Parents of the HS class of 2015 - 3.0 to 3.3 GPA

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
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<p>Not quite. D still fits this thread, as her cumulative GPA is about a 3.28, but we will not know for sure until after this marking period, if it rises above 3.30. It take literally straight As to move a GPA upwards. BHG’s GPA is low due to serious loss the end of freshman & beginning of sophomore year. Search my posts to read about what happened in our family. As far as testing, most private and independent schools begin testing in 9th grade. Kids at my D’s school have practice taking the PlAN, PSAT, and ACT by the end of 9th grade. </p>

<p>So, we are still within the “market price” of this thread up to a 3.5 per my original posting based not on semester grades, but BHG’s culumative GPA for all semesters.</p>

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<p>BunHeadMom, please stay with us to the end–your insight and calm reassurance has already help me over the last couple of months. I think our DDs’ may be twins.<br>
We are entering our last lap of this race and I want us all of to finish has winners–first choice colleges; CC; work or gap year.</p>

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<p>My post was meant in jest. Keep posting please. </p>

<p>That’s an intense pretesting schedule.</p>

<p>We are located in a diverse, enormous public district in suburban Chicago that is very highly rated. I believe it’s the 3rd or 4th largest district in Illinois. Three huge high schools, all on the “best” lists. The protocol there is the EXPLORE test in 8th grade, the PLAN ACT in 9th, then practice ACTs (“normal kids”) or practice SATs (gifted kids) as sophomores. </p>

<p>My twin boys got 23 and 24 on the practice ACT. We were told that scores typically improve 2-3 points from there by the time they get their max score, which will be plenty good enough for the schools they will apply to. We signed them up for February - they’ll take again with everybody in April, and if that isn’t good enough, we’ll have them go a 3rd time in the summer. </p>

<p>One of my boys has exactly a 3.0 GPA, the other a 3.12. I am MUCH more worried about the GPA than I am about the ACT. They have no margin for error now.</p>

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<p>@Kmanshouse–I apologize if I came across as being blunt. I’m pretty literal as well as direct–just call me Spock or Data. :slight_smile: I’m a just the facts,type of person who works on not being serious all the time. I also recently experienced a forced promotion to clean up a department, which is taking a toll on me after working 20-25 hours a week at home for the most part as an analyst. I hate managing others, and now it is my main responsibility. I also hate being the clean-up person, but here I am having to work 40-50 hours a week again after 16 years of not working or working part-time. And my main duty is to demote and or let go staff not meeting expectations based on Federal and State audit results of their work.</p>

<p>On to pre-college talk! BHG most likely will not have school again on Monday and Tuesday due to weather. This will be the THIRD time in so many weeks that school closed due to deadly temperatures. BHG will now need to make up 3 days, including next Monday and Tuesday.</p>

<p>I’m still on the search for more schools for the 3.0-3.3 student to see if there are any more out there that may be of interest to BHG or the group. Bob Wallace posted a list of Public LACs with low OOS tuition (may not be low depending on income & what each family considers low COA).
<a href=“Public LACs Ranked by OOS Tuition - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Public LACs Ranked by OOS Tuition - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;
<a href=“Public LACs with Lowest OOS Tuition - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Public LACs with Lowest OOS Tuition - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums; </p>

<p>Most of these institutions are in small towns or rural areas. You also need to review the CDS information regarding acceptance rates for our student’s stats. </p>

<p>I am also linking the final post of acceptances for students from the 2013 3.0-3.3 thread
<a href=“Parents of the HS Class of 2013 - 3.0 to 3.3 GPA - #2475 by USNChief - Class of 20xx Community - College Confidential Forums”>Parents of the HS Class of 2013 - 3.0 to 3.3 GPA - #2475 by USNChief - Class of 20xx Community - College Confidential Forums;

<p>This is the post listing where the Class of 2013 3.0-3.3 are now attending.
<a href=“Parents of the HS Class of 2013 - 3.0 to 3.3 GPA - #2653 by mamaduck - Class of 20xx Community - College Confidential Forums”>Parents of the HS Class of 2013 - 3.0 to 3.3 GPA - #2653 by mamaduck - Class of 20xx Community - College Confidential Forums;

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<p>Thanks BunHeadMom for the acceptance/attending posts. Many of D’s schools are on the list, so it’s encouraging to see that they are definite possibilities. When I saw the public LACs with lowest OOS tuition, I realized that many schools I had suggested to D were the public LACs. I did not know that Evergreen State was public. We liked UNC-Asheville when we toured the school - small, personal, friendly and D discovered a major the school offers that she never considered.</p>

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<p>BHMom, thanks for the links above. Truman State is definitely on DS’s list & we visit over Spring Break. Truman is w/in 4 hours of our house and that’s just about as far away as DS wants to go. We qualify for the Midwest Tuition Exchange, so long as Truman still offers it, so that would be huge for us!</p>

<p>On the SAT front, DS took the test yesterday & thought it went pretty well. However, the proctor stopped the essay early, with over a minute left…and several students spoke up immediately but he would not relent. So DS didn’t finish his essay - and that made him mad - but he kept going and thought the rest of the test went pretty well. We shall see. </p>

<p>Now he turns to the Feb 8 ACT, but he’s unprepared for that one. Not sure how much he can accomplish in less than 2 weeks!</p>

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<p>We are at the point where our kids just need to execute. I’ve done a ton of legwork on the colleges, what might be suited to them, etc. We have the added roadblock of sending twins to college at the same time, both of which are B students. It’s tough, because I had a 4.02 weighted GPA in HS and took the ACT once and got a 29, plenty good enough for the Big Ten schools I was looking at back then. Unfortunately, I’m not dealing with that with my sons.</p>

<p>We are visiting UWSP and Northern Michigan this March, and I think that’s going to be it. We’ve already visited Murray State, Mississippi State, Bowling Green and SIU-C. There are other schools I would love to visit but they are either too expensive (Ohio U, Iowa, Bradley, Kansas State), or they are academically too much of a stretch (Truman State, Cincinnati DAAP, SUNY-ESF). One of the twins wants to be within a day’s drive of home. The other doesn’t care, but I think that would change when reality hit. I think everything will get much clearer after these March visits. At the end of the day, they need to be the ones to study for tests, get their homework done, etc. If they do that well enough, they’ll get into the schools on our list. If they don’t, it’s their fault, and they can get their last choice or go to COD. </p>

<p>They are both taking the ACT prep course, but it was only offered 2nd semester, so it just started. The Feb 8th test will probably not be a great result, but I want them to feel what it’s like and get that under their belts. They’ll do much better in April, and I think having taken it in Feb will help them.</p>

<p>Their advisor seems to think that as long as the GPA stays at 3.0+, and get the ACT scores they are progessing to get, they’ll be fine. But they need to do the work. Is anyone else having a really hard time backing off their kids? I feel I am always on them to get stuff done, checking their grades online, reminding them they have a test, etc. Trying really hard to stop, but it’s soooo hard.</p>

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<p>In honor and deference to BHMom, I will contribute and also ask for advice.</p>

<p>DS with ADHD, inattentive type, GPA 3.2 unwtd, taking ACT on Feb 8, consistently scoring 34+ on practice tests, but who knows on test day due to test anxiety. Looking at colleges which offer all 3 majors or minors:

  1. Video game design (the art side)
  2. Business
  3. Art or animation</p>

<p>So far, made a list of
UC Santa Cruz
Champlain
Chapman
DePaul
Drexel
Loyola Marymount Univ
Northeastern
Quinnepac
Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rochester Inst of Tech
Univ of Utah
Worchester Polytechnic Institute
plus a 3 very reach schools that I’m too embarrased to post here because they are so reachy.
Of the list, he has only seen RPI. His sister has seen Chapman and LMU. No financial or geographical restrictions. Going to figure out a plan for visiting these schools. But not sure if we should be looking at the colleges that change lives list.
Any thoughts?</p>

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<p>I’m not sure any of the CTCL schools would offer what your son seeks. On CC, there is this thread that may add more options and or ideas:
<a href=“Top Animation program in liberal arts college - Visual Arts and Film Majors - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/1145676-top-animation-program-in-liberal-arts-college.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>You most likely already found the following list as every school within your post is there within the 100 schools:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.animationcareerreview.com/articles/2013-top-100-us-schools-animation-and-game-design?page=0,0”>http://www.animationcareerreview.com/articles/2013-top-100-us-schools-animation-and-game-design?page=0,0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>@KmansHouse. If you read the class of 2013 and 2014 3.0-3.3 threads, you will see many parents that dealt with or are dealing with nagging and reminding their kids about school work and important dates. </p>

<p>I nagged BHG all of last year, but something clicked for her this year. She faithfully enters assignments in her planner and does homework when assigned. She also began taking a serious interest this past fall in the college search as a result of rep visits to her hs campus. I think speaking to adcoms/reps at college fairs also made looking for a college real for her. I still am the administrative assistant, travel planner, financial aid adviser, and personal college counselor for BHG–she’s just too busy. I gather the information and create web folders for her with links to information I think she would find interesting. This gets her started on investigating a school, as well as a conversation starter. </p>

<p>Until your sons have physical ACT scores in hand, it will be a bit more challenging locating colleges for them. Did you plug the twin’s information into the NPCs for any of the MSEP schools that offer merit money based on GPA & test scores? </p>

<p>I would search for schools within the following thread to see if any offer merit or offer an OOS waiver based on th e twin’s stats. <a href=“Looking Beyond the Rankings - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>Looking Beyond the Rankings - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums;

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<p>Hi, I’m Jean. My daughter Erin has about a 3.2 GPA, mostly in honors classes and some college classes (dual-enrollment), and plans to be a civil engineer, and play horn in the orchestra and/or mellophone in the marching band. </p>

<p>Her dream colleges are the University of Colorado, and the University of Washington. She’d want these colleges even if she had a 4.0 GPA (no weighted grades in her school) and I can’t believe how many people act like wanting to go to a big public university is something to “fall to.” In her case, she simply loves the energy of a big campus with tens of thousands of students. She calls it a “city of learning.” </p>

<p>We live in a small town on the Washington state coast. Her high school is the largest one around, with about 1,200 students. The colleges she wants to attend are bigger (population) than the city where we live, even if you consider those who live outside of the city limits. However, she spent most of her elementary school years living on the University of Colorado campus, where we lived in on-campus family housing while I got my degrees.</p>

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<p>Good morning, kmanshouse, my DD has had a rocky first two years of highschool. Like BHM DD something has really click this year–she still has periods of anxiety about how this whole college picture will shake out. She is in a private school and her class is 99 students. This a very academic school–and she was a big fish coming in her freshman year and now is minnow in the pond.
What I did this year with in reason is let her drive this process and its gone well so far.
She refuses to look at school that are under 5,000 people – she says that’s " I don’t want to be under microscope. "
LadyArwyn my DD also wants big. </p>

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<p>@BunHeadMom - my last post lists the colleges we’ve visited and plan on visiting. These were all heavily vetted and are viewed as realistic school choices as long as they stay above 3.0 and get their predicted ACT scores. Taking on Feb 8, then again in April, which will surely be a better score. Provided they don’t need a 3rd attempt, we’ll have them start applying in the late summer/early fall of this year. They both also have 504 plans in HS, which is a wrinkle. We’ve been talking with their advisor a bunch. It’s really up to them to make it happen at this point.</p>

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<p>@YoHoYoHo - for video game design you may also want to try Bradley University in Peoria, IL. Another good option for a school strong in Digital Arts and also with a very respectable business school, check out Bowling Green. That would be a good place to go because if your child starts with one program and decides he wants to switch, he won’t have to transfer schools.</p>

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<p>@kmanshouse,
thanks for the recommendations. I will add those 2 to our list.</p>

<p>@bunheadmom,
"I nagged BHG all of last year, but something clicked for her this year. She faithfully enters assignments in her planner and does homework when assigned. "
Wow!! That is just great and I am so envious. It’s still nagging, missed deadlines, etc in our household.</p>

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<p>My sons got their Feb ACT scores back - 24 and 25. I thought this was solid for their 1st attempt, given our expectations, but the one with a 24 probably needs to improve a couple of points for UWSP given his GPA is right at 3.00. The one who got 25 is probably set, given his college choices, but both will be taking again in April through their school. Hope everybody’s kids got scores they were happy with.</p>

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<p>I’m going to chime in just a bit for the 2015 crowd. 2013 3.0-3.3 Mom here. Regarding Chapman - their star is rising dramatically and it is very difficult to get in. Chapman would be perfect for the animation and business majors. It is one of the most incredible schools, well connected to entertainment industry. If your kid’s desire is animation in the programming venue (video games), then there are probably better schools. But, if it’s animation for video then you really want to research Chapman.</p>

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<p>DS just got his feb act score back…35 (no accommodations). A few weeks later, scores a 47% on his Class test in AP Bio. Why is he so unmotivated for his grades?? Any tips on how to motivate an unmotivated kid?</p>

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<p>@coralbrook,
Thanks for ur input. Toured chapman last week. They have a video game minor that is interdisciplinary with computer science but the admissions office didn’t know much about the program. Will need to contact the dept to find out more. Does your kiddo go to Chapman?</p>

<p>DS will be applying to animation summer programs. Maybe it will change his mind for major.</p>

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<p>My D was going for Creative Producing in the Dodge Film School (no portfolio for that major). She was accepted to the Chapman Film summer program and she loved it. It was her #1 college choice. She got deferred and ultimately denied. Total heartbreak but she moved on. Her GPA was 3.35 uw and ACT 27 if that helps. But, for animation I think there is a portfolio submission that will help augment a lower GPA.</p>