<p>My son just finished his junior year with an overall high school transcript of 3.0 GPA. His first choice school is Santa Clara University but he understands the average GPA of incoming freshmen is 3.5. What do you think his chances are with strong EC’s and good letters of recommendation? Also, would he be a fit for St. Mary’s of Moraga, Notre Dame deNamur in Belmont, etc? What other NoCal privates (SoCal too) might be a fit for him? He prefers smaller schools where he can get more individual attention.</p>
<p>Also, he will be applying to CSU’s but not sure which ones, other than Sonoma and San Jose State. </p>
<p>He has played high school soccer and volleyball for freshman-junior years, club soccer year-round for Class I team, Link Crew (two years – this year a leader, next year a Commissioner), Student Government two years, and held summer jobs.</p>
<p>(I originally posted in another forum but was advised to post it here for more responses)</p>
<p>To give you an idea of real life GPA/SAT scores and college admission results, look at the above scatterplots from a Southern California large public school in a good neighborhood. I know that an application is more than numbers, but when everyone within a certain part of the chart is accepted or rejected, it does paint a broad brush picture.</p>
<p>For example, of the 7 students who applied to Santa Clara University, all 5 with GPAs below 3.5 were rejected. Those with GPAs above 3.5 were accepted. I wouldn’t hold out great hopes for someone with a 3.0 GPA unless there is some powerful equalizer circumstance out there…recruited to play soccer, high SAT scores, development candidate, etc.</p>
<p>Lest you think of these scatterplots as downers, I use them to show a student how many schools that would be glad to take a kid like him or her!</p>
<p>Loyola Marymount in So Cal. USF in the Bay Area. University of Pacific in Stockton. (I looked at the Santa Clara basketball schedule to glean some names, figuring that some of their competitors would be equivalent size schools.)</p>
<p>Would he consider going north–like to Gonzaga?</p>
<p>He took the SAT for the first time in May. He scored 500’s in each section for a total of 1600. He plans to retake in October to see if he can boost his scores. His weighted GPA is 3.1 and overall academic GPA is 3.0. </p>
<p>He is capable of achieving a 3.5 GPA or higher, but he has chosen to perform at the B level while getting very involved in school activities and sports. </p>
<p>Mom 60, please tell me more about Dominican. Menloparkmom, I think USD has an even higher incoming freshmen GPA than SCU. Have you heard of kids getting in with a 3.0?</p>
<p>I don’t know much about Dominican. A family I know visited last year and they felt good about the visit. The school is small and from what they heard the support for the student to succeed is there. I also think they might be trying to build a volleyball program. (trying to remember my conversation with the Mom) The student I know made the choice to not attend any school at this point but he liked what he saw at Dominican.</p>
<p>The students I know who attend Santa Clara have been very good students with much higher GPA’s and scores.</p>
<p>Santa Clara tends to do a good job at reviewing applications holistically. Your son’s leadership experience certainly will give him a boost. His essay would be a good opportunity to describe his experience with being a leader and a mentor. How has it challenged him? Has his perspective been changed or broadened? What lessons will he carry with him in the future? Any kind of mature reflection is certainly noticed by a Jesuit institution.</p>
<p>As a sophomore at Santa Clara, I cannot fully express the opportunities that its smaller size affords enthusiastic students. Besides very easy access to professors, there are many, many opportunities for young leaders to get involved.</p>
<p>In general, if your son is willing to take advantage of opportunites and seek out mentors, a smaller school is well worth the extra money.</p>
<p>He took the SAT for the first time in May. He scored 500’s in each section for a total of 1600. He plans to retake in October to see if he can boost his scores. His weighted GPA is 3.1 and overall academic GPA is 3.0. </p>
<p>He is capable of achieving a 3.5 GPA or higher, but he has chosen to perform at the B level while getting very involved in school activities and sports. </p>
<p>Mom 60, please tell me more about Dominican. Menloparkmom, I think USD has an even higher incoming freshmen GPA than SCU. Have you heard of kids getting in with a 3.0?</p>
<p>I mentioned to my son that the SCU stats on Campus Compare showed that only a small percentage got in with his GPA. But he responded with “but some still did, right?” I probably should not have said anything, because I don’t want to discourage him too much. He should go for what he wants; I just wanted him to have a reality check too.</p>
<p>We went on a tour of SCU in May and he really enjoyed it. His letters of recommendation may come from SCU alums which might help his case. But we need to be realistic and consider other schools with similar characteristics but higher chances of acceptance.</p>
<p>I personally think, and he thinks, that SCU is a fantastic fit for him, but if he has shot himself in the foot with the GPA, then this is the choice he has made. </p>
<p>He says he wants to stay in California, prefers great weather like we have in the south Bay Area. We went to a soccer tournament yesterday in Turlock, and I was mentioning schools in the Central Valley, like Univ of the Pacific, and he said he had no interest in going to college where it’s so hot. He also prefers suburb/small town over big city like SF.</p>
<p>A others have suggested, I would also recommend Loyola Marymount in LA. Not in the city, close to the beach and about the same size as SCU. I have one daughter, a freshman at UCLA, who was accepted at Loyola and my other daughter at school in Oregon was acccepted at St. Marys and Santa Clara so I have visited many of these schools. With his stats you may want to check out Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego and California Luthern University in Thousand Oaks. Between St. Marys and Loyola I think he would have a better chance at St. Marys based the experiences of my daughters and their friends. I could name many schools in Oregon but since he wants to stay in CA I won’t confuse the issue! Good luck with the search.</p>