B Student at Big 3 and College Placement

[Anonymous]

I'll spare everyone by not singing the praises of my wonderful son. For this thread, you need only know one unalterable truth. He is a B student at his ultra-competitve private school. He has broad extracurriculars (but so does everyone else), excels at sports (but is not recruitable), and is very well liked by all (if that matters). No college admissions hooks.

Where does this type of student typically end up going to college? What top school might be a reach, but nonetheless is still worth pursuing?

[Anonymous]

What r his sats? Aps?

[Anonymous]

Doesn't matter. Colleges care about how he performs over time, not how well he tests.

No idea which will take him. Apply across the board, and pick one where he'll be happy. He may not get to marry that chick who's hunting for a Harvard guy, but he'll be fine even if, deep breath, he goes to a state school.

[Anonymous]

STA?

Trinity College, Carleton, Colby, Colgate, UMich, Boston College, Boston U, Harverford, Tufts, Tulane, maybe Bowdoin

Reaches: Wesleyan, Middlebury, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, maybe Cornell and maybe UMD

[Anonymous]

Anything but the tippy-top

[Anonymous]

OP -- I'm a college counselor at a local university. We need a lot more facts:

1. SAT/ACT Scores
2. SAT subject test scores
3. What activities has he done?
4. What leadership activities has he been involved with?
5. Community Service Activities?
6. Can he claim "legacy status" anywhere decent?
7. Will he be a "development case"?
8. I'm assuming from your email he's not going to be a recruited athlete?
9. What do his recommendation letters look like?
10. Has he won any national awards of any sort?
11. What does he plan to major in?
12. Can he claim "URM" status?

I'm sure I'm missing something else. If you fill in those blanks, I'll give you a list of "likelys"

[Anonymous]

OP, you probably already are aware that more than 50% of his graduating class have almost identical qualifications. You still have a few months left before he starts submitting his applications, work on uncovering what makes him unique. An authentic essay can really be his selling point

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't matter. Colleges care about how he performs over time, not how well he tests.

No idea which will take him. Apply across the board, and pick one where he'll be happy. He may not get to marry that chick who's hunting for a Harvard guy, but he'll be fine even if, deep breath, he goes to a state school.

Ya, right. Test scores don't matter <eye roll>.

DD is in a similar situation, although her GPA is a lot higher. The schools PP threw out are all over the place - big research schools in East Coast cities to SLACs in the rural midwest. Let your DC take the lead in finding the school that fits. That matters way more than the "brand." Towards the end of junior year and over the summer, DD narrowed down her choices and is really keyed in a couple realistic choices. We played a bigger role helping DS find his school and he ended up transferring!

Counselor recs can really make a difference in a case like this and BTW ask your counselor what schools he should be looking at. The college counselors in the privates are usually very good about this kind of stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:STA?

Trinity College, Carleton, Colby, Colgate, UMich, Boston College, Boston U, Harverford, Tufts, Tulane, maybe Bowdoin

Reaches: Wesleyan, Middlebury, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, maybe Cornell and maybe UMD

B students (even from STA) don't get into Haverford, Tufts or Bowdoin unless he scores 2100+ on the SATs.

Forget Cornell even with 2100+ SATs, he will never get in with those grades.

With a B avg, it'll depend a lot on what he scores on the SATs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:STA?

Trinity College, Carleton, Colby, Colgate, UMich, Boston College, Boston U, Harverford, Tufts, Tulane, maybe Bowdoin

Reaches: Wesleyan, Middlebury, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, maybe Cornell and maybe UMD

B students (even from STA) don't get into Haverford, Tufts or Bowdoin unless he scores 2100+ on the SATs.

Forget Cornell even with 2100+ SATs, he will never get in with those grades.

With a B avg, it'll depend a lot on what he scores on the SATs.

Also -- state schools are more formula driven, so a GPA in the low 3s would hurt at a place like Michigan. Did his GPA rise every year? If so that can help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:STA?

Trinity College, Carleton, Colby, Colgate, UMich, Boston College, Boston U, Harverford, Tufts, Tulane, maybe Bowdoin

Reaches: Wesleyan, Middlebury, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, maybe Cornell and maybe UMD

B students (even from STA) don't get into Haverford, Tufts or Bowdoin unless he scores 2100+ on the SATs.

Forget Cornell even with 2100+ SATs, he will never get in with those grades.

With a B avg, it'll depend a lot on what he scores on the SATs.

A critical point here is: where is the B average from? What school? Why? Simply put a "B" at some schools without grade inflation is not the same "B" as it is from a school WITH grade inflation. The top New England baoding schools...as an example.....just do NOT give out "A"s.. So, a student there with a B average will not be assessed in the same manner as someone from a local school where there is significant grade inflation. In other words, "A"a are given out like candy. YES, the other points noted on this thread will matter as well. No question about it.

[Anonymous]

Your college guidance office should have metrics to show you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:STA?

Trinity College, Carleton, Colby, Colgate, UMich, Boston College, Boston U, Harverford, Tufts, Tulane, maybe Bowdoin

Reaches: Wesleyan, Middlebury, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, maybe Cornell and maybe UMD

B students (even from STA) don't get into Haverford, Tufts or Bowdoin unless he scores 2100+ on the SATs.

Forget Cornell even with 2100+ SATs, he will never get in with those grades.

With a B avg, it'll depend a lot on what he scores on the SATs.

A critical point here is: where is the B average from? What school? Why? Simply put a "B" at some schools without grade inflation is not the same "B" as it is from a school WITH grade inflation. The top New England baoding schools...as an example.....just do NOT give out "A"s.. So, a student there with a B average will not be assessed in the same manner as someone from a local school where there is significant grade inflation. In other words, "A"a are given out like candy. YES, the other points noted on this thread will matter as well. No question about it.

Even "B" students from Andover and similar will not get into an Ivy, Stanford, etc. even with top SATs all in the 700s for all three parts. So you can talk about how some schools have grade inflation or not but for the very top universities, a student will not get in with a "b" avg without a compelling hook like for example an underrepresented minority with perfect SATs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:STA?

Trinity College, Carleton, Colby, Colgate, UMich, Boston College, Boston U, Harverford, Tufts, Tulane, maybe Bowdoin

Reaches: Wesleyan, Middlebury, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, maybe Cornell and maybe UMD

Not Carleton, Michigan, Haverford, Tufts or Bowdoin.

[Anonymous]

Love this kid! He will likely end up being the boss of many a fragile snowflake. He has perserverance and is well liked, so he's got that going for him. Which is nice.