Parents of the HS Class of 2016 - 3.0 to 3.3 GPA

I agree…her Dad is a Case Grad and I am an OU grad. I think OU is a great fit but I am biased. I definitely think Case is her highest reach. But since she is looking at Music Education for Case and not a science degree I hope there may a bit more wiggle room. Not sure if the legacy thing will play in her favor either. She is really hoping for a 6 year DPT program. Unfortunately just found out Drexel has changed up their early admit DPT. Good luck to your daughter. I loved OU.

Our son would really like to go to Temple. He easily has a high enough SAT for full tuition, but his unweighted GPA of 3.3 wouldn’t qualify him for much money. They do weight, however, and all his classes that count are honors and AP. his school weights his GPA as 4.0, so we have to hope Temple will give his honors and AP classes similar weight.

@labegg I went to Miami U. The saying seems to go students are proud to attend Miami, but students love attending OU. Your D could theoretically major in anything she wanted, including Music Education at any school, and complete the pre physical therapy courses. I’ve spoken with the dance faculty at OU and there have been dance majors who go on to DPT school. Dance is a fine art and academically similar to studying music. The challenge is that her electives would be her science courses required by the DPT programs and they would likely be her most rigorous courses. One does not necessarily preclude the other. The standard majors for PT are biology, psychology or exercise physiology. Those majors require most of the same courses required for the DPT programs. Pre-DPT is more advising than a major.

so…if I use the “college calculator”…then s has a 3.3…but the HS he goes to it is a 3.5…and that is not weighted…?? I am not sure I follow…but either case…it’s getting difficult to figure out what colleges are actual targets versus reaches!

I just asked our son if he would be interested in checking out Howard (we live close by). He’s had experience being the only white, nonhispanic kid in his class. He’d be eligible for tuition and room, although it’s first come first served rather than automatic. He wants an urban campus, so it may be an option. He said he’d be interested in checking it out. I have a coworker who teaches there part time, so I’ll ask him what he thinks.

@mstomper has your son thought of VCU? My son really liked the campus.

@ThreeRedheads, I can’t imagine it would be that affordable out of state. I’m thinking Temple would be cheaper with the merit aid they give, for instance.

@mstomper I wasn’t sure if you lived in DC/VA or MD. I have friend whose son goes to Temple and LOVES it.

@mstomper - does your son’s school put both the weighted and unweighted GPA on the transcript? My D’s school only provides a W GPA, and I’m finding from the GC that a lot of schools just take that as is (even when they say they recalculate it).

My D also likes Temple (we’re OOS, but she meets the requirements for one of the medium-sized scholarships, which are pretty generous). She’ll likely apply even though they don’t have her intended major.

@eh1234, I think they may put both. Of course the folks at Temple are going to realize a kid with D’s and C’s on their report card would need a lot of honors/AP classes to pull the weighted up to 4.0 (and a lot of A’s as well). Of course if Temple wants to just take it and hand S a full tuition scholarship we’ll take it.

Just wondering if your kid have many difficult classes this year? Do they have a lighter load this year? Junior year was a nightmare for my son. He had many difficult classes plus prep for standardized tests. He was stressed out. This time around his classes are not as difficult. He is taking Spanish III, Ecology,Statistics,Yearbook, Directed Art,English and History. He is enjoying his senior year…

My D has a lighter load - although she has 4 AP classes this year, instead of 3 last year.

But last year, she had AP Physics and AP Calculus at the same time AND AP Lang with a LOT of writing assignments. She struggled, to say the least. And her GPA dropped…

The difference this year is, she likes all of her classes, even the more difficult ones. She has AP Government (MacroEcon next semester), AP Literature, AP Spanish, and AP Statistics. She gets statistics so far… Hope it stays that way for her.

Our son just hated English both Sophomore and a Junior years. He also hated Biology Sophomore year, but got a C despite failing one quarter. So far he says he likes his classes more this year, and there aren’t as many hard ones (although it wasn’t necessarily “hard” classes responsible for his less than stellar GPA.

My S16 has a tough load but he, too, seems happier and much more engaged. He’s already starting to drop balls but is needing less nagging. Two of his AP classes are stimulating a lot of discussion here at home – Psych AP and Econ AP – and don’t seem like they will be too difficult. He’s starting to talk about majoring in Psychology. Good news is that he can do that just about anywhere.

My daughter’s load was suppose to be heavier but she says it is a lot better than last year. She too loves her Psych class and comes home talking about that class a lot.

@crowlady My daughter is planning on majoring in Psychology. Her dream major is Phycology/Philosophy/Neurology (Washu has this major PNP) with a minor in children’s studies. She can find similar majors at other schools I think. :).

D was very upset yesterday - she got a C on her first AP Stats test. :(. I know she studied and she’s done all of her hw… She could probably have spent a little more time on studying though… I told her to do that from now on.

She also said that over half the class got Cs and some Ds on the test - so she’s not the only one struggling, apparently. However, she has been trying to improve her study habits, vowed to turn in all HW - and getting a C on the first test has done nothing to improve her morale.

I told her to just keep going, spend extra time going over past hw, etc and talk to the teacher about problems she missed on the test.

I also told her to make sure she did well in her other classes if this is going to turn out to be a challenging class for her.

I’m hoping that the teacher will go over the test in class, at least, so she and the other kids can figure things out before they move on…

My eldest D took AP Stats. If I remember right (3 years ago) she was working on matrices and the first test was a challenge for her too. It seems things got better as the course progressed. FWIW she ended up with an A in the class. D is a Chem E major at Purdue so she’s no slouch at math. Good luck!

@BeeDAre I think Stats is more valuable than Calculus, wish my son were taking it. Maybe it will take her a bit of time to get in the groove. Tell her this sometimes happens in college too, and it isn’t the end of the world. If she needs to, see the teacher after class. Another lesson to learn sooner rather than later.

My D has AP Stats this year, we’re only 7 days into the school year, though, and the first test hasn’t happened. I fully expect to see some C’s on tests, but I know that Calculus would be much worse and she can’t NOT take math as a senior.

She took AP Calc last year - she struggled with it, but finally got in the end. I agree, Stats is much more valuable for what she wants to study in college - Humanities or Social Sciences, or blend of both…

I talked with her this afternoon, and she said the teacher did go over the test problems with them, and D thinks she understand where she went wrong on some problems. They were also graded on HOW they solved the problem, apparently, and that contributed to the overall test grade.

I’m hoping it gets better for her. She really wanted to get all As and Bs this year, just as a personal goal - she knows she has to apply this fall with her grades through junior year (and jr. year was lousy, some of it her own fault, some of it just difficult material…) and she’s been great so far with her time management and studying. All I can do is keep my fingers crossed for her, and cheer her on…