<p>My son is a senior and attends a mid-level Prep School as a boarding student (we are a middle class family, my wife and I never attended college), he is not a top student, he has a 2.85 gpa and 1580 SAT, 22 ACt. He works extremely hard at his school work to achieve his grades, is incredibly respectful of his classmates, is a senior dorm leader, a three sport athlete, and was recently elected captain of the lacrosse team (Div 1). I just want to say how proud of him I am. Yes he is an average student but to his surprise he has visited and interviewed at 4 very good LAC's (lacrosse recruit at each) and 4 very good State Universities (no lacrosse), everyone one of them have confirmed to him that he is the type of student they are looking to admit. Most of the schools told my son that a very high percentage of students admitted with similar backgrounds go on to achieve success during college and in the job market after graduation. </p>
<p>It seems that this site attracts very well qualified students, my post is to make parents of average students aware that high quality colleges and universities are looking for these types of students to admit, they also seem to believe that they typically become some of the most productive. Comments or feedback.....</p>
<p>I would hire a hard worker like your son in a heartbeat over a bright lazy kid. Tell him to keep up the hard work. I wish him well and I hope you come back and tell us where he ends up going, where he applied to and where he got accepted.</p>
<p>You have a wonderful son! You have a right to be very proud! </p>
<p>And, yes, “average students” are often very successful in the Real World!!! Besides, look at yourself and your wife - neither went to college, but you’ve been successful! :)</p>
<p>Good luck as a lacrosse recruit! Hope he gets into a great school and has a wonderful time! </p>
<p>I am not surprised that you are proud, your son sounds like a jewel!</p>
<p>The only small note of caution I would add is this: Nothing that a school rep says in an interview should be taken as anything other than encouragement to apply. Remember, the reps job is to SELL the school to as many applicants a possible. I have never, ever heard of a rep saying anything to intentionally discourage a student from applying. At the end of the season, the more students the school has rejected, the better it looks! In a similar vein, nothing other than an acceptance letter should be taken as surety that a particular student will be admitted.</p>
<p>How much time is available for 3 sports athlete to spend on academics? I believe that he will need to spend much more time studying in college. It will be extremely challenging to find a job in any economy with college GPA lower than 3.0. Isn’t it a priamry goal of college education to be able to support yourself and your family? Good luck with your decision and be prepared to work very hard.</p>
<p>My son was a three sport athlete and is not one in college. However, being a three sport athlete taught him a great deal about time management. This is one skill that has been proven most telling when it comes to a students success that first year in college. Knowing how to budget your time is a huge asset that most employers are looking for as well. While I don’t know how it is now, I don’t recall one employer ever asking for my college GPA once I graduated.</p>
<p>The world is run by people that have excellent leadership, time management and people skills. There is more than one way to skin a cat and I don’t believe for a moment it requires straight A’s or even mostly A’s.</p>
<p>Most important to the OP’s child, however, is making sure that if he is going to be playing DI lacrosse or any sport for that matter that the school also wants to see the kid graduate. It wont do him much good to go to Harvard (just as example) if the work is going to be unmanageable for his academic prowess.</p>
<p>I don’t know a lot about college sports, but I think even playing one college sport is a “year round” deal…practice during the season, conditioning during the off-season. So, it could be very similar to playing 2-3 sports in high school in regards to time demands.</p>
<p>I was asked my GPA after having MBA and almost 30 years of experience and tons of references available locally. Also, job applications are asking for college GPA as far as I remember. I am not trying to discourage, but be realistic and prepared to spend a lot of time on academics in college if the goal is to gain professional employment after college graduation or to enter Graduate School.</p>
<p>Your son sounds like a wonderful young man, who will have and make the most of many opportunities. Kudos to you and your wife!</p>
<p>I’d like to add a caveat, though, to your last point about average students who are attractive to high quality colleges and universities. I would not say that your son is an “average” average student. Besides his stellar personal qualities, he has two other things going for him–boarding prep school background (lauded in another thread today for getting students into top colleges) and recruitable athletic skills. So, I’m not sure he can really be called “average,” and I don’t think the average student can count on replicating his success.</p>
<p>I agree that an “average” student with your son’s drive and determination can succeed at many top colleges, but I’m not sure that most will be given the chance.</p>
<p>I agree with your post, colleges are notorious when it comes to the numbres game and confirmation in the form of an acceptance letter is the end game.</p>
<p>In follow-up. My son just completed 3 of 4 follow-up overnight visits with the LAC’s he is being recruited at for lacrosse (D3). At each of these subsequesnt LAC overnights the coach set up a face to face with the college Admissions Director or Dean of the School. The comments in my original post took place during these meetings. Again they each confirmed their overall desire to attract and accept hard working students with leadership abilities who might have average grades and or test scores but show potential based on their individual abilities and backgrounds. During the discussuions my son asked all of them if lacrosse was the reason they wanted him at the school (recruited by 20 schools D1-D3) and if he would be in the meeting with them without it, they confirmed even if he was not a recruited athlete they would be accept him to thier schools based on his academic potential and leadership positions. After each meeting they followed up with an email or call to my son confirming how impressed they were with the way he handled himself. My message to the parent of average students…quality schools are out there looking to balance their admissions process with your (average) son or daughter and not always looking for the “A” student and or bookworm (no offense to parents with bright students).</p>
<p>Congratulations and I would add that being a hardworking student in high school gives a “leg up” in college as the high school students that have to work in high school know how to study and work and keep their eye on the ball. So like one other poster mentioned I’d much rather have a hardworking student than one who does not know how to work and study for their grades. I am also not surprised that colleges look at your son eagerly. A good athlete with a solid high school background (which most boarding schools provide) is a one/two punch to keep the sports analogy going LOL. I have one son who is quite good at his sport which is seasonal like lacrosse, but yes in response to another poster it’s year-round as the athletes also have conditioning and weightlifting all year 'round in addition to the season and the practice seasons and any other sports they are involved with. He is much better at studying and time management than his older brothers who were not as involved in a sport and if he gets a leg up in college admissions because of his sport that his brothers didn’t get, I as a parent, think it’s well deserved and earned.</p>
<p>sorry, if these are top LACs, then I don’t buy that they would take him for his work ethic and leadership skills. That’s a bunch of baloney and I can look at the Naviance graphs for these LACs to prove it. They routinely reject the upper right of the quadrant, where I"m sure there were plenty of kids with strong work ethic and leadership skills, in favor of the athletes with the average GPAs and test scores.</p>
<p>I am in the same situation as you are with my fourth child. He is a solid, hardworking kid with a good gpa, but average test scores. I have no doubt that he will have a good selection of colleges.</p>
<p>My concern for him is the cost of college. We are fortunate enough that we do not qualify for financial aid. It would not be a wise thing to pay $55K a year for college for our kids as it would put us in a shaky financial situation for the challenges that we know we have as a family. His older brother had very high test scores that gave him all sorts of merit opportunities that brought down the cost of colleges to less than nothing to the full $50K+. My current high schooler is not going to have that array of choices. If he wants to go to a private school that costs in the upper ranges, it is not going to be doable as he will not get the merit awards that his brother got. He has to look at lower cost options in order to have financially feasible choices. A combination of loans, work, savings on our part and his part will be necessary to pay for college, and even that is not going to work if the cost is over, say, $35K.</p>
<p>We have neighbors who have a child at a full need met college. I am not at all impressed with her package that is heavily loan laden. Even then, she was a top student with high test scores. That school which is not one of the lottery tickets in terms of selection is really out of range for my son. We would not qualify for financial aid, he would not qualify for merit aid, and it is very expensive. Even if we did qualify for some financial aid, the packages tend to be loan heavy. A shame, because I feel that the best match in schools for him would be a private, small LAC. We’ll be looking at low price tags, state schools and schools where he could commute unlike his brother who was a viable candidate at some of costly LACs that had merit awards available. </p>
<p>Also what college reps say during visits and the final decisions often vary widely. Until you get those acceptance letters in hand, you really don’t know how strong of a candidate he is. Also, until you get those financial aid packages or merit awards in hand, you don’t know where he stands in how desirable he is to a school. </p>
<p>Still, with those stats and a good strong work ethic and the heavy high school prep, he is an excellent candidate for any college. What the colleges are willing to offer for him is a whole different story.</p>
<p>SdonCC, ummm I’m thinking that for the most part athletes are seen as having leadership skills. Leadership doesn’t mean just the president of the student council or the editor of the newspaper. My youngest is his team’s captain and that is inherently the same qualities as a president of a club, you’re calling meetings, rounding up kids, fund raising, displaying a positive attitude, etc. I wouldn’t get hung up on the symantics and if you step back a moment you will realize that in fact athletes are no different than any other campus activity, they have the leadership qualities and they contribute to the campus culture by committing to playing a sport in addition to being able to do the academic work, just like the student who plays an instrument, commits to the orchestra and does the academics or the student who wants to edit the school newspaper. What you are saying is not the point is exactly the point - colleges look for kids who bring something to the “collegiate table” in addition to being able to hack the academic work. Unless you’ve been an athlete or a band member or worked on a newspaper you really can’t appreciate that all activities take time, effort and leadership. Fortunately admissions offices do understand and understand that it takes all those kinds of kids as well as those that just want to do research and academics 24/7 to make a class.</p>
<p>I can attest that my son’s boarding school keeps them busy around the clock, thay have classes, study hall, sports practice, chapel ect…ect…I agree although he is an average academic student he has learned to develop a solid work ethic and study habits. Compared to my daughter (recent nursing grad, 3.5 gpa, motivated student, from our local high school) that’s what my wife and I decided would be best for him, we gave him the opportunity, he accepted, we have sacraficed alot to provide that choice for him with no complaints, but in our mind that’s what it is all about.</p>
<p>For parents with student athletes… I can also confirm that my son has worked extremely hard, practiced for long hours in our backyard, sacraficed alot of down time with local friends because of mandatory practices and tournaments. If you ask him if it has been worth it he says he has had alot of great fun traveling, and made a ton of new friends while playing sports. He also learned to understand that their are alot of great athletes out there that he had to compete with but could develop a common bond with to excel as a team at a high level. Everyone also needs to understand that there are also risks involved, he has had his share of serious injuries (4 wrist surgeries, concusion, dislocated shoulder) due to playing sports at a higher compettion levels than his age group, which is typical when excelling at any sport in prep school or club levels. The key was he got to make the choices, we let him make those decisions, we provided the guidance and support. It is one of the reasons he is mature enough to be applying to schools that offer solid academics (not for lacrosse), he knows that another wrist injury could be the end of playing competitive sports. I think we should all take a step back and make sure we do our part as parents, look out for your child, listen to them, be honest with them (sometimes in can be brutal), they are looking for guidance from you, if you cannot provide it seek out a friend or family member. It will make all the difference, in my opinion that’s why average kids have the potential to develop into something extraordinary.</p>
<p>Wow…a lot has been written…my head is swimming… so apologies if my post is a repeat or confusing…</p>
<p>to the OP…</p>
<p>Does your child need the athletic scholarship to attend one of these interested colleges? If he lost his athletic scholly, could you pay full-freight?</p>
<p>Are any of these colleges likely to award a “full-head” athletic scholly? Or, are they more likely to award a partial head scholly (as many colleges do to “spread the wealth” and get more athletes)</p>
<p>It looks like he might have posted (to my surprise) using my account after I introduced him to the site. Thought he might get some insight from other kids in his situation. Unfortunatley he never recieved any feedback, like i said and I am not being critical or rude, this site seems to be about the “bright students”. Anyway my son is still working to improve his grades (currently approaching 3.0, has had some truly great inetrviews and overnights and is very excited about the opportunities that are unfolding. No matter what happens it does not matter a “hill of beans” to my wife and I as far as the school name or level of the sports program, as long as he end up happy and content we know he will succeed at whatever he does.</p>
<p>"My post is to make parents of average students aware that high quality colleges and universities are looking for these types of students to admit, they also seem to believe that they typically become some of the most productive. "</p>
<p>I also want to join the posters who have complimented you on the well-deserved praise you have posted regarding your child. </p>
<p>I am not at all surprised to hear that a 1st gen college applicant who will be a prep school sport captain, dorm leader, 3 sport athlete is viewed as a productive and desirable candidate for a high quality university.</p>
<p>However…the issue with your post comes with the subjective words you used: “average” and “high quality”. </p>
<p>Your S may have average grades and test scores, but that’s where his being average ends. Being recruited, even DIII, for a competitive sport like Lacrosse isn’t an option for most “average” kids. His being a captain and dorm leader also takes him out of the “average” category.</p>
<p>There are many “high quality” colleges and universities in the US. Some are referenced with single initials or “top 20” or “ivy” or “ivy-like” on this site. But many don’t fall into any of those categories but attract outstanding candidates like your son, as well as more truly “average” hs students.</p>
Besides, look at yourself and your wife - neither went to college, but you’ve been successful! :)</p>