Parents of the HS Class of 2017 - 3.0 to 3.4 GPA

Parents' Social Lounge
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@techmom99 , I’m 100% with you. In fact, TacoSon just informed me that now EVERYONE gets the ice cream because there are so many people with a 4.0 and up, it just didn’t seem right to not give the whole school a treat. :-? And apparently now at his school kids can be on the honor roll with grades as low as C-, as long as you still have a 3.0 GPA.

And don’t get me started on this superscoring business! Back in my day, they’d start averaging SAT scores if you took them more than 3 times instead of picking out the best numbers (or am I misremembering that?).

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@curiositycat333 -

Ours is 3.5 with no grades below C for the regular honor roll and 4.0 for the high honor roll.

When I was in HS, there were probably close to 4000 kids in the school (less than 1500 in Techson’s school). The honor roll was called “The Top 100 Scholars” and it was the highest 100 averages for all 4 grades - not one list for each grade but one total list. I still have the typed papers from when I made the list; it was an accomplishment.

Even my kids acknowledge that the HR in our school is a joke.

My S12 has ODD but is supremely intellectually gifted. He deliberately achieved grades just under what would put him on the HR because “it was nobody’s business” how he did in school and because he thought the HR was a joke. He took perverse pride in being in the minority of kids who was never on it. To put things in perspective, he was a NM Commended Student without even doing one practice test, had a 750+ average on his SAT 2’s and was an AP Scholar. He is now on a break from college trying to figure out what to do with his life because nothing interests him… I worry about him a lot more than I do about techson17, who isn’t as brilliant as his brother but who has much better coping skills.

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Loving the trip reports and the drama of the changing lists. I would like to see some of that action over here at our house. @curiositycat333 I know exactly what you mean as my son doesn’t really want to cull the list till he has the whole picture.

Crazy high grades out here too, I think a 3.5 is bottom quarter of the class.

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@93pilots Our school as well… I’m glad my school doesn’t rank. I don’t even what to know where he ends up.

I think there is some sort of honors given to kids who get above 4.0. I don’t remember the details but I think there might be 3 levels. Our school GPA max’s out somewhere slightly below a 4.4… So I think the high honors is kids about 3.35.

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Ursinus update.

Yesterday was a longggggg day, we got to the hotel in Pittsburgh about 7 and then I had to rerun the rental car which took an hour by the time I got back. Wifi connectivity has been an issue of the trip and work had backlogged so I was up past midnight. A brief power outage had me panicking but it came back on quickly.

Not sure I could have slept anyway, the winds were crazy and loud! Still that 3:15 wake up call was not fun. I’ve been fidgeting a cold of some sort for over a week now and am slightly concerned it’s turned into bronchitis so will likely be hitting the doctor once home. I can’t wait to go home, h and I have a getaway next weekend, hopefully I’ll have some energy for that! I’ve not seen him in 2 weeks!

Anyway. Ursinus. This school was almost off the list so many times largely because we just couldn’t get a real feel for it. And then because the offer wasn’t where we’d hoped.

It is lovely lovely lovely! Beautiful campus full of interesting outdoor sculptures, a maxing performance facilities with one of the coolest black boxes we’ve seen. The vibe was definitely right, nice mix of kids and S felt he could fit in in a heartbeat. Wonderful 1:1 meeting with an environmental studies professor and great student interaction. Proximity to philly is a plus as is their semester in philly option. Our intake counselor was the same one we’d met at a college fair and she remembered S17 so that was nice.

It’s moved into the top 3 and at the moment is the favorite LAC.

Today’s version of as the list turns is

WWU
UVM
Ursinus

Lol.

We saw the liberty bell. met some friends of mine for dinner (S18 got his legit Philly cheesesteak so was happy) and then the power went out! For almost an hour with an alarm going in. So bizarre. Thankfully it came back on early enough for us to both get a relatively decent nights sleep to recover from the day before, ironic about the power though, figured it would happen at the one true splurge hotel.

Off to Goucher.

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Loving these reports, @eandesmom - can’t wait to hear about Goucher! Drive safe and bundle up - coldest day in a while today.

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@eandesmom, our S16 sent me a picture of a Mr. Softee ice cream truck parked on the Temple campus earlier in the week. I know there’s a chance of snow there today, and we had a little early this morning in the DC area. I don’t think our S18 would consider Ursinus due to its proximity to Philadelphia (too many Phillies fans, not the fact that his brother is there).

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@eandesmom , so Allegheny is (temporarily?) displaced already? LOL! Thanks for the Ursinus report. It was on our preliminary list last summer and I’ve always been curious about it even though TacoSon didn’t end up applying.

Our school doesn’t rank either. I think the counselor report indicates roughly where a student would have been in the ranking, but that isn’t disclosed to students. Hopefully it’s funny math, like “in the top tier.”

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I’m anxiously awaiting the Clarkson honors interview (by phone) later today. If it goes badly, that may give the game to RIT. But it sounds like a pretty cool program and even pays up to $2,000 for research (outside the $1,000/year scholarship). So if it goes well she may decide to wait and hear from them. Naturally I just want to get this over with! :-w

@techmom99, I think all three of my kids have “ODD!” :))
I’m guessing you mistyped ADD or perhaps this is a new CC abbreviation. That’s a funny story – it sounds like exactly the sort of thing my D11’s fiance (also a brilliant kid) would have done.

@tacocat333, congrats to Tacoson on his first and last reign as a presidential scholar! At D’s school they give an “academic letter” which is the same kind students get for varsity sports. It’s an interesting twist, but D would far prefer ice cream.

D’s school doesn’t do an honor roll, but in the days of yore at my HS, you needed all B’s or above to make the B honor roll and all A’s to make the A honor roll. All the honor roll students (from each local HS) would get their names in the local newspaper. (It was a small town – not much else to write about I guess).

@eandesmom, we are all eagerly awaiting the next exciting episode of “As the List Turns!” I enjoyed the Ursinus review. If not for having CU-Boulder as her safety, oldest D may well have gone to Ursinus.

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More later, but having a great visit at Albany! We’re currently sitting in the atrium of the Fine Arts building, which is a small Art Museum, while waiting for the class the S is visiting…

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I am very sad to report that Goucher was a bust. The day started with S17 sitting in on a 100 level environmental studies class. According to him they were discussing things covered in his first 2 weeks of APES. He thought the professor was all over the board, hard to follow and the kids weren’t engaged at all. He then met with the professor after, he is the head of the department. He told S that his favorite thing about Goucher was he didn’t have to wear a suit and that he was taking a creative writing class. Nothing about his interactions with students or the program.

S actually excused himself at a certain point as he found it painful.

We then had lunch, dining hall was not packed, maybe 1/3 full and super low energy. We didn’t find any more energy at the library coffee shop either. The food was fine but I can’t say I’d have said it was top 20 in the country as they claim.

We did stick it out for the tour and info session. We honestly both wanted to bail because the AO who interviewed him, that he loved, had sought him out when we arrived and we felt guilty cutting it short. An AO ran the info session, she was just ok. Cute quirky tour guide but the tour itself was odd. Saw the common area of the new freshman dorm and the kitchen bit not an actual dorm room. Saw the small museum in the large performing arts center but no mention of the other arts.

We did walk into a bio lab and got to see a student studying the shark she was dissecting. Which our guide apparently loved as a freshman. So that was unique.

All in all a very surprising and disappointing day, not at all what we’d expected.

Today’s version of as the list turns, is the “if money were not a factor” iteration.

UVM
Ursinus
WWU

It concerns us that WWU doesn’t offer academic meetings and sessions, going to dig into that as it was pivotal this week.

It’s been interesting, we started the week with a kid who was super stessed about being locked into a major to a kid after 4 faculty meetings being quite comfortable with it and wanting to cut UPS at home based on the weakness of their program in the major.

One interesting thing that we hadn’t really considered regarding the programs is that the location will play a part. Ursinus focuses a lot on urban sustainability whereas some of the other programs emphasize that less and might be more water or forest oriented. That subtlety didn’t come across in the curriculum guides. Not really a pro or con at this point but an interesting data point to consider.

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@eandesmom Sorry about the Goucher bust but every step is more information and closer to a decision (or just adds to the confusion). It is neat to watch the kids process all of the information (program comparisons, costs, etc) on the way to a decision.

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@eandesmom : sorry that you didn’t have a very positive experience at Goucher. I shared your report with my D, who said “Stop, Mom! I’m having flashbacks…” :wink:

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@endesmom Sorry about Goucher being a bust. But better you learn about it now. Then have him decide on it and find out it a bad fit later.

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@eandesmom - I am having such fun reading about your visits, and the changing status of college preference with every new comparison.

I am sorry that Goucher was not as good a fit as it sounded on paper, but super glad you kept Ursinus on the list, because that turned out to be better than you expected (except for their disappointing merit package). 

 CoyoteSon and I have not been to Allegheny nor UVM, even though he's been accepted at both, so I found your reports super helpful.  UVM has already fallen from the final list here because of a now very pronounced preference for small LAC; but I think the strength of the Enviro program/Forestry School sounds amazing for an Enviro leaning kid!

Your description of Allegheny with low PHF but big sporty and fratty vibe totally jibes with what I know from a current Allegheny freshman from our neighborhood - she is on the swim team, which has been a good friend group for her - and gone to fraternity parties. Now she is on the shy and introverted side, but hanging with her team and the frat parties are the only activities I’ve heard about.

So I think that's it for E's big East Coast tour?  I'm looking forward to hearing more about WWU and UPS - which may both seem more "real" now as an accepted student for comparison against the other first-hand visits.  Enjoy your Saturday friend visit, and may you have safe travels back home and a restful reunion with your DH after such a long work+college visit trip.

@klinska - would be very interested in your D’s impression if she does do an overnight at Allegheny.

@snoozn - so glad your D is actually narrowing down her list methodically, and it seems like it’s now really a choice between RIT and Clarkson, which seems from the outside to present fairly similarly - yay! - they are good choices that would probably both work.

@tacocat333 - Congrats to TacoSon for making the Presidential Scholar list. Wohoo! Despite grade inflation, still must be a nice pat on the back.

@93pilots and @curiositycat333 - we are in the same boat - CoyoteSon will not even consider ranking or compiling pros and cons until he knows his full set of acceptances, which is going to make April potentially a busy month if he gets into more than 1-2 more colleges. Oh well - trying to remind myself every day to enjoy the journey along the way. So glad that I can post here - CoyoteSon wants to enjoy high school during this month of waiting-I’m the one who can’t stop thinking about college options.
>:D<

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@snoozn-

No, I meant ODD - oppositional defiant disorder. Oldest son is ADD-ish. My two youngest sons are dyslexic and dyscalculic.

Our HS doesn’t rank but it does put out a range each year which is how I know techson17 is rated so lowly.

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@RightCoaster My d is also going to Model UN, is your son’s trip in NYC?

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S17 was denied from Cal Poly SLO yesterday. I’m not surprised I considered it a reach for him particularly as he applied in one of the most difficult majors (CS). He seems a bit more upset about this than I expected. And was particularly annoyed at me yesterday. How dare I want to know what he Cal Poly portal said. SIGH…

Now to just wait for the UC’s. He applied to two UC Santa Cruz (which I think he has a 70% chance of getting in) and UC Davis which is another reach. But you never know about the UC’s. I’ve heard of kids who applied to 5 and only got accepted at Berkley. Should hear from those schools in two weeks.

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@curiositycat333 sorry about the denial. Our son has had one too and though it may be character building and maturing and all that it still just feels bad. Hope one or both of the other UC’s come through for him. Agree you never know what might happen there.

Bracing for several denials here in the next couple of weeks, it’s mostly reaches left to hear from. I think everyone in our house will be glad to have the wait over with.

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@tacocat333 Congrats on presidential scholar! Gpa Herr is out of 100. Honor Roll is 90+, and high honor roll is 95+, honestly not sure if it’s weighted or unweighted–S is always 90+, but depends on quarter and if weighted or not if he’s high honor. High honors for graduation is weighted, and he’ll sneak in with just over 95 (weighting factors between 1.02-1.06 for honors, AP, and IB classes depending on the level… all kind of confusing…)

@curiositycat333 Sorry about Cal Poly SLO, good luck on the other UC’s!

@snoozn How did the Clarkson honors interview go? Good luck–like I’ve said, both RIT & Clarkson are awesome for engineering.

@eandesmom The visit reports are cool–sorry Goucher wasn’t what he’s looking for, but at least the visit told him that. It sounds like he has great options–I’m excited to hear the final iteration of the list!

So, Albany… First, the campus is compact and kind of cool–4 dorm complexes at the outer corners of campus with a gorgeous “academic podium” of connected buildings in a rectangle surrounding a huge fountain. There are tunnels under the academic buildings–a big selling point on a windy, 20 degree day! The vibe is kind of geek/jock which is precisely how I’d describe S17, so he’d definitely fit in.

The academic fair was better than any others we’ve been to–the advisors were really working with S to see if everything he wants will work. One of the main advisors told S to email him because Public Policy major with honors college, 3+3 law, and coming in with an IB diploma presents and interesting “math problem” to see if he can get all the requirements in the 3 years before starting law school. There’s a good chance that if he gets into both honors college and 3+3 law, he’d have to drop 1 of them. But the advisor said to start with both of them and drop whichever he was least interested in once he got into his 1st year classes if it was all too much. Now he just needs to get into the programs…

The class visit was good–a discussion section, and the grad student teaching it let S ask a ton of questions to the students, and when she had the students working in groups on a study quite, he came over to S and talked about her background & plans. Definitely worth the effort, although DH/coach reminded me to not delay too much on the drive home because he was already down 1 defenseman for the hockey games. We made it on time–the team had a rough game with injuries, etc., but S played well. DH was grumpy after the game but S took it in stride.