<p>Forget it, reeinaz, I was able to find the books. Sounds like a great idea, but I know there’s going to be resistance.</p>
<p>It seems that my son’s school really values student privacy so they won’t give me a password if my son is refusing to give me his. But I was told that I could pretty much email his teachers whenever, to get the status of his assignments.
I’m happy to say that his grades were a huge improvement over last year’s but they stillcould improve. I’d like to see more Bs than Cs in his core subjects but unlike last year there were no Ds or Fs. So yay for small victories. I’m anxious to see if there was any improvement on his PSAT from last year. Am I wrong in thinking that High scores, average grades would be more appealing to colleges than scores and grades that match?</p>
<p>It’s been a while since there’ve been any posts. How’s everyone doing? My son is still squarely in this GPA range. He might pull out a whopper in this last term and finish with maybe a 3.3 
Do any of the kiddoes have plans for the summer yet? My son put in some applications for a few writing workshops and we’re still waiting to hear back. Plan B is more like a plan A.2. It’s a local summer internship that he still has to apply for. If all of those fall through, I’ll be putting him through a “structured” self study plan for the SAT. I put the quotes there because my structure would be SAT prep from 10-12. His structure will be more like XBox from 10-5 and flipping open the prep book as my key hits the front door.</p>
<p>OK, we need to get this thread going! I’ve just started researching in earnest, with moderate input from D. She’s open to any kind of school - urban, rural, mild or extreme weather, small, big … she sees positives in all of them. She’s interested in Film/Video Production, perhaps double majoring in Public Relations. We prefer a LAC, since she’s eligible for Tuition Exchange (see details at tuitionexchange.org), which has the potential to make private schools from “the list” a whole lot cheaper than public u’s of Virginia. </p>
<p>At the end of her sophomore year, she has a 3.12 uw, ranks right at the 50% mark in her competitive class, and absolutely bombed the PSATs. On the upside, she takes a specialized dual enrollment program in mass communications, and her GPA from that (through the community college) is 4.0. Her rank is low because it’s based on weighted GPA, and she’s only taken one weighted class so far - but 5 of her 8 classes next year are weighted. Currently her school uses a 6 point grading scale, so all of her C’s are actually 85s and 86s, and many of her Bs would become As (though they don’t go back and change grades from previous years, and don’t note the letter grade on the transcripts). Next year they’re moving to a 10 point scale, which should help her tremendously. She also showed dramatic improvement the last quarter of her sophomore year. She has taken a SAT prep class, and it seems to have been beneficial - at least she’s studying! She plays steel drum, does some volunteering, works on the school TV station, is joining Latin club this year, and is hoping to get a job this fall. She spent 6 weeks in Bolivia as an exchange student (8th grade), and we’ve hosted two exchange students in our home.</p>
<p>We’ve got a wild variety of schools in our list so far - I’d love feedback!</p>
<p>Possible matches:
High Point (have visited, love it, low % on Tuition Exchange awards)
Goucher - awards Tuition Exchange to all qualified students & SAT optional
Flagler - the cheapest by far if she gets Tuition Exchange
DePaul - SAT optional starting 2012, and she loves Chicago (at least in the summer!)</p>
<p>Safety:
Columbia College of Chicago (not a high % on Tuition Exchange)</p>
<p>Reaches:
Loyola University of Maryland
Chapman (it looks like they judge the portfolio heavily, but she’s really low on the stats)</p>
<p>A friend’s son just enjoyed his freshman year at Highpoint in TV production. Highpoint has received tons of commentary on CC, not all positive. You might look at Elon, too.</p>
<p>Goucher has the most diverse student body on your list, although the most lopsided male/female ratio. I think it is a very good school generally, but do not know what it offers in her fields. Similar schools to consider are Muhlenberg and Susquehanna.</p>
<p>If she likes DePaul, consider St. Josephs of Philly–I think it has a better campus, better weather and is reachable by train from VA.</p>
<p>As you are in VA, I am sure JMU and VT are on your list. Best of luck.</p>
<p>I think Tech is out of reach - here’s their stats:
Average High School GPA: 4.00
Middle 50% GPA: 3.81–4.24
Average SAT Reasoning Test score (critical reading + math): 1,250</p>
<p>JMU is one of her favorites, though it would cost more for us than a tuition exchange school. It’s increasingly hard to get in - I know many kids with better stats than D who were rejected - and some with lower stats who managed to make the cut.</p>
<p>Elon does not do Tuition Exchange (they’re on the list, but do not currently participate), and would be prohibitively expensive.</p>
<p>Will look at St. Joseph’s - Susquehanna has already caught my eye. Muhlenberg looks like a great choice - they are SAT optional too!</p>
<p>HPU does get some interesting comments. The president has a definite vision, and the facilities are phenomenal. D was enthralled by the hour long talk the president gave at the open house, and I think it’s great he teaches a class to all freshmen.</p>
<p>Mamaduck, since you are planning so smartly ahead, perhaps your daughter might enjoy a Summer program at one or more of the potential schools if they offer them?</p>
<p>If you decide to pursue any of SJU, SU or MC in more detail, feel free to PM me–my son is at SU in Communications and knows multiple kids at the 2 others.</p>
<p>Glad this forum has restarted. I started this forum about 3 years back and the 2011 forum went its course and 2012 is going well. I am interested in this one and waiting for it to get kicked off.</p>
<p>I hope we can get it started now rather than wait for the next year.</p>
<p>Nice to see some action on this thread. The regular 2013 thread is fairly active but there doesn’t seem to be many kids with this gpa range there. Presently, my big concern is $$$$. As if that’s a surprise. I think we will be just barely Pell grant eligible but I doubt my son will get the stats for admission into any schools that meet full need. But he has his father’s GI Bill that will add some variables that right now seem to add to the confusion…lol. My son’s interests are film and writing and just recently. He NEEDS a nurturing environment. And has no preference for geographic location. He spent time at Kenyon and liked the rural location of it. </p>
<p>His current list includes Pitzer, Oberlin, Kenyon, Colby, Hamilton, Hiram, Hendrix, Guilford, Knox, McDaniel, Whittier, Eckerd, Occidental, Penn State-Erie, Kutztown, Drexel and several Pennsylvania schools like Ursinus, Susquehanna, Allegheny, Lycoming, and York. </p>
<p>The working list is actually quite a bit longer but these are the main players. Penn State and Kutztown are the safeties that are pretty good options for him. It will naturally get tweaked as scores and grades come in, but if he can get SAT scores in the mid 600s across the board, we will shoot high and hope that his male URM status will make him desirable at his reaches.</p>
<p>Mamaduck, have you considered Washington College, Wingate U, Queens U of Charlotte, or Roanoke College? They seem to be on the list.</p>
<p>Reeinaz, you have clearly done a lot of good research. Obviously, Oberlin, Colby, Hamilton, Kenyon and Pitzer are vastly more selective than the others, but also intensely interested in male URMs. For that same reason, I think the smaller PA schools you mentioned will offer major $.</p>
<p>I think the other 2013 thread may drive you insane–far too many posts about “My son received only a 2300 SAT, so I am making him increase his tutoring and take it again”.</p>
<p>northeastmom - those are all excellent suggestions (esp. Roanoke College), but none offer the right major of film/tv production.</p>
<p>That’s too bad. Actually, Queens and Wingate very recently were fortunate enough to get a nearly 21 million donation (each). The same donor gave double this amount to Wake Forest. For these small schools that should really be a game changer in their endowments and what they will be able to add to their campuses.</p>
<p>It is also too bad that Ithaca and UNC-Wilmington(I know, a public) are not on that list.</p>
<p>I see Boston U is on the list. As a reach, is that worth considering?</p>
<p>mamaduck, how about Quinnipiac or Hofstra? Do they have what your DD is looking for? I am fairly sure that they have strong communication depts., but I am not sure how that would translate to film and tv production.</p>
<p>mamaduck -</p>
<p>U of Arizona in Tucson has a program your D might like called Media Arts. My NOVA D graduated in this program and also got a decent scholarship that made the cost just a bit above Virginia publics.</p>
<p>Hofstra looks like a school she’d be definitely interested in! Thanks! Haven’t had time to look at Arizona-Tucson or Quinnipaic yet.</p>
<p>With Hofstra, be sure to check out how many kids stick around on campus on the weekend. They ended their winning football program a year or two ago because kids were not on campus to attend home games.</p>
<p>Quinnipiac has 5 kids we know there now, who report a nice campus, easy admission and a strong physical therapy program, but high costs, low aid and an intense party atmosphere.</p>
<p>True about Hofstra, but their academics seem to have improved over the years. When we visited a few years ago we met many kids from New England states and that was a surprise to me! </p>
<p>Quinnipiac does have high costs and aid in my opinion is not good, but mamaduck has an unusual sitatuation so perhaps it would work out. Frankly, I think that many schools have an intense party atmosphere if you want it! I know three recent graduates and 2 are doing well since graduating. The third grad is still unemployed, but I can say that about recnt grads from other good schools as well (even one that I know of who just graduated from an expensive school known for co-ops).</p>
<p>Also, mamaduck, I see that Emerson College is on the list. Do they have what she is looking for? I would think that school would be a good choice, but I don’t know much about it.</p>
<p>Emerson is a great school, and for a long time her “dream” school. However, she has backed off on it somewhat - perhaps because of expense (even with 30000 subtracted it’s still very high), but she says because she wants a broader range of majors in case she changes her mind later on. She’d be on the very low end of their stats, unless she has an outstanding junior year. I hope she’ll still apply!</p>