Anonymous wrote:My junior is going to have a few Cs this year. It is what it is. Hardworking kid in AP classes, rough year due to a variety of circumstances. He will have around a 3.4 or 3.5 weighted GPA. ACT score pending, but practice was a 29.

What 4 year schools should he be looking at that can look past a few bad grades in a craptastic year? Anywhere along the east coast, and any price point is fine.

So far no one asked what major, or did I miss it? It really depends on whether he is applying to engineering/STEM majors vs liberal arts/undecided. Getting into STEM will require higher GPA and C's in math & science in junior year will deny admissions to most schools in the top 100 ranked, except a few that may be matches. If you want safety, then you'd need to look at 100+ ranked schools, again for STEM major.

If liberal arts major then a lot of schools will open up. But, you'll also pay full tuition, and then it's a question of whether OOS full pay for liberal arts is worth it, in most cases it isn't, but you get a college degree. I'd rather to to 100+ ranked school or community college then do 2+2 to transfer to better school with STEM, if he is interested in that.

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Anonymous wrote:There are a decent amount of big schools that would be fine - Penn State, Indiana, Alabama, Clemson (maybe), some Florida schools (FSU, UCF). In MD, Towson, in VA, ODU or JMU

Not Pitt, Penn State or Clemson, IME.

Agree. And not the main campus of the first two.

Possibly one of Penn State satellite campuses. Def not University Park.

Our private school Naviance shows the average admitted student to Penn State main campus from our school was a 3.3. No one has ever been rejected, even a 2.4 on there.

I think Naviance includes the satellite acceptances. I thought the same thing about our private--but nobody under 3.0 actually gets in to University Park, as it was clarified to me.

No - it says Penn State (Main Campus) and the satellites are listed separately.

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Anonymous wrote:All of the Virginia public schools except UVA, W&M, and VT. Most of the Virginia privates except W&L and Richmond.

Most of the Maryland publics except College Park. Most of the privates except Hopkins.

Probably none of the DC privates.

Most of the NC publics except Chapel Hill.

The people here sometimes act like there are only a handful of schools, but your kid has plenty of solid options.

Except JMU and CNU, according to pp with similar stats and recent experience.

I work at JMU and I would recommend it. I have some students with that profile now and I think this last year (with Covid and online learning) there will be more students who have a few C grades. It was more students with As and Bs in the past, but this last year has been very rough. It's a good school with lots of options for majors, minors, and activities. There are so many students that everyone finds friends with common interests. Come visit! If you're interested in math or statistics, I'll even give you a tour.

I know too many people with kids at JMU that didn’t get into the major they wanted and had to transfer out. Not a good look.

This is exactly why my kid chose VCU over JMU. He didn't want to risk not getting into his preferred program. VCU had direct admit and he started those classes first semester.

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Anonymous wrote:All of the Virginia public schools except UVA, W&M, and VT. Most of the Virginia privates except W&L and Richmond.

Most of the Maryland publics except College Park. Most of the privates except Hopkins.

Probably none of the DC privates.

Most of the NC publics except Chapel Hill.

The people here sometimes act like there are only a handful of schools, but your kid has plenty of solid options.

Except JMU and CNU, according to pp with similar stats and recent experience.

I work at JMU and I would recommend it. I have some students with that profile now and I think this last year (with Covid and online learning) there will be more students who have a few C grades. It was more students with As and Bs in the past, but this last year has been very rough. It's a good school with lots of options for majors, minors, and activities. There are so many students that everyone finds friends with common interests. Come visit! If you're interested in math or statistics, I'll even give you a tour.

I know too many people with kids at JMU that didn’t get into the major they wanted and had to transfer out. Not a good look.

There are so many schools that will be just fine. People will offer lots and lots. My kid had a similar GPA and have been in no test scores and got into tons of great schools this year. Don’t believe folks who say a 3.5 (which is a mighty fine GPA!!) means community college. Geez. This area is whack.

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Anonymous wrote:All of the Virginia public schools except UVA, W&M, and VT. Most of the Virginia privates except W&L and Richmond.

Most of the Maryland publics except College Park. Most of the privates except Hopkins.

Probably none of the DC privates.

Most of the NC publics except Chapel Hill.

The people here sometimes act like there are only a handful of schools, but your kid has plenty of solid options.

Except JMU and CNU, according to pp with similar stats and recent experience.

I work at JMU and I would recommend it. I have some students with that profile now and I think this last year (with Covid and online learning) there will be more students who have a few C grades. It was more students with As and Bs in the past, but this last year has been very rough. It's a good school with lots of options for majors, minors, and activities. There are so many students that everyone finds friends with common interests. Come visit! If you're interested in math or statistics, I'll even give you a tour.

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Anonymous wrote:A few more ideas

Trinity
Connecticut college
Providence
Gettysburg
Bucknell
Rollins
U Mass
BU
Does he ski? U of Utah
St Thomas
Catholic U
AU
GW

If you’re full pay you likely can pay to hire an outside consultant I think that will expand your ideas

I think this poster is still living in 1994, although advice about getting a consultant is solid. There are plenty of options for OP’s son, but not BU, UMASS, Providence or even the lower NESCACs.

OP, he may have better luck outside of this region:

Dayton
Xavier
Bradley
UT Dallas
Tampa
Roger Williams (RI)
URI
UNC Wilmington

There is no need to treat a few C's like a disaster; it happens. And contrary to what is posted on this forum, your DC will get into a good school that is a good fit for them. As for the lists of recommendations, there are a lot of really cool schools in there that a lot more kids should consider. Probably would put an end to this drama over college acceptances. I will put in a plug for Roger Williams (RI); my kid found it on their own and yes, I had never heard of it. Great little school in a beautiful location. Some really strong programs with good connections to supports and resources. Kid is having a blast, working hard and is excited about learning.

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Anonymous wrote:There are a decent amount of big schools that would be fine - Penn State, Indiana, Alabama, Clemson (maybe), some Florida schools (FSU, UCF). In MD, Towson, in VA, ODU or JMU

Not Pitt, Penn State or Clemson, IME.

Agree. And not the main campus of the first two.

Possibly one of Penn State satellite campuses. Def not University Park.

Our private school Naviance shows the average admitted student to Penn State main campus from our school was a 3.3. No one has ever been rejected, even a 2.4 on there.

I think Naviance includes the satellite acceptances. I thought the same thing about our private--but nobody under 3.0 actually gets in to University Park, as it was clarified to me.

Suffolk University

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Anonymous wrote:There are a decent amount of big schools that would be fine - Penn State, Indiana, Alabama, Clemson (maybe), some Florida schools (FSU, UCF). In MD, Towson, in VA, ODU or JMU

Not Pitt, Penn State or Clemson, IME.

Agree. And not the main campus of the first two.

Possibly one of Penn State satellite campuses. Def not University Park.

Our private school Naviance shows the average admitted student to Penn State main campus from our school was a 3.3. No one has ever been rejected, even a 2.4 on there.

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Anonymous wrote:There are a decent amount of big schools that would be fine - Penn State, Indiana, Alabama, Clemson (maybe), some Florida schools (FSU, UCF). In MD, Towson, in VA, ODU or JMU

Not Pitt, Penn State or Clemson, IME.

Agree. And not the main campus of the first two.

Possibly one of Penn State satellite campuses. Def not University Park.

I like these PP's suggestions for your child: Dayton
Xavier
Bradley
UT Dallas
Tampa
Roger Williams (RI)
URI
UNC Wilmington

I would encourage your child do everything he can to finish strong. Tutor for finals; extra credit, whatever. Could one or two turn into a B?

If he finishes strong, he could write his essay about one bad year and the lessons he's learned from it. (But only if he has the progress to back it up.)

Try to get that ACT above a 30 and then focus on schools that seem to put more emphasis on test scores than GPA. You can glean this info from the common data set. At Union College in upstate NY, for instance, the ACT midrange is a 28-33 which is pretty competitive, but 18% of the incoming class had a GPA of 3.25-3.5, 18% had a 3.0-3.25, and almost 14% had below a 3.0. I assume most of the kids admitted with subpar GPAs were from privates, but so is your kid. If he can bump that ACT up a few points he'd be a great candidate.

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Anonymous wrote:There are a decent amount of big schools that would be fine - Penn State, Indiana, Alabama, Clemson (maybe), some Florida schools (FSU, UCF). In MD, Towson, in VA, ODU or JMU

Not Pitt, Penn State or Clemson, IME.

Agree. And not the main campus of the first two.

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Anonymous wrote:My daughter was in the same boat except a few C's in freshman/Sophomore year. Not sure if being a AA female helped but in some ways I think it did. She HATED her private school and struggled socially. By Junior year she stopped focusing on trying to find friends and got straight A's. She ended up Junior year at 3.2 and doing excellent in Senior year. She didn't submit SAT's which were okay and she only took them once. She got into many good state schools (UMD, Wake Forest, Clemson, PSU and others) and a few private schools (Elon, Villanova to name two). DO NOT WORRY. He will be totally fine. They look at the whole student and understand **IT happens. I'm finding more the of 3.3 to 3.5 students are being admitted - atleast from her school and what she is hearing.

This is private school GPA which is generally much lower than a public school GPA. I know public school kids in this range who are going to be happy to go to George Mason, Radford, Longwood (VA Schools) etc. Not getting into Elon and Villanova at all...so not sure if the OP's GPA is public or private but keep this in mind!

PP here. Her overall GPA was 3.2 when she applied in the Fall this year. I am not sure if going to private matters (at least from what I hear on this board). I honestly think her extra curricluars and overall picture helped. Plus, a good essay! Most of the people she talked to who got in to one of their reach schools with GPA's in that range. I think schools outside of the Ivy's want academic diversity and not everyone with 4.0's. Just my two cents based on our experience.

the GPA is absolutely not apples to apples comparing private with public because of the weighting. A 3.2 at our public school isn't even NHS eligible and really probably the bottom half of the class. Not getting into those schools that you mention. In a standard public, you'd need to be well over 4.0 to get into comparable schools. All I'm saying is it makes a difference and I didn't see where OP's kid is in terms of public vs. private.