Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, your kid will have no problem getting into

Univ Mary Washington
VCU
George Mason
Radford


and others. Just keep that SAT to yourself. These schools really are test optional. If the score doesn't help, don't send it.

He's below the mean GPA at GMU so while I think he has a good shot, he's not guaranteed. Make a good case with the rest of the application.

Pp here. Based on my kids fcps naviance, anyone with a 3.1-3.2 gpa gets into those schools regardless of SAT. I know them because that's where my kid's gpa is. Si we have been looking for solid matches.

With a 3.5 gpa, OP's kid is in.

That's not the case at our FCPS school. The Naviance looks like everyone with a 3.7+ gets in and after that it's more variable.

I have a hard time believing that, or perhaps your information is not current.

For VCU, every single person with a 3.0 or better got admitted. (and a few under 3.0 got admitted too).
For GMU, every person above a 3.0 was admitted (except there were two waitlisted with ultimate admission unknown).

Both VCU and GMU appear to have at least 100 applications.

With UMW, everyone above a 3.0 was admitted (only one by waitlist).

For Radford, a 2.5 and above GPA was sufficient.



With all of these, the stats required a year ago were a little higher (i.e. 3.1 or 3.2). As a result of Covid, they seem to have shifted down a bit (probably b/c kids' GPAs took a hit last year).

I stand by my statement:

All of these are locks:
VCU
GMU
UMW
RadU

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok he’s fine. Deep breaths
I am a college consultant

Do test optional

Auburn
Furman
Elon
High Point
U of SC
Indiana
Boulder
U of AZ
Clemson
NC State
St Olaf
Lawrence
Univ of San Diego
Univ of San Fran
Gettysburg
GW
U Pitt
LSU
Ole Miss
Tennessee
Marquette
Pepperdine
Gustavus
Trinity
Skidmore
Syracuse




Tried to put in different types of schools

Are those schools test optional? Yes. Are quite a few of those schools reaches for his gpa? Also yes.

Which are a reach?

Trinity College admissions is selective with an acceptance rate of 33%. Students that get into Trinity College have an average SAT score between 1300-1450 or an average ACT score of 29-32 and an average UW GPA of 3.68

If that person is a college counselor, they stink.

+1
Elon has an average GPA of 4.04 and an average SAT of 1233 and not much of a male advantage compared to other LACs.
For Fall 2020 admission, Clemson required SATs/ACTs and had a middle 50 range of 1230-1380. They admitted 1 student with a total SAT below 1000. Only 5% of students had a GPA lower than 3.5. Over half of admitted students were in the top 10% of their class, and over 85% were in the top 1/4. This list is really misleading for OP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok he’s fine. Deep breaths
I am a college consultant

Do test optional

Auburn
Furman
Elon
High Point
U of SC
Indiana
Boulder
U of AZ
Clemson
NC State
St Olaf
Lawrence
Univ of San Diego
Univ of San Fran
Gettysburg
GW
U Pitt
LSU
Ole Miss
Tennessee
Marquette
Pepperdine
Gustavus
Trinity
Skidmore
Syracuse




Tried to put in different types of schools

Are those schools test optional? Yes. Are quite a few of those schools reaches for his gpa? Also yes.

Which are a reach?

Trinity College admissions is selective with an acceptance rate of 33%. Students that get into Trinity College have an average SAT score between 1300-1450 or an average ACT score of 29-32 and an average UW GPA of 3.68

If that person is a college counselor, they stink.

Have you reviewed the CDS? Pre-pandemic only 24% submitted SAT scores at all. These are presumably greatly inflated number for who actually gets admitted.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St. Mary’s of Maryland. Rejected almost no one from our Hs, including ones with similar stats and much lower.
Kids also getting in with those stats to Pitt but it’s the lower range.
Other Maryland schools in play. What is he looking for? Lots of options.

Have a hard time believing that. My DS didn't get in to Pitt with a 1250 and 3.8 UW from a prep school.

Should have been an easy admit. Was he applying for engineering or cs or anything? I don’t know anything about admissions for those programs. Just thinking about possible explanations.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok he’s fine. Deep breaths
I am a college consultant

Do test optional

Auburn
Furman
Elon
High Point
U of SC
Indiana
Boulder
U of AZ
Clemson
NC State
St Olaf
Lawrence
Univ of San Diego
Univ of San Fran
Gettysburg
GW
U Pitt
LSU
Ole Miss
Tennessee
Marquette
Pepperdine
Gustavus
Trinity
Skidmore
Syracuse




Tried to put in different types of schools

Are those schools test optional? Yes. Are quite a few of those schools reaches for his gpa? Also yes.

Which are a reach?

Trinity College admissions is selective with an acceptance rate of 33%. Students that get into Trinity College have an average SAT score between 1300-1450 or an average ACT score of 29-32 and an average UW GPA of 3.68

If that person is a college counselor, they stink.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok he’s fine. Deep breaths
I am a college consultant

Do test optional

Auburn
Furman
Elon
High Point
U of SC
Indiana
Boulder
U of AZ
Clemson
NC State
St Olaf
Lawrence
Univ of San Diego
Univ of San Fran
Gettysburg
GW
U Pitt
LSU
Ole Miss
Tennessee
Marquette
Pepperdine
Gustavus
Trinity
Skidmore
Syracuse




Tried to put in different types of schools

Are those schools test optional? Yes. Are quite a few of those schools reaches for his gpa? Also yes.

Which are a reach?

Trinity, Skidmore, Pepperdine, USD, Boulder. Probably more, but off the top of my head, these definitely.

Anonymous wrote:St. Mary’s of Maryland. Rejected almost no one from our Hs, including ones with similar stats and much lower.
Kids also getting in with those stats to Pitt but it’s the lower range.
Other Maryland schools in play. What is he looking for? Lots of options.

Have a hard time believing that. My DS didn't get in to Pitt with a 1250 and 3.8 UW from a prep school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, your kid will have no problem getting into

Univ Mary Washington
VCU
George Mason
Radford


and others. Just keep that SAT to yourself. These schools really are test optional. If the score doesn't help, don't send it.

He's below the mean GPA at GMU so while I think he has a good shot, he's not guaranteed. Make a good case with the rest of the application.

Pp here. Based on my kids fcps naviance, anyone with a 3.1-3.2 gpa gets into those schools regardless of SAT. I know them because that's where my kid's gpa is. Si we have been looking for solid matches.

With a 3.5 gpa, OP's kid is in.

That's not the case at our FCPS school. The Naviance looks like everyone with a 3.7+ gets in and after that it's more variable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can he take an intense SAT review course and take the SAT one more time.

But aren't there SO many test optional schools at this point?

Many kids can't do well on standardized tests. You have to accept that and move on.

+1
We have always known that our DC is simply terrible at standardized tests. She's a smart girl and makes very good grades, but she just bombs tests like the SAT and ACT - she's tried them multiple times, with prep. Test optional is looking good right now.

+2. DC is a sophomore. He has a very good gpa but is a terrible standardized test taker. At this point I feel like he should be focusing his efforts where they are likely to pay off, which is maintaining his high gpa. Test prep might move the needle somewhat, but not likely enough to ever make it advisable to submit the score. He and we have realistic expectations when it comes to the types of colleges he could get into and what would be a good fit. That list the college counselor posted earlier was very helpful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, your kid will have no problem getting into

Univ Mary Washington
VCU
George Mason
Radford


and others. Just keep that SAT to yourself. These schools really are test optional. If the score doesn't help, don't send it.

He's below the mean GPA at GMU so while I think he has a good shot, he's not guaranteed. Make a good case with the rest of the application.

Pp here. Based on my kids fcps naviance, anyone with a 3.1-3.2 gpa gets into those schools regardless of SAT. I know them because that's where my kid's gpa is. Si we have been looking for solid matches.

With a 3.5 gpa, OP's kid is in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apparently test optional schools have gpa requirements of 3.6+.

Does anyone have recent experience with their child actually being admitted with a 3.5 and either no test scores submitted or 960 SATs?

Never heard of GPA minimums for test optional. Sounds like a myth.

This is a total myth. I've talked to my DS's counselor and we are trying to figure out where to send scores and where not to. His GPA is around 3.5 and tests scores not so great. She told me about many many students from last year who got into decent and even some good schools with under 3.5 and NO scores. She said there is no minimum GPA because you are not sending scores.

DP. Just wanted to say that it's not a myth - in the past years of test optional, many schools did indeed have a GPA minimum of 3.5+. With Covid, many have lifted that minimum, but I imagine there are still some that require it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can he take an intense SAT review course and take the SAT one more time.

But aren't there SO many test optional schools at this point?

Many kids can't do well on standardized tests. You have to accept that and move on.

+1
We have always known that our DC is simply terrible at standardized tests. She's a smart girl and makes very good grades, but she just bombs tests like the SAT and ACT - she's tried them multiple times, with prep. Test optional is looking good right now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok he’s fine. Deep breaths
I am a college consultant

Do test optional

Auburn
Furman
Elon
High Point
U of SC
Indiana
Boulder
U of AZ
Clemson
NC State
St Olaf
Lawrence
Univ of San Diego
Univ of San Fran
Gettysburg
GW
U Pitt
LSU
Ole Miss
Tennessee
Marquette
Pepperdine
Gustavus
Trinity
Skidmore
Syracuse




Tried to put in different types of schools

Are those schools test optional? Yes. Are quite a few of those schools reaches for his gpa? Also yes.

Which are a reach?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can he take an intense SAT review course and take the SAT one more time.

But aren't there SO many test optional schools at this point?

Many kids can't do well on standardized tests. You have to accept that and move on.

But if you want to get in at a good test optional school you have to show other strengths. His GPA would also be a weakness at many of the suggested schools. He's either got to improve the test scores or lower his aims. Test optional doesn't mean tests don't matter, just that if your application package is convincing enough without the tests you have a chance.

The OP wasn't asking about him getting into good schools. Just schools.

Anonymous wrote:Op, your kid will have no problem getting into

Univ Mary Washington
VCU
George Mason
Radford


and others. Just keep that SAT to yourself. These schools really are test optional. If the score doesn't help, don't send it.

He's below the mean GPA at GMU so while I think he has a good shot, he's not guaranteed. Make a good case with the rest of the application.