I wanted to give an update on my son. After visits to our three finalists —Virginia Tech, University of Delaware and Penn State my son has made his decision and —We are Penn State!
Here is a recap that I hope will help future kids with similar grades.
His overall GPA was 3.25 but he had a very strong growth trajectory with a 3.9 junior year and 4.2 senior year through mid-year. 1340 SAT. 5 APs. Varsity athlete, part time job at a sandwich shop. Some club involvement but not a lot. Very engaged politically and will be studying Political Science and wants to go to law school. I think his essays were strong and he interviewed for all the privates. His main essay was not about his grades but he did use the “other information” essay section to explain about his growth in maturity and gpa in high school and now that taught him good lessons for college.
Acceptances
South Carolina (EA)
Elon (EA legal professions scholar)
Furman (EA Bell scholarship)
Muhlenberg (small merit award)
Penn state University Park (EA summer admit)
University of Delaware (Deferred EA, admitted regular admission in mid March)
UNC Charlotte (EA)
Virginia Tech (waitlisted EA, but admitted from wait list about a month later)
West Virginia
Waitlist: Clemson
Rejected: Lehigh and Maryland
Going into the process UD and Virginia Tech were his two favorites, but Penn State became the spoiler. I don’t know if the ultimate decision was swayed by the fact that Penn State let him in back in December and the other two originally pushed his decision out but we are very happy with how things worked out for him in a truly crazy year for admissions.
Best of luck to all of your children at their selected schools!
@NJWrestlingmom My daughter ended up on the West Coast, at Univ of San Diego. Obviously another great place to visit, but Charleston is an hour flight compared to 5 hours and a time change.
My daughter’s concerns were mostly WRT fit, not academics. She was definitely looking for a campus that was somewhat urban, or even right in the city (Northeastern was her top choice but she was waitlisted but it ended up being too expensive anyway). That being said, she felt like there really was not much of a cohesive campus at CoC. Even tho NEU is totally urban, it does have somewhat of a campus feel, even tho it is located right on city streets. CoC did not have the same feel - it was just buildings kind of mixed in with residences and businesses. But that wasn’t a big deal b/c I mean…historic Charleston and all its restaurants and shops are just right there a few blocks away!
When we went, we were able to tour all but one of the freshman dorms. WTE of the newest and most expensive one, we found the dorms to be very dark and depressing. She wasn’t looking for fancy digs at all, a traditional dorm was fine. But it seemed like every dorm lacked natural light, the study spaces were in interior areas with no windows, the suite style rooms had tiny living rooms with no windows. I don’t know but we both came away with…the living spaces were depressing.
While standing in line to tour, we got to talking with someone who had an older student at CoC. She told us that the majority of students move off campus after freshman year. I think something like 75% of students live in off-campus housing. But being Charleston, the housing near campus is way expensive so most kids live further out, not in walking distance and most needed cars to get to campus. And I don’t mean they lived super far, but far enough that you couldn’t walk. I think she was looking for more of a community feel but the way the dorms were really spread out from each other, then most moving off campus sophomore year was kind of a turn off.
Now having said that, I think she would have adapted and most likely would have enjoyed it if she had gone to CoC, especially since she loves the city of Charleston. A couple of her h.s. classmates are seniors there and love it. In the end, when she came down to her final options, she went with more of a traditional campus that had bright sunny dorm spaces (that was not the deciding factor by any means though! ).
that reminds me why CoC originally wasn’t on the list - dorms! Unfortunately, I doubt we get to go into dorms so D won’t see them! I do think she won’t love it anyway- she’s always said she wants a defined campus with sports and spirit. I guess we’ll know in a few days!
Thank you for sharing your impressions of CoC. My S21 did not apply there (he preferred to stay closer to home in the midwest), but it was a school that I kept coming back to, wondering if he should make an exception and apply there anyway. This clears my mind of any doubt. Definitely would not be a good fit fir him.
I’m not knocking CoC - there is plenty to love. Having visited Charleston before, and with it being a popular choice for kids in our mid-Atlantic state, I think my daughter was hoping to get there and immediately fall in love. She didn’t rule it out immediately but I think was disappointed when we did the Accepted Students Day and didn’t have the “wow, this is where I want to go” feeling she was expecting. In hindsight, she made the right choice for herself.
I will say, our tour guide, who was in the honors program, had some fantastic opportunities that came from being in the honors program. I think it can be a great choice so don’t want to discourage people from checking it out. My daughter’s former classmates are thriving there.
Has your son decided yet? My S21 is actually headed to the Midwest for college!
For sure CofC seems like it has a lot to offer and can be a great fit for many! I liked that it is a relatively smaller university for a public, with good academic programs, nice weather, in a lovely city. I thought S21 could do okay there. He could deal with dark/windowless dorms (I don’t think he would care one way or the other about that). But the deal breaker would be the lack of campus cohesiveness and the off-campus living. That wouldn’t work well for him. But in the end, he really wanted a small LAC closer to home anyway, and whenever I would mention CoC to him, he showed no interest.
He has decided to commit to Knox College. We paid the deposit yesterday and he is very excited about this school! It checks off all of his boxes. What a relief to finally have closure and be done.
Where is your S21 is going, if you don’t mind me asking?
Thanks for the balanced discussion about CofC. It seems like it might be a match for S24, who is a sailor and will hopefully fall in the 3.0-3.4 GPA range. I was picturing a more traditional campus. Will definitely visit and see what he thinks!
Heading out the door now for our trip! So exciting! D is really excited - she loves visiting colleges, so has been pretty robbed the last year!
Pit stop ECU (not a contender, but accepted so why not?)
A few days in Charleston for CoC and just fun! She’s in honors, so maybe she can stay on campus? We’ll see. Think she is meeting with an honors student while we’re there too.
A night in Boone for an official tour of App State (we saw it mostly on our own in Nov).
Then last night in Harrisonburg for another look at JMU.
I’m just happy to get out of the house for a week! LOL
@NJWrestlingmom I’ll miss you at JMU by about a week. If your daughter likes to work out, or stay active, make sure you go walk through UREC. I have no idea why, but they never take the campus tours through there. It may be the nicest student athletic facility on the east coast.
Go to lunch at Jack Brown’s for a great burger and deep fried Oreo’s for dessert. Then you’ll realize why UREC is important.
D still hasn’t made up her mind between Montana State and Oregon State. We put down the housing deposit at MSU a while back and she got her room assignment earlier this week. She’s already changed it twice to get into the dorm she wants. She’s also registered for orientation already but still hasn’t made her final decision. She did the OSU accepted students thing two weeks ago but said that didn’t sway her one way or the other. I think she we end up at MSU.
@3SailAway , are you looking at St. Mary’s of Maryland? I’ve heard that it’s heaven for sailors, and it seems about right stats-wise too.
Also, hearkening back to your foreign language question with a few thoughts about ASL and dyslexia. My nephew, who is living with me and attending college locally, is dyslexic and had always wanted to study sign language. The first time he enrolled in an ASL class, at the community college, he ended up butting heads with the instructor in a big way. The “no spoken language in the classroom” rule made sense from a cultural-immersion perspective, but in a beginner-level class, the result was heavy use of captioned video, which my nephew could not read quickly enough. The instructor was belligerent about accommodating him, copping an attitude along the lines of “this class is about my disability, not yours.” Negotiations broke down and he ended up withdrawing. He tried again after transferring to the 4-year university; the new instructor was much more accommodating, and everything went great - he’s now in ASL 2 and becoming quite fluent! But, just sharing as a heads-up - it’s important to discuss with the instructor up-front, as accommodations are likely to be needed especially in the early stages. But once past those barriers, it can be very rewarding and can come quite easily compared to other foreign language options.
@aquapt St. Mary’s looks like it might be a little small, and maybe isolated, but it is gorgeous. Thanks for putting it back on my radar because S24 is interested in some VA schools, and we will add St. Mary’s to the visit list.
My heart goes out to your nephew with his experience on captioned video. My S would not be able to look at the person signing on the screen and read the captions at the same time. It would be really frustrating. I’m so glad it worked out in the end for your nephew.
S24 is slowly learning to connect to his teachers and advocate for himself. He does run into the problem of teachers thinking that he is being careless or lazy when he’s confused or slow. Dyslexia is really an invisible disability. For him, it’s also silent because he sounds typical verbally. His accent is even good in Spanish, but it’s so hard for him to memorize how the words look.
Anyway, this thread is for 21’s and all their exciting news! Thanks again for the advice, and congrats to everyone’s kids. They have shown amazing perseverance this year, and I stand in admiration.
My daughter dances at a different university in Southern California (with depression and anxiety too! Yay!) Please be aware that the reputation for Chapman’s dance program is very high and cutthroat and intense. Santa Clara is a wonderful school academically also, so should she change majors, it would have lots of great options. I don’t know much about USF so I can’t offer any info there.
Thank you for your reply. At this point, she’s leaning toward Chapman. We have some concerns as it’s in Orange County & wonder about the conservative nature of the school overall; but maybe that’s an outdated reputation? Plus they have been the least generous of all the schools she’s gotten into.
At any rate, we are visiting the 3 California schools next week & then Peabody the following. She’ll have about 3 days to decide then. So, stressful
I don’t believe you are wrong about the conservative nature of the school compared to some others. My daughter had a hard time choosing between LMU and Chapman and eventually chose LMU as the better fit, even though Chapman offered more $$. Interesting how it all falls out!
We have a decision. S21 is going with Hofstra. We were able to take a nice campus tour and it feels like a very supportive environment.
For future parents with kids in this GPA range, don’t be discouraged! I had been on CC for years with my older son and you can get a skewed view of colleges, focusing on those Ivys and T20. S21 had a solid 3.1 and went test optional this year yet he got into 8 schools, and was even offered merit at several of them.
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