DCUM Forum

Anonymous

08/19/2025 09:52 Subject: Where are the parents of average kids at?

Anonymous wrote:Those parents aren't on here. DCUM is not for chill people who know that things will work OK without stressing out.

This is for the hyperaware.

I only read DCUM for about a week when I was a new parent. Too many debates, too nasty, and I was already gone from the DMV by then.

Came back for the college forums because where I live now there are hardly any strivers, Ivy applicants, even kids going out of state.

A huge fraction of America's 1500+ SAT students are concentrated in just a few geographies. It's interesting to me to hear people act like being top 1-2% is typical.

Only DCUM College and Finance are these ridiculous... otherwise, I do enjoy DCUM pages.

Anonymous

08/19/2025 09:12 Subject: Where are the parents of average kids at?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gettysburg full pay - outcomes probably the same as WASP within 10 years - don’t sweat it and let the kid have fun and develop his social skills and eq

I find this very hard to believe . . .

Anything's possible, if not likely. But why bring up WASP at all? Comes across as bitter.

Anonymous

08/19/2025 09:11 Subject: Where are the parents of average kids at?

Raising hand.

My kid is taking a handful of APs/honors. His GPA is fine but not stellar. He doesn’t know what he wants to do so he’s planning to apply for “exploratory studies” or similar. He’ll probably stay in-state because that’s what we can fully pay. He does have dyslexia but that’s neither here nor there when it comes to college applications (he will not mention it).

And, I am 100% confident that he will be fine.

Anonymous

08/19/2025 09:06 Subject: Where are the parents of average kids at?

Anonymous wrote:Just regular good ole kids. Not all APs. Not championship athletes. Didn't found a nonprofit. Some As, some Bs, maybe even a C or two!
Just enjoying life and being a teenager.
Reading this board, these kids must be dinosaurs. But I know it's not true! So parents of regular kids, check in here and tell me about their (average, run of the mill, non-flashy even!) college plans!!!!

NoVa kid, very active in extracurriculars that aren't sports, 3.7 WGPA with a 1230 SAT (taking one more time but the score was higher than I expected already, very little prep), non stem major.
Applying to Pitt, Dayton, Miami OH, Cincinnati, Colorado State, CU Boulder, JMU, VCU, Temple, Univ Rhode Island

Anonymous

08/19/2025 09:02 Subject: Where are the parents of average kids at?

At Fun schools enjoying life

Anonymous

08/19/2025 08:33 Subject: Re:Where are the parents of average kids at?

Anonymous wrote:I’m here. One kid was a super achiever and went to a reachy reach school, other kid had a solid HS experience with lots of time for fun and sports etc and leaves for his first year at UVM tomorrow. The family joke is the super academic kid is probably going to be coming to the kid with more conventional path for a loan some day. In any case both kids have given me all the range of parent feels - pride, worry, frustration, excitement etc

Same here and same joke in our family!

Anonymous

08/19/2025 08:28 Subject: Where are the parents of average kids at?

Anonymous wrote:Parents of such children are most likely devoid of the skills necessary to access and comment on DCUM.

Is there really a student that gets more than 1 or 2 Bs in high school, outside of private schools? Serious question, since more than half the students in my kid’s high school graduation class had GPAs of over 4.0

Are you a troll or just naive? The "other half" populates the schools you wouldn't think of applying or joins the military or goes straight to FT work.

Anonymous

08/19/2025 08:26 Subject: Where are the parents of average kids at?

My kid was practically flunking his science and math classes. GPA nowhere near 3.5.
But insanely high SAT and all 5s on AP exams.
The child only did what they felt like doing in school. One single extracurricular. Pretty much refused to strive strive strive. Refused to show parents their college apps.
Going to London School of Economics.

Anonymous

08/19/2025 08:06 Subject: Where are the parents of average kids at?

My awesome, academically average kid (they even skipped the SAT entirely after practice tests didn’t break 1100 and only applied test optional) is going to St Mary’s of Maryland in a few days. They are so looking forward to it. Looks like a great place for them.

Anonymous

08/19/2025 08:00 Subject: Where are the parents of average kids at?

The college search process is much nicer for the so-called average kids. They’re not hung up on a small handful of schools and there’s a broader or wider sense of good options for them.

Anonymous

08/19/2025 07:28 Subject: Where are the parents of average kids at?

Anonymous wrote:Gettysburg full pay - outcomes probably the same as WASP within 10 years - don’t sweat it and let the kid have fun and develop his social skills and eq

I find this very hard to believe . . .

Anonymous

08/19/2025 07:04 Subject: Re:Where are the parents of average kids at?

I’m here. One kid was a super achiever and went to a reachy reach school, other kid had a solid HS experience with lots of time for fun and sports etc and leaves for his first year at UVM tomorrow. The family joke is the super academic kid is probably going to be coming to the kid with more conventional path for a loan some day. In any case both kids have given me all the range of parent feels - pride, worry, frustration, excitement etc

Anonymous

08/19/2025 06:09 Subject: Where are the parents of average kids at?

Anonymous wrote:I have one! Life is a little tougher for my average kid. Things are more stressful, they need more downtime, they take things more personally. But they love their sport and they have a small good friends. I’m a little worried about their future, but I keep it to myself.

My average kid is much chiller than that. I think that’s why he’s in it for the long run. Not too much raises his blood pressure so he weathers everything and just keeps going. No anxiety over anything. He’s halfway done college while other better students he knows have dropped out.

Anonymous

08/19/2025 02:40 Subject: Where are the parents of average kids at?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are enjoying the start of senior year and planning to apply to great colleges like University of Denver and University of Colorado Boulder!

Those are good. Other popular choices with the A/B maybe a C crowd are University of Oregon, Gonzaga, University of San Diego (private one not UCSD), Pitt, Arizona State.

If they are choosing a non impacted major then their local Cal state or ones other than SJSU, Cal Poly SLO or SDSU (unless they are choosing an easy major and live within the service area). Community college and scrambling for internships, gig code work, start ups for engineering kids that don’t have perfect GPAs.

Are you talking about kids who don’t have much rigor?

Yes. As long as they aren’t a white or Asian male applying to CS or engineering, those are all good targets. If you are OOS and have a 3.5 then you are very competitive for UCSC, Cal Poly etc. If you are in state, you get a bump if you apply to a school in your service area. Cal Poly, SJSU and SDSU will have B students from its service area and 4.0 students from Nor Cal.

Anonymous

08/19/2025 02:28 Subject: Where are the parents of average kids at?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are enjoying the start of senior year and planning to apply to great colleges like University of Denver and University of Colorado Boulder!

Those are good. Other popular choices with the A/B maybe a C crowd are University of Oregon, Gonzaga, University of San Diego (private one not UCSD), Pitt, Arizona State.

If they are choosing a non impacted major then their local Cal state or ones other than SJSU, Cal Poly SLO or SDSU (unless they are choosing an easy major and live within the service area). Community college and scrambling for internships, gig code work, start ups for engineering kids that don’t have perfect GPAs.

Are you talking about kids who don’t have much rigor?

Stay on topic please. You’re veering.