Free rides with 20 ACT

[annasdad]

<p><a href=“http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/8075359-418/north-lawndale-student-makes-most-of-free-ride-at-college.html[/url]”>http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/8075359-418/north-lawndale-student-makes-most-of-free-ride-at-college.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

Maintain a 3.0 GPA, score a 20 on the ACT college entrance exam — and get a free ride to college.</p>

<p>That was the challenge Roosevelt University issued to Social Justice High School students a year after the school opened in 2005 in North Lawndale.</p>

<p>“Our goal is to provide these students with an opportunity they might not otherwise have to earn a college degree and at the same time continue to be involved in social justice issues,” Roosevelt University President Chuck Middleton later said about the scholarship promise.</p>

<p>…</p>

<p>Holly Stradler, dean of Roosevelt’s College of Education, oversees the school’s partnership with SJHS and said the program was created to provide an opportunity for students from diverse and low-income backgrounds. </p>

<p>…</p>

<p>Roosevelt is comfortable with the scholarship program’s success even though more students didn’t take advantage of it and five scholarship recipients left the university because of personal reasons, Stradler said.</p>

<p>She noted that many of the recipients were the first in their families to go to college — an achievement in itself.</p>

<p>“We really are about creating opportunities for students who may not have seen college and a real successful future for themselves,” Stradler said.</p>

<p>“The more that we involve a diverse group of students in higher education, the broader their voices will be in the greater society. We’re sending out leaders with different perspectives, different voices to bring to the table when important decisions are made in society.”

</p>

[Apollo6]

<p>In my state the average ACT score is 21 but I can not imagine someone being successful in college with a score that low. Seriously, my son scored higher than that in 6th grade. How could you possibly do college work or how could college work be that low and still be called college?</p>

[annasdad]

<p>There are lots of kids who go to colleges with ACTs at 20 or below. For most of the less-selective public universities, the 25th percentile of admitted students is 20 +/- 1. At Roosevelt, the 25th percentile ACT is 19, and the average unweighted GPA is 2.7.</p>

[Vladenschlutte]

<p>

the average unweighted GPA is 2.7.

</p>

<p>What does this mean? That every student’s GPA is averaged with no regard for the number of credits that student has taken? </p>

<p>In this case I think a better metric would be the graduation rate (and better yet - graduation rate for those with a 20 ACT) to determine whether someone with a 20 ACT can handle college.</p>

[annasdad]

<p>That’s the average unweighted high school GPAs of admitted students, from the CC college search website - not the college-level GPA.</p>

<p>I would surmise that since Roosevelt’s 6-year graduation rate is only 45% that a very low percentage of the 20-ACT kids graduate. (I would also surmise the situation is the same at many less-selective state schools, which also have sub-50% grad rates.)</p>