<p><em>I'm</em> interested in the schools I referenced, but most CTCL schools are appropriate for B+ students, so comments about any of them would most likely to be of interest to somebody here.</p>
<p>Mich State is of course a great choice (and my alma mater) but I don't ask about it since I'm well-acquainted with it.</p>
<p>I was looking at Ohio State stats for incoming, and they're getting really high.</p>
<p>Penn State and OH State are huge OOS schools here for B students. Very popular. </p>
<p>Our competitve, suburban top-50 public school has trouble getting A kids into UVA OOS meaning some get in but most don't. Another school mentioned much earlier in this thread that falls in that category is Bowdoin. We get few A students in there-- many years none are accepted.</p>
<p>I'm considering Penn Stete for D. She has an 89 average, down from a 90.3. Should come back up with 1st semester grades. SAT's are not great. Retaking in October and hoping for 1150 range.
Waste of time? We are OOS.
We are very confused about converting the 89 to a GPA. Every place seems to have a different formula!</p>
<p>hayze, I think that she will be offered admissions to one of their satellite campuses. This would only be "a waste of time" is she would only attend their main campus.</p>
<p>Got the first acceptance at our house!</p>
<p>cangel, CONGRATULATIONS! I found the first one to be the most exciting! LOL, my H called his father to tell him that his grandchild is going to go to college. My FIL must have thought that my H was nuts. My FIL, and we never thought otherwise. Can't explain why my H even made the announcement that way, but he was one proud pappa at that moment!</p>
<p>Just came across this thread. I can't count the number of times I've pm'ed people telling them not to be discouraged at the stats of most of the cc kids...which are, at best, a very warped sample of the "real world".</p>
<p>I found CC when getting in to the whole college search scene for D1---who had the GPA's, SAT scores, etc. to be competitive anywhere, and was very focused on what she wanted to study (hint--look at my screenname). It was a great eye-opener for me.....first thinking that she'd get in ANYWHERE she'd apply, and EVERYONE would pay her buckets of $$ to attend. CC put me back to earth, and that was a good thing. She was not accepted to MIT, and ended up at UMD (her "other" #1 choice), and loved her first year there.</p>
<p>Enter D2. Every bit as intelligent as her sister, good SAT's, but she was not nearly as grade-obsessed as her older sister. As she has told family friends, she "chose to have a life". Much more social, and has leadership experience and a significant "social awareness". She's got a wide variety of interests, and it will probably take her a couple of years to settle in on a college major.</p>
<p>Call me older and wiser, or just plain tired, but I find myself entering this college search process MUCH more relaxed than first time around. D2 isn't applying to MIT or Ivy League schools. I'm not hyper that a B in her senior year will topple her chances, etc. </p>
<p>We've always been larger-public-U inclined people, and altho D2 has a couple of private schools on her list, she's probably 60% inclined to join her sister at UMD. Although, note to Missypie.... I continue to tell her I could "pull strings" and get her into our no-name Alma-Mater!!! So far, she's not buying into that idea!!</p>
<p>Congrats on the acceptance! How did you manage it so early? Seniors won't have transcripts for another 2-3 weeks at our HS.</p>
<p>Congrats from us, too!</p>
<p>I'm envious - my senior D2 has a brand new, fresh out of college counselor this year - UGHHH!. Even though school has already started, the counselor is not yet meeting with students or processing college application transcript/recommendation requests. She has no email and is not reachable by phone.</p>
<p>My D2 is crushed. She loved her former counselor, who is no longer at the school. He went to bat for students against the faculty and admin one too many times and was fired. :(</p>
<p>This is my quirky kid, too, so having a counselor that knows the kid is a questioning, divergent thinker and not a lazy underachiever would have gone a long way towards explaining the incongruent 3.4 uw GPA with stellar standardized test scores.</p>
<p>Anyone have words of advice?</p>
<p>It's always slayed me reading on this board how our students are supposed to get to know their GC....Son is on his 3rd one in 4 years. The first spread misinformation whereever she went. The second knew absolutely nothing (I guess she realized it because she moved down to a middle school). The new one this year seems like the most helpful of the bunch, but she's coming from an elem. school, so I don't expect much help in the college app. process.</p>
<p>UMD = Maryland or U Mich-Dearborn?</p>
<p>My B+ er is in the throes of "I won't get into any college" right now. Comparing herself to an A peer group isn't helping. I keep telling her: "yes you will, it will be great, and ... half your friends are lying about their GPAs and in for a shock when they apply to Notre Dame."</p>
<p>One of the hardest parts about being a parent is that I know what matters and what doesn't, and she can't see that yet.</p>
<p>Sorry, I was referring to the University of Maryland. Towson is another public U. in Maryland.</p>
<p>Yeah, but we still have to rely on the counselor to process the transcript/recommendation part of the apps. School rules; they must be submitted by the counselor. D2's at a standstill until the new counselor starts processing college apps. The other counselors at the school are already up and running with this, so D2 is at a bit of a disadvantage.</p>
<p>Thanks, DS was easy, he's only applying to one non-rolling admission school, and may not apply to that one depending on the outcome of the next few weeks. Also, we have an excellent college counselor who is happy to get the "easy" kids like my son out of the way, so she can concentrate on those making competitive apps, and we have been through this once before with DD who did the full CC thing, so we the family were ready to get this moving.
I think/hope he will be almost finished by Oct 1. We may well have to pay at least one non-refundable deposit to an extra school in order to buy him some time to make a final decision, but that is OK, it is worth it to me for the app piece to be finished, I'm willing to pay for him to have some deciding time.</p>
<p>One word of advice to JiffsMom, if your D is undecided about schools, it may be worth it to call the ex-counselor and hire him for a couple of hours to talk to your D, go over transcripts discuss application/interview strategies, etc. If she is beyond that point, then just keep trying to set up an appointment for D with the new GC. Your D can also ask teachers for recs. Does your school do parents' letters? If so, and it hasn't been written yet, then make it more detailed than you would otherwise. A sympathetic, favorite teacher who appreciates DD's strengths might also write a usedful letter for the counselor - after all what else will she be able to fall back on, other than teachers' opinions?</p>
<p>On the subject of transcripts, last year I found at least two mistakes on my son's (e.g. an AP class not being identified as such). I'm definitely going to proof his transcript before I give the GC the list of colleges to which we want it sent.</p>
<p>What are some good universities besides Penn State and OSU? I'd rather go to a small LAC, but am open to all options.</p>
<p>Shoot, we didn't do that missypie (even after having read that suggestion on CC). We have about 15 more transcripts to request--will go today & get a copy.
Thanks!</p>
<p>Our school's transcripts are so hard to decipher. Instead of the class description saying "AP US History" or "Pre-AP Chem", there is a letter code for the type of course - and no, it's not A for AP or P for Pre-AP. The reader has to look down at the key of seemingly random letters to figure out if it is an AP, pre-AP or regular class.</p>
<p>That's frustrating! I know one dad here had the school remove some extraneous info about standardized, state-wide testing that was on his daughter's transcript. I wonder if other HSs would do something like that.</p>