<p>Just got another acceptance today (via portal) - St. Edward’s in Austin TX. We’re 4/4 now, and still waiting on two. It will come down to the $$.</p>
<p>Cbreeze - we visited Clarkson in the spring and St Lawrence is in the next town over. We drove around St Lawrence’s campus. Cute small school, quite remote area. About 3 hrs to Syracuse in 1 direction and 3 hrs to Burlington VT in another direction.</p>
<p>I’ve been lurking a while but not posting much. Time to chime in. D was just accepted to Cornell College yesterday. We will be visiting in February and I will be happy to report back. She was also attracted to the block schedule. As you can see from my name, we are from the East coast so selecting a school in Iowa will require careful consideration.</p>
<p>We have been very surprised at her acceptances. She is not a great student, right around a 3.0, GPA, really, thanks to her drama and musical theater classes. No APs, and only 1 honors class. She is a good writer but terrible at math and science. She applied to 9 schools and has been accepted to the 7 she has heard from, including Hofstra, Arcadia, and SUNY Purchase. All the private schools that included scholarship offers with acceptance letters have given her money. (Cornell has not; she will be applying for a fine arts scholarship so they wait until auditions are complete and then send out the scholarship letter). My husband and I briefly discussed last night, did we aim too low? But she is happy with the schools, and why put her under added pressure? We are putting more emphasis on fit and less emphasis on name/prestige, even if we do have to say things like “Cornell College, not University…”</p>
<p>cbreeze - Kalamazoo, Lawrence, Augustana (IL), North Central (IL), Cincinatti are on trimester/quarter calendars. Centre (KY) , Gustavus , St Olaf are on 4-1-4 (Winter term), Illinois Wesleyan is on 4-4-1 (May term).</p>
<p>cbreeze… St Lawrence is in a very remote town… but this is what attracted my DS to it… he is a wilderness buff and loved that is was 10 minutes from the adirondacks. The thing that really got him was the sense of community when he visited. Very active, happy, accepting, energetic students. He LOVED his class he sat in on, and everyone raved about the prof’s. we thought the campus was beautiful. BUT, your D would have to really like being in the middle of nowhere. He also really liked University of Puget Sound. I recommended it to another mom on here who had a S denied at CC ED. It is in Washington close to Seattle. I would also take a look at St Olaf. A friend of mine whose D was in the class of 2012 is there, and is deliriously happy. </p>
<p>Emmy… Yes… you will be hearing from me sooner rather than later… we start our college visits soon… in March… I think he wants to go big or go home as far as theater schools go… because he thinks he would be just as happy at an LAC with a good theater program. So, will keep you posted.</p>
<p>Congrats mamaduck and eastcoast101!!</p>
<p>psblstnr - thanks for the suggestion list, very helpful. Kalamazoo and Illinois Wesleyan are already on the list, have to check out Augustana, North Central, Cinci.</p>
<p>confusedMominMA - thank you, that actually changes things. DD has chronic disease and probably shouldn’t be quite that far from major medical. I’d actually forgotten to factor that in while somewhat frantically trying to add school options.</p>
<p>Deferred from Elon today. I set her up for failure with the initial list.</p>
<p>5boys - thank you! UPS recently made the list; I don’t remember how I heard about it, but it was likely from your suggestion to someone else. Definitely (and unfortunately) have to pass on St Lawrence.</p>
<p>Need to get more organized, there is too much info on the spreadsheet.</p>
<p>cbreeze, I’m so sorry you’re having a rough run right now. If your D is like my D, all the stress is driving her (and you) crazy. I’ve looked over your old posts, but can’t find one that tells what your D is interested in studying. I know she wants about 6k students. Any geographical restrictions? What are her stats? What schools has she already applied to? Would she be happy with her OWU acceptance? You’ve probably already said it all - but my search skills are deserting me. Since I did WAY too much research, I might be able to make some suggestions too!</p>
<p>thanks for trying to help mamaduck. D is feeling quite dejected. Her natural ability is in English (33 ACT English), but she loves health studies. 5 years of science in high school, C in AP Bio, but loves it. Her ECs are 3 years of volunteering/interning at county health clinic, 2 years diversity club, and beta club. She wants to merge English and health science somehow, but puts English as her intended major. Terrible at math. She was only happy with OWU when she thought it was the first of many to come, so no real intention of attending until very recently.
Geographically… can’t handle a lot of snow or a lot of sun (health related), needs to be within a couple of hours of a major medical (ideally 1 hour), and hates urban campuses.</p>
<p>cbreeze, I’m pm’ing you.</p>
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<p>Mommaduck–yay on southwestern (CTCL!!) and four for four!</p>
<p>A couple of recent posts prompted me to write. My kids were all B, B+ students. My youngest was not accepted to Elon after applying EA. This was a bit of a blow because not only had his sister been accepted several years earlier, but his first cousin was accepted EA with money and they had visited together. By the time he was accepted in the regular decision round, it was no longer the top of his list. His cousin, BTW, ended up attending Wooster, where she is a very happy sophomore.</p>
<p>It’s pretty common for kids to want to attend the most rigorous and “known” school where they are accepted. However, now that my son is a sophomore in college, I am very glad that he chose his college based on a few different priorities - he needed a college that graded more for work and projects and less on just a couple of big tests. He also didn’t want the work to be so overwhelming that he was stressed all the time and might be at the bottom of his class. There were a couple of other must have’s, but the above two have turned out to be huge as he and I have found out from other college sophomores. A few kids we know have to worry about keeping scholarships due to grades and lots of kids, especially in the tech majors, have to work really really hard just to keep their heads above water.</p>
<p>This is not to say that he didn’t work hard, he did, but so far, his grades have been stellar and he’s very much enjoying his college. I would just caution you parents of B students, especially those whose kids are pursuing STEM majors, to look closely at the schools grading policies and what it takes to retain scholarships.</p>
<p>Can you tell me or give me examples of such schools ( liberal arts & and even Universities) that have these type of grading policies. Also, how do you ascertain grading policies in a school since from course to course grading policies can vary? Thank you.</p>
<p>You know, we were pleasantly surprise as to how many schools our son was accepted EA & the money being offered. His average is a 85.88, SAT was 1900 & ACT 27. Some AP’s, a little Honors, lots of activities (leadership, student gov) & he is 8 for 8.</p>
<p>Accepted: Acadia, Catholic, DeSales, Forham, Mt St Mary U, Siena, Suffolk & Washington.</p>
<p>Still waiting on: American (reach), Bryant, Loyola MD, Roger Williams, Sait Anselm, SUNY Albany, SUNY Binghamton (reach).</p>
<p>Yes, he applied to a lot of schools, but he had a bunch of free apps so why not.</p>
<p>cbreeze22–Have her look at Truman in Missouri. They have wonderful opportunities in the health sciences as well as a very strong English department. Not sure about medical care but they have a medical school right across the street :D. If you look at Cornell, consider Mount Mercy in Cedar Rapids as well. Again, strong health sciences, 2 major hospitals within a few blocks of campus. Campus is “in town” but pretty secluded. Coe College in Cedar Rapids might be an option as well.</p>
<p>I would also investigate Seton Hill outside of Pittsburgh. Close to the hospitals in Pitt but no where near an urban campus. Merit aid is awarded in blocks for GPA or test scores or both so that is nice. Again, strong opportunities for health sciences but also a great English program. Weather will be more moderate there than Iowa too. We also liked Wheeling Jesuit in WV. Again, close to Pitt for hospitals and strong programs for her. </p>
<p>St. Olaf is 45 minutes from the Mayo clinic and 40 minutes from all the hospitals in Minneapolis or St. Paul too. Still more of a rural campus though. Freshmen are not allowed to have cars on campus except in certain circumstances–medical issues probably qualify for that though.</p>
<p>Gustavus in MN might be an option but then you are dealing with weather issues.</p>
<p>Oura54, My son attends Champlain College, in Burlington, VT. It was the tour guide there that mentioned the grading practices and where it first clicked with my son that that was what he really wanted. Another one might be Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY. Because we didn’t think to ask about projects vs. tests until after our Champlain visit, he didn’t ask about that in the many colleges we saw beforehand. Of the ones we asked afterward some did that for the tech majors, but not for Gen ed. Drexel was one of those. </p>
<p>Truman was another top contender for my sons cousin who is attending Wooster.</p>
<p>kathie, we all love your stories about your kids and your wonderful insights.</p>
<p>My D also was looking forward to a school with more papers/projects and few exams. Mostly she is able to get that, with the exception of a few gen eds (like science). These are questions you can ask and find out about. It helps if you can talk to someone besides a tour guide - she had an interview with the Honors College asst Dean and others, who gave her some really concrete information.</p>
<p>On the other hand, she does have a scholarship with a pretty stringent GPA requirement. It was a nailbiter this semester (because she took a class with tests!), and I hated the stress it caused. I understand the rationale, but I think in this case the requirement is too high (no college kid should HAVE to get mostly As, in my opinion). </p>
<p>If you’d asked me beforehand, I would have said this kind of atmosphere wasn’t good for my “non-competitive, unconventional” kid. Yet I must admit that it’s given her new skills, and she’s very proud of herself. In a square peg/round hole metaphor, her job all her life has been to decide when she’s going to shave off her corners or when to carve out the space she’s supposed to fit into. I’m seeing a lot of growth with that, and perhaps the harsh requirements at her school are having a positive effect.</p>
<p>Again, it all depends on the kid. Self-awareness and keeping your eyes open in the process are the name of the game. The spectrum of opportunity is too broad to limit your options or imagination.</p>
<p>Evergreen in Olympia,Washington is another school to consider for grading practices. They don’t award grades - but instead students receive a narrative summary reflecting strengths, etc. A friend’s son, with very high stats btw, chose Evergreen after a high stress experience in his very large, very competitive public HS. He loved it, even though it was 2000 miles from home. Heading for graduate school after a year of service.</p>
<p>New College in Sarasota, FL also gives narratives rather than grades. It’s florida’s public, lac and it is a very small school, <1000 students. It is highly regarded, #3 best value public college, with a large number of its students going on to grad school. </p>
<p>It’s a little tougher to get in but they don’t have a lot of applicants and the acceptance rate is around 60%. I think if a student shows a lot of interest and demonstrate motivation, a b student would have a good shot at getting in.</p>