But if people are clicking on it, that means that new families want to see how this post was answered.

Most of these topics are evergreen.

People, this thread is from two years ago. The child in question is already in college.

You say he has bad grades because he took challenging courses. You know, don't you, that some kids take challenging courses and get good grades. Hence, why you need to help him by expanding his world view, to include the many GREAT schools that are not in the top 50.

My child had an unweighted GPA of 3.7 and choose a CTCL (turning down 6 more highly ranked schools). It has gone very well. The science courses are challenging, the other science majors are top notch, and the faculty attention and research opportunities very impressive. Don't be disheartened, learn from this...that success comes in more than one flavor.

Anonymous wrote:Haverford is good for cellular biology. But he would likely not get in there.

I find it kind of amusing that you think your kid is too good to go to schools that admit his academic peers. Get over yourself and him, and make a list of schools that he is qualified to enter. It will be okay.

Skip the bumper sticker if you can't get over your snobbiness.

You had to bump a two year thread to say that? Okay, weirdo.

Coastal Carolina has a great marine biology program.

Haverford is good for cellular biology. But he would likely not get in there.

I find it kind of amusing that you think your kid is too good to go to schools that admit his academic peers. Get over yourself and him, and make a list of schools that he is qualified to enter. It will be okay.

Skip the bumper sticker if you can't get over your snobbiness.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dc is also hoping to major in Bio and go on to pursue a Phd and go into research and most likely become a professor. He is really hoping for a LAC because he wants the opportunity to learn from professors he can build a relationship with and aspire to be like...but the top ones likely won't take him with a 3.5 UW and 30 ACT. Any suggestions for LAC with great bio departments that would take a very focused and determined kid with less than stellar stats?

What kind of bio? Many of the colleges that change lives would work.

He is mostly interested in cellular and molecular. I have looked at the "colleges that change lives" and many of them are just small and below-average schools. He is very concerned about landing somewhere that will be a detriment to his grad school applications, and even more concerned about being surrounded by unmotivated students. His low GPA is due to craving the challenge of an all honors and full IB diploma courseload that I could not talk him out of. If there's a harder class, he wants in. It's a shame his achievement doesn't match his drive. I know he'll get where he wants to go in the end, even if he can't start where he'd prefer.

See post on 1/17 at 16:22

Some of those schools are top tier, but others are less selective. All are said to do a good job with Biology