<p>
</p>
<p>That’s such an exaggeration that it slips into the realm of fabrication. I’ve never confused a 14 year old girl for a school teacher. If you have, that speaks volumes about yourself and not about the children at hand. Make an appointment with an optometrist, will you.</p>
<p>Thought I’d way in on two topics – haven’t had time to look at the boards much, as we’ve visited the last couple of colleges under consideration.</p>
<p>My S, definitely an uneven B (ranges from A’s in English, creative writing to C- in math), GPA 3.2 (which is barely B+ in his HS; no AP or IB in his small but rigorous parochial school) and SATs he was happy with (CR 640, M 520), is blossoming this year, with a 3.5 last semester and feeling more confident than he has in 4 years.</p>
<p>Who cares about aspiring to Ivy League or top LAC’s – blah - we have visited and learned about sooooo many great LAC’s. He wishes he could attend then all!</p>
<p>For those who are in the exploration process, we found the US News A+ colleges for B students to be helpful, as well as the CTCL. Initially we were concerned about where he might be admitted, but were surprised and delighted at the results.</p>
<p>Here are more details about schools he applied/was accepted:</p>
<p>Accepted at:
Lawrence U
Willamette U
U Puget Sound
U Oregon
W Wash U
U Redlands
Southwestern U
Austin College
Clark U
Whittier</p>
<p>Rejected:
Goucher
Chapman Film
LMU Film</p>
<p>Waitlist:
Muhlenberg</p>
<p>Benel, congratulations on your S’s success! This thread has helped me be more realistic and POSITIVE about my child’s “B” status. Looking forward to hearing more about your S.</p>
<p>benel, just shows how iratic and unpredictable admissions are this year. Your son and my son had three overlap schools with opposite results! Mine was accepted to Goucher and rejected to Willamette and Clark.</p>
<p>Cast a wide net class of 2010!</p>
<p>Benel, which did he choose?</p>
<p>“Cast a wide net class of 2010!”</p>
<p>cpeltz, that’s exactly the impression I’m getting! My child will be busy filling out apps this summer/fall!</p>
<p>My D is class of 2010. 11 of her 15 core academic classes so far were Honors, but no AP’s yet (her HS offers AP in most subjects). Her GPA is an UNweighted 3.2. She got a 27 on the ACT, and is taking the SAT this weekend. Next year’s coursework is virtually all Honors, plus AP Studio Art. She is also doing a Senior Project, which only about 5% of our HS does. We’re not sure exactly what the project will be, but she wants to major in psychology so it will be somehow related to that. She has strong EC’s - Class Officer, one varsity sport (3 years varsity), Peer Leader, Peer Mentor, and competitive dance team (12 years). </p>
<p>Her top choices right now are Northeastern, UConn, and UMass, and she also liked Marist. I’m thinking Marist is almost a safety, as they will give $8000/year merit for a recalculated 3.3 with a 25 on the ACT. Her stats are almost an exact match for UMass Amherst’s averages (the way UMass recalculates, her GPA is 3.6). She also wants to investigate Clemson & Elon.</p>
<p>Do we need another safety? If yes, suggestions? She will NOT go any further north (we live in Mass), and she prefers large schools. </p>
<p>(We also looked at Fairfield & Quinnipiac, she didn’t care for either of them.)</p>
<p>Lafalum84, Salisbury U, UNC-W, Coastal Carolina, and College of Charleston come to mind as possible safeties for your D. There’s also High Point U and Roanoke College, but they’re on the small side.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention a couple things:</p>
<p>My S was rejected from Goucher, which we were advised would be a “safety” for him.
It is the ONE school that he did not submit his SAT, because they were scores-optional.
He did that because his HS teacher thought his scores were weak.
The other schools that that had scores-optional we DID submit his SATs after another counselor told us later that his scores were “pretty decent” and good indicators of potential vis a vis his GPA.
We can’t be sure if that had anything to do with the rejection, but my lesson was Submit the Scores!</p>
<p>My D will be up “up next” in another year for this process. While her grades will be a little better, the scores will be about the same (I’m guessing based on PSAT) and so we’ll be looking at the same group of colleges (for the “B” student).
I’m very enthused, however, about the possibilities for her, now that I know what great quality schools there are for our “creative, blooming, energetic and latent-potential” Bs!</p>
<p>But we will probably narrow the list to 9 or fewer for my D.</p>
<p>My S is planning to attend U of Redlands – we were quite impressed on two visits. It is definitely a “hidden gem” and WOW what a beautiful campus. My husband and I feel great about his choice.</p>
<p>````````````````````</p>
<p>By the way, this whole process has been eye-opening (or redemptive?) to me, as a former “A” student a gazillion years ago, who applied to only one college, got full scholarship, dropped out after 2 weeks, flipped burgers, then attended 2 other colleges, went through 3 majors, and eventually got a degree in engineering and then graduated from medical school. I’m trying my darndest to guide my kids into a smoother and more successful post-HS experience (success meaning happy about yourself and where you are).</p>
<p>benel - what a great outcome for your S! All those acceptances and a great decision to go to Redlands. My S2 is class of 2010 and I’m thinking Redlands should be on his list, along with WWU and possibly U of Puget Sound. I was thinking Willamette would be a reach - was that your expectation too?</p>
<p>S2 has about a 3.6 weighted GPA and ok test scores - 25 ACT, the exact equivalent on SAT (1150ish?) and will retake in June. Not a lot of ECs. </p>
<p>He took a whirlwind college tour to S. California over spring break and came back more confused than ever. He sort of liked UCSB and UCSD; UCLA was ok but he knows that would be a huge reach; didn’t like Fresno State; didn’t get a good tour of Pepperdine so doesn’t have an opinion one way or another on the only LAC on the trip. He’s pretty sure he wants a suburban campus with more students than his high school (1800).</p>
<p>What’s nice is that there are lots of great opportunities for B+ kids. Realizing this has made me much less focused on letter grades for both S1 and S2, and much more focused on “are they actually learning something?” (this is not as obvious as it might be in a school district that focuses so heavily on Teaching To the Test, whatever the test du jour might be).</p>
<p>vballmom – We were under the impression that UPS was about as “reach-ish” as Willamette for him. Note that Willamette acceptance rate is pretty good. </p>
<p>By the way, some colleges will not show up on USNEWs “A plus colleges for B students” filter because of their statistics, particularly the % students in the top 10%/25%/50% of their class.
However, Big Tip: Look at the schools actual statistics (on US NEws, drill down to admitted students entering stats), you’ll see that for most of the LACs, a rather significant percentage of students do NOT submit class rank. i.e. that particular STAT is misleading. </p>
<p>That was the case for Lawrence and Southwestern, both were filtered out on the A+forB (and both were featured in the CTCL book). And they are great schools for the B - B +.</p>
<p>If you think your student’s class standing would be meaningless (statistically), have your counselor NOT submit it. (that’s what we did, because my S is in a private school with fewer than 20 seniors).</p>
<p>well the scores are in!</p>
<p>here are the stats for my B+ kid:</p>
<p>RANK - 18% 220/1200
GPA u - 3.5
ACT 29 (will retake)
SAT 1210 CR/M (will retake)
a few AP classes</p>
<p>she takes all upper level/AP/dual credit classes and makes As and Bs - half and half</p>
<p>looking for merit money for her stats. will consider any offers that make the total COA less than or equal to big state U (texas a&m) which is 15-20K. if we could get it down to around 10K per year, that would be awesome, as we have DD#2 following close behind.</p>
<p>she doesn’t know what she wants to study yet. but her current thinking is a job/career where she can wear scrubs! NOT a fashion plate! comfort is king!</p>
<p>needs to be mostly warm weather in states in the region of texas/oklahoma arkansas tennessee north carolina south carolina georgia florida alabama and maybe mississippi/louisiana. other warm states could also be considered, but i dont think she would go for cold weather locations at all!!!</p>
<p>her high school is 4000 kids, so i think going to a small school (under 10000) would be weird for her. but if there are good options at smaller schools, we will consider.</p>
<p>what she wants in a school outside of academics is big football, lots of school spirit/traditions, pretty campus. she might rush, but i am not sure that is a great choice for her.</p>
<p>she has been in band, but i don’t think she will continue in college.</p>
<p>so, what schools do you recommend for my B+ kid?</p>
<p>I don’t know why I’m in this forum, but I have a 3.16 gpa, 1230/1780 SAT, a 3 on the AP Gov test, and I will have taken 4 APs in total by the end of this year and I have gotten into:
Emory’s Oxford College (guaranteed transfer to Emory University’s Atlanta campus after two years)
Fordham University
SUNY Stony Brook (OOS)
Loyola University Chicago
Seattle University (with a $7500 a year Arrupe Scholarship)
Robert Morris University with $8000 a year in merit scholarship and grants</p>
<p>I was waitlisted by Occidental College</p>
<p>I was deferred and I later canceled my applications to:
Northeastern University
University of Denver
Tulane University</p>
<p>Rejected by none</p>
<p>MikeWozowski - She would seriously love Florida State University in Tallahasee. It has most of what she is looking for.</p>
<p>StevenSeagal, thanks for posting your results and congratulations!</p>
<p>MikeW – your daughter should consider Univ of South Carolina. If you check its CC forum, I believe someone with a 29 ACT received a Capstone scholarship which considerably lowers the cost for an OOS student.</p>
<p>MikeWozowski… Take a look at LSU and have her watch some video of “the Golden Band from Tiger Land”. The spirit and atmosphere sound like just what she’s looking for. By trying band (at least the first year) she’d have a huge bonding experience with some quality kids and a great introduction to college life.</p>
<p>I haven’t seen anywhere that those stats would get merit money though. She’d have to really pickup that ACT score I think. A 32 should get her an academic admit to A&M. Below that it’ll be tough getting in. I’m just getting started (son is a junior), so if you DO find merit aid with those stats please let us know where!</p>
<p>fendrock - south carolina is on our radar! thanks!</p>
<p>i have not looked into FSU. will have to take a look.</p>
<p>newstome - 32 for an academic admit to a&m??? are you nuts? (i just looked and it is 30). and even without the academic admit (which i am sure she will end up qualifying for after taking the ACT again) i am pretty sure she would be able to get into a&m (but she really doesn’t want to go there.)</p>
<p>i already do have several options where her stats will get her merit money (although she will qualify for more when she raises her ACT score.) … but thanks for the vote of confidence. good luck to you.</p>
<p>: /</p>
<p>I will second the suggestion to look at LSU. (See below about merit aid) After a long application season, our “B+” daughter had the following stats and results:</p>
<p>3.2 GPA
28 ACT
Honors & AP classes
Four year varsity field hockey - Captain
Many other EC’s</p>
<p>Accepted
ASU
Clemson (waitlisted then accepted last week)
Colorado, Boulder
LSU (Tiger Scholarship - waives oos tuition)<br>
Northeastern (six year Physical Therapy doctorate program)
WVU (Blue & Gold Scholarship)</p>
<p>Waitlisted
Virginia Tech</p>
<p>Denied (All super reach schools - D didnt want to ever say “what if…”)
Boston College
Cornell
Georgetown
Lehigh
Penn State
UCSB
USC
Vanderbilt</p>
<p>After all of the above, she is very excited to be attending LSU in the Fall. The Tiger merit scholarship is great. Automatic for those OOS (we are in NJ) with 3.0 GPA and 28 ACT. She is actually retaking ACT in June with hopes of improving to a 30 which would qualify her for Golden Oaks scholarship paying full tuition. (listing of all merit aid is available on their website) LSU has treated her great - invited her to special Spring Invitational Program/Orientation first week of April where those attending were able to register for classes before all other Freshmen. Beautiful campus with great school spirit. </p>
<p>Thanks to all on CC who have provided excellent advice during this process. We are now well prepared to help D2 in her search two years from now. </p>
<p>Geaux Tigers!</p>
<p>NJPaladin - she can still retake the ACT to raise her score to qualify for a better scholarship this late? that’s pretty amazing!</p>
<p>does the SAT or ACT score for scholarship purposes have to be from one sitting or will they superscore?</p>
<p>my DD sort of doesn’t want to even consider LSU, but i think it is one of her better options!</p>
<p>Mike
Unfortunately they do not superscore the ACT for scholarship purposes. They only accept scores from a single sitting. (My D has a 30 superscore) We exchanged e-mail with their financial aid office - they confirmed that although it is a bit late in the game, they would accept a June ACT score and would upgrade her to the Golden Oaks scholarship if she can hit a 30. It is a bit of a long shot - funds may not be available, etc - but it was actually my D’s idea to give it a try. We will see. </p>
<p>LSU was not initially high on my D’s list either - especially since we are in NJ - but the more she learned about the school and the programs they offer (Kinesiology major specializing in athletic training), big time football, large Greek scene (she is rushing), scholarship, warm weather, etc, she began to consider it more and more. Visiting the school sealed the deal. She went back for orientation a few weeks ago, got a great schedule, made her housing assignment yesterday. Met her roommate via facebook. (She is from Texas)</p>
<p>Good luck to your daughter on her search.</p>