<p>seiclan - don’t forget that colleges like to see rigor - most admissions people I have spoken with it prefer the transcript showing lots of honors and AP courses with a few Bs to the transcript with no APs and minimal honors classes and straight A’s. Does your hs calculate a weighted GPA? Most colleges look at the transcript grades and then do some type of weighting for honors and APs - every college has their own system of course - but except for huge universities - most small-medium colleges do recalculate the GPA and do give weight - whether numerically or holistically to advanced coursework.</p>
<p>Yes, that is true. The colleges that weight the AP’s will still consider him to be an A student but we do need to cast a wide net…just in case. Our HS calculates three GPA’s, unweighted, weighted core/academic and weighted district (everything). Time will tell but meanwhile I love this thread!</p>
<p>I agree with Rockville mom about rigor of courses. However, I also sense at state schools flooded with thousands of applicants, that to get in the ball park for consideration of possible acceptance, your child needs a certain minimum GPA and certain minimum SAT or ACT.</p>
<p>This is the response I rcvd from admissions as I could not find much of anything about Hillel on their website. St. Mary’s is a well-respected public honors college with about 2000 (maybe slightly less) students. It is liberal arts only - so I don’t think it will work for my son - but I do suggest it checking it out for Maryland residents in particular. Kind of a remote location - good for kids who like outdoorsy activities - sailing, etc.</p>
<p>"Hillel</p>
<p>Jewish Life: There is a spirited and enthusiastic Jewish life on campus. Although the number of Jewish students is unknown, we have about 35 active members as well as more students who participate in individual events. Some of the activities that the club hosts include arranging rides to services for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, building and decorating a sukkah on campus, frying up latkes for a Hanukkah party, having a Jewish themed movie night, hosting a community Passover Seder, participating in a Shabbat dinner with our faculty advisor Devorah Schoenfeld, the Great Hamantashen-Latke Debate (it is on wikipedia if you are interested) and a Mitzvah project where the club raises money to plant trees in Israel."</p>
<p>mdcissp - I agree completely. If you have your sights set on large universities - or schools that receive tens of thousands of applications - they are going to look first at the GPA and test scores - and in this situation - the 4.0 kid with minimal advanced courses might fare better than the 3.5 kid with honors and APs.</p>
<p>You are also looking at many private OOS schools, so in your case strength of classes (honors, AP) will be a plus. </p>
<p>After we receive the SAT and ACT scores, if we think our son should try again, then I’ll consider another test prep course. Since I think Towson and Salisbury will pay close attention to minimum GPA and test score(s), I am hoping that my son meets the minimum.</p>
<p>thanks, yabeyabe; yes, I think that those comments need to be communicated (especially for us)…what is difficult to assess is the following: GPA’s in my daughter’s small private are very deflated; no weighting…at this point, she is in the top 50% as you say; but if you look at the GPA ranges at most of her list, she would be in the bottom 25%…ACT, on the other hand, she is at the top 25% of her graduating class and between the 50-75% (some even higher) on her list…</p>
<p>I do believe she would thrive best where she is right in the middle; but are finding that difficult to assess based on the numbers…</p>
<p>Not talking about chances for admission here; more interested in assessing academic “fit”…</p>
<p>Seiclan, Muhlenburg does have a program with Drexel’s med school; I can’t remember if it is a seven year program, a direct admission program, or the exact details but your son might be eligible for this. Muhlenburg also has similar dovetail programs for dentistry, and maybe for optometry and/or podiatry if I remember correctly.</p>
<p>Seiclan, one thing to be mindful of is that some very nurturing liberal arts colleges are rumored to be cut throat when it comes to medical school, discouraging kids from applying if they think it will reduce the school’s acceptance rate.</p>
<p>Rockville and Seiclan, with my son, two other aspects that eliminated some schools were that he likes to wear t shirts and shorts as his class day wear, so no preppy environment would work and he is probably not a frat kid. Gettysburg, Dickinson and Franklin & Marshal–all fine schools–seemed to have issues in one or both of these areas.</p>
<p>I frankly was stunned how few schools with 4 hours of home seemed like good fits for him (he also needed an advertising/marketing major).</p>
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<p>If one is looking for things to do within walking distance, or workable public transit, and aid (either FA and/or merit), that list can really become small unless one lists in order of priority the “must haves” vs. “nice to have”.</p>
<p>rockvillemom, thanks for the info on St. Mary’s of Maryland. It had moved a bit to the back burner because of GC’s comments about their acceptance rate from ShawD’s high school. </p>
<p>We have the first Shawbridge pere et fille roadtrip planned. We have got Colorado College and four Canadian schools coming up in August. We’ll also hit McGill when we go up in August for vacation to our house in the Laurentians, though I see McGill as too big and impersonal for her. That will leave Goucher, College of Wooster, and Oxford College of Emory as the only ones on her first list not to be seen. Then there’s the back list of school that maybe should be on the list, especially if we drop some of the Canadian schools. The PA LACs you have collectively mentioned (Muhlenberg, Sussquehana, Dickinson), University of Rochester (probably a serious reach), St. Mary’s of Maryland. </p>
<p>How many schools will you visit?</p>
<p>We’re starting with Gettysburg and James Madison at the end of the month - mostly to compare sizes - see S2’s first reaction. Depending on how those go - we’ll decide if we want to do any more summer visits or wait until the fall. It’s just so hard scheduling-wise in the fall - trying to find a weekday when he has no school and I can get the day off is challenging - we may try to do a few more day trips - maybe Susquehanna and Muhlenberg on Saturdays in the fall - and then I really want to see Elon again - although that would be an overnight trip. Trying to stay away from the massive spring break trip - as we did that with S1 and it was crowded, stressful and overwhelming. If he likes James Madison, might try to visit Delaware and maybe Towson. I’m still interested in College of Charleston, just have no idea when we will be able to get there. I love visiting colleges - so despite the scheduling headaches - I’m looking forward to it.</p>
<p>shawbridge- we have visited a lot of the SUNY colleges (6 of them, 3 were left on the list). Visited 3 PA privates so far (1 was left on the list). Visiting 4 Ohio schools, 2 more PA schools and 1 or 2 NY LAC’s. May visit a couple of more far flung schools as well. These remaining visits will be in late August/early September for the most part.</p>
<p>holliesue - which PA privates did you visit and what did you think?</p>
<p>rm: we are still trying to fit college of charleston in during the first week of September (before Labor Day or even overlapping)…but tennis pre-season is getting in the way…she may have to apply without visiting (which I don’t really like doing); ditto for York College/PA and Susquehanna unless someone tells me they both track demonstrated interest; both visit my daughter’s school in the fall…</p>
<p>rodney - did you ever find out more specifically why your college counselor did not like Susquehanna? Do they like York? I;m thinking Susquehanna would trump York in most people’s view - just wondering what the negative view was based upon.</p>
<p>rm: it’s been a little crazy around here so, no, I haven’t broached the subject yet; we are finalizing (somewhat) the list at the end of the month so I will definitely report back…</p>
<p>what I did find out, though, is that my daughter’s GPA and ACT do not really match up on our Naviance ( a little surprised about that)…for most of her list, her ACT is higher than the majority of those who have been admitted, while her GPA is right in the ballpark (or a little low)…her data point is weird…very difficult to assess “reach”, “match”, or “safety” just based on that…</p>
<p>chocchip: I would not engage the poster in question…I get the feeling it is a student who wants to start trouble…actually, looking at his old posts, I think he is 16!!!</p>
<p>Rockville Mom and others: Giving you the benefit of our experience, I suggest that you try to schedule your top 2 schools most interested in during the welcome students week in mid-late August. This way you will get to see how the university welcomes the new students, get an idea of campus activites, how activie Hillel is, etc. For example, I took our youngest son to see GMU last summer right before welcome students week. i saw the poster with all of the welcome activities and nothing was scheduled that reached out to Jewish students. In fact, the welcome activities did not appear to be the best match for my son (do not be turned off by GMU because there could be welcome activities which appeal to many other kids-every kid has a different personality and preferences). Went to AU presentation when students were coming back to school and noticed a wonderful Bar B Que being set up by friendly Hillel students to welcome kids back. Also, you could try to schedule your visit over Friday night to see the Hillel on Shabbat and see if you think there is a social fit and the week-end visit is less disruptive to your work schedule.</p>
<p>we visited Juniata, Susquehanna and Muhlenberg. D kept Juniata on the list. But Jewish presence is not important to her at all. She just was most comfortable with Juniata. We are looking at: Hiram, Wooster, Ohio Wesleyan, Wittenberg, Allegheny, Elizabethtown, Hartwick. May also look at Alfred, St Mary’s College of Md, Knox and Beloit (although DH doesn’t want her far away so that may rule out the last 3).</p>
<p>Thanks, Rodney! I’ll refrain in the future.</p>