<p>Just wondering what colleges folks could suggest for kids who are very bright & have high (94%tile SATs) but Cs and about a 2.5+ GPA due to some chronic health issues that are improving (HS class of 2008). She’s mainly interested in West Coast, especially CA & not too rural. Would prefer a school she could stay at & live on/near campus all 4 years, but knows she may have to do well in CC/JC for 2 years & transfer after doing great there. She’s very bright but absences (we’re talking 40-60+/year all thru HS) have taken serious toll on grades. HS is a very competitive academic HS that produces lots of NMFs. Student basically self-taught much of HS curriculum.</p>
<p>Evergreen pretty much takes all comers and may be a good place for a kid who is self-directed with learning. The Western Undergraduate Exchange has a good list of participating colleges, including Humboldt State in Calif. (which apparently automatically grants WUE tuition at time of admission - though you would want to double check on that).</p>
<p>You might want to look at the University of Denver ( it has a very holistic admissions process) or Arizona State.</p>
<p>HiMom-would she consider religious schools. I would think that some of the smaller schools would be willing to really look at her application and see the potential.
We have a friend at Seattle Pacific who really loves it.</p>
<p>Santa Clara?</p>
<p>Thanks–Santa Clara is VERY punitive about attendance, so we turned them down for S & would not consider them for D. They told us that they’d ask (& have asked) student to withdraw for 4-6 absences in a quarter–my kids have rarely had so few! They’d also make kid lose merit aid, dorm, & everything else! Seemed very harsh!</p>
<p>Also, not sure she’d be admitted with her grades. Love the suggestions so far & would love more. Don’t believe she’d do well in NW because cold/dark/wet worsens her health issues.</p>
<p>Will explore Humbolt & am looking forward to reading of other “hidden gems.” She’s not very religous & would not consider females-only school.</p>
<p>Chapman in Orange, CA.</p>
<p>Whittier College
Evergreen
St. Mary’s (Orinda, CA)</p>
<p>In the San Francisco Bay Area, perhaps St. Mary’s, Menlo College, Mills College and Notre Dame of Belmont. In general, due to its huge state systems, California has relatively few private colleges and universities.</p>
<p>Thanks–she’d be open to a CA public, perhaps a Cal State or GOOD junior college with dorming?</p>
<p>A lot of kids from this area go to Sonoma State – very nice campus/living accomodations. Cal State Monterey Bay is another nice Cal State, hasn’t been around that long. </p>
<p>Interesting to hear about the attendance policy at Santa Clara. I didn’t realize that was an issue. Guess it pays to check these things!</p>
<p>Thanks–if she can bring up her grades & keep her high test scores, she should qualify for admission to CSUs, which would probably be much more palatable to her than community college or junior college. Would be grateful for any & all suggestions. Many of her buddies are trying for the same top 50 Us that are always in the news & sports pages. She is having to adjust her thinking to realizing that there are more schools than those few. I want to throw out schools that can help her stay focused & excited about college.
Thanks again for all the suggestions folks can offer.</p>
<p>Humboldt would be as dark & rainy as OR/WA :(</p>
<p>USD= catholic school in San Diego, not sure how religious it is, but non-catholics attend there.</p>
<p>What about eastern WA, like Whitworth, Gonzaga, Whitman…easter WA has four seasons, but is not as dismally wet as western WA is considered to be.</p>
<p>HIMom: I hadn’t realized that she was in CA. Someone will need to check the entrance requirements for CSUs to see whether her GPA will be high enough. If so, there are a lot to choose from. People from this area tend to go to CSU-Sonoma, -East Bay (formerly -Hayward), -Sacramento, -Monterey Bay and -Chico. As far as I know most if not all the JCs in the SF area have few dorms or none.</p>
<p>She would be a non-resident as she lives in HI with us. We are looking at the entrance requirements & believe that with her testing & bringing up her grades, CSUs may be a possibility. Just trying to get some feel for what’s realistic, possible, do-able at this point. I’m sure the HS & counselor will also help us, as they have been very supportive.</p>
<p>Just keep in mind that the Eligibility Index is the MINIMUM for out of state applicants, not a guarantee of admissions, especially at the more selective Cal States. Also keep in mind that the Cal States use the same GPA system as the UC’s - 10th and 11th grade grades in only certain courses (the A-G requirements). Her senior year grades won’t count, so she’ll need to bring her GPA up this year. With a 2.5 GPA, she’d need math/reading score of 1510 to qualify for admission. If she can bring it up to 2.7 in the A-g courses, she’d need a 1350, which is probably more do-able. Frankly, though, out of state admission to the most popular cal states such as Sonoma, Chico, SDSU, Cal Poly SL0, etc. would be tricky with a GPA under 3.0. Not impossible, but tricky.</p>
<p>If she’s open to larger schools, you may also want to look at Arizona State and the University of Arizona. I’ve worked with some kids with lower GPAs, and test scores in the 1100+ range who got into both schools as out of staters.</p>
<p>Also, we got a ton of email from Northern Arizona U. last year – kind of left the impression that they are hard up for students. 
But they are a good size school with a lot of offerings.</p>
<p>Getting tons of mail is no guarantee of how selective/non-selective a school is. Our S got tons of mail from some schools that rejected him! In any case, thanks for the suggestions–keep them coming, please!</p>
<p>Yes, but Northern Arizona accepts 86% of applicants and was sending emails long after the deadlines for everywhere else had passed. I think your daughter would get in even with weak grades. </p>
<p>I don’t want this comment to be misconstrued as bashing the school – there are a lot of colleges that have relaxed admission standards but provide students with a reasonably good education.</p>