<p>Kajon</p>
<p>Thanks for reporting back! </p>
<p>If you don’t mind reporting what college, I’d be interested to know.</p>
<p>I am SO gald this thread is back!! This was always a VERY active thread, but hasn’t seen much action this past year. I think this thread is a good one because there a lot of kids that fall into this range. If you are on CC long enough you can get this feeling that EVERY kid that applies to college has over a 4.0 GPA. I just find that SO frustrating. I don’t know what is going on with the HS’s, but golly there seem to be a lot of A students.</p>
<p>Anyway… my Junior S is right around a B+ student UW ( academic classes only). He has only taken 1 AP so far, plenty of honors but there is no weight added. He does have high test scores, but I’m not sure that is going to help him in the least. He has a little bit unusual situation as he is at a school right now in Vermont for his second semester and his grades there will not average into his home school GPA, so he will have 2 transcripts. All of his schools he is applying to so far use holistic review, so that will help. His grades have been steadily rising, no C’s but plenty of B’s and B+'s, a few A’s and A-'s, and 1 B-. Haven’t gotten his grades for this semester yet… but I’m thinking, based on progress report, that they will be good. Have no idea how colleges will look at him… so we are also casting a very wide net with all levels of selectivity. He knows the location and type of school he wants so that helps A LOT. Hang on, it’s going to be a wild ride.</p>
<p>Longhaul,</p>
<p>Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Halfway between Milwaukee and Chicago with dorms and classrooms overlooking Lake Michigan.</p>
<p>It is a Lutheran College, but Lutherans are in the minority!</p>
<p>[Carthage</a> College](<a href=“http://www.carthage.edu%5DCarthage”>http://www.carthage.edu)</p>
<p>WOW that is so funny, Kajon! I had no idea your S was at Carthage … and there I was suggesting it today. I was just trying to think of a Midwest school for a kid who wasn’t good at math.</p>
<p>EmmyBet - I saw that. Too funny! S2 will be attending the U of Minn this fall so it will be fun to see how their experiences differ.</p>
<p>This is a great thread! S2 GPA is 3.64 it is nice to know there are others out there like him on this board! Thanks!
Oh, and my S1 girlfriend just finished her 1st year at Carthage/Elem Ed and loves it there!</p>
<p>bumpity bump–do parents in this group notice a difference with upward trend in grades? or that course rigor in senior year matters?</p>
<p>erlanger, I would say no, not in our case. </p>
<p>Our son was a classic just-a-little-too-late bloomer; his GPA was 3.1 halfway through his junior year, 3.2 at the end of junior year, and 3.4 by the middle of senior year. (He finished at 3.5.) He took three AP courses senior year, after taking none before that.</p>
<p>Of the schools he got into, the only one that I think would probably have rejected him had they not seen his midyear report is U. of Rochester. He was also waitlisted at two schools–Skidmore and Brandeis–that I suspect would have rejected him outright without that midyear report. But since neither admitted him off the waitlist, the ultimate outcome was the same. </p>
<p>Of course that’s no reason not to try–better grades in senior year can only help. But I wouldn’t expect them to make a huge difference based on our experience.</p>
<p>I like this thread. It’s a great place to get information on the kind of colleges our kids are targeting. They are a bit above the B+ range but are targeting schools where they would qualify for great merit aid. I see Carthage listed. The D of our good friends is there and LOVES it. Seeing pictures of Lake Michigan from her dorm room are amazing.</p>
<p>Our S toured Central College in Iowa and really liked it there too. Not a great place if your child wants a big city but probably the best tour he has been on yet. We have gotten thank you letters from 6 different people as well as a thank you to DH, who took him on the tour stating that they know how hard it is for parents to take time off work, etc. They happened to run into the department chair for his intended major, no real meeting set up but he still spent 45 minutes talking to DS about the program, showing him around, etc.</p>
<p>Does anyone know anything about Regis University in Denver. It looks like it might be a good place for D to consider. GREAT merit aid there with ACT score qualifier of I think 24, something like that.</p>
<p>Love to resurrect this thread…how are B/B+ students faring this year? Any early acceptances to share?</p>
<p>Wow, this thread is a blast from the past! Re-reading my old posts to see where our heads were during D’s college admissions journey is kind of funny. </p>
<p>My D ended up being accepted ED to Elon. Fast forward four years, and in 5 months she will graduate with a respectable 3.4+. Once a B+ kid, always a B+ kid I guess. Her entire academic life seems to be an 89-point-something. </p>
<p>She LOVES Elon. However, for those of you with kids in the college hunt, it is a “hot” school and notoriously unpredictable for admissions. They love kids with strong ECs and demonstrated interest. They are all about “engaged” learning, and their students tend to be outgoing and involved. It’s relatively inexpensive for a gorgeous, private college but they don’t give a lot of FA or merit aid, because they don’t have a large endowment. But the sticker price is very reasonable (just passed $40k this year) for the small class sizes, personal attention and gorgeous campus. </p>
<p>DougBetsy’s S ended up at Wake Forest and will also graduate this spring.</p>
<p>Love this! Update on my DS12. He was exactly at a 3.3 end of Junior year. Took 3 AP’s Senior year and did great in them. Had his best academic year as a Senior. As I suspected his sky high test scores didn’t help him much in acceptances, but it did help him with merit at the schools where he was above the 75%. He got accepted at 7 schools if I recall, rejected by about the same amount. He had no wait-lists in April, but a couple if deferrals in the EA round, where he was ultimately accepted at a few, and rejected at a few. He ended falling madly in love with St Lawrence University, and he just finished his first semester Freshman year… he took a gap year. He LOVES his school, doing very well academically, has a great group of friends, has a job as an EMT on campus, and is having a blast with all the stuff there is to do on campus. Great end to a story.</p>
<p>DS14, who had a 3.5 GPA, just got accepted ED to Kenyon. Done with college stuff FINALLY!</p>
<p>I just found this thread. I wish I had found it when my older daughter was going through the process. I remember feeling like surely I had the only kid in the world with a 3.5 gpa and a 29 ACT. I remember feeling like this was BAD. It’s not bad. It’s way above average, but you can’t talk to only people who are at the top of the heap or you feel like it’s bad.</p>
<p>Younger daughter has done better, with 33 ACT and 3.9 unweighted gpa, but just as I worried about older not doing better, I worry about the amount of pressure on younger.</p>
<p>By the way, older is entering spring semester of third year of college with 38 hours left for her degree, solid B+ to A- average, good social life, good social skills, good work ethic. I suspect she’ll do just fine in life, thank you very much. and the State U did her just fine.</p>
<p>NJSoccerParent, thanks for resurrecting this thread. S will graduate this spring from the Univ. of Delaware, where he surprised us by turning into an A student. UD has been a great fit for him. Although it’s a large school, it feels more intimate; he had small classes once he got past the intro courses, and was able to develop good relationships with some professors. It’s become a popular school for PA/NY/NJ kids, and I don’t know if he would get in now with the stats he had then!</p>
<p>I think I posted more in a different B+ thread when my kid was applying. My 2010 high school grad had an A- average according to his school which counted all his A+'s in two orchestras, he had uneven scores - fabulous CR, 100 points lower in math and writing, and was a nice quriky kid with no hooks. It was really hard to predict how high to reach since he was so uneven. He’s a senior at Tufts - still a B to B+ student with grades all over the map. (C+ in Arabic early on, A- this last semester (yay!), B-'s here and there, A’s in all his history courses, not quite so high in other IR courses, A’s in nearly all his junior year abroad courses (three semesters worth as he also spent a summer abroad, but they don’t count on his Tufts transcript). He’s turned into an interesting kid who knows a lot about nuclear disarmament issues and the Middle East and speaks pretty good Arabic. He’s job hunting and applying for overseas language programs that will pay him to attend.</p>
<p>My son fits into this category. He is a solid B+/A- student in a large public high school. At this point, he has taken 3 AP classes and will probably take two more next year. The rest of his classes have been all honors. He runs varsity cross country/winter and spring track and plays in the marching and jazz band. He is looking for a small traditional college that offers architecture/environmental science and geography- his three passions. He also wants to be in or near a large urban area. We would also like for him to stay in New England or on the East Coast. He loved Wentworth when we visited but is concerned that if his interests change, there aren’t enough alternatives there where he would be interested in studying. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>As many mentioned, this thread is a blast from the past! I just looked up my old posts in it. I was so wrong about so many things - my son ended up getting into every school to which he applied except for one super reach. This may have been because our school has a lot of “quality points” or because of his ECs…who knows. But I was so worried he wouldn’t get into some of the schools - it gives me a lot to think about now that I have another kid in HS. (The next kid is a much stronger student, but the fact that I’m not gauging the strength of some things well is something I need to keep in mind before we start ruling out things.) </p>
<p>Son will be graduating this year from the University of Maryland. He had an amazing experience there and already has a couple of job offers. He is on his way. It is really nice.</p>
<p>I want to thank everyone who was so reassuring in this thread - I hope some portion of you still check in from time to time!</p>
<p>I found this thread during my D’s Sophomore year when her grades tanked. She had been a 3.8 sort of student but that year dropped to a 3.2. Being a native Californian I always just assumed she would attend a UC but suddenly that looked unlikely and frankly, I panicked. This thread introduced me to a whole world of colleges I didn’t know existed and she has applied to and been accepted by many. Her uw gpa has risen back up to a 3.6 and a UC or two may be in the running but she has so many other choices that I am almost grateful for that lousy Sophomore year and for discovering that there options for all of these kids.</p>
<p>Wish I would have seen this thread last year. D13 would be in this group too. HS GPA 3.5, 29 ACT, 37 IB. She got into 7 out of 9 schools. Currently at NYU. First college report card, 3.7 :)</p>
<p>My B student S graduated from Dominican University of California in May. Small, gorgeous setting in Marin County, just north of San Francisco. S was a business major and the company with which he interned his junior year (requirement for business majors) ended up offering him a full time job, so he graduated knowing he had a great job waiting in the SF Bay Area. I just want to put in a plug for this private school. It was a great experience for my S, and Dominican was VERY generous with merit aid for B students. Their proximity to SF means many internships with a big range of companies. Dominican U has a 4-year guarantee, too. S never had trouble getting the classes he needed.</p>