<p>One, back in the day a C average was well, average. Now with grade inflation (at least where I live) the average GPA in D’s class was 3.0 (B). And mind you, the grading system was changed the next year with more weighting, so now the GPA’s have gone up.</p>
<p>So I guess the first question that I would ask is why is this student a C student? It might be due to unusual circumstances but it if is a lack of interest in school it might not be a great idea to invest in sending a child away to a 4 year college. What is wrong with sending a child who is a C student to a cc? For that matter the child might be much more interested in a vocational program. I agree with classicrockerdad, this is not an insult at all. I know some very bright and capable people who did not do well in HS, flunked out of college but are now excelling (and happy) in other types of careers (and in one case enlisted military).</p>
<p>I know a number of C students who are going to college and a goodly number of them who have completed college. Some did drop out, but at least half, probably more of those kids that I know in this situation are doing just fine, thank you. One young many is making 6 figures running his family car dealership after an abysmal high school career, though at a Catholic all boys’ prep school, barely graduating and then taking 8 years to get through various colleges before cinching a degree. There are many such people. </p>
<p>I am in Catholic school world and this situation is not at all unusual. THough these kids may be C students and even sub C students, they have taken college prep courses and have half a chance of getting through college. Many don’t have another interest, so they figure they might as well go to college. Better than other alternatives they might slip into. They have no interest in learning plumbing, or other hands on vocational skills, which, by the way, does require a person to have focus and stick to-itiveness to complete such programs, and are not for the truly lazy. They don’t want to join the armed forces. They want to just loaf around and have a good time. They just might get away doing it and still get through college, and get degree to boot.</p>
<p>I had around a 2.5 most of the time I was in high school… I think I managed to swing it up to a 2.7 by graduation but that was because I took nothing but electives senior year-- creative foods, intro to journalism, jewelrymaking, etc. Took the ACT with no prep and got somewhere in the 20s… I’m thinking a 23? I applied to five or so colleges and got into all but one of them, they were great schools that would have been more than sufficient for my goals (and probably the goals of MOST people), and I’m sure I’d have been successful there. Went to CC to save money, retook the ACT with minimal prep and got a 30, and ended up transferring to Umich after all. Funny to see how far we end up from where we expected to be sometimes. The shock that I’d landed myself in Ann Arbor never really wore off. We were so sure I wasn’t that kind of student, from just about pre-school on.</p>
<p>I think a lot of 2.x students might do well going into a trade or something, but not every student is who they appear to be in high school academically. I think it would be important for that student and their family to evaluate WHY they’re a 2.x student before writing off college. I was smart and had the potential to be a fantastic student, but I had undiagnosed learning disabilities that made me bomb math and I was unchallenged and bored as hell in all my other classes. I wasn’t in an environment growing up where anybody had the wherewithal to notice that and intervene, and I wasn’t mature enough to do it myself. Then I grew up. Michigan was a great experience for me, I’m glad I did it. It was the first time, in my entire life, that anybody thought to challenge me academically, or actually expected anything out of me. It’s hard to get those A’s and B’s in high school when that’s how your life is.</p>
<p>I also want to stress that going into a trade requires acumen and focus. It also requires some motivation. I know a lot of kids who were doing poorly in school and whose parents thought trade school was the answer. Well, the problems those kids had in doing well in academic transferred right over to learning a trade. Not the least of which was interest. Things are not quite tiered that way in this country. In this area, the plumbers have college degrees. </p>
<p>A lot of these kids take a lot longer than the traditional 4-6 to finish college, but some of them do. My cousins all fall into that category. Some of them blew through a number of local colleges and as far as their parents were concerned that was paid babysitting. Most of them did end up finishing college by the time they hit 35, in a piece meal way.</p>
<p>Of course there are plenty of fine options for students with a C average. It’s just that mentioning that on CC is like farting at a fancy dinner party. Simply not done, doncha know? ;)</p>
<p>One thing I love about cc is reading all of the differing viewpoints:)</p>
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<p>ema - you make a very good point. I brought up a similar question. In your case, it makes perfect sense to go on to college.
I do know others who had similar stories.</p>
<p>capt- I enjoyed reading your view from the Catholic schools as I’m not familiar with that world. I suspect that these schools are college prep so that even the c average students are ready for college.</p>
<p>I admit that I have known some c students who finished college. But I also know many others who left after 3 semesters paying off student loans and with few credits to show for it. </p>
<p>My main question is why not cc for these students? In the part of the country where I grew up (midwest) this was the option chosen by most students including some of the top students.</p>
<p>My son was a C student, until this year. He transferred to another high school, as a junior, and is now getting As and Bs. I hate to say it, but I think we need ACTs and SATs to help those who are truly from competitive high schools (My other son with good grades and low standardized tests would kill me if he saw this statement.) I would guess that a typical 2.0 student would score around 18 on the ACT (870 on SAT?).</p>
<p>Yes, community college is an choice for these kids too. As I mentioned before, our CUNYs and SUNYs are such that it is unlikely a C student would gain admission to them, so community college is the choice easiest on the wallet. </p>
<p>You are absolutely right about the C student in a prep school. The kids have had college prep material poured into their brains, like it or not. That is the crowd i know well, and I can guarantee you that many of those kids do make it through college. Oddly enough they want to go to college as they have been programmed to go since day one and very much indoctrinated while at prep school. I’m not saying they put the schools on fire with their academic acumen when they go to college, but many of them get through.</p>
<p>The boys schools seem to do particularly well in placing their recalcitrant students in colleges. I can’t believe how many of the Stone Hill, Marist, Providence, Sienna, Manhattan College, to name a few, took of these high school slackers. And many of them make it through. A good friend of mine’s husband says one day he’ll endow a scholarship at his alma mater for the C student–he was one in his day and is doing very well now in his career. Said if he were truly wealthy, he’d endow a slew of them.</p>
The cc’s are also part of the SUNY system, to be fair.</p>
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<p>Your story sounds similar to mine. There can be a lot of reasons why the student is a C student, or not on the college-track in hs, including learning disabilities, severe dysfunction on the home front, boredom, etc.</p>
<p>Sylvan, yes they are. I was referring to the 4 year SUNY and CUNY schools which have become increasingly selective. </p>
<p>I am farting up a storm on these boards, because I know a lot of C students and the ones I know all tend to go to college. But they are a very select group of C students in that they are in private schools that are force feeding college prep material.</p>
<p>It depends on why the C’s. When I was in high school I was placed on a not college track, because I had undiagnosed learning differences. As a result several of my classes were beneath my interest & ability so I did very rudimentary work in them. When by accident ( or design) I was placed into an honors class, I did quite well because it got my attention ( & the instructor taught to different learning styles)</p>
<p>First a learning disability should be ruled out ( or identified). If the student has interest in continuing their education, I agree that a community college can be a good choice.College gives students the chance to choose from a much broader range of courses than your average high school. The chance to take a class that really interests them can be a good motivator to excel.</p>
<p>At many public high schools there are “honors” courses, AP/IB courses & * regular* courses. If a student is tracked into the regular courses, he may well be attending class with students who have no interest in participating appropriately. It only takes one or two of these students in a class for the classroom to be disrupted & everyones’ learning to suffer.</p>
<p>Each C student looks different. Did they receive Cs in all their classes or are there areas where they did better/worse? What do they do outside of class? Are they in a group of students who look down on students who do well? It can be very difficult if not impossible to change groups in high school & to change your own image of yourself, not to mention others opinions of you. </p>
<p>I tend to encourage everyone to prepare for college, even if they need to take a gap year or two & even if they plan for a vocational career. Much easier to earn a degree in your 20’s than when you have a family & not having a degree can limit your job choice & mobility even in blue collar fields.</p>
<p>I have a B/C kid. His weighted h.s. gpa was just above 3.0 due to mostly honors/2 AP and 2 dual enrollment classes getting him extra points. Unweighted would have been below 3.0. Didn’t take the hardest curriculum. Didn’t even take a math class senior year and had one F on his transcript.
His jr. year one time SAT was less than 1000. He didn’t have any real direction at that point.</p>
<p>Applied to two directional state u’s early in senior year figuring that he would cover all bases (college and CC) and then (hopefully) have a choice. Was accepted to both before Christmas.
Chose college. DH and I worried but knew that he was the kind of kid who if we didn’t let him try then, he’d never go back to it later in life and would blame us for discouraging him from going. So off he went. </p>
<p>Did terrible first sem., made 2.5 second sem. 3.0 or better every sem. since. Will grad. May 4.
Some h.s. C students grow up a lot in college. Most of his friends who went to CC after h.s. ended up dropping out. We could see him being one of those if he had stayed at home.</p>
<p>There are quite a few colleges in NC that would take C students.</p>
<p>For some parents, that I personally know, taking the chance on sending the kid to college is the best choice available. I am not talking about a kid with an interest in something else he would prefer to do. You are going to be no more successful forcing such a kid into trade school or work, and he may well find worse things do with his time with with worse company. Sometimes it is the momentum that carries them through college, the very sheep mentality we hate, but some of us do go through the “sheep” stages.</p>
<p>There are a lot of colleges for the normal C student (not the ones who are getting 28 or 29’s on their ACT.)</p>
<p>Off the top of my head:</p>
<p>U of Hartford</p>
<p>U of New Haven</p>
<p>Quinippiac (SIC?)</p>
<p>Lynn U</p>
<p>U of West Virginia</p>
<p>U of Rhode Island</p>
<p>CW Post </p>
<p>and many state systems have lesser colleges/uni’s. </p>
<p>What you won’t get at the private schools is money so you will be paying $50k+ and I personally know some very wealthy people with kids that are very average (oh the horror!!!) who don’t mind at all paying the tuition at those schools.</p>
<p>Our good friend is midway through his MBA at Kellogg and only went to college for a year and had a sickly high school transcript. One good thing about our country and the education system is it is pretty much open to anyone/anytime.</p>
<p>My DD has learning disabilities and a 2.44 wgpa. No honors or AP, but we kept her out of special ed and mostly in the college track, specifically because we were concerned about her peer group. She has an upward trend in grades (9th grade was really bad!) and was accepted to all 4 colleges she applied to. 3 of them were small non selective LAC’s in New England, the other was a college for students with LD’s. She received merit awards as high as 14k/year due to community service and leadership position in JROTC. She chose and will be attending the LD college in the fall. </p>
<p>Also, she did not apply to any state schools because she did not meet their math requirements.</p>