<p>I do plan on doing visit reports some time soon. I think that some of my son’s unusual interests and a high test did help him in admissions.</p>
<p>Great to see these posts, as it looks like DS#3 will end up in this GPA range. There are indeed some great schools mentioned, and I’m ecstatic seeing that some (many?) kids are even getting merit aid. Looking forward to hearing how everyone turned out by May 1. (And then will have to remember to bump this up next year.)</p>
<p>It would be interesting after all is said and done and the RD “reachy” schools are in the mix to analyze the ACT scores. Warriorboy’s had an exceptional ACT. I’m wondering if there is overlap in acceptances between the B students with above average ACTs (24-27) and the high ACTs (28-30s) if there are actually 2 tiers of “B” student colleges.</p>
<p>momofthree, I think that’s what we’ll find. My son’s SATs were close to dismal, and I think he will be rejected by his RD reaches.</p>
<p>I think it’s even more complicated than that gweeta. A 3.3 at one school can be vastly different from a 3.3 at another school. One honors program office told me that they know about certain schools in some New England states where the standards are different, and therefore, they would consider a lower GPA kid from those schools being the same as a higher GPA kid at a school in their state. However, it’s possible that admissions offices are sometimes using SAT scores to further elucidate what the GPA really means, even though there are plenty of bright kids that just don’t test well.</p>
<p>^^Agreed. In our own area, there are quite dramatic differences in the quality of the schools and the amount of work required for a particular GPA. My son’s school is in the middle on that spectrum. (It’s a great fit for him for a lot of reasons, but I really wish they had higher academic standards.)</p>
<p>Here’s more hope for families of B students. S with a D for freshman year french II, 1820 SAT, 3.0u/3.45W and quite a few C’s in math has been accepted to the following schools with varying amounts of merit aid: Hendrix, UNC-Asheville, Guilford, Berry, Ohio Wesleyan, McDaniel, Allegheny. Waiting on a few more. These acceptances have been well beyond what we hoped for and we certainly did not expect to be offered merit aid (18K at OWU). Son is a musician (double bass-maybe the instrument helped?), was in a number of community and school music groups, participated in two varsity sports but was always one of the slower team members, and just a nice, nothing spectacular kind of kid. His essay was really nice and I imagine the teachers that wrote recs for him said good things. I never thought he would be in a position where he would be struggling over which of the schools to choose.</p>
<p>Congrats! He may be “nothing spectacular”, but those results sure are! Prhaps he was slow on the team, but he has a great victory lap coming up!</p>
<p>I’m a student with 3.3 gpa, got in Indiana University, Purdue University, Ball State University.</p>
<p>3/3</p>
<p>More California stories please!</p>
<p>nephew in state pennsylvania…accepted univ alabama, wvu ,and penn state main campus</p>
<p>“nothing spectacular kind of kid.”</p>
<p>Maybe not “spectacular,” but 3.45 gpa and 1830 is a solid academic profile and qualifies for merit $$ at quite a number of colleges and universities.</p>
<p>Daughter: 3.3 gpa, 1750 SATs. Two VERY strong ecs. (Don’t want to say because it might id her–not a recruited athlete)</p>
<p>Applied to one school:</p>
<p>University of Southern California–finishing her freshman year–honor roll</p>
<p>Fight On!</p>
<p>^ Wow ! was that weighted or unweighted ? Or is it the same, as is the case with MY son…?</p>
<p>In her case, it didn’t matter. One AP and two (?) honors.</p>
<p>Perhaps a little late to the party, but S was class of '09. About 3.0 gpa, 5 AP classes, 4-5 honors. Other than guitar lessons, virtually no EC’s other than one summer job. S is a good writer, so essay was fine, and the rec was from his favorite teacher and really targeted who S is (including the “sporadically motivated” comment). He’s a good tester and we only submitted ACT of 31. No FA.</p>
<p>Accepted to UCSC, Marquette ($), Ursinus ($), Sonoma State, Goucher, DePaul, Ripon ($) and Cornell College ($). He’s currently a very happy freshman at Marquette which, at the beginning of the process, may have been at the bottom of the list. </p>
<p>There are great options for B kids, but the net definitely has to be cast widely.</p>
<p>^^ Again, a 3.0 with lots of honors and AP classes is going to result in an impressive weighted gpa - - enhanced by strong ACT score (31) and no application for need-based aid. Congrats!! But these are kids w/ well above average grades/scores and applying to highly regarded (if less well-known) schools. </p>
<p>Only on CC would Ursinus, Marquette, Goucher et al be considered casting a wide net!</p>
<p>NYC, with respect, I think that Cpeltz’s son applying to schools in 6 different states, in the Far West, Midwest and East, some urban and some rural, 2 Catholic, 2 public and 4 private, would be considered casting a pretty wide net outside of CC.</p>
<p>Trust me, it was not an impressive gpa, as there were several D’s in the mix and a student who didn’t realize the urgency of the whole application process. We were fortunate with the result ONLY because he applied (under duress) to different kinds of schools across the country. He did not want to do visits, so there was no way of really knowing what he wanted until the spring.</p>
<p>Yes, he is very lucky that he tests well and has a parent who nagged and pushed - I hope to get a thank you in the next dozen years!</p>
<p>Good luck to all of you still in the process.</p>
<p>I’ve really enjoyed reading the successes of other kids with Ds on their transcript. For my son, I was under the assumption that the D (both semesters freshman year!) killed his possibility for anything but the lower tier state schools and lower level private schools without FA. I wish I had seen this thread several years ago. My poor son would not have been under the assumption that he had ruined opportunities at age 14. </p>
<p>We did apply for financial aid as we have an older child in an LAC with two more years to go. Although we have not submitted the FAFSA yet, we indicated the need for aid and reported the name of the college and year of the older sibling on the common app. It will be interesting to see if these colleges that admitted him will add on the need based grant money.</p>