<p>Kat2013, nope. $75K is $75K whether you live in NYC or Witchita.</p>
<p>That’s what I thought.</p>
<p>:(</p>
<p>Don’t despair. There are schools he could qualify for merit at. Does he plan on retaking his SAT? Even if he doesn’t, 1880 is a very respectable score. Like others here, I’d be dancing in the streets if my son scores similarly. If you search around the different forUms, you might get some leads. Try looking at this same thread except for 2011 and 2012 grads. Some of those parents pop up here from time to time. But the rule of thumb is that your best shot at merit is to apply to schools where his scores put him in the top 75%.</p>
<p>My nephew had a <3.0 GPA and about 1880 on his SAT, and got an automatic merit scholarship at Roanoke College in VA. It’s a great school in a great location. I hear they are very generous with financial aid (he did not need). Many kids from NY and New England come to Roanoke because of the lower price …</p>
<p>Thank you both! We are proud of his 1880 & I think he will retake them & also take the ACT. These kids have so much stress!</p>
<p>He has worked SO hard & the SUNY’s that offer Political Science degrees that he could get into are large. He just couldn’t do well in a classroom with 50 people.</p>
<p>I guess I have my research cut out for me!</p>
<p>Kat, welcome to this site. I just sent a PM (personal message) to you. I will not be near a computer until later this evening, but feel free to respond to me by PM. Good luck!</p>
<p>1880? That’s fantastic!
I, too, would be dancing in the street.
We just got scores: 1490/2400. Eek! Here’s my rationalization: at least my son is working to his potential. If his SAT scores were higher, he might appear lazy. But these scores make his grades look good.
I really don’t think he is ADD or ADHD. I think he has a language processing disorder, both verbal and expressive, and I think if affects his reading. He can’t speak with clarity and articulation, but he can spell very well and has a fairly strong vocabulary. He has good ideas in writing, but does not organize them well, and is reluctant to revise his work in a meaningful way. I considered having him tested, but at $4k, we thought: okay, so he is a B-C student. If he read more and with better comprehension and if he had more motiviation to work harder to compensate for his weaknesses, it would be a different story. But he doesn’t. So he will not go to a rigorous or competitive school.
But I am confident that he will go to college somewhere and contribute a great deal.</p>
<p>For those who don’t already know this: there’s a 2012 thread of Parents of 3.0-3.3 Kids, too. (With lots of good info on schools that are perfect for our awesome kids…)</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/939935-3-0-3-3-gpa-parents-thread-2012-hs-graduation.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/939935-3-0-3-3-gpa-parents-thread-2012-hs-graduation.html</a></p>
<p>My S is a '12, a 2.9GPA with good test scores (28ACT). He was given merit scholarships at all of the schools he’s been accepted to so far…Wittenberg, Adrian, DePauw, Capital, one of our state schools. Don’t despair - the right kid+college combo can work, it’s just a lot of research to find the ones that will want your kid enough to kick in $ to get him/her. He wanted not-too-far-away private LACs, many on this forum have done well with large out of state publics too.</p>
<p>We qualify for FA and all of those listed have surprised us with a generous amount of that too though all are FAFSA-only and do not “promise to meet 100% of need”.</p>
<p>Our neighbor’s son went to Wittenberg and loved it. He is now at UNC in med school! Great music at Whit too…</p>
<p>Time to get this thread hopping!!</p>
<p>Is anyone done with testing yet? My son is taking the ACT on Saturday, SAT in May, and maybe subject tests in June. I think once his ACT scores come back, we can really work on a list. He’s not going to be once of those 2300 B kids. More like an 1800 I’m hoping. I’m thinking though that I might need to aim a little lower than I was thinking because only counting his core classes, his gpa is closer to a 2.5 I think, if not lower. His school doesn’t weight so, I’m not sure how much recalculating will be done by the colleges.</p>
<p>Good luck to any ACT testers today :)</p>
<p>HeavyLidded, I’m sure your D will have great options. Have you looked at Albright and Lycoming, both in PA?
I think for this group, it’s even more important to find real safeties because the higher stat students are hunting for merit at the same colleges we tend to look at. I saw recommended elsewhere a book called “Finding the College That’s Right for You!”. I bought it myself. It’s for that midlevel student. It has lots of colleges listed but what I found more helpful was that the author was specific about the qualities of schools that made it into the book so you can look on your own to find others. The book was published in 2004 so it is a tad outdated. I use college results dot com to select the qualities I’m looking for in a school and it gives amazing lists and each school is compared with “similar” schools. It allows you to compare retention rate, grad rates, debt levels, etc. I love that site!!!</p>
<p>Heavylidded, don’t panic. When I first started reading CC posts, I was so worried - my D is just plain average in school. For every A, there’s a C. A few B’s thrown in. And average test scores. I rarely look at other CC threads except for specific colleges - the B threads are a refreshing reminder that not every kid scores 2000 on the SAT, and Cs do exist in real life. Of course, our threads are also populated by parents - our kids tend to be a <em>bit</em> more laid back that the kids that post on CC.</p>
<p>I have used princeton review dot com some, and like the way it tells you if a school is a reach, match, or safety. I’m not so worried now about D getting into schools - I’m much more worried about money, as top students are wooed by the schools our kids actually get into. </p>
<p>I’ve made a spreadsheet with top choices for D. I asked her the qualities she’s seeking in a school - urban, film or tv production major, not a huge party school but not too uptight either, dorms with suites. As I find a school that I think will fit her profile and that she has a chance of getting in, I request a print catalog. She picks up the catalogs and either makes a face or shows interest. We have visited four schools - two did not make the cut. </p>
<p>Our current list is below - the match, safety, reach designation is from the princeton review site. Interestingly, her favorite (DePaul) came up a safety. Although Flagler comes up a match, we’ve visited twice and I think it’s really a safety too. I also think RIT may be a match, not a safety.</p>
<p>Reach: Seattle University
Match: Drexel, Flagler, McDaniel
Safety: DePaul, Rochester Institute of Technology, Fairleigh Dickinson, Seton Hall</p>
<p>Let’s all keep sharing our stories - I really find them helpful, and appreciate the support of the posters!</p>
<p>I might have posted long ago on this thread to introduce myself, but have been lurking. S is a sophomore, so a year behind your kids, but I think this is probably one of the most relevant threads for me to follow.</p>
<p>3rd Q report card came yesterday…3 Cs, 1 B and 1 A. Overall GPA is around a 2.6. No standardized tests yet, but he doesn’t tend to test well. So frustrating and in the same shoes as some of you wondering where he’s going to be able to get in, and what will be the right school for him. It’s going to be hard finding a good safety. My older S is finishing his freshman year at Michigan Engineering, so a totally different experience this time around. We’re in the midwest, and my S doesn’t want to travel too far to school (otherwise I think U of AZ would be a great option, especially given the LDs he’s dealing w/).</p>
<p>Any advise is welcome, and I will continue following your journeys and getting tips from your college searches. Thanks for posting.</p>
<p>Heavylidded…in the same shoes. S’s re</p>
<p>I just did a quick search on schools with a base of a 20 on an ACT and 75%+ admissions rates and there are 476 colleges nationwide that are in that range. It is hard to realize that when all you hear here is the 2400 perfect everything kids/schools. Our oldest was a 2.8, 28 ACT, got into every school he applied to, 3 state schools and one small LAC in our state. Got merit aid from the school he attended along with another scholarship from the school not merit based. We met several times with his GC and options for him thinking there was no way he was getting into college (before his ACT). She kept assuring us that he would have no problems getting into the schools he was considering…given the thousands and thousands of kids she has helped through the process, that gave us a lot of assurance and calmed us down :D.</p>
<p>Heavy, she may not believe you, but she WILL wind up with good choices–just not choices which will impress her top student friends or their parents–and with which her guidance counselor may not be very familiar (for example, NJ guidance counselors are often woefully ignorant about good B options even in neighboring PA). By going out of the area, she is increasing her chances because she is geographically diverse.
You have picked a fine group of schools for her to visit–assuming that after comparing her stats with their average stats, there is not a big gap, once she sees a stream of lovely campuses and friendly kids and learns she has solid chances at them, I think the tears will fade.</p>
<p>Funny but true - my D refused to even look at Goucher just because she hates saying “Goucher” - the name literally sounds unpleasant to her. Good thing “Harvey Mudd” is out of the question.</p>
<p>Mamaduck, my son hated the name “Ursinus”–that and a nerdy tour guide and some other aspects made that a fruitless visit.</p>
<p>I think it’s really important to know that match, reach, safety means more when you think about how your B student is going to make out with merit aid. For instance, my B son was accepted to both RIT and Drexel but only got $12,000 -$13,000 in aid from them. That may sound like alot but both have 5 year programs and cost @ $50,000 a year. Know how your school calculates GPA and how the colleges that you are looking at calculate it.</p>