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

Parents Forum
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@lkg4answers love SLO. Still here through Tuesday. Spent some time on campus on Friday and then had a wedding down in Santa Barbara yesterday but back for the rest of the weekend. The new science building was stunning. Ran around campus and through the AG fields yesterday on SD’s regular run route, I can see why she wants to stay here all summer now that she’s in an off campus house.

Of course she ran, I just tried to keep them in eyesight while I lamely trotted behind. 2 years of club college soccer has improved her discipline distance and speed.

Looking forward to the rest of the weekend checking out all the great local eats, beach and hiking :slight_smile:

I will say, and H agrees, it really does remind me a lot of Colorado State. Big, sprawling, spread out. Many of the same attributes. Not a good fit for S17 (the school isn’t, the town would be) but I could see S19 here depending on where he lands major wise.

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I love SLO as well. Too bad it’s not really a good fit, as I think DS would love the town as well. DS is still planning on applying but… well I have no idea what major he’s planning on applying in there. It was the first tour we took him. I personally would love to spend more time in town. I’ve only spend sporatic visits in the area, mostly it’s place we drive through. We love Pismo Beach and have a favorite crab place there.

Haven’t even started the college conversation I need to start this week with him. He’s back and spend most of today at Robotics club & then at a party friends. Very unusual for him, but I’m happy to see him busy. He’s had a hard time socially and it’s really pleasing to see him have a social life. I’m planning on asking him to work on the application list (start something in google docs), research all the essays he’ll need to write, and maybe make a CA account. I want to look over something about the Colorado applications. He has a lot else to accomplish this week & I don’t want to push too hard.

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S17 didn’t have a C/A account until yesterday, so we had no idea what it entailed. OMG…he/I spent most of yesterday filling out the C/A form AND the individual questions for the 5 colleges that take the C/A! Nothing is completed yet since we don’t have all the info requested. I thought the ‘common’ part of C/A was supposed to alleviate this time consuming burden :frowning: Good news…he’s completed the C/A essay & was able to modify it for a non C/A U that requires a 500 word personal statement.

NPC … Most of the U’s S17 is applying to use the US Dept of Educ version which is so frustrating because it doesn’t require tax or academic info (which I believe makes it inaccurate). College Portrait’s VSA Cost Estimator is slightly better. Unfortunately for us, 3 U’s are offering zero $, 2 U’s are estimating grant $ which will be equivalent to books/supplies expenses, 2 are estimating grant $ which will be equivalent to the meals package, 3 OOS are estimating grant $ that will bring COA in line with in-state costs. I’m SO jealous :slight_smile: of the parents of high stats kids who will receive 5 figure grants!!

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Well it it does alleviate the burden vs if you were applying to different apps for every single university. S17 so far is only applying to 8 schools but will have to fill out 5 different apps. Most are state schools that don’t use the CA.

Of course back before the common app, or electronic applications. Most students only applied for 3-6 schools vs. the 8-20 that many do these days.

Mine hasn’t started anything. I was hoping to get him to open a CA account today because I want to look at it. But he’s disappeared and I refused to get worried till 6pm (1:15 minutes from now.) He took his dad to the airport while I was in a phone meeting & then vanished. I’m assuming he’s out hiking somewhere but thought I would have seen him by now. I hope he has a ton of water.

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DS finally texted me. He’s out with friends. Teenagers!! :(( It’s OK… he had no particular obligations except to work on homework & stuff.

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@curiositycat333 Glad your son touched base. Before S17 got his driver’s license 6 months ago, I worried some when I didn’t hear back from him/he was late arriving home. Now I’m a nervous wreck when he’s taken the car & I don’t hear from him. Is it SO difficult to send a short text of your whereabouts?!?

Started another app for a non C/A U – just as time consuming. An Admin Officer at one U said it would only take 15 minutes to complete their app – will find out in the a.m. if he was serious :slight_smile:

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It’s just unusual & a new routine for him. He really rarely went out with friends like this before. He’s struggled socially quite a bit. So part of me is very happy he’s going out with friends and being more social. And part of me knows he’s doing this because he doesn’t want to start on the summer homework and college apps & is trying to avoid it.

What was odd today was he happily took my husband to the airport this morning. Returned the car and took off on foot. I figured when I got off a phone meeting that he was just out for a walk/run/hike and would be back soon. He’s just come home from wilderness camp and still a bit “culture” shocked by the whole thing.

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We have this issue at times. I give S a fair amount of freedom which has been warranted/earned but it’s predicated on his checking in. At times he is informing me what he is doing versus asking and well, it doesn’t go over well.

Like tonight. Tomorrow night is a CTCL fair literally 10 min from our house. He informs me tonight, doesn’t ask and didn’t check first, that he has band practice so can’t go. He has several schools on his list that will be there, schools we will not visit unless he applies and is accepted, and this is a kid who is now leaning towards out of state if at all possible and now maybe not even PNW at all. Apparently while he could be happy at WWU and will apply, it was not different enough. Which of course it isn’t, but that also drops UPS down and really means he should look at these CTCL schools.

I am so mad. I want to make him go but know he now won’t even engage at all. Allegedly he’s “burnt out” after the 5 days at WWU last week. Admittedly he’s more burnt/ bummed as the week wasn’t the “aha” moment he was hoping for to give him clarity on major path.

Oh but a college fair will just be “counsellors cramming info down his throat” and nothing he couldn’t learn on his own and thus a waste of his time.

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@eandesmom, a lot of the CTCL schools really value demonstrated interest–can you take that approach with your S? It’s such a great opportunity to hit all of them at once. I was bummed that our local CTCL event was the morning after the junior prom (and there was an “up all night” party sponsored by the PTO that D attended), so she was in no condition to attend. If your S is (or you are) serious about any of those schools, it’s probably 2 hours well invested.

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@klinska I am aware that they value interest. However, sadly, S17 emphatically does not believe that they do nor does he think he will get anything out of a fair that he could find online, and that only visiting the school would provide him additional information he could not get on his own. I have not figured out how to convince him otherwise.

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@eandesmom, if the CTCL fair is so close to home, I would consider attending without him. The director usually speaks and addresses parents and it is very informative.

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Ugh! Just received an e-mail indicating adjustments to the GC/student assignments for the upcoming school year. This will be S17’s 3rd GC in 4 years (1st yr by grade & subsequent years by last name). He’s had so little interaction w/GC throughout the years that it wasn’t an issue. But now he’s reliant upon a “glowing” college recommendation from a stranger. Why do U’s assume all GC have a close relationship w/students? I know our HS provides student insight & parent insight sheets for the GC to formulate the LOR, but what’s the point coming from a large pubic HS? It sort of makes me not want to sign the FERPA.

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@klinska I put my foot down and am making him go. If the kid wants to go out of state, but isn’t willing to do research or go to a very short fair, then frankly I don’t feel like paying for him to go out of state. So really, not making him go but saying if you don’t…I see no point in you even applying if your interest is that low/can’t be bothered/have more important things to do. He has questions only a visit can answer and talking to people who are there is as good as he is going to get and to not take advantage of it is idiotic in my opinion regardless of what his friends parents are having them do! He made the right choice on his own.

@ECmotherx2 we may skip the info session, I am not sure how much that will benefit as we’ve heard plenty of them before but he will attend the rest. We have a short list to see but personally I think he needs to walk the room and open his mind as he’s got some pretty specific criteria that those folks can answer better than a website can. It will be interesting. It is literally 10 min from my house. Ridiculous not to go.

@MomStudent2017 I don’t even know that our HS provides parent and student insight sheets. The kids have to do a resume in naviance but I think that’s it. Our GC doesn’t have a clue. She’s super responsive to questions and very nice but they are far too busy making sure kids graduate. I don’t think it would make an iota of difference if he had a different one assigned tomorrow. I feel your pain.

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Plunging in with my first post! I have been reading for a while but like others, having a bit of trouble with the high achievers and feeling like my D17 was in a completely different category.

Some info about her:

GPA: 3.25 UW, 4.08 W [our school has three levels of classes: standard, honors, and accelerated/AP [those two can earn you a 5.0 although sometimes there are accelerated and AP offered in the same subject and presumably it’s better to take the AP]
[New]SAT: superscored she has a 630 Reading/Writing and a 600 on Math [I was happier about this until I saw that when you use the thing to make it equivalent to the old SAT, it brings each score down by 20 points]
Not much in the EC area. Played volleyball her freshman year and then didn’t make JV soph year. Member of a couple of clubs but no serious involvement/leadership. Very involved in our UU church’s youth group and has done week-long service trips with them the last three years. Has had dog-walking jobs for a number of years and this summer has started working PT at TJ Maxx. Helps me out by watching her 7YO brother pretty often.
I think her teacher rec will be good, and hopefully her GC one also.

She was finally diagnosed with ADD right before her junior year, and that made a big difference in her grades as she started medication. She’s a pretty smart kid and managed to compensate for a long time but as school got harder in high school she was unable to keep up and her soph year grades in particular weren’t very good. Junior year she had all As and A-s except for a C+ in English. She has stuck with accelerated English all three years even though it isn’t her strong suit because she really likes it. I am hoping that with the GCs explanation about the ADD the schools will take that into consideration.

Freshman and soph year she took accelerated English, History and Spanish, and honors Math and Science. Junior year she did the same except moved down to Honors Spanish after a rough soph year in Spanish. She hasn’t taken any APs yet, but will be taking AP Comp Sci senior year, as well as accelerated English, honors calc, honors psychology/sociology, PE, and a few art classes.

I am way more into the college process than she is. :slight_smile: I am practically a Naviance addict, have a fabulous spreadsheet going, etc. Websites, books, the whole 9 yards. She is only recently getting more involved, and has actually visited a few schools.

Her dad and I are divorced, both remarried, and I am guessing we won’t get any need-based aid although neither of us is rolling in dough. Hoping to get some merit money, though.

She’s not 100% sure what she wants to study, but right now is thinking comp sci major and maybe psych minor. She doesn’t want to go to the typical comp sci type place though and is focusing mainly on LACs.

Here is the current list:

Reach:
Lewis & Clark
Mount Holyoke
Muhlenberg
Skidmore
Smith

Target:
College of Wooster
Denison
Goucher
Knox
University of Redlands
University of Vermont [much bigger than her other schools but she loved it when she visited]

Safety:
Juniata
McDaniel
St Edward’s University [kind of random but near her grandmother and she loves Austin]
St Michael’s College

Anyway, happy to be joining you all over the next 9 months. :slight_smile: Feedback welcome!

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@kt1619 Sounds like you will fit in here. Sounds like you have a good start. Looks like you have a fairly good list of schools. Is your DD mostly looking at mostly small LAC’s?

We went and looked at Lewis & Clark. S17 didn’t like it, he felt it wasn’t real enough. But I liked the campus. A bit bummed he wouldn’t consider it. Both UofO and Oregon State are on his list. I’ve seen University of Redlands (it was kind of a spur of the moment college visit with D12). University of Redlands is a lot nicer than I was expecting. Very pretty campus, very much east of LA and can get very hot in the summer.

It’s just like grades, your DD’s list of EC’s sounds reasonable to me. The UU church group trips count, as does working at TJ Max. Honestly for the level of schools she is apply for she doesn’t need a huge laundry list, just not an empty one. I think passion for an EC counts for more than filling in a huge list.

Have you looked into Gilford (NC. quaker, DD & I visited and I loved it plus one of her best friends is attending and loves it.) I keep thinking of Grinnell but it doesn’t fit DS’s requirements & a bit out of reach.

I’m always baffled by 5.0 GPA’s. Do classes like art, PE count? Are there honors versions of that? Our school doesn’t weight ANY freshman classes, unless you 3 years ahead or more in math. So A 4.45 is about as high a GAP as you can get. The only art with a +1 point is AP Art class.

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@kt1969 … Welcome! You should feel comfortable on this forum asking questions for your D17. I’m not familiar with the colleges on your list. We’re not looking at LAC because hubby/I feel they’re too small for our only child who’s graduating from a large suburban high school (hope we’re not wrong).

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@kt1969, my older daughter graduated from the University of Redlands, and my nephew is at the University of Vermont (UVM). Feel free to ask me questions about these schools. And good luck!

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@kt1969 Welcome!

We have looked at many of the schools on your list! Several have come off and on either for financial reasons or location reasons so I think there is only one overlap with yours at the moment but our list is so in flux at the moment, who knows! We have good friends at Lewis and Clark, it’s a great school. Out of our reach financially and likely academically (at least based on our Naviance which has decent data for it) so we have been ignoring it though I wish it could work. That said, S now thinks he wants out of the PNW entirely so that would cut it out.

My S had a similar track with ADHD, diagnosed late sophomore year when his difficult course load really caught up with him and overwhelmed him.

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Thanks for the welcome! :slight_smile: @curiositycat333 , it is complicated with the GPA thing. The only classes that count for the weighted GPA [they don’t do unweighted, I just figured hers out by myself] are year-long classes that are leveled. So no PE or photography or even the one semester comp sci class she took. Which is a bummer bc she has As in all the stuff that doesn’t count. :slight_smile: There are year-long art classes that are leveled but not the freshman one that she took. We did have Guilford on the list at one point but took it off, can’t remember why at this point. Not sure she is a good fit for the South anyway, although I did like the school.

@eandesmom , which school is on both our lists? :slight_smile:

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Welcome @kt1969 – we have a great group experience our class of 2017’s journey - so I look forward to your participation. You certainly seem to have a very clear picture of you DD and possible schools. Is she thinks Comp sci major hope you are able to cast a wide net & also look at K&F Guide. RIT might be a possibility if of interest. Might consider Drexel or Lehigh?