Parents of the HS Class of 2013 - 3.0 to 3.3 GPA - Page 3

yabeyabe2 · 10-27-2010, 10:01 PM

Texasmom, Adam Morrison, college basketball playr of the year 3 years ago and now with the Lakers has diabetes

Septmbr · 10-27-2010, 10:20 PM

Yabeyabe I am interested in Susquehanna for DS12 who fits in this thread(well the 3.0-3.3 part not the class of 13 part). I have been trying to understand their central curriculum. It seems pretty complicated, and extensive. What I read also suggested that they require 3 classes in foreign language. Any insight?

yabeyabe2 · 10-27-2010, 10:29 PM

Septmbr, the core curriculum seems to have a fair number of options built into it--for example, an introduction to logic class helps meet the math requirement. I believe testing for language can lower the number of classes you need to take.

I have not examined the language requirement in depth yet, but know my son did not have to take it his first semester (despite not placing it out of it and having split his HS language studies between Spanish and French), but will his second. I will ask him.

To my surprise, despite the workload being more intense than he would like, he loves Susquehanna--the kids are extremely friendly and down to earth; the campus is beautiful; there is lots to do; the classes are small; the facilities excellent. He has become much more independent and mature while there--he had never been away before college.

texasmom14 · 10-28-2010, 08:22 AM

yabeyabe2
Thanks for the info about Adam Morrison, there is also a golfer on the PGA tour with diabetes. DS will be playing in his first ice-hockey game tonight. We hope we have a plan to account for the amount of energy he expends while playing. It is always a trial and error process as he tries new things. I am nervous, he is confident so we seem to have a good balance between us.

reeinaz · 10-28-2010, 08:50 AM

yabeyabe2 - Since we live in PA, I actually do like a lot of the schools in the state. But price is going to be a major consideration since I doubt he will qualify for merit aid. So he will need schools that give good (excellent) need based aid.

reeinaz · 11-18-2010, 04:54 PM

This thread is so quiet! I lurk in the 2012 and 2011 threads. I know we are very early in the process and probably really hoping our kids will eventually no longer fit the description of this thread. But 1st quarter grades will be in soon and I am soooo ansty. My son refuses to give me his user name and password to access his online grades

Right now, he admits to 2 Cs, a few As and the rest Bs which would be a fantastic start for him. Going over his grades from 9th grade, I realized it was the electives that bumped him up to a 3.1. Upward trend will be my mantra.

umich8790 · 11-18-2010, 09:23 PM

Hi. Just discovered this thread and plan on following it (and hoping to be informed and inspired by it) as it relates to my S2 (high school freshman). S1 is an achieving high school senior waiting to hear from colleges, and I am expecting a very different process for S2. 1s Q grades came in at a 3.3, which is fine (at least there were no Cs), but this will probably be his easiest grading pd. as it's his 1st (transition) semester of high school. They took the PLAN for practice this year and the results came in today....terrible. If I wasn't so focused on college w/ S1, I never would have been looking around on here, but am hoping that I found a like-minded/situated group of parents to go through high school with. Thanks.

rockvillemom · 11-18-2010, 10:30 PM

reeinaz - I am a big fan of following on-line grades and staying on top of my 11th grade son - although I am trying to tone it down a bit. I am sure if you call the school you can get your own user name and password to access the on-line grades - that's what I did!

umich8790 · 11-19-2010, 04:50 PM

reeinaz....can you tell me what vocab books you were talking about back on p. 1. That sounds like a great way for my son who spends no time reading for pleasure to actually read and learn SAT vocab at the same time.

kathiep · 11-19-2010, 05:20 PM

Parents of B students, I suggest that you all lurk on our B students thread for seniors. All three of my kids were/are B students (they did/do take honors and AP's) and all three have gotten merit aid at Private colleges. So far my current senior student has been accepted and gotten good merit aid at Hartwick College in NY, Arcadia in PA, Florida Institute of Technology and University of New Haven in CT. He's also been accepted at Drexel. My oldest son graduated from Roanoke College in VA and got substantial merit aid all four years. Being a B student does not always mean a slacker. My son has never done well on mid-terms and finals but does fine on projects, homework and most tests.

umich8790 · 11-19-2010, 09:14 PM

Forget it, reeinaz, I was able to find the books. Sounds like a great idea, but I know there's going to be resistance.

reeinaz · 12-13-2010, 11:24 AM

It seems that my son's school really values student privacy so they won't give me a password if my son is refusing to give me his. But I was told that I could pretty much email his teachers whenever, to get the status of his assignments.
I'm happy to say that his grades were a huge improvement over last year's but they stillcould improve. I'd like to see more Bs than Cs in his core subjects but unlike last year there were no Ds or Fs. So yay for small victories. I'm anxious to see if there was any improvement on his PSAT from last year. Am I wrong in thinking that High scores, average grades would be more appealing to colleges than scores and grades that match?

reeinaz · 03-21-2011, 10:35 AM

It's been a while since there've been any posts. How's everyone doing? My son is still squarely in this GPA range. He might pull out a whopper in this last term and finish with maybe a 3.3

Do any of the kiddoes have plans for the summer yet? My son put in some applications for a few writing workshops and we're still waiting to hear back. Plan B is more like a plan A.2. It's a local summer internship that he still has to apply for. If all of those fall through, I'll be putting him through a "structured" self study plan for the SAT. I put the quotes there because my structure would be SAT prep from 10-12. His structure will be more like XBox from 10-5 and flipping open the prep book as my key hits the front door.

mamaduck · 08-09-2011, 01:18 PM

OK, we need to get this thread going! I've just started researching in earnest, with moderate input from D. She's open to any kind of school - urban, rural, mild or extreme weather, small, big ... she sees positives in all of them. She's interested in Film/Video Production, perhaps double majoring in Public Relations. We prefer a LAC, since she's eligible for Tuition Exchange (see details at tuitionexchange.org), which has the potential to make private schools from "the list" a whole lot cheaper than public u's of Virginia.

At the end of her sophomore year, she has a 3.12 uw, ranks right at the 50% mark in her competitive class, and absolutely bombed the PSATs. On the upside, she takes a specialized dual enrollment program in mass communications, and her GPA from that (through the community college) is 4.0. Her rank is low because it's based on weighted GPA, and she's only taken one weighted class so far - but 5 of her 8 classes next year are weighted. Currently her school uses a 6 point grading scale, so all of her C's are actually 85s and 86s, and many of her Bs would become As (though they don't go back and change grades from previous years, and don't note the letter grade on the transcripts). Next year they're moving to a 10 point scale, which should help her tremendously. She also showed dramatic improvement the last quarter of her sophomore year. She has taken a SAT prep class, and it seems to have been beneficial - at least she's studying! She plays steel drum, does some volunteering, works on the school TV station, is joining Latin club this year, and is hoping to get a job this fall. She spent 6 weeks in Bolivia as an exchange student (8th grade), and we've hosted two exchange students in our home.

We've got a wild variety of schools in our list so far - I'd love feedback!

Possible matches:
High Point (have visited, love it, low % on Tuition Exchange awards)
Goucher - awards Tuition Exchange to all qualified students & SAT optional
Flagler - the cheapest by far if she gets Tuition Exchange
DePaul - SAT optional starting 2012, and she loves Chicago (at least in the summer!)

Safety:
Columbia College of Chicago (not a high % on Tuition Exchange)

Reaches:
Loyola University of Maryland
Chapman (it looks like they judge the portfolio heavily, but she's really low on the stats)

yabeyabe2 · 08-09-2011, 01:53 PM

A friend's son just enjoyed his freshman year at Highpoint in TV production. Highpoint has received tons of commentary on CC, not all positive. You might look at Elon, too.

Goucher has the most diverse student body on your list, although the most lopsided male/female ratio. I think it is a very good school generally, but do not know what it offers in her fields. Similar schools to consider are Muhlenberg and Susquehanna.

If she likes DePaul, consider St. Josephs of Philly--I think it has a better campus, better weather and is reachable by train from VA.

As you are in VA, I am sure JMU and VT are on your list. Best of luck.