<p>Hi again, all! </p>
<p>5boys, I just saw your Q on S GPA–that was through jr year; S should have either 4 As or 3As and the rest Bs this semeseter (so, no major improvement on GPA but constant in school’s most difficult curriculum).</p>
<p>There were times I didn’t think D would ever “blossom,” but I’m very pleased to say that she finally has. Something clicked with schoolwork last semester, and now finally she has nailed the standardized tests. It was all up to her - consciously, in terms of putting the focus into it, and unconsciously, in terms of just getting more mature and having some skills jell. I could bemoan the fact that it could have happened one, two, three years ago - but I won’t. She is who she is, and what makes me especially pleased right now is the confidence she’s developed in herself. </p>
<p>Also I think her new ability to put everything together will serve her well wherever she goes. Six months ago I felt it was pointless for her to reach too high - even though she’s always had the ability to hold her own in discussions, etc. among the “high achievers” she’s been so frustrated that when the numbers come in, she would always be “lower.” I thought it would be better for her to be somewhere that she could stand out, not constantly take the hits on tests and grades. And there are plenty of vibrant, quality schools filled with plenty of intelligent kids, without being in the highly-selective category, that I didn’t think she was selling herself short.</p>
<p>If the more selective schools would take a chance on her, that’s great - I think she has the toolbox she needs to go there and succeed. I have no interest in “packaging” her to increase her chances at these schools - she’s definitely going to have to be accepted as herself, with the record she has, with the skill level she is at. If it’s not appropriate, then she’ll go to one of the other great schools on her list.</p>
<p>A year or so ago I was posting on CC that she just couldn’t seem to pull it together, get the chip off her shoulder, make a personal choice, whatever it was that was holding her back with grades and tests. It was going to have to be her that either changed or didn’t change - she can have a perfectly wonderful life however things turn out. </p>
<p>But now I have a senior who got all As first quarter (in 3 APs and an Honors Chem class, along with her arts electives), and says, “Whatever - it’s easy to get As in those classes.” She’s just different, that’s all. The important thing will be getting her to a college where she can continue to nurture her abilities - artistically and intellectually. There are lots of options - there always were, but now newer and different ones.</p>
<p>I’ll save my audition worries for the theatre threads. That’s a wholly different ballgame. But it will be helpful to get support and info from you all for the schools that fit this category. Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Yes EB… I totally agree with you in regards to letting them be as they are, and they will find the fit that is where they are meant to be based on their results. My DS decided long ago that he was never going to “package” himself for colleges. He was just going to do what he loved, the best that he could, and if a college didn’t accept him authentically than he didn’t want to go to that school anyway. I am proud of his maturity in regards to this. He is also one that can keep up with the top kids in discussions but he doesn’t always get the grades that they do. Of course because of his true 'love of learning for it’s own sake" he is adored by his teacher’s. It was always a decision of balance for him. He spends a lot of time on his EC’s and that is important to him too. He is not one to want to spend hours studying. So his college search will be interesting. Somewhere that is intellectual but not too competitive.</p>
<p>My D went so far with the “I won’t play that game” that she did reduce her options in the long run (she doesn’t sound as universally beloved as your son - more of a some-love-her-some-want-to-strangle-her situation). I think she would have just lived with that, though. She has the added factor of following a very high-achieving sister, which created some of this attitude but also made shooting “lower” a little more complicated, where pride factored in a bit more strongly.</p>
<p>We didn’t “do” anything except try to accept her as much for what she was, and gently urge her not to burn bridges, even if she didn’t want to frantically build them. I could go on with more theories about how things have gone with my kid. Mostly I’m just very pleased for her right now, and anticipating a long, complex, smiles-mixed-with-tears kind of year with an ultimately happy ending.</p>
<p>re luchteam:<br>
yes, but my son is not as strong academically: 4.1 W, 3.9 UW, ACT superscored: 30, 34 math but 27 english, ouch; SATII 720, 740, regular SAT low 19xx-- we won’t submit regular SATs. We are relying on ECs-- Eagle Scout and Varsity sports, but his essays are so-so-- great topics, but mediocre writing. So, I see JHU, Stanford, UCLA and Northwestern as huge stretches, but I will probably front the $$, unless others disagree. I think he has an even chance at USC, but he has safeties that should work for him. </p>
<p>Adcoms know full well that some students do not test well. Realistically, this generation is seeing the end of the “test-em-up-the-wazoo” era, I hope. Soon, there will be no SAT II’s, I predict; already there is chatter about the stupidity of these tests. My son got a 25 on the science reasoning ACT, then 2 months later a 34. Surely the test is not capturing aptitude. These weaknesses are becoming very well known. The pendulum has begun to swing. don’t worry.</p>
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<p>For most of these colleges, the 3.5 with a 2400 is still a long, long shot! </p>
<p>As a mother whose child was competitive for the top 20 but who is now attending the college ranked at 70 (I think?), I want to put in a plug for the schools ranked 21 and lower. There are literally hundreds of colleges out there and once you see your child thriving at their college, the whole application process becomes a very distant memory. </p>
<p>Gosh, I sound so old! Best of luck to all our students!</p>
<p>I am a student, but I was wondering if anybody here has any experiences with University of Rochester.
My weighted GPA is a 3.4, it should be a 3.5 after senior year grades (or even just mid-year grades - my GPA for the first marking period of this year is a 4.2).
I scored a 30 on the ACT twice, but if you combine the best scores then it’s a 31.
I tried taking the subject tests in Bio and Math II but it wasn’t a good choice, I really messed up and scored badly on both of them.
I’ve taken 3 AP classes, including psych this year.
I’m ranked in the top 37% of my class of about 480.
I am a girl from a public school in Pennsylvania usually sends a few kids to ivies/other really good schools.
University of Rochester is my top choice. I’ve visited and had an interview.
I really really really want to go there, but I find it hard to be optimistic about my chances.</p>
<p>If anyone has any experiences with Rochester, I’d love to hear them. Thanks.</p>
<p>My d is probably only applying to one top 10 or 20 college and she has over a 4.0 but her ACT is 30 with a 25 in math. She has strong extra curriculars, a strong curriculum, very good essay, at least one excellent recommendation (and no reason to think the other two aren’t as strong either and one is from another alumna of the school) but even though she is a double legacy, we fully realize that it is all a crap shoot and nothing is a given. Particularly since the school has had an enormous rise in applications, none of us are expecting an acceptance.</p>
<p>all4game - check on the 3.0-3.3 threads, including the Jewish B student thread. There are many comments about Rochester. It sounds like a good school for a student with your stats.</p>
<p>pugmadkate - You have excellent points, and believe me, I get it. My D’s list is extremely mixed, and the discussion on this thread for me is just a part of what we’re thinking about and looking for support with. We’re not obsessed with these particular schools, but we are glad to have a place where we can talk to other people who are trying for a reach or two. My D will be happy anywhere she is accepted. But after she got a competitive ACT score, and now that I’m seeing some skills and qualities that make me believe she could make it at the right top tier school (and I believe all of the ones she has selected are right for her), I have no problem with her feeling confident about applying to a few where her chances are low.</p>
<p>I’m glad the thread title changed, too. This is more about kids who are reaching, not about “how do you get into an extra-super-selective school?” My D’s reach schools are probably top … maybe 40, 50, 70ish. They have acceptance rates of at least 25%, and she’s at least in the middle of the mid-50% at all of them. So she’ll enjoy applying (several of them have really fun, creative essays) and then see what happens.</p>
<p>all4game, S2 applied and was accepted to URoch last year. They got a lot more applications last year than previously, which reducted their acceptance rate to the low 30s. Work really hard on the essays and demonstrate why you want to be at Rochester. They want to feel the love.</p>
<p>They (Rochester) also really like students to try to arrange an interview. At least that’s what they tell our students.</p>
<p>I’m curious - are kids on this thread applying to “top” schools as pie-in-the-sky reaches, or as their first choices, or somewhere in between? </p>
<p>From all of the other 3.X threads, we know that a 3.6 could mean you go to a hugely rigorous HS, or that you are a late bloomer, or that you have some areas in which you excel and others in which you can’t quite nail it. It also can go with many different levels of standardized tests. As was pointed out a few posts up, for top schools with this GPA, kids who aim high would likely have either competitive test scores, great ECs and other special attributes, or a HS background that makes their GPA more equivalent to a 4.0 somewhere else.</p>
<p>One of the nice things about this thread is that while all college admissions are mysterious and unpredictable, aiming for schools with a 25%-or-below admission rate is a trip into the complete unknown. When the middle 50% of accepted students is already at the top of the heap in one or more areas, you can’t do much more than cross your fingers. So there is a special kind of stress/excitement in this experience.</p>
<p>My D has a couple of her “top” school apps in early, for theatre purposes, and all of her match and safety schools are done. But she added many of her reaches to her list just in the past few weeks, so they’re going in RD; they were always significant dream schools for her, but only became logical to apply to after this fall’s ACT. What I’m wondering in her case is that she’ll be thinking so much now about some pretty elite schools, writing those essays exclusively (which means vividly imagining herself there), and how that will feel as answers roll in from wonderful but not so much “top” colleges. </p>
<p>I suppose all of us whose kids reach high wonder if they’ll just get a big kick in the teeth. She’s put 2 big reaches on there, and a couple that are pretty big, that could be rough on her ego. There’s nothing I can do about it; I’m proud she wants to try, and I think she’s doing it for the right reasons. I’m just anticipating balancing a “you go, girl” approach as she works on the apps with a “don’t let this be how you measure yourself in the long run” message underneath.</p>
<p>On the practical side, I suppose we should look into some alumni interviews? I know they don’t count for much, but they do show some effort on her part, and ideally she can learn more about the schools from them. She’d probably enjoy them, too. But I imagine they can be done more leisurely over the winter for RD?</p>
<p>EB… My DS is very level-headed and is looking at colleges based on fit, not selectivity. He had a 3.2 UW GPA coming into Junior year. He has a few AP’s this year and so far has done fantastic… so hopefully strong upward trend. He just got his first SAT’s back and they were REALLY good, so we all celebrated that, but I am now worried that coupled with his lower GPA, he will be looked upon as lazy. He is most definitely not, just is unorganized and a few other ADHD symptoms that limit him from getting all A’s. He will have great LOR’s based on his teacher’s comments on his report cards and has atypical and phenomenal EC’s. I think he would be a contender for top 20 schools if it weren’t for his GPA, but he does not have a competitive spirit and would die in that kind of environment. It is definitely going to be tricky because he does like to be around intellectual kids as he is very bright.</p>
<p>He will have a few reaches I’m sure… but I also have preached for him to fall in love with a school that is very likely, and then he can reach for the stars for all I care. Because he is such an unusual applicant, I have no idea where he will end up. He is going to a school in Vermont next semester that is very selective and most kids who matriculate from there go onto Ivy’s. It made me think he might be more competitive than he first appears, but he really has no interest so far in the Ivy’s. He wants a small school< 2000, where there is discussion based classes, and a great outdoor club. Thankfully there are plenty of those types of schools in all selectivity.</p>
<p>I do think that is at the center of some of my D’s reaches - this feeling of wanting to be in an atmosphere that is right for her. She was a late bloomer in HS, but I’m seeing a lot in her now that could do very well in an exciting environment with creative and capable kids (which in my opinion includes many, many schools, but is particularly so in some of the more selective schools). She has a creative and intellectual flair that is very frustrated in her current rural public school - by both peers and teachers. I’m hoping that she will be admitted by some schools that will see her potential and want to foster it.</p>
<p>Your son’s spring program sounds fascinating. He will learn so much about himself, and what he wants. Good for him!</p>
<p>I think the best advice is to help the kids find a school that best fits them. 3.5 unweighted and decent national test scores in my opinion is the sweet spot for many, many colleges and universities. While it’s definitely a long shot for an unhooked candidate at the Top 20, it’s a great college-bound hand. I think that this thread will meander this year because “top schools” is just too general a term and the range too broad and depends on the perspective of the poster.</p>
<p>My son last year had two pie in the sky reaches. One was academically too good a program for him not to at least try for, the other was more to placate his Dad. (Legacy school.) He was fully prepared more rejections that he got. Since he loved his safety, he really had no worries. </p>
<p>I feel sorry for kids who are devastated by college rejections. My kids have learned to cope with losing since their chess days where it was hammered into them, that if they don’t lose they have pushed themselves enough.</p>
<p>Hi, all! Mom-of-three, for my S, top schools mean top LACs…large top 20s are not his thing.</p>
<p>For my S, he’s looking at the top of those LACs (Wesleyan, Vassar etc) has very big reaches. Although he has EDed to Wesleyan, he has already submitted all his other apps…because he’s really not expecting a Wesleyan ED admit…that’s why its a reach! He’ll be disappoiinted, of course if not accepted, but not surprised.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, most of the LACs he is interested in have admit rates from about 20% to 40% at best. So, his total “safety” is the local state system where he’ll save a boatload of money for the first year and then try to transfer. In a sense, his applications are light on matches because S felt that he should either go to a dream school (since it will cost so much money) OR go to the state school and save the money. I don’t think that is a terrible way to look at things.</p>
<p>Also, he truly would be thrilled to attend any of the LACs on his list. I think the only thing that would be a kick in the teeth (addressing EmmyBets concern above) is if he is rejected by all of them.</p>
<p>We are still anxiously awaiting to see if he got into Bard via the IDP (for those not familiar, a type of early admit with a quick yes or no, but not binding). The letter should have been here already!</p>
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<p>For D1, it’s both first choice(s) and pie-in-the-sky. The first choices, one ED, one RD, are schools that were chosen by fit. There are also a couple of total hail mary passes where D1 really liked the essay prompts. </p>
<p>Though D1 has some of the “right” mitigating factors (rigorous school/curriculum, high test scores), her non-ED reaches are especially a longshot because other classmates with higher GPAs are applying to those same schools. She knows this, has brought it up…but she’s still applying. Her ED school isn’t popular at her high school, so it is more likely. But still a reach.</p>
<p>Good luck, GKM! That program sounds really wonderful! If we lived closer, I know my D would have wanted to go. As it is, she’s decided to use the RD deadline to take time writing her essay. She’s excited by it. </p>
<p>We did tour Bard last summer and she loved it there. And it sounds like a 3.6ish kid with interesting activities/interests/things to say is an excellent candidate. So it looks like our kids have a chance of ending up at the same school! How fun!</p>
<p>My D is 2 kids applying - the auditioned theatre program kid, and the great BA theatre school kid. Vassar and Northwestern are her “applying top schools” schools, Brandeis a close third, and Bard not far behind those. She has a couple of nice BA safeties, too. </p>
<p>I won’t go into the auditioned theatre list - it’s a whole different ballgame, and we talk about that on the Theater Forum.</p>
<p>My D has a large (13 school) list because she does not want to be left with one choice in the worst of all possible worlds. She pretty much can be sure, as sure as anyone these days, of getting into at least three of her schools, and really 5-6 are quite excellent chances. 4-5 of these also cost way less (state schools, or likely merit aid, or both). </p>
<p>I would say Vassar, Northwestern, Brandeis and a couple of her auditioned schools are “top” schools - and I think that’s a pretty standard opinion. This thread is still talking about the common concerns about “top” schools, which really means a low admission rate and a dream school for most anyone. “Top 20” never seemed to work in the old thread, because that’s a REALLY small number of schools and doesn’t include dozens of others that are extremely selective. The thread is helpful because of the absolute lack of sureness among schools where most admitted students have the top grades, top scores, and other top attributes, yet people (who aren’t athletes or legacies) do get admitted regularly. When my kid decided to put in a couple of these applications, I definitely felt I needed a little bit more handholding and peer support.</p>
<p>ST - just saw your post. It is sad when you know you’re going head-to-head with someone in your own school. I’ve seen that happen, and it’s sad to see peers who know they could (or have) hurt each other. We don’t get much of that here, and I’m grateful. I respect your D for having a strong stomach!</p>
<p>S was accepted to Bard!!!</p>
<p>So very, very thrilled. We loved Bard from our visit there last June; they have a very distinct educational philosophy. And my S is Bard-quirky in a totally good-fit way.</p>
<p>EmmyBet–they could end up at the same school! That would be neat.</p>
<p>SlithyTove–My S definitely goes to a school where he’ll be the only one applying to possibly all of his LAC choices. That will definitely help him. The flip side of that is when I was talking to the other parents at the IDP, it sounded like all of their children go to private schools or magnet schools or high-ranked schools. My S goes to good old podunk high. We were nervous about that, but less so now that he has an acceptance to a school he loves.</p>