I would probably feel this way as well. Except in S17’s case their system mostly works in his favor. S didn’t do well freshman year & was dropped from most honors classes. So only has 4 semesters of honors, when he could have had 8 on his transcript at this point. It was a good decision for his emotional & social health and I don’t regret it.
But his UC GPA is much stronger than even his normal weighted 9-12 GPA. So he looks like a much stronger candidate to UC schools than those who use another system. (Although not the top ones) Plus he has a top SAT score. He’s still not in the running for UCLA or Berkley, but I think he has a good shot at UCSC, UCSB and UCD is a reach although not an impossible one.
Of course it would be better if they looked at more. He’s has a nice upward trend for his GPA. Some nice EC’s & summer activities. And will get an awsome letter of recommendation from a teacher, and the UC’s won’t even look at it.
@2muchquan Your CC name should be 2muchhilarious! It may be that Kenyon clicks differently with your daughter. My daughter likes small towns - she thought Oberlin, OH, was just about perfect. But there is small, and there is diminutive. Kenyon’s founders wished to found a place divorced from the distractions of urban life, women, and intoxicating substances, as our guide remarked. They did a good job. It is a genuinely peaceful place.
Regarding place - I have found that eastern cities feel very different from western ones, for obvious historical reasons. I was curious how Midwestern ones would resonate with my daughter. St. Paul, thumbs up. Chicago, not so much. More coming!
adding to the thoughts on VCUARTS #2 ranked fine arts in the entire country. They also have a sister campus in
Qatar and many art students do a semester abroad. May play into the Arabic interest. Our D will be starting as a freshman in the VCUARTS school in just a few weeks. We did a lot of research and she is attending OOS as its simply the most well rounded program with a real emphasis on actual employment and is highly successful at placing grads.
Plus she loved Richmond and the campus and the unbelievable amount of resources given the art students.
@mamaedefamilia We did visit Oberlin no our trip to CWRU…just a self-tour. It was too small for her, so I can imagine how she will feel about Gambier. I’m thinking back, and hardly remember ever leaving campus when I was in UG…but it seems so important these days with many kids to have a town/city nearby.
It’s not all bad. I talked her into a trip to Charleston to visit CofC instead. Sorry guys, it’s in the South!
@payn4ward@srk2017 I don’t know that much about RPI besides a lot of people from my high school go there, but it does have a large number of fraternities and a well known party culture. There is also significantly more males than females but a lot of RPI guys end up dating Russell Sage College girls who go there to party.
Has anyone visited Mississippi State? We are going on Friday I am not looking forward to the 5 hour drive but the merit aid makes it an affordable option…
No, USC is a private school and they have their own admissions criteria. The UC GPA is used in various forms by the California public schools - UCs and Cal States (CSU).
@fun1234, W&L doesn’t have a lot of merit scholarships, but the ones they do have tend to be large. This is the scholarship D is on :https://www.wlu.edu/johnson-program/the-johnson-scholarship. It is highly competitive and requires essays and, if selected, a weekend visit with multiple interviews (they pay for the visit). 10% or ~40 students are offered the Johnson. The web page posted also has links to other scholarships.
Pros:
The academic environment is challenging, which is what D wanted. W&L is one of the oldest schools in the country and has a fantastic alumni network that will help when needed. That’s a huge plus, especially for D who will be an anthro and Spanish major. The school has a very large endowment and seems to be able to find money for kids who want to pursue independent study and research. D has already had multiple offers to fund research. The faculty has been incredibly supportive. D has found like-minded friends and is enjoying that aspect of life.
Cons:
W&L is a conservative school (D is a NOT conservative westerner), has many privileged kids (W&L = white and loaded), is ~75% Greek and they party (D is a GDI and really not a partier), and in a small conservative southern town of 7,000 people. We are sending her back to school with a car (ROAD TRIP!!) and I think that will make her feel less isolated. Roanoke is <1 hr away and Richmond is 1.5 hours away. D is a music kid who likes to play open mics, and Lexington’s music scene is lacking.
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CU Boulder (yes, in-state safety)
CO School of Mines (yes, in-state)
UT Austin (in-state tuition)
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How do you get in-state from UT Austin? Is that an automatic merit type of thing?
No academic camps or programs here. All of my suggestions for local programs were promptly vetoed and the ones that are remote or at high-end schools are out of our budget.
When we visited Kenyon a few years ago, we had a tour guide whose sentences all trailed off at the end. No one could hear what he was saying, and everyone kept huddling close by and asking him to speak up, please. Then at the end of the quietest tour ever, he mentioned the blue boxes and said that they were usually only used for the Wednesday parties. D wanted to like the school, especially after all of their clever mailings, but that visit took the school off of her list. Maybe it was just the tour guide. The campus was beautiful, though. Like going to college at Hogwarts.
Just checked MyBama portal for application status, and what do ya know? They received both the ACT scores AND transcript! I was expecting a big, fat goose-egg. Maybe someday D17 will fill out the scholarship app…
Son17 has a good friend going to play lax at Kenyon. Friend said it was in the middle of nowhere, and the vibe was mellow. But he liked the academic fit for him, and he can actually play lacrosse in college. He’s used to small elite private schools and his parents are loaded, so I’m sure Kenyon is happy to have a smart rich kid from New England heading out there paying full freight. My son there would be no chance of him looking at that school.
@mtrosemom I appreciate your info on W&L. The Johnson scholarship is what has W&L on D’s list. Roughly how many students were invited for the interview portion? D17 is not particularly liberal or conservative and has expressed at least moderate interest in pursuing Greek life. We’ll see. School starts for us in less than three weeks. Scheduled both D17 and D19 to get their wisdom teeth pulled the Friday before Labor Day, so they have a little bit more time to recover. D19 only has two so hers should go easier than her sister’s.
@jmek15@mtrosemom Parents residing/working in two different states. 2-body problem. Not a preferred situation but leads to more interesting college options in our case!
I wish colleges would stop telling students not to worry about the money. D returns home tomorrow from ND. Today they had a session with admissions and financial aid and were told not to make the sticker price or debt a deciding factor. D wrote to me, well that’s easy for them to say when they’re not the ones paying. She gets it, thank goodness! She won’t be applying.
@MichiganGeorgia my uh, how we’re related is convoluted-my mother in law’s younger brother’s daughter, who is also a D17 and lives in north Florida, visited Mississippi State and liked it. They were not very, um, descriptive about why they liked it, but they said it was “nice”. Sorry I can’t help more.
@TimEnchanter hugs to your two girls, ugh on the teeth. Get ready to fire up that blender for soothing smoothies.
I went on Niche and plugged in D’s stats for giggles to look at the scattergrams. Doing that with MIT is like going on WebMd, typing in “weird growth” and expecting to see “you’re fine” come back. Nope! Luckily I can’t talk about it.