Check out colleges that change lives. Juniata is working out well for my child . Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 3.0 GPA kid, 1 AP class, 23 ACT, is happy at McDaniel with good merit aid.

He looked at other small liberal arts schools with similar profiles but got into McDaniel early so he was one and done.

Little soon to be boasting. Let us know when or if your kid graduates. In 4...or 5 or 6 years. Lots of extra money for extra years. And the job placement after.

NP: doesn’t sound like the PP was boasting. My NoVa kid graduated from McDaniel and is attending med school.

Lots of personal attention at small schools. It was perfect for my kid.

Run your own race.

My kid with 2 APs, 3.45 wGPA and 30 ACT was accepted at Indiana and University of Minnesota. They ended up going to a different OOS school (a little lower ranked than these two) that offered merit. We've been paying less than $35K and the school has been a great fit.

This one actually didn't applying to any in-state options, but I'm not sure they would have gotten in to any of JMU, GMU, Tech, etc., from their particular high school.

Berkeley.

Anonymous wrote:My 3.0 GPA kid, 1 AP class, 23 ACT, is happy at McDaniel with good merit aid.

He looked at other small liberal arts schools with similar profiles but got into McDaniel early so he was one and done.

Little soon to be boasting. Let us know when or if your kid graduates. In 4...or 5 or 6 years. Lots of extra money for extra years. And the job placement after.

Anonymous wrote:Please share where your "normal" kid went to college. 2 years in a non AP school so no weighting but As and Bs. Now in public school where it feels like everyone is loaded with APs. DC is not. So average schedule for this year at least, and a B/A student.

This was our oldest son. As and Bs, I think he took one AP course, scored 27 on the ACT after prep.

He failed out of top 100 university. In retrospect we knew he was unmotivated and had basically zero study skills. Waste of $45,000. Should have sent him to repeat senior year at boarding school? College right after was just a massive and entirely predictable mistake.

Anonymous wrote:There are 4000 colleges in this county and only about 30 of them are talked about on here.

Click on the first option in the filter menu (Test Scores and Selectivity) on this website
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-search

Select some criteria. See the huge list of schools that shows up for every single one.

VERY helpful.

For public schools

Every VA school except UVA and W&M
Every MD school except College Park
Every FLA school except Gainesville
Every NC school except Chapel Hill

So basically everywhere except maybe 1 school in each state.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 3.0 GPA kid, 1 AP class, 23 ACT, is happy at McDaniel with good merit aid.

He looked at other small liberal arts schools with similar profiles but got into McDaniel early so he was one and done.

A little surprising someone with a 3.0/23 can get merit anywhere, but good on them.

It’s risky going to a small, little-known school unless the student really takes advantage and turns things around, including getting mostly A’s, doing research and getting internships. But most students at these schools are not like this, and tend to revert to their norm.

Risky for what. You get a degree, then get a job.

Risky in that you have a better chance at getting a job or going to grad school based on a name brand college’s reputation alone. With smaller, less known schools, you have to try harder.

We’re wrestling with this now. We’re pretty sure DC would do better at a smaller school, but they’d have to go to a place like Roanoke to get the merit to bring it down to the price of, say, Virginia Tech (for which we’re in-state).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 3.0 GPA kid, 1 AP class, 23 ACT, is happy at McDaniel with good merit aid.

He looked at other small liberal arts schools with similar profiles but got into McDaniel early so he was one and done.

A little surprising someone with a 3.0/23 can get merit anywhere, but good on them.

It’s risky going to a small, little-known school unless the student really takes advantage and turns things around, including getting mostly A’s, doing research and getting internships. But most students at these schools are not like this, and tend to revert to their norm.

Risky for what. You get a degree, then get a job.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 3.0 GPA kid, 1 AP class, 23 ACT, is happy at McDaniel with good merit aid.

He looked at other small liberal arts schools with similar profiles but got into McDaniel early so he was one and done.

A little surprising someone with a 3.0/23 can get merit anywhere, but good on them.

It’s risky going to a small, little-known school unless the student really takes advantage and turns things around, including getting mostly A’s, doing research and getting internships. But most students at these schools are not like this, and tend to revert to their norm.

How do you know this?

OP, become familiar with The Common Data Set on college websites, though privates aren't required to report (I have less respect for those who choose not to). Also, the terminology may be slightly different on some college's websites.

Catholic, Baylor, High Point, Juniata, St. Bonaventure, Alabama, ASU - there are plenty of choices for a “normal kid.”

Anonymous wrote:My 3.0 GPA kid, 1 AP class, 23 ACT, is happy at McDaniel with good merit aid.

He looked at other small liberal arts schools with similar profiles but got into McDaniel early so he was one and done.

A little surprising someone with a 3.0/23 can get merit anywhere, but good on them.

It’s risky going to a small, little-known school unless the student really takes advantage and turns things around, including getting mostly A’s, doing research and getting internships. But most students at these schools are not like this, and tend to revert to their norm.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 3.0 GPA kid, 1 AP class, 23 ACT, is happy at McDaniel with good merit aid.

He looked at other small liberal arts schools with similar profiles but got into McDaniel early so he was one and done.

Bless you for sharing!! This is us exactly. I am continually puzzled at why a B average is not seen as "good enough" anymore!

Good enough for what?

McDaniel is a fine place, someplace I would say is plenty "good enough." Congrats to your kid.

Sorry, I meant good enough in the world view of HS these days. Everyone around here is so competitive with their 4.0+ GPAs and gazillions of APs. I just don't really understand it. I was also congratulating the PP and thanking them.