This is my D21 as well. She has a 3.9 UW but without the rigor. She has absolutely no idea about college yet. She likes chemistry so she might go in that direction, but we’ll see how she feels about it after she takes AP chem next year. Her only EC was she played softball last year. She didn’t play this year because she didn’t like the coach, but they are getting a new one so she might play again this fall. She doesn’t have any hooks. I see her going to a good state U, but we’ll see what she becomes interested in.
@hokiemama24 that sounds like a good idea to attempt the AP even if a student is going to drop language . . . Will they let kids take the AP test if they aren’t in the AP class? Actually, I doubt D21 could get a 3 or higher without taking the class. At our HS, you take the AP language class your senior year.
Right now, D21 is stressing about AP Euro (her only AP). Social Studies is her strongest subject, but this class has been overwhelming for her. So much to memorize . . . names, terms, cities. I’m hoping she will keep going through her study schedule and not get swamped and give up! The test itself doesn’t really matter, but they give the final the day before, and that’s a big chunk of your grade.
@Johnny523 I hear you about the softball coach. My kids have definitely chosen EC’s based on whether they click with the advisor/coach. In fact, my husband and I coached their rec soccer teams for many years to guarantee a positive experience! In HS, they have chosen their main EC (theater) because they love it, but also because they like the directors, and their friends do it.
Really glad to see this thread!
My S21’s GPA is higher than the range here. But, just like S19 (for whom the similar thread was really helpful), he is honors/AP track for some (English/history) and regular track for others (math/science). His higher GPA reflects intentionally playing to his strengths and rigor/prestige not being the priority. And his (small, Catholic) high school doesn’t even offer any AP classes until junior year.
He went on most of the visits with S19. We are PA residents and he knows that Pitt, Penn State, Temple, and the PASSHE schools are affordable without scholarships or aid. Everything else will be a merit chasing crap shoot as we are full pay.
So I will be hanging out over here as the “fit” will be best for us. LOL! 
Happy to see this thread - I am bookmarking! My D21 is above the stats right now, but my D19 fit well and I learned so much. I have a real fondness for the schools targeted here because they do an incredible job serving students who need a little help or a little push. When you take the tippy top students out of the mix, our “B” students have a real chance to shine.
I look forward to seeing the whole 2019 Outcomes list, but FWIW, my D19 went 4/4 in acceptances with merit. Creating a list of schools took lots of research and I maybe I can pay-it-forward here.
@Acersaccharum I think there’s a lot to be said for being a big fish in a smaller pond. Someone like by D21 could stand out a bit and have a better chance for research opportunities or internships or such at a “good” school rather than going to a better school and getting lost in the crowd. Obviously there’s a lot more that goes into it,
Just wanted to say that I’m so happy for D21 because she pulled off a solid B on her AP Euro final. Over 500 years of detailed history of the whole continent and all its colonies/empires. She has learned so much—not just about politics, art, literature etc. but about how to study! In the beginning, it was a shock to her to earn C’s and D’s, and I have to say that I worried she would give up. Instead, she got determined.
How’s everyone else doing as we approach the end of sophomore year?
@3SailAway That’s awesome!
My D21 is having a nice smooth finish to the year. She took the APUSH test on Friday and said she didn’t do the last three multiple choice questions because she didn’t know they were there. The page before was blank and “intentionally left blank” or whatever it said on it, so she assumed that was the end. But you had to turn the page to see the last questions.
@Johnny523 that’s so frustrating! I hope she’s not beating herself up because they shouldn’t have printed the test that way. Glad things are smooth overall.
@3SailAway Yes anyone can “self study” and take any AP test, I have a friend whose daughter is doing that with a class that is not even offered at her school. With D21 she won’t so much be “self studying” as just taking the AP Latin test with 3yrs of Latin rather than 4 just to see if she can pull out a 3 to give her some credit for the years she took it, if she can get some return on her 3 year investment (she also took Latin in grade school) than it works out great, if not its fine but it will be at least worth a shot. Its not worth it for her to take a 4th year of Latin in high school, there are too many science and math electives she wants to also take to help her narrow her interest areas and that is the more prudent use of her time for us. Her teacher is not super supportive and doesn’t think she will pass it, but I suspect her motivation is to try and get D21 to just take the 4th year (she usually only has 3 students still taking it by the 4th year) which is just not going to happen.
We are limping to the finish line. D21 is getting lazy so her grades dropped a little. She should be able to pull them back up though. She has AP World tomorrow and is not stressing too much. I told her what ever she gets she gets. I don’t care. Class elections were yesterday and she got re-elected as class secretary. So she is happy about that. 2 very close friends graduate this year and will be going away to school, she is distraught over not seeing them everyday next year. Recital time is upon us so busy with that also. After recital we have to get her ready for her summer program in Georgetown. Have to go shopping for business clothes.
S21 had his AP World History exam yesterday…he said he feels like it was a strong “3.5’ish maybe 4” lol…whatever that means! Down to the final stretch, only 4 more days of school and finals left. Since we have accelerated block scheduling, only 4 classes a semester…so far he’s at 99 (band), 95 (pre AP Chem), 87 (pre AP Alg 2) and 87 (AP World History) he’s exempt from the AP world final exam. As of the last 9 weeks report card his unweighted gpa was 3.42 and weighted 4.14. He’s firmly in 1Q, like 22% right now hoping it nudge in closer to 15% by the end of junior year. We’ll see how it goes. He’s not a good test taker, so I know he won’t be breaking 1400 on the SAT but we’re really hoping he can land firmly in the mid 1300’s…have intense SAT prep tutoring lined up for this summer as he’s taking the SAT August 26th!!!
Last day of school today and S21 is officially done!! No exams today, so he’s really done lol. I am so, so, so proud of how he buckled down and conquered his Math demons this year…he got a 92 on his PreAp Alg 2 exam and finished with an 89 for the final semester grade!!
Figured I’d ask now since I know how crazy this process can get - my S21 is most likely going to be one of those odd “low gpa, high test score” kids (low being a relative term)… he’s currently at about a 3.2/3.3 GPA. He just did a practice ACT and SAT since his school offered it for free… got a 32 on the ACT (didn’t do as well on the SAT, about a 1300)… but for a kid just finishing up sophomore year, no prep at all (lazy student, hence the GPA), and no AP courses, I was quite impressed… did quite worse on the English sections on both tests, so he’ll work on that, but he has over 1.5 years still for the real thing.
Anyway - the question is if anyone knows any colleges that offer merit for test scores, but are not tied to GPA… I’ve seen schools where a 32 ACT can get close to automatic full tuition, but also requires > 3.5 GPA…
He’s gotten more serious lately, so the GPA could get there (aside from Spanish, just can’t do well even though actually studies like crazy for it, but it’s required at his school unfortunately)… but in case not I’d like to start compiling a list.
Thanks!
@Schadret Going through this with my D19, I saw firsthand that 3.0 with high test scores (28-32 ACT) can get you more merit in some places than a 3.5-6 with a lower score (26 superscored ACT). In our experience, this happened at two small LAC’s, so it really depends on what you are looking for. As much as schools say they are minimizing the importance of test scores, they remain one of the only apples-to-apples comparisons they have and will continue to be a major factor in admissions.
I took D21 to a STEM college fair at Colorado School of Mines today. For background, she has a 3.9 UW and good PSAT scores, but no rigor and no hooks, and no interest in elite/top schools, which is why I think this is a more appropriate forum than the other one. I asked her if she had any interest in going to Mines and she said no. It led to an interesting discussion that she doesn’t want go there or other top schools because she doesn’t want to be the dumbest person with all the really smart people. She said she can’t tell how smart she actually is because her HS isn’t very hard and there aren’t a whole lot of really smart kids. But she also doesn’t want to go to a college where she’ll be among the smartest because she’ll get annoyed by the not-as-smart students.
The fair itself was good - she didn’t want to go to initially, but she got into it a bit. There were about 100 schools and it was pretty crowded. She said she felt unprepared because a lot of the other kids were taking notes and had lots of questions, and she didn’t know what to ask. So the typical conversation was the rep asking what she was interested in majoring in, DD responding she doesn’t know, and the rep going into the standard spiel about how great their school is, then scanning DD’s barcode. Sometimes I asked questions about cost 
I usually had to do some prodding to get her to stop at tables, but there were a few schools where she actually said she wanted to stop - Wyoming, Western Colorado, Humboldt State, a couple of others. She got really interested in Hastings College because she overhead the rep talking about their study abroad programs, so we had a long chat there. She originally didn’t want to stop at the Northern Arizona table until I told her it’s in Flagstaff and not the desert. She learned about honors colleges from the rep and she likes the idea.
She went through all the stuff when we got home and kept the info from the previous schools plus Iowa State, Montana State, Stevens, Indiana, VCU, Gonzaga, St. Olaf, Montana Tech, and Norwich. So we achieved our goal of getting her to start thinking about college, and she found out she really likes the idea of studying overseas.
And I got confirmation that our college funding in Colorado really sucks because a lot of these schools end up about the same price or even cheaper than in-state tuition at our schools with the WUE and other aid.
@Johnny523 sounds like the college fair was a big success! I think it’s positive that your D will talk about what environment she would like and was seeking information. My D21 gets stressed and shuts down quickly when the college topic comes up. She does better if we keep the conversation general, like weather (she prefers too cold to too hot).
I remember that D19 was also hesitant to dive into the search, and wanted multiple short conversations rather than any long talks.
S21 turns 16 today!!! I’ve been a mushy, emotional mess and he’s getting quite annoyed by me lol…tough kid, you’re going to deal with it, being the firstborn! Class rank also was updated today and he moved up another 20 or so spots to 225 out of 1146. We’re very proud of him, he’s really coming into his own! 2018-19 transcripts haven’t posted yet but I’m thinking his unweighted GPA is around 3.5 right now.
@3SailAway Weather has been a big topic for my D - she hates hot weather so won’t consider anything in the south. She loves rain so I’m thinking the pacific northwest would be a good area for her.
@Momof3B That’s great news!
I need to vent…so frustrated with S21!!! Gaaahhhhh!!! Ok, the kid is smart, really smart and has never ever given us any troubles in or out of school…but he’s LAZY AF!!! He’s content with just doing the bare minimum. Spring semester of 10th grade he was getting a lot better, seemed a little bit more motivated, started showing initiative…got his GPA up to a respectable 3.52 unweighted/4.2 weighted…is now in 19% on class rank. He spent a week at the Economics For Leaders camp at Rice Univ and came back really excited and admitting that he needs to step up his game and start taking his college resume more seriously. We started to have conversations about beefing up is EC’s. He’s in marching band, but that’s it. I’m not expecting him to start a non profit or discover a cure for cancer, just to find something (other than XBox) that he connects to and run with it. I suggested he apply for our City’s Youth Action Council (works along side the City Council on youth initiatives) since he’s talking about a major in Economics/Business and Communications…he sparked up…agreed…filled out the application…told me he sent it…I started questioning why he hasn’t heard back yet (I am very familiar with our City gov’t as I serve on the Planning & Zoning Commission and am close with a lot of City Staff)…after probing and a little nagging to recheck his email I find out the application that was due June 21 is still sitting in his outgoing mail inbox and didn’t go through. This is just one of a long line of missed application deadlines or other dropped opportunities. I’m just so frustrated with him because I know he’s capable of so much more.
Anyway, I’m completely backing off now. He’s a rising junior and can chart his own path. If he’s fine with the easy-to-get-in-to-super-safety-state-school that is a 15 minute drive from our house than so be it (it will surely save us money for his class of 23 twin brothers lol).
Thanks for indulging me in my rant…someone please assure me I’m not the only one bagging my head against this brick wall.
@Momof3B I understand the frustration. But when he figures out what he wants, he’ll make the effort. It takes some a little longer than others. My S20 was somewhat similar, and then he took AP environmental this year and found his calling. He really started researching colleges looking for good environmental science programs, nailed his SAT, and he can’t wait until August 1 to submit his apps.
Your son will come around, and if he “settles” for the local state school, he’ll still end up as a productive adult 