BS Class of 2021 Thread

@CTMom21 he thought if Olin-it’s 5 minutes from BS. But you have to take core classes at nearby colleges and well, it’s still in Mass, where he’d rather not stay.
Elon is like Swarthmore in that it only has engineering sciences, and not specific ABET majors. I suggested Virginia Tech but it’s too big, per DS. I’ll have him look at Richmond…we haven’t looked into that one.
I keep trying to get him to consider Cali but there’s a hard stop there.
We shall see. It will be an interesting application year, to be sure!

Yeah, Olin is a unique place and definitely limited (and cold!). A friend’s daughter attends and while it’s perfect for her, it’s definitely not for everyone.

And I didn’t realize SMS was right there — that’s a beautiful area around Olin/Babson IF you want to be near but not in a big city.

If he can handle mid Atlantic, there is Lafayette (where my son attends), Lehigh, and Bucknell.

^Those are actually on his list!!! Well, the two Ls are…If you don’t mind, PM me your thoughts on Lafayette!!!

Richmond does not offer a full engineering degree but offers dual degree programs with Columbia (with an extra year or 2) and UVA.

Thanks @Temperantia !

As an aside, DS2’s LDS faculty held a Zoom meeting the other night for all parents, and all the key administrators spoke. Their college office has the juniors working on their applications already — filling out the Common App, starting their personal statement and even supplemental essays — the idea being to use the time now while they can’t do visits to work on these basic pieces, and hopefully later they can do visits and focus on their lists. I know the plan is for DS1 to be doing the same later this spring, but he hasn’t done anything beyond a resume he had to do for his prefect application. Are any of your schools having the kids start applications yet?

That’s a good strategy @CTMom21 …ours has not yet said anything. I did have kiddo take a practice SAT-Math-2 last week and got my head handed to me after hearing that it may be put out to pasture next year…oh well!

We did watch a number of recent acceptance/rejection videos on YouTube this weekend- just to fan the flames and get someone motivated to use this precious time to study for the SAT!!! If kiddo spent half as much time studying SAT/ACT books instead of scrolling through social media!! Gosh - if only College Board or Princeton Review did “Tik Tok” posts that were dances…

Yeah, DS will certainly have time to do more ACT prep to try to improve his mediocre current scores (that is, if and when they start administering the tests again), but it will be a hard sell when virtually every school he’s pursuing was already test optional, and the last one (his favorite) is now optional for class of 2021. He was also planning to do some SAT subject tests in string subjects just to have some (hopefully) strong scores, but I’m not sure. We have a college office meeting tonight about the “modified” process, so we’ll see what the prospects are.

These kids may have a lot of time on their hands this summer, so I’m not quite done obsessing by over it yet!

@CTMom21 - let us know what they think about the SAT-II subject tests!

Subject tests are increasingly out of favor. Very few schools require them anymore (Georgetown? Who else?)

And that was before Covid19.

We had a CC weekly informational video today. They stressed not trying to control the uncontrollable (COVID19 fallout/changes). They also said there’s no point rushing things. So, they’re going to approach the application timeline like they’ve always done it. Right now they’re having kids think about who they’re going to ask for teacher recommendations and why, finalize their lists by attending virtual visits/info sessions, and continue to work on academics. They also said to start thinking about hie they’ll go about highlighting their applications to show how they are unique individuals.
They did suggest continuing AP studies, in case some of the universities will give them credit. They’ll keep us posted re subject tests and standardized (which we are glad are behind us). But they kept reminding us that everyone is in the same boat.
All in all, I was impressed with how they minimized the differences of this year and stressed the similarities to keep the kids calm and focused on things they could control.

We had another virtual session today. DS scratched the school, I think. He asked if he could apply abroad. Sigh.

@buuzn03 , I went to school abroad for the latter two years of university. It. It was definitely different than my SLAC experience and a very cool experience. Happy to share!

I’d be happy to hear @CTMom21 !! Please PM me. Both his dad and I support him as long as academics are strong and cost is reasonable. We just know nothing about it.

So we had a college meeting last night and it was helpful and all very positive. It sounds like the tone and focus were similar to what @buuzn03 described — very much about how the process will roll out this spring for juniors and what they will accomplish and how by school year end: putting together their resume, thinking about whom to ask to write recommendations and why, filling out the Common App, and writing the main essay. It was less about the list-building and testing except a little talk about all of the online visit resources and about how many more schools have gone test optional, at least for the 2021s.

@Golfgr8, on subject tests, the advice was to work with individual CCs based on the kid and expected schools, since although few schools require subject tests, many still recommend them, so it’s a more individualized decision.

People also asked if grading will to go P/F. So far the answer is not, but they will revisit in a few weeks once the faculty can get a better read on how distance learning is working out. It sounds like it may end up with some kind of hybrid approach as others have described.

It was helpful to have more detail on the spring road map so I don’t have to be wondering every day if DS should be doing something.

Hey - thanks @CTMom21 …hear that we just went to plain P/F - no high P’s.
Dealing with lots of tears this morning from Kiddo @ course selection and anxiety about how the transcript will “look” to AO’s. I keep reassuring Kiddo that everyone is in the same boat.

EVERYONE is in the same boat. And not just the US. The world has been affected. DS’s school keeps reiterating this and telling kids not to stress over things they can’t control. Even the college AOs before this pandemic said teacher recommendations and personal statements were more important than the other parts of the application. So here is where those items come in—when it became P/F, did you slack off and do the bare minimum for a P? Or did you continue to put forth the effort for an A? That’s what the school keeps stressing and that’s what we keep holding over our junior applying to college in the fall’s head!!!

Hugs to those that are stressing about it, but just remember- this is everyone’s story right now. That’s the realization that put this household at ease.

HELP ! Need advice on course selection.

Has anyone taken AP Bio and AP Calc and APUSH at the same time?

Thanks in advance…is it 5:00 yet. I need a cocktail!

Yes, what @buuzn03 said — everyone’s in the same boat, and everyone fully recognizes that. And the CCs also emphasized that admissions offices are sympathetic to the circumstances. It’s an opportunity for any kid to shine just through effort and attitude. And of course these kids are so fortunate, in terms of curriculum and college counseling, compared to kids who have less of both.

I’m sorry but I disagree. Everyone isn’t in the same boat. Kids that had a bad winter or fall term and needed spring to bring their GPA up are negatively affected by the move to P/F. Although recommendations may help with admissions, they won’t help when it comes to merit aid and the like as some colleges/universities use GPA cutoffs to determine who gets aid and how much.

In addition, your ability to participate in online classes varies based on your individual circumstances. While it may be noted that a kid was unable to attend live classes due to their location (or whatever), that note won’t equalize a glowing statement about another kid that showed up to every class and participated.

Further, although we keep hearing how the 21’s admissions process will be different, I find it very difficult to see how a school can compare / contrast individual circumstances in thousands of applications.

I’m sorry to be so cynical…I’m hoping for the best but trying to prepare for the worst.