<p>Shrinkrap, I agree with what you’ve said. My S is also an upward trender, he appears to be maturing. But he is entering a tough major with kids that are used to working hard consistently, and I’m just not confident enough to spend money we don’t have to send him to an expensive school.</p>
<p>I am keeping everything crossed as we go into this first fall semester. </p>
<p>I’ve already told him if he does well as an undergraduate, if he want to go on to graduate school, we’ll help send him to his ‘dream’ school.</p>
<p>Kathiep-want to go to the Hartwick open house but can’t because D is in a play this weekend. Let me know what you think. Will you look at suny- oneonta while you arson town?</p>
<p>Holliesue, I think many of us, after receiving rejection letters or denials of aid, have been tempted to “arson college” and perhaps “arson town”.</p>
<p>JRZ, welcome and if you want any suggestions about places to check out, let everyone know what you seek in a college.</p>
<p>Kathiep, I have heard good things about Hartwick.</p>
<p>Funny typo holliesue! We may do a little look-see at the SUNY-Oneonta, but it’s not high on the list. Son’s not real happy with the multiple college visits we’ve been doing lately and he’s been getting slammed with homework, but I’m thinking this is our last shot before the colleges are done for the school year. Hartwick is a small college and I know it won’t show well in the summer, but it’s not a bad drive for an open house. I really wanted to go to RIT on Friday but he doesn’t want to miss any school.</p>
<p>ReadytoRoll, Post 3088, really made me laugh. I think I probably post here more frequently than anywhere else! My S is a mere mortal, after all, and hasn’t won the Noble Peace Prize or discovered a cure for the common cold, while still maintaining a 4.0 GPA and perfect SAT scores! Start avoiding it very soon, there will be many award ceremonies to read about, not exactly my cup of tea/wine/beer. </p>
<p>So how low can your grades go before a college boots you out or puts you on some kind of probation? My son does not appear to be working hard this semester (at least, in school…instead he is picking up gobs of hours at his job which I guess at least means he cares about making some money!) and admitted to being in “senior slump”. What if he gets all "C"s? (He insists he won’t get all Cs but I’m preparing for the worst.) He’s going to a large public school and I can’t find any information on this on any of the large public websites…</p>
<p>Choice quotes from the “Class of 2012” Thread:</p>
<p>First quote is from the OP of the thread (I guess possibly scaring away those that may be lesser)
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<p>(Competitive Acting?..lol…)</p>
<p>No wonder CC has the reputation it does. I think many parents come here for advice, but when they ask a question, they (95% of the time) get an answer that is akin to: “Well <em>I</em> can’t relate to your question because <em>my</em> kid doesn’t have those issues.” It’s really too bad, but I guess expected. I think a regular “parents of teens” board might be more helpful when it comes to dealing with more typical kids. The brave posters on many CC threads who talk about their more “typical” kids are basically ignored, unless there is a good “one-upmanship” opportunity.</p>
<p>Yup, it does. But man oh man I have learned so much from my hang time here. Especially about financing college and loving your safety. </p>
<p>BTW, my son has what I thought was a high SAT score until I started reading what other kids were getting. Combined with his 3.0-3.3 GPA he is obviously the village idiot (said with a smile). </p>
<p>So I continue to hang here because despite having an outlier son, I have learned a lot, including…“love the kid on the coach.”</p>
<p>RtoR, My S’s state u. has a graduated probation system. They give freshman the most leeway because they are the most likely to screw it up. I know this from experience.
For freshmen if gpa is below 1.8, they are on academic probation. They have one semester to bring their gpa back up to “good standing” status which means getting it back above 1.8 or making at least a 2.5 in the probationary semester. If they don’t get the gpa back up, they are suspended for a semester.</p>
<p>All schools are diff. You can find the info. if you get on your S’s school website and search for “academic probation”.</p>
<p>Stillnadine, that school looked quite interesting. I noticed that they want you to sumbit a portfolio. I went into the garage and looked at my son’s “project” motorcycle last night. Might be a little on the greasy side. </p>
<p>Seriously, I did think it looked like a place he might like, and if “regular” college doesn’t work out, we’d certainly consider something like this.</p>
<p>packmom: rtr is referring to senior year of HS rescision…and fwiw, I can’t imagine that large publics have the time or energy to scrutinize final HS transcripts if one has passed all courses; my guess is that D’s or F’s would be the only thing to raise red flags…</p>
<p>Thanks. Packmom…as rodney said, I’m referring to grades during senior year. I’m worried he will get a whole bunch of Cs, although combined with the Bs (and I think a couple of B pluses) last semester, they might not all be actual C final grades. But he has never actually had a C before (has had B minuses) so I wasn’t sure if it would be a flag. Rodney, your point about big state schools not having that time is good, but I’m wondering if it’s easy enough to run all transcripts received through a reader…after all, they must do that initially when deciding on admission. </p>
<p>I may be overreacting and maybe he won’t really be ending up with a bunch of Cs, but he isn’t being very forward about his grades lately which does worry me.</p>
<p>RTR (and others on this particular thread): the rule of thumb we have been told is that if you’re kid was admitted with generally an “A” average, senior year should not go below “B”'s…if they were admitted with mostly “B”'s, senior year should not go much below "C"s…</p>
<p>and fwiw, two years ago, my daughter’s senior class got slammed in a couple of AP classes where they ended the year with C’s…these were kids who were going to the topish type schools…not one was even notified about their grades…</p>
<p>I would imagine that since we are on the 3.0-3.3 thread, most of these kids would be fine in senior year with a spattering of B’s and a couple of C’s.</p>
<p>Hi. I’m more of a lurker on CC than a poster (although I have posted). There are a couple of threads I like to follow regularly, and this is one of them. I also follow the Parents of 2010 thread. I’ve found both threads to be full of good advice, as well as warm and encouraging support. I’m not sure there is a lot to be gained by creating an us against them mentality between parents of B or B+ students and parents of straight A students. Going through 2 years of history on a thread and pulling out quotes to kind of stereotype and smear the people who post there can probably be done on any thread. I’m sure if someone wanted to, we could go through this thread and pull out 6 quotes that made it look like it’s full of warm, funny, happy people, or snarky, bitter, unhappy people. Aren’t we all hoping our kids find the best spot for college that they can? Whether that means a ‘top’ school, a ‘low pressure’ school, a ‘sports’ school, or a school with good weather, whatever? To varying degrees, isn’t it natural to be looking at our kids grades and scores and hoping they creep up just a little bit more, just because it opens more doors for them? The difference between a 3.1 and a 3.3 or between a 3.9 and a 4.0 just might make the difference for an acceptance or a scholarship at any given school. So…let’s keep the positive vibe going!</p>
<p>My D would fall over laughing at “Competitive Acting II.” </p>
<p>I, too, do not look at the “usual” CC threads. I grew up in a town where that kind of thing was the buzz, and it made me barf then; while I wish sometimes our little town here had a slightly higher “brow” I still much prefer it to the other.</p>
<p>These threads have been invaluable to me in understanding where we are in creating a viable list for our D. Having a B+ kind of average makes college entry stats very difficult to decipher, especially when the test scores fall in about the same. So many schools, from 1st - 4th tier, state this kind of GPA. It’s only the anecdotal and also professional opinions of posters here that have helped us understand just what might happen, and what we should do to get the most out of the admissions game (especially on our own emotional end).</p>
<p>Six months ago I was very anxious about whether we were building a reasonable list, and the possible schools seemed endless, even counting in her preferences for majors, locations, etc. Talking here about the realities of a kid who might need to express herself a little differently to colleges, who might have needs that aren’t just based on “intellectual rigor”, etc., has changed everything. We now have a really good list (the reason we might seem compulsive about this and way ahead is because she’s planning to apply to auditioned theater programs and will have to have most apps in by Sept), and I’m calming down a lot. I truly feel she’ll “love her safety” and that everything will turn out as it should. There will be stress when she has to do the work of applying, and I’ll feel for her as she goes through the acceptance/rejection process. And she’s been told more than once that she can get some solid merit aid for the stats she’s sometimes embarrassed to reveal. Isn’t that astonishing!</p>
<p>She’s not the type to start talking on here herself, but she listens carefully to what I tell her I “hear.” And we met some wonderful new friends when we traveled for college visits - she knows this is a place to find great people. And those people told us of their group of friends from CC, which does get together in person, and has lasted past the kids’ graduation from college! So if you’re feeling like these really are “friendships,” you’re right.</p>
<p>Thanks, yabe - I’m sure many here would send the compliment back at you.</p>
<p>“Arson the town” and “Kid on the coach” were uproarious typos. Thank you!! We all need laughs!!</p>
<p>r2r just wanted to share that my SIL had the same fear re my nephew as he was approaching the end of his Sr. year. She overheard he and a friend affirming that “at this point, anyone who gets over a C is working too hard” :eek: He now has a high B avg in college so all is well.</p>
Then you followed it up with “arson town” and now I wish we lived in the same town too!</p>
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Yikes. I hope not.