<p>Not to stereotype, but I see a lot of this in Boys (I have 2)…lower GPA but better SAT’s! Is it because they are procrastinators? Or just too goofy!</p>
<p>I look at my senior son and am amazed at how this kid pulls off such good scores sometimes even without studying! He is not consistent in his History and FL classes but his Math and physics are always A’s.</p>
<p>As a kid I was much more serious and devoted to applying myself towards getting good grades and even later when I did my masters, I was married plus had a full time job yet I was dead serious about my college work.</p>
<p>Pixeljig, if you’re referring to my post, my son had a hard time applying himself in the classes he didn’t enjoy, where there was lots of busy work. He did much better in his AP classes than his non-AP’s. I was a much more dutiful student than he was in high school but a lot less interesting! He’s doing great in college and seems to actually enjoy working hard. What a nice surprise for his parents!</p>
<p>I hope sooooo much that colleges can see this. My son’s two lowest grades in high school were in this kind of class. One was a C in “global studies,” a required non-honors class that all Freshman had to take, in which the kids had to color maps, I kid you not. The other was a D in a Sophomore class in which he got A’s on the exams but didn’t keep his notebook neat, which accounted for half of his grade, and once again, I kid you not. Stupid teachers.</p>
<p>I agree with both of you! I do hope that colleges sees the promise in such kids.</p>
<p>Boys are just made that way, well most of them at least I always tell the 3 men in my house that they cannot multi-task and thats the biggest issue! </p>
<p>Son did so well in the AP’s last year, this year he has fewer AP’s but the GPA is not inching up as yet. I thought not doing AP’s was going to be better? You never can tell with these boys!</p>
<p>So does this mean they will be able to handle it when they get to college?</p>
<p>My son had 3.1 uw gpa/4.5 weighted. A number of honors/AP, not a ton. No in-school ECs. ACT: 34.</p>
<p>Accepted: VA Tech, UT Austin (OOS), U of Pitt, Penn State, Rutgers, Drexel (scholarship), SUNY Stony Brook (full tuition scholarship), RIT (scholarship), Purdue, U of Illinois (OOS --honors program), U of Alabama (he’s going there – full tuition plus engineering scholarship & honors prgm).</p>
<p>Advice: apply as early as possible for rolling admission schools (almost all of his acceptances were rolling), work hard on essays & prep for the ACT.</p>
<p>Thanks, mantori.suzuki! He wasn’t a NMF–missed that by just a point or two, oh well. </p>
<p>He did put some effort into his essays – started them early in the summer after junior year & they were definitely in ‘his voice.’ Plus, he had a few non-school ECs.</p>
<p>He seems to really like U of A! There is lots of spirit there, warm weather, friendly people, beautiful campus. Those were some of the things on <em>his</em> priority list. Plus the whole graduating w/very little debt thing is good for everyone’s peace of mind.</p>
<p>There’s lots of hope for the 3.0 etc. kid!!!</p>
<p>Awesome. Our flagship State U is a lot like Alabama in terms of financial aid and academic caliber, and I wish my son would consider a few more schools like it (maybe even Alabama itself).</p>
<p>I’ve got one of those goofy boy/procrastinators who keeps notebooks that look like they’ve been run over by a bus. He hates busy work – to him homework falls into that category. Thankfully, he tests well so I know he is getting it. I could have killed him for getting a C+ in AP calc 1 last year. Then he got a 5 on the AP test! Go figure. So far has an A in AP calc 2 this year, but we’ve only just begun.</p>
<p>Jolynne Smith, glad to hear your son with an uw gpa of 3.1 was accepted at VT. That’s a top choice for my son, and his uw gpa was 3.31 at the end of junior year. I pray he can bring that up first semester of this year, but at this point, it can’t really change by much (sigh).</p>
<p>CronusMom, I feel your pain. And one of the most trying aspects of raising this type of kid (aside from the raising itself) has been dealing with the occasional teacher who is so fixated on his lack of organization that s/he seems not to care whether he learns the material or not. “Sure, he gets A’s on the tests, but he’s so disorganized!!!” Well, so was Einstein (to draw a wishfully-thought analogy).</p>
<p>My kid had better stats than this thread’s but his senior year he disliked the AP chem teacher so while he got a 5 on the May AP chem test he got a C in June for the semester. Also got A’s or B’s in some math/stat AP courses depending on whether or not homework was graded- zeroes on homework don’t make 100% test/quiz scores average out to an A (no +'s or -'s at his HS). Other tales of HS work could be told. College grades also reflect interest, not just ability. Son knew more than the 4.0 kids from his HS… Hard work versus ability can explain differences in gpa and test scores. You need both to succeed. Good luck to all.</p>
<p>mantori.suzuki–fwiw, applying early in the app process has a huge, huge advantage to kids w/non-4.0 gpas. I think that tipped the balance for son in some of his apps. Not to take away from his essays, etc.!</p>
<p>I agree with WIS75, both GPA n Test scores are imp indicators to the admission officers and thats the reason why our kids will not make it to Tier1 colleges. But thats ok, if these kids have the ability, sooner or later they will be able to pull it all together!</p>
<p>As of now their test scores are a good indicator of that promise. My son is the same as above poster kids, he got 5’s in the AP’s and did not do as well in class grades because the teacher wanted to teach “professor-lecture style” to make these kids realize that they were taking college level courses!! </p>
<p>My thing is that the teachers should not forget that this is still high school and these kids are still only 17! Our school has one AP Chem teacher who teaches XL Chem in 10th grade and he is so harsh/boring that out of 300+ kids in 10th grade only 15 go on to take AP Chem later on. Shouldn’t this be a red flag for the school Admin? This has been going on for ages and when son got this teacher in 10th grade he swore never to touch chemistry ever again!! Sad.</p>
<p>Nothing wrong with teaching AP courses like a college course- that wasn’t my son’s problem. These courses will be given college credit by many schools, after all. BTW- “only 17” is no excuse, kids take the courses when they are academically ready for them (let’s see, son took first AP classes as a soph, he was nearly 17 the fall he started college… I only commented on this thread to tell of yet another underachiever due to kid’s, not teacher’s, approach to coursework, not to throw in a another outlier).</p>
<p>What about kids who have the listed gpa and test scores expected of that gpa? Where do they apply? Do their parents spend much time on CC?</p>
<p>Thanks for the tip. My wife and I are stepping up the pressure for our son to get the rolling-admission apps out of the way ASAP. (My wife even more than I…a big change from years past!) Boy, this stuff becomes urgent before you know what hit you.</p>
<p>One example where earlier does NOT equal better is Boston College. They state right on their website that because early in the application season they cannot gauge the depth or quality of their applicant pool, they will only accept the strongest applicants EA. D has friends who found out the hard way, those who BC doesn’t accept aren’t always deferred into the RD pool - some are flat-out rejected. </p>
<p>At many - if not most - schools, applying early is an advantage. But watch out for blanket statements - it is not ALWAYS the wisest move! </p>
<p>Another caveat- how do you expect your senior’s fall grades to look? If they are looking strong, you might want to hold off until first term grades are on the transcript. If it’s turning out to be a tough semester, you might want to get that app in EA, and hope they make a positive decision and don’t hold off until you have they first term grades in hand.</p>
<p>Yes, for rolling admission schools, not the ED/RD thing.</p>
<p>And–I floated the very same question on CC last year: wait until son showed a ‘continued upward trend’ w/his 1st semester grades, or go for the early-app-advantage?</p>
<p>I was uniformly told that applying early would have a much greater advantage than waiting until 1st mking period grades were in. They were right!</p>
I always tell the 3 men in my house that they cannot multi-task and thats the biggest issue! </p>