<p>Sometimes I just hate this board (mainly the students section ) – I don’t think in any other place in the world would someone suggest that a student with a 3.2 average and a 720+ verbal SAT is “not college ready and should do a Community College and work, and that the reason colleges don’t take kids who don’t meet the “profile” is because they wouldn’t be able to do the work anyway.” Aaarghhh. </p>
<p>Sorry, just venting. You’ve received some outstanding advice already. In addition to Loren Pope’s Colleges That Change Lives I would add his “Getting Beyond the Ivy League” – I think there’s a full chapter on schools that are great for kids who have unusual profiles (high in math but not verbal, vice versa, good testers with low grades, etc.)</p>
<p>ParentRobert- If he wants the city, I just toured Suffolk University, right in the middle of Boston, and loved it. I originally thought it would be just my safety because I really want to be in Boston but now it’s up there with my other favorites. All the kids I talked to seemed really happy and had good things to say. Plus they want boys and they love us B students :)</p>
<p>A year ago, I posted “College Visits for the Average student-long.” My D had grades in the B minus/ C plus range (unweighted) with SAT’s in the mid 1100’s and strong EC’s. I used to lie awake worrying about what college options she would have. The high SAT/GPA posts on this board and the other well-known college bulletin board really skewed my opinions the wrong way. I was really wrong!! D ultimately was accepted at 5 schools: Saint Joseph’s University (just finished her freshman year and loved it), Susquehanna University (a wonderful school-beautiful campus and terrific people-D did a weeklong summer program there-it was very hard for her to choose betwen St. Joe’s and Susquehanna), Lynchburg College (another great option), West Chester University and the University of Hartford. She was also waitlisted at the University of Scranton (a friend’s daughter with slightly better stats was admitted and is happy there). There are many ggod choices for the average student. I used the Loren Pope book and looked at schools where her SAT’s were in middle to high part of the 25/75th percentile.</p>
<p>Bxian, Nice to see you participating more on the boards again. I am looking forward to following your son’s path (next year?). Your posts about your daughter were when I started to really look at the great schools available to kids who aren’t perfect. And, there are many, many, many out there.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for support and excellent advice. We are north of Boston, and I actually work with two students from Suffolk who are very happy, but possibly because they are paying no tuition – their mother works there. We have visited UVM and St. Michaels – he liked both, but UVM better. Of course, UMass Amherst is a “safety” for us, but he is intimidated by the bigness. My husband went nights to ULowell and I worked on a granted project there – we both hated the environment, and it is more geared to engineering anyway. Same with UMass Dartmouth. I went to a conference there and thought it was the ugliest campus I had ever seen.</p>
<p>I was not impressed by Providence, which was in the worst section of the city and struck me as white/prep land, with the guys in the white blazers giving the tours. I was rather surprised at the lack of diversity there, considering where they are located. Obviously not many “locals” get in. If he is going to live in an awful place like Providence, he might as well go to a really great school like Brown (fat chance of that happening).</p>
<p>We are going to Qunnipiac’s Open House next week and will check out a couple of CT schools. Anyone know anything about Qunnipiac?</p>
<p>Most of the school stats indicate that there are more girls than boys, except in engineering schools, which with his math skills, we would avoid, anyway, so in this case, being male might be in his favor.</p>
<p>ParentRobert, Males definitely have a bit of an edge at many schools these days. Just one example: last year here on CC there was a young man with a 2.9 GPA and SATs of 1100. He applied to Skidmore, Goucher, Lake Forest, St. Louis University, and other schools I can’t remember off hand. The end result: he not only got into the last three schools, he received merit offers from them. He didn’t get into Skidmore though, but might have if he had applied ED. He had solid EC’s and was very well spoken from what i could tell. I have kept him in mind because he was a classic example of a student that, at first glance, I might have said was aiming too high. But he did fine in the end because he had a very broad list of schools and knew that he could be happy at any of them. The fact is that there are only about 100 schools in the US that are highly selective. The rest are happy to consider kids with “B” averages.</p>
<p>By the way, I would suggest you spring for the premium edition of the US News & World Reports best college online version. They break down admissions by sex, while the guidebooks typically just list the overall admit rate. When you start looking at male vs. female admits, you’ll feel more positive about your son’s chances.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. US News (the orange book is what we call it) is our Bible! Every time he gets something from a college in the mail, we immediately look up the stats and mark that school if it looks like a good match. I’ve also found the college board site and princeton review helpful. However, I’ve done the “College Select-o-Matic” and “Is it a Fit?” calcs on their site and come up with some pretty weird results. For example, several colleges were “poor fits” (Brandeis was one) that he really liked, while some schools that didn’t match his needs at all were determined as good fits. </p>
<p>One college I’m intrigued by is Flagler in Florida, which has decent ratings and is incredibly cheap. Does anyone know about it?</p>
<p>We live near Flagler…it has a good reputation and it seems to be gettng better known outside of the area…in fact, they pride themselves on having a number of students from outside of Florida. (which i think is a major plus) It’s right in downtown St. Augustine. They offer quite a few lectures and seminars open to the public which friends of mine have gone to. It’s not a really "happening " area like Boston or DC, but if your son doesn’t care about that, maybe you should take a look.</p>
<p>ParentRobert,
My son is going to Quinnipiac in the fall. It was his first choice from the moment he visited, although he seriously considered his other choices, mostly due to cost. Towson was also high on his list. One thing I must tell you about this school is that they employ a rolling admissions process and you must get your app in early. Sept. is not too early. I know kids with over 1200 Sat’s and A averages who were waitlisted.<br>
They are known for physical therapy and they have a pretty good communications dept. Quinnipiac was featured in the “350 (or so) College guide”, this year for the first time and it had a positive effect on the number of apps.</p>
<p>Hi again Carolyn-At this point, I am trying to figure out where to take S to look at schools at the end of the summer. After watching some of the Collegiate Choice videos I ordered, as well as websites that each school has on East Asian studies or related programs he wants to look at Eckerd (which we will probably do in the fall), Earlham and Denison. Dickinson is still at the top of his list. However, he also wants to look at Indiana University and the University of Pittsburgh-very different in size-he liked the scope of their EAS programs. So, like you, we will probably fly out and do a Midwest swing-preferably in late August (I have confirmed that all of these schools are open and in full swing the week before labor day). I would like him to look at Lake Forest, but he was turned off by the Collegiate Choice video statement that it can take up to 2 hours to drive into Chicago in traffic-I think we need to sit down and watch it in its entirety</p>
<p>To the parent (frep?) who did the earlier post regarding their child going to Eckerd-have you visited-any info that you can share? We viewed the Collegiate choice video-earlier this year, a parent had posted negative feedback re: a campus visit there (I sense that perhaps the campus had a more modern fee). Son viewed their video and had no negative issues after seeing it.</p>
<p>Bxian: Driving into Chicago probably isn’t a huge issue for students; unless things have changed a great deal since I was last in the area, I think there is a commuter train station in Lake Forest. It seems to me that would be the best bet for getting into the city, but maybe someone from the Chicago area can confirm my recollections.</p>
<p>Eckerd’s campus is fairly contemporary, and some of the buildings are kind of 60’s ugly, but this just isn’t an issue given the waterfront and the vibe of the place. My D went to visit once and LOVED the relationships between faculty and students, the informality, the variety of kids involved, the active student body and…the beach. She attended several classes, and it just clicked. Nevertheless, she had a few reservations, and so returned and visited again. She liked it…again, and was really impressed with the new library. She did notice that some of the facilities were not as “upscale” as some of the other campuses she had visited, but also felt that the Florida weather meant that facilities were less important than a cold weather state.</p>
<p>I must say that I have had fairly complex dealings with admissions, financial aid and one academic department, all of which have been a pleasant contrast to other institutions. People are helpful, not rule-bound, informal, responsive and generally treat you as though they are glad you are part of the school. We are excited!</p>
<p>I will chime in about Eckerd also - it was one of my DD’s choices as well. We did a visit there and I do agree with Freps about the physical layout and ‘age’ of the campus - but it is still a pretty place - literally - right on the water - in fact - we had a good laugh when we went to the dorm pods - many a pair of water shoes were outside the rooms lol. It is a somewhat unique school in the sense that they are very supportive of individuality and actually can put together a ‘special major’ to fit your needs. The strongly encourage student exchange and semesters abroad - they are very open minded about the students wants and needs - at least that is what we found.</p>
<p>AND if you have a boat - bring it to school lol - dock it right at the schools dock!!! No kidding. It is located on the peninsula between the mainland and the beach - very easy access - right off the highway. They have their own student search and rescue program also - which I think is very cool.</p>
<p>The admissions office was very laid back - golf shirts and kakies - and very friendly and helpful. I think it would be a wonderful choice for that ‘average’ kiddo - with all due respect. My ‘average’ kiddo strongly considered it - very high on her list - tho she eventually chose a larger state university in the south in the end - had a snowboard team - that was the clincher for her lol. But Eckerd is definitely a school worth taking a gander at.</p>
<p>bxian–on a very bad day it can take two hours to get from Lake Forest to Downtown Chicago (Loop).
It should take about an hour on average. It is about 30 miles down the highway. </p>
<p>I think it’s been mentioned by other posters, but you might want to look at Sewanee (Sewanee:The University of the South). In many ways, your D seems like the poster child for this school. It has 1300 to 1400 students on a 10,000 acre mountaintop campus – plenty of outdoor sports for your D and probably some new ones. It has vibrant art, English, humanities departments. It’s academically strong but not so selective that your D wouldn’t blip on the radar. Many boarding school kids wind up there. The culture is stereotypically described as prep and partying, but the students I know are not and are very happy there. It’s as diverse as a small LAC can be, but there is a tribe of like dressed girls. Remember middle school. Remember high school. They are not the only people there. Visit the school; I think it will be worth the trip. It is a very, very special place.</p>
) – I don’t think in any other place in the world would someone suggest that a student with a 3.2 average and a 720+ verbal SAT is “not college ready and should do a Community College and work, and that the reason colleges don’t take kids who don’t meet the “profile” is because they wouldn’t be able to do the work anyway.” Aaarghhh. </p>