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

@crowlady - my D13 is at RIT too. Looks like we’ll have 2 tigers if the financial aid gods smile upon us. We’re very happy with the school! My D has a co-op for this summer in Wisconsin - and turned down one in Minnesota. However, she had some difficulty getting a co-op after her sophomore year. The co-op maze does get easier to navigate.

D16’s stats are throwing her school districts Naviance off for sure. If she simply went off the stat acceptance in Naviance for our school district and did not take a serious analytical look at the National stats she would not have applied to 3/4 of the 13 schools that she ended up finishing app for she was in the red for nearly all of them. It is sort fun to see her stats as the lowest applied and lowest accepted. She is hoping that her stats will give some future student the courage to give it a shot.

At our house instead of saying why did they deny me, we are asking why did they accept me?

Well, she’s asked for a Ball State hoodie for Christmas, so… probably leaning toward BSU! She’s also asked to go visit the campus again right after final exams.

I personally feel she’d be happy at any of the three…
But if she had to choose tomorrow, she’d very likely choose Ball State.

BSU seems to attract a lot of kids doing fine arts or humanities… Although D is thinking of doing History or Anthropology, or a double major of both, I think she wants to also take a photography course or two, and maybe drawing… if she has a chance. She used to draw a lot and photography is her main passion outside of school - and band! - and she’s mentioned wanting to start nurturing that side of herself again… and I think she’d like to be around kindred spirits… (not that there would not be at the other two though!).

They have their own Anthropology museum in the History and Social Sciences building, and Anthro students can apparently work there for credit…

I like SIUC, myself, because it’s a school that focuses on undergrads while actively encouraging undergrad research. And they seem to specialize in B students and have a nurturing approach, and I like that. Kids like my D need that…

She’s talked about applying to a couple more schools over break, but I’d be surprised if she does - she’s having a hard time choosing between these three, and we cannot beat the prices, because of the scholarships she got - I feel I’ve underestimated her, too!

@labegg , I hope your D’s first choice comes through and it’s affordable, too!

Actually, I hope this is the case for everyone’s kiddos!

@labegg That’s how we feel! We really had no clue what to expect, as for most schools S16 is the only, lonely dot in the lower right hand quadrant. So far it seems his schools are willing to bet on the green (high SAT) rather than be put off by the red (low gpa). I worried about his letters of recommendation (he has a long history of disappointing teachers) but they must have been fine. Which is good, because his long shot is now asking for them!

@BeeDAre As I start to come down from all the stress I’ve come around to trusting that it all has a way of turning out right. If my S pushes for another school or two, he must really want to go. If he doesn’t spend enough time on essays and doesn’t get accepted, that probably says something too. I may not have been as calm about it before the first acceptance, but I was fairly confident in his safeties.

@mamaduck Glad your D has a co-op lined up! What’s her major?

S got a text from Ole Miss about applying for housing, ect. even though there’s no acceptance on the portal. Of cours being accepted there was a foregone conclusion since he’s NMSF with a high SAT. He likes Temple more, but maybe not 80k more.

@crowlady and @labegg

Both of my Ds have lonely dots on the Naviance scattergrams for their colleges. Both are alone below all the other GPAs. One is also far to the left of all the other standardized test scores. I imagine people wondering what hooks they had to explain their acceptances. Absolutely none.

They’re both doing great in college.

I think some kids just take a bit longer to “shine” and some of those Colleges know how to find them!

Have not posted in a while…S’16 first semester over…he is 6 for 6 in the admission ball park and a waits for the last 2, some time in mid January…his GPA has always been above this group but this family always went with fit and he has been very s.l.o.w. To mature …
D’15 was a true B-B+ student…she completed her first semester of college and knocked it out of the park with grades so I conclude that some students find that college may just be a better fit than high school.
His results to some of his schools would have some scratching their heads…
Happy Holidays and Congradulations to you and your S’16 or D’16 for completing their last first semester of high school…

Waiting not so patiently for the final 2 decisions to come in. One for sure will not come until mid-January. That school has been regularly sending emails that say don’t worry we haven’t forgotten, will tell you in January via a US mail. (I love that, some of the emails have been very funny telling the student and parents to relax and enjoy life.)

The other one is an EA decision that had an app due date of Dec 1 but D16 had submitted and complete by Oct 10. It was a special BS/DPT program so the decisions are usually delayed a bit due to the limited spots available. The school said all EA decisions will be sent by the end of January and that they provide decision as they are able (rolling?) A few have received a response, D16 is still waiting. School said they like to send in US mail but there is a portal that will also show the change and sometimes the mail is slower than the portal. Portal still reads “applied”. I suspect it may be a rejection coming, just wish it would come already!

So I posted this because every time I have posted about being impatient the decision has arrived within a day or two. Here’s to hoping, maybe I should put on my lucky socks too!

good luck labegg!!!

This is my first post, though I’ve been reading CC since 2013 (I have a daughter who is a junior at UIUC). All of DS’s applications have been submitted and he has been accepted to all of his choices! I guess he selected schools at just the right level. He is 3.3 gpa and 26 ACT. (At his school, that puts him in the lower 50% of the class, but thank goodness, they don’t rank.) Maybe he could have tried for a higher reach, but we thought that Beloit and Knox were reaches.

He is an under-represented minority at a few of his schools (very few asian students at some midwest LACs) plus he probably had a great teacher recommendation-- the two are as thick as thieves! Life is good!

Beloit College (20k scholarship) his first choice
Northern Illinois University (safety) with $3000 scholarship (least expensive by 10k, so far).
Carthage College (15k scholarship)
Knox College (18k scholarship)
Lake Forest College (20k scholarship)
Augustana College, Illinois (20k scholarship)

Welcome, rienrah! Congrats to your son on his acceptances!

Thanks so much, BeeDAre! I’m pretty excited-- for whatever reason, every time seems like the first time. Each kid is so different.

Those are all great schools! What does he want to study?

Anthropology and Physical Ed Education. Weird pairing, I know.

Could each of those schools a dress both areas of interest? Career goal related to both?

Great schools! I really encouraged D to look at Beloit-- her godmother graduated from there-- but no go. She decided to stay south. You have some great choices- congratulations!

Some of the schools don’t have both, so he’d have to make a choice (and part of the decision is going to come down to financial aid offers). Anthropology wasn’t even on his radar until we visited Beloit last spring, but seeing their anthro museum put Beloit on the top of his list-- he was really enthralled. But I’m a bit concerned about how few fields of study they offer, since so many kids end up changing majors at some point.

@rienrah, Beloit’s was the college tour that sparked my D’s interest in Anthropology, as well. Yep, the little Anthro museum - D was fascinated and didn’t want to leave it, for the rest of the tour.

Although she did not want to go to Beloit, she thought it was too small.

I really liked what I saw and heard at Beloit, though. We visited the campus in winter, and this past summer (I really wanted D to reconsider, but nope, she wouldn’t.) Lovely little campus, both times of year…
I’m happy someone’s kid here, is considering Beloit, anyway, :)! I think the little LACs like Beloit and Knox and Augustana are little underrated gems.

What is required to break into PE careers? That might need to a clear college choice.