Parents of HS Class of 2025 3.0-3.4 GPA (or less)

S24 falls in this GPA range. His public high school prides itself in not having grade inflation, and doesn’t rank, which doesn’t translate well to colleges outside the area. That said, s24 has some great options for next year, which may/not help your kids depending on the reasons underlying the GPA.

Here’s where he had success:

  • He scored high on the SAT. He went to tutoring for it and realized it was his only hope in counteracting the GPA. He took it several times in 11th grade. The high SAT also brought back his confidence, which is priceless
  • He was accepted to schools that had a track record with his NE high school. These are universities that were popular 30 years ago.
  • He applied to schools that required standardized scores, or strongly encouraged them
  • He was accepted at medium sized private schools, and the merit $ makes them equal in cost to OOS state schools

Here is where he didn’t do well:

  • newly popular SEC schools flooded by NE applicants. Deferred at most
  • schools that were seriously TO, especially those that catered to private high schools - one that had a lot of kids from California where tests aren’t usually taken, and another jesuit school that pulls from the private catholic high schools
  • a school that advertised they wanted high GPA kids whatever the EC and SATs were

Finally, we applied him to 21 schools EA b/c we just didn’t know where to place him. This is what I wish we had done differently:

  1. applied to schools first over Coalition. They have a subset of schools, apply here first and for the ones not on Coalition you’ll be able to find them on the Common App in case you end up going over the 20 max.
  2. Applied to the rolling schools first -i.e. Alabama & Kentucky. After his first offer came in his stress level went way down. It was good to know he was in somewhere. Would have been nice if that happened just a bit earlier.
  3. Applied to a few more small-mid reach schools
  4. Not shotgun one or two reaches that don’t have a supplemental essay. Everyone does that and it’s why their admit % is so low.
  5. Removed some of the OOS state schools that now take 30% or less from OOS.

Finally, this is what we did right:

  • Looked at his application as a marketing package with the same message throughout. It was very clear. He wrote the essays, but we helped with edits. With him we completed the covid and extra situation part to explain lockdowns and the death of a close friend. Those are short and tough to write emotionally.
  • Poured through the common data sets for each school. Looked heavily at % submitting scores and acceptances for boys.
  • Spent the entire month of August doing the common app. With ECs it would be too much to do during the school year, and working across the table from a professional adult (me), made him grow up. I treated him as an employee working on a project together. You can hire this out, but I’m a better slave driver, and I wouldn’t have missed the bonding opportunity. (I’m at the point in my career where I finally have flexibility and I realize this is not the case for most people.)
  • Listened to podcasts about the regular schools. The most helpful is “The College Admissions Process Podcast” by John Durante. He’s a high school principal from Syosset Long Island and he interviews the colleges that most of his high school students are applying to. We played them in the car with S24 so he could start thinking more about life after high school
  • Applied to local, distant, small and large. Grateful that he has admits to these categories. What you want in August may be very different from what you want on May 1st when it becomes real.

I truly hope this helps. The process shouldn’t be this hard, and you are all great parents for working with your kids. I hope we all pay it forward and help kids who don’t have the same support system.

Best of luck!!!

12 Likes

Thanks for the detailed recommendations.

3 Likes

So it’s time to pick courses for next year. I’m willing to take a hit and let Calculus go, but S25 is blaming about STATS. Ugh. He’s also not inclined to proceed with Italian (has taken through IV).

He does reasonably well in Math (save Trig this past quarter) but has met math requirements needed to graduate. He likes building things, but I’d be surprised if he ends up as an engineer because so much more math is needed. It’s looking like humanities.

Maybe I see what else he builds out for a schedule and he’ll run out of options?

If I were picking I’d pick Physics, Stats, Microeconomics, Modern Western Civ (DE), expository writing (DE), Italian V.

He will want to ditch stats, sub DE Personal Finance for Microeconomics, not sure on the others.

Any tips short of outright bribery? :crazy_face:

Does your kid have a couple of first choice schools? If so maybe see if there is clear recommendations for 4 years of math in CDS or their website which might push them to take stats?

3 Likes

Will try that. Lots of anxiety about the whole process unfortunately.

It’s not quite time to pick classes for next year but as much as my D hates taking math she hates having a bad teacher even more. The stats teacher isn’t well liked so she might take the regular calculus class especially if the same teacher for pre calc teaches it. She’s not trying for any super selective admissions school except for the music audition is very selective. She refuses to take AP LA so she’ll stick with advanced. AP Macro incorporates the grad req financial literacy and AP music theory are the only 2 APs that will be on her record. Symphonic and jazz band, required PE/health, and a required career/tech class probably digital design and if not available then business management which is dual enrollment or childhood development. I’m letting her drop science and German.

1 Like

Oh for sure! here too!!

And definitely pick your battles too - and depending on where kid is applying it matters to varying degree too…

2 Likes

How is everyone doing? School vacation week here. DS25 doing a bit of Khan Academy test prep. I’ve heard College Board does not link with Khan Academy anymore, but they have their own app. Anyone know what it is and if it is any good?

In other news, DS25 randomly struck up a conversation about Emerson College. I guess someone he knows submitted a FanFiction (he reads FF religiously) story as her essay and got in. I seized on the opportunity to consult our college books for info. He’s not sure about being right in the city but seemed otherwise interested.

He also stunned me by agreeing to attend the CTCL East Coast Tour. (!). He says this is the best 5 minute college talk we’ve had, LOL.

He has a surgical consult in Boston next week. Not sure I should press my luck and suggest a tour…

5 Likes

FWIW I think a tour of Emerson (having done one) is really worth it… We have been on 10+ tours (both urban and campus schools) and I felt like Emerson felt unique in many ways. because it is relatively small, and so urban, you really see most of the school. We also had 2 tour guides (not sure if standard or not) with different majors which was super helpful too. Anyway, Emerson’s tour, to me stood out as getting a real flavor of the school more deeply than most tours which seem kind of generic.

2 Likes

us too - saw 5 schools (not near each other) which may have been too much :rofl: Though kid is starting to narrow down “type” of school they like, which is cool. I never thought we’d get there.

1 Like

I think they do still partner with Khan but maybe the app you’re thinking of is BlueBook?

I’d only do an Emerson tour if he is interested in one of the majors they offer. They offer a very limited range of majors, so unless he is set on something arts/media/communications, I’d probably hold off. Not fun to fall in love with a school only to find out that it’s not a match for your major or pocketbook. And with Emerson being so unique, it’s hard to hold it up as a small school in the city example for a rule in/rule out type.

2 Likes

Height of dance competition season here. She is exhausted. ACT in a few weeks. Fingers crossed she gets a 20-22 (she does horrible on tests). Spending the day at Navy Pier for a dance event really solidified her preference is to visit cities, not live in one (at least not one as big as Chicago).

I think we have the list down to about 10 schools.

Rider
Le Moyne
Lindenwood
Shenandoah
Jacksonville U
Sacred Heart
Oklahoma City U
Florida Southern
U of Southern Mississippi
Dean

8 Likes

My daughter is still all about LeMoyne. So the list is currently one. Lol She is an athlete though, and loves their coaches and the program. I think it’s wise to have some backups plans though, because it’s all about the bottom dollar….we need SUNY type prices or bust. We shall see. So glad for this thread!!

4 Likes

Thanks, yes we are aware of the limited majors. He’d probably be looking at English/Creative Writing/Literature.

I’d rather he went somewhere with more majors, but just trying to engage him where he is at.

D25 decided she is dropping 1 of her 2 dance teams for senior year. She wants to try to get her gpa up and have more time to visit colleges.

2 Likes

That’s too bad she has to miss out on one. My D is dropping a couple activities too. Plus I pulled her from one this week because her grades have barely recovered from missing classes to participate in music comps and All State. She wants to do everything, I want her to be able to do everything but she’s not built to hustle when it comes to academics. I hope your D isn’t too sad. My D was almost relieved when I put my foot down.

1 Like

I was going to basically force her but she actually came to me on her own this week and said she made her decision. She thought I would be upset (I was proud that I was able to hide my true thoughts). I told her I supported her 100%. She is mentally and physically exhausted. Some kids can thrive doing school, an EC that is 24 plus hours a week, and working 1-2 days a week. My daughter is not that person. Bonus is that I will save 8 plus k next year. :slight_smile:

3 Likes

DS25 and I met with his school’s college counselor last week and attended a Colleges that Change Lives College Fair this weekend. Great opening presentation by CTCL Director Ann Marano and then attendance at a college fair with representation of about 30 of the 44 colleges.

I strongly suggest this fair or at least the book to everyone. DS25 is highly anxious. Marano’s presentation seriously dialed down his anxiety. Then he visited about 7 tables and spoke to admission representatives from St. John’s, St. Olaf’s, Rhodes, Clark, Hampshire, Ursinus & Juniata. Sadly, Bard was not in attendance, but we will see them separately. At each table, he asked a few questions about the history and creative writing offerings and green space.

He left feeling like he had some interesting schools to consider. Almost all the CTCL schools were test blind or test optional before it was cool, so this really helps with the upcoming SAT test.

10/10 recommend.

6 Likes

My D25 and I are flying out to tour one of the CTCL schools in a couple weeks, Uni of Puget Sound. It’s great to hear your son found some schools that are interesting to him. St. Olaf is my secret favorite school I wish was a fit for my D. It just seems like it would be such a supportive place to spend 4 formative years of a students life.

4 Likes