched the 2021 film Try Harder which follows students at one of the best high schools in the US as they apply to colleges.

While my kids were not in a top high school and didn’t have the academic mind set of these kids, I took so much away from this documentary.

The kids that did the best with both college admission and happiness were not the 4.0/ all AP students. They were the ones that did what they were passionate about, knew who they were, understood that happiness wasn’t tied to the name of the school they attended, and saw beyond “school performance”. The kids that joined 20 ECs, had 4.0s, and bought into stressing themselves out in high school to get into a top 20 college for the most part ended up miserable and disappointed.

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My daughter went to school 2000 miles from her high school, but only 150 miles from where she was born. It WAS nice for her to see two kids she went to K with! One became a sorority sister. I was very good friends with her mother who sadly was killed just before the girls started college. The girls were good friends, but it was nice for my daughter to see a friendly face, and sometimes this girl would just call my daughter to come watch TV when she needed a friend…a friend who had known her mother.

The other was a guy who lived in her dorm. Daughter didn’t have too much interest in him but he was a handsome boy and others were impressed that daughter knew him.

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Joining in! On my 3rd & final college search! HS Junior Daughter has 3.8 or 3.9 but we like this list better. Almost every class but maths has been Honors. 1 AP (Environmental Science). We haven’t pushed for them. Does well in school but works very hard for it. 4 year Varsity Athlete. 4 year choir - 2 are audition only Chamber Choir. Has been in musicals. Will have Honors tassel at grad for Meritorious Service of over 260 community service hours already. 4 years of weight training. Certified Lifeguard. Certified in CERT. Former All Star Cheer flyer. Super fit & leaning toward athletic training / exercise science & Womens studies. Has pretty severe AHDH. Adopted as a toddler (China) with heart issues, sensory processing & gross motor delays but spent lots of time in PT & OT. Generally a well rounded & shockingly happy teen. Haha Sometimes she’s almost too nice Would sink in a pressure cooker school but thrive in a small, supportive environment. Our list of “wants” -

  • schools she’d be a great fit in
  • a few hours from home (DC Metro)
    *small, residential (under 5,000)
  • suburban/rural
  • no Greek at all or small presence.
  • not terribly religious or conservative.
    A few on the list are….Hollins U, Juniata, Bridgewater, Shenandoah, York, UNC-Asheville, Stevenson, Roanoke colllege.
    Older 2 kids are Hollins alum & Juniata student.
    Happy to find this thread! Looking forward to reading!
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Same! Sometimes I feel a bit awkward for it. I haven’t pushed for AP. Kids #1 & #2 took a couple but #3’s main group are taking as many as possible. She’s taking one. We deep dove college searched for kids 1 & 2. Both feel like they got as close to a perfect fit as possible. Both got the max or close to max merit award. Both loved/love their schools! Very involved, good friends, liked the classes… #1 graduated w/ double major summa cum laude and got a job right away that she loves. #2 is just a freshman but thriving! Honestly, how can you ask for more? For us, it’s all about fit & quality of life. :slightly_smiling_face: oh, and cost. Can’t forget that.

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Had another “Sunday after dinner” college talk thingy w/D24 (where we talk college stuff for 15-20 min). Some highlights:

  • she’s almost done w/the essay questions for her “Summer Scrubs” medical/healthcare 1-week camp application. Due at the end of the week.
  • she finally finished the Modern States lectures for the 1st semester of US History. Probably going to have her take the practice exam next weekend online. Once you pass the practice exam, they give you a free voucher to take the actual CLEP exam.
  • did not have any additional thoughts or questions since our NMSU visit last Monday.
  • I learned that apparently the 11th graders taking the ACT isn’t happening until after spring break.
  • we looked at the BS-Biology major requirements at Austin College since we’re going to an open house/“Roo Day” there the day after Easter. They have a concentration option in molecular & cellular biology.
  • we also looked at the summer research opportunities at Austin College. The website had info about it since freshmen can apply right now. No bio ones listed, but biochemistry and organic chemistry for sure…you could click on the professors’ links and it showed a synopsis of what the research is about. D24 thought this was interesting.
  • Almost fell out of my chair when DH then started talking up going to a smaller college, where there would be possibly less competition to get involved in on campus research w/professors…since there’s simply fewer premed/pre-health students.

I’m hoping that D24 can look past the vibe of Sherman, TX, and instead see what the opportunities at Austin College might be in comparison to U of A and NMSU. We are going to visit Univ of New Mexico in about 2 weeks…they have a similar reciprocal scholarship that NMSU has for AZ high school grads, where you can attend for NM resident rates (which is cheaper than U of A…Arizona, not Alabama). Austin College is, in 2024, opening a PA grad school and preference will be given for Austin College undergrads with a certain GPA.

D24 is now focusing on bringing up her AP French grade, went through some Modern States’ lectures for their online French class today.

I’m really proud of how D24 has matured over the course of this school year. Needs way less nagging now. Initiates a lot more stuff on her own.

Also, am very grateful for whoever it was here who suggested switching the “let’s nag you about college” stuff to just once a week. That’s worked out amazingly well. I’m definitely doing the same when freshman D26 is in 11th grade.

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We had gone to visit at Austin College just few days ago.

Austin College was good, and he even liked it more than Southwestern (which was a surprise). We spoke with the Health Advisor and the Bio professor there and was very interested in their health offering… However, he was not thrilled with the town. I did told him up by Hwy 82 are more stores, and even a Cinemark!

We will be going back to take a second look at Austin College on 4/10 on the Outback day. He really wants to sit in a class and observe in more detail. We might be running into you there.

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So glad you’re joining the thread! Looking at your list, you’ve probably already considered these schools, but if not, just thought I’d mention them in case one of them ends up appealing to your D.

  • Lebanon Valley (PA ) with about 1600 undergrads
  • McDaniel (MD) with about 1700 undergrads
  • Moravian (PA ) with about 1900 undergrads
  • U. of Lynchburg (VA) with about 1500 undergrads
  • U. of Scranton (PA ) with about 3400 undergrads…the Jesuit institutions I’ve known are usually very much focused on social justice and intellectual curiosity…not hard-nosed religious, if that makes sense
  • Ursinus (PA ) with about 1500 undergrads
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