<p>For the Parents of us B+ students who are unwelcome in the other threads - you know who you are!</p>
<p>I don't care if you have high or low SAT scores, or if your GPAs are weighted or unweighted.</p>
<p>I've figured out my son's GPA every which way but loose. According to the school his waited average is almost 92, but you have to realize that every Regent's level course is waited by 1.05 so that when you actually look at the grades his average is 87.6 and that includes two orchestra courses every term that he never gets less than a 98 in. We think he's in the top 25% of the class, but not the top 10%. OTOH he's taking a demanding schedule (7 APs by the end of senior year), and he has excellent SAT scores. 790 CRl, 670M, 670W. He's not really an underachiever, he seems to have some processing issues, but dropped his 504 plan on entering high school. He's interested in history and international relations. He thinks he'd like to go to a large LAC or smallish research U. in urban or suburban location. Not overly interested in going too far away, but willing to consider it. His grades this year were looking better, but he just bombed (63!) a major AP Bio test (last report card before the test had a solid A and teacher said he was outstanding - sigh), so we may drop many of the reaches.</p>
<p>The (very) unedited list:</p>
<p>*Uber-Reaches *
Georgetown
Brown
Tufts (visited and liked though not as much as Vassar)</p>
<p>Reaches
Vassar (visited and liked)
U. of Chicago (aunt, uncle and grandparents attended)
Vanderbilt
Carnegie Mellon
Johns Hopkins
Brandeis (visited and liked)</p>
<p>Matches
U. of Rochester
Reed
Macalaster
Tulane</p>
<p>Safeties
Syracuse
American
George Washington
Trinity
BU (probably too big and not enough campus, we didn't visit when we were in Boston)</p>
<p>I wish we had more matches - there are a bunch on the possible list, but most are too rural and hard to get to as they are in the midwest. OTOH, I think American might be perfect. We'll visit the DC schools as some point as he has an aunt in the area and both dh and I are comfortable with DC having grown up there.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, the other thread is for kids who have 3.0 to 3.3 <strong><em>weighted</em></strong> GPAs. Why be upset if your kid is doing better than that? I hope your thread yields as much input for your children as I’m hoping my thread does for mine. :-)</p>
<p>I think that Reed and Macalester are unfortunatly reaches for your son. I had a better GPA (with equally challenging courseload) and better test scores and was rejected by Macalester and Reed can be more selective then Mac. I am not saying your son will not get in, he may fit the student they are looking for better. But I thought Mac was a match for me and I was very disappointed on april 1st.</p>
<p>also Tufts is easier then all your regular reaches (except maybe vassar) and GW and American are matches.</p>
<p>I interpret match as a college where the student has a 50/50 chance. SmallColleges, Mac probably was a match for you, but you fell in the unlucky 50%.</p>
<p>[on edit] but I agree with SmallColleges that Syracuse, American and GW are not safeties for the OP.</p>
<p>I sorted more or less by percent of top 10% of class and percent accepted overall, but I know some of the numbers I put in my spread sheet need to be corrected as the book I used despite being 2009 has some numbers that are off. According to our Naviance American is a safety, but it may have gotten harder to get into in recent years. His grandmother graduated from there if that helps. I don’t consider matches sure bets by any means I consider them 50/50 schools. And I don’t think he has any 100% safe schools on the list right now though I hope early action or rolling admissions somewhere may take care of that. I think there might be a geographic advantage at Mac and Reed, but I could be off base coming from NY.</p>
<p>Aha! I think I might have found the thread for my DS.</p>
<p>He has a very similar profile to that of mathmoms son. Also will have taken 7 APs by graduation and his PSAT scores make him a very likely NMSF. However, his GPA may prevent his advancement to NMF.</p>
<p>His teachers consistently say he shows a solid love of learning, but hes just lackadaisical about turning in homework on time, showing his work on tests, including sufficient details in his essays, etc.</p>
<p>His reach school is Rice, which is the only school in which hes actually expressed a strong interest. His GC says American is a safety, but I wonder if shes being too optimistic.</p>
<p>He has a very important hook URM. So that gives him a leg up in many cases.</p>
<p>Since DS is not diligently putting together a list of schools, Ive taken on that job. And, merit aid is one important factor that Im including. The fact that DS is open to all geographic areas and has not decided upon a major makes it a challenge to narrow down a list. I know I should be further along in this process, so I plan to get working on it now and I expect this thread will be helpful.</p>
<p>Mathmom, I think Rochester and Tulane are a notch below Reed and Macalaster. By the way, what’s wrong with the Midwest? What do you mean ‘hard to reach’? Macalaster is in the Midwest. There are other great schools in the Midwest the same caliber as Reed and Macalaster, in fact “ranked” a little higher like Grinnell in Iowa and Oberlin in Ohio. There is also Kenyon in Ohio, another great school. I don’t understand why you classify these schools as “hard to reach.” I found them easy to reach.</p>
<p>PayFor, your son sounds rather like mine, who was in that small group of NMSF who didn’t advance to NMF. It’s not easy to find matches for our kids.</p>
<p>mathmom, I don’t want to seem like a party-pooper, but I do not agree with that list at all. I am adding this hear because it is, sometimes, very important to have a second opinion. I know I like them. I’m a little on the conservative side, but I’d rank them like this:</p>
<p>Georgetown (super reach)
Brown (super reach)
Tufts (high reach)
Vassar (reach)
U. of Chicago (reach, legacy = parents at most schools)
Vanderbilt (reach/high match)
Carnegie Mellon (high match)
Johns Hopkins (high match)
Brandeis (no clue)
U. of Rochester (no clue)
Reed (no clue)
Macalaster (match)
Tulane (match)
Syracuse (low match)
American (low match)
George Washington (high match, be careful though - low acceptance rates)
Trinity (no clue)
BU (match)</p>
<p>For someone who doesn’t live in the area, Grinnell is much harder to reach than Macalester. Grinnell is in the middle of nowhere, while Macalester is minutes from a major airport.</p>
<p>At S2’s school, average Naviance stats for Syracuse was a 3.22 and 1827; for American U, 3.44 and a 1920; for BU, 3.66/2200. All three admitted large numbers of students. SATs over 2100 put one in the far right end of the scattergram. </p>
<p>I think the context of one’s school absolutely has to be factored in to what a poster considers match/reach/safety, and in the interests of not divulging too much info, that is something that the rest of us have to trust, esp. if that poster has access to current Naviance data and has been around here long enough to know the score about the current admissions environment. We found the Naviance data almost uniformly accurate last year, even for a kid with an “uneven” profile.</p>
<p>S2 visited Macalester this April – he was told at the info session that they accepted 46% of their applicant pool this year.</p>
<p>mathmom – I think we are popping by Syracuse this summer, too, as long as we are headed up that general direction. S2 has also wondered about GW. Problem is many good IR programs are in DC and he is ready to be farther from home!</p>
<p>GPA:
9th-10th grade: 3.2 UW
9th-11th grade projected: 3.4 UW
Have taken three AP’s so far, signed up for five next year.
AP geo: 5
AP euro: 3
Ap chem: wish me luck</p>
<p>Class rank: second decile.</p>
<p>SAT:
790 Reading
790 Math
770 Writing</p>
<p>PSAT: 234 - national merit semifinalist, maybe a finalist.</p>