Your S26 is not average. The average GPA is currently a 3.1 for females and 2.9 for males (source…which didn’t do a great job citing its statistics, which are more numerous than I mentioned, but which align with another source which did link to sources, but that can’t be posted here…a College Vine post). Your son is ABOVE average!
I tend to harp on this because I think that it’s very easy to get a skewed perspective here on CC. There are so many superlative students with a 4.0 or 3.97 and then people start talking about a 3.8 or 3.7 or 3.5 and think of it as a “low” GPA. These are all above average GPAs!
Moreover, most colleges accept most students. A kid with a 3.5 GPA will have tons of options. I don’t see a reason why one would feel the need to delay the steps I described above because a kid has a 3.5 GPA vs. a “high stat” kid. I look forward to following along on his college search process!
There is usually a 3.0-3.4 GPA (or less) thread for parents, but I didn’t see one for the class of 2026 yet, so I went on ahead and started one. The GPA cutoff is not strict, as there have been parents with kids with higher GPAs who will hang out there as the focus isn’t on the tippy top schools.
Here’s the 2025 3.0-3.4 thread: Parents of HS Class of 2025 3.0-3.4 GPA (or less)
The 2024 thread: Parents of HS Class of 2024 3.0-3.4 GPA
The 2023 thread: Parents of the HS Class of 2023 3.0-3.4