@suburbiancat CA doesn’t really have as many good small LAC’s as in the east coast. If that’s what you are looking for it really doesn’t hurt to look east coast. What about Oregon. Lewis & Clark in Portland or Puget Sound in WA state are also good choices.
@suburbancat Oh I know a kid to went to St Marry’s (another Catholic one) in the East Bay.
What about Chapman it’s very popular locally, I know quite a few kids who like it. (How could I have forgotten Chapman.) I just checked Naviance and my guess is your D would be in range and I think it would fit into her interests. I hope that is helpful.
I agree about Chapman, I wasn’t sure if it was in range though. We know many kids that are very very happy there.
Wow, things are moving quickly here! Welcome to all the delurkers and congrats to all who have received merit, especially our OP, @eandesmom I think how long it would take to earn 1K at minimum wage and well, what a great boost for your son, especially when merit money is scarce. It’s nice to be shown the love.
A number of kids from D’s HS end up at Redlands and have done well both with merit money and in having a good experience once there. Alas, D would not consider CA schools. As a Disneyland fan, this made me sad…
As for me, I have started hovering around the mailbox. I have no idea how to access D’s portals and I’m respecting her desire to get the news first. But I wish she’d check them a little more often!
@Fishnlines29, I think the physics teacher is underplaying the possible consequences a bit here. But I also think one bad grade in a very tough class is not going to change an acceptance to a denial unless the kid is teetering on the edge of acceptance already. I think her other grades would be key as well. Going from A’s, B’s and a few C’s in previous years down to C’s and D’s senior year would show a serious problem. If other grades are consistent with expectations, then one D isn’t so huge.
Like you, I’d get the tutor just in case!
@endesmom I looked at Naviance for S’s school. Since it’s Naviance it might not translate to another school well. And I don’t know @suburbancat D’s test scores so I can’t be sure. It’s not a sure thing but kids got in with a 3.1+ UW GPA and various ACT/SAT’s. It looks like one of those schools that is definatly not just stats based. I think you need to have something else to bring to the table than just grades. (EC’s, demonstrated interest) Because there were just as many acceptances & rejections all across the board, except for the very tippy top.
@mamaedefamilia Probably should be hanging around the Portals. Or emails. 
It’s not all waiting my the mailbox anymore.
I’ve decided it’s not worth it to hover. DS will hopefully hear this months from two of his schools. But neither is guaranteed. One I just think it’s likely, and he messed up up getting SAT’s to his EA school. Neither I expect for at least two weeks now. The rest he’s already applied to won’t say till March.
He has one that I’ve asked him once to try and get the app. in this weekend. He agreed that now that he’s done the UC essays, he can shorted them and answer the 6, 100 word short answer he needs to complete this app.
@Fishnlines29 I would be concerned if I were you and not at all thrilled with the teachers response. My S struggled with AP Physics last year and it really took a lot of self direction and hours in front of the laptop with Kahn Academy. Yes, colleges know it is a challenging class. That doesn’t mean they want to see D’s from anyone and the reality is there are kids out there pulling much higher grades. That’s a horrible response. That said, I agree that one bad grade in a class if not an overall trend, is going to hurt her terribly much. But if she is on the bubble at a school it could and who wants the risk if it is avoidable. I’d be less concerned with a C than a D but I too would be focused on the goal of a B- is possible.
Frankly I would also be curious as to his pass rate on the AP test with that attitude…
regarding Chapman I would trust @curiositycat333 's data more than our Naviance which is limited. Our UW average is a 3.73 and a 30 ACT.
However…I don’t really trust Naviance at this point. At ALL. I know that the applied numbers are correct but the scattergrams are based on user input, not GC input so if kids don’t indicate results, you have no idea.
For example at the moment, WWU shows 64 kids applied and I know 30 of them were before the EA date. Of that only 4 show accepted. And, while our schools historical acceptance rate for WWU is a lot lower than the school’s average acceptance rate, I find it impossible to believe only 4 kids have really heard so far. Which makes me realize that it is very probable the historical info is also wrong and kids just didn’t bother to update results. Naviance shows 59% accepted in 2014, 54% in 2015. And while I suppose that’s possible and a bunch of kids apply as more of a reach, it seems way out of context knowing that the overall acceptance rate nationally is 85%.
A tool is only as good as the data entry. GRR.
Our naviance doesn’t even have Chapman data. Mine applied, but I have no idea what her chances are.
That’s the problem. Naviance or not. The data is not helpful.
@snoozn and @eandesmom thanks for your responses. I do worry she’s borderline for her top choice. All A’s (this year) otherwise. And I feel the exact same way about his response eandesmom. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t entirely nuts. Well, daughter just came downstairs (as I was typing this) and basically asked me the same question about this severely hurting her chances. At least she’s on it. We ordered the AP Princeton review study guide; we’re working on getting a tutor; she has maybe 7 weeks left so I think she can easily get back into C territory, maybe B if she aces her next couple of tests. think positive right?!
thanks for listening, this process has been so stressful and having the support of this board is so helpful
Oh and scattergrams on naviance, I agree they are only a ‘vague’ guide. Other sites like cappex have them as well, but again, only as good as user input.
@Fishnlines29 I agree with the scattergrams etc they’re only as good as the user input which is most likely abysmal. We relied on the college reported averages but not sure how good of a picture that gives either. Son2 definitely didn’t want a reach school. He felt that even if he got in, he wouldn’t feel comfortable there. That made things easier. I think a lot of that came from watching his older brother though. He started at his reach school and was miserable there due to pressure to compete.
@Fishlines29 I think your Physics teacher is full of hot-air. (Sorry I didn’t see that post yesterday.) Schools do NOT want to see any D’ on the transcripts. PERIOD.
If her top choice is a Cal State or a UC it could defiantly hurt her chances. Now Physics is not a required class and as long as she has taken lots of other science, this might not kill it. (If it was English, or one of the first 3 years of math it would.) Cal States you must get a C or better (no D’s) in all your A-G courses. But since this would be an optional science class. I looked into this extensively to help a friend’s son… who ended up with a D end of junior year in Chem. (He did get into college but not his top choice.)
BTW we are working on the same thing with my DS. He only has a C in Physics. Not sure what to do about it. He’s prickly and I’m going to solve it myself is his mantra. He tends to do very well on finals, so his semester final in January should help him. (It has an upward trend since marching band ended so… while I think it still might be a C) it’s an AP class. (They are covering all of Physics 1 – in a semester) It won’t kill his GPA. As it is this semester will still be his highest GPA ever. That is as long as it doesn’t go bellow a C.
As to Naviance & scattergrams. There are a few things that make them deceiving.
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GPA & cut levels keep moving up every year at some schools. (Particularly UC’s.) It’s hard to tell if a plot point was 4 years ago.
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For schools like Cal Poly where department really matters, & stats for Engineering majors vs English majors vary tremendously. It’s not very useful. For us Cal Poly scattergrams (more than 90 kids apply every year from our school) are all OVER the map. It’s impossible to tell chances from it.
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Some school weight in a way that Naviance does’t show. (UC GPA is calculated differently and it’s hard to compare.)
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Schools that really do a “Holistic” review. In this case I think Chapman is like this… The whole package is more important than the just the stats. What department you are applying to. Do you have strong letters. Good EC’s. Package is strong in other ways like the 6 AP’s.
Plus it’s hard to compare from H.S. to H.S… Some schools are considered to have more rigor. Most universities know some schools grade a lot harder than others. And admittedly mine H.S. is known for this. Unlike the rest of the country there is no grade inflation going on here.
In terms of Chapman. I have data points from ~150 students. (50% of those got in.) With a UW GPA average of 3.51. Lowest accepted was around 2.78. (But I imagine those are for kids in a field like art or a athletes.) Honestly the scattergram looks a bit like Cal Poly and the acceptances are all over the map. If you like the school, and the student has a strong application otherwise. I’d give it a try. We were encouraged to try for D12, who had a much lower GPA & low ACT scores. (We never found out… D’s recommendation letter never arrived in the right dept. despite trying 3-4 times).
My daughter applied to Chapman. She visited the school and liked it quite a bit. I am not sure how to tell how many students’ data points are on our Naviance - @curiousitycat333 is it just how many applied in the years shownn? if so, I see 2015 and 2016 data showing 73 applied for those two years, 42 of those were accepted and 6 enrolled (3 in each year). The average weighted GPA was 3.97 and average unweighted 3.67 - and I think that’s referring to all the applicants who reported their data, right? And average SAT out of 2400 was 1920. oh and it looks like there’s a wide range of GPAs there for us too in terms of who was accepted - from 3.1 to about 4.0 unweighted
My son has applied to Chapman as well. We have a lot of data points on our scattergram (three years’ worth) and it looks reasonably consistent: almost all acceptances with GPA over 3.5 and ACT over 22, and in the 3.2 range and up there are several deferrals that turned into acceptances. We don’t show any acceptances below a 3.0. The average weighted GPA accepted was 3.83, average ACT 29.
@“Queen’s Mom” Whittier is a contender here too. I don’t think my son likes to think too hard about the schools that might not pan out in the end, but definitely thinking about this one now that it’s real.
@curiositycat333 yes it’s the Whittier in CA. (I didn’t know there was another one. So many schools out there!)
Thank you, @93pilots. That was really helpful.
Whittier was Richard Nixon’s alma mater. Just an interesting factoid.