We live in a very Non-Hispanic area

itsv
Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:14:50 +0000

Lippy, thanks again for the compliment. I don’t feel I do enough. Yesterday every parent at my ds’s school received horrible new from the counselor. Here in CA, the budget woes have wrecked havoc over the college system. There have been fee hikes every two weeks, new admission restrictions and on-campus protests. The counselor told all the parents and students that horrible news about the new admission restrictions. If a student has a 3.1 or below they should have a back-up plan for at least 11 of the CSUs (the better ones) since the likelihood of them getting in is small. For SDSU, one of the most popular, they need to have a 3.4 or higher to get in and high test schools. CSU were typically a great option for a student with not a lot of money or great grades but wanted a good college education. I know I am highjacking your thread but these kids don’t have a lot of options and I bet a large percentage of Latinos hs students fall into that category. Even my very stubborn son yesterday said to me that he was glad we stayed on his case so that he good good grades and therefore many options. He feels very bad for his classmates which in last years class represented 25% of them going to CSU schools. I am sure not all of them had over a 3.1. You can’t really say that community colleges are an option because CCs are turning away students and it takes over 3+ years to get an AA there now.

Sorry for the diversion. Lippy, your son sounds like a very good student. Many schools give additional merit scholarships to students having similar numbers to NHS so look to see if that is an option. I know Princeton doesn’t give any money for NHS but it has revamped its financial aid system and even families with incomes of 200K now qualify for aid.