@rosered55 what school? Sounds interesting!
@Kardinalschnitt no worries, just wasn’t sure if you knew. I see a lot of folks having PSU on early lists and then dropping it for that reason. I think it if were me, considering an urban school I might lean towards ones that required freshman or even sophomores to live on campus so at least they get that year or two of bonding/community.
Smart to know now that it will be all over the board and to be open to it. We got lucky with the older two who were pretty single minded. S17 and S19 are totally different kettles of fish. S17 wants some of that city aspect from a “being able to walk” to places. He is a huge walker. He’s landed with good college towns though. A bridge between urban and suburban I guess. Best of luck!
rosered55 – you’ve piqued my interest…can you tell me more about your daughter’s experience at Redlands? My mom’s a graduate of Redlands so we have the legacy thing in our favor. My son has ADD and I’m thinking a small environment could be great for him.
@go2mom, I will. I’ll think about it and get back to you (or the thread).
Wow! The SAT at international test centers is freaking expensive! When I think that the bachelor’s degree I’m considering starting next year in France will cost me a whopping 189 euros a year! This SAT is costing me nearly half that! (And, yes, sometimes I think we’re completely nuts to even allow dd to entertain the idea of going to college in the States!)
On another note, I’ve read everyone’s points about the various GPAs/test scores and appreciate the perspective. Thank you!
@eandesmom Thanks for that tip (the required on-campus one). I might not have thought of that one!
@treschicos Your daughter sounds lovely. This is exactly the kind of thing I’m afraid of – and it’s sort of what I meant when I wrote about finding a “decent” school. I don’t want to sound like an intellectual snob, though. I just want our kids to be stimulated and excited about learning.
@Kardinalschnitt our oldest went to a local private very urban U which to a large degree is viewed as commuter school. However it did require the 1st 1 or 2 years on campus (it’s all a blur now lol) and we felt that was invaluable for him in making connections on campus, local jobs, etc. It’s paid off in his long term networking. I am not sure we’d have thought of it either but the college made a big deal about it to him when he was debating deferring to finish his AA and they really encouraged him NOT to do that as then he’d have been ineligible to live on campus as he would come in as a junior.
For him it was a nice option as he wasn’t required to be there all 4 (which happens at many of the LAC’s) and he is very much a city kid.
@treschicos I do think the rigor may help her and understand your concern. S17 is a 3.46 UW (but has a lot of music classes which bumps that up, core academics would be a 3.22) and a whopping 25C superscored ACT. He did have decent rigor with AP’s and honors, though not the “most”.
In his case I felt that going test optional wouldn’t help as his score really did match his GPA and the GPA wasn’t strong enough on it’s own. On paper, all of his schools were matches and some low reaches. Some indicated in naviance that they were safeties but on a pure stats basis they were not. However all were less selective (59-82%) acceptance rates). I think the combination of going EA at all of the schools, focusing on schools that superscored the ACT, and the higher acceptance rates in general let us target schools that would be academically stimulating enough, without crazy pressure, where he would fail. I suspect his EC’s helped as well though they certainly aren’t earth shattering. We did find one of the schools upon touring to fall short academically in the end and one to seem a bit more pressure cooker than the others but all in all I felt that 6 out of 7 would give him a great education and push him “enough”. I did not want my child to be top of the heap at a mid stats school (knowing him), he needs to be pushed a bit, versus the one doing the pushing on his own.
That was definitely not our experience at any of our schools. Certainly some schools were stronger in some areas than others. That said there are several schools out there that again, on paper were matches or huge safeties that might have given him much larger merit and we determined that academically, they weren’t the right fit so I completely get the concern and agree, it just requires a bit more homework to find ones that will deliver the quality of education and are achievable at the stats you have to work with. There really are plenty of those schools out there, to us it became largely a budget question.
@go2mom , my daughter really liked the U of R, especially the Johnston Center. She liked the built-in community of Johnston, the smallish classes, the ability to avoid traditional tests for most classes, and the weather (she grew up in the Midwest, where I and her dad still live). She continued to blossom in art, literature, and writing classes, which she had also done well in during high school. She didn’t have to take many science or math classes (maybe two of the former and one of the latter), which she had struggled with in high school. She did a study-abroad program in an African country during fall semester of junior year, which was covered by financial aid to the same extent as the same semester at Redlands would have been. Things she didn’t like or was relatively unenthusiastic about: the city of Redlands; extra fees for art classes; career-advising services. It wouldn’t be right for everyone, but it was great for her. She keeps in touch with some of her instructors and “found” her best friend there.
Yes…!
@eandesmom would you mind going over your approach in achieving this academic fit for your son, please? I know it’s somewhat qualitative, and the first step is to “know” your child but, after a couple of tours, we’ve found it difficult to differentiate the academic differences between, say, St Mary’s and Santa Clara. Are attending classes the key? The feel from the tour guides? Ratings and acceptance stats?
The 2017 3-3.4 thread just posted an amazingly comprehensive list of all the acceptances, wl’s and denials for their kids. Might want to read on there today before it gets buried to get a sense of where kids are going/looking/not going. ^:)^
Starts here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1871275-parents-of-the-hs-class-of-2017-3-0-to-3-4-gpa-p238.html
I read the list last night and was filled with such excitement for those kids and such hope for mine! I am thrilled that this thread is starting to take off and I look forward to eventually seeing the same successes for all of our 2018 kids!
Parent of a D19 here - I lurked on the 2017 thread and will lurk here too. Good luck to y’all!
I also am very interested in how to determine the intellectual rigor of a school. We’ll be looking for a school where D stands out academically, because merit will be key and we’re not likely to get much FA. With that as a priority, how do make sure your kid isn’t the smartest one? I know that’s really oversimplifying things but I wanted to cut to the chase.
My D is NOT the smartest kid ever - hah! – but she will need to be challenged and not be so complacent that she doesn’t try hard; it’s not in her nature to keep her nose to the grindstone unless she feels it’s necessary.
Does this stop it at the list?
@Gatormama if you can figure out the answer to how big the pond should be for your fish, let me know-we’d be so rich…
In all seriousness, I think I made a thread last year about that question (and Malcolm Gladwell’s musings on it). It’s really hard to pinpoint, because kids are strong in different areas, and kids mature at different rates.
I think one way to look at it is how serious the kids are about studying and graduating at a particular school-if the culture is focused on being a good student and kids aren’t mocked for doing their homework (vs partying), I think that’s going to be beneficial for every level of kid.
Agreed. She’s currently at a private school where studying hard is the cool thing to do for most. I have no clue how to find colleges like that outside the usual top-tier suspects, which we are not even targeting.
Everyone says the right things when you’re visiting a school; reviews online are suspect. I guess you can see how trashed the dorms are 
^^Maybe how many kids are in the library? If the front door has cobwebs on it, that might be a bad sign :-B
I am de-lurking to post on this thread too! I have a D19 and she fits in this grade category. They did a PSAT practice run this year (10th) and she got a 1000. She was very upset but I downplayed it because it was the first real standardized test she had ever taken and did not prep whatsoever. But honestly, on the inside, I felt my heart sink because I knew if it translated to the SAT we would have to scratch off some schools (even our instate school!). I read the 2017 thread and was hopefully but even some of the COA’s (after the aid) seemed really high to me. We won’t receive any financial aid but will be constrained on how much we can realistically pay because we have another child a couple years behind her. I have already told her the ‘budget’ and talked a bit about safety, matches and reaches but I worry that she can’t really apply to any reaches because we couldn’t afford them and it seems like setting her up for disappointment. I know I am early to the game and will just keep lurking here to try and find that hidden gem that is affordable and financially realistic.
Hi @Cotton2017 - please join us on the Parents of the HS class of 2019 thread, where there are several of us in the same boat. What is your state? There’s a ton of knowledge from other parents, and so much support and guidance - you are NOT alone, and your daughter is NOT doomed …
@Gatormama - we are in Maryland. UMDCP was dimly in my mind but the college data set for average stats is really high (IMO). I need to go find the 2019 thread - I didn’t know there was one yet.