<p>Two things. One for cookie mom. You've answered a thread by me. Since my s only applied to a very very unreachable school EA, we are not on pins and needles. It would be more like a fun surprise if he got in. A real surprise. And as I said in the other thread, I would worry about losing him to the East Coast. It's probably much easier on me than on others on this site in that respect. </p>
<p>We try to take the perspective that if a school doesn't want my s, the school doesn't deserve my s. And I have talked to enough admission officers to know that 10 minutes after a kid decides where they are going, that school becomes their school.</p>
<p>To momsdream, your child must be much less supersticious than mine are. Neither d back when, or s now, will wear any college paraphenalia until they know one way or the other. D now lives in Cal clothes, but wouldn't touch them back when. I brought the s a tee-shirt home from Berkeley, just because his sister goes there, and he won't wear it. He believes it will bring bad luck.</p>
<p>Last year D had no problem wearing stuff with the names of the various schools to which she was applying. In fact, the T-shirt test was a major gauge of her interest in a school. After taking the tour, if she bought a T-shirt at the bookstore the school was very likely going to get an app from her.</p>
<p>However, once the acceptances were in and the final choice was made, all other schools' shirts promptly sank to the bottom of the drawer.</p>
<p>Actually UCMom, he's extremely superstitious. I bought these things without his knowledge. The ED decisions come out on Friday. This school is binding ED. So, if he gets in, this IS where he's going. If he gets in, I'm planning to give him these items after he reads the decison online. If he doesn't get in, we move full speed ahead on a Stanford app, which is Due 12/15 and the remainder of the apps due 1/1. </p>
<p>He's so superstitious that he has another Penn jersey draped over the chair in his room (it's been there since before he applied) . He refuses to even touch it until 12/10. He and his GF wanted to go ice skating tonight and decided not to go because it would mean going to the usual spot, Penn's rink, when they couldn't find another good rink available. They've both vowed not to set foot on campus until after 12/10.</p>
<p>It's not that I'm so confident that he'll get in. I just have a lot of faith in the power of positive thought. It has never failed me yet.</p>
<p>"However, once the acceptances were in and the final choice was made, all other schools' shirts promptly sank to the bottom of the drawer."</p>
<p>Maybe us CC parents need to arrange a "gear swap" once the decisions are made. We'll all sort our kids' gear and ship out any items related to schools that weren't chosen (for those items with tags removed).</p>
<p>Hi momsdream, I am superstitious too, but my daughter's decision won't be mailed until 12/15 and the last day to order for xmas delivery is 12/10, so I had no choice. On the other side of the coin, my son did not apply ED and was undecided between 3 schools until the last possible day (May 1). However, when attending the Admitted Students program at one of the schools he did not pick, he insisted on buying a $55 hoodie which he has not worn out of the house since. He insists that he cannot wear that sweatshirt at his college, and it is sitting in his closet at home :( Oh well, you can't win sometimes!</p>
<p>I sure hope whatever school is untimately chosen will at least send me a free window sticker for my car. I want something free!! :) I'll need the window stick to explain why I'm driving a 96 camry :)</p>
<p>I remember seeing this really beat up honda recently being driven around town with a my ED school sticker on it. I was like hmmmm... that's a sign.</p>
<p>momsdream - I enjoyed your descriptions of Penn. Thirty years ago it was my first choice school. I did all of the research myself and decided this was the place for me. After all of my apps were in, my mother asked me if I was really serious about Penn. She said that she in my father did not want me to go to school in Philadelphia (10 hours from home), and that Penn was in a very bad neighborhood.</p>
<p>I had plans to visit the school anyway because I knew a male student from my high school there and we had made arrangements for me to visit for a weekend. Over Christmas vacation he invited me over to his house where he proceeded to make the moves on me. That ended my plans to visit the school.</p>
<p>My parents tried to interest me in another good school closer to home. They sent for an application and took me to visit the campus. I really like the school so when the acceptances came in I ended up choosing the school I had been able to visit. To this day I have never seen Penn and always wonder what migh
t have been......</p>
<p>Cookiemom, I find the comments about Penn's neighborhood to be to my son's advantage. I think the "bad neighborhood" thing is blown out of proportion. Penn is big school with a WHOLE LOTTA campus...and it is adjacent to Drexel's campus....it's also adjacent to downtown Philly on the east side of the campus (with the hefty priced homes/condos that come with a downtown neighborhood). On two sides of Penn, West and South, you can hit an impoverished neighborhood if you walk far enough....but it's still not Philly's worst section by any stretch. Anyway, Penn is not in a bad neighborhood. But, it IS in a huge city and if you walk far enough in one of the two wrong directions...well. :) I would be comfortable saying that there's about a 10 block comfort zone once you leave the center of campus to the south or west. To the east you hit center city and to the north you hit Drexel U, the zoo, Fairmount Park and the river.</p>
<p>How sad that your "friend" ruined your chance to see the campus. Of all of the urban schools we've visited, this is the only one that I think is really well defined as a campus once you enter the campus zone...even when driving on the city streets. It's not mixed in with other stuff and the campus is huge. Today I noticed that as soon as I hit campus the traffic came to a crawl, visitors were walking around pointing and video taping everything, people were decked out in the gear,.......if you didn't have any idea where you were you would know this was someplace special. </p>
<p>I hope you'll get to visit someday. I also hope I'll have many new reasons to visit campus in the days ahead (fingers, toes and eyes crossed).</p>
<p>Awww, hearing all you parents makes me wonder how my own are doing...they're going to be gone until a few days after I hear from my ED school, and it sounds like the suspense is just as bad for them!</p>
<p>Coureur's comments were interesting in that a campus t-shirt (OR hoodie OR pj bottom OR cap OR shorts) were an indication of interest during college visits. I couldn't rightly tell because between D and younger D, I think they cleaned out each store!</p>
<p>And what a racket this is! Forty-five dollars for a Duke hoodie. Twenty for an embroidered BU Hockey cap. Don't look for steals & deals on campus apparel--hah--although I did find (for myself) a close-out on 2 t-shirts & 1 sweatshirt at Miami of Ohio for twenty bucks. But I should've known--D didn't even apply there...</p>
<p>We didn't buy anything at any of our college visits. ( well I did buy some bargain CD's)
after having to wear CITYYEAR emblazoned apparel for a year, my daughter didn't care to have names on things, especially colleges that she might or might not attend.
She is slowly beginning to wear words on her clothes though. She doesn't even have a college sweatshirt but she bought a few things through neighborhoodies, a teeshirt with the name of the street her college sits on and one that says "Olde Reed".</p>
<p>Momsdream said: 1. I was suprised at how well dressed the students were....girls in heels, nice slacks, designer tote bags (looked like a Burberry fashion show); guys in blazers, new jeans, turtlenecks - like a Polo ad.</p>
<p>So was my son, which is why he wouldnt apply (notwithstanding this would have been my wifes first choice, which she urged on him). Isnt this really the point its so important for the applicant to visit these schools. Each school has its own personality and set of qualities, which can sometime differ (significantly?) from the image presented by the view book. One on-campus visit is worth 1000 words (and the accompanying pictures, videos, DVDs, etc.).</p>
<p>You're all bringing back memories of two years ago for me with D2. On all of our visits to NYU, she absolutely refused to buy any NYU paraphernalia. When she got her E.D. acceptance on 12/13, it was too late to order a sweatshirt for Christmas delivery so I had a family member who works in the city run over to NYU and pick one up for me. When D opened it on Christmas morning, the smile on her face was worth the ridiculous price that I paid for the hoodie! Funny thing is, she tells me that very few NYU students wear any of the NYU-wear on campus. It seems that the market is geared to applicants! :)</p>
<p>it must be
I noticed at my daughters urban public high school many of the students wearing sweatshirts from Harvard, Yale, Penn, Air Force Academy, Stanford,Washington University...
They seem to be all ages, not just seniors. I wonder if those will be the schools that they will apply to in a few years or if they have some other connection to them?
I do notice students wearing REED sweatshirts on campus though. But my daughter is too cheap , the things she wears are the tshirts she got for "free" for freshman orientation and for working as Border Patrol during Renn Fayre. ( keeping Reedies in and neighbors ( high school students) out and safe.</p>
<p>Nervous and confused here, although Dizzy-son seems philosophical about it all.</p>
<p>Situation complicated by the recruited athlete side of it. Yes, I read the cautionary tale about Div. III. Haven't been able to find much about info about Div. I recruiting here. S was candid and upfront with all coaches recruiting him and made a first-choice ED decision based both on his strong attraction for the team and the school and a belief that there is support from the athletic side. He is well-qualified academically, so there are no issues there.</p>
<p>No guarantees, though, and reading about last year's "Yale Massacre" was a real eye-widener. For S, a deferral/rejection will not be just a matter of completing back-up applications, but having to start over again with the same coaches he effectively turned down when he made his ED bid, all of whom have moved on in their recruitment work.</p>
<p>Nerve-wracking. This is clearly only for the young and strong...</p>
<p>Hooray for rolling admissions schools. I realize that these are not always the very elites and that it's not an option for someone doing ED, but the knwoledge that you've been accepted at a school (that's high on the list) early in the process is a big relief (except for now waiting for honors decisions, etc).</p>