<p>I have one who is at college already and two more boys at home. </p>
<p>My middle son is a junior in HS and I have been reading the 3.0-3.3 thread to try to figure out where he should apply. I am having trouble helping him make his list. It seems that there are few matches for him because not all B students are created equal.</p>
<p>His UW GPA is around 3.3. He has gotten mostly Bs in high school and some As. No Cs/Ds on his transcript. His weighted GPA is 4.7. About 3/4 of his classes are honors or AP. He will have 4 AP classes after this year ((Human Geography (4), World History (4), US History, Spanish Language). He has not taken the SAT/ACT but he scored 209 on the PSAT. He goes to a private, college prep school where students do receive grades below a B on a regular basis.</p>
<p>He is in marching band and concert band with leadership positions and awards. He plays lacrosse but he is not a lacrosse star. He has participated in the pit orchestra for the school's musicals and the pit orchestra has won awards (county and statewide). He is usually asked to be part of the symphony orchestra and the chorus teacher requests him when she needs a drummer to accompany the chorus. He also plays piano. His EC are mostly music related but there are many each year. </p>
<p>We are likely full pay and not URM. I am certain he will receive excellent recommendations and he is a good writer as far as essays are concerned.</p>
<p>He would like a school with Division 1 Football/Basketball so he can be in the marching band and he is interested in marketing/business. He would like a school in at least a small city but he says he would consider college towns as well. He just doesn't want to be isolated. He wants to stay in the east. He is not a party person and wants a school where there is a social life outside of parties. He is social but prefers small groups of people to parties.</p>
<p>He is also considering music business as a major but that is a separate list as the programs themselves are sometimes in totally unknown schools. That list I can handle.</p>
<p>So far he has expressed an interest in:</p>
<p>U of Miami
Tulane
Florida State (in state)</p>
<p>What other schools should he consider? I know Miami and Tulane are reachy for him so that leaves him with one match and no safeties. I have read the 3.0-3.3 thread but some of those schools do not seem like academic matches for him. I am having trouble finding matches for him, although if he gets into U of Miami he will go there.</p>
<p>How about other schools in the same athletic conference as the 3 above? I can give you a list of several schools that would be great fits, none are in the east though. Many DII and DIII schools also have marching bands and big sports followings so maybe start looking outside of the DI realm.</p>
<p>One thing you might want to investigate is how difficult it is to get into the marching bands at the various schools. It sounds as though your son is quite a good musician, but the auditions for marching band at some colleges are extremely competitive. </p>
<p>It might not hurt for him to ask himself the question, “Would I still want to be at this school if I don’t qualify for marching band?”</p>
<p>Would University of Alabama - Birmingham be a suitable safety? It has:</p>
<ul>
<li>Probable automatic scholarships for his probably stats (and it is not that expensive to begin with).</li>
<li>Business majors (accounting and finance, MIS, marketing).</li>
<li>Music major.</li>
<li>Marching band.</li>
<li>NCAA Division I athletics.</li>
</ul>
<p>Unweighted GPA is a better guide to college shopping than weighted GPA as calculated by your high school. Some colleges calculate a weighted GPA using their own rules, so you can recalculate based on those colleges’ rules when considering those colleges.</p>
<p>I would certainly be interested in any schools you would recommend. We are open to him going to school anywhere in the US. I don’t know much about the other SEC schools other than Vanderbilt where I don’t think he would be accepted.</p>
<p>If he went to an out of state university it would have to be comparable to FSU. I can’t see paying a busload of money for him to go to an out of state university that wasn’t better than what he could get here unless he got good scholarships.</p>
<p>As far as D2/3 schools I think he would consider it but he really wants the big time sports experience as it relates to band. If he could have both he would prefer it.</p>
<p>Since we live locally we are certain he would make the Miami band. The FSU band is extremely competitive but most kids from our high school who auditioned made it. I have no idea about Tulane.</p>
<p>I agree about not making a decision solely on marching band.</p>
<p>Tulane doesn’t sound reach-y to me for his stats (weighted GPA of course and the PSAT is very good). Also, another parent of 2016 D (if I recall correctly) is at Tulane and made the marching band without previously setting it up - I believe she met with the band people after she was accepted and maybe during orientation.</p>
<p>It would be possible. I don’t know how it stacks up against FSU. It would cost us virtually nothing for him to attend FSU (we have FL prepaid and he will qualify for Bright Futures). I will have to take a look at the data. I don’t know if I want to pay for him to be at an oos public unless there is something compelling about the school. There might be something compelling. We will check it out. Thank you.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I am aware of this. Do schools make their rules available on their websites? </p>
<p>I have a sheet for FL state universities that the GCs give out. FSU also give extra points towards admission for taking 5 core academic classes senior year, taking 5 AP classes, taking the highest level course available in a subject area and taking 4 years of the same foreign language. All will apply to my son.</p>
<p>Does your school rank kids, or do you have a general idea where he stands? Have you asked the GC where kids with similar rigor and grades get in? My mostly B+ student benefited from a good rank at a big public school and from having done well in AP courses and gotten great scores junior year. (Took one as a sophomore, two as a junior and three more as a senior.) He had similar PSAT score, ended up with 2140 on the SAT. He ended up doing much better than I expected getting into U of Chicago (EA), Vassar, and Tufts. In the context of past admissions results for his school I knew all these were reaches, but within the realm of possibility. He didn’t get into the schools that were more selective than these and I don’t know if he would have gotten into Chicago if he hadn’t applied EA. So much of this is about context - if your school is well known for giving out tons of B’s it may not matter as much - if your child is in the top 10% it may not matter as much. Big public schools that look more at grades may not notice that’s he’s a better prospect than his grades indicate.</p>
<p>Our school does not rank. If you ask the GC they will give you an approximate idea of where you are ranked (top 10%, 15% etc…) but not an actual rank. I don’t think my son is interested in super selective schools like Chicago but he loves U of Miami. </p>
<p>Our school gives out grades lower than B quite often. Bs are not considered bad so I am surprise to find out that so many parents here consider Bs to be the same as Fs. My older son had a B-in Calculus and wound up with a 5 on the AP exam and got an A in Calc 2 in college.</p>
<p>Would other Florida publics less selective than FSU be suitable, with similar “virtually nothing” costs, so that they can be safeties, if FSU is too selective to be a safety?</p>
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</p>
<p>The California publics’ recalculation method is fairly well known, but I do not know if other schools which recalculate post their methods in obvious places.</p>
<p>I don’t think FSU is too selective for him (based on Naviance for his school). Every student from his school with his statistics has been accepted at FSU. I really think that FSU is a safety for him. Luckily, it is on his list of preferred schools.</p>
<p>The FL publics recalculation method is also fairly well known but I was wondering about the others. When I went to the U of Miami site it stated that the freshman class had a weighted GPA of 4.2 but I don’t know how it was calculated. My son’s weighted GPA is 4.7 based on his school’s calculation. When I went to Naviance it also indicated that most students with his statistics from his school were admitted to U of Miami. Maybe it’s not as much of a reach as I think.</p>
<p>If FSU really is a safety (instead of a match as you indicated before), is basically free, and he likes it, then there may not be much need to add a lot of other colleges. After all, there is no point in applying anywhere that he would not choose over his safety under any circumstances.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you are not completely sure that FSU is a 100% certain safety, perhaps find another super-safety (less selective Florida public, UAB, etc.) just in case.</p>
<p>The more I look at the data the more I think that FSU is a safety for him. His recalculated Florida GPA (core only, honors +.5, AP +1) is 3.95. The middle 50% is 3.7-4.2. There are additional points awarded for:</p>
<p>Taking 5 core academic classes senior year-He might not do this.
Taking 5 AP courses throughout HS-He will have this.
Taking 6 Honors courses throughout HS-He will have this
Taking highest level available in school-He will have AP Spanish
Taking 4 years of the same foreign language-He has 5 years of Spanish</p>
<p>So although I said FSU was a match I think it is probably a safety for him. I can’t imagine him not getting in FSU. </p>
<p>I think I am having trouble figuring out what a match is for him.</p>
<p>If I understand your postings correctly, he likes:</p>
<p>Miami (first choice, low match?, net price ok?)
Tulane (?)
FSU (safety, costs almost nothing)</p>
<p>If FSU is a 100% sure thing safety, then only schools he might choose over FSU need to be considered, regardless of reach/match. It is conceivable that if he likes no other schools better than FSU, Tulane, and Miami, then his application list is complete.</p>
<p>Any of the Big 10 schools would work, U of MN probably the least expensive for out of state, but again, not in the east. If he wants a smaller setting the University of WI-Eau Claire has an amazing marching band program, about 220 members and they travel all over the world to perform. DIII school though, but pretty good sports following. I guess it depends on if it is the football with band being the bonus or the band with football being the bonus that he wants.</p>
<p>Colleges are going to look at the classes your son took and they seem to be rigorous.
I think comparing unweighted and weighted gpa’s between different high schools can be misleading. Not all schools weight the same or grade the same for that matter. Some schools add more on than others some don’t add anything at all. The admin’s know that which is why some schools recalculate the gpa after you send in the transcripts.They also are going to look at our son’s SAT scores,AP scores. I would put in a few reaches. Because they may not be reaches after all.</p>
<p>um… not sure about the university of Minnesota. They are talking about increasing the difference between instate and out of state. They may not be the least expensive much longer.</p>