Parents of the HS Class of 2019 - 3.0 to 3.4 GPA

Congratulations to your D @momzilla2D ! The first acceptance is quite special.

My D and I have our Ohio trip finalized. She is going to compete in a scholarship competition at Ohio Wesleyan, do an overnight, go to some events and sit in on a biz class.

Congrats @momzilla2D! Here’s hoping for more to come.

@JBSeattle That sounds like a great trip. Good luck to your D. For our part, D has decided not to apply for any competitive scholarships at this point, and rather to work for extra $. I think that plan suits her better, we just need to figure out how much she’ll need to make.

@JBSeattle Hopefully it’ll be fruitful and the weather will cooperate. Good luck to your D and safe travels to both of you.

@Acersaccharum
My D is working but she was invited to do this by the college. She has only applied for one outside scholarship which was more like a contest.

We also will likely do a NY trip as a family in March or April to see Manhattan College. I think that might be her #1 choice but she hasn’t seen it yet.

She is not planning to row in college (not good enough for scholarship) but Ohio Wesleyan sent her a nice handwritten note saying they would like her to row on their new crew team. My wife and I thought that was real neat. She said “I am not rowing in Ohio”. Kids!!!

@JBSeattle Ha! You should have her meet the coach anyway while you are there, or at least look at the facility. My D is a recruited athlete, but it gives me great peace of mind to have her going far away with an instant network of teammates, not to mention a responsible adult that she checks in with daily.

@Acersaccharum
Yeah, part of it is that she is just kind of done as rowing is a elot of work. Sounds like it would be a more casual/club type environment so maybe will bring it up to her while we are there. Also depends on her interest level as it is not the highest school on her list.

CU-Boulder decisions are out. Tell kids to check portal if they haven’t. D is in. ?

So proud! DS just accepted to University of Colorado Leeds School of Business! It’s his #1 choice! Celebrating with margaritas tonight!

@nukesmom

Congrats on the acceptance for your DS! And they got a cool mascot too.

Congrats for the acceptances @nukesmom and @Turquoise52

Special yeah for @nukesmom
And yeah to @Turquoise52 !!

FYI, looks like (RD) Western WA decisions are rolling out for folks here waiting.

Good to know @eandesmom .
The few kids I heard about applying to Western all applied early action. My D’s school usually has 5-15% of the graduating class go. Lots of kids I don’t know as her school is a fair size and my D only talks a little about her friend’s college stuff.

S19 has been accepted to Alabama, Mississippi State, University of Kentucky, ECU, Texas Tech, University of Houston, waitlisted for University of South Carolina, waiting to hear from Appalachian State, and and University of Maine.

University of Maine is the only one to come back with a merit package of 9k off each year to bring to the COA to 31k (out of range for us and not a school he prefers anyway)

He attended 2 highschools and the GPA’s will not combine and this, I believe is going to be a hurdle.

1st school weighted GPA 3.5/ unweighted 3.1
Current school - weighted 2.55 / unweighted 2.89 - he was very upset we moved and just totally shut down. It’s been exceptionally tough and being new to this, we did not know the GPA’s would not merge.

He has a 24 on the ACT and will take again in February.

Very anxious to get $$ numbers from the schools. Such a stressful process

@ga19tex welcome!

I saw your other post and am very glad you posted here. If you let the gang here know what your budget is, they may be able to offer some suggestions that meet the gpa, budget and geography that are still taking apps.

In general most colleges figure out their own gpa anyway based on whatever way they do it. I would not assume that they don’t recalculate on their end. That said they will look at the junior year and as a parent who has a kid that had a brutal junior year, I feel your pain. Most schools, outside of texas it seems, will focus on the unweighted and then add their own spin on the rigor aspect as the weighting applied by each HS varies so much. Based on the above that seems to put him right around a 3.0. A strong (er) first semester senior year will help and based on your other post that seems pretty positive overall.

Also, if need be, a year at a CC with solid grades can help “reset” the application options so it may be something to consider as a fall back plan.

@Longhaul and @carolinamom2boys and any of our more southern experts, or deal experts like @dfbdfb any suggestions for our new poster? I am not well versed in the southern schools at all but we have many here that are!

@ga19tex - Sorry about the downer GPA. As someone who was forced to leave her home country and move here for high school, I sympathize with your son more than you know.

It took me two years of Ds and Fs before I woke up and realized that I was shooting myself in the foot, and that a guaranteed way to stay in the place I hated was to flunk out of high school.

So, major? Budget? Regional limitations? Size, type (state uni, LAC)?

@ga19tex, like @eandesmom said, even if GPAs don’t combine for high school class placement, they do combine for college admissions—colleges look at the entire high school transcript.

So the question becomes what those are together. (Also, did you get the W/UW backward for the current school? Because if you did, then that means they weight some grades down, which would be simply evil.) But let’s go with a weighted 3.0+, because merit money is very rare below 3.0.

A 3.0/24 can’t get you much, but it will get something at several places—but generally not enough to get you down below $30k. (Wyoming is the big exception—it has an OOS COA of $28k, and a 3.0/24 brings that down significantly. It’s seriously the most affordable OOS-tuition school in the nation, followed at some distance by the various Universities of Alaska and Maine.) Your best bet—Wyoming aside—may be the [Academic Common Market](Academic Common Market - Southern Regional Education Board). You’ll need to do a careful search of programs and colleges with your son, and probably steer away from those where the Academic Common Market scholarships are competitively awarded.

Also: It’s an ACM school, but interesting financialwise for other reasons: Louisiana Tech (which my daughter came very close to applying to) automatically awards most OOS students (with a minimum of 2.5/23, plus a few other similarly generous requirements) a scholarship to bring tuition down to in-state levels. That brings the COA down to just a touch over $20k, and a 3.0/24 qualifies for an additional $2k scholarship.

S19 accepted CU Boulder’s offer last night. It’s really nice to have this over and be able to focus on enjoying his last semester of high school. I know I’m not a frequent poster, but really want to thank this community as I learned a lot from you all. Good luck to everyone!

Congrats @nukesmom ! It’s been an interesting ride, for sure. Good luck to your son!