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

Parents Forum
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@mamaedefamilia and @klinska S17 and I talked about it quite a bit last night. He’s actually fine and happy with the feedback to be honest so I can’t really say a whole lot. He feels like the essay guy steered him in the wrong direction and while I could argue the point, I know my kid and that would not be in either of our best interests lol. There are some resume like elements in there. It’s subjective and while I think it works, I can see the teachers point. What he really said to S was that it was ok, but in his opinion kind of “meh”. So he could submit it now and maybe be ok, or he could make it a lot stronger.

Of course his idea of stronger was maybe considering using the topic for a different prompt. SIgh. To be fair, I’ve known what the topic was for some time and depending on how he shaped it up, a number of the prompts would work. He does answer the prompt but…it could be stronger to be sure. S17 isn’t remotely stressed about it and doesn’t think it’s a big deal. Given that and his clear desire to change it based on the input I am not going to try otherwise.

I (of course) on the other hand feel the timeline has been derailed and it will be 11/1 that we are hitting submit! The bummer is that I’d hoped to firm up the activities list this weekend and am 100% sure now it won’t get looked at, at all. All he has is Sunday as it’s homecoming weekend. Assuming of course we don’t lose power, huge storm last night through sunday so it could be interesting.

On the positive side, the first LOR is showing up for all schools in the common app and I know the transcript is same day/almost instant so my only concern is confirming test scores have arrived.

@curiositycat333 if S17 was only doing publics, I am not sure we’d bother breaking anything down at that level. I worry slightly that it will look odd not to list a chair position. S’s teacher doesn’t believe in chairs, the kids rotate all the time and outside of MB there are no section leaders. He’s played all positions.

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@curiositycat333, southern California perhaps holds a higher appeal to an 18 year old eager to escape Wisconsin winters!

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@eandesmom D’s English teacher said the same thing re ok and could be stronger. D stewed about it for two weeks, kept the theme, re-did the ending and made it better. It did take some time, but it was probably worth it

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@brindlegreyhound my only concern is the kid doesn’t have 2 weeks to stew! However, he wasn’t stewing at all or remotely upset, told me it was no big deal and it wouldn’t take him a month to do.

Which is good as he’s got exactly 17 days.

I personally think “meh” was quite harsh but agree it could be stronger. I just hope the end result is in fact stronger and not equally meh.

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@rosered55 And while Redlands is a lovely school. What I knew about Redlands before was the back way out of the San Bernadino Mtns which isn’t he pretty side of town. When you are already in Southern California Redlands isn’t the most appealing location. But I was pleasantly surprised and would have encouraged D12 to apply if it had the right program for her. S17 is applying to nothing but state schools & outside of S. California.

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I’m sure Redlands wouldn’t be the life-changing college for everyone. But I do think there is such a school for nearly everyone, and I think these schools aren’t confined to Ivies or other elite colleges and universities, the top 20s, or the CTCL list. It really does make me happy to see the lists posted on this thread, making clear that students and their parents are looking hard for good fits. My daughter tried unsuccessfully to persuade her sister and cousins to apply to Redlands. They too all ended up at schools at which they had or are having very good experiences: Carleton, St. Olaf, UVM, and the University of Minnesota Twin Cities (notice, none in our home state).

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All colleges change the lives of those who attend. Even those who don’t go to college change a lot between 18 and 22.

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@rosered55 And D12 did find a good fit school. Where she went worked out well for her and she graduated last spring. Now if she would only someone would hire her in her field.

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It’s interesting reading all the lists, so I’m in.

D has 3.9 uw and 4.4 wt gpa and 30 ACT. Boy, I feel like I’m “outing” her! I do belong on this thread though. I laugh maniacally when I see all the chatter of parents desperately trying to cram their kid’s activities and honors into a one page resume (impossible!) or deal with the incredibly low maximum of 10 EC’s on the CA. (No, @eandesmom, I’m certainly not looking at you. Okay, maybe a little) :))
D’s EC list: Three athletic activities. Two clubs.
Honors & awards: Academic letter each year for high GPA.
Rigor: All STEM and English at advanced or AP levels, but everything else regular. I can’t imagine this would get “most rigorous” and am just hoping for the next category down.
Anyway I belong on the thread because it’s a fun place to hang out! :D/

Regarding the list, a certain amount of merit is necessary for all but the safety schools. Oh, and she’s going into EE.

Reach:
Smith
UofRochester
Case Western

Target-ish, but big concerns over merit:
RIT
WPI
Rose-Hulman
VA Tech
UVM

Target, with a bit more optimism for merit:
Clarkson
Gonzaga
OSU
Mich Tech U

WWU gets its own category. It should really be a safety, but they don’t guarantee WUE and say it is “competitive.”

Safeties (auto-admit and affordable)
CSU
CU-Boulder

She loves the reaches, but being practical she has mostly put them out of mind. We’re both excited about the targets. I think RIT is my dream school for her. We’re both very excited about visiting Gonzaga and WWU next week.

@curiositycat333 congrats to your S on the “Commended!” I think CS/linguistics combo sounds fascinating.

@eandesmom, I’m so glad you got to read that letter – it says much more about your S’s future potential than a GPA. I hope your S can concentrate on finding/keeping his own voice in the essay. From what people are saying, I’m a little nervous now that D asked her English teacher to look over the essay. Teacher said it would be done by the end of the weekend, so we’ll see how it goes.

@kt1969, Oh, I know what I’ll be doing when D17’s college stuff is over. In fact I’ve already started it – S18’s college stuff. If you get bored you can call and nag him to practice for the SAT or finish his essay!

@iamgriffinsmom, I hope you’ll enjoy your CSU experience. D just came back from a College of Engineering visit which went great and vaulted them to the enviable position of “safety school she likes and could enjoy attending.”

And I’m jealous of all those who have acceptances in hand, but congrats anyway!

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@snoozn Glad to know we are a fun place to hang out. My father went to CASE and part of me wishes S17 would have looked at it, but I know it’s too high a reach & Colorado is the furthers east he will look. Ohio is completely out o the question.

D17 is just unbalanced. Great test scores but relatively low grades in comparison. He does this in class as well A’s the test but his homework/classwork grades bring him down. In his case they have to do with a few things gifted kid who can’t get himself to dot all his i’s and cross all his t’s, anxiety disorder that makes taking the most rigorous course load impossible, and a really rigorous high school where grades are deflated. (Honestly kids regularly get 5’s on AP tests but only get B’s in class…he’s not the only one in his situation.) At least the least the latest is known factor to colleges out there. S17 won’t get most rigorous checked on his application, we had to drop him from honors English & Social Studies but keep him in honors science/math.

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Apologies that my previous post from last Thursday was incomplete. We were traveling and I was using an iPad. I accidentally hit Post Comment, realized my mistake and edited the material but my edits must have taken longer than 15 minutes because the corrections didn’t update. Can I do a Mulligan?

S is also a little over the GPA in the OP’s title, but I really feel much more comfortable in this thread than most others. He is about balance & fit, not Ivies. And when I say balance, I mean his time hanging out with friends playing soccer, going to games, and watching bad horror films.

  • GPA is 3.75 uw
  • ACT is 32 composite, 33 superscored but math score on the two tests so far have been 30 & 29, which may be a challenge b/c he wants to study Mechanical Engineering.
  • Taking ACT test again next Saturday, but he isn't preparing as much as I would like to see (he says "balance" is important and he'll do better if he has some down time LOL).
  • Will have 7 APs at graduation but of the 4 AP tests he's taken so far he's gotten 3's on the 2 history classes, and 4's for English Comp and Physics 1.
  • EC's - not much of a problem fitting everything in the CA 10.
    • LAX varsity & club (on the team but not a star)
    • does the audio for school functions (hey, it's a legit club and their equipment is brand new & state of the art)
    • was a camp counselor & lifeguard last summer.
    • some volunteer work but not a huge amount.

School List (+ = where he has visited, ^ = has attended an info session but not visited):

Reachiest: USC (CA)+

Reach: Lehigh+, Lafayette+, Villanova+, Purdue^

Targets: Union College+, Virginia Tech^, CU Boulder^, UMD CP, potentially RPI+

Likelies: UMass Amerst (State Flagship), Clarkson^

Feeling pretty good about the list. Just eliminated RIT in favor of Clarkson in part because he likes the size and the potential to play LAX. I would like to drop RPI as well - we visited and I think it’s too urban for him. I also think USC is too urban for his tastes but he visited D15 (a sophomore), drank the red & gold kool-aid and now it’s his first choice. His chance of admission to USC engineering is about 14% - doesn’t bode well as he is in their 50th percentile.

Definitely need merit, but can’t convince him to apply to 'bama or UKentucky.

@snoozn and anyone else considering VA Tech, we saw the AO rep at a college fair recently and she mentioned that they only look at math & English scores on the ACT. They don’t consider the rest of the subscores.

Also @snoozn, I’ve probably mentioned this to you before, but our experience with Case & URochester (D15) is that Case was by far more generous with merit than Rochester, and if your D participates in the arts Case has additional scholarships that stack.

@twoinanddone - agree completely that all colleges change lives. And if a student doesn’t get the right fit the first time then transferring is a great option. I transferred from a rural to an urban university because after 2 years in the pastures I was bored and they really didn’t have a good major for me. Both schools changed my life for the better in different ways.

Congrats to anyone with acceptances!! He’s submitted 2 apps so far, and plans to send in 2 more tomorrow.

Wow, feels good to write all this down!! Do I look like I’m more organized than I feel? :-bd

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I am cracking up at how many have been “outed” I suspected a few of you. LOL! I think it’s great that you feel so comfortable (or more) on this thread, it’s such a great group!!!

@snoozn that’s fair, you can call me out on the activities list. :)) I feel we are grasping at straws though and question the validity of the approach and am really not sure if we will use the extra section or not. S told me he worked on it today. I looked at it and he tweaked, 2 total activities and ignored the rest. Ugh.

And told me he worked on the essay…and thinks he made it worse. UGH.

And…he’s working in google docs and not versioning. DOUBLE UGH. At least he has a printed copy of the previous version but we had a versioning conversation.

@jmek15 balance is important!

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@jmek15 That is wants to go into Mechanical Engineering is the rub isn’t it. It looks like great scores till you take into account Engineering. S17 talked about ME for a while, but with his stats… It’s why we were looking at schools like Oregon State where getting into Engineering isn’t done at freshman admission.

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At yesterday’s short conversation about college apps… DS claimed the plan was to get BOTH Oregon State & University of Oregon in EA by 11/1. Umm… OK I didn’t think that was the plan but since I think he has at least a good draft of the essay I guess there is no reason why not. No reason not to turn in another application early. I’m going to try and get transcripts sent to these schools today, and we got most of the SAT’s sent yesterday. Slight progress is being made. :slight_smile:

The main reason not to send U of O early, was I was hoping he would send the teacher letter, even though it’s only “send it if you want to”. But he claims there is no obvious place to mail the letter, and doesn’t want to make more work for the teacher.

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@jmek, I know what you mean about RPI (which did come off our list). I thought it seemed a bit sophisticated for D. The students at Clarkson, WPI, and RIT all seemed more warm and down-to-earth. Thanks for the info about VT – I didn’t know that. It’s too bad for D that they don’t look at math and reading instead of math and English! The NPC’s for Case and URoch agree with your experience. I would personally take URoch off the list if it was up to me, but I’m not going to begrudge her one school. Do knitting and beading count as arts? Yeah, probably not. She is really into digital art, so maybe she can turn that into some $$.

@eandesmom, I didn’t even know google docs had versioning. But now that I do, I’ll make sure D saves her current version before making any English teacher suggested changes. I don’t know if you think extra essay advice would be good for your S or not, but Smith emailed links today to some good info:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EcUBXJLcRk
https://www.smith.edu/admission/broadcast/pdf/An-Effective-Application-Essay-Checklist.pdf

@curiositycat333, wow, I’m glad you mentioned EA at OSU. I must not have been paying attention and had written them down as only RD. Lucky D now has more essays to write SOON!

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@snoozn, thanks for the links on effective essay writing–I didn’t feel like watching a video, but the checklist is very good–straightforward advice that should be fairly easy to act on.

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@snoozn Google Docs doesn’t. You’d have to copy/paste and make a new doc. Just that much more reason to install word on his computer and make him convert over.

EA for your D at OSU would be a good idea for merit as while she will get some of the auto based on stats, she might qualify for additional I would think. I know S won’t watch a video at this point but the checklist might be a good idea.

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@snoozn -

Two of the nicest, most down to earth young men I know are currently students at RPI; neither is my son but both are friends are my boys. Neither is particularly sophisticated and both are Eagle scouts. The one who I know better absolutely loves the school. Both kids I know who went to Clarkson wound up leaving; one had been awarded a massive scholarship and gave it up. He now does commuter tech for a local school district and is finishing up locally. The other one is at another school as well. The kids I know at RIT (about 6 altogether) all seem to like it. The one young man I know who went to URoch also loved it but he is pushing 30; his family was not concerned about NPC and he was a legacy as well.

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How is it going out there in 3.0-3.4 [and friends] land? Not a ton of news here. D17 had an interview on Sunday with College of Wooster locally in a hotel. They seemed to be scheduling several kids at once and distributing them between the AO and some alums. D17 lucked out and got the AO…I say lucked out bc he is the one who will read her app, so likely the most bang for her buck to actually talk to him. She liked him and what she heard, so that was all positive, and I got to join them for some questions at the end. He did this nice thing when I joined them where he mentioned several things about D17 that she had told him and why he liked them and felt they were a good fit for Wooster. They offer an early aid estimator that is quite detailed, sort of like an NPC but you submit it to them and both admissions and fin aid look at it and send you a letter estimating what merit and FA you would receive. I asked if that tends to be an accurate estimate, and he said that they actually try to be a little conservative so as not to do any kind of “bait and switch”, so that was nice to hear. Positive experience all around.

Denison held an info session at the HS today and D17 was the only one signed up. I don’t have details yet but she texted that it was basically like an interview, so that’s good, bc we haven’t visited or interviewed and they consider level of interest and interviews as “important”. Looks like it was the AO for our region, so I’m wondering if it’s worth setting up an alumni interview as well, or if that will suffice. Thinking I should have D17 email her and ask her that.

My ex had been asking for some kind of a timeline for a while, and I agreed that it would be useful. I have a spreadsheet with tons of info [that isn’t shared with him], but deadlines etc mixed in with lots of other stuff. So D17 said she would do one and you should have seen how lame it was. :slight_smile: Basically listed the 11/1 and 11/15 deadlines and which schools fell under those, and was actually incomplete. Sigh. So I asked if I could do it and made one that is actually useful, with deadlines, if scores have been sent, transcripts requested, whether she’s interviewed, visited, gone to info session, if she’s done the app, supplements, submitted and when, portal info, dates decisions come out, which FA docs they need, app fees etc. So now it is a [useful] thing of beauty and has been shared with the ex. Hopefully this will chill him out a little.

She has 3 more info sessions at the HS this week [Juniata, Lewis & Clark, and College of Wooster] and then she’s done with those.

What’s new with all of you? The main thread moves very fast but you guys are who I want to hear from most. :slight_smile:

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We have a similar week here! “Interviews” with Goucher tonight (hotel), Ithaca tomorrow (Panera) and then a college fair on Sat (visit Ursinus and UVM) with an “interview” with UVM after at a coffee shop.

I say “Interview” as all are being clear that interviews are not required and they are informational causal conversations. All are with AO’s, either the correct regional rep or whomever they are sending out instead. Goucher has a form for S to bring with some info, the rest do not.

While S isn’t thrilled about doing any of them, he agrees it’s good as he can’t visit any of these schools and it will be the only time he can meet with them and show interest unless he is accepted and we schedule trips. I was hoping he’d get a request from Ursinus for a 1:1 but no dice yet. Have been trying to get him to email them but no luck there either. I do plan to try again tonight. While he visited them at CTCL and will see them at the college fair this weekend, that’s not the same as 1:1 time.

He did get a nice book from Allegheny yesterday who said they’d be in contact soon directly (the AO) so hoping something will get set up conversation wise that way. They don’t have any west coast visits showing at all but the calendar really isn’t well populated either.

I just hope none of these AO’s somehow kill a school for him. I guess if that happens, it happens but I hope not.

I made the mistake of printing the Smith essay checklist (which I thought was helpful). He very emphatically stated he already had two voices giving him feedback (english teacher and the essay reviewer) and he did not need a third. Which clearly showed he didn’t read it since it was just a checklist but wow…walking on eggshells here! I think the pressure of 11/1 deadlines and the essay are being felt.