Colleges

[Anonymous]

After seeing a number of posts form parents of teens freaked out about a couple of Bs, I wanted to truth-check. Anyone out there want to share where their Non-straight A student got in to college? Kids who have A-/B +'s on their report cards. thanks

[Anonymous]

DC just got into a top 20 university with several Bs -- an 85 in math (but honors), B+s in science and pre-calc and an AP. Will definitely end this year with another B in math and possibly language.

[Anonymous]

I went to community college and I have a job that earns more than some public school teachers with masters degrees. Where I live, city college is free, so my daughter will go there no matter what grades she has.

[Anonymous]

Pop over to the colleges & universities board of DCUM and you'll find some discussion of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pop over to the colleges & universities board of DCUM and you'll find some discussion of this.

It is not the overall GPA but it is how you get there. My kid had 2.0 GPA in his freshman and sophmore year. He had 4.2 in his junior and senior year and score 1570 on the SAT. He is accepted into Brown U.

[Anonymous]

DS with B+'s in math and B's in languages is 4 out of 4 at his early action colleges. Better to challenge yourself bytaking a rigorous and let the chips fall where they may.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS with B+'s in math and B's in languages is 4 out of 4 at his early action colleges. Better to challenge yourself bytaking a rigorous and let the chips fall where they may.

I should add with significant merit aid at all four including good privates and out of state flagships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pop over to the colleges & universities board of DCUM and you'll find some discussion of this.

It is not the overall GPA but it is how you get there. My kid had 2.0 GPA in his freshman and sophmore year. He had 4.2 in his junior and senior year and score 1570 on the SAT. He is accepted into Brown U.

This. GPA goes up DRAMATICALLY in the final two years due to AP/IB classes. Colleges also like to see that kids took those classes.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for this thread. My junior currently has a 3.5 in all IB classes. This is a kid who craves challenge and isn't happy in regular classes, and doesn't take electives...just piles on extra sciences. I've been worried he won't get into a good college. Im hoping colleges can appreciate his mindset.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After seeing a number of posts form parents of teens freaked out about a couple of Bs, I wanted to truth-check. Anyone out there want to share where their Non-straight A student got in to college? Kids who have A-/B +'s on their report cards. thanks

Purdue, Penn Stare, Virginia Tech, Miami University (Ohio)

[Anonymous]

My DD is at top 20 college. Academically rigorous private. Had all A and A- grades for first two years. Had B+ junior year and had a B and a C first semester senior year. Non-A grades were all in AP/Honors classes. 35 ACT.

[Anonymous]

Year end grades are all that are reported to colleges so you can have an B or C here and there- just try to pull things up as best you can for final grades. Jr. year is the most important year by far for things like Early Action and Early Decision - so start to finish if there is one year that can define where you will end up, it's that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Year end grades are all that are reported to colleges so you can have an B or C here and there- just try to pull things up as best you can for final grades. Jr. year is the most important year by far for things like Early Action and Early Decision - so start to finish if there is one year that can define where you will end up, it's that.

Most school districts report semester grades on the transcripts that colleges see, not year end grades.

My DD and her friends at a MoCo public did fine in the USNWR 10-20 type schools, plus top LACs, with 2 or 3 semester Bs in AP classes and great SATs and ACTs. Most of the kids who got into the tippy top schools actually had less good grades and scores. They were all either recruited athletes, URMs, or (only a couple) had truly amazing ECs.

[Anonymous]

My neighbor, who has solid C student kids, swears that the key is only applying to a variety of out of state schools.

She's got one at Elon, CSU Dominguez Hills, Colorado State, and one at a university in Buffalo (not sure of the exact name). None of them were great students. None were outstanding athletes that got scholarships. None did any extracurriculars to pad their academic resumes. After the first two got rejected or wait listed at every VA school they applied to, she only had the other two apply to out of state schools, where they were accepted at all.

Now, will this work for C students in VA applying to Harvard? No. But it seemed to work for her 4 applying to average schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My neighbor, who has solid C student kids, swears that the key is only applying to a variety of out of state schools.

She's got one at Elon, CSU Dominguez Hills, Colorado State, and one at a university in Buffalo (not sure of the exact name). None of them were great students. None were outstanding athletes that got scholarships. None did any extracurriculars to pad their academic resumes. After the first two got rejected or wait listed at every VA school they applied to, she only had the other two apply to out of state schools, where they were accepted at all.

Now, will this work for C students in VA applying to Harvard? No. But it seemed to work for her 4 applying to average schools.

That's a great plan, if you can afford spending $200,000 on each kid.