Under 3.6 (GPA) and Applying Top 20 Parents Thread

Parents Forum
1541

<p>Flip remark from an off-season club lacrosse coach yesterday, and S2 may now add Williams College to his RD list. And I thought the list was finalized once the EA apps were submitted. ;)</p>

<p>At our hs, LORs and transcripts are automatically sent in waves based on the dates requested on guidance dept required forms, so your plan does make sense. LORs have all been requested of teachers and written and are on file at the guidance dept. So as the deadlines approach, packages are sent out. S2 is checking this week to ensure that LORs, SSR and transcripts for his 12/1 deadlines have been processed as of 11/15. So far we know that the EA wave was successfully received.</p>

1542

<p>S2 had his on-campus interview at Chicago on Saturday. Said it went very well – lasted 45 minutes. Also went to the Chicago-CMU football game, where the stands were filled, there were tailgaters with BBQ grills and beer in the parking lot, and a victory for the Maroons! He was quite happy with this, and heaven knows his brother would never show him this view of campus.</p>

<p>Grades first quarter were very strong. He has a good shot at it being his best semester in HS, which considering football, apps, debate, MUN and 7 AP/IB courses, is a huge accomplishment. The three 11/1 apps made it out, he is getting out two RD apps by 12/1 (a likely and a merit $$ app), and then we’ll wait for EA to see how many of the remaining schools get completed. He has eleven total.</p>

<p>Has not wanted to discuss adding any other likelies to the list. He is getting lots of mail from schools where he’d have a real shot and where I thought he’d find a good fit, but has already visited and said no thanks. Wish he’d revisit some of those decisions, but it’s not my life. Sigh.</p>

1543

<p>DS1 received confirmation from all four EA schools that his apps are complete. Now the wait really kicks into gear.</p>

<p>I’d like to share something interesting that happend last weekend. DS1 attended a two-day educational program of various classes at a nearby college. After feeling disappointed with a class with a great name but no fresh material, he left the classroom and overheard two program staffs talking about canceling a class because they don’t know where the teacher is. DS1 went up to them and told them he is familiar with the material and that he can teach the class! The two chuckled and gave him the nod. DS1 then proceeded to the classroom and gave an hour of impromptu lecture to 30 note-taking peer students! At the end of the class, the students thanked him and gave him a good feedback.</p>

<p>I asked DS1 why would these students even listen to him, since he did announce he was just a student in the program like them. He said, “Dad, if you act authoritative, they will listen, and I really know the material.”</p>

<p>Maybe time to send in an update to his apps?</p>

1544

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<p>Great story but probably not enough there to affect the decision.</p>

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<p>With a little luck that sense of confidence and insight already came through in his essays. I think it’s time to sit back and let the game play itself out. Good luck.</p>

1545

<p>vinceh, thanks for the reply. </p>

<p>I didn’t think the story was significant enough to affect the decision, but I encouraged DS1 to email this vignette to his interviewers as a way to maintain contact and show his continuing interest. </p>

<p>To be honest, I’m definitely the paranoid who looks at pretty much everything he does from now until decision time with an eye toward admissions. DS1, otoh, goes on doing what he likes and has to do.</p>

1546

<p>Great story PCP. I feel the same way you do, I wish I could just cut that anxiety about the responses out of my head. Hoping that Thanksgiving will be a nice break, but we will be seeing niece, who is also a 2010 HS grad. </p>

<p>Hope to hear some good news on this thread soon from you guys. DS has decided to drop Wake and add CMU for RD. He thinks it is a better fit. Today was the last day to request transcripts for 1/1 RD, but he will get the SAT II score back tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed, he will still want to apply to CMU tomorrow. </p>

<p>Good luck to all the parents still checking this thread.</p>

1547

<p>PCP,</p>

<p>Having gone down this road 4 years ago with S1 and with S2 a junior in high school, I hear your pain. I have two suggestions on how to get through the next few months though both present certain problems.</p>

<p>First you can take the Zen approach. One of Buddhism’s main tenets is that all suffering is born of desire. If you can free yourself of “desiring” that T20 acceptance letter your pain will disappear. This approach works marvelously well…until the first rejection letter shows up. So at best it’s a short term solution.</p>

<p>The other approach is to set up a regular time to commiserate with friends. I found that spending quality time with Johnny Walker’s sons, Blackie and Red, made the waiting momentarily tolerable. Of course, after hanging out with those two you can’t drive or operate heavy machinery and don’t get me started on the morning-after headaches.</p>

<p>All joking aside, I suggest relaxing. You bought your tickets, you’re strapped in and the roller coaster is heading up that first big rise; there are a lot of dips, twists and turns coming, try and enjoy the ride.</p>

1548

<p>LOL, I could personally testify that the 2nd approach does not work well at all. </p>

<p>To me, it is not so much as to get into a T20 or whatever school. Getting a good FA to a T20 is the really challenging part. The worst part of the deal would be if you had to tell your child that you could not afford the T20 they have worked so hard to get in.</p>

<p>Please make sure you have the “this is what we could afford” discussion before the first “yes” coming in. Many a times, the real bill is much bigger than the EFC.</p>

1549

<p>Well…I have a 3.55 unweighted but I received perfect ACT and SAT scores and 5’s on 4 of my 5 AP’s (4 on the other)…and I had a ton of ec’s so I’m not really freaking out. Obviously I’m not going for Harvard or Yale but Northwestern and Georgetown would be great.</p>

1550

<p>^^^^
I agree but why not try for an Ivy or two? With perfect scores and a reasonable weghted GPA you have a chance.</p>

1551

<p>This post on the NY Times’ The Choice is interesting for this thread:
[How</a> One College Evaluates a Transcript - The Choice Blog - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/transcript/]How”>How One College Evaluates a Transcript - The New York Times)</p>

<p>An admissions officer from Holy Cross describes their admissions evaluation process and shows a sample summary form.</p>

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<p>EDIT: I see that there is already a thread on the Admissions page
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/819275-how-do-admission-officials-decipher-your-transcript.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/819275-how-do-admission-officials-decipher-your-transcript.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

1552

<p>Thanks for the link, sacchi. I wish more colleges would provide some details about their evaluation process, instead of the same old “we look at the whole person” drivel.</p>

<p>Personal update:</p>

<p>My son has now finished the “relatively safe” phase of college applications and can breathe easy for three weeks before throwing himself into the “reaches” (or the ones he’s likely to get into but may not be able to afford). This is the way the list is shaping up:</p>

<p>Ole Miss: applied, admitted
Pitt: applied, admitted
Colorado School of Mines: applied, decision deferred until next semester
Alabama: applied, no reply yet</p>

<p>Although we started off with our flagship State U being his main safety, now that he has two admissions under his belt, he is actually thinking of not applying there anymore. He is not too fond of the state we live in (he considers Chicago home after growing up there) and would be just as happy to leave as soon as possible.</p>

<p>He has also changed his mind on a few reaches. He used to dream of attending MIT, but now he says that he wants a more well-rounded life than a tech school would provide, so MIT’s off the list. He also fell in love with Chicago when we visited but is put off by the Common Core, which he feels will delay his getting into the subjects he’s really interested in, not to mention that the phrase “where fun goes to die” has scared him a bit. So it seems Chicago is probably off the list as well. This is where I see him applying now:</p>

<p>Rochester: will apply (good chance at merit aid after getting Bausch & Lomb award last year)
WashU: will apply (nominated for Danforth Scholars program)
Stanford: his new elite dream school
Rice: my suggestion, which he says also sounds good to him
Brown: my suggestion, the reasons for which he says he agrees with, but wants to look into it further before deciding whether to apply</p>

<p>Of these, I’m most excited about Rochester and Brown because of their open curricula. My son has always been a “knowledge dabbler” and will, I’m sure, thrive when he’s able to construct his own program of study.</p>

<p>Hope to read your own under-3.6-applying-to-top-20 updates soon!</p>

1553

<p>^^^^
Congrats and good luck to your son! </p>

<p>Good to see this thread resurface, especially with ED coming around - I’m really curious although it doesn’t effect me or my kid at all. </p>

<p>I’d rather read good news and be a cheerleader. I’ve gotten a little bored reading people bashing this school or that school on other threads.</p>

1554

<p>Congrats on Ole Miss and Pitt, mantori Suzuki.</p>

1555

<p>I’ve been wondering but I have an 90.52 UW GPA. Does that mean I’m under 3.6 as well?</p>

1556

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<p>Check with your counselor, because the conversion from percentages to grades varies from school to school. At my son’s school, 90 or higher is an A and weighted as 4.0, but I know at least one school that would weight your grade as 90.52% X 4.0 = 3.62, which is pretty harsh. In either case, looks like you’re above 3.6. And when you apply to colleges, they will, in turn, do their own refiguring to determine what they consider your GPA to be.</p>

1557

<p>Mantori, sounds like a good list. I’m jealous that your S already has acceptances. </p>

<p>Pitt and Rochester are two schools that I had never heard of before-CC, and I wish they had entered my radar before my S and I had visited schools last spring. S already has a full list of schools to apply to (if the ED school doesn’t come through) and we’re not looking to add to it, but I’ll file them away in my brain for my freshman D to consider in a few years.</p>

1558

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<p>Same here. mantori - congrats on S’s acceptances! </p>

<p>It is interesting that we/our kids took opposite approaches after starting from the same place. Your S worked on four safeties/matches first and my S worked on four reaches first. After reading many exciting acceptance announcements on the forum, I now question my S (or my?) approach. I’m a bit torn between nudging S, who is just maxed out on his schedule due to his research work, to work on more apps now and holding off more apps until after EA decisions. He did give the school more envelopes for transcripts because of the long processing time. I really would like to see him complete couple safety/match apps. It will be great if these schools have rolling admissions so my impatience would not be stretched further :eek:.</p>

1559

<p>My son started down the path of applying EA to better schools first, but after his disappointing mid-term grades came in, I insisted that he stop working on EA applications, apply to safeties with relatively easy applications, and focus his efforts on bringing his grades up so he can submit strong RD applications. I figured that whatever advantage he might have gained from applying EA would be offset or ruined by his three mid-term C’s and the tepid recommendations that might follow.</p>

<p>Since then:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>We have the two acceptances, which is really nice.</p></li>
<li><p>His grades haven’t changed much.</p></li>
<li><p>The Ole Miss application turned out to be really time-consuming, with a personal statement and four different essays (one each for scholarships, the Chinese Language Flagship Program, the Honors College, and the Residential College). He could have finished the Common App twice in the time it took to apply to Ole Miss.</p></li>
<li><p>The one teacher recommendation I’ve seen was absolutely glowing. It basically said, if I may paraphrase, “This kid doesn’t have a very good grade in my class, but he’s the intellectual equivalent of the Second Coming, and all should bow down before him.” If I’d known it would be that strong, I might have encouraged my son to apply EA after all.</p></li>
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<p>So…who knows? We makes our choices, and we takes our chances. My mental health has certainly improved since the two acceptances came in (and I’m not kidding). Maybe that alone makes it worthwhile.</p>

1560

<p>I do think that alone makes it worthwhile, Mantori. Congrats to your son. It’s nice to have acceptances in his backpocket. I must admit, I’m a bit envious here!</p>