Anonymous wrote: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.

This is true. I have one of each. My poor tippy top kid was crushed when he was rejected from his dream school and most of his in state targets. He and his friends really struggled to swallow their sadness seeing kids with lower rigor, GPAs, ECs or totally made up stuff get in due to demographic or geographic reasons. He still ended up at a top 25 but will always be a little bitter about how UC does admissions. He had to push himself to love the school he went to and for about a year wondered what he could have done differently.

My smart but would prefer to have fun kid had a far better time. There was a panic moment where she thought it was hopeless because she wasn’t a 4.0, captain or president of a top EC or varsity sport player. She had a wider range of schools to apply to and consider, got into far more than she expected and was super happy with her choice.

We are in the west and looking at schools where our kid can get WUE tuition breaks + hopefully at least a partial sports scholarship.

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!!!!

There’s a whole bunch of them here, but they lurk on DCUM. They don't post much.

Anonymous wrote:

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

Great list. I think your kid will get into most of those. Good luck!

Anonymous wrote: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.

Amen!

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!!!!

*Here*!

I'm always paranoid about my neighbors reading my posts. So, I'll give you a reasonable facsimile. All three kids had GPAs in the low to mid 3's. One had an SAT score of 1320, the others were in the low 1200s. They picked: non-flagship state college; Jesuit college; different non-flagship state college.

They applied to a mix of public and private, and all got good merit aid -- the one with the best SAT scores got REALLY good merit aid from private schools.

So far, they've had a smooth path in college. Grades rose a bit and they are well on their way.

Anonymous wrote:

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!

That’s not a funny joke. It sucks that in your family you label your kids in such a way.

My average kid (Strong GPA but Gen Ed, minimal honors classes, no APs, not taking ACT or SAT, not top athlete) is planning to go to NVCC for cybersecurity.

He is burned out from the slog of school and doesn't want to commit to four more years. Hoping he makes it through two years, gets his associates and some certifications, and can get a decent paying job.

For four year schools, we were looking at Longwood U, CNU, and possibly JMU. But he decided he doesn't want that right now.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Don't sleep on DCUM as entertainment.

Most dcum threads are. Too many posts made up stories.

Anonymous wrote: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.

Sad that UK is picking up diamond in the rough among our kids.
That is not an average kid.
But it's very hard for that kid to get into even a T50 in the US.

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 . . .

Seriously? It is 100% believable.

We have a couple of average kids. Older one just started college this week. Got in everywhere he applied. Got money from most. He even got into a couple of schools that others with much higher grades didn't from his school didn't. But he had a good essay, and he toured his schools that were harder admits. He was also reasonable about where he applied and was strategic about his choice major at some schools.

Kid two is a now a senior. His path is a little trickier because he isn't sure about a major.

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.

Don't sleep on DCUM as entertainment.

Anonymous wrote: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.

How??!! They don’t care about GPA?

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Thanks I have a 3.5 kid in So Cal with not much rigor, so was curious.
Appreciate the response.