Parents of the HS class of 2014 - 3.0 to 3.3 GPA

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
801

<p>My son has been diligent about running his apps by me before submitting … until tonight. Unbeknownst to me, he decided to apply to Tulane and filled out the app and fired it off himself. The poor kid is stressed out with 5 APs and football and upcoming surgery to repair a football injury, and he just wants all this to be over. He has three acceptances under his belt already so not sure where the interest in Tulane came from at the 11th hour. Nonetheless, he left all kinds of good information off his app, and what he submitted won’t set him apart from anyone. For example, he listed one community service activity, when this is an area where he really shines. He left off all his national Latin awards. He even typed in the wrong email address for his college counselor (.com instead of .org).</p>

<p>Is it possible to get this app back? It was just submitted tonight so none of his supplemental docs (transcript, etc) have been sent or ACT score ordered. If we can’t get it back, could he submit a whole new app with a different email address? Tulane is not a common app school, and he used the school’s own online app, if that makes any difference. Is there any way to fix this? Thanks.</p>

802

<p>Finally got my S’s ACT scores! Very happy - hoping for a 32 - composite 33! </p>

<p>Plus I have a confession to make…I thought he could not take his Calculator to the test and gave him a simple CVS calculator! I know really dumb …math is his strong suite - 32 - math score …still awesome ! </p>

<p>Hopefully this will offset his 3.4 GPA!</p>

803

<p>@heikedog: I would just call Admissions and tell them that your son inadvertently hit the submit button before it was completed and ask what remedy they can offer. I have to assume that is a common occurrence this time of year. Good luck to you.</p>

804

<p>Hi All! I know we are all working feverishly at getting applications going/done but anyone still doing visits?? We have a handful left. We visited Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ on Sunday for it’s Open House and were very impressed. This is the
10th school we have visited and is high on my DS list…yay for an in-state option! The Open House was very crowded but well organized. Large tour group but our guides were very friendly, informative and enthusiastic. The campus is lovely and the new Rowan Blvd Complex (although still has vacancies) it looks like a welcome addition to the campus with Barnes and Noble, Bagel shop and apartments.
Anyone else been there or anywhere else lately? Thoughts to share?</p>

805

<p>The admissions person at Tulane had a good-natured chuckle and then gave my son instructions for having his application re-set. Should take 1-2 weeks officially but likely will take less time.</p>

806

<p>We just got back from our FL trip to Eckerd, Palm Beach Atlantic, U Miami, and Nova Southeastern and were impressed with all of them albeit in different ways. My guy will be applying to Eckerd (Marine Science/Bio).</p>

<p>Nova Southeastern may be a back up school for him (still deciding). For anyone looking for merit aid with at least a 1290 on the M/CR or 29 ACT, they offer full tuition + somewhere between 2 and 9K toward r&b. It’s a great financial deal. All classes are taught by profs and all classes are small (<44 with most <24). We were very impressed with what they are doing with that school building it up undergrad-wise. (They were started as a graduate/professional school and only recently started undergrad - recently meaning '80s.) All facilities are superb (most are quite new). Our only drawback with Marine Science/Bio is that their nice, new, Oceanographic facility is not on campus (5 - 10 miles away) and populated by graduate students - very similar to U Miami.</p>

<p>For a major that isn’t Marine Science/Bio, we’d definitely be using the school as a financial safety if nothing else. We really liked it otherwise.</p>

807

<p>Creekland- Glad to hear your son also liked Eckerd. We were at a barbecue yesterday and happened to meet a friend’s brother who was visiting from FL. Turned out he was from St Pete’s! His wife works at Eckerd and his daughter just graduated from there. Even from an insiders perspective he had nothing negative to say about it and was able to answer a lot of my daughter’s questions. Small world! Eckerd is squeaking ahead of UNCW for her current favorite. Now if only her school could work out their Common Ap issues…</p>

<p>Having seen the school with students around, what were your son’s impressions of the type of people that attend? That’s the one remaining wildcard for my daughter as we visited before most students arrived.</p>

808

<p>The interesting thing about all of the FL schools we visited is that you could have picked up a student from college A and plopped them down in college C and they’d have looked right at home. They also all looked like they could have been walking the halls at the high school where I work (semi-rural PA). There were more Christian band T-shirts at Palm Beach Atlantic, but that was the only noticeable difference between the four schools - well - that and Nova Southeastern not allowing skateboards. The other three all had them. A couple of students at Nova were carrying theirs…</p>

<p>My guy felt like he could fit in at any of the four schools. </p>

<p>He eliminated Palm Beach because they only have a Marine Bio concentration of 4 extra classes… not much in the whole scheme of things. Otherwise, he loved the school - everyone was friendly and they had a really nice location - great dorms (no kitchens) - nice classes, etc. He was helping tutor students in Bio, but that’s not terribly unexpected as he’s my Bio guy.</p>

<p>He eliminated U Miami due to being a small fish in a big pond there AND their Marine Bio waterside part is not with the school + had plenty of grad students there. He didn’t feel he’d get as many hands on opportunities and what there were would be super competitive. Nice school though. Horrid traffic to get there.</p>

<p>Nova Southeastern is still in consideration. They are expanding their Marine Bio undergrad and have all small classes, but he’d really like a dorm where he can walk to the waterside part and Eckerd provides that.</p>

<p>Eckerd has the least “bells and whistles” of any of the schools - dorms, gym, cafeteria, etc, but they do have extensive water activities (boats, paddleboards, etc) right on campus AND they have been #1 for a while in sheer numbers of Hollings Scholars - leading us to believe they have a top notch program for that compared to any of the other schools. It probably helps that they don’t have grad students to do the “work.” Undergrads get to do it all. That’s what has drawn him to the school… dorms, gyms, cafeterias, etc, are all secondary to the program available. If they weren’t, Nova S would win.</p>

<p>The students? Laid back… outdoor lovers… some will be big on drinking and “reefer madness” (the school ranked #4 according to Princeton Review), but to a large extent, one can get that anywhere. It just depends upon how one is focused. I expect my guy will spend his days quite near the water or lab as much as possible. Hopefully he’ll find peers who share his interests. I expect he will.</p>

809

<p>Hi all, haven’t been around much the last several weeks. D has been ill with a mono-like illness since early Sept. She has been to a specialist and been tested for a bunch of stuff – nothing conclusive so far, but she has the exhaustion typical of mono. </p>

<p>She has missed a bunch of days already…this semester should have been a lay-up for her in terms of grades as she’s taking so many classes that she’s really into. Who knows now…plus we are not at all where I’d like to be an apps. She may miss the EA deadlines altogether which is such a bummer :(</p>

<p>Hope you all are faring better, and best of luck!</p>

810

<p>Haven’t posted in a long time but I wanted to update and give hope for those whose kids are slow to start (so to speak). Went with S14 to look at 9 schools in March - he was stressed and not at all into the college search at that point. After APs ended and school was over we did another long trip and he really started to be able to identify what he liked etc. A couple more day trips and suddenly out of nowhere I have this super serious student and kid who is being nice to me again :)</p>

<p>Getting good scores on June ACT helped his mood improve- he’s got a 3.23 average at a rigorous private school but got a 32 comp (and then a 33 with a perfect science score in Oct!). </p>

<p>Fast forward and he got an invite to apply with a streamlined app to Pitt for Neuroscience and 2 weeks later (today) he got an acceptance letter YAY he’s going to college!!</p>

<p>He still has more to do - he wants to apply ED to 2 schools so we have to go visit but just thought I’d share the story of a low stat/low motivated kid really turning it around! Lots of exclamation points but I’m so happy for him and I know you all can relate!</p>

811

<p>LisaK - sorry to hear about your daughters illness …my son went through that last year and we never found out what it was but he is doing OK now.</p>

<p>TracyC- so glad to hear about S progress…my son also has an average GPA ,3.4 at a top public school and just sored at 33 on the ACT…he is also interested in Neuroscience.</p>

812

<p>Fun to read about everyone’s college search successes and concerns. I try and remind myself that the while the stress of college applications and helping our kids make these big decisions feels daunting at times, there are many who are dealing with much more challenging issues and crises (health, divorce, unemployment, etc.). </p>

<p>Today D has a college fair at her HS in lieu of classes. I’m interested to see how many of the schools she’s applying to are represented today because four of her six choices are 2,000+ miles away from our area.</p>

813

<p>Lisa - I hope your D feels better soon. It’s tough for us when our youngsters are sick - esp when we don’t know why…</p>

<p>Tracy - glad to hear your guy is motivated! Pitt is a great school for neuroscience. It’s was my middle son’s second choice to U Rochester.</p>

<p>My guy is finally motivated now too. It appears like he is just applying to one school (gulp). I don’t think admissions is an issue. Finances might be, but he likes the school enough that if we can’t afford it this year his back up plan is to take a year off to work perhaps with a cc class or two (not enough to mess up freshman status). It took a bit of thinking to drop the free tuition offer from Nova Southeastern… but he really wants hands on more than “traditional” and we agree that his first choice is better at offering that.</p>

814

<p>Good morning. Hope everyone’s kids working on early action/decision manages to get their stuff through the Common App maze.</p>

<p>We decided that my daughter wouldn’t apply EA to schools on her list that offer it because she had a really tough May and June last year (big boyfriend problem) and it affected her grades. At the end of the year, her cumulative average at her huge selective test-in high school in NYC was 87. She got a 27 on the ACT in the spring. She had other issues that year–a truly lunatic English teacher, and her last year of Mandarin Chinese including a state test. She had a really rough time with Chinese all the way through and we both breathed a sigh of relief when she passed (barely) the NYS test in June.</p>

<p>Well, lo and behold, she got a 30 when she took the ACT in September, and yesterday I looked up her grades on the online database provided by her school and she’s averaging in the high 90s/well over 100 weighted (2 APs, rigorous schedule, and no Chinese). So I guess we are in better shape for regular decision. Hope so! </p>

<p>She’s been very cranky/stressed out and last night I broke out my favorite parenting book, “Get Out of My Life, but First Could You Drive Me & Cheryl to the Mall”. I thought we finished with her terrible bout with adolescent craziness (once when she was 12, she said to me, “You know that good little girl I used to be? THAT GIRL IS GONE!”) but I guess we’re on round two. Sort of makes sense as she contemplates leaving the nest, and it’s always been intense because it’s just the two of us–I adopted her as a single mom when she was almost 2. But the screaming fights aren’t much fun.</p>

815

<p>oldmom4896, good for your daughter for improving her scores and grades! I (and many others who’ve gone through this) would definitely encourage your daughter to submit at least ONE early or rolling admission application, just so she has one acceptance in hand by the winter holidays. Just one app into a “likely” college will do: Its simply amazing what a stress-reducer that first acceptance letter is.<br>
Best of luck. It gets better…</p>

816

<p>Hi Everyone! I know we are all working feverishly on applications, however, we went on a wonderful visit today to Susquehanna University. Beautiful campus, well informed, enthusiastic guides for private tour, impressive programs…my DS had a great “feel” for this one. We have been to a dozen schools and this has moved to top of the list. Last visit tomorrow to Quinnipiac. Goal for CA to be finished by next Saturday. Anyone else visit these schools?</p>

817

<p>I can’t believe D has successfully submitted 5 CA applications! Suddenly she got an idea for her main CA essay and just took off with it. Yeah! It turned out to be a really fine essay. Only one school has downloaded CA so far. Don’t know whether I should be worried. One CA ap to go then one more public university app (with two essays, ugh!)and she’s done for a total of 10. 2 acceptances so far to uber safeties neither of which are favorites sadly.</p>

818

<p>66’</p>

<p>Quinnipiac is on my S’s list but we did not get a chance to visit…love to hear you review …</p>

<p>Congrats to everyone who has successfully submitted apps! I hope S is done this weekend!</p>

819

<p>Quinnipiac is absolutely beautiful…incredible facilities, great dorming options (freshman/sophs) on main campus and upperclassmen at York Hill (a mile up the road). We attended the Open House on Saturday…unfortunately, it was mobbed! As well organized as possible for so many people…I strongly suggest a private visit.
My niece is a Junior in the OT program and can’t say enough good things about QU. My DS said during our tour (which was 60 people with 1 tour guide so impossible to hear)…“this place is so impressive, it really doesn’t matter what she is saying”…he will apply and if he’s accepted with some merit we will go solo for a second look.</p>

820

<p>We have visited Susq and my son has applied there. We’ve been to QU but not “officially” as it didn’t meet some of my son’s criteria. We have friends whose children have been happy there (actually at both) though.</p>