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

Parents Forum
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Thank you so much for all your Heroic work, @eandesmom! And thank you for all the updates on your son and UPS.

Funny I noticed an issue with SUNY Albany on the list too, @MSU88CHEng, because that is my S who is in the Albany spot, and he WAS recently accepted to St. Olaf, so you can switch the two kids, next time you update the list. I will PM you the update for him. Waiting on a few last decisions, so I’ll probably wait a little bit, so you aren’t getting too many PMs.

S was very happy to be admitted to St Olaf, and we benefited with the fin aid situation by having two in college at the same time. St, Olaf is one of the schools in the “Colleges that Change Lives” type of school group that meet 100% of need. We can expect to take a hit in his senior year, as S16 will be graduated by then - fingers crossed! He is just a tiny bit sad, because he loved the Pacific Northwest so much and was really hoping he’d receive enough merit and financial aid assistance to make it. Pacific Lutheran was the only one that came close, and though it’s a very nice school, with a very good music/choir program, S decided St. Olaf was a better fit, has some great programs for his areas of interest, including a J-term where many kids study away from school. He has a few last schools to hear from, but it’s looking like St. Olaf is going to be his home this fall!

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Congratulations on the St. Olaf acceptance, @morningside95. My niece went there and had a very good experience.

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D got rejected from UCSB…she was disappointed but still happy with her acceptance to UCD. Looks like that is where she will be going assuming our visit goes well. We are heading to Northern CA for Spring break from NY.

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Hugs on UCSB, @lilymoon. I think there’s a lot of disappointment on the UC’s this year. So competitive!
UCD is a great school, she is very fortunate!!

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@eandesmom Yeah French… it’s never been S favorite subject, but he’s always been at least a 88-ish average student in it. But senioritis… a couple of missing/late assignments, and I’m hoping he can get it on the B+ range again. He’s busy, but he still needs to stay on top of things…

@snoozn At least the weather out this way will be better for your D’s visit next week–maybe rainy, but no huge amounts of snow like last week. RIT is a nice school–I hope she likes it.

@morningside95 Congrats on St Olaf–It sounds like a great fit for S!

@LilyMoon Sorry about UCSD but congrats on UCD. Although I’m probably as confused about all the UC’s as all of you are about the SUNYs…

Good news here today–while S was at his Model UN thing, he got an email from Albany. He’s accepted to the Honors College there. :slight_smile: Now I really have my fingers crossed for the law program–it would be a great program for him, and (selfishly for the parents) WAY cheaper than MSU. DH & I keep telling ourselves not to influence him–we can afford MSU with the merit he has, but Albany would be SO affordable. Plus, I admit I’m torn because I loved my MSU experience, and I can really see him there, too. So, back to the holding pattern while we watch and wait…

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@kt1969 congrats on Muhlenberg cash!

@MSU88CHEng super nice about Albany, hope the 3+3 comes through for your S.

@LilyMoon sorry about UCSB, things seem really inexplicable at the UCs. Davis is awesome, hope she likes it.

@morningside95 congrats on St. Olaf!

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@LilyMoon I am sorry about UCSB, definitely lots of dissapointment all around on Santa Barbara, seems like everyone was regjected.

@kt1969 congrats on the merit monies!

@MSU88CHEng whoo hoo for the Honors College! Are you in State for the SUNY’s? If so my spreadhseet is wrong! LOL

@morningside95 yeah, I figured out that I had your D under the SUNY instead of St. Olaf. Why, I have no idea! Too much cutting and pasting sometimes, I am sure it’s not the only error.

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@morningside95 - Congrats to your S on St Olaf’s - sometimes the best “fit” isn’t what anyone expected at the beginning of this journey. The campus is lovely, and the kids seem happy!

@LilyMoon - hugs on UCSB, but yay! for spring break travel to CA - hope UCD visit is wonderful for your D!

@Snoozn - hoping the visit to RIT seals the deal, one way or the other - I think spring break visits as an accepted student really help our kids figure it out. I personally suspect that many of our kids would actually thrive in several places, but if the dear kid “feels the vibe”, then said kid has invested in that school being the right decision, and creates a self-fulfilling prophecy that results in said school being “the one” (even though multiple schools would likely have worked, if that makes any sense). So I think the spring break visit is key, at least for CoyoteSon – that will help him own his decision. And welding sounds fun! Do check out a maker space - the one near us is full of people who want to help you build stuff!

@eandesmom - Thanks for the amazing updates! ha ha about the “stillness” factor needed to stay on a 5th year at UVM - maybe E will grow into it? I will ask the Mom I know for more anecdotal info, but I think you have already concluded that UVM is the strongest academically and job-prospective-wise for any of the Enviro programs. And naturally, it is the most expensive. Good luck to the whole eandeHousehold as you wrestle with the decision. I personally think that you are an amazing (and effective) Mom, so I think E really will sprout wherever he winds up (and that you’ll be there to help guide finding an internship, or to consult on dropping a class, or whatever is needed to mitigate any downside at whichever college he chooses).

Ok - decision time is finally coming - four of CoyoteSon’s schools are announcing this week, one on each evening, starting tomorrow night at 9pm – so by Saturday, he’ll have rejections/waitlists/maybe even another acceptance – but decisions from 4 more schools! Yay! Whew - will be very glad to get the uncertainty from the colleges overwith, just so CoyoteSon is back in the driver’s seat on the decision process.

In the meantime, CoyoteSon got a surprise invitation to UVM’s Honors College! Apparently the Honors College offers are rolling - issued to the near-perfect stats kids in January, but then proceeding further and further into the pile. CoyoteSon had set UVM to the side as too big - will have to dig deeper to see if this program makes the school feel smaller.

Finally - CoyoteSon has a teacher workday on Friday, so we’re jumping in the car Thursday night to drive to Juniata. We went to an accepted students reception in our area (and although that confirmed for me that this school is not as good a fit as Beloit (located in between Milwaukee and Chicago) don’t think CoyoteSon knows enough geography to know that this answer was a dead give away: “You can always drive to Altoona if you want to get off campus”. BwaHahaha - evil laugh - CoyoteSon is from the urban megalopolis of Northern Virginia - if he’s not happy on campus, it’s gonna be a long 4 years!

  Oh well, it's the only school he can visit before spring break, and he may decide that he wants the security of being within a comfortable drive from home -- or now that he's an accepted student, he'll see it with new eyes.

Uuuuggghhh - sorry to have gone on and on - I am definitely trying to keep myself busy while waiting for these decisions to roll in.

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@eandesmom Yes, we’re in state for SUNYs. :slight_smile: S15 (who would fit in with this GPA group even better than S17) is at a smaller SUNY–Brockport. They are awesomely affordable options for NYS residents. Sometime I should tell S15’s college story–it’s a bit scary, but my mantra with him is that he’s more than his grades, and he’s such an awesome kid.

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Thanks for all the kind words…things happen for a reason. Can’t wait to see where everyone else ends up!

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@MSU88CHEng - congrats on Honors at Albany! And best of luck on the 3+3 news – still in a holding pattern here too - not sure if I’m rooting for acceptances at reach schools (which we can afford but will be sooo expensive), or rejections (so CoyoteSon can rest easy deciding among the four already-accepted schools all in a very, very similar price range and presumably level of challenge). Anyway, I totally sympathize with the difficult expensive but possibly best fit option versus the inexpensive in-State option.

That full-pay-for-the-best-fit-experience vs. take-the-merit-money-and-don’t-look-back decision seems to have been debated here on cc endlessly. We’ll see where we wind up here in CoyoteDen :o3 if we actually have a good fit, expensive option on the table!

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New news here, S17 was accepted to UCSB. Didn’t get much of a reaction, but a “cool” from the kid. It’s a contender though.

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Congratulations, @hankster, I get the impression that UCSB was extremely competitive this year so he should be jumping for joy, particularly if he got a direct admit into the engineering program. Have you had a chance to visit the campus?

Lots of news coming out - congrats to those who are happy with decisions, hugs to those who are disappointed. Waiting on 5 decisions, some may not arrive until next Monday. It’s distracting me to no end, including at work during two crunch deadlines. Yikes!

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The SUNY"s seem on the more affordable side even for OOS kids!

Congrats @Hankster1361! I am cracking up on the “cool” reaction. That’s how things go around my house

@CoyoteMom congrats on UVM honors! That’s a very nice surprise. I don’t see that happening for E1 (nor would he want it) but that’s super cool and yes, I definitely think would help make it small. Part of the huge appeal of UVM is Rubenstein making things small (er) from day 1. LOTS of chatter at my house last night and at the moment he’s back to leaning towards going all the way across the country to the frozen beauty of Burlington.

Good luck on the outstanding 4 schools!

But as he said, he felt differently 2 weeks ago and one week ago and so we are not final yet. I think, waffling aside, I am going to make him go to the WWU Huxley event next weekend even if he thinks his mind is made up. We are also getting some very specific data from a current WWU Junior who is home on break this week and that should help.

In fun news, SD14 comes home Saturday for break, I can’t wait to see her!

@jmek15 5! Wow, that feels so late! I hate all these late march decisions, it gives kids and parents so little time to evaluate and compare.

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Couple of updates for my D17. We knew the last few decisions would be OOS reaches.

Boston College - after being deferred EA she was denied RD
University of Richmond - waitlisted (this one makes me sad because I think she wanted this one the most - however it is too far to visit and show more interest for just a maybe - plus I don’t want her to get more excited/hopeful about it)

Still waiting on:
Wake Forest - probably her 2nd to Richmond - but I am worried her writing isn’t strong enough to compensate for her 30 act - their app was extensive and creative/writing heavy.
Lafayette - I think this one is probably just too far away and too far north for her to consider. But I guess if the FA works out we will visit if she gets accepted
Vanderbilt - I don’t see any way at all she will get accepted here - her stats just aren’t high enough. But she really really wanted to give a shot. I will be shocked if she is accepted or even waitlisted.

I am really trying to get her to attend an overnight or accepted students visit to one of the schools on the table right now…but she is so reluctant. The idea of visiting alone makes her anxious :frowning:

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Congrats on all of the good news, and sorry for the less than happy news. We have been on spring break vacation, so I haven’t kept up with all the news

@stlarenas–my niece is at Lafayette if you want more info. She’s had a good experience. She was leaning towards going to school in the South too, and then at the last minute decided to accept at Lafayette.

@jmek15 --yes, S was admitted to engineering at UCSB, but into his second choice, which was also in engineering. He was encouraged when applying to choose a second choice major from outside of engineering, but he didn’t because he was told that it is extremely difficult to transfer into engineering at UCSB. We haven’t visited the school yet, but we know a fair amount about it.

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Thanks for all the good wishes! I agree with @CoyoteMom, that most kids have a dream school/experience in mind, especially if they’ve been lucky enough to visit several campuses, but they will very likely thrive at many of the schools where they’ve applied. We made sure S applied only to schools where we thought, #1 - S had a fairly good chance of being accepted, and #2 - S could see himself attending. He’s very outgoing, and is pretty good at fitting in wherever he goes.

St. Olaf was the last school to which he applied, mostly held off because it’s only 45 mins from home, which just felt way too close to S. And our HS sends several grads a year to the school, and S wanted more of a fresh start. But he read about their programs, and emphasis on study aboard, and had a very nice visit with some of the kids he knows there and realized that knowing a couple of dozen kids on a campus of 3,000 students, means there will be lots of opportunities to meet and make new friends too. The thing he does know is that St O is one of the strongest schools, academically, to which he applied and he is fortunate to have been admitted. Looking forward to seeing what he does next!

@LilyMoon, @Hankster1361, @StressedinCA & @curiositycat333 - I lived in CA most of my life, went to college there, and have friends going through the same thing. The UC system is SO competitive. Your kids should be very proud of their admittance to any of the UC schools! My parents met at the original UCSB, right after WWII, and UC Davis has always been a favorite campus, as well. Both are great schools! And Who doesn’t want to be an Banana Slug at UCSC!?

Thanks for all the updates on your S, @eandesmom. Nice that UPS offered more the scholarship, and extra nice that it’s renewable. Don’t know if that is contingent on his being a music major, as they mistakenly identified your S. Even if he does not attend, its all a very nice compliment to your S and his skills as a musician! You know that my S loved UPS, but they did not love him enough back! :frowning:

We are very happy for the St Olaf admit, and I relayed the stories shared here and on other CC threads, that many times students don’t end up at the school where they originally saw themselves.

Thanks to everyone for sharing their stories, sometimes sad, but mostly really GREAT! Looking forward to reading about where your S &D’s will be spending their next 4+ years!

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Oops - Forgot to add that S was wait-listed by Gonzaga. A great school, and I have a niece in Spokane, but that was the primary draw for S. Good luck to the Bulldogs in the NCAA Tourney!

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@morningside95 I am a bit surprised by the wait list at Gonzaga, I had thought it would be a match for S17 but couldn’t convince him to apply.

He didn’t recieve a music scholarship at UPS, just admission the program (that he didn’t apply to). He did recieve a theater tech scholarship and a merit offer, and a grant. Which put it in line with our EFC and his other choices. It was not enough love to keep it on the list, at the moment he is leaning away from an LAC entirely but I’m not convinced Ursinus is 100% out of play. St. O looks absolutely wonderful and may well be a school we look at for S19. I get the “too close” syndrome, S definitely had that off and on with UPS.

Banana Slug is the best mascot. Absolutely love that.

@stlarenas will she accept the waitlist at Richmond? That’s a tough one since they value interest and she’d have to express that in some fashion even without visiting. Good luck on the remaining, I am so sorry that the idea of visiting makes her anxious. HUGS to both of you.

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@snoozn I am majoring in engineering, and Clarkson and RIT are both in my top 3 schools too!