Parents of students 3.5-3.8 gpa?

I took a quick look at the CDS and only 34% enrolled students submitted scores last year. I think whatever you all want to do is just fine. Best of luck!

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University of Kansas too, for journalism

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My D25 has been accepted to the University of Scranton - TO w/ a 3.7 gpa. Looks like a great school.

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Not a big deal but annoying. D25 is at a new school this year and just submitted early apps. Got their Q1 report card yesterday and one of the classes is honors, nowhere did it say that, not in the grading system or the class offerings handbook. Put down 3 AP and 3 REG and it should have been 3 AP, 1 Honors and 2 REG. Don’t think worthy enough to update but wish it was correct.

D25 is a 3.7 GPA, 720 math and mid-600 English. She’s submitting her SAT scores to anywhere that isn’t a reach that will take them. She’s taken huge rigor (11 APs total, 7 years of foreign language) but just doesn’t like to study. Bay Area, of course.Wants to go to school in a large metropolis, I think Oregon and VT are the only ones that don’t fit.

She’s been accepted to these rolling schools:

  • U Nevada - Reno (free application and no essays)
  • Pitt
  • Oregon

Waiting on:

  • Cal states
  • UMD (reach)
  • Delaware
  • UConn
  • Northeastern (reach)
  • Colorado - Boulder
  • American

Still has to apply to:

  • UCs (all reaches)
  • Univ of Toronto
  • UBC (reach)
  • U Washington (reach)
  • VT
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Hello fellow Bay Area :slight_smile: Congrats on the acceptances so far. Lots of students head to UNR from S25’s high school and I always hear wonderful things from parents.

Did you daughter apply to OSU or U of O?

U of O! It’s her top choice of the 3.

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UBC might not be a reach for your daughter. The acceptance rate for international students has been about 43% to 51% from 2018 to 2023, and they look very favorably upon AP exams. For example, they translate a 5 on an AP exam to a 96% (4 is equal to 86%) and take whichever is higher, the grade in the class or the score conversion. (They’re very generous with AP transfer credits as well.) They focus on evaluating Grades 11 and 12 and use holistic factors too.

U of T (Toronto) also looks at Grades 11 and 12 but only uses holistic factors for a few ultracompetitive programs like engineering, computer science or commerce. For the Faculty of Arts & Science, you apply to a specific stream (humanities or social sciences or life sciences, for example), which will have different entrance averages. The middle 50 percent of accepted American applicants falls around CGPA 3.7+, 1450 to 1550 SAT.

Posting here for the hopeful benefit of others. Son has a 3.5 from a NYC private school. It is best known as an IB school but my kid is an ADHD previously sometimes unmotivated student so only takes one IB and so rigor is not there as far as school profile stuff. He is TO. We were worried about where he would land. If you see my post from junior year - was originally looking at big ten type schools. But - he was also very west coast focused. We visited SDSU and UC Santa Cruz. Also visited mid size schools like Chapman and LMU. Much to our surprise (and delight) - he came back from his LMU visit October of senior year saying he wanted to apply ED. Did EA apps for SDSU, Arizona, Oregon, two Cal Polys, Michigan State and Ohio State. He was accepted to Arizona, Michigan State and SDSU. The others we won’t find out because he ended up getting in ED at LMU who also gave him 25.5k a year in merit. He is thrilled as are we. We think the size and philosophy of LMU is a good fit for him. He now questions whether he should have tried for “harder” schools as he watches his higher GPA classmates get into more prestigious schools (he should not have). He also says he wished he had taken harder classes and cared more about getting into college earlier in high school. The fact is - maturity wise - he just was not there. We are happy about where he has landed and hoping that his recent more academic mindset continues into college. Better late than never. Not sure what point I am trying to make here - maybe that we all need to let them be who they are and if that isn’t at the top of their academic food chain - that is so ok!

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I appreciate your post, @Clementine. :slightly_smiling_face:

One of the things which your post highlights without mentioning it is that when colleges are highly ranked, their ranking ignores the question of “Good for what?”

LMU is generally regarded as one of the top schools in the country for film and for the performing arts. What that also means is that it’s an excellent choice for a business major who wants to work on the business side of film and other performing arts because of the LA location, the contacts in the field, and the availability of internships. They have other very good departments as well, but in the particular areas mentioned, they are one of the best and in fact better than many colleges ranked more highly overall.

Best of luck to your son in LA!

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Thank you. He applied undeclared to arts and sciences. Has no idea what he wants to do!

You are correct, D25 was accepted to UBC. She is thrilled and it is her top choice. (With the U.S. dollar is leading the Canadian dollar, it is slowly becoming my first choice, too.) Her 11th grade grades were her lowest ever, with around a 3.5 GPA. Nothing but 4s on AP exams.

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I can identify with him. I had no idea what I wanted to do either. Haha!

But he does know that he wants to be on the West Coast. That’s a start. :slightly_smiling_face: :thinking:

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That’s after you graduate too :slight_smile: Congrats to him.

LMU has a fine reputation. It’s a fine school.

In the end, the school name is less important than the student - so if he takes advantage, he’ll do well.

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Congrats! So nice to hear! :tada:

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Would love to hear more results and decisions from this student group. I think my S26 will end up with somewhere around a 3.7-3.8 UW, with 10 AP and honors classes (each worth 1 bonus point) bringing a weighted GPA to around 4.1. He’s taking the ACT this weekend for the first time–his practice test showed a 31 and he’s been prepping (a tiny bit).

Where did you apply? Where did you get rejected/accepted. Any surprises? I feel our list is heavy on safety and reach but this GPA feels like a crap shot for targets.

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3.74 UW, 15 AP and honors. ACT = 32. Looking for SLAC in Mid-Atlantic / Northeast. Chasing merit, at least to some degree.

Accepted at Wooster, Allegheny, Washington and Jefferson, Dickinson, Lafayette, Union, Gettysburg, Marist, and Ursinus. No rejections. Merit at all but Lafayette. Union, Dickinson, and Lafayette I considered Target. Others were safeties. Ruled out all reaches prior to applying mostly because we are full pay, and they weren’t going to give us merit.

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Hmmmm - unless needing full aid, those were likelies.

In the end, you need a school that’s affordable. Some say - I have safety and reaches. As long as you have safeties, you are good.

But when you get in and it’s affordable, it’s a safety. If you get in and it’s not affordable or you don’t get in, it’s a reach.

Is there really a huge difference between a Union and Wooster - I don’t think so etc.

That you chased merit and sounds like got great offers is what matters.

@Wjs1107 sounds like your students will have rigor…with that and a 31, once you have a budget, we can offer suggestions - but you’ll see a lot of good schools with those #s - some safe, some perceived reaches but some of that on the privates will have to do with financial status too - full pay at many = home run, as an example.

So best to have a budget set up and go from there.

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According to Collegevine, Union was 75%, Dickinson and Lafayette were 50% chance…and hence I thought these were target. We had Vassar and Bates on the list but neither offer any merit aid at all and thus were ruled out. I did forget an acceptance at Wheaton (MA) as well. (another safety). Merit packages at some of these schools were incredibly good. I’m definately happy with the schools we chose to apply to…still doing revisits to decide on one.

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What a terrific list of schools to choose from. Congrats to your S25! I love to see that he was accepted to his targets. We too have started using collegevine and it’s helpful to see their assessment of reach, target, safety. I worry a bit about its accuracy based on how it categorizes some UC schools that I am very familiar with (ie, UCSB is a “target” but given what I’ve seen for a few years in our school district, it feels like a reach. To CollegeVine’s credit, it just barely makes it into target category). But it seems like your percentages were pretty spot on in assessing. Thank you for sharing!

As for schools on our list, we are fortunate to have saved enough in his 529 to fund his school of choice. I did love it when his sister chose an instate school (ucla) and we will be able to help her with grad/law school bc of that choice. We will offer the same freedom of choice to S26. He is settling into his preferences still, but seems to like urban schools and is skewing toward both art and math/chem/physics. We visit Reed, Seattle University, UW and UBC Vancouver next week.