@intparent In state is also not always cheaper. For my private school it was 6k less a year than to attend instate.
Agree that can be the case, depending on your state and choices. @twogirls,the parents just aren’t thinking hard enough about it. They either aren’t aware of the major entrance requirements, or they somehow think their snowflake will pick up their game in college (can happen, but you can’t count on it).
I live in a community where people just do not seem to think about this. Again, I do not get it. It is frustrating.
Sounds like you have it figured out, though. 
You can’t save people from themselves…
Thanks. Your are right!
This is surely not the first instance of people you know being in denial over their kids? I remember the “mandatory” substance abuse night at my kids HS- and hearing from the parents who were skipping it because “that’s not an issue in my house”.
My kids were rolling on the floor when I told them which parents were essentially boycotting the event!!!
You are right blossom. I forgot all about that stuff!
It comes from the same place- my kid got a B- lousy teacher. My kid got a C- teacher is out to get him and prefers girls anyway. My kid got an A- my child is brilliant (not a suck up like YOUR kid who got an A).
College is somewhat the great leveler. Kid was an indifferent student in HS, is an indifferent student in college; kid doesn’t get into the major and the parent is still looking for someone to blame. (I heard this one recently- the nursing boards are a crock. I said, “well as a layperson that may be, but are you REALLY having mom’s chemo supervised by a “nurse” who couldn’t pass the boards?”.
Fortunately, in our robust, filled-with-options, everyone deserves a second and third chance educational system, these parents will have a LOT of folks to blame by the time it’s all said and done!
Smile and nod. Kid attending a reach seems to be the LEAST of the issues!!!
Sometimes it’s hard to just smile and nod LOL.
@Intparent “I won’t say that is always the case… but a reach school combined with competitive major access ought to be a deal breaker.”
I think most parents and students do not understand the issue or know what to ask. Many are so focused on getting into school x or school y, that they don’t think to investigate the details of admission to a specific major.
If they do try to investigate, the details are often buried in the website and/or not explained clearly. Even when visiting the colleges I am sometimes unable to get clear answers about what gpa is required to get into DDs target major, and other majors where she may have an interest. If I get a clear answer about the gpa requirement, I may not get an answer about how that compares to the average gpa for freshmen in engineering.
If parents who use cc: regularly have difficulty getting this information sorted out, what chance do the average student and parent have?
Agree, it isn’t always obvious. That said, an awful lot of parents and students think going on the tour is due diligence enough researching schools. The tour is valuable, but it is a marketing tool.
Where exactly do I find the statistics regarding in college/major GPA without directly asking? Like @Muchtolearn I have asked and honestly have rarely gotten a direct answer. Because yes I would like to know what the average GPA. Because if a 3.4 GPA is necessary to matriculate into any given major and 65% of freshmen/sophomores have a 3.2 GPA chances of matriculating are not the best. Where is that information published? What is the best search phrase? Any advice on how to find that information?
I wonder what the answers to " What is a deal maker" (besides money,lol) would be…
D16 is faced with a choice of several schools that shake out to be essentially the same with very very minor differentiating markers.
Asking the school is the only method I know of. Some schools (eg, Harvey Mudd) are very open about GPAs at different stages. My opinion is that they are trying to head off parent and student shock and dismay over their lack of grade inflation. But it isn’t in the Common Data Set.
During parent weekend we went to a meeting for my daughter’s major where we were told what the minimum GPA is and what the average was for the previous acceptance period.
@intparent "Asking the school is the only method I know of. "
That is what I have been doing when we visit. DD has been admitted to engineering and want to major in ChemE. School A requires a freshman year gpa of 3.5 for ChemE, School B requires a 3.2. However, the average gpa for freshman engineering students could be wildly different. I have been told that the average eng gpa at School B is a 2.8. I asked an engineering advisor at School A and she did not know. I then asked for just an approximate answer, is the average closer to 3.5 or 2.5 she said she did not know. Very odd for someone whose job title is Engineering Advisor. DD have been invited to an admitted student day for engineers at School A, so I will take another shot at it then. Fortunately, she has also been admitted to School C where there are no hurdles once you are admitted. If I can’t get answers, School C could be the way to go.
What I am most amazed at is that since they don’t know the answer, I must be the only one asking. Why would you choose a school if you don’t have a good idea whether you will be able to achieve the grades to get into the major you are interested in? That is stunning to me.
Some schools do have grade distributions for specific courses available:
https://schedulebuilder.berkeley.edu/explore/
https://registrar.wisc.edu/course_grade_distributions.htm
http://www.ourumd.com/
For schools that do, one can look up the courses that students aiming for a particular major would take.
The people where I live do not think about this. One group just assumes their kids will pull it together at reach schools and get into their intended major (so far I have not seen this happen and the kids pick any major that they can get into). The next group realizes too late that they made a mistake but their kids do not want to transfer. The third group is wealthy and buys their kid an apartment after graduation, and makes a phone all to get them a job. The choice of major is just not important to them.
I also know mothers who say that a school will get their kid a job. These kids did not take advantage of anything that their school had to offer. These kids graduated in May and float in and out of jobs.
Boy do I know a lot of interesting people…
Yes you do. Sounds like a talk show topic somebody should have on the air
How widespread is this “needing certain GPAs to get into a major” thing? Mainly big state flagships? Ivies, too? I see mention of Harvey Mudd above which kind of surprises me as I’ve always thought of it operating more like a LAC. Both my kids pursued the LAC route exclusively so I’m not well versed on this.