<p>StO has about 19 separate “honor” and “special interest” houses that are actual houses contiguous to campus and on the edges of campus. They also have separate suite dorms for upperclassmen</p>
<p>OK, the campus apartments and houses make more sense!</p>
<p>"OK, the campus apartments and houses make more sense! " if the goal is to mix closely with HS age kids…</p>
<p>I don’t get that. ^^ To me, the only difference is who owns the property - the school or the people who own the properties around town and rent them to the college students.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP–huh?? If they are in college they are college aged kids, sorry…The only “mixing” we did with freshman and sophomores was on sports teams…</p>
<p>The way the layout of campus is configured makes a difference too. Freshman yr, youngest lived in a dorm at one end of campus. The next year she lived in an apartment at the same end and it seemed difficult to stay involved. This year she is in a house which is actually closer to the middle of campus than her freshman dorm. It is working out much better for her than her situation last year. She also doesn’t have a car/ which wouldn’t matter anyway since there is extremely limited parking on campus.</p>
<p>I read the title of this thread and threw up in my mouth… just a little :(</p>
<p>^^^^
Thanks for sharing.</p>
<p>Warn posters not to have coffee in their mouthes before reading post # 47! LOL!!</p>
<p>(** lol in an “eww” kinda way…)</p>
<p>“This is extremely rare, I am not sure it is true at any school in our state as I have never heard of that type of billing.” </p>
<p>Several of the NESCAC schools bill that way. </p>
<p>“You need to redirect that search to Ohio. Miami is Miami of Ohio.”</p>
<p>There has to be several schools in Ohio where the kids live all four year on campus. Kenyon is one for instance. I’d think that some of the other school which are also in small towns like Gambier would.</p>
<p>Yes, Denison is a four year live in campus (only those attending from the local community don’t live on campus). And going back to the original post, I’m glad I moved from NY when I did.</p>
<p>I wanted my son exposed to college campuses (sp??), but he was not really at a place to “tour” and think about the future at an early age. But I wanted him to have more concrete thoughts about what to look for in a campus. So we signed our son up for summer camps and different programs from elementary through HS that took place on a college campus. Some were sports related, some were scholastic, and some were for fun. Some were residential, some were commuter. </p>
<p>What he learned was what a campus looked like, what the classrooms/ labs were like, what the food was like, and what dorms were like. He also met quite a few college professors and students at the various colleges. </p>
<p>This type of pre-college exposure really helped him to identify what he would /would not like about a college, and what a college campus felt like. </p>
<p>There are affordable programs out there, we had to look hard for them, but did find some. I believe that this type of exposure really helped my son to narrow down his list, and ultimately feel comfortable making his one school choice this past fall.</p>
<p>I took younger D on her sister’s college tour. Does that mean she had a college tour in 5th grade? ;)</p>
<p>Queen’s Mom–I’ll throw in the toddlers we had on our last tour (insert head smack smiliey) then too.</p>
<p>D attended a private school for her middle school years. During her first year (6th grade), I was gobsmacked to receive an invitation to a college planning meeting chaired by the full-time college counselor (and no, it wasn’t on the subject of financial planning, which actually would have made some sense at that juncture). That was one of a number of elements that convinced us to put her into the relative sanity of public high school.</p>
<p>Back on the subject of dorm life, both H and I lived all four years on campus, as did a vast majority of students. S did the same, and D, whose college doesn’t have enough housing for all the upperclassmen who want it, was excited to learn last week that she got into a suite-style dorm (4 singles, kitchen/lounge and bath) for her senior year (fourth year on campus). In my experience, most students appreciate the convenience of living on campus (nice to be able to head back to the dorm to study or take a nap or whatever on those days when there is one class at 10 and the next at 3) and not having to furnish a place, while the exceptions are those who need to live more cheaply (though that is sometimes a crapshoot) and those who want to be able to party freely on all days and at all hours. Fortunately, my kids don’t fall into either category.</p>
<p>D lived all 4 years in housing at NYU. I told her from the start that I felt strongly about this. I was not going to allow her to give up NYU housing in March, only to find out that she could not find a convenient and safe apartment in August.</p>
<p>My priority was to not have to worry about her getting home safely at night by herself. I wanted the amenities that dorms offered–24 hour security and free transportaion from campus facilities back to her dorm at any time.</p>
<p>Many of her friends moved to apartments scattered all over the 5 boroughs. They need to take subways late at night and the buildings usually do not have any security.</p>
<p>Perhaps we may have saved a few thousand dollars, but I would not have felt secure and it seemed silly to give up a Soho location to commute to Brooklyn.</p>
<p>@ SIEMOM–</p>
<p>I totally agree with you! There is a huge population of kids who haven’t had the pleasure/good fortune of being born into families where there are college diplomas/alma mater sweatshirts…they have never been on a college tour with an older sibling…</p>
<p>Many a student has no concept of what college is/why they should go until they become seniors in HS… and by that point, its too late… as they have not taken the required classes OR have the grades for admission… </p>
<p>These students would benefit greatly from the whole early bird mentality…</p>
<p>I think it’s a great idea, but coming from a different perspective. I am a first-generation student and in 9th grade assumed I would be finishing high school and doing a vocational training program or, at best, a 2-year associate’s degree and then going into the workforce. My parents said that college was “too long” to go to school and that I should focus on working, making money and religious education. I didn’t consider college until I was in 11th grade, simply because exactly zero people in my family had ever done more than take a few classes at a community college. Nobody. Not even a great-grandmother way far back.</p>
<p>I think for first-generation students and low-income students, getting to see a college early is a really good thing. It exposes them to a world they never knew - I had no idea college campuses could be so beautiful - and makes them excited for, and grasping for, something they either thought was out of their reach or never really thought about at all.</p>
<p>I never saw a college until my 12th grade year; one was a scholarship interview weekend and two were just regular visit day tours, at my top three choices, which were all local. My mother accompanied me, but she was very quiet the entire time - unlike her. She didn’t know how to help me choose or even what to say about the schools, especially since all three of them were very expensive. (Two of them gave good merit aid, though, and I ended up getting full tuition at one and a full scholarship to the other. I had VERY good high school counselors and was a National Achievement scholar. I didn’t even know what the PSAT WAS I got my scores back and had no idea what they meant, even though people kept hugging me and congratulating me.)</p>
<p>That’s why I want to start volunteering with the Urban League and other youth organizations for low-income students. I never knew anyone around me on a personal level with a college degree, but I think it would’ve been inspiring if I had. It was my teachers who encouraged me to start thinking about college because they took interest in me on a personal level, but if they hadn’t pushed, I wouldn’t be where I am. Early thinking is a blessing especially for low-income students or students from schools with few resources who may have to plan ahead in order to compete with students who come from schools with many AP and advanced classes and lots of ECs.</p>
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<p>I don’t find it odd at all. Where I went to school, plenty of seniors still lived in the dorms. Really, no one was in some tremendous rush to go set up an apartment. You could do that after college, when you had to. Not really sure what’s so preferable about apartment living, where you have to make your own meals, have more responsibilities, etc.</p>
<p>Juilett, what an insightful post, and what a good thing you are doing. I think that some of your points hit on some of the big issues related to both the race achievement gap, and the socioeconomic achievement gap.
If only all gc’s were as good as yours.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using CC</p>