@Poochie21 take a look at Goucher as well.
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Here are some colleges to consider: St. Maryās College of Maryland (public), Mount St. Maryās, Stevenson, Goucher, and UMBC. May also consider York College in PA but very close to MD.
@Poochie21 McDaniel College is about 30 miles northwest of Baltimore. It is one of the āColleges That Change Livesā if you have heard of that book.
Our state (NC). He aināt going OOS because I donāt think he has the motivation to succeed independently right now. To be honest, we are not considering OOS options due to cost. We can cover full cost at a state school in NC unless our financial picture drastically changes.
Rigor ā Iād say moderate. Funny thing is that he does well in stem classes that are at the honors level. Mix of As and high Bs. Is interested in engineering. Right now to get into competitive NCSU engineering programs a kid will need 3.75 UW and 4.3 W GPA, along with ~1400 SAT/31-32 ACT plus top 10% rank. And I am leaving out super competitive programs like Comp Eng, Mechanical, Electrical and Biomedical. He has not taken the SAT but got 27 on pre-ACT. If he studies, I can see him getting 1350+ in SAT because he is strong in math (high B/A-).
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Last night I looked at my two older boys ACT Aspire test results, just what was posted in the parent portal. My S23 who took the 10th grade exam last year was ready in science and English, not ready in math and close in reading. Gah! My S24 son who took the 9th grade aspire was ready in everything and better than ready in Science.
Now I need to see if I can get the full reports and also talk to the counselor about wht this means for my older kid.
@2plustrio Western Tech in LaCrosse? I may also look at Fox Valley Tech which is in Appleton, has dorms and is ranked as a very good tech school. I still may wonder whether heās ready to move away but he has said that he would like to experience living on his own.
I should add that in middle school S23 scored the lowest possible score on math once. We took him to tutoring and he improved. He seems to be surviving in Algebra 2 so there is hopeā¦ I hope.
Also he is working on his Eagle project this fall, which may be good, he also has 6 merit badges to finish before turning 18, one year from today. Happy birthday to my 17 year old.
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Yes Western Tech in LaCrosse. Smaller class sizes. Dorm is great for intro to living on their own (theres even a meal plan.) Their girls basketball team won their national division a couple years ago. Esports is new and smaller but it could be good to get into a program that is building. Western Cavaliers eSports - YouTube
Heres some of Westerns transfer agreements but theres more oppportunities as well of course. Transfer Agreements By Program | Western Technical College
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Hi, Iām not sure if I have introduced myself here. DS23 is our youngest of 3. I can relate to many of the concerns in this thread!
Have I recommended the book āHeās Not Lazyā by Adam Price here? Iāve read so many books and been concerned about DS23ās school performance for several years, and this was the book that really spoke to me, provided explanations and solutions. I remember reading the intro and it was like a lightbulb, I immediately read it to my husband. So some of you might benefit. I even started a thread on it on CC to try to drum up discussion.
Anyway! Not even trying for NHS. Just hoping to get S23 performing at a level where he can get into college and succeed (performing in terms of grades, work habits, motivation). It does seem like we are getting there, slowly. Covid grades were terrible, then he started off this school year (which was supposed to be the redemption year) with mono followed by a bad virusā¦so expectations dropped way down where we just hoped to get him back attending school regularly!!! The silver lining is that he was forced to become comfortable working one on one with teachers and communicating with them more and taking more initiative, and (hereās a biggie!), realizing that yes, school work at home needs to be a part of the daily routine!
Test prep is majorly delayed; we were planning to work through a practice SAT and ACT to see which one to focus on (he is strong in math), but his first 25 minute section gave him a headache (a complication of mono). Heās registered for Dec ACT so that might end up being the practice.
We are taking advantage of a 2 day break next week to visit some small NY schools (St. Bonaventure and Alfred U) to try to make college seem a little more real and see if that helps motivation. With no idea how test scores will be yet, and a current lower than 3.0 GPA, itās really hard to know what choices he will end up with. I do think he can raise the GPA this semester, despite the illness. School has been very helpful and let him drop a class to lighten the load.
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@TS0104 I get it. My S21 finished high school under a 3.0 after a significant upswing junior and senior year. Iām here to tell you there are a lot of schools out there that will want your son. The thread I started for my kidās path seemed to have gotten a lot of traction and includes experiences/reviews etc of a number of schools he looked at.
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Yes thank you so much! I have bookmarked that thread.
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Welcome, @TS0104 - MD23 is a bit above a 3.0 now, but it looks like she will fail/get Dās in algebra 2 and chemistry this quarter. Tutor starts in a week! But really, every year is a struggle, and Iām not sure when it comes time for final GPA how low she will go. Or more optimistically, if she will raise it. Both are possible, she is pretty good at putting the pedal to the metal and also a genius at negotiating higher grades/test retakes/extra credit a la Cher in Clueless. A longwinded way to say-you are not alone.
I posted in the big thread, but we went to a college fair this weekend. It was great, and it seemed to really kick things into gear for her. She came home and googled some of the colleges and talked about them during dinner. Was great to see her enthused about the process. Her favorites schools at the fair were UNH, U of Maine, and Bryant University in RI. (Weāre in NJ.)
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Thank you for the recommendation on the book. I will definitely buy it. I hope itās not too late for our family (Iām thinking this is going to be a team effort) to implement some of the suggestions.
My DS is in the same boat. Heās hovering around a 3.0 and will most likely dip below after this year. NHS is not in the cards. Heās not into sports or other ECs, except one. Fortunately, heās in a good school where all the teachers know the kids.
I think heās going to take the ACT in February and April. Wish he can take the December ACT, but weāre going to be out of town.
Heās done really well on standardized tests so the hope here is a high ACT. The double edged sword is the adcoms will see a low GPA/high ACT kid and come to reasonable conclusions what that may mean.
His oldest sister went to a USNWR top 20 school. The other older sister is at at Service Academy. We purposefully donāt do the, āwhy canāt you be like your sistersā thing because we know thereās nothing positive that can come out of that conversation. It would be hurtful to him for us to compare him to his sisters. Heās his own person and weāve come to grips with that. Now that weāve come to that realization, itās time to move ahead. Hence Iām looking forward to reading that book.
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Missing assignments make me lose my mind. So irritating. Just do the work s23!
He told me yesterday to stop badgering him about assignments. āMom, Iāve only gotten 1 C ever in my life, I will bring up my grades.ā Ugh, not sure about that buddy at this rate.
Focusing on the college app positives. He was given top honors for his vocal solo and invited to audition for the state honors choir (only 1 kid from our school was chosen to participate last year). Heās also been invited to join a local college vocal arts festival in spring. And he will be doing the musical again this year (awaiting callbacks to learn roles.)
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@ChicagoSportsFn , there is a Facebook page Your Teen for Parents that has the author of āHeās Not Lazyā on tomorrow 11/18 at 10:30am EST.
@2plustrio we struggle with missing assignments too! Oh for the old days when you started each class by turning in an actual piece of paper, which is much harder to forget than submitting online. Sounds like your son is having many great vocal accomplishments! Good luck with the musical role!
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What is it with our kids and the missing assignments!!! I donāt know what the heck happened to Thing 2 this past month but his grades went from straight Aās to a 23, 41 and 40 due to missing assignments!!! So uncharacteristic of him!!! I got emails from his AP Physics 1 and AP Eng 3 teachers asking me if everything was okay because it was so unlike him. When I questioned him, the floodgates of tears opened and he actually wept. The pressures of marching band season and the back to back 4 contests and UIL competition, taking the ACT twice and keeping up with his AP loads just got to him I guess. He was sobbing about not knowing what he wants to do with his life, major in and which colleges to apply to. I felt so bad for getting mad at him, but not turning in assignments isnāt the answer either!!! He sick on Monday and I let him stay home from school yesterday as well to take a mental health day and get caught up. He went back to school today and spoke with all his teachers and they were gracious enough to give him some extra credit assignments and leeway on catching up. AP Physics and his AP Early American History grades are back up over 70, AP Eng 3 grades are going in tonight so heāll be back up there too. Fingers crossed he finishes the semester with all Bāsā¦there are still 3 weeks of grades to go in after we get back from Thanksgiving before semester finals Dec 17. He seemed confident today that heās back on track.
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My D24 has one on-line asynchronous high school class that has dozens of assignments for the semester. There is no weekly due date and she hasnāt really kept up with it. Every four weeks or so, the teacher (such as he is because there isnāt really a class) will email me+her to remind her of missing assignments piling up. Fortunately, the class isnāt very difficult so sheāll be able to make up the work if she simply schedules blocks of time to get through it. But itās frustrating to get that next email letting me know she is kind of treading water in keeping pace with the assignments but not catching up as much as I would hope, as quickly as I want.
Iām not stressing on it too much, because I feel the experience will help her be more accountable and proactive in planning. I see this child as having a more self-directed life and this is a good time for her to learn to advocate to herself to force the time, and to learn that autonomy requires a price.
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@Momof3B just know that a lot of us feel your pain. Junior year is a BIG transition, they material is harder, the workload is insane. Then topped off with ECs and starting to think about collegeā¦
Our S23 has been on the verge of breaking down a few times with the weight of this year. Some things that has helped, first we let him control his practice schedule (ended up that Tuesday practices were a real drain he would finish up 10:00 come home, shower then be up till 2 finishing up homework so unless he has Wed off he skips). Limit college discussions and help manage the chaos. This can be little things like sorting all the marketing mail, to helping set a schedule of things to do every month that is reasonable. (Aug/Sept was SAT Prep, Oct was visit a college and do a little deeper look into majors that you might be interested in, November/December is more focused on thinking about the summer and updating his resume).
And last was try not to say no. You want me to drive an hour to meet in person with kids in your history class? No problem. You want to have a bunch of friends over for Movies and Pizza? No Problem. Youāre working on a term paper and are craving ice cream no problem.
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Thank you!! I needed to hear this 
Whoot! I posted above that my 3.0-3.4 kid is always on the bubble and was failing Algebra 2 and Chemistryā¦she pulled it out and has brought up both grades for the quarter to the low 70ās. Iāll call it a victory. I read the big 2023 thread and marvel when I think of the stress I deal with as far as D23āS REALLY BAD POSSIBLY FAILING GRADES. I know all our stresses are different and they are all valid - but I told her how incredibly proud I am that she never gives up when the going gets hard in her classes. I am glad she she can kick herself into gear to pull things out of the fire. I wish that she could do it earlier so we didnāt have to worry at all butā¦such is life. I look forward to getting this kid into a college where she will take one required math class and then never again.
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Hey everyone, we just took a tour at the University of Rhode Island and Syracuse University with our son this weekend (Friday-Saturday). When we asked what he thought after each tour his answer was āIt was fineā. His report card was pretty good but feel he has no clue the farther we go along in high school. Instead of focusing more on different colleges regarding what he is looking for, I am finding him becoming more aloof about the whole idea. Anyone else having issues? Frustrating but very concrning. We told him if would prefer the military or attend a trade school we would be absolutley fine with that.
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