<p>I had a 3.06 GPA in high school but a 34 on the ACT. I refuse to believe that I am stupid because of my GPA. One of the problems that I had in high school was that I struggled on writing assignments and how to effectively memorize/learn any material and struggled on tests. However, once I managed to learn, I was easily able to retain the information.</p>
<p>Basically what I’m saying is that while GPA and ACT scores should be related to each other, that isn’t always the case.</p>
<p>*we told him last summer where he was, and what he’d been doing to himself by his work ethic, and I have to say that the maturity shift in him over the past 12 months has been extremely gratifying. He’s always been a great kid–now, hes much more focused, mature, and goal-oriented. *</p>
<p>Glad to hear that your discussion last year seems to have “done the trick”. 
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<p>* We’re not going to condition whether to pay more on whether he works hard for 6 months. </p>
<p>We have told him that it makes no sense to pay a lot more for a “better” school if he’s not going to work hard in college, and he’s going to have a mediocre college record.*</p>
<p>Am I misunderstanding the above quote? In the first sentence you say that you’re not going to give him a “condition,” yet in the second sentence you indicate that you (essentially) are because you won’t pay if he’s not going to work hard. Won’t you only know that by his senior year performance? </p>
<p>Maybe I’m misunderstanding.</p>
<p>Mom2, I think the disconnect may be in the language I used. My son wants to go to law school, and believes (correctly) that part of where he goes for his pre-professional education will be determined by where he goes to college. What we have told him is that while this is true, how he does in college will play a greater role than where he goes–in other words, getting a 4.0 from a decent school is better than getting a 3.0 from a great one excepting maybe a few select schools like HYPSM. He needs to do well, and if he doesn’t work hard, he’ll get swallowed at a school where everyone has ACT scores in his range, if not precisely at his level, and we’ll pay vastly more for that “privilege”. What we’ve thus told him (as we told our older daughter and hopefully our younger daughter when the time comes) is that we’ll evaluate everything when the time comes, and if we believe that paying more will yield more benefits, we’ll get it done. There’s no one measure of that, like senior year performance–like the admissions process, it’s a holistic decision.</p>
<p>In truth, I think he’ll work hard and do well in college wherever he goes–this year has been very impressive to me. In football parlance, he’s not across the goal line yet, but he’s consistently moving the chains.</p>
<p>Maybe I’m missing something but my son with his 3.3UW (I looked it up, thought it was a 3.2 as I reported earlier) 3.8WA and a 31 ACT wasn’t considered a slacker by any means by anyone in his school. Maybe it was because he went to an very rigorous private school, that runs about 1 year academically ahead of the local public schools but teachers, GC, other students all considered him to be a very good student and very bright. Yes, there were better students in his class but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a good student. He made honor roll almost every semester. His grades dipped in 10th grade due to a family situation but he pulled out of it. Taking 7 AP classes is huge at our school because they have stringent requirements in order to be able to take a AP class. Could he have worked harder - absolutely without a doubt but I won’t call him a slacker. Seriously, when the ‘average’ is a 2.0-2.5 (or at least it should be), a 3.1 or 3.3 isn’t too shabby. And many, many colleges consider kids in this range academically talented and will offer merit aid. </p>
<p>I’m not sure how Dadtimesthree’s son got labeled a ‘slacker’ but that definitely doesn’t seem to be an apt description.</p>
<p>Dadtimesthree - your son will have lots of good school choices next year. My son wasn’t totally sure of what he was looking for (well, he wanted to be at a school with Div I football but not too big and definitely not too small and wants a liberal arts education to boot - his seemingly contrary requirements drove me crazy.). He ended applying to a wide variety of schools and found one that met all his criteria. It will all worked out in the end. Your son will be fine. Just make sure he has a few safeties, matches and reaches. Once admission decisions come in, he can decide what fits him best.</p>
<p>MomLive- The difference is that your son having a 3.3 and a 31 ACT are a pretty consistent looking pair of stats. Dad3x’s son with a 3.1 and a 35 ACT look more out of sync, since a 35 ACT is what, 98th percentile? Whatever it is, I feel safe in saying that the significant majority of students getting a 35 on the ACT have 3.5+ GPA’s. That’s why he was “concerned” that admissions people might think his son didn’t work up to his potential, slacked off, whatever you want to call it. However unfair that might be, it is a legitimate concern since perception rules. Hence his request for advice/suggestions.</p>
<p>^on the other hand, schools know that some students “test” well and some smart students don’t. That’s why college admissions decisions are not based solely on SAT/ACT scores.</p>
<p>Miamidap, you have a tendency to a) assume your personal experience or extremely limited sample size is somehow generalizable when it is not and b) that it is all about just ‘hard work’ - that everyone’s outcome is attributable to a lot or a little hard work (completely ignoring the fact that students actually do vary in terms of their past education grounding at whatever level, their general educational environment both at home and school and their actual innate cognitive abilities which surely DO vary across individuals). I have seen time and again some students who can sail through advanced coursework like drinking water and some, despite years of one on one tutoring and practice, that can not bring themselves up to even average levels of math (as but one example). Of course hard work matters, but it is hardly the only part of the equation. I have to assume your own education was one of memorization and regurgitation where one can ace the ‘exam’ with ‘hard work’ (pushed by external rewards and punishments when necessary) but was not one that involve a lot of critical thinking and depth of analysis and understanding. Ridiculously overly simplistic. </p>
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<p>ShanghaiMom,</p>
<p>No, the student won’t get any automatic scholarships but he does meet the qualifications for some of the non-guaranteed ones, like the Honors program scholarship. One of my kids got some merit $ from Indiana without meeting the gpa/testing cut-off. </p>
<p>[Selective</a> Scholarships: Selective Scholarships: Office of Scholarships: Indiana University Bloomington](<a href=“http://www.scholarships.indiana.edu/scholarships/selective/index.php]Selective”>http://www.scholarships.indiana.edu/scholarships/selective/index.php)</p>
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<p>Actually, a 35 is at the 99th percentile while a 31 is at the 97th percentile for the ACT.</p>
<p>The problem my son had is when you look at his ACT score on the Naviance scattergrams for more competitive schools, his GPA is definitely on the low side. He was always an outlier on Naviance for his reach schools. His GPA should be been a lot higher for a 31. Most the schools he looked at with a 31-33 ACT range had an average GPA greater than 3.7. So, we had the same issue as the OP.</p>
<p>*since a 35 ACT is what, 98th percentile? *</p>
<p>A 35 ACT is well-penetrated within the 99th percentile.</p>
<p>I obviously just shot off a quick reply without doing any searching, but I think my point stands. While the situations may be similar, simply by observation there is more of a gap in appearance between a 3.1/35 and a 3.3/31. OK, so by perceptions or stupid assumptions (or whatever you want to call it) only, dad3x’s kid is a super slacker and MomLive’s is only a slacker, lol. There is a significant difference in the number of kids that get 35 on the ACT and have 3.1 GPA and those that get 31 and have a GPA < or = 3.3 GPA. But whatever.</p>
<p>Having just been through a search w/my D, who had a directionally similar profile, I’d concur with many of the schools listed so far…Penn State, Oregon, Indiana, Iowa, Arizona, Florida State…worth a shot at reaches like Pitt,Washington, UIUC, etc.</p>
<p>Gads, MiamiDAP irked me there! He has a D --not a son. They do tend to be different in many ways – including these:</p>
<p>Girls often have fine motor skills earlier.
Girls will be more social and more compliant to teachers.
Girls often are more focused in class (the majority of ADD cases are male).</p>
<p>All of these things can lead to a stronger GPA. </p>
<p>My own (brilliant) son is a good case in point. He did a terrific job on the SAT. That sort of testing plays to his strength. After many years of trying many things, we found these things to be true:</p>
<p>1) He has a cross dominant brain (signs of cross dominance include sloppy handwriting/small motor skills and a hesitation before kicking a soccer ball as the kid decides which foot to use). He does much better using a keyboard than a pen or pencil.
2) He does much better when he likes the teacher.<br>
3) He does best with a male teacher with an irreverent sense of humor. </p>
<p>So, put him in a class with an experienced, funny male teacher who allows the students to keyboard answers and the kid will produce work that is amazing. A++++ stuff. </p>
<p>Put him in a class with a sour female instructor who carps on neatness and you are looking at B- (with lots of parental nagging to get there). </p>
<p>I hope the OP will tell S that our guy applied to a broad range of colleges. His GPA did hurt him – absolutely. His SAT did help. He did end up with some solid options and some scholarship dollars. </p>
<p>It helps that DH was majorly unfocused as a teen. DH is now a research PhD with many interesting life experiences – so we don’t have far to look for a success story. </p>
<p>Just keep believing and telling S that he is worthwhile and a blessing to this earth – and there are paths that are waiting for him. Don’t let anyone, anywhere knock a fine young man over something as stupid as tenths of points on a GPA.</p>