Did you get a sense for the patterns? Which majors were easier or tougher? I suspect CS and engineering most difficult.
Regarding military academies: I’m no expert but I believe it’s important to plan ahead so you meet the requirements. I’ve heard of folks who wanted to consider West Point or other academies, but by fall of senior year it’s too late to make sure all of the pieces are in place. West Point is a gorgeous campus! Anyhow, posting this so that parents can look into the specifics while their kids are in early high school.
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Yes, absolutely true. Applying to the military academies requires planning during Junior year if not earlier. Some senators will hold information sessions or at least post info about the process. It is not as hard as some think it is though.
The Naval Academy campus in Annapolis is pretty amazing, too.
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CS/CE is definitely going to be difficult without a stellar gpa at either. SLO calculates gpa differently than UCs, it considers 9th grade. The more agricultural leaning it seemed a little more relaxed. You can look through this years admitted students thread on CC for a better idea. This cycle was so crazy. It’s difficult to know if it will be more predictable in the future or if we are going to stay on the train to crazy town!
I see that Loyola New Orleans was mentioned upthread as good for this GPA range, and I would say that all of the Jesuit schools (with the exception of Georgetown and Boston College) would be good for these students and would likely include good merit offers. Kind of like this GPA range student, middle sized schools (most Jesuit schools are medium sized enrollment) are another ‘blind spot’ on CC I think.
Our high school does not have Naviance so we used niche web site scattergram to guess at admission chances (which turned out to be accurate), you can also plug in GPA and test scores and get an entire list of colleges.
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I’m not quite sure where my S22’s GPA falls but I think it’s currently around a 3.5 or 3.6uw. He’s going in as a music major which changes the scope a bit since auditions and LORs from his choir teacher come into play for some places, but he also falls into @Twoin18 's definition of smart but mostly disinterested in school. He was a lot more engaged this year as a senior since he was able to take 4 creative electives.
Anyway, he applied to 9 schools and got into 8.
Accepted with merit aid - U of Puget Sound (will be attending); St. Olaf; Willamette; Lewis and Clark; Cal Lutheran.
Accepted, no merit aid - U Nevada-Reno (affordable even without aid), Whitman, Chapman.
Rejected - Occidental
We didn’t bother with the UC’s because of his GPA although it’s possible he could have gotten into Riverside or Merced, but he was mostly focussed on small LACs (that said, in the end UNR was in the top 2 so maybe we should have looked at more large schools). And tbh I thought a private school would be a better fit than a Cal State for a kid that has changed his idea of a major and career path about every 6 months for the past couple of years.
I don’t remember exactly what my older 2 kids’ GPAs were but I think they were both in the 3.8-3.9 uw range. My middle kid (math/CS) ended up EDing at Reed (and got in and loves it) but had also applied and been accepted to U of Minnesota (Twin Cities) as a safety - they do rolling admissions and have a strong math department.
So anyway, there are a few places to check out, esp. if your kid is interested in west coast LACs. Also places like U of Oregon and Oregon State. Honestly I think the kids in this bracket mostly fared better this year than the 3.9/4.0 kids just because they weren’t looking at the T30 schools in the first place.
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My S22 is a 3.55 UW at a very competitive private HS in Colorado. He probably would have been a 3.75 student at our local public high school. Good but not great student. Wasn’t interested in everything required to get a high ACT/SAT score so we went the test optional route (lucky timing for him). Good, not outstanding, EC’s. Good essays and very good LOR’s.
Was accepted at 10 schools including SMU, TCU, Baylor, Gonzaga, University of San Diego and University of Denver. No rejections, waitlisted at Pepperdine.
Seeing all the 4.0 students who got rejected this year - college admissions just don’t always make sense. I guess some schools truly do look at applications holistically, and maybe don’t want only 4.0 students on campus. Have to think the essays and LOR’s did it for my son.
Seeing the results, he did it right - little stress about HS grades or applying to T50 schools, didn’t go overboard on EC’s. It all worked out in the end.
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He applied to the donut hole of schools. They need revenues. He did it right. Great names. But the super star and perceived super stars all apply to the same 40 schools. It’s like a fight to the death 
Congrats to your son.
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Congratulations on a great list. My son is also interested in Lewis and Clark and Chapman. Was the merit from LC high enough to be competitive? Were you surprised at no aid from Chapman?
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Wow he did so well. Has he chosen yet? Congrats
Lewis and Clark offered $22,000/yr merit aid, compared to $35,000/yr from UPS (includes a music scholarship on top of academic). With Chapman, if he still really liked it after visiting some other schools I would have had him write the admissions office to see if they could at least partially match some other offers but he liked UPS better anyway. Willamette came out even cheaper than UPS, fyi, although not by a lot. I know a lot of kids do get merit from Chapman… I don’t know what their general formula is though for it.
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We are in NY & son has a 3.56 weighted GPA. Very little interest in school, minimal EC’s and a job. He submitted a 27 ACT and here are his results-
SUNY Oneonta - accepted
SUNY Geneseo- accepted with merit
SUNY Cortland - accepted
University at Buffalo- accepted & attending
Binghamton University- accepted for Spring
Univ of Rhode Island- accepted with merit
Quinnipiac - accepted with merit
Indiana Univ Bloomington- accepted
Penn state - accepted 2+2 Altoona with merit
Overall, we were very happy with all the results. Felt he was successful because he applied to a lot of match schools.
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Your son and mine sound similar. Your son was accepted to some great SUNY schools (and the list overall). We are from MA and one of the few schools my son is interested in (and visited) was URI. If I may ask, how much was the merit aid for URI?
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He got $10,000 per year from URI.
My D20 and S22 fit into this range. Both had about a 3.8, minimal EC’s (summer jobs, sports, Girl Scouts), and a couple honors and AP’s. They both got into everywhere they applied, most with merit:
D20
Elon
Depauw
Fordham-no merit
Marist
Ohio Wesleyan
College of Wooster
Loyola Marymount
Univ of San Francisco
Catholic Univ
American University-no merit
Susquehanna
S22
Univ of Dayton
Univ of Denver
Miami Ohio
Providence College-no merit
UVM
Univ of Tampa
Univ of Delaware
Xavier
Indiana University
I think too many kids in this GPA range apply to a ton of reaches and end up disappointed. There are so many great schools out there for this group, you just need to look past some of the “name brands” a bit and find them.
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Congrats to your kids! These are great results. Do you mind sharing if the merit from Loyola Marymount was useful? What did you think of University of Delaware?
I would add both Beloit and Juniata to the lists of schools that good give merit to students with this range of GPAs.
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I think in some ways students in this category have some distinct advantages. They are good students but are more likely to have realistic expectations and not eliminate hundreds of excellent universities. Because their expectations are more realistic their outcomes are better and the process less stressful. I feel sorry for those excellent students who feel that they’ve failed somehow when they don’t get accepted to a group of extremely selective universities and discount schools where they could have prospered and shined.
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Did your kids send test scores, or apply test optional? My D23 is similar (handful of APs and ECs, 3.8 GPA) and is looking into a few of the schools you listed.
I’m glad this thread has been started, because my S22 also falls into this category.
3.6UW GPA from strong private high school. Decent academic rigor, school considers him to have been in the most rigorous band (5 APs and other honors courses). 1470 superscored SAT - sent scores in. Very interesting ECs — strong music bent, good community service with an organization meaningful to our family.
He applied and was admitted ED to Bucknell. Also admitted to Elon and Hobart William Smith EA the same day he heard from Bucknell. Withdrew all other apps.
Thrilled that he was admitted ED. RD round would have been tougher for him.
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