<p>Actually I’m not surprised by that. I’m sure Duke has art majors and music majors and all kinds of majors that aren’t going to use much math, and I’m not really sure that <em>everyone and her brother</em> needs calculus. BTW, I was a math major myself, so it’s not for lack of love of math on my part! But, I wasn’t scientifically inclined, and I took “rocks for jocks” types of science classes to fulfill my distribution requirements, so I guess it doesn’t surprise me that there would be the equivalent in math.</p>
<p>^
I think what Shrinkrap is implying is that a “remedial” class for 680 scorers and below says something about the caliber of student body/difficulty of the school.</p>
<p>I skipped the middle 8 or 9 pages, so maybe this has already been said- I think it is perfectly reasonable for parents to calibrate the level of sacrifice they are willing to make to match the level of effort the son or daughter is putting in… Frankly, I would be far more willing to pony up 50k a year if my offspring is working his/her butt off to produce excellent grades (even if they are not always achieving them). OTOH, I am not at all willing to give up vacations, dinners out, etc so that my child can play around with numerous ecs while getting D’s in classes.</p>
<p>In our own family, our son is getting about 35k worth of merit aid (from multiple sources). The biggest chunk requires that he maintain a gpa of 3.2. We have told him clearly that we will not replace that money if he loses it-- even though we can “afford” to if we were to elimenate vacations, etc. If his education isn’t important enough to him to maintain his scholarship, why should we sacrifice for it???</p>
<p>yes best of luck shrinkrap and in event you’re interested your post is now about 22nd in the list of most responses (other than those pointless cumulative types “parents of class of 2013” etc. don’t know about average wordcount/post, but i bet it’s up there in lights. btw one thing i seem to remember about the situation with uc, is that they are not doing many (if any) transfers from other 4 year systems. if your kid is tranfering from outside uc, it best be a school that only offers 2-year degrees (community colleges, etc) as uc system is impacted. and also btw, i remember uc davis mentioned. this school is seriously not easy to get into now. would be good if d could get happy at duke. finally, your work as a psychiatrist might better focus on prescription drugs than on talk for therapy given tendency to lose arguments with self (old joke). anyway, can we all say -30-</p>
<p>^^. I think she did a fine job of using her “talk therapy” skills, especially when she thanked everyone for their feedback (regardless of its efficacy). Look at how the tone of the posts changed in the last day or so. Calling people’s children spoiled twits doesn’t usually win too many arguments here.</p>
<p>As an aside, a 200 post thread is notable, but hardly huge around here. There have been plenty that go into the many hundreds, and several classics that went into the thousands. They sure take up a lot of bandwith.</p>
<p>*** Never knew, though, there was some list of the longest threads. Where is that list??</p>
<p>^^ That got me wondering, too, jym, and I just discovered something. If you click on the Views or Replies columns on the main page of the forum, it will sort the posts by # of views (or replies). You can sort up or down. But I don’t see Shrinkrap’s post as being # 22 - don’t know where toodleooo is seeing that. Still, it’s a neat feature. Maybe it’s # 22 overall, in all of the forums combined? Hm, gonna go check…</p>
<p>Cool, patsmom!!!
I never saw that option before. How’d you figure that out?? Up popped some oldie-goldie threads that I hadn’t thought about in ages, and I was surprised to see that the classic andison thread and her follow-up a year later, while having a gazillion views, didn’t have as many posts as I would have thought.</p>
<p>Thanks for pointing that out. </p>
<p>As an aside to the newer posters. There is, IMO, sort of an unwritten rule around here. Posters have been critical of each other, of people in the news, etc etc, but we usually draw the line at making derogatory comments about other poster’s kids. Please don’t do that, tootleoo. I do love your sn, btw.</p>
<p>Shrinkrap,
Can D take a semester off in Spring if grades are poor in the fall? I attended Duke a long time ago but nothing really changes…I had OK grades as a Freshman but lost a lot of Financial Aid my second year. Parents rightly asked … is leaving university with a mediocre performance at a top school , burdened with debt and a liberal arts degree worth it? So…I spent a semester at home at University of Florida to decide if Duke was worth it. I earned straigh A’s at Univ.Florida (5 classes for $440) and found the professors were great; BUT, like your daughter I was desperate to return to Duke because the students–hyper smart and competitive–were what I got out of Duke. I returned but found ways to save money (cheap study abroad, summer school, etc) and received decent but not stellar grades in (hold your breath) political science with a minor in MARXIST studies…hows that for a career killer’? My first job after Duke–Wendy’s and then grad school to eventually get a PhD in Economics. Regrets…NONE…Duke taught me how to compete, how to study, how to work my butt off, how to save money, how to appreciate a great novel and to write well. A semester off may do wonders for finances and an appreciation of what Duke offers.</p>
<p>As a graduate of UCD…with a degree in English…I don’t think equating UCD as some sort of fallback school for losers is a fair assessment…but whatever.</p>
<p>This is crazy, I know, but I’m posting an update.</p>
<p>Almost one year since D’s graduation, and doing quite a bit of writing, just not for pay. Commited to Americorp, with orientation this June. I think she would say Duke was a pretty big blow to her self esteem, and she might make a different choice today, but she is till a “Dukie”. </p>
<p>Financially, things are looking a lot better than they were in '09, and I am liking my “government job” way more than I anticipated. Private practice is hanging in there, but barely, and I anticipate in the near future, what I do will no longer be an option. Glad I had achance to try it. </p>
<p>Son is a sophmore in mech eng, got an appreciated “scholarship” (???) and is holding on, but it’s been a wild ride.</p>
<p>What a great update. That was fun reading. I love having old threads brought up and seeing whether I still agree with what I wrote four years ago. I’m surprised how many of us are still around.</p>
<p>Thanks for the update! I’m genuinely glad to hear your D made it to graduation. I hope that she enjoys her upcoming experience and successfully “launches” after that. I’m also glad to hear that you ended up liking the government job you took more than you expected.</p>