Hi all. I am trying to revive this topic again. My child is now applying to colleges and is still in this GPA range (3.8 weighted). We are from California, and my daughter is mostly targeting OOS schools due to the competitive admissions at many of our in-state schools. Most of her applications are now submitted. So much writing over the summer! The CSU system app does not open until Oct. 1, so we’re still waiting for that one. Good luck to everyone. 
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I second the suggestion above to take at look at CTCL colleges. My daughter had a 3.22 unweighted GPA and we just moved her in a little over 2 weeks ago to a CTCL college in TX. It’s been a great experience for her so far.
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Similar situation here for my S26. He currently has a 3.8W. We’ve been researching OOS schools as any CA public he is interested in is likely out of reach. Good luck to your daughter!
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@TLC73, if you’re still looking for additional idea for your S26 kid, let us know more about what your kid (interests, type of college, budget, etc).
@3.5starparent, it seems your D is pretty set on her college list already, but if any help is needed, just shout!
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Thanks everyone. Unfortunately, both of my children wanted/want to attend larger schools. As a family, we have toured 12 LACs in the west, Pacific Northwest, and Midwest, including Ohio. My older daughter liked Oberlin until we toured some larger schools and then there was no going back for her. Too bad, as I love smaller schools personally. Two of my favorites that I really hoped my kids would be into were Beloit and Whitman. Oh well. It’s their choice. I had my chance to choose (way) back in 1987! 
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I also love small schools and pictured my kids there. D22 went to a small school and it’s great for her and she loves it, it is a “suitcase school” and I don’t feel like she’s getting all of the experiences I hoped for her to get.
S23 went to a HUGE school (the football attendance this week was 40,000). I really thought it would be too big when we started looking, but I think it was the best decision ever. He has had so many opportunities. His philosophy was “You can make a big school feel small, but can’t make a small school feel big”. I really think he would have quickly outgrown some of the smaller schools I wanted him to go to.
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Same. I hoped my D22 would pick a LAC. She ended up at UCLA and she loves it so much. She has friends at LACs and doesn’t care for the “bubble” she sees them in. They are happy in their bubble, but I think UCLA has taught her a lot about the “real world” while still being a safe and fun college experience.
I hope this is okay. I am reposting a message that I posted to the general Parents Forum, as I think this might be a more appropriate space.
Reading some of the messages in the main forums, generally about kids that are very motivated & very engaged with the college search process - I think people may have trouble relating to what I posted there.
I will try to keep this first post brief, as I have a lot of questions swirling around in my head about how to strategize time with the remainder of this school year in terms of boosting GPA, studying for standardized tests, being smart about ECs, course selection for senior year, etc.
However, in general, my daughter is old for her grade yet fairly immature about this whole process. (Really thankful that she did not make the kindergarten cutoff way back when, as she would not be ready to graduate this spring).
We have had the budget talk with her, and we have also had the talk about where she likely falls within her class - based on her school’s high school profile and how that influences things. However, she is not interested in even looking at schools that have higher acceptance rates, are more affordable for middle class families, or will be likely admits without super high stats.
We have done one tour of a small LAC and one large state flagship while on a short road trip with my son’s sports team - just to get an idea of which type of environment she found to be a better fit. Both visits were to very good schools that would be “targets” for her, academically, with the public one slightly overbudget; the LAC - a financial toss-up (could actually be underbudget with Tuition Exchange, through my workplace).
She finds all of this depressing as she’s only interested in schools like NYU, Boston University, UCLA. I don’t even know if she’s interested in “the college experience” because she claims she would rather go to “any school” in NYC or vicinity than to an isolated campus - even if in a large college town with plenty to do. I’m not sure she’s understanding that getting engaged with life at college + her studies = a full plate, and she will not be bored. The kicker is - she’s kind of a homebody and she always runs out of time on her weekends with just managing finishing schoolwork, maybe working a 4-hour shift at her part-time job, and hanging out with a friend for a few hours one evening.
I think she’s spent too much time on YouTube, TikTok, or Pinterest following videos of girls shopping in SoHo between classes and such, that she is thinking of college as her “exploring the real world” time vs. post college. At least, that is how I see it (and what I’m up against 
).
Someone please tell me that she will be directed to Naviance or College Vine or something similar by 3rd quarter by a school counselor and that things start to become clearer, and yet not in an overwhelmingly “depressing” way.
I think it’s fine to want to go to school in a city, and I don’t think it’s unusual for kids to get a picture of college in their heads from TikTok- I’ve seen plenty head to southern schools for the football/greek scene or idyllic fall campuses luring kids to New England. She wants to be in a big city, which is certainly doable! The trick is to find an affordable school she can get into- I would explore if cities other than NY/LA are acceptable- College of Charleston has a great urban campus with the coffee shop/shopping life right there, Rhodes is slightly surburban but in Memphis and I think kids do take advantage of that. GW in DC? Goucher in Baltimore. I’m sure others can think of urban schools that could fit budget and aren’t impossible to get into. The truth is you can get a great education almost anywhere, so might as well pick the kind of environment you want.
I don’t think there’s any problem with wanting to go to school in a city. But it is, unfortunately, up to you to temper her expectations about where she’ll likely be admitted. Maybe try to tour some schools that are in cities but not at the tippy top of admissions.
My D23 was really hot on going to school in a city too and wound up at a LAC in a city but not right downtown. She’s found out that the kids rarely actually go into the city and when they do, it’s expensive.
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I have a city-loving junior son who is starting to come to terms with the idea of target and safety schools (not fully, but starting to). I did put my foot down on NYU/NYC in general. I told him that was a place he was welcome to move when he’s got his own job footing the bill. I moved to NYC when I was 25 and, wow, it was a rude awakening for my bank account. He can learn that lesson on his own dime, too.
But if he wants to give other cities a try, I’m open to it. We are going to look at UWashington in Seattle, University of Puget Sound, Lewis and Clark and Reed in Portland. Also, University of Colorado, Boulder. Maybe also DePaul and Loyola in Chicago.
Joining in this thread after reading through. Curious to thoughts on this scenario, I know Elon is one example, they changed this year and put honors application in main application. Do you think less likely to get merit opportunities at schools like this if you ED versus EA? A couple others schools showed merit in the NPC which was super nice, so feel like those matter less in terms of ED/EA?
Our S25 sounds similar. He’s in the academic range of this thread (carries a 3.7+, around the top 40% of his class at a low grade-inflation, competitive Jesuit school, solid student but no standout, and a 30 ACT). He had the opportunity to play a sport at a pretty high DIII level, so was looking at some LAC’s that he almost certainly wouldn’t have gotten into without athletics. But when it came down to it, the desire to play at the next level was overwhelmed by concerns that he’d be bored or out of place on campuses where the student body’s about the size of his high school. In retrospect I think he’s right, although the academic support system he would have had access to at a school like that, especially as an athlete, would be nice.
On a separate note, I’ve found this thread to be very informative, so wanted to add our more general experience with this particular student. Because I think his road toward college selection shows that for kids in this category there are PLENTY of appropriate choices and we all shouldn’t stress about it. They’re not getting into Michigan or Stanford or even Villanova. So what? They may choose a type of school that’s utterly different from where their parents went, but again, so what? It’s their life.
Unlike his older sister, for whom fit was pretty closely aligned with “most competitive school I can get into” because she wanted to be pushed academically and be around similar kids, S25 wants a place where people are happy to be there, that has a Greek system and DI athletics, etc. He’s attracted by the chance to stand out as a student rather than be stressed about whether or not he can keep up. Geography seems to matter to him more, too: access to the outdoors, and college town or reasonably sized city are prerequisites.
He’s ended up with an application list that is not what a guidance counselor would suggest. He has precisely one reach, to a place where we know he could hack it so we practically forced him to apply just to see what happens (would be interesting to see how his mindset changes if this school says “Yes, we do think you’re capable of succeeding at this selective place”), three or four targets, one of which I would classify as “high target”, and half a dozen schools he’ll unquestionably get into and probably get some merit offers. Almost all publics; he found the private universities that would be in his range of possible acceptances just weren’t appealing to him for one reason or another (anything from “too preppy” to “too alternative” to “bad location” to “weak school spirit”), and he really struggled to find any stretches that seemed interesting unless they were way beyond his range. So, he’s submitted apps to four Big Ten’s (got an acceptance from one already), an ACC, a Big 12, two SEC’s and a couple other smaller public or larger private universities. And they’re all great places where we’re sure he’ll be perfectly happy and eventually land a job, in part because of gigantic alumni bases.
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Honestly, I found the college process much easier with my 3.6ish GPA kid than with my 4.0 GPA kid. She had one slight reach (that she attends!) and got in everywhere she applied. It was kind of fun hunting down merit and looking outside the tippy top schools that she didn’t even need to bother with. There are a LOT of fabulous schools who would love a great kid with a lower than A+ GPA.
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This is so true, I’m fresh off my ‘24 that applied to 20 schools and chose an Ivy. My ‘25 has 4 schools, no reaches, 3 likelies and a low target. I think I’m driving her nuts as it feels too easy and she’s telling me I’d be delighted with any of them, I don’t want more options. I should be thrilled with this, but it’s whiplash from previous year.
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Amen! Much less stressful. It’s not even Halloween, every application but one is out the door, and he’s got an acceptance from a place that’s probably 8th or 9th on his wish list but he’d be perfectly happy there. Last time around by New Years we had one acceptance from the deepest safety on the list, a baffling EA deferral to RD, an ED deferral to RD that we took as a minor victory, and were still sending out apps and everyone was on pins and needles until around tax day.
It’s also been really fun to learn about all of these other schools with no overlap from our daughter’s list. As was the case with her at the end of the process, I wish our son could spend one semester at 8 of the different places he’s applying to, so that we could visit him at each one!
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It’s way more fun! My S25 is my 4.0 one and it sucks D23 was so much more chill.
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Trying to decide which is the worse order, but my thoughts are with you this year! 
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Of the two Chicago schools, DePaul feels more city connected. Loyola’s a touch isolated along the lakefront, and closer to downtown Evanston than the Loop geographically, even though there’s an El stop right across the street from campus.
Brainstorming others: Minnesota, Ohio State, Temple, Drexel, GA Tech, NE’ern, BU, Pitt, Tulane may be worth looking at?
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Could definitely see BU (which would be a reach), and perhaps Pitt, Temple and Drexel. Maybe Minneapolis, too. He wants weather—seasons, rain, snow. And he’s pretty set on blue state politics, even though I’ve tried to convince him that universities are usually pretty liberal-minded places. Doesn’t care about Greek life, sports, etc. He’s more of an arty,l urban sort who like math and physics Thank you!!