Thanks for the suggestion of Roanoke, i think it’s a great option. I hope we can get away from listing my son’s father as he and I were never married and he hasn’t spoken to either of us in years. We do have affordable in state options, but my son really wants out of AZ. Truman State seems like a good choice, although his gpa is a little low.
I second @MidWestDad3’s post.
@ethanj610, my daughter, also a senior, has similar stats as your son… Maybe a slightly higher uwGPA but the same weighted GPA, and ACT of 31 (her SAT M+CR was nowhere near your son’s score - that’s a phenomenal score. You may want to call the schools and ask if they consider the Writing score.). D has applied to some schools on your son’s list; here are her results so far:
Eckerd - accepted with merit
New College of Florida - accepted with OOS discount
Willamette - accepted with merit
Cornell College (Iowa) - accepted with merit
UNC, Asheville - accepted
We still have to hear from Hendrix and University of Puget Sound, but even if these are rejections, D is happy with her results.
What I learned from this process was that colleges like the B/B+ kid. I also learned that colleges look at more than just grades and test scores; the college essay, interview, and activities all count. Her acceptance letters have mentioned at least one of those things.
D emailed or called the colleges when she had questions while filling out the Common App and couldn’t find the answer on their website. In the case of Cornell College, she emailed them to ask a question. They called back, answered her question, chatted and set up phone interviews with her. That whole exchange made an impression on them - it was mentioned in the acceptance letter.
D also submitted her applications early (except for the last two - Puget Sound requires EA applicants to fill out the CSS Profile but not RD applicants, so I asked D to apply RD). The early responses definitely boosted her confidence.
So, long story short, kids in this group have lots of options and will get merit aid from schools.
@ethanj610 You might have figured out by now, if you want to edit you have to do it in the first 15 minutes. After that you are stuck with your typos (grrr).
I was thinking about your situation and did a little research. For federal aid you do not have to submit the absent father’s financial info, but many pricey private schools will require it anyway. I guess they don’t want non-custodial parents to conveniently disappear. Here’s a helpful page which may not be new to you. http://www.thecollegiateblog.org/2012/11/13/financial-aid-divorced-parent/ I was a child of divorced parents and the ugliness around college still persists even tho my father wasn’t technically absent.
@slackermomMD I am so glad that your D is getting good results! In addition to working much harder than ever this year, my S is counting on those extra touches to make a good impression. I’ll be sure to share this with him.
(another slackermom in MD)
@crowlady, thank you so much for the information. I’m fine with the CDS if it doesn’t require the non custodial piece. Now we have a few more schools we can add back, like Kalamazoo.
Did I really just write CDS again??. Wow
Just sent S off to his first ACT. Here’s hoping all our kids do well!
Good luck, my S was signed up, but we decided to wait until April he just didn’t feel that he had enough time for prep.
On a positive note , he met with CG and with my husband present, I was at work so I didn’t make this meeting; stated his preference; general likes and what he truly was interested in. First thing recommended from CG, St. John in Annapolis. I want to be there and quietly say…I told you so!
That’s funny, @hoosier96!
We’ve had a few setbacks. S was on track to get mostly A’s this year. Then he failed to turn in a major English assignment. The teacher has decided that he can’t let S turn in late work as it is unfair to the other students. So a D for last quarter, which means no A for the year in that class, and a zero tolerance policy going forward. He has already missed two assignments this quarter in English and can’t explain why – they were classwork that he must have worked on and failed to turn in at the end of the hour. It is almost like he sabotages himself. This is a teacher he really respects and a subject he loves, too!
So, unless he sustains his otherwise heroic efforts and gets only one other B for the year he will be below that psychological threshold of 3.0 when he applies to colleges.
He also is not managing to finish the practice SAT test he started two weeks ago, so does not yet have a sense of how much prep he needs. On the other hand, we had our first official college visit yesterday and he seemed to enjoy it and was thinking seriously about what he wants. Made some insightful comments.
I can’t decide how best to parent him. He’s setting his own goals (like getting at least a 2300 on the SAT, which might be do-able if he preps), and I’m trying to support them. But he’s not responding well to nagging, and has never responded well to punishments or rewards.
Thanks for letting me vent!
Hi all. I was recommended by @Hoosier96 to pop in, as my S has similar stats to all of yours. And I too am having a difficult time figuring out the best way to “parent” and “guide” him. He will also, probably, show himself better on the SAT/or ACT depending on how he does, than he will on his grades. He too often forgets or chooses not to hand in a homework assignment. He, unfortunately, thinks he really can get into one of the top tier schools…which is not gonna happen…but, we don’t want to cut off the Carrot…because that’s the only thing that is motivating him to try to get as many A’s as he can…which seems to always end up elusive…like…he has that A … but forgets a homework assignment…and back to a B or B+…oh…and that C on a midterm…so he won’t be recommended for calc next year… anyway, “Hi all!” thanks for letting me on board!
S came home from the ACT looking shell-shocked and said he hopes he never has to take that again. He said the science section was much tougher than the one from his practice test.
He is signed up for the March SAT - I hope one of them is good enough to hit his goal!
My son came home today, said he thought he got all the math right, reading was about the same as SAT, and Science was easy. I’m hoping he did really well, won’t help the GPA issue, but I was psyched.
My middle-grounder didn’t take the ACT yesterday, but Mr. Ambition did.
He did pretty well on the practice tests and was feeling pretty good about it all…until he realised he forgot to take his calculator. :facepalm:
My S14 forgot his calculator the first time he took the SAT, we’ve been there… he did better the second time around but it made less difference than I would have thought.
@crowlady: good to hear!
I have not posted in a while. My son is still trying to push through this difficult year. He managed to pull out a C in Algebra II for the half. I have never been so happy to see a C in my life. I was afraid that he would have a D on his transcript. Anyway, he is holding steady with his other classes. His gpa at the start of this year was 3.2. Hopefully, he will escape this year with about the same or only slightly lower.
Now I’m stressing about the SAT. He was supposed to take it in Jan. We pushed it back so he would have time to prep. Now we are a month away from the March test and he still has not prepped much. I think the whole thing is overwhelming for him. I have been dragging my feet about paying $400 for the SAT prep. I think I might go ahead and pay the money for the Prep Scholar prep today. I think the structure might help him. This will give him a month to prep for the March test.
We have the added pressure of trying to go through the recruitment process for sports. He has his eye on one particular school. He would be within the GPA range if he does not drop much after this year. We were told this week what he would need to score for the SAT. In a way, I think that is motivating him during the homestretch of his junior year. He knows exactly what he needs to do in order to get what he wants (a spot on the team). I noticed last night he was studying for many more hours than he has in a long time. He always studies but this seems to have pushed him to work even harder. Hope this continues to motivate him. I also hope this motivates him to prep for the SAT too.
Anyway, I enjoy reading about all of your experiences that have been posted. It is helpful to know that there are other parents that can understand how stressful all of this can be.
so…my S keeps saying he’s going to get at least 3 A’s this year in his academic classes…I’m proud of his couple of B+'s! really I am. But…those A’s just seem to be elusive… :-<
Drmom123 first semester grades: A in 5 and a B- in the 6th class can you guess what teacher my S isn’t crazy about?!
That describe my son and IT hasn’t changed since first grade. So I was hoping with maturity it would have change this, but it hasn’t it’s just the way he ticks.
He’s like that in hockey too if he perceive the coach to be fair, even if he is extremely hard he goes all out, for the whole game and practices but if he doesn’t its a looooong season.
Midterm 3 quarter grades same all A and a B at least it wasn’t a B-.
Hoosier96, my S just has these rosy glasses about how he’s just going to “think” it and it will happen…I’m actually being a little hard … I think he has grown tremendously this year…I just don’t think the grades show it as much. I think his teacher recommendations are going to be the page turner for him…—figuring out which teachers really “get” him…and will be willing to communicate that to the schools…
Unfortunately, my S has burned nearly all of his teacher recommendation options. Even if they agree to write recs (and at least two are clearly not going to) they are likely to mention not disappointment in his lack of consistency. While I’m also hard on him, @drmom123, it turns out he’s even harder on himself – he’s chosen to not turn in work that just needed “one more paragraph” and thus earned a 0 rather than a B.
@hoosier96 Those sound like fantastic grades! I wish teachers didn’t matter so much but sometimes they do.
Ugh. Composite ACT score was good … would have been great if he hadn’t bombed the Math. S has apparently not retained ANY geometry. At least he can read well! I hope I can manage to get him to study a little.