<p>Drat. FLVADad beat me to post #800! <em>I</em> wanted the nice fancy round number! <pout> oh well . . . </pout></p>
<p>@ foolish pleasure: hahahaha!! Smith? Bowdoin? I think not - only if we were independently wealthy! At any rate, D eschews the small liberal arts u’s for the larger, more “exciting” state publics. Sooo . . .
Okay. I think I’ve narrowed down the list and will keep the fingers crossed that the SAT prep place I just plunked down almost a G for will come thru:</p>
<p>Reaches - Fin. Aid Unlikely:
Miami U - Ohio (pricey, but reports nice minority merit. “Bridges” program; great grad rate)
JMU - Virginia (price is right, but only 48% of need met! Merit unlikely)</p>
<p>Fits - Fin. Aid possible
Appalachian U - NC (sweet little up&comer; grad rate & price are right, will consider weighted gpa if on xscript)
U Dayton - (pricey, reports meeting 92% of need! Lots of scholarships inc. diversity)
U Wisconsin Eau Clair - minority merit, grad rate & majors all match
U Wisconsin LaCrosse - minority out of state tuition grant to in-state cost w/21 ACT!
U Oregon - high sticker, but courts the B student; substantial minority merit possible
U of Iowa - nice retention and grad rates, minority merit, stats in range
Iowa State - nice retention and grad rates, minority merit w/weighted gpa & 1100SAT
Ohio University - great photog & journalism programs, generous merit, price is right.
Salisbury-MD - regional U, in-state, considers weighted gpa, test optional, reasonable grad rate.</p>
<p>nyc . . I actually did look on the East Coast for schools fitting our target stats. Your D may not be as stubborn and unrealistic as mine.</p>
<p>D2 wants a school w/a high grad rate, lots of boys (!!), school spirit/sports teams, and “cache.” (We’ve been working on the sudden, inexplicable, label-consciousness). For this reason, I failed to interest her in schools like Spellman (I think I can drag her down to a local meet & greet, tho); or any of Pennsylvania’s ubiquitous small liberal arts schools w/much money for mediocre merit (like that alliteration?! <em>grin</em>).</p>
<p>Let me know what you all come up with. If we were in NY, I’d DEF be eyeing a number of the SUNYs. I also liked a couple of places in MA, but they were female-heavy. I did look at Temple, but knowing my younger d’s propensity for peer persuasion, would prefer to see her at a school in the middle of nowhere with downhome, corn-fed, christian values (“ring B4 swing”, bay-beee!). Note: I may rethink this strategy in light of recent primary election results. . .</p>
<p>Did you look at Massachusettes College of Liberal Arts? Public college, with around 1800 students, in North Adams. Beautiful, and very inexpensive for OOS, ( I think it was like 23,000 all in?).</p>
<p>My D ended up picking Temple. And is loving it…</p>
<p>Just dropping in to make acquaintances. I’ve posted here before, but my son my have been in 8th or 9th grade, I think. Well, he’s a junior and now it’s time to really begin the serious, (and sometimes not so serious), observations and experiences with preparing for college.</p>
<p>We live in N.C. He was chosen for the N.C. Governor’s School this past summer for instrumental music. He is currently attending N.C. School of Science and Math. His future academic interests, (which as we all know could change at the drop of a hat), is Science, (Biology) and Music. So far, he’s not overly interested in choosing a favorite college. He seems to like many and most are not in N.C. I’m all for N.C. schools, they’re cost effective and they are not “bad.”</p>
<p>I could possibly post this question in another forum, or search CC for this issue, but I’ve been running around like a chicken w/its head cut off recently, and hate it that I never seem to have time anymore! Please forgive me if this is redundant.</p>
<p>Here’s the scoop. We requested xscripts & counselor rec forms from d’s guidance counselor (public school, 2000 kids, 401 in d’s grad class). On the school’s request form, I specifically asked that the rec forms reflect both weighted and unweighted gpa & class rank.</p>
<p>d’s school doesn’t mail the info off to the colleges. They give it back to the kid in a sealed envelope. The envelopes bear a huge black stamp over the seam: “UNOFFICIAL IF OPENED.” Sooo . . . of course, I opened one. To my complete lack of surprise, the counselor’s letter of recommendation was lukewarm (no quibble there. d didn’t even know her counselor’s name, and is only a slightly above-avg student). But annoyingly, the counselor’s letter stated an unweighted gpa, and a class rank I’d never seen before (much worse than the one she told us verbally or the one printed on the official xscript).</p>
<p>I dithered. What the heck was I to do? Was this a weighted rank? Why was it different? Why had she chosen to write a separate letter presenting d’s academic acheivement in the worst possible light? How should I go about admitting I’d opened the envelope??!!!</p>
<p>Any ideas?!! I specifically chose schools that considered weighted gpa & class rank “if reported by the high school” !!</p>
<p>I don’t think there was anything wrong with opening the envelope. I would ask about the differences especially since its different than the the official transcript. I can’t see why the counselor would be upset about that.</p>
<p>My Ds school doesn’t mail anything out either even when you provide a stamped envelope. Lucky for us we can request an electronic transcript which shows the weighted GPA.</p>
<p>I agree there was nothing wrong with opening the transcript. Our number one priority should be making sure our children are shown in their best light.</p>
<p>See the recent thread about Guidance Counselors for varying perspectives on letters of recommendations. As for the transcript in the sealed envelope, that’s nothing new. Although if it were me, I probably wouldn’t have opened it.</p>
<p>As to your question, I would ask for a short meeting with the GC. You can say that you want advice on where your child should apply based on current ranking, grades and scores. During the meeting, make sure the GC explains the ranking and what information is provided on the transcript. You’ll also get a better idea of how he/she feels about your child as a student.</p>
<p>Thnx GAmom, lacrosse & D1. Here’s what I actually did ('cause I’m impatient & impulsive & couldn’t sit on pins & needles any longer!)</p>
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<p>So basically, GC writes back that she’s made an “error” and I can bring the forms back in for a redo. Oh yeah. <deadpan> I’m feelin’ the love now!</deadpan></p>
<p>Happy to hear you enjoyed Morehouse. Does Shrinkson think he would like Atlanta? We are having unusualy warm weather, hope he doesn’t think every Thanksgiving will be this nice!</p>
<p>He likes the music industry here. He immediately updated his facebook status about the … change in demographics…We come to ATL EVERY Thanksgiving. So… yeah…</p>
<p>oh my goodness! Have any of you come across this WONDERFUL site online? It’s called college results dot org, and it allows you to search for and compare colleges along a variety of measures, INCLUDING 4yr graduation rate, test scores, gender and race!</p>
<p>I wish I’d known about this last fall when I did my 1st pass through possible choices. It’s really troubling to me that so many schools aren’t graduating the kids in 4yrs these days. Is 5-6yrs now the new standard?!</p>
<p>Yes. It is one of the sites we used to pick the final list of schools. The comparison also let’s you compare by gender and by diversity. It is a very helpful tool.</p>