<p>I’ve posted a few times a while back, but now it looks like my D wants to seriously consider Alabama.</p>
<p>She is interested in theatre and we’d like to schedule a visit in conjunction with the school’s production of Big River in April when she’s out of school for Easter break. Before I schedule the campus visit via the online tool, I wanted to check with you experts. </p>
<p>I believe my D will qualify for the Honors program, and she might possibly qualify for National Merit Semi-Finalist (she scored just a few points below LA’s cutoff score last year…so she WILL be prepping for SAT all summer). She has an unweighted GPA of 4.0 in honors/gifted college prep courses and will take 7 APs by graduation, and got a 25 on the ACT freshman year with no prep.</p>
<p>Is it too early or expecting too much for her to visit with someone from honors program at this stage of the game? I’d also like for her to visit someone in the theatre department. Do I just use the online campus visit form or should I contact the recruiter for our area, Julian Katz and just ask him to coordinate all?? Again, just wasn’t sure if they do this for sophomores…</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s too early especially if you want her to get a head start on what UA “feels” like and what her course of study will entail.
I took DS2 (hs frosh) down to visit his brother a month ago since he had not been to UA. We scheduled an appt. with the professor of the Trombone performance major, just to get a feel for the department, info on the competitiveness of admissions etc. He was very helpful and did not seem at all to mind meeting with someone who might be three years out. He asked my son to keep in touch with him and offered some opportunities for events at UA that he would not have otherwise been included in, being OOS. Also some VERY helpful advice about the best way to prepare himself to participate at this high level should he choose the performance path… really only info we could have gotten by speaking with this man directly and asking specific questions.
I’m sure Jami Gates would be happy to sit down a give an overview of Honors. The standard UA tour would cover the basics, general info you should start out with.</p>
<p>So -
First I’d contact the theater person directly, find the email/phone on the theater webpage,
Schedule the standard UA tour online,
and call or email Jami in Honors for a meeting.</p>
<p>My older son said it wasn’t until he took his first college tour that he realized why he was working so hard in hs… really motivated him.</p>
<p>Thanks! I’ve booked the online tour and have emails in for the theatre/honors visits.</p>
<p>I think my D had an “aha” moment over the weekend. A few days earlier, she complained to me that “everything I do doesn’t have to be so it will look good on my resume/college application.”</p>
<p>Then I took pen to paper (ok, it was really an excel spreadsheet) and showed her the cost of instate vs. OOS costs…her eyes opened really wide and said, 'Ok I get it now…"</p>
<p>I have a S in engineering at an in-state school, so I’ve been trying to keep her focused on big picture, i.e. getting into good college with good merit aid rather than typical high school teen angst…</p>
<p>mom2them: My oldest son (who is in his second year at UA) did his first two college tours following his freshman year. The experience gave him the chance to see what sort of programs schools offer, what dorms look like and what opportunities are available. </p>
<p>So, your decision to visit when she is just a sophomore is a good one.</p>
<p>BTW, my youngest son is a HS freshman. He did a majority of those tours with his brother. But that won’t stop him from seeing some additional places over the next few years.</p>
<p>Just took sophomore D2 on her first college tours yesterday and it was really helpful for her to step foot on some campuses and have those vague theoretical concepts about a college become more concrete (i.e. size, urban v. suburban, etc.) We purposely kept her away from D1’s college search and she’s only been on the UA campus 3x (move in, parents weekend & sunday when we dropped off D1.) </p>
<p>One thing I will say is that the first couple of college visits have a bit of a learning curve. One of D2s comments yesterday was that one of the schools didn’t have much of a focus on the humanities; they talked a lot about pre law, pre med and the business school. I then pointed out that was because those were answers to questions people on the tour/in the info session asked & that she hadn’t asked any questions about humanities programs. Oh. The idea of being an active participant in the process hadn’t really clicked yet. But she knows for going forward :)</p>
<p>Well, we never made it to Alabama then while D was a sophomore, ended up cancelling it then. Was going to go in early summer, but that was right after tornadoes and felt it best to wait a while. We just went last week now that she is a junior.</p>
<p>Yes, it doesn’t hurt to go too early.</p>
<p>D really liked EVERYTHING about Alabama…the honors program, the campus, the dining, the dorms, the friendliness of everyone. It’s really a great place…</p>