Colleges for the slow-to-mature kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was a late bloomer. Went to a no-name lac for undergrad although with a lot of merit aid which was very helpful.
Ended up at MIT for grad school. There are many on-ramps in life.

What school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are tons of great schools for this type of kid. Check out Colleges that Change Lives.

Any college can change your God damn life.

Where's all that animosity coming from?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are tons of great schools for this type of kid. Check out Colleges that Change Lives.

Any college can change your God damn life.

Where's all that animosity coming from?

Different poster here but that book is overrated and over sold to anxious parents - it might just be about the book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are tons of great schools for this type of kid. Check out Colleges that Change Lives.

+1 and attend a CTCL college fair if they are still offering them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see a lot of posters complain about how their kids are "bad at taking tests" and therefore have a low SAT/ACT score but decent GPA. Colleges are now allowing test optional applications to address this (thanks to Corona mostly). Great for those parents/kids!

What about kids who didn't do well in 9th and 10th grades academically but got their acts together in 11th/12th? Say they end up with a weighted GPA in the 3.7-4.0 range but end up with a 1550+ in the SATs in junior/senior year. Basically, a good trajectory. Assuming these are male, White or Asian kids that want to do Engineering/CS with no legacy/hooks/sports. Are they pretty much fuc*ed? Will any "top school" touch them?

Would like to hear about schools that really look into the application and select such kids as well as personal experiences. Not interested in "you can get a great education at any school" posts, please.

I totally agree, there are so many families that are MC/college educated parents but either do not follow the current cultural trend of helicoptering or there are issues in the family-like medical or mental illness, substance use, cheating and so on where the parents are not helicoptering and very smart kids who also do not follow the trend of competitiveness can totally slack off and go through school, with Cs and Bs and when they finally figure out at 16 they want to do well in school their time has passed...its really sad our kids are the generation of no second chances...zoning out in grade 9 or 10 , wrong text message sent can basically define your life for a long time.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see a lot of posters complain about how their kids are "bad at taking tests" and therefore have a low SAT/ACT score but decent GPA. Colleges are now allowing test optional applications to address this (thanks to Corona mostly). Great for those parents/kids!

What about kids who didn't do well in 9th and 10th grades academically but got their acts together in 11th/12th? Say they end up with a weighted GPA in the 3.7-4.0 range but end up with a 1550+ in the SATs in junior/senior year. Basically, a good trajectory. Assuming these are male, White or Asian kids that want to do Engineering/CS with no legacy/hooks/sports. Are they pretty much fuc*ed? Will any "top school" touch them?

Would like to hear about schools that really look into the application and select such kids as well as personal experiences. Not interested in "you can get a great education at any school" posts, please.

I totally agree, there are so many families that are MC/college educated parents but either do not follow the current cultural trend of helicoptering or there are issues in the family-like medical or mental illness, substance use, cheating and so on where the parents are not helicoptering and very smart kids who also do not follow the trend of competitiveness can totally slack off and go through school, with Cs and Bs and when they finally figure out at 16 they want to do well in school their time has passed...its really sad our kids are the generation of no second chances...zoning out in grade 9 or 10 , wrong text message sent can basically define your life for a long time.....

Except that's not really true. Not being able to attend a Top20 school is not 'defining your life'--the vast majority of people don't get to do that. The US has so many roads to a good college, and you can go to a mediocre school and get into a top graduate program. You can go to community college and transfer into world class institutions. Really it's one of the most flexible higher ed systems anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are tons of great schools for this type of kid. Check out Colleges that Change Lives.

Any college can change your God damn life.

Where's all that animosity coming from?

Oh, you must be new. There is some weirdo in DCUM who gets triggered whenever CTCL is mentioned. You will know it is him when they “explain” that it is really an acronym for a type of cancer (????). No joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just here to say I wish schools only looked at 11th and 12th for gpa. It’s insane to expect consistent perfection, ambition, and long-term planning from kids from 14/15 -17/18 without intense parental control. Wonder why helicopter parents became a thing? I don’t. Colleges reward premature frontal lobe development and controlling parenting (even parents doing some of the kids work)

Do parents really do this? Lol! I don't think my kid would want me attempting his precalc or physics especially since I never took those classes.

Yes. Especially last year with virtual learning. And not just parents. I even heard about someone (friend of a friend) having their kid's foreign language tutor "sitting with" the student during a vritual test.

Basically if a kid is a current senior who had low freshmen/sophmore grade but "thrived" junior year with virtual learning, I'm going to assume there was some form of cheating involved. That's why it's important that OP's kid ALSO did well on the SAT. In that case, i would NOT assume cheating.

I'll bite. DS struggled freshmen year, had a neuropsych eval half way through followed by accommodations and meds, and steadily improved. Was in hybrid mode for all of junior year where his grades really picked up, then has been all As since start of senior year. Yes, there are probably some cheating, but there are others in the slow-to-mature category. DS got a great ACT score and submitted with the rest of his app.

DS was hurt because the school scrapped grades for the spring semester during the first lockdown. He could have used another 3.7 semester for his overall GPA. He got into a T10 LAC, but might have shot for a T5 with a slightly higher GPA.

Yeah, I don't really buy this. Some other hook going on here.

Buy what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just here to say I wish schools only looked at 11th and 12th for gpa. It’s insane to expect consistent perfection, ambition, and long-term planning from kids from 14/15 -17/18 without intense parental control. Wonder why helicopter parents became a thing? I don’t. Colleges reward premature frontal lobe development and controlling parenting (even parents doing some of the kids work)

Do parents really do this? Lol! I don't think my kid would want me attempting his precalc or physics especially since I never took those classes.

Yes. Especially last year with virtual learning. And not just parents. I even heard about someone (friend of a friend) having their kid's foreign language tutor "sitting with" the student during a vritual test.

Basically if a kid is a current senior who had low freshmen/sophmore grade but "thrived" junior year with virtual learning, I'm going to assume there was some form of cheating involved. That's why it's important that OP's kid ALSO did well on the SAT. In that case, i would NOT assume cheating.

I'll bite. DS struggled freshmen year, had a neuropsych eval half way through followed by accommodations and meds, and steadily improved. Was in hybrid mode for all of junior year where his grades really picked up, then has been all As since start of senior year. Yes, there are probably some cheating, but there are others in the slow-to-mature category. DS got a great ACT score and submitted with the rest of his app.

DS was hurt because the school scrapped grades for the spring semester during the first lockdown. He could have used another 3.7 semester for his overall GPA. He got into a T10 LAC, but might have shot for a T5 with a slightly higher GPA.

Somehow this reads as more about you than him.

Interesting. DS struggled with his ED choice. He really wanted to go to a specific LAC. His college counselor thought it was a long shot - defer in ED, then reject in RD was the prognosis. Counselor even said, "maybe with a higher GPA...."

As parents, we were more conservative, partially influenced by friends with older DCs applying over the last couple of years. We even thought the T10 was risky, especially as he said one of his goals was being done in ED1. But it was his decision in the end and he got in.

I am not sure how this reads as "more about you than him." DS had some very serious struggles 4-5 years ago, heart breaking at times for him and as a parent. Never imagined - in so many ways - he would have even gotten to today. Even now the GPA can nag at him, especially when his close friends are getting into certain schools, ones where he'd really like to go. But he is rolling with it more and making peace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are tons of great schools for this type of kid. Check out Colleges that Change Lives.

Any college can change your God damn life.

Where's all that animosity coming from?

Different poster here but that book is overrated and over sold to anxious parents - it might just be about the book.

Loren Pope, the former ed editor for the NYT, is overrated?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Top schools have their pick of qualified applicants so why on earth would they chose some late bloomer versus an independently motivated high achiever through all of high school? There’s a school for everyone but try and have some realistic perspective.

+1 top schools is not affordable for most anyways, donut hole families are priced out, I don’t think they care about the late boomers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are tons of great schools for this type of kid. Check out Colleges that Change Lives.

Any college can change your God damn life.

Where's all that animosity coming from?

Different poster here but that book is overrated and over sold to anxious parents - it might just be about the book.

Loren Pope, the former ed editor for the NYT, is overrated?

I don’t rate her, but this particular book is.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Top schools have their pick of qualified applicants so why on earth would they chose some late bloomer versus an independently motivated high achiever through all of high school? [/quote]
This question intrigues me. Some late bloomers go on to far surpass their peers. Is there a way to predict who will do this, and why?[/quote]

SAT scores are fairly predictive of future income. So your late bloomer with a high SAT going into a STEM field will probably do quite well. I have two boys like this -- one just graduated from college with a job that pays almost twice the median starting salary of a recent college grad. [/quote]

SAT scores are predictive of the student and parents’ SES. They have nothing to do with future success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see a lot of posters complain about how their kids are "bad at taking tests" and therefore have a low SAT/ACT score but decent GPA. Colleges are now allowing test optional applications to address this (thanks to Corona mostly). Great for those parents/kids!

What about kids who didn't do well in 9th and 10th grades academically but got their acts together in 11th/12th? Say they end up with a weighted GPA in the 3.7-4.0 range but end up with a 1550+ in the SATs in junior/senior year. Basically, a good trajectory. Assuming these are male, White or Asian kids that want to do Engineering/CS with no legacy/hooks/sports. Are they pretty much fuc*ed? Will any "top school" touch them?

Would like to hear about schools that really look into the application and select such kids as well as personal experiences. Not interested in "you can get a great education at any school" posts, please.

We'll, you can get an education at any school, even if it is not one that will give parents bragging rights.

My kid got a 1520 SAT (one and done with zero prep) kept her GPA up on her own despite dealing with a serious health issue during grades 9-11 and then was diagnosed with ADHD early senior year, so I'd argue that my kid got in not because I helicoptered (I didn't) but because she is so smart she was able to complete her work at an A level despite obstacles. Maybe that is who your late bloomer is competing against.

Despite her great scores and grades, I hope you were able to get her some treatment. It gets more difficult as life goes on, unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are tons of great schools for this type of kid. Check out Colleges that Change Lives.

Any college can change your God damn life.

Where's all that animosity coming from?

Different poster here but that book is overrated and over sold to anxious parents - it might just be about the book.

Loren Pope, the former ed editor for the NYT, is overrated?

I don’t rate her, but this particular book is.

Loren Pope was a man, and the book was from 1996.