@momzilla2D and @ashmomhk you might want to check out University of New Haven, which has the Dr. Henry Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Science. B students would likely get merit.
@ashmomhk To be honest, we donāt know much about this field. She was thinking business, but not excited about it, then realized she is much more passionate about criminal justice. I think she dreams of a career with the fbi.
Not sure about scholarships, either. I need to look into that. Iāve kind of assumed sheās out of range. But I do remember that at a couple they said you had to apply EA to be considered for merit scholarships.
@momzilla2D has she looked at West Virginia University? Iāve heard itās a really good one for Forensics, and that makes me think other related majors might be strong as well.
@Longhaul, We will submit our FAFSA for the first time. When is the deadline for the submission or does individual U has different deadline? We do not have any IRS record at the meantime because we just migrated to US at the end of 2017.
I asked my daughter if she wanted me to check the portals etc. She says it is fine and that I need to chill out!
Probably good advice for most of us here.
Thanks @taverngirl and @mom2twogirls ! Neither of those schools were on our radar. Iāll pass them along to my daughter.
@Longhaul as you know, Seattle U is my sonās #2 choice. In many ways itās my #1 for proximity. He too wants away and is in love with his OOS favorite and heās made enough progress we allowed ED but I still fret. Itās by far his favorite campus.
@JBSeattle my son also though he wanted out and something different but I made him tour anyway and he came away with a completely different opinion.
Welcome! The only concern Iād have with your list is if sheās got a true safety and then of course if all of the OOS options are affordable.
Thank you @eandesmom . We are continuing to look for safeties. And there are some local options, which we havenāt even looked at yet. (A side benefit of living in MAā¦colleges and universities abound.)
eta: suggestions are also welcome 
@momzilla2D yeah, my concern is that with the gpa, despite the high sat, youāve got matches and reaches but maybe not true safeties.
Youād know best for your local results though.
Does she want to stay east? Whatās the radius from home?
@momzilla2D , what about the Univ of Tenn. They even have a body farm
eta: @eandesmom
Yes, I am concerned about the gpa, especially with the disciplinary action. Her GC, who tends to be conservative in chancing kids, says JMU and UMass are ālikelyā. I personally donāt think UMass is a safety, though, and donāt know enough about JMU to form an opinion.
Navianceās SuperMatch shows UMiami, UMaryland, Ohio State, JMU, Tulane, UConn and UMass, as Safeties. But I am definitely skeptical. It doesnāt seem to consider the schoolsā acceptance rates. I mean, it shows UPenn as a Match, despite a 9% acceptance rate!
So, itās really hard to gauge. Iām looking for schools that fit her criteria and have rolling notifications, like Ohio State and UDelaware. Itād be nice to get an acceptance to one viable school, so we can quit looking for more safeties.
As to geography, I want to move down the east coast eventually, so we told her to look within a 2 hour plane trip of the east coast. Now, though, my H has even backed off that and told her to go ahead and apply to CA schools if she wants.
@sdl0625
Yikes! Iāll take a look. Thanks!
@momzilla2D Welcome! Iām in VA and my S19 applied to JMU. The OOS acceptance rate is 82%. Your Dās SAT is well above the 75th percentile range and the GPA is a little below the 25th percentile (they report a range of 3.58 to 4.01, so obviously weighted). I would agree with the counselor that itās likely. (most kids from our HS with a 3.4 weighted get in and the in-state acceptance rate is lower).
If using Naviance SuperMatch, it looks like it defaults to just using the studentās test scores. It just āmatchedā my son to UPenn and Harvard. The most selective school heās applying to is UMaryland and I think thatās a fairly solid match for his stats (which are a little high for this thread, but most of the schools heās applying to are in reach for B students).
My older kid had a disciplinary action and made sure to apply to some schools that didnāt even ask the question about disciplinary history. It was a little extra piece of mind, although she ended up getting accepted everywhere she applied.
In terms of Isenberg at UMass, I would say would be a reach as it seeminly is getting more competitive every day. Thatās if she ends up wanting the business route.
I wish we had access to Naviance supermatch. Heck, Iād even like a match option as they never even loaded SAT or ACT scores in ours. Our district seems to solely use it for recommendation processing.
@momzilla2D
I would agree that JMU is a safety for your daughter. Of the āSupermatch schoolsā, I think most of them are in the low reach to semi-safety category. Tulane and Ohio St might be a little more of a reach. I would be surprised if she is not admitted to at least 4 of those schools.
Thank you so much, @eh1234 !! That is so helpful! We visited JMU this summer and she loved it, despite the fact that it doesnāt have her major. I think UMaryland is near the top of her list, but every day she mentions another school on her list where she thinks sheād be really happy.
We were happy to see a few schools didnāt include the disciplinary question in the common app download, but then Iām pretty sure the GC letter or school report will include it regardless. Hopefully, if theyāre not asking, then they wonāt consider it even if GC reports it. Your daughterās success is really encouraging!!
@MAandMEmom Right! There was a report earlier this year that the average gpa for in state admits to UMass is now 3.9! So, doesnāt seem like a safety to me.
@JBSeattle Iād be thrilled if she got accepted to 3 or 4 schools. Would love for her to have choices.
My son actually skipped applying to UMass Amherst because of the size. Heās engineering though. Heād likely get in with his stats but he would be lost there.
I would trust your own schools naviance results and indpendent research far more than supermatch. I will be honest, I am concerned about your list. I think you only have one safety on there. Stats are only part of it, overall admission % is a huge factor as well and so even if the stats are there, if admissions % is not high (such as Tulane), it really decreases the liklihood.
For example supermatch puts Cal Poly SLO and UC Davis as safeties for my S19. Davis might be a high match but SLO is definitely a high reach. It shows Penn, Brown, Stanford, Harvard, Yale and Columbia as matches. Um yeah. No. Thos arenāt even reaches they are on another planet (although heād love to apply to Penn and COlumbia for locatiion and the actual campuses but not the stress that comes with it lol).
He has a 3.42 UW (we donāt weight but probably around a 3.7W) a 33 ACT and a lot of APās. Which is way (WAY) lower than most average white boys applying to any of those schools and our schools data on .
I would encourage you to collect your own data for each school if you are up for it, I use a spreadhseet. I look at each schools admission rate overall, average gpa as well as the bands of gpa (middle 50 etc) and then the same for test scores.
Your D is ālopsidedā (so is my son) and that makes it very hard to know. If you look up each schools common data set it will let you know how much they weight gpa versus test score, as well as other factors.
I took a quick look at your list (sorry if overstepping!) and based on what youāve provided Iād rank it like this. Please donāt take this wrong. There are a TON of schools that could be safeties or lower matches but right now you only have one school with admission rates over 70%, one over 60% and the rest are lower which I think is very dangerous.
The gpa, combined with disciplinary action and low admit rates at her schools arenāt a good combo and itās really hard on kids if they get shut out of a lot. Iād probably skip adding URich as you donāt need another reach and try to fine one true safety so that if it comes down to her only choice being JMU, she at least has 2 choices. Iād definitely push to add UDel and UConn as right now I think sheās appolied to one safety, one match and the rest are reaches. I will noodle on safeties.
School % GPA SAT Chances
Michigan 29% bottom 5% middle 50% High Reach
NEU 27% n/a middle 50% High Reach
Ohio 48% n/a middle 50% Match
UConn 50% n/a middle 50% Match
UDel 65% bottom 10% upper 75% Match
UMass 57% bottom 8% upper 75% Match
Tulane 31% bottom 25% middle 50% Reach
UMD 44% bottom 3% middle 50% Reach
UMiami 36% bottom 16% upper 75% Reach
URich 33% n/a middle 50% Reach
JMU 75% n/a upper 75% Safety
Apologies if oversteppingā¦have seen too many sad stories here with kids getting shut out and thinking their odds were better than maybe they really were.