Roos adds a post player...

[Flipper]

We welcome 5-11 Leah Bolton to the flock!!!

http://bgsufalcons.com/news/2013/8/7/WB ... 34252.aspx

[Flipper]

Apparently...this woman can play. She signed with Illinois but they couldn't admit her because her weighted GPA was too low. No problem with the raw number or her ACT...

http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/illi ... ssion.html

[Flipper]

It's worth noting that football recruit Shannon Smith is also from Marist in Chicago....he's having problems getting academic clearance from the NCAA. Is there an issue with the Marist guidance staff?

[Class of 61]

It's worth noting that football recruit Shannon Smith is also from Marist in Chicago....he's having problems getting academic clearance from the NCAA. Is there an issue with the Marist guidance staff?

Good point....if these kids aren't taking enough "core courses" to prepare them for college, then something's wrong with this school and possibly its guidance staff. As a retired Guidance counselor, I can say it's not always easy to convince kids that they need to take tougher course loads if they're REALLY planning on college, athletics notwithstanding. For a possible D-1 athlete, and these kids certainly get I'D'd early enough, it's nuts to let them cruise through HS and HOPE that a school will take them. Wonder how MUCH tougher U. of Ill. admission standards are compared to ours....kind of scary too, in some ways.

[falconfan1]

Marist is a fine college prep environment in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood of Chicago. Well regarded school in East Suburban Catholic League and a close by rival of Brother Rice, Mother McCauley and others.

This school is actually better known for academics than athletics though it certainly has had success in sports. There is no issue with college prep course work at Marist.

Each individual student must take and meet all the requirements for college entrance and, in the case of athletes, they must be certified by the NCAA Clearinghouse. So if a student falls short in a certain area, he may arrive at a college as an admit and, by diligence and commitment, later become eligible for athletics.

Leah Bolton, as you can see on the release, is a full NCAA Div 1 academic qualifier in every way. Immediately. If you examine the news articles concerning Leah and Illinois, you will see very little transparency in their remarks regarding her situation w several factors in play. Given the variety of student-athletes Illinois recruits in a variety of other sports, it is somewhat surprising that Leah would be in that situation.

She is a very good player and also a very nice young lady from a very good family as the press release reviews after their visit and her commitment to BG.

Go Falcons!

[ccollin13]

Well, if you've read any of my previous posts, you'd ought to guess this signing makes me very happy 5'11" is a bit short for a D1 post, but it seems like she can really ball. She'll be in the lineup immediately, as we'll only have 4 posts total - but I'll stop complaining about our post depth now!

Illinois has a respectable women's basketball program - so from an athletics standpoint, this seems like a great addition. She fills a very big need for us. Hope the academics works out too.

[Falconfreak90]

She sounds like a good one...Welcome to the Nest, Leah!

[threestooges]

After scanning several articles on the interwebs, I'm wondering if Bolton's "academic troubles" stemmed from the fact that Illinois suddenly was able to get a transfer from Missouri, & suddenly decided they had no need for Bolton. Illinois coach Bollant denies this in at least one article...

http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/illi ... ssion.html

... but, as Led Zeppelin once said, it makes me wonder.

[Flipper]

Whoa...not trying to cast aspersions on the Chicagoland Catholic secondary educational system or Marist collectively....just found it odd that we have two kids from Marist with academic...probably isn't even fair to say it...question marks.

I'm glad Ms Bolton is here...I hope she finds her time in BG to be fun and rewarding....

[Class of 61]

Marist is a fine college prep environment in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood of Chicago. Well regarded school in East Suburban Catholic League and a close by rival of Brother Rice, Mother McCauley and others.

This school is actually better known for academics than athletics though it certainly has had success in sports. There is no issue with college prep course work at Marist.

Each individual student must take and meet all the requirements for college entrance and, in the case of athletes, they must be certified by the NCAA Clearinghouse. So if a student falls short in a certain area, he may arrive at a college as an admit and, by diligence and commitment, later become eligible for athletics.

Leah Bolton, as you can see on the release, is a full NCAA Div 1 academic qualifier in every way. Immediately. If you examine the news articles concerning Leah and Illinois, you will see very little transparency in their remarks regarding her situation w several factors in play. Given the variety of student-athletes Illinois recruits in a variety of other sports, it is somewhat surprising that Leah would be in that situation.

FF1,
My point...or question if you will, relates to BG's admissions standards vs. U.Ill. If her alleged "weighted" GPA caused her NOT to get into Ill., how does she qualify for us? Weighted GPA's usually are when an A = 4.5, not the usual 4.0 etc. (using this as an example)... so what was wrong with her GPA to cause her the grief at Ill.?

She is a very good player and also a very nice young lady from a very good family as the press release reviews after their visit and her commitment to BG.

Go Falcons!

[transfer2BGSU]

FF1,
My point...or question if you will, relates to BG's admissions standards vs. U.Ill. If her alleged "weighted" GPA caused her NOT to get into Ill., how does she qualify for us? Weighted GPA's usually are when an A = 4.5, not the usual 4.0 etc. (using this as an example)... so what was wrong with her GPA to cause her the grief at Ill.?

She is a very good player and also a very nice young lady from a very good family as the press release reviews after their visit and her commitment to BG.

Go Falcons!

Some institutions go back and will drop the grades from all non-academic courses (or "core" courses). Not sure if Illinois does this or not. So the student that has A's in Band, Art, Theatre, and Weightlifting - those grades do not count and they look at English 1 -4, Math, Science, and all the "true academic" courses.

BGSU wants a 2.500 GPA and a 20 ACT Composite. The higher the GPA, the less importance put on the ACT/SAT scores (meaning a lower ACT can be admitted). The lower the GPA, the more importance placed on the test score (meaning a 20 will not get you in if you have a 2.0 GPA - you need around a 27 ACT at that point).

Before anyone says "Man, that's low." You should know the average incoming freshman at BGSU enrolling in Fall 2012 had a 3.27 GPA and a 22.26 ACT Composite. This has been pretty steady for the last 10-12 years as well.

[Stepping onto the soapbox]
I can't stand weighted GPA's. Parents clamor that their kid is disadvantaged by a weighted GPA's and they want their district to weight GPAs as well. But there is one problem - there is no common weighting. One district weighs courses an additional .10 while another does it .25, yet some districts give a whole point or two. Ridiculous.

Students won't take an Advanced Placement course because a grade of 'B' will hurt their GPA unless the course is weighted. Oh boo hoo. Tell the kid to take the class because it's the appropriate class for them to take. Don't be afraid to learn. If more students challenged themselves the senior year of high school, maybe a 4 year degree could be attained in 4 years.
[Stepping down]

The ACC has a rule that the student must meet the Admissions criteria of the institution to be able to be offered an athletic grant-in-aid (remember Chuck Amato's swipe at Akron a few years ago....hmmm where does he coach at now? Irony?). ACC institutions admissions standards are tougher than the NCAA eligibility requirements. I don't know if the Big Ten has such a conference rule or not.

A friend of mine is the Director of Admissions at a well known state-supported school in South Carolina and he was telling me that he has denied numerous out-of-state students with GPAs above a 3.500 and SAT scores above 1300 (Critical Reading and Math combined). He is denying these students and we would be giving them some nice scholarship money.

This player met the NCAA eligibility requirements so I have absolutely no concerns at all. She will be successful at BGSU if she utilizes the services available to her and her teammates, the same as any student-athlete.

[Class of 61]

FF1,
My point...or question if you will, relates to BG's admissions standards vs. U.Ill. If her alleged "weighted" GPA caused her NOT to get into Ill., how does she qualify for us? Weighted GPA's usually are when an A = 4.5, not the usual 4.0 etc. (using this as an example)... so what was wrong with her GPA to cause her the grief at Ill.?

She is a very good player and also a very nice young lady from a very good family as the press release reviews after their visit and her commitment to BG.

Go Falcons!

Some institutions go back and will drop the grades from all non-academic courses (or "core" courses). Not sure if Illinois does this or not. So the student that has A's in Band, Art, Theatre, and Weightlifting - those grades do not count and they look at English 1 -4, Math, Science, and all the "true academic" courses.

BGSU wants a 2.500 GPA and a 20 ACT Composite. The higher the GPA, the less importance put on the ACT/SAT scores (meaning a lower ACT can be admitted). The lower the GPA, the more importance placed on the test score (meaning a 20 will not get you in if you have a 2.0 GPA - you need around a 27 ACT at that point).

Before anyone says "Man, that's low." You should know the average incoming freshman at BGSU enrolling in Fall 2012 had a 3.27 GPA and a 22.26 ACT Composite. This has been pretty steady for the last 10-12 years as well.

[Stepping onto the soapbox]
I can't stand weighted GPA's. Parents clamor that their kid is disadvantaged by a weighted GPA's and they want their district to weight GPAs as well. But there is one problem - there is no common weighting. One district weighs courses an additional .10 while another does it .25, yet some districts give a whole point or two. Ridiculous.

Students won't take an Advanced Placement course because a grade of 'B' will hurt their GPA unless the course is weighted. Oh boo hoo. Tell the kid to take the class because it's the appropriate class for them to take. Don't be afraid to learn. If more students challenged themselves the senior year of high school, maybe a 4 year degree could be attained in 4 years.
[Stepping down]

The ACC has a rule that the student must meet the Admissions criteria of the institution to be able to be offered an athletic grant-in-aid (remember Chuck Amato's swipe at Akron a few years ago....hmmm where does he coach at now? Irony?). ACC institutions admissions standards are tougher than the NCAA eligibility requirements. I don't know if the Big Ten has such a conference rule or not.

A friend of mine is the Director of Admissions at a well known state-supported school in South Carolina and he was telling me that he has denied numerous out-of-state students with GPAs above a 3.500 and SAT scores above 1300 (Critical Reading and Math combined). He is denying these students and we would be giving them some nice scholarship money.

This player met the NCAA eligibility requirements so I have absolutely no concerns at all. She will be successful at BGSU if she utilizes the services available to her and her teammates, the same as any student-athlete.

Transfer,
Thanks for the updated info...just seemed a bit strange to me that Ill. rejected this kid while we took her... admittedly, we are still somewhat of an open admissions school (within reason of course), but I also agree that the weighted grades DO tend to mess up any school's standards. I recall (way back when) Garfield Hts. started granting weighted grades to kids taking Honors courses. Parents had put a lot of pressure on the schools to "recognize" their students' achievements in tougher than usual courses. But again, someone's 4.5 might be not as strong as someone else's 4.25, so confusion reigns as a result.

[transfer2BGSU]

Transfer,
Thanks for the updated info...just seemed a bit strange to me that Ill. rejected this kid while we took her... admittedly, we are still somewhat of an open admissions school (within reason of course), but I also agree that the weighted grades DO tend to mess up any school's standards. I recall (way back when) Garfield Hts. started granting weighted grades to kids taking Honors courses. Parents had put a lot of pressure on the schools to "recognize" their students' achievements in tougher than usual courses. But again, someone's 4.5 might be not as strong as someone else's 4.25, so confusion reigns as a result.

If I were the Education Czar for the day, I would -

1. Outlaw weighted grades

2. Institute the following grading scale -

A= 93-100
B= 85-92
C= 77-84
D= 70-76
F= 69 and below

3. Mandate a Minimum Admissions Requirement for admissions into the public universities

4 units of English
4 units of Mathematics (Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, and an additional class Trigonometry/Analytical Geometry, Pre-Calculus, Calculus, or Statistics)
4 units of Science (Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry, and an additional lab science Biology II, Chemistry II, A&P, Astronomy, Physics)
4 units of Social Studies (to include US History and American Government)
3 units of Foreign Language (must be of ONE foreign language and ASL does not count)
1 unit of Fine Arts
2 units of Physical Education (participation in Band, Cheerleading, and Athletics does not count)

Completion of the above would not guarantee you admission to a public university, only that your application would be reviewed for admission. Failure to complete the MAR would mean a student would need to enroll at a private institution (spend more $$$$) or enroll at the local area community college.

4. I would mandate an attendance policy. A student misses more than 10 days in one school year (without valid medical exception) would not be promoted to the next grade and would be required to repeat the entire year.

I would also drop the term "Excused" from Absence. You are either PRESENT or ABSENT. If you are not PRESENT, then you are ABSENT. It's not really that hard.

Guess I don't have to worry about becoming a superintendent in a school district anytime soon.

[mscarn]

and a close by rival of Brother Rice

?

[Flipper]

Man..he ain't a brother...