@cakeisgreat Happy to connect again after her SAT scores come back. Lehigh was great for me, but it is a very intense school. They are not kidding when they say, “work hard, play hard!”
Third nine weeks grades out … D20 got a weighted 4.0 for the quarter! (Really an unweighted 3.5, but we’ll take it!) All of her grades were borderline, including an 89.87 in AP Language that the school refused to round up to an A. Fingers and toes crossed that she can bump up one or two of those Bs into As for the semester.
@1stTimeThruMom Thanks! If it’s intense then D20 probably wont do well…but still like to hear your thoughts just in case!
@cakeisgreat Sure thing. Let me know when she has specific questions about Lehigh, happy to answer.
For those who are already visiting colleges, does your child’s high school excuse any absences related to college visits? Seems like it’s tough to always schedule on a weekend or Spring break and some schools don’t offer tours in the summer. Just curious as I’ve seen some colleges S20 might be interested in having open houses on like a Friday when he would be in school. I would contact his attendance office to confirm.
@thedreamydaisy D20’s school does excuse a certain number of absences for college visits but I don’t remember how many.
Here is a question/fear that I have for my D20. When D20 applies to colleges in VA (in-state for us) and we are from NOVA, at a hyper-competitive/overachieving high school where majority peer groups are in Honors/AP classes. How will admissions counselors look at D20’s application where there are no Honors/APs but it is clear that D20 has an LD and Dyscalculia (which we plan to disclose as it explains her poor math stats).
Even though her stats are in line with acceptance criteria at College A, I have this fear that they will compare her application with peers from her school. How much do admissions counselors compare college apps with those of peers from same school/region? D20 already has disadvantage of not playing any sports (either in HS or rec league) and does not play any musical instruments. Her only EC is Girl Scouts (although she has earned all 3 Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards) and variety of volunteer work.
@scoutmom2002 that sounds like a good question for your admissions councilor
We are going to an Open House at UNC-Charlotte this weekend. It is a safety for S20 but I think it is a good option. I will try to sell him and my husband on Charlotte. We will also drive through Wingate while we are in the area, small and private, not sure what we will see in a drive by, D20 doesn’t think he wants small but I feel like we should look at some.
We went to a College Admissions Panel at school one night this week, and it seemed to inspire my son to work on his GPA - it may be too little too late - but we will see. I don’t know what clicked this time, we have been on three school tours and he has picked his “dream” school already, App State. I think it was the reach schools that were there, UNC and NCSU that made him think about applying himself.
We toured University of Miami earlier this week. My son loved it. It’s a reach as their average gpa is a 3.7. He wants a spirited school with good sports teams, a diverse student body and he’s looking to study communications or sports management/administration. There aren’t many private schools that fit the bill with his stats. I’m guessing he’ll end up at an OOS public but hoping more privates emerge on our radar. Any suggestions?
@Marcie123 what about TCU in Fort Worth? It isn’t a religious oriented school if that is a factor either way. Good sports team. Nice campus. Not as competetive for admissions as UMiami. Large airport isn’t too far,and Fort Worth is a nice city with excellent museums.
@txstella I’ve suggested TCU but he doesn’t seem interested. Not sure how diverse it is. We’re jewish so I think the Christian in the name is throwing him off. We could be wrong though so will do more research on the school.
@Marcie123 I believe TCU is a secular school (unlike Baylor University). My friend recently visited and raved about the nice campus and dorms.
@txstella I’ve heard the dorms are amazing! We have friends whose son will be swimming there next fall. They said the campus is beautiful!
@thedreamydaisy our school allows for 3 absences. The kids have to fill out a form ahead of time and then have the college sign it for it to be excused. We haven’t used any because my daughter has missed a lot of days this year due to migraines and a death in the family. Even though they are excused, I feel like her teachers will not be happy with her missing more school and it’s more work for her to make up. It makes college visits tough as some of the schools she wants to look at are a plane ride away and almost no schools offer tours on Sundays or later on Saturdays so you can’t even do 2-3 tours on one weekend trip. At this point we are probably just going to do summer tours which are not ideal.
Just wanted to say hello to everyone! My S20 fits right in this thread, and I’ve enjoyed reading the 2019 and 2018 versions of it. He is a kind, smart kid, but painfully laid-back and with study skills to match, although they are somewhat better than they used to be. His SAT scores are likely to be in the 1400-1500 ballpark, based on PSAT history, but I don’t know whether that’s such an asset when his grades don’t keep pace, or whether it’s just a flag to colleges that he’s not performing academically like he could/should. His courseload has been all honors classes other than 4 APs this year and 4 planned for next year, so I hope pretty decent in terms of rigor, although in our area (we are in Northern VA, too), definitely not at the top of the heap. ECs are a couple of STEM-y clubs and lacrosse. He would like to be an engineer and would LOVE to go to Virginia Tech (may apply ED), but we shall see. We have one in college already and 3 more after him (our youngest will graduate HS in 2032), so we are going to be in the college-application lifestage for a loooooong time! Would love to hear suggestions of other schools we could look at for engineering that might be viable for this stats range, especially any that would give any merit aid, and that are within driving distance (although I’m pretty liberal about what constitutes “driving distance!”)
Looking forward to getting to know you all better and supporting each other through our kids’ admissions adventures during the next year or so!
S20 got his first round of SAT scores-I think they are pretty good, he’s disappointed (1420). He has the ACT to take next weekend and then wants to try the SAT again in June. That and 2 AP exams and all the finals still to take, he’s going to be in test-taking mode for quite a while!
We are in the DMV area as well! He’s the first of of my 4 to hit this stage so he gets to be the guinea pig. So far he REALLY likes St. Johns in Annapolis (and would love to spend time at the Santa Fe campus), St. Mary’s, and is ok with UMBC and UMCP though we haven’t toured the last 3 because he claims he doesn’t need to since he used to swim competitively and saw the pools. We’re working on this.
UMCP is likely a reach due to his grades, but he does have an excuse for Soph year so it’s a little tough to say what will happen with him. I actually see him as a small school kid. He likes discussions and I don’t think he’d do well with giant lectures. D22, OTOH, will be a totally different search.
Anyway, I like seeing this thread get active, even though it’s a little scary. I can’t believe where we’ll be sitting next year at this time!
@shooflypie Since you are in NoVa, how about VCU for engineering?
@redfraggle @shoeflypie I think there is a special kind of hell one goes through being from the DMV and going through this process! I’m in MoCo.
@1stTimeThruMom, we’ll definitely look. The big downside is that neither of us loves the urban setting. One of his favorite things about VT was the mountains and outdoor activities readily available. Will definitely look at GMU, too, although it’s only about ten minutes from home, so it might be a tough sell. That said, I was talking to another lacrosse mom at a game last night and it sounds like her son who’s currently doing engineering at VT isn’t having a great experience in some ways–she says he’s pretty much having to self-teach his math class, and that he tried to get a study group together for his physics class but couldn’t find any peers who were interested. Meanwhile, his cousin is apparently thriving at U Cincinnati in the same major, feeling very supported, co-op mandatory and arranged by the school, etc. We definitely need to do more homework!
Also, MoCo is where I grew up, and my heart is still in MD…hello, over there! Lots of us in this group on both sides of the Potomac, apparently!
So, I plan to visit some safety schools in VA over spring break next week with D20 (due to her lower stats) and S20 just because he needs to tag along and wouldn’t hurt as his stats are better but not perfect by any means. With Radford University having such a bad reputation, in particular in the NOVA area where I’m from, should we even bother visiting?
I feel as if it would not hurt to do the campus tour to at least visit the school (we’ve never been) and see what the campus vibe is. I’ve heard negative things like “oh, I would never send my daughter there” but I’ve also heard that it is what you make of it and that it’s trying hard to shake the bad rep and that it is still a decent school.
Others on the list to visit…Roanoke and Lynchburg (but not formal tours, just campus quick visits due to time constraints) as well as Longwood University, Richard Bland College of Williams and Mary and VCU. Also doing University of Mary Washington’s Open House even though already did tour. Already toured/visited JMU and Tech.