Anonymous wrote:Where you go to college doesn’t matter, it is what you do there. I guarantee you there are plenty of speciality surgeons making seven figures that did undergrad at state schools with high acceptance rates. The acceptance rate doesn’t matter.

Can we just make this a sticky?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I have a junior who will NOT make it to 3.0. I have a feeling she could be one of the 5-10% NOT to be accepted to Radford, ODU, Longwood, WVU, etc. I'll follow up a year from now!

I think you shouldn't have any worries for ODU and Radford.

PP, fingers crossed. Thank you! Swears she WANTS to go to college. Does make you wonder what it takes to get denied from one of this schools. Criminal history? Incomplete app?

I think the cutoff for both is about a 2.5

Hence why my daughter was offered the bridge program at both (she is just below that)

No WVU or Frostburg. I'm a living statistic of that 50% graduation rate. These are the 90% cultures OPs trying to avoid. Those are the big red flags.

All Frostburg and WVU have are alcohol and violence.

Roll Tide

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I have a junior who will NOT make it to 3.0. I have a feeling she could be one of the 5-10% NOT to be accepted to Radford, ODU, Longwood, WVU, etc. I'll follow up a year from now!

I think you shouldn't have any worries for ODU and Radford.

PP, fingers crossed. Thank you! Swears she WANTS to go to college. Does make you wonder what it takes to get denied from one of this schools. Criminal history? Incomplete app?

Anonymous wrote:OP, I have a junior who will NOT make it to 3.0. I have a feeling she could be one of the 5-10% NOT to be accepted to Radford, ODU, Longwood, WVU, etc. I'll follow up a year from now!

I think you shouldn't have any worries for ODU and Radford.

Anonymous wrote:WVU - I have a daughter there in nursing and a son who just accepted. It's easy to get in, but harder to stay in. It's mission is for the students of WVa so it has to be easy to get into (their public schools aren't great and it's one of the poorest states.) So for OOS, it's not that expensive with automatic merit scholarships. It really weeds out the weak students the first year. Everyone pooh-poohs it on this forum but it's a great option for late bloomers (like my kids who only got serious Junior year about academics). I've met lots of successful people who went there and it actually has the most Rhodes Scholars of any school.

Where's the uva booster.

WVU - I have a daughter there in nursing and a son who just accepted. It's easy to get in, but harder to stay in. It's mission is for the students of WVa so it has to be easy to get into (their public schools aren't great and it's one of the poorest states.) So for OOS, it's not that expensive with automatic merit scholarships. It really weeds out the weak students the first year. Everyone pooh-poohs it on this forum but it's a great option for late bloomers (like my kids who only got serious Junior year about academics). I've met lots of successful people who went there and it actually has the most Rhodes Scholars of any school.

ASU and SUNY for the win! Good schools. Smart, hard working kids.

Does your kid want to go far away? I always find these recommendations to just fly across the country to be a little out there.

There are plenty of close schools that will admit your kid - because they admitted mine.

West Virginia
Towson/Frostburg/Salisbury
The small state schools in PA - Schippensburg, slippery rock, westchester (and there are plenty more)

And, you'd be surprised at the merit aide offered.

Where you go to college doesn’t matter, it is what you do there. I guarantee you there are plenty of speciality surgeons making seven figures that did undergrad at state schools with high acceptance rates. The acceptance rate doesn’t matter.

Definitely Arizona State! You might also take a look at the "State" schools. Illinois State, Oregon State, etc.

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Anonymous wrote:In addition to 4-year graduation rate, I would look at freshman/first year retention rate - or how many students return after their first year. I would look at their first-year/freshman-year curriculum and the support they have in place for student success. Basically if your student goes there, what will that first year be like for them.

+1 They can have better outcomes for some students than a community college because you are part of the on campus community and I think that can be helpful in peer influence and access to support resources.

In VA, both GMU and VCU have overall high admit rates (will be lower for some majors) but also high retention rates. In MD, a couple smaller schools with high admit rates/high retention are McDaniel (has a reputation of having good supports for students with learning disabilities) and Loyola Maryland.

GMU is always growing as well. It was nonstop construction when my daughter went there. Now there are four other campuses in Virginia and a fifth in South Korea. Be sure to tour the high tech campus in Prince Georges County. State of the art and amazing. My DC took computer classes there

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Anonymous wrote:You say these schools are "lax," but another way to look at them is that they have capacity for all kinds of students.

George Mason University, for instance, had an acceptance rate of 90% last cycle, in part because they're growing.

This. For example, Arizona State has explicitly said their mission is to give all kinds of students opportunities so they want to be large and admit most applicants. As they put it, they want to be "measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed"

This is the motto that my friend who works for SUNY lives by.

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read through all the posts, but another and less stressful way to handle college admissions is to simply go to community college and take of their guaranteed transfer agreements.

Easier to fall out of the pipeline if you go this route. Chances of completing a bachelor's are higher at a four year institution with a decent graduation rate. Also, it's more fun.