Parents of the HS Class of 2019 - 3.0 to 3.4 GPA

Parents Forum
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Thanks @eandesmom for your valuable suggestions. As I am new to Washington and USA, I would like to clarify is UW Bothell and UW Seattle are the same school in different campus. OR, is it like UC or SUNY system, they are two different state colleges. If they are the same college (different campus) that issue the same graduation certificate, why the students border to transfer from UW Bothell to UW Seattle? Actually, we have check out Bellevue College for transferring to UW Seattle, after two years of Psychology program. BC admission officer mentioned that it is easy if the GPA at BC maintain 3.75 or above. As I am not studied in US education system, I have no idea the grading system. In my hometown, it is difficult to graduate with an overall GPA of 3.75 for first class honor.

For my D19’s GPA, it is the upmost uncertainty in our college searching process. I really do not know the exact figure as she is studying in international school under IB grading of “7” since freshmen of HS. It is almost impossible to directly convert IB score to GPA after searching online. We can only estimated that she is an B student, her IB score at the beginning of junior is just 30 out of 42. Some links said that IB score of 33 will be good enough for Northeastern, Penn State, Boston University and Purdue which received most number of IB applicants. WE actually met the admission officer of UW Seattle in last month. She said that they are familiar with IB system and have their own assessment method, but it cannot be released.

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Yes, 30-32 will not be enough for U Washington Seattle but it’d be enough for WWU which is a very good university. It’d be enough for UNebraska Lincoln (main) which gives a lot of IB credit as well as George Mason.
For Penn State, it would be enough for the ‘exploration’ major (DUS), liberal arts, agriculture, probably IST, perhaps Mineral Science and communication, depending what her subjects are.
My understanding is that UW Bothell students transfer because Bothell remains very commuter and there aren’t as many choices for majors and upper level classes. The transcript would indicate whether classes have been taken at the main campus or a branch.

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@techmom99 Thanks for the SUNY suggestions. I’ll have to pull out a map of New York! For now, he is interested in performance and might want to explore music technology as well. If he wanted music education, I would probably shove him in the general direction of George Mason and JMU (best in-state options for music) which will be on the list regardless. Since he would likely need an M.M., we’ll be looking to minimize costs and keep them close to in-state COA.

@eandesmom I wish we were looking at the PNW (need a reason to visit there again!) but I think we’re limiting the search to the mid-Atlantic, VA, Ohio, maybe lower NE. Which is fine - I don’t really want to purchase a $2000 case to fly the instrument around!

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@ashmomhk

I know that IB to GPA is difficult. The better question to ask the schools is what is their middle 50% range for accepted IB scores if they have it. My guess is the 30 will translate to around a B average which would line up with the ACT score at present.

UW Bothell is a completely different campus with it’s own admission system. Think about it like the University of California Schools. You have UCLA, UCSD, UCSB
all with different campuses, degrees, admissions and programs. It is a state school system but each are unique in many ways.

There are 3 total UW campuses, with the Seattle campus being the state “flagship”. Each campus offers different programs and students choose to apply to each for different reasons. The reality is for some, they choose UW Bothell (or Tacoma) as they were not admitted to the Seattle campus. For others, they want the programs at those campuses and/or want a much smaller school. Commuters are at all 3, I don’t know that it is the differentiator but it is certainly more noticeable at a smaller school.

The 4-year State College options are:

University of Washington: Seattle (main campus)

University of Washington Branch Campuses: Bothell, Tacoma, North Sound (planned, not built yet)

Washington State University: Pullman (main campus)

Washington State University Branch Campuses: Tri-Cities, Vancouver, Spokane

Western Washington University

Eastern Washington University

Central Washington University: Ellensburg (main campus)

Central Washington University Branch Campuses: Des Moines, Everett, Lynnwood, Moses Lake, Pierce County, Wenatchee, Yakima

Evergreen State College

I actually had NO idea Central had all those branches!

Different schools are known for different things, strong in different areas and have varying degrees of difficulty for admission with UW Seattle being the most competitive. She is not competitive for admission there.

With her grades and scores if she wants city, your best bets will be UW Bothell and Western. If she wants big college campus and sports, Washington State. In all cases you should look at the actual degrees and programs offered to see what actually fits your D’s interests, not all schools offer the same programs and degrees.

Kids try to transfer to the main UW Seattle campus from the branches because either they wanted to go there initially and didn’t get in, or they are limited in program choices at their branch campus. Same reason kids go from CC to UW Seattle. Kids also chose CC first simply to save $$. Transferring into UW Seattle though any other path is very very difficult. And as the BCC adcom said, a 3.75 would be needed to have transferring be “easy”. A 3.75 is NOT easy to get or maintain, especially for college classes. So she could do BCC for 2 years, save some $ but still have her options end up only being Western, Washington State or UW Bothell.

@eh1234 That’s what I thought. So funny you say that, while the ability to play in college was a filter for my S17, the idea of having to get that trombone back and forth seemed very stressful to me! I don’t know how strong the music program is at Ursinus but they do have a robust scholarship that is an option. Maybe one to take a peek at?

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@eh1234 did you say no faculty at IUP for bass or brass?

IUP has a marching band, and other brass ensembles.

https://www.iup.edu/music/ensembles/

http://iuptrombones.■■■■■■■■■■/

Messiah and Susquehanna have great music programs too

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Thanks @mommdc. Bass not brass. I grew up 5 miles from Messiah and drove past it every time I went to the mall for my entire childhood. I cannot imagine sending my kid to Mechanicsburg for 4 years so I’ll have to claim geographic bias on that one - it would be weird, haha. Some of my HS friends work for the college.

Susquehanna is a great suggestion - thanks! I need to just suck it up and look at every school in about 8 different states and do the whole spreadsheet thing.

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REALLY great thanks to @eandesmom , your detail list shows the big picture of choice in Washington. My D does not have many choice if she like urban college life and not sportive. Being a new immigrant to USA, she might need to adapt to the new culture and environment in the first year. As she almost has no idea of what it would be like in studying in USA, she likely will transfer to other college after the first year of college, if it does not fit her. With the broad criteria of her preference of urban college, major in psychology/criminology and our limited budget (25k to 30k per year) as well as her present stat, instate college or CC might be the options right now. Also, WWU and some colleges under WUE that fit the criteria will check. As you mention, CC and UW Bothell seems to have greater chance to transfer, if she can keep her GPA. I know quite a number of students taking the route of 2 years of CC and transfer as it is cheaper, but end up to second-tier college of their choice. Any website or source that I can compare the chance of transferring from CC or Bothell UW to UW Seattle? Also, she might consider to delay her college application and taking a gap year.

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@ashmomhk if she wants urban college life and no sports then she won’t like UW main campus. Football and other sports are pretty big deals.

I wouldn’t (personally) have that be a determining factor. Most of these schools have sports, you can be into it, or not. Portland State (WUE) is probably the closest match for what she seems to want. Some of the privates might offer enough aid to work, I would also look at Seattle University and Seattle Pacific University. Run their net price calculators to see what the package might look like.

I have no idea on the % that make it to UW main campus from CC versus branch campus, you’d have to ask each school and I suspect it varies by major. But it is competitive no matter what.

A gap year could up her test scores but I don’t know that it would change her overall chances at UW Seattle.

And honestly the reality is, you need to think about what kind of classes and environment are best for her? Will she thrive in a new country in a class of 700? Or do far better in a class of 50 where the professor might know her name.

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@eandesmom, thanks for your promptly advice. I will discuss with my D for her options.

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@ashmomhk just remember it’s still early! She has lots of time still to determine where to apply, retake SAT or ACT and get advice. CC can make you feel like it’s a rush and a race and you are behind but you are not. Not at all.

Truly, for my S17 and our S11 we hadn’t even considered looking at a single school yet. Both had test scores and that is it!

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@ashmomkh: also, remember to run the NPCs. Many private colleges can be generous in scholarships and bring costs to instate public. Note that going to CC often means forfeiting merit scholarships as those are mostly reserved for freshmen. Also, for many merit scholarships (outside of super selective universities ie., UWash Seattle) the key factor tends to be a high SAT or ACT score. As such a 30-32 IB score would not take her out of the running if she scored higher on standardized tests than you’d think based on her IB score.

Portland State’s main issue for an 18-year old who’s just arrived in the country, in my opinion, is that it’s mostly commuter and the average age is 27 - lots of returning adults and transfers from the community college system. For such a kid (who’s recently arrived and needs to find “her people”), I’d pick a college with a strong residential life and little Greek life. in WA State, that’d be WWU in my opinion. If she likes urban and not sporty, what about Lewis&Clark? Macalester would be a big reach but they love IB kids with international experience. As I said, UNebraska Lincoln is generous with IB credit. For Psychology, Clark is accessible to B/B+ students and has an excellent dept. UPuget Sound is worth looking into, too. I don’t know whether you may be able to bring Cal State Sonoma and Chico to the costs that make it affordable.

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Thanks @MYOS1634 for your valuable advice. It is true that she needs to build the social circle for her new life in USA. Sorry I do not understand the meaning of NPCs. After checking Lewis & Clark, it seems a good choice for my D, but she comment that the college is quite small in population. She is an out-going and socialize person than hope to study in urban area (or in her term more metropolitan area), so refuse the suggestions in mid west. Even her IB PG and ACT grade is at the range of B student. She has a lot of ECs, like director of school theatre production, leader of MUN and community services. Also, she has on-going part-time working experience in assisting teaching of theatre house. Actually, she is now participating community service in Tanzania. Hope the college admission office will appreciate these.

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NPC means Net Price Calculator. Google a school’s name and the phrase Net Price Calculator and it will take you to a page on their website. They are required by law to maintain it. You plug in your family’s income and details about your finances (you can remain anonymous) and it will tell you approximately how much the college expect you to contribute towards your child’s education, and how much the college will grant.

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My S19 is ADHD and has motivation problems. Not even interested in looking at colleges yet. 3.2 GPA, although this will likely go down a bit this year, 1360 PSAT, 32 PreACT. No interests outside of video gaming and online political satire. I’m new to all this, but I want to try to learn about what to keep track of, especially since he is not focused on keeping up with this whole process.

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@ashmomhk the challenge you will have with some of the LAC’s mentioned is that they are unlikely to offer enough merit at your D’s stats, based on what you have said your budget is. She may have a solid chance at admittance but I’d really look at the net price calculators. I’d also (personally) suggest that is she is new to the country, having her a reasonable distance from you might be a good way to start. I would highly recommend Seattle University, Seattle Pacific University and Pacific Lutheran as ones that might offer monies.

Portland State is heavy commuter but given the sheer size of it, still plenty of on campus living kids and it would check the boxes she thinks she wants. Do look at Western.

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Thanks @eandesmom. We are thinking apply for student loan and her part-time job for expanding the budget. For the distance, she really hope to study in NY, so we might check for SUNY as the admission requirement has wider range. Now, the best strategy should be uplifting her SAT or ACT score for more choice to consider. Also, as she will stay in Washington during summer, we will have her visit all the potential colleges.

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@JeanneAP Welcome to the club. You are not alone. Bright kid that just cant seem to get it together. (mine also could put video gaming with friends as primary EC). Has your S shown any interest in colleges what so ever, or did a visit yet. sometimes that might give them a nudge. Do you have good in state options?

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@ashmomhk make sure you check the SUNY locations, lots of nice options but most are not necessarily urban, they just are in the state of NY.

@JeanneAP welcome!

Your S is pretty normal. Most of the world really isn’t looking at college quite yet for their junior kids, CC is an interesting place that way. We didn’t really start doing anything at all until about now for most of our (4) kids and it worked out just fine. The key is to get the tests scheduled and done, then you know what you have to work with score wise. You also will know if you want to try to get retests in, that’s the main clock that is ticking now is how many options are left for taking either the SAT or ACT. Is he interested in college at all or just doesn’t want to deal with it right now. Both are really normal! One thing that can help is doing a few tours to at least get the idea of kind of school they might want (large, small, rural, urban etc). That can spur interest for some.

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@JeanneAP I completely agree with @eandesmom. We live in the Boston area and did visits to Amherst MA (UMass, Amherst College) which gave my kids a college town and then a large and small school, Providence (Brown for a medium sized school in a city), and did a drive by (literally
they wouldn’t get out of the car) of a couple of suburban schools. My kids know they won’t have a car for college. And neither wanted a little college town; they are used to having lots of “stuff” (Starbucks, Panera, Brueggers, pizza, chinese, etc.) in walking distance and couldn’t imagine having less.

Knowing the big vs. small and city/suburban/college town/rural thing will help the search immensely.

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I am new to this board, but hoping to get some good input. My dd is actually above a 3.4 (around 3.9 uw) but has to work extremely hard for every grade due to some learning differences. She has 1-2 honors courses each year, but the rest on-level and no APs. ACT is 28. She is very interested in Elon and Muhlenberg. Stats-wise, it seems to be a fit, but wondering if the lower amounts of rigor will hurt her chances at either. She has a good amount of community service and leadership/extra curricular, so hopefully that will help. Any insight?