@bechic Funny how this has dragged out but now I wish we had a bit more time. Ours also got into UNC Chapel Hill with honors and some research thing. Huge accomplishment for an OOS student apparently, cause it seems her HS counselors want her to go there for the feather in their cap. Great school, well respected, and not the weather of Boston for sure. Boston is certainly a special city and one of my favorites, I did a lot of work there a hundred years ago. Even though I was beyond college, I remember thinking then that it would be an amazing place to go to school. I love the idea of college being a time to live somewhere new (am from midwest myself), and have a love/hate relationship with CA (we too are Bay Area) and wonder if it is in the best interest of my kids to help them see alternatives to the madness of this area. But I feel that the student must have exhibited some keen interest in living elsewhere over a long period of time, or had experience there that draws them back, or they just simply 100% love the school. In our case, she did not, applying was just a whim so we are taking a pass on the east coast adventure for her. (And avoid the travel time and costs.)
@checksigner - is yours 100% (or close to that) on sticking with CS as a major? While both in Socal (you are local I believe) UCI and Chapman are totally different schools culture wise even though so close to each other. Also the whole private v public thing. Will yours be living on campus in your case or commuting in? Not sure how many are in CS at UCI, Chapman is a tiny program, I think he said 60 but that is across all four years, so about 15 in each year I believe. That has great aspects and not so great aspects as well. Same could be said about UCI however so yes, it is a quandary. No question, it will feel more personal at Chapman.
I think we are haunted a bit by a discussion we had with a student from Chapman at Preview day, funny how something so little can be so big. Even so, my student may choose Chapman in the end to be able to go away from home further than a few miles. We may call programs a tie (although I do believe SCU engineering is more marketable up here for sure) and she can just base decision on life experience. Tick tock tick tockā¦
@CADREAMIN - at this point it seems like he is 95% committed to CS but is thinking about a double major or minor in math. The Chapman program seems to make this very doable which is a plus. Will be staying on campus to get the ācollege experience.ā Have tried all sorts of bribery to change his mind since this adds quite a bit to yearly cost at both schools.
Our goal is to make a final decision by the end of this week. Then we will all breath a big sign of relief!
It is mostly about research but it is interesting to see how many undergraduate students are working on research directly with him. Is this typical at most schools?
Dr L said (because I asked this question directly) that there is approx 100 students in CS, Software Eng and CIS. For this year incoming freshman they accepted approx 200 CS majors of which probably he guessed 25-35 will commit to Chapman.
We also need to make a decision by the end of the week.
@checksigner seems like we met with Dr. L on the same day as we were a few hours ahead of you. We got the same stories and it made an impression on me because when he described himself it was like a spitting image of my sonās personality and he explained how Chapman really benefitted him. What was the impression of the other faculty you met with? We didnāt have a chance to hear from anyone else.
@bechic - Too funny! We must have just missed each other!
After a lot of thinking, rethinking, and praying weāve decided that student will be attending Chapman in the fall. Though the program is small we think personal attention from faculty and closeness of the program will offer the most opportunities inside and outside of school.
Glad to be done with this decision and looking forward to good things over the next 4 years. Best wishes to everyone else on finalizing their own decisions!
@checksigner Congratulations! My son continues to flip flop. Yesterday it was BU, today itās Chapman. Iām going to let him continue to sleep on it until time is up. Heās hung up on the lack of name (his perception) of Chapman which is the only thing holding him from saying a confident yes.
Our family attended the autism app jam at Chapman on Friday after being invited by Dr. L. It was amazing to see the student projects. There were teams from many local colleges but the Chapman students had the coolest stuff and ended up placing first. We got to talk with other administrators and faculty members too. I was a fun night and we walked away feeling like our student made the right decision for what he is looking for.
@CADREAMIN we flip flopped for almost a week since the visit but late last night came to a decision. Son will attend Chapman in the fall. In the end, itās most practical and best fit for him. Son knows this but also grieving the loss of a big name school. Heāll get over it once he meets new people and gets going in school. We heard stories from at least 4-5 current students instances at BU where they were not having a good experience and regretted their decision so that pretty much validated that we are making the right choice. Good luck. Maybe get to meet some of you at move in day.
Congrats @bechic! Ours decided on SCU over the weekend but flipping still. Our dilemma is the stronger program too close to home (and more money) or Chapman with some life experience of at least getting out of Norcal. In the last 24 hours even UNC Chapel Hill and UW were thrown back in, but I think that was a brief moment of insanity. Canāt see myself paying OOS for public schools. I absolutely get the angst of the letting go of big name and big adventure, there isnāt a do-over for the original college experience. They are lucky to have choices, sometimes it just makes it harder though! Good luck, will post final answer when I know.
Let us know what you decide @CADREAMIN and good luck! Talk about a moment of insanityā¦today on national decision day we get a vmail late in the afternoon that S got accepted off waitlist to LMU. They are giving us to Monday to decide. Initially, LMU was his second āfirstā choice after denial at SCU. But since he was waitlisted we never bothered to visit and do a deep dive with CS dept. There is no way to get that information by Monday so we will stick to the original Chapman decision. We liked Dr. L that much. Hope we are making the right choice. If you have any feedback on LMU CS let me know!
@checksigner and @bechic - Best to you all at Chapman. In the end, SCU won out, choosing program strength and Bay Area connections over adventure of living a few hours from home (will still do dorm there). She is in the Computer Science and Engineering program there, so she will get hw side and/or can consider other engineering disciplines as well. We suggested doing internships out of the area or study abroad - additions to make it more adventurous. After posting questions on here that went unreplied for over a year, it was fun seeing this forum come to life a little bit, they really should have an admissions person monitor questions here - many schools do. And thanks @Seattle_mom for your help and messages, if only she had been a direct admit at UW - then who knows how this would have turned out! Best to all of you and your students! Enjoy Bruxies for me now and then - yum! Had this written then saw your postā¦@bechic give me a second on LMUā¦
@bechic - I PMād you. Let me know if you didnāt get it, not sure if there is a threshold based on # of messages you have posted, but I think it will work.
Have you never been to LMU? It is 10 minutes from LAX o a hill overlooking Marina Del Rey area - Southwest Airlines may be in your immediate futureā¦hard to compete against Dr. L though, he is really special. Either one is great choice to have.
