<p>Still, I think you are 100% right (not to mention that the chances of merit aid at reaches are much less). Congratulations on such an excellent outcome! Where is he attending?</p>
<p>Someone mentioned knowing a kid who got in everywhere except Towson. I wish to comment an opinion, and I do not have any facts, articles, etc. to back me up. Based upon what I saw at the main spring open house, there is a lot, and I mean a lot, of interest in Towson. I also sense Towson is taking a good number of OOS students. It is actually better business revenue wise to take OOS students who pay more than in state students. Therefore, Towson is becoming very competitive in state to get accepted. The top A students, National Merit, etc. have a better chance of getting merit aid at many fine colleges.
The B and B plus students, I suspect, have less chance of merit aid unless you go to lower ranked schools. With the down economy and older parents on the verge of retirement, the in state schools become a top choice to lower college expenses. I speculate that there are a huge number of B plus students applying to Towson making a highly competitive situation. Although Towson is a top choice for my son, this is why I am trying to find other good safety schools. To date, the only safety I can come up with is our local community college. I would love to hear from others if they have a different take on what is going on for the kid who was denied at Towson.</p>
<p>mdcissp: Would URI be a safety for your S? My D used it as a safety (although she did get into Towson), got accepted to the honors college and got $10k/yr (no extra app for honors college, just apply by Dec 1, I think). I think it was about 10% Jewish (and a girl D went to Hebrew school with is going there, for whatever that’s worth). Although we know the area from visiting family, we never visited the school. Another one that might be a safety is University of Buffalo (a SUNY). It’s snowy, but I’m sure they are very welcoming to OOS applicants. Everyone who has a child there says they love it. Good Jewish population and a new Jewish studies program (nice website); as you know, SUNY OOS tuition is quite reasonable these days (or, should I say, “for now”). Still, you have to love winter. D was accepted to UB, but no $$.</p>
<p>The only experience I know of regarding a student denied at Towson was a very high SAT score combined with low GPA. She was OOS. They didn’t match up. Smart kid who didn’t apply herself. (She is going to UMDCP, starting with Freshman Connection in the Fall.) D has several friends from LI who are going to Towson in the Fall; let’s see what happens…</p>
<p>stillnadine - wonderful points in your posts. My takeaway is that a school that attracts B students will probably have a lower graduation rate than a school that attracts A students - and it doesn’t necessarily mean the school is doing anything wrong - it has more to do with the student body. </p>
<p>I’m glad your son is doing so well and that is such a wonderful point about him being able to shine because he is at a college of his peers - I completely get what you mean - this is why I do not have any reaches on my son’s list - even if he somehow managed to get in - it probably would not be a great fit academically.</p>
<p>Turning to C of C specifically - has your son felt any direct impact from the high rate of students either dropping out or transferring elsewhere? As in good friends leaving? I just wonder if he feels like a lot of kids he met freshman year have left or if it has not been that noticeable.</p>
<p>Your son would have a good chance at Temple, which has regular train and bus service to your area. It is a very urban and large school, if that is an issue.
Have you looked at Mary Washington and McDaniel?
You can also look at Montclair and Ramapo in NJ, which have decent train service and are state schools.</p>
<p>mdcissp: I was the one that mentioned that my son was rejected from Towson. We are OOS and applied early. As I said in an earlier post, S was accepted at UVM, Tulane, Miami U, Indiana, U of Colorado, James Madison among others. Also accepted at URI as LINYMOM suggested, which we did consider another safety (received some $$ too). I really just wanted to point out the need to have a couple of “safeties” on your list. Unfortunately, you just never know what goes into the decision.</p>
<p>Looked at our large public hs Naviance - here’s some info for in-state students. It looks to me that Towson places a lot more emphasis on GPA than test scores. Every student on the graph who had at least a 3.6 wgpa was accepted. Those with wgpas between 3.3 and 3.6 were a mixed result. Below 3.3 wgpa was not looking good. What I found interesting was that there were many accepted students with a 3.5 or 3.6 and low SAT scores - maybe 1000/1600. But - there were few students accepted with a higher SAT - say around 1200 and lower GPA - 3.2 or 3.3.</p>
<p>State schools often have rigid formulas (which may or may not vary by quality of high school). It helps them cope with the massive number of applicants and avoid some of the efforts by politicians to get underqualified kids accepted.</p>
<p>rockvillemom, when my older son applied a few years ago, he applied to Towson very early in the process. He had his acceptance in hand within 3 weeks. He had stronger SAT scores than grades, IMO, although his SAT scores were pretty uneven. Towson was a rolling school. I don’t know if it still is. If it is rolling, I can tell you that my son had his app. in around 9/20 and I recall that he was accepted on 10/7. Hope this helps. Affording it as an out of state student was a whole different story. I think that for a rolling school, it is offer easier to gain admission early on. JMO.</p>
<p>Correction, I guess his acceptance took even a bit less than 2 weeks. Sounds silly, but when that app. is out there, it is nice to have that quick positive response!</p>
<p>That’s good to know - how great would it be to have at least one acceptance by Halloween!</p>
<p>A few people just mentioned URI - that’s Rhode Island, right? I’m not at all familiar with this school - but looked it up on Naviance. About 12,000 students - has early action - 82% of applicants are accepted - 1051/1600 average accepted SAT - 3.31 is the average accepted GPA and 23 is the average accepted ACT. At our hs specifically - only 6 students applied between 2008 and 2009 but all 6 were accepted. Sounds like a pretty good safety school to me! I don’t think I want to look that far away, bit I will keep it in mind.</p>
<p>Yes, having an acceptance prior to Halloween really does help to ease the tension/stress!
For me, the stress were the packages, but my kids did not feel as much stress about that, since they did not fully understand the financial end of the process.</p>
<p>URI-Can anyone tell us about it? Anyone know info about the following: Business school, proximity to Amtrak, and Hillel? I am going to check out URI now on the internet. Thanks for mentioning it.</p>
<p>I think it is close to an Amtrak stop–Kingston. In any event, all of RI is reasonably close to the Providence or Newport stop.</p>
<p>URI is near the beach. I would bet it has a Hillel. It is a well-known Northeast safety school–somewhat easier than UVM and UMass.</p>
<p>Rockvillemom,
Unfortunately, our school does not have naviance. Could you check your school and let us know what combination of GPA and scores were accepted? A lot of students at our high school were accepted, but it seems that you need over 1200 for fall admission.</p>
<p>rockvillemom:</p>
<p>If you’re going to check out URI, which is all the way in Rhode Island and you’re in Maryland, and the school has 12,000 kids, then you may want to seriously consider Syracuse. I know, Far north, lots of snow, but on the other hand, it also has 12,000 kids, lots of Jewish kids, a great business school and it may be more of a match for your S rather then a safety. Just a thought! 
On the other extreme, has anyone mentioned UMiami to you?? Certainly no snow, but it may too large…</p>
<p>From what the kids say, it feels much smaller once your kid settles in there as he begins to meet friends and form familiar groups, so the 12,000 number may not be so overwhelming.</p>
<p>momjr - were you asking re URI? The kids on Naviance who were accepted had wgpas in the 3.0 - 3.3 range and SATs of about 1000 - 1100.</p>
<p>chocchip - I would consider Univ. of Miami possibly - I was curious about URI - but I doubt we’d really pursue it. If I could relocate Syracuse - it would be a contender - but S2 does not want that snow. I think many of the posters here have made sense that Towson really should be on our academic/financial safety list - so I am putting it at the top of the need to visit list after we see Gettysburg and James Madison.</p>
<p>Good luck when you visit those schools :)</p>
<p>Rockvillemom, as far as I know, none of his friends left CofC. We know at least 6 kids from our Temple (we have a very small congregation, only three students in his confirmation class) who attended and graduated from CofC, all in four years, all with either good jobs now or in grad school, including one future rabbi! (The Rabbi’s son, also a CofC grad, is in law school.)</p>
<p>stillnadine - thanks so much - I am really looking forward to visiting Charleston - we have never been there - and may not get there until spring break next year - but I am looking forward to the trip. It sounds like such a great fit for him - thanks for all of your help.</p>
<p>Rockvillemom, I was actually asking about UMDCP, but I forgot to put it in the message.
Thanks!</p>