Where do A/B students go to college?

[Anonymous]

Back in the 90s, these types of kids would go to Boston University and UMich and maybe Northeastern. I’m pretty sure A/B/C students went to Northeastern from my high school. I have heard from many families how hard it is to get into Northeastern now. The type of kid who goes to Northeastern now may have gone to Cornell 30 years ago.

Where do A/B students go now?

[Anonymous]

Plenty of schools for everyone. Look at schools outside the top 50 and state schools like Indiana and West Virginia with high acceptance rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of schools for everyone. Look at schools outside the top 50 and state schools like Indiana and West Virginia with high acceptance rates.

+1 my A/B students are at Virginia Tech (not engineering) and a <50 ranked LAC

[Anonymous]

30 years ago Northeastern was basically a community college known for work study programs. Not even in the same breath as Michigan.

The answer is LACs other than top 15 or 20 (if full pay).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of schools for everyone. Look at schools outside the top 50 and state schools like Indiana and West Virginia with high acceptance rates.

+1 my A/B students are at Virginia Tech (not engineering) and a <50 ranked LAC

Do they felt like they don't belong at Virginia Tech? Just curious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of schools for everyone. Look at schools outside the top 50 and state schools like Indiana and West Virginia with high acceptance rates.

+1 my A/B students are at Virginia Tech (not engineering) and a <50 ranked LAC

Do they felt like they don't belong at Virginia Tech? Just curious.

No, very happy there. And a better student than in HS, partly greater maturity, partly being able to focus on what he likes. He's a data analytics major/math minor and TAs for a math professor. HS Bs were generally in humanities classes and he takes the bare minimum of those for general ed requirements.

He has a bunch of HS friends at VT and none of them were the very top students in HS, good students but not stellar. Took some AP classes but not all of them.

[Anonymous]

Depends on how deep their pockets are!

[Anonymous]

Where do straight A students go these days? My Senior has straight As and I don't think his list is much different than his friends that have some Bs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of schools for everyone. Look at schools outside the top 50 and state schools like Indiana and West Virginia with high acceptance rates.

+1 my A/B students are at Virginia Tech (not engineering) and a <50 ranked LAC

Do they felt like they don't belong at Virginia Tech? Just curious.

No, very happy there. And a better student than in HS, partly greater maturity, partly being able to focus on what he likes. He's a data analytics major/math minor and TAs for a math professor. HS Bs were generally in humanities classes and he takes the bare minimum of those for general ed requirements.

He has a bunch of HS friends at VT and none of them were the very top students in HS, good students but not stellar. Took some AP classes but not all of them.

Thanks for the thoughtful answer. I have a non-engineering kid interested in engineering schools, so this helps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where do straight A students go these days? My Senior has straight As and I don't think his list is much different than his friends that have some Bs.

This is the challenge. The straight-A students are still a big reach for the higher ranked schools and/or can't afford them so their lists will not be that different.

DD was an A/B average and wanted to go to a LAC. Our budget would only go up to about a W&M price. She applied there + a range of LACs. If she'd been an all-As student it likely would have been the same list but with W&M as a much more solid option (she was waitlisted). Going up higher in rankings gets you more selective LACs but at an out-of-budget price. I think the only ones that might have added are places like Grinnell, Carleton that give some merit but she really didn't want midwest so then we're back to the same list we had.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of schools for everyone. Look at schools outside the top 50 and state schools like Indiana and West Virginia with high acceptance rates.

+1 my A/B students are at Virginia Tech (not engineering) and a <50 ranked LAC

Do they felt like they don't belong at Virginia Tech? Just curious.

No, very happy there. And a better student than in HS, partly greater maturity, partly being able to focus on what he likes. He's a data analytics major/math minor and TAs for a math professor. HS Bs were generally in humanities classes and he takes the bare minimum of those for general ed requirements.

He has a bunch of HS friends at VT and none of them were the very top students in HS, good students but not stellar. Took some AP classes but not all of them.

Thanks for the thoughtful answer. I have a non-engineering kid interested in engineering schools, so this helps.

I think you need to look at the balance of students at the particular school. At VT about 1/3 of students are in the College of Engineering so there are a whole lot of students who are not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do straight A students go these days? My Senior has straight As and I don't think his list is much different than his friends that have some Bs.

This is the challenge. The straight-A students are still a big reach for the higher ranked schools and/or can't afford them so their lists will not be that different.

DD was an A/B average and wanted to go to a LAC. Our budget would only go up to about a W&M price. She applied there + a range of LACs. If she'd been an all-As student it likely would have been the same list but with W&M as a much more solid option (she was waitlisted). Going up higher in rankings gets you more selective LACs but at an out-of-budget price. I think the only ones that might have added are places like Grinnell, Carleton that give some merit but she really didn't want midwest so then we're back to the same list we had.

This is our kid. What LACs did she end up getting merit money from if you don't mind?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do straight A students go these days? My Senior has straight As and I don't think his list is much different than his friends that have some Bs.

This is the challenge. The straight-A students are still a big reach for the higher ranked schools and/or can't afford them so their lists will not be that different.

DD was an A/B average and wanted to go to a LAC. Our budget would only go up to about a W&M price. She applied there + a range of LACs. If she'd been an all-As student it likely would have been the same list but with W&M as a much more solid option (she was waitlisted). Going up higher in rankings gets you more selective LACs but at an out-of-budget price. I think the only ones that might have added are places like Grinnell, Carleton that give some merit but she really didn't want midwest so then we're back to the same list we had.

This is our kid. What LACs did she end up getting merit money from if you don't mind?

Got merit to fit our budget at SMCM, UMW, Allegheny, Washington College, Juniata, Susquehanna. Accepted but not enough merit at Dickinson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do straight A students go these days? My Senior has straight As and I don't think his list is much different than his friends that have some Bs.

This is the challenge. The straight-A students are still a big reach for the higher ranked schools and/or can't afford them so their lists will not be that different.

DD was an A/B average and wanted to go to a LAC. Our budget would only go up to about a W&M price. She applied there + a range of LACs. If she'd been an all-As student it likely would have been the same list but with W&M as a much more solid option (she was waitlisted). Going up higher in rankings gets you more selective LACs but at an out-of-budget price. I think the only ones that might have added are places like Grinnell, Carleton that give some merit but she really didn't want midwest so then we're back to the same list we had.

This is our kid. What LACs did she end up getting merit money from if you don't mind?

Got merit to fit our budget at SMCM, UMW, Allegheny, Washington College, Juniata, Susquehanna. Accepted but not enough merit at Dickinson.

Great schools, thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where do straight A students go these days? My Senior has straight As and I don't think his list is much different than his friends that have some Bs.

Same for my 2021 grad. Same list of schools, but different chances at each, and, different results. My DC got into her first choice school, and merit from others, while friends were WL or rejected