Colleges for B students (preferably test optional)

[Anonymous]

-The PA state schools aren’t huge and have small classes and reasonable OOS costs, if your kid doesn’t like their instate options. I’m talking about the completely public ones not PSU, Pitt, or Temple.
-Landmark Conference schools

[Anonymous]

I went to Loyola and loved my experience there.

[Anonymous]

I teach college. Seriously, don't worry so much about the individual school. Choose the place that will provide the best environment for your kid as a person. The vast majority of the problems we see are not academic: they are psychological / personal. Academic problems we can nearly always fix, and I've been privileged to see some near-miracles in that realm. But if a kid is depressed because he hasn't made friends, or misses his family, or can't play a sport he loves, or can't manage his meds on his own, or doesn't eat right, that we can't really fix. Colleges try to provide help, but most of us personnel are not interlocked into the kind of wraparound support that a destabilized 19-year-old really needs.

Professor's wish list for sending a kid off to college. If:

-> they have stable, strong relationships with family and friends that can support them at a distance
-> they are resilient and can set aside minor setbacks and contextualize major ones
-> they are independent and have sufficient executive skills to get up on time, eat decently, care for their health, get where they need to go, and do most of their homework
-> they like themselves and are ok with spending time alone and exploring their world on their own sometimes
-> they are reasonably responsible and are able to keep themselves and others out of trouble (much of the time)
-> they can take fair criticism without taking it personally and are open to learning from it
-> they can summarize prose accurately and pick out items that could be used to support an argument
-> they can write in a mostly correct fashion (with or without digital correction)
-> they can perform mathematical or scientific calculations at the freshman level expected by their future major

...then they will probably do just fine.

Notice how little of my list is academic, and how it says nothing about test scores, APs, or learning differences. Give your child these other things, and we who teach will be able to help him learn. I for one would be happy to have a student like yours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach college. Seriously, don't worry so much about the individual school. Choose the place that will provide the best environment for your kid as a person. The vast majority of the problems we see are not academic: they are psychological / personal. Academic problems we can nearly always fix, and I've been privileged to see some near-miracles in that realm. But if a kid is depressed because he hasn't made friends, or misses his family, or can't play a sport he loves, or can't manage his meds on his own, or doesn't eat right, that we can't really fix. Colleges try to provide help, but most of us personnel are not interlocked into the kind of wraparound support that a destabilized 19-year-old really needs.

Professor's wish list for sending a kid off to college. If:

-> they have stable, strong relationships with family and friends that can support them at a distance
-> they are resilient and can set aside minor setbacks and contextualize major ones
-> they are independent and have sufficient executive skills to get up on time, eat decently, care for their health, get where they need to go, and do most of their homework
-> they like themselves and are ok with spending time alone and exploring their world on their own sometimes
-> they are reasonably responsible and are able to keep themselves and others out of trouble (much of the time)
-> they can take fair criticism without taking it personally and are open to learning from it
-> they can summarize prose accurately and pick out items that could be used to support an argument
-> they can write in a mostly correct fashion (with or without digital correction)
-> they can perform mathematical or scientific calculations at the freshman level expected by their future major

...then they will probably do just fine.

Notice how little of my list is academic, and how it says nothing about test scores, APs, or learning differences. Give your child these other things, and we who teach will be able to help him learn. I for one would be happy to have a student like yours.

Thanks so much! This is very encouraging! I’m not concerned about the “name brand” of the school. I just want her to go somewhere she can be happy and successful. She has done way better in high school (Without much in the way of accommodations) than I thought she might. We were careful to choose a school that suited her needs. She is smart, but school is hard and that can be discouraging. She competes at a national level in a sport that is very important to her, so I know we will want to make sure she can still do that (either in collegiate competition or on her own). She is a hard worker and we have been working hard to make sure her executive function skills/workarounds are there. I’m hopeful but it get stressful hearing about all of the perfect DCUM students.

[Anonymous]

University of Scranton

[Anonymous]

Many no-name private schools are struggling financially. If you’re willing to pay anything close to full sticker, they’ll find a place for you. Once you get outside of the USNews Top 100, or whatever, there’s plenty of decent schools that don’t require extremely competitive stats.

[Anonymous]

College of Wooster

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Elon

Not anymore

Elon as a 72% acceptance rate. So yes, Elon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach college. Seriously, don't worry so much about the individual school. Choose the place that will provide the best environment for your kid as a person. The vast majority of the problems we see are not academic: they are psychological / personal. Academic problems we can nearly always fix, and I've been privileged to see some near-miracles in that realm. But if a kid is depressed because he hasn't made friends, or misses his family, or can't play a sport he loves, or can't manage his meds on his own, or doesn't eat right, that we can't really fix. Colleges try to provide help, but most of us personnel are not interlocked into the kind of wraparound support that a destabilized 19-year-old really needs.

Professor's wish list for sending a kid off to college. If:

-> they have stable, strong relationships with family and friends that can support them at a distance
-> they are resilient and can set aside minor setbacks and contextualize major ones
-> they are independent and have sufficient executive skills to get up on time, eat decently, care for their health, get where they need to go, and do most of their homework
-> they like themselves and are ok with spending time alone and exploring their world on their own sometimes
-> they are reasonably responsible and are able to keep themselves and others out of trouble (much of the time)
-> they can take fair criticism without taking it personally and are open to learning from it
-> they can summarize prose accurately and pick out items that could be used to support an argument
-> they can write in a mostly correct fashion (with or without digital correction)
-> they can perform mathematical or scientific calculations at the freshman level expected by their future major

...then they will probably do just fine.

Notice how little of my list is academic, and how it says nothing about test scores, APs, or learning differences. Give your child these other things, and we who teach will be able to help him learn. I for one would be happy to have a student like yours.

This should be posted in every thread and I’ve read it three times already. I’d quibble that as a semi-reformed college choice obsessive father of five in college I’ve observed that different schools make wildly different academic demands of students, and that an A without any real effort leads to very little development. My son in a less competitive college turns in what are essentially drafts and get A’s, while my two top 20 LAC kids grind and rewrite and work their tails off for the A. They are becoming excellent writers while my first hasn’t improved much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Elon

Not anymore

Elon as a 72% acceptance rate. So yes, Elon.

So does Drexel. But a kid with a 3.3 isn’t likely to get in there.

[Anonymous]

According to my emails, College of Wooster, Roanoke College, Mary Washington University, DePaul U, York College of PA, JMU, Boston University, U of Delaware

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:According to my emails, College of Wooster, Roanoke College, Mary Washington University, DePaul U, York College of PA, JMU, Boston University, U of Delaware

Not Boston University. Probably not Wooster either. Maybe in 1990?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on what private. A 3.4 from Sidwell is not the same as a 3.4 from somewhere like St. John’s.

Ain’t that the truth? Learned it far too late.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Elon

Not anymore

Elon as a 72% acceptance rate. So yes, Elon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach college. Seriously, don't worry so much about the individual school. Choose the place that will provide the best environment for your kid as a person. The vast majority of the problems we see are not academic: they are psychological / personal. Academic problems we can nearly always fix, and I've been privileged to see some near-miracles in that realm. But if a kid is depressed because he hasn't made friends, or misses his family, or can't play a sport he loves, or can't manage his meds on his own, or doesn't eat right, that we can't really fix. Colleges try to provide help, but most of us personnel are not interlocked into the kind of wraparound support that a destabilized 19-year-old really needs.

Professor's wish list for sending a kid off to college. If:

-> they have stable, strong relationships with family and friends that can support them at a distance
-> they are resilient and can set aside minor setbacks and contextualize major ones
-> they are independent and have sufficient executive skills to get up on time, eat decently, care for their health, get where they need to go, and do most of their homework
-> they like themselves and are ok with spending time alone and exploring their world on their own sometimes
-> they are reasonably responsible and are able to keep themselves and others out of trouble (much of the time)
-> they can take fair criticism without taking it personally and are open to learning from it
-> they can summarize prose accurately and pick out items that could be used to support an argument
-> they can write in a mostly correct fashion (with or without digital correction)
-> they can perform mathematical or scientific calculations at the freshman level expected by their future major

...then they will probably do just fine.

Notice how little of my list is academic, and how it says nothing about test scores, APs, or learning differences. Give your child these other things, and we who teach will be able to help him learn. I for one would be happy to have a student like yours.

So students who don’t have these qualities shouldn’t go to college?