The B+ student parents' thread

[MSUDad]

Okay, been mulling this over for a while; CC needs a place where parents of good, solid students can chat about our HS kids and their goals/needs/dreams/college prospects, etc.

Can we say this is the place for kids with under, say, 3.7 GPA, and less than 20 AP classes? I'm kidding about the APs (okay, not really kidding).

Our kids aren't applying to HYP, and would be very happy to get into Good State U or maybe sneak into Colgate or somewhere like that. Our needs are a bit different than those of the parents whose kids already have taken Calculus in 9th grade, have 5s on four APs, etc., and we hope to hear from parents whose kids have to make it without a 2200 SAT and co-captaincy of five varsity sports.

Our topics can be broad, but to get things going I'll start off with:

Are you worried that the schools your DD/DS will get in to won't provide a quality education?

The schools that DD looks to be a good fit for (say, UMass, Dayton, Towson) don't have sterling reputations for their excellence in undergraduate education. Are you hoping DD/DS applies to some small schools? Accepting that s/he will have to make the best of it at Bowie State ? Shooting for a dark horse like Bowdoin?

In short, what's the plan to get the best college education for your B+er?

Thanks!

[missypie]

My B+er wants to go to a school that has between 1200 and 5000 students, no more than 4 hours from home. With the exception of one school that is such a reach that he's not even applying, even if he was an A+ student, his college list would be identical to what it is now.

[mathmom]

I've got one of those. He gets A+s in orchestra, A's in history (except last year he had a B+, but got a 5 on the AP World test), got B's in honors math, A's in regular when there was a scheduling conflict, B+ or A- in physics, C+ in chem, B's in English, C+'s in Latin (B-'s if he's lucky.) Last year as a 10th grader he got 700V, 560M, 550 W on the PSATs. He thought Caltech was the perfect school, if only it wasn't all science, but if you ask him what he thinks he might like, he thinks he'd like something a little bigger than his high school (which has 3000+), so I'm not sure what aspects of Caltech we need to clone. I think he'd be best suited to decent LACs (Wheaton? Bowdoin?) or perhaps some of the smaller state universities like U. of Vermont, maybe one of the smaller SUNY's. He's most interested in history, not at all interested in science. He's very bright, but seems to have some sort of LD that makes in hard for him to memorize information.

[nikkistar]

My son graduated with a 3.37 this year. He only applied to our State U and another smaller U about an hour away. He was accepted by both but because he was recruited to play his sport at the smaller U and that was important to him he decided to go there.
My thoughts are that we need to follow ours dreams-- so we encouraged him to do so. I am confident that he will get a good education and he will do fine in life.
I feel that it is more important to do what makes you happy. Your kid should do what fits for them. Many of the "lesser" school kids go on to an "upper" school in grad school or go on to great careers they love---and most of our "average" kids will not crash and burn at 40!!

[NewHope33]

Believe it or not, lots of colleges thrive with mostly B+ students. Yes, CC is filled with "my S missed Salutatorian by .0002, is his life over?" types. But B+ is pretty darned good. Build a list from the bottom up, and put a couple of reaches (like Colgate, Hamilton, Pitzer, etc.) in there too. You might well be pleasantly surprised. JMHO. YMMV.

[Booklady]

Thanks for this thread. D is one of those superachiever kids at an Ivy, but S (about to be a HS junior) has a 3.5, takes a mix of regular and honors classes, and won't take an AP class until senior year. He's looking for a medium-largish sized school with good sports teams he can root for. He has no idea what he wants to major in or do with his life, although if he could get a job at ESPN he'd be very happy.

U. Pittsburgh (instate for us), Rutgers, and U. Conn are places he's mentioned, and Syracuse as a reach, perhaps. He wants to stay in the Mid-Atlantic or lower New England and has no interest at all in LACs. We've yet to visit any schools, however, so that might change. And of course much will depend on SAT/ACT scores (I have a feeling he'll do better on the latter).

[missypie]

I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir, but make sure those juniors take the ACT and/or SAT junior year. That way you can figure out what your "universe" is.

Of course, with that said, the schools I can't figure out are the ones where Son's GPA is totally in the ballpark, his SAT is on the high end, but they only have a 45-47% acceptance rate.

[Queen's Mom]

Ahh, my people. D can't even begin to build a list until we have at least PSAT scores. She has her reaches, to which she will apply no matter what (after all, why not? Someone has to be in the bottom 25%) and as soon as we know her scores, we can start thinking about matches and safeties. She takes a difficult schedule, so her weighted average last semester was about 4.1, but her unweighted was a nice solid 3.4.

Did I mention she has severe test anxiety and we are not even hoping for spectacular SATs. 1900 would be a good solid score for her. 2100 would knock me over. If for some reason she gets extremely nervous, she could conceivably go as low as 1500 (that's out of 2400).

[mootmom]

There are several of us parents here who have survived this process with B+ students for children. Or even, dare I say it, B or B- students or lower. My younger S graduated with a 3.1 GPA, 1990 SATs, only two APs (but scored 5 on both). He was accepted to 5 of the 8 schools he applied to (2 of those 5 would be household names at CC) and selected a lower-tier small private LAC on the opposite coast, which offered him a massive merit scholarship to attend. He is about to return for his sophomore year and couldn't be happier. He's found friends, activities, and places to explore in a new part of the country, and is doing creative, solid academic work in a very small department where he loves (most of) his professors.

The key was selecting a set of realistic schools to apply to, where his stats would put him comfortably in range, but where he might stand out for some other reasons. Another key was applying as early as possible: at the school where he matriculated, scholarship candidates were selected from those who'd completed their application by Jan. 15th, and many schools have similar pluses for early applicants. He had an acceptance at a rolling admission school in-hand before the end of Sept. of his senior year, which was completely reassuring and we'd recommend this path to any student in a similar situation.

In short, I'm here to tell you that it can and will happen for your students also. Encourage them to do their best (truly their best, not their slacking-off best, which mine did for a couple years in HS), get those standardized tests taken early, keep participating in activities they're enthusiastic about, and put together a list of schools to apply to which will include some realistic choices (including financial safeties). Let them stretch for a few schools that might be reaches, and then apply as early as possible. And good news will come their way also. At one point I didn't think I'd be able to say that for my younger S, but I am happy to report that I was mistaken.

[lderochi]

Mootmom said it better than I could. B student (3.4 UW when all was said and done, I think). 4 AP classes. Sub-2000 SAT. Better overall on the ACT (28 Composite), but remarkably low math subscore (21). Applied to mostly rolling admission small LAC's and applied ED to his reach. Got accepted everywhere and I think would have been fine at any of them. After a fair amount of angst during his Freshman year about whether he made the right choice, he's heading back for his Sophomore. Not a clear idea about what he wants to do, but I have no worries. There are a lot of great schools out there for students of all types.

[phishfan0969]

I'm a proud B+ to A- student myself. I'm applying to the top public schools in my state(SUNY Binghamton's my first choice) and am ecstatic.

I'm not the typical CC studying machine and have a great social life in High School while developing people skills that will carry on through the rest of my life. Also, unlike many straight A students, I won't be paying off loans until I'm thirty and am quite happy about that.

[historymom]

This is a great thread! mootmom I am tickled to read your S's story. It is so easy to fret over what may be missing from your child's app and so difficult to relax and realize that in all liklihood the results will be good ones.


My B+ student wants very much to attend a small private school so we are hoping that one of the campuses she has her eye on will reward her with merit money and make it happen. But...she has two very good financial and admit safeties on her list where she will be happy to attend so all is well...right

[drb]

Timely thread for me as my B student D enters the college application gauntlet. In her case I wonder if it even makes sense to pursue a "reach" school, as she is an unenthusiastic student, and would likely be happier, and ultimately more successful, as a bigger fish in a lesser academic sea. Given this, she has the grades and scores for admission to a number of non-flagship state schools, and could be done with the whole process shortly after rolling admission applications are accepted. I am still encouraging her to give the ACT another shot, and to take a reasonably rigorous senior year. This is mostly a matter of asking her to challenge herself, without any expectation that it will change the college selection outcome much.

[Dad II]

mootmom, thanks for sharing. It is very encouraging for us.

DS will be a junior in a couple days. He will take 5 AP, plus a tough math class. Hope he could get same # or less B than the previous year.

It is too early to talk about school list now.

[Booklady]

phishfan, I think you and my son would get along very well.