<p>kathiep - Thanks for your realistic views. Achieving a B in college will be challenging for most of our kids on this thread.</p>
<p>Very good points by Gweeta and Kathiep.</p>
<p>I also think some kids are much happier when they are not shut out of reaches and left with a sense of rejection</p>
<p>Congrats RTR and MaryAnn. Were those schools EA, RD, rolling …?</p>
<p>Endicott was rolling.</p>
<p>Your B student may surprise you in college. Mine sure has. He was your basic good kid/good student (3.2 UW, 3.5W, only one AP, 3 or 4 honors level) in high school. And now: A student, Dean’s List!!! Smaller classes, teachers who actually know their subject and who like teaching and like students – he’s at a public LAC. He is also more mature, more responsible and wants to be successful. He’s a late bloomer, I guess, as are many, many of the kids in this forum. </p>
<p>Now, do I wish he had reached higher? Sometimes. But maybe more for my ego because he is thriving at his “match” school.</p>
<p>stillnadine, thank you for coming back to post. I am so happy for you and your son! Congratulations!</p>
<p>Great posts today all; and totally agree with kathiep, gweeta and yabeyabe as usual…</p>
<p>reaches on our list are just slightly and just due to standardized tests…but are all “fits”…</p>
<p>Thanks, NEM. And just over a year ago, I came to CC and thought “He’ll never get into college.”</p>
<p>I think this is a terrific discussion for us as parents. It’s certainly something I’m thinking about with my D. I think it’s something any parent thinks about, at whatever level their child is. </p>
<p>My older kid with great stats refused to have a “safety,” said she’d just take a year off, that if they didn’t want her she didn’t want them, etc. Believe me, I was as scared with her as I am with this one. She did get accepted ED at her first choice, but I do think she would have dealt with it if she hadn’t; she truly loathed the idea of going somewhere that she’d easily be at the top, that her peers wouldn’t give her a challenge, etc. And she’s getting exactly what she wanted where she is now, fellow students she admires greatly, and grades that are hard to get (she’s not getting all A’s anymore, and is almost happy about it).</p>
<p>My current HS jr is relieved when really nice, even prestigious, schools she’s looking at will take kids with a 3.2-3.6, where she at least fits their middle 50% of accepted students. She even gets it that there is a bottom 25% that DID get accepted, after all. I think she’ll get her share of rejections, but she seems ready to take that risk. What she’s hated about HS is small-mindedness and intellectual and creative apathy; she’s the kind of B student who can meet the A students in discussion and ideas, just can’t crank on the tests and can’t keep everything organized.</p>
<p>I’m hoping she’ll blossom in college, since she’s made huge strides in maturity all through HS, but I also think she won’t sweat the grades so much there. The experience will be the important thing, and I see her heading for a career where her GPA in college isn’t what will matter. It’ll be personal qualities, the level of her sophistication in thinking and creating. </p>
<p>Another thing people have pointed out on these B student threads is how those nasty subjects that trip some of these kids up (like my non-math/science kid) quickly disappear in college. I think when they can focus on what they love and excel at, they can really shine!</p>
<p>We’re adding in the theater piece, so I guess we’re just stuck with rejections no matter what (rejections are kind of a required thing to learn not only to be OK with, but practically to seek). I would have a hard time if I was seeing a sort of masochistic pursuit of the nearly impossible (wait, that’s kind of like auditioning for theater programs, isn’t it …). But I know a lot of kids like that, at a lot of achievement levels. They want what they want, no matter what we say.</p>
<p>We can’t win, folks! We’re just going to be guilty and worried no matter what! Too high, too low, what if - I agree with the plan to ask myself “Is she good with it?” and just go with the flow. Keep reminding me …</p>
<p>I had a “meeting” with my S today about colleges and he named U of Tulsa as his favorite school of the ones I suggested. Does anyone know if Tulsa would be a match for him? He has about a 3.0 with an expected 1800 on the SAT (he just took it last Saturday). He liked Tulsa because of the sports, good size, and that he would be away from home without being too far. We were going to Dallas at Spring Break for a wedding so we should be able to get up to Tulsa for a visit. S liked Linfield and California Lutheran but wasn’t sure about the weather and “wasn’t sold on the west coast” (whatever that means.) I’m happy to make a little progress. </p>
<p>Thanks for those who posted encouraging things about their B students doing well in college. I have two good friends whose sons recently got poor grades in college (one flunked out and the other is on probation.) I was getting worried about my son going down the same path. These are nice kids who didn’t party a lot. They just didn’t seem to put in much effort and both play a lot of video games.</p>
<p>"those nasty subjects that trip some of these kids up (like my non-math/science kid) quickly disappear in college.</p>
<p>^^ Not really; open curric is fairly common (though by no means universal) among the top tier northeastern LACs. Outside of that group, however, gen eds and distrib reqs abound - - and you can’t always count on an “easy” class designater for non-majors. But, if the applicant and his/her parents are careful about reviewing the requirements and course offerings before applying, they can identify schools/programs that don’t require too many of those problem courses - - not nearly as easy as having those courses just “disappear,” but for my family, well worth the effort.</p>
<p>Yes, you are right. That was overstatement on my part. I am quite confident, though, that she’ll only have to take a few math/science courses in college, and that she’ll be able to pick ones that feel more relevant to her than the ones in HS. The “recommendation” that good college applicants take 4 years of math, 4 years of lab science, etc. in HS has really been a burden (in fact, she’s probably going to take the chance on only 3 or 3 1/2 years of science, because she has other priorities).</p>
<p>I went to a common core university with a zillion requirements, but as a humanities major I only had to go as far as pre-calc (and tested out of it, so never took math in college), and my science classes were fun, interesting ones that I chose. My D1, who IS a math/science person, really enjoyed finding her favorite kind of humanities/social sciences courses to fill her college distribution requirements, and then moved pretty quickly to taking mostly science classes that truly inspire her.</p>
<p>Thought I would add my opinion: the Freshman D is doing very well at college & got very good grades her first semester. (We never sign the paper to let us see our kids’ grades) She had the worst case of “Senioritis” I ever saw, and she is #3 of my four children! I almost wondered if she would even graduate from High School! Well, she did, and is thriving at Alfred University & seems more career-oriented than my older two children were as freshmen. 
</p>
<p>Son is finishing his last application today, due on February 1st, love the proscrastination!</p>
<p>My son has a 3.3 unweighted GPA from a very competitve boarding school, 5’s on all his AP’s. 800 critical reading, 760 math and 690 writing on his SAT’s. 770 US History, 750 Math and 730 Bio SAT II’s. Prefect for 2 years, Captain of the Crew team for 2 years, Competed in the Nationals, Head Tour Guide, Model UN, summer jobs along with volunteering at Sea Turtle Conservancy. His essay topic was about the first mountain he climbed. He applied to:
Harvard, Tufts, BC, Penn, Villanova, Georgetown, William and Mary, UVA, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt and Rhodes. I am a wreck, is he going to community college next year?</p>
<p>anothercrazymom…you may want to try ■■■■■■■■ on another thread. We’re all immune to it here.</p>
<p>not sure what you mean?</p>
<p>anothercrazymom… if you are serious, this is not the thread for you. A 3.3u would actually be much higher than the kids on this thread. Also, kids from BS school can have a lower GPA and still be accepted to top schools. I’m sure you won’t be looking at community college…</p>
<p>Back to the reach discussion… We have had similiar discussions at home, but in spite of my son’s good test scores, he still has a D in a core subject and some inconsistent grades. I think the schools at the lower end of tier 1 or even lower are willing to overlook that, if they believe the student can succeed. My son’s super reach is a top 20. If he gets in there, I’ll be shocked!!!</p>
<p>WB…when will you hear about the super reach?</p>
<p>We’ve heard from all schools except for one which son is not really interested in anymore. No rejections, which is why I keep wondering if he should have done a super reach too. However, if he had been accepted at a super reach (which I think would have been a private school), I don’t think we could have afforded it anyway!</p>
<p>Would reach schools be Stonehill, Marist and Providence? I consider them my S reach schools.<br>
More good news yesterday. S was accepted with $ to Elmira College. Very impressive acceptance package.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about Stonehill, but I think that Providence and Marist would be reach schools. Congratulations on Elmira! My son came close to applying there, but it did not make the final cut.</p>