@HappyFace2018 I agree with @SlackerMomMD . Our kids, on this thread, are in the 3.0-3.4 range and so test optional really doesn’t help them and in most cases I believe it hurts. I think 30% of our list is test optional but we plan to submit scores. They are not great scores at all but it is what we have to work with. Hopefully the Sept ACT will work out better. We were scheduled for the June one but S fractured his wrist.
We are choosing schools based on UW GPA (we don’t weight) and current test scores. It means we have matches and safeties and in reality, technically they are all really matches as S17 will not be above the 75% at any of the schools on his list.
However, I tend to lean towards the school of thought that if the school has an acceptance rate of 85+%, my kid is squarely at the median or the higher end of the median both for gpa and test scores and the track record for our schools Naviance is 92% or greater at S’s stats…I am considering those as safeties.
Oops, 100% at S’s stats via naviance, I just double checked that 92% as it seemed wrong on one of the safeties…and it is. This obviously only works (assuming it does) if there is enough data in your naviance for the schools in question. For those I don’t have that kind of compelling data one, they are definitely matches. By that same methodology there are schools that I might have considered low reaches but have moved into the match category based on our Naviance when enough data points exist to make that assumption.
Factoring all that in, we now have 4 safeties and 6 matches though a few of the matches may or may not be low reaches.
@SlackerMomMD@eandesmom
When my D was in middle school her GPA was between 3.2 and 3.5. She did well enough on the state standardized test to be placed in a program which allowed her to take the ACT and SAT in the 7th and 8th grade (through Northwestern University Mid-West Academic Talent Search (NUMATS). At that point we decided to focus on rigor and resume which prompted moving her to a full IB private school program (37 freshmen). Had we not done that she would have gone into her high school freshman year with 1,200 other freshmen.
I understand your concerns. I was simply providing information based on my experience.
And I understand that your children aren’t in middle school.
She took her last final today: math. We are hoping she can pull her grade up to a B. On the bright side, she has an A in AP Government (which is a miracle) and As and Bs in all her other classes. Depending on her math grade, she might pull an unweighted 3.5.
^^But SlackerMomMD and eandesmom do have a point that this is a 3.0 - 3.4 GPA thread, and so your DC’s experience as a 4.16 GPA student might not apply to most of us here.
In any case, congrats on the great outcome for your student. Happy stories are always good to hear.
I’m still biting nails here for both S17 and S19. S17 “should” be ok but thanks to the darn fractured wrist he had an AP Lang assignment he had to email in versus hand in. Teacher marked it as missing but has agreed it is not. It is worth a chunk of points and dropped his semester long A- to a C-! . I will feel MUCH better once that is reconciled and when I see how he did on the final project and final test in Spanish 3. On the positive side he survived the precalc final and kept the B+. Sadly I don’t think that can bump up, the last item to go in while worth a lot of points is a participation item that he already has 100% in. Still, the college credit for pre-calc (if I do my math right) as it is weighted differently than the class may end up an A- and we will take that.
Other than that he still has a final in USH and a quiz in AP Lang and is retaking a AP Physics 1 test all next week to hopefully bump that grade up to an A. We should end in the UW 3.4-3.5 range.
6 days of class and grade stalking to get through. :))
And then we wait for those AP test results…
@HappyFace2018 congrats to your daughter and for getting her into a different program that clearly better met her needs in HS.
We were at our wits end about what to do. My dear friend gave me a book called “The College Hook” and we got down to business. During the college process I was able to email with the author, Pam Proctor, and she was wonderful.
@eandesmom Oh that brings back bad memories. DD’14 started to crash emotionally toward the end of her junior year, and a huge project for APUSH was supposed to be turned the last day of class. We were traveling over the weekend before and she said she was doing OK on it but really she wasn’t, but in panic mode she tends to go into denial. While traveling we discovered a huge infestation of LICE in her beautiful long hair, so picture me locked in the family restroom in Detroit airport for an hour and a half during a layover trying to comb out lice. Not just nits, but big freaking motherships crawling everywhere. I feel terrible for whomever had to sit in her seat on the next flight but I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t stay stranded in Detroit, or at least I couldn’t see any options there. When we got home she went back to school for that last day but the nurse found more nits so she couldn’t stay. Couldn’t turn in that last project because it was already overdue and her grade dropped from a solid A to a B+ which probably cost her valedictorian.
Shudder I’m so glad it’s over and I guess the takeaway is, it could always be worse! Thank goodness the teacher will take your son’s project late but I know how stressful it is trying to get those last pieces in.
@mdcmomShudder is right!!! that gave me the creepy crawlies just reading it! I have only had to deal with it once, when S17 was playing 7/8ers or 8/9ers and boy did we learn a lesson quickly, buy your own baseball helmet! Of course I was out of town and H must have been too as my parents had to deal with it. Lucky to have boys…just shave their head. It also was a good purge of stuffed animals that needed to go anyway but SD14 had SO many, just bagging hers up was a nightmare! I was so grateful SD14 didn’t get it. Long and THICK hair. Would have been a nightmare.
The frustrating thing is it wasn’t actually late at all! The teacher just marked it that way due to the different format it was turned in as well, the kid couldn’t write well with his arm/hand splint! It is better now, he is maybe at a 5th grade writing level instead of 3rd now that he is in the shorter cast. In the meantime though I am stalking the online grades. I know she acknowledged that it was turned in on time and that she has it but I also know how these things can go if you aren’t vigilant!
The last day of class is just wrong to turn in anything, especially 2nd semester as there is no way to communicate and get things fixed. Even the last 3 days are not good…kids don’t see teachers every day in a block schedule.
Oh the poor person on the flight…both the first and second one. Agreed that there isn’t anything you can do other than maybe notify the airline. You poor thing!
Lice! Yuck. I’ve had to deal with them 2 times. Three girls (long, thick hair on all of them) passing them back and forth and to me. The first time was a nightmare. We were traveling. The second time I brought in a professional lice comber. Worth every penny!
Hi all . . . been lurking a bit and finding so much information that helped me locate options for my B student who will graduate in 2017. So, big thanks and I’m happy to have found you!
Unfortunately, my S is fixated on a school I don’t care for at all (the four-year graduation rate for this institution is 14%)–he loves the price tag and won’t look beyond that. This may be an uncomfortable ride! 8-|
@HappyFace2018 14% is the 4-year. 5-year is 30%, 6-year is 39%. It’s a non-ranked state school, and primarily a commuter campus with students who are working and taking longer to finish their degrees.
I feel your pain @notinoz S17 has one on his list with similar stats. 13% for year 35% five-year and 44% six year. Thankfully he is not quite obsessed with it however, it is semi high on his list and not on mine at all . I am trying to tread lightly and hope it dies a natural death all on its own. H wants to flat out disallow it but I suspect that will make S really want to go!
It is ranked but I’m not really sure how much that means. It isn’t ranked highly that is for sure LOL. I might almost feel better if it was a commuter school instead of a lower ranked state directional I suspect that a lot of the stats there, as well as some of the other state schools reflect CC transfers as well as transfer outs.
S’s argument is he’d never take more than 4 so it’s irrelevant. I’m more concerned with the large crowd he’d be hanging around with and potentially sinking to a different academic:motivation level…
@notinz, eeks. All I can say is the school D targeted her junior year was NOT the school she ended up attending. In fact, although she was quite firm her entire junior year wanting to go to this one LAC, she ended up not even applying to the school (it became the absolute safety with a application deadline of February 15th). So, take heart. His mind may change yet.
Thanks everyone, I appreciate the kind words. He wants to go OOS (which is OK by me–we live in a state that lacks affordable public options anyway, and I want to relocate too). He found this state school in the western state where his dad lives, and realized he can live with his dad to save $ and probably get in-state tuition (there’s a provision for non-custodial parents who provide support). And, his dad (clearly not realizing this is not a great choice, and focusing exclusively on the price tag) has offered a him car if he goes this route.
I guess I have to keep an open mind? Like you, @eandesmom, I’m mostly concerned about the effect of that environment on his motivation and am trying to tread lightly because my objection will almost certainly cement his resolve! In any case, he’s going to visit in July and they may also go see a school that looks really good to me. Fingers crossed!
I’m in a similar situation. I can’t get mine to even look at changing her list. She’s stuck on the schools she has. Half of them are real reaches and the rest will be expensive. She only had one in state affordable school on the list and only because I insisted.
