Well, the receipt of PSAT scores have confirmed that this college search will be much different than DS16’s. GPA and ECs are there, but test scores and rank are not.
My S still has a week left in the second quarter and is still dragging his heels about choosing his classes for next year so that’s the goal for tomorrow. He has two elective spots to fill now that he’ll be finished with PE and French, andI think that, combined with finally having a lot of AP options, is a little overwhelming to him.
@Gatormama Are you me? “Drama and Dramatics/Theatre Arts, General; Dramatic/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft, Other; Technical Theatre/Theatre Design and Technology; Engineering Chemistry; Marine Biology and Biological Oceanography; Planetary Astronomy and Science; Astronomy and Astrophysics, Other; Astronomy; Music Theory and Composition.”
This could be my D19, I’m not kidding. Except, no one’s going to be exactly knocking down her door to apply to their colleges. Mayyybe if there’s a college that recruits for ukelele playing surfin’ the waves all summer California Girls.
@carolinamom2boys – we’re in the opposite situation from you – good test results, not good grades. 
Not sure how to recover from a low GPA.
First semester a little rough over here. Needed some high As on finals to keep a couple of his As and the tests didn’t go his way. Missed an A by .1 percent in Chem H and teacher won’t budge. Guidance counselor insists that S19’s college options have not changed at all with this last semester and we were told not to worry. S19 not happy about the B pluses but not defeated either. Told me that his grades were much higher as the semester went on and those Bs were really an effect of some lower test grades in early Sept/Oct. Told me that he’s got a good grip on the classes now and expects to get higher grades second semester overall. Glad he’s upbeat because I felt really bad about missing that chem grade by so little!
I started calling SAT tutors. S19 took an SAT through Princeton Review with no prep and got a 1360, 680 on each section. He got a few really easy math problems wrong because he didn’t read the question correctly. One tutor (who charges $250 per hour!!) told me that he may not need a tutor. That was refreshing. She gave me some advice on how he should self-study and then told me that, if he is still not where he wants to be, she’s happy to meet with him to discuss strategy. My husband told S19 that we will give him $250 if he can improve his score without the tutor. 
And he is all over the board, too, about what to study. The only two things that are out are engineering and comp sci. With all of the news lately, he’s now on a “I want to be a photo journalist” kick. He has had no involvement in newspaper or yearbook and has no room in his schedule to take either of these as a class in the next two years. (You have to take it as a class if you want to have any leadership position.) He interviewed with the teacher in charge of the paper, though, and was told he could join to take photos for the stories. He’s been taking photography as part of his art classes for a while, so at least that fits in with the rest of his interests. I’m thinking this will be fun but it’s a phase.
Out of the blue the other day, he said he likes University of Wisconsin. He was there for a XC trip last year and all they did was run and play ultimate frisbee. He thought the campus was “pretty”. Liked the town. I explained that the classes will be big and he said he did not want that. He just shrugged. I can’t wait to take him around to other schools and see his opinions. I have no idea what to expect!
@OrangeFish It is too early to give up . I don’t hear any fat lady singing . Have you figured out what is the cause of the lower grades? That’s the first step . And don’t buy into the fallacy that your child has to go to a certain or super selective school to succeed in life . That’s simply not the case. Good luck to you daughter .
Thanks @carolinamom2boys – D19 is struggling mightily in Algebra 2 (not honors; she dropped down a level in the middle of the school year) and takes a long time to complete homework in math as well as other classes. (She has ADHD and has accommodations for extra time.) She’s working very hard but it is tough. She took a practice ACT and scored 30, so she is pleased with her test score.
@OrangeFish Has she experienced a recent growth spurt. She may need a medication adjustment . When my son was having difficulty with Geometry he went on YouTube and watched Yay Math. It helped him a lot because he could replay it as much as he needed to and stop it when he needed to. Maybe she can see if that would help.
Thank you for the Yay Math suggestion @carolinamom2boys – I will recommend it to her. Good thought on the medication adjustment; I will call her doctor’s office tomorrow to schedule a med check.
@JenJenJenJen – HAHAHA! Our daughter’s a ukelele player too! And drums!
@homerdog - Don’t sweat a B. Take it from me. Don’t sweat a B. D19 has a C AGAIN in Chinese. This teacher, I swear, is making me tear my hair out. And she’s D’s adviser, which, obvs., means there is zero advising going on…
On the plus side, D got called in to the dean’s office, along with a handful of others in the class - I think because the teacher complained about them (D swears there was no reason), and quizzed very closely about the teacher. There was no disciplinary component to the meeting. AND last week, they videotaped one of the classes. I think they’re getting ready to fire her. Unfortunately, D’s GPA will be a casualty also.
@Gatormama Wow! That would be terrific if they really did let that teacher go!
One of the other Bs our S19 received was from an AWFUL English teacher. She basically told the class (after a number of unfair tests and an essay she scored everyone really low on) that a B in an honors class is still a great grade so no one had better complain. Meanwhile, so many parents and kids complained to the English chair that she was removed from the class and S19 has a new teacher this semester. The school never changes teachers in the middle of a school year.
Kids and parents weren’t complaining about the Bs, per se, but about the fairness of her multiple choice questions. Many questions on her tests had more than one possible correct answer and she would have a line of kids outside her door after each test arguing their case for a particular answer. Sometimes, she would let the student have another point if they argued their case well enough but then wouldn’t give other kids the points back if they had that same answer but didn’t come to her to ask for the point. On the paper, she didn’t give the kids a rubric and then graded them using a rubric. She admitted that she forgot to give them the rubric but, oh well, it’s just one grade so they shouldn’t complain.
And that essay was worth 30% of their total grade.
I’m sure that a few Bs or a C don’t make or break anyone. Just feel bad when kids really apply themselves, work hard, and then the grades are determined by a teacher like that!
When you see stats like X% admission rate with a 3.7 GPA, are they talking about unweighted GPA or weighted?
Or does it depend on the college or website publishing things?
@gusmahler Our GC insists that the colleges publish weighted so that their average looks higher. I’m not 100% sure though. And perhaps it’s on a case by case basis, meaning that each college figures that number differently. There are a few schools that I’ve heard really rely on unweighted (U of Mich) but most either take the weighted from the high school or make the students’ gpa unweighted and then use their own system to weight each class depending on rigor.
When I look at our Naviance, it’s all weighted GPA. When I asked our GC about that he said, at least for our high school, it makes the most sense to use weighted since he thought it really showed the most accurate information that would help kids figure out if they had a chance of admission.
Sometimes the colleges will say, other times they do not. Obviously if it is above a 4.0 for the average…it is weighted but it can be impossible to tell.
Regardless of what they publish, many (arguably most) schools unweight all GPA’s for admissions pool and scholarship purposes to make applicants equal. Some, like the UC system, does it in reverse where they weight schools that don’t…or have their own weighting system.
2nd quarter and the 1st semester ended last week, and son19 is doing great. Really glad he is so engaged in school work and is trying hard. Robotics is taking up a good amount of time. He seems to be enjoying sophomore year, and is looking forward to selecting his classes for next year. They do that in March I think. We’re still working on some summer plans for him.
And…S19 tanked the last 2 weeks of the semester. Blew off more than one thing in one class and his solid A/A- in precalc all semester ended at a B+. SO annoyed with him right now. French was again a disaster. UGH. We’ve got a plan in place as we know (really) what the root issue is (and it is not understanding the material, anywhere) but moving the needle is another story.
Off to schedule some meetings.
Oh well, if nothing else I have lots of practice finding A schools for B students thanks to some of his siblings. And it is early, he can still bring things up. Just not as much up as I might have hoped.
Wellllll…I know this is controversial on CC, but I wouldn’t say a B+ is anything close to “tanked.” Also, our kids are sophomores. If they’re allowed to enjoy school and enjoy a less stressful year than next year (junior year was so stressful for my D17, we’re still recovering!) I think that’s a good thing. It’s sort of personality-forming, these high school years, and the anxiety around chasing A’s the whole time isn’t great for overall mental health or high school memories that last a lifetime.
PS my senior got accepted into a school with a 15% acceptance rate and she ended sophomore year with a B+ in a core class, she had two B+s her freshman year too. Don’t underestimate the power of the upward trend GPA! 
LOL! Ok, tanked is an overstatement. The kid basically didn’t turn in ANYTHING in most of his classes the last 2 weeks. Basic stuff, review packets, didn’t do the uber easy tutoring credit, didn’t do a last scale recording in band, etc etc etc. Across the board. There are other issues going on (obviously) that contributed to it but we have been working on this stuff for years and years and years and it’s so frustrating to watch this kind of completely avoidable train wreck. He checked out. And fully admits it. And didn’t ask for help he knows is there. Didn’t bother to check to know stuff was missing, that kind of thing. It is not remotely the academics that are the issue.
If he was trying his hardest and that was the best grade he could get, I’d be thrilled. But that isn’t the case. At all. 3 classes dropped a half a point in the last 2 weeks. All from stupid stupid things, not tests!
The C- in French is tanked. And not pretty on a report card. I am very familiar with the upward trend, S17 has been able to do ok thanks to a strong junior year. It’s just heartbreaking when you know the academics are easy. If the worst grade was a B+ I wouldn’t be pulling my hair out. And if he didn’t have this kind of history in French I wouldn’t be pulling my hair out. I didn’t want him to take it. Or to have the combo of rigorous classes he does. Overall he had done SO well in most all year that we thought he’d turned an organizational corner but…no.
So we start a new strategy yet again. He is my black and white kid. It is his way or the highway. Even if his way doesn’t work and causes him stress. Getting him to try new ways of doing thing well…is next to impossible.
And, even if he could get into a school at a 15% acceptance rate, I’d not be able to afford it so that’s not a huge worry. LOL.
Since we are all reporting in - second term for my son went about the same as the first. The good news is two A’s in honors level history classes (one required and one elective). This kid loves history, politics and current events. He actually comes home from school and turns on CNN to watch press conferences. The bad news is a C in chemistry and a D+ in geometry. Overall he is just under a 3.0. I’ve adjusted my expectations. I was actually happy about that C because it had been hovering lower than that for most of the quarter and he managed to bring it up at the end.
I’ve started to do a little research on colleges that you can get into with a 2.9 gpa and I’ve been pleasantly surprised. There are schools out there that he should be able to get into and they aren’t all terrible. One is actually one that had crossed S’s radar screen for a different reason. It was one of the only schools he has asked me about. So I am feeling OK with where he is. He will definitely have a different list than his older sister, but he will be OK.
@me29034 it is a bit early and a lot can change. Our four kids have been all over the board. 3.0 for our SS11 by the skin of his teeth, 3.97 for SD14, 3.45 for my current S17 and S19 is trending to match S17 at the rate he is going though he has definitely had the most rigor of the 4. These are all UW as our schools don’t weight. Bottom line is GPA is just one data point. I really do believe that many schools look at the whole picture of the kid.
I agree with @JenJenJenJen a strong year can make a huge difference. Yes, it’s harder to move the needle but I can honestly say S17 ended up with a much stronger GPA that I was expecting at this point his sophomore year. He kicked it in when he really needed to junior year which was significantly harder classwork wise than sophomore. I do understand the being happy with a C though, that’s how I feel about French 4! (1st quarter was a D+ for S19) So yes, I’ll take a C- over the D+. LOL! I am not convinced that S19’s classwork will be harder next year than this but it will be different.
Our 3.0 kid (with zero rigor in classwork) went to a really lovely university and graduated on time. Do check out the 3.0-3.4 threads for the 2017 and 2018 groups, I know our results on the 2017 thread are just wonderful, so far my S17 has been accepted at 6/6 and all with merit awards. To be fair, he didn’t apply to any reaches because we are full pay and so there weren’t any that made sense financially but still, he had/has plenty of options. From S17’s friends, some kids with either GPA’s in that range (or lower) or with very low test scores, or a total lack of rigor, have in general all done better than I expected. If you are smart, realistic and target well, there really are lots of options.