3.5 unweighted won’t get you into NC State or UNC-CH unless you have a heavy hook. Might get you into UNCW but not likely for a competitive major. I believe the average GPA across the nation is 3.62/4.
According to the Fordham Institute’s 2018 report on grade inflation, the average HS GPA nationally is 2.77.
Agreed. Tulane has long been the darling of wealthy, high stats kids from our high school. We usually send a few kids there per year. Parents feel like they’re getting a nice discount and Tulane loves the geographic diversity bump our kids provide.
The fact that Tulane actively recruits up here in Alaska (to get that sweet, sweet geographic diversity!) with in-person events never ceases to blow my mind every (non-pandemic) year.
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I see current 2020 stats putting high school GPA average at 3.0.
(checking NC schools off the list) 
@kbm770 He has an LD so we were not really considering any large schools for him as we thought he would do best in a smaller environment, but we did not look at an LACs since most are smaller than what he was interested in. I’m a big fan of Jesuit schools as a grad myself, and my husband went to a Jesuit high school so that is what we mostly focused on. We are Catholic but not religious, but either way that was not an issue for us or for him. He applied to four Jesuits, one Catholic, one in-state smaller public university and one out of state public on the smaller side of large (I let him throw that one in, but knew it wasn’t a likely option).
The Jesuits he applied to are not the more selective ones like Georgetown or Fordham, and they are also cheaper, so with merit they are reasonable for us, only about $5K more than the in-state publics here (MD).
I was really pleasantly surprised at the merit the schools were offering S21 considering his GPA with a non-rigorous course load especially compared to my oldest D’s offers with the higher GPA and rigorous courseload! I was worried whether he was even going to get accepted, so the acceptances plus merit threw me for a loop!
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@4kids4us
My friends daughter has lower stats (and less EC’s) and got a full tuition offer at 3 schools for fall (1 jesuit, 2 tuition exchange schools).
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we are midwest too here.
not always feeling so nice lately though 
Made a decision to stick with the private school my D23 started this next year. Too many transitions to go back and forth. Now to register her.
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My kid has been miserable since school started and he’s hit his limit with math. I’ve spent money on tutors. He doesn’t understand precalc. He does great on the homework and continues to bomb the tests. I hate seeing my kid who used to like school go to hating it. Its been a total change in attitude.
He got a C in precalc last semester. He wants to drop it and I’m to the point where I support him in letting go He is lucky in that his 8th grade math counts on his high school transcript. He is signed up to take a tech school math course junior year. We can revisit precalc senior year if he wishes. He’s strongly learning towards music education as a major, he doesn’t need precalc for that.
At some point you have to let go of my goals and let him be the person he is. I feel bad because I think his dad really pushes him.
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I’m sorry your son is miserable with math. My S21 struggles with math, too. Everyone has different strengths - the school system isn’t set up to recognize many of them. I’m sure your son will feel supported by you…both through the tutors you hired and the fact that you see him and appreciate him for who he is.
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Speaking of math, a very different but maybe not actually entirely so situation from @2plustrio’s kid’s, and how my child is planning math:
As I’ve mentioned before, my D23 is really, really good at school but doesn’t love it—she sees good grades in effectively transactional terms: If she puts in the work to get good grades she can get a scholarship that will let her go to college where she can finally study what she wants to (recording tech). Along the same lines, she’s in precalc right now and hating it—but she recognizes that given her intended field she’ll need to take math through first-semester calculus, and so she dutifully puts in the work.
Anyway, as mentioned upthread, she’s transferring to our district’s dual-enrollment high school next year. She took the college’s math placement test cold a couple weeks ago and scored well enough to place directly into DE college algebra, but not quite well enough to get into DE precalc. (Course names differ between institutions, but the sequence is college algebra→precalc→the calculus sequence.) She can retake the test four more times.
But she’s said that fine, she’ll take DE college algebra next year, then DE precalc senior year. I pushed back for a bit—she has the knowledge base to get the extra 2 (IIRC) points on the ALEKS test to get into DE precalc, after all. Also, I had a bad experience in K–12 where due to a shortage of teachers they made me repeat a math course I had passed, and it put me off of math for years. More and more, though, I’m coming around to her point of view—and she is, after all, a different person than me. For her, taking DE courses isn’t something she’s doing for fulfillment, it’s a way to make a better case for college admission and scholarships—and so in that case, why not go ahead repeat what’s already been taken, but this time showing she can do it in a college course?
Ultimately, I guess, it boils down to: Is it better for her to ease into the DE experience, or to push herself? And in the end she knows herself better than I know her.
@2plustrio - There are certainly different paths in life (and in math!) and I’m sure your son appreciates all the encouragement and support. Looks like you have Junior year covered already so you have a path forward. For my D19 we waited until second semester of Senior Year for her to take Pre-Calc this way she didn’t have to stress to much about the grade.
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Precalc is year long class here. The school will likely not allow him to drop it so we are finding out. I’ve told him to hang onto a C. Next year he will take the easier math course and I’m told by the school it’s a great review. Then senior year he would have the chance to retake precalc and replace his grade.
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It certainly is tough to watch our kids struggle but also important to let them fall and learn to get up again, right? Just as important is letting them find their own path but sometimes that doesn’t work. I have one kid (D17) graduating from Texas A&M with honors as a double major in biochemistry/genetics - she is a planner and overachiever with goals to go to medical school - has not waivered from this path and shows that she is very passionate about what she has learned. She also is working on getting EMT certified to get field exposure. This is one example of letting her follow her own path and set her own goals. Then I have S19 who is also at Texas A&M but he is far from the overachiever that his sister is. He thought he wanted to go the route of public health at first, then switched his mindset towards medical school and now is on the fence and very unhappy with where he is at in life. He realized on his own that he isn’t cut out for the rigorous course work that getting into medical school requires. I’m at a loss for what to do here - we did same for him as we did our daughter - let him follow the path that he thought he wanted to take. Regardless, we are still doing same with S23 - but we have more knowledge about what it takes to get into a good school along with how much it costs and the ROI of taking out loans. In his case, the ROI is very low because he doesn’t know yet what path he wants to take (whether it’s engineering or computer science) so we are pushing schools that offer merit aid and the like more generously than Texas A&M does.
Anyway my point is - as a parent, I think it’s important to guide, but not lead. Be there when they need guidance in their decisions on what path to take but don’t lead them - they will figure it out, regardless if good at math, science, english, etc.
If I fell off the path of intent here, my apologies lol. I am tired and overwhelmed with life atm. Just believe that it will work out for the best…that is the only thing that keeps me going during times of uncertainty and troubles.
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i don’t have any concrete info to add – you’re the college expert! But i see pros and cons with your daughter’s idea.
Cons: colleges she enrolls in after HS won’t use that as credit, right? Even though it’s DE, it’s remedial credit, and won’t fullfill any college needed credits which usually start at calc. And, i don’t think it’s seen as any more prestigious; i think taking the hardest classes available is seen in the best light. PROS: to take DE algebra: if she wants to go into a math-focused major and wants a solid ground for it . . . or if that’s the only option for math at her new place. And it could be a confidence booster for her. She’ll probably learn it well on this new sequence, and will be ready for Calc her freshman year of college if needs/wants to take it.
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I guess that is matter of what path she wants to take - our stand is that if they are on STEM path, then take AP courses (if offered); if non-STEM, then take DE (if offered). This worked well for my older two and is what my S23 is planning on doing. My kids are STEM driven so they take English, government & economics in DE; and the math/science courses in AP.
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Just sharing this article as a good reminder as we continue the journey over the next two years!
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College-level algebra isn’t a remedial course at any college I’m aware of; high school-level algebra would be, but that’s not this course. (In fact, college-level algebra fulfills the math gen-ed requirements at most colleges—very few if any require calculus for all students.)
So it will transfer, but it (along with precalc the following year) would leave her still needing to take first-semester calculus once she gets to college, since at most places she would have to take that level of math (but no further) for her intended major.
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I think the paper sums up what I don’t care about. I work for a college that isn’t in the “tippy-top” and the students who go there are still smart and go on to have fulfilling careers. Prestige means nothing to me. I think having my oldest being in special ed since age 3 ensured I kept educational goals child-focused and child-specific.
My oldest is going through quite a bit of change and I’ve always been able to get him through things and right now, I can’t. There’s been a decade of drama with being divorced and the kids have been stuck in the middle way too often and it sucks seeing their potential plans to move towards adulthood be stressed. So having the middle kid being worried about school stuff makes me sad.
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Lol!
What percentage of these kids go to 4 year colleges and what is their average GPA? I had this conversation recently with a parent.