<p>To those parents whose kids attend highly ranked LACs and universities, How are they doing? How do they like it so far? And what do you think they seem to really be enjoying about the school, from your point of view of course.</p>
<p>233 views, but no replies?</p>
<p>Dog days of Summer perhaps?</p>
<p>Older dd just finished her freshman year at Carleton. She loved the people probably most, followed by the classes/professors, and just the general silly, not take yourself too seriously- atmosphere including really fun/quirky events/traditions. However, even coming from an intense private school, she has found that it is not easy to get As and there is definitely a significant workload/expectation from professors (although that does vary quite a bit with the class/professor). She’s dealt fine with the weather, classwork, independence, being away from home, etc. It’s all good!</p>
<p>2nd dd will enter Pomona College in the fall. She will be closer to home and more familiar territory, which is good. She is looking forward to independence coupled with nice weather!</p>
<p>I am applying to carleton ed!!!</p>
<p>OK, I’ll bite.</p>
<p>Our son, from a smallish town with less than stellar schools just graduated from Duke. He had more of an adjustment than did classmates from highly competitive high schools, and he worked his behind off (engineering), but he loved his time there. What he enjoyed most was being surrounded by really smart, funny, interested and interesting people.</p>
<p>The internship and career opportunities were great, IMO.</p>
<p>My daughter just finished her first year at Wellesley. She loves it and considers herself fortunate to be a student there. She attended a fairly large inner-city public hs where if students graduate, many do not attend college or if they attend, most attend in-state public schools.</p>
<p>The workload has been very challenging - she says she studies 8-10 hours a day. She has managed to have a very good GPA, but most of the students there were straight A students in HS and Wellesley has grading restrictions (average grade in a class can’t be higher than a B+). The atmosphere is very collaborative - students push themselves, not compete with each other so much.</p>
<p>She loves being in the company of such talented young women, with such wonderful instructors, and enjoys the opportunites for enrichment in Boston. She often attends lectures at other schools. It’s a perfect atmosphere for her.</p>
<p>I just had my carleton interview, and it was fantastic. It just adds even more to all the reasons why I love that school. To the above poster whose daughter goes to wellesley, why did she choose that school over the others, and I am sure she had some other amazing options to choose from.</p>
<p>My oldest is at Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science. He came from a big suburban high school where he was never truly challenged. He’s excelled in college - Dean’s List every semester and he’s had two excellent internships in Silicon Valley. He works very hard and has become more of a computer nerd than ever, but has also found friends with similar interests to him - guys who play board and computer games and like Linux.</p>
<p>My younger child is a rising senior at Cornell. She applied ED and is still pleased with her choice, although she certainly doesn’t love every aspect of the place. </p>
<p>For those in the larger schools within Cornell, it is every bit as impersonal and non-nurturing as it is made out to be, but this is not an issue for my daughter because she prefers to be mostly anonymous and doesn’t like having her hand held. </p>
<p>Except for engineering students and pre-meds/pre-vets, Cornell is not the academic pressure cooker people think it is. My daughter finds Cornell to be easier than high school – but she went to an elite selective-admissions IB program and therefore had a far different high school experience than most people do. </p>
<p>I think what she likes best is the great group of compatible friends she has found on campus. The opportunity to take courses in applied areas, even though she is in the College of Arts and Sciences, has also been a plus. And (why not admit it?), the positive recognition that the Cornell name gets in all but the most extremely elite circles is a significant factor, and she fully appreciates that it’s something she will carry with her for the rest of her life. The weather has not been an issue and neither has the isolation, although the latter may become an irritant during the coming year when she needs to travel for job interviews.</p>
<p>One more plus: If you want to live in a single during your freshman year at Cornell, you probably can. My daughter did and loved it. It doesn’t isolate you because there are lots of people living in singles. On-campus housing for upperclassmen is not as good, though; there is a lot of competition for the nicer buildings. Most people move off campus sooner or later, which is not necessarily a negative thing if you have nice friends to share an apartment or house with.</p>
<p>S just finished freshman year at Dartmouth. Having graduated from a large, non-competitive public in a fairly rural southern town, he has found Dartmouth to be very challenging. He worked diligently on study skills and recently diagnosed learning disabilities, managing a little over a 3.0 for the year. Unfortunately, this is below average, which is driven home by the median course grades which appear on Dartmouth transcripts. He struggles somewhat with this, as he was always one of the top students throughout school.</p>
<p>He’s also struggled with homesickness, even though he’d always been very independent and eagerly spent considerable time away from home attending camps and educational programs as a teenager without incident. He’s not initially outgoing and is a non-drinker, which has made socializing discouraging for him, though I don’t think he tried very hard to find enjoyable company - he took what his floor offered for better or worse.</p>
<p>His professors ranged from very good to very bad, which surprised him. He felt he’d been misled about the promised world-class education.</p>
<p>Even so, he says he likes the school and wouldn’t consider not going back. He realizes he needs to push himself a little harder academically and socially.</p>
<p>What specifically does he not like about Dartmouth?^</p>
<p>Same as mafool, except the part about working her behind off. And she’s a rising junior.</p>
<p>FWIW she is an African American, “Christian”, non drinker, from California, and none of this has been a problem at Duke.</p>
<p>sstewart - I don’t think there’s any dislike. I think he’s having a hard time adjusting to the challenging workload, socializing, distance from home, and even climate. He took Calc at our local community college and made a pretty easy A. He took it at Dartmouth and struggled for a B-. He called one day and said they’d covered in class that day what he’d spent three weeks on at our community college. He’s not as prepared as he thought, even taking our school’s hardest classes, but is working to improve his study skills. </p>
<p>S is an old soul, too. The antics of teenagers are often disconcerting to him. He observed with alarm a group trash a bicycle and throw the pieces in the woods. He was torn over leaving a group of drunken friends who’d jumped in the river and ended up lifeguarding from the bank. He’s tried drinking, but does not particularly enjoy it. My H partied hearty in college and has tried to explain this rite of passage, but S isn’t buying. Before going to college, I think S associated these types of behaviors with our area, and felt intellectual teenagers, especially outside of the south would be more respectful and mature. </p>
<p>S loves live music - rock bands/garage bands -and there aren’t many venues around Hanover. It’s something he didn’t think about when researching colleges. Getting around is also a problem without a car - the bus runs on bankers hours so no weekends or nights. He’s taken a cab a few times.</p>
<p>He does like Dartmouth and chose it for the outdoor focus, even though he hasn’t taken advantage of the activities as much as he’d planned. He’s spent considerably more time studying than he ever thought would be necessary with lower than expected results. I think he’s got to learn how to study more efficiently and make the effort and time to have fun. All in all, most of S’s issues relate to his personality and adjusting to a new environment.</p>
<p>D just finished her freshman year at Stanford. She came from a all girl private high school in No California. She has had an amazing year. Taken classes from amazing professors along side amazing students. (She uses the word amazing a lot.) She has been able to explore the social and party scene and found where she is comfortable. Academically she did well but I think she is a bit disappointed that she didn’t get straight A’s. She says there is competition in the classrooms but it stays there. She has made a great group of friends and has some hilarious stories. Found a very flexible part-time job that they have told her she can have until she graduates. She can’t wait to go back. </p>
<p>She did say that she could study 24/7 and never feel like she has done enough. From my point of view, she doesn’t get enough sleep. She got a cold the week before finals during all three quarters. She says she can sleep after grad school.</p>
<p>My kid just finished his sophomore year at Amherst. He was an A student going in, is a B student now. He finds Amherst very challenging academically, and it’s been a bit of an adjustment to not be at the top of the class, but he loves the school and loves the friends he’s made there. He’d never want to be somewhere else.</p>
<p>I don’t think he’s studying excessively, it’s just when he was high-school aged he could get excellent grades without excessive studying, now he can’t. But he’s doing fine and he’s finding his own balance between studying, enjoying the friends he’s made and pursuing new interests… it’s his experience to have, after all.</p>
<p>He’s also a non-drinker, and Amherst is a pretty heavy-drinking school (aren’t they all?), but he made great friends his freshman year in the sub-free dorm and they continue to be his good friends still.</p>
<p>His close childhood friend is at Carleton. He has been struggling acadmically pretty badly, but is hanging in there. In his case I think it’s primarily because he got off on a bad foot with too much partying and not taking his opportunity there seriously enough… hopefully next year will go better for him. He loves it at Carleton though.</p>
<p>Our son finished freshman year at Williams. He loves it there and is thriving. That being said, he’s had to adjust to living on his own and managing his time, while in a freshman dorm where distractions are plentiful. I would say finding a balance has been a challenge. Sleeping and eating seem to be sacrificed so he can study or socialize. He’s had to find his friends and groups with common interests, and that takes time. Freshmen living away from home often test all the limits and that can make it difficult for those who have to live in the same dorm. Kids have to learn to speak up effectively, handle problems on their own, and determine how they will handle the drinking and drugs that pop up on all campuses. We realize it’s all part of maturing, but we are thankful that we’ve been able to visit now and then, to talk in person and discuss how things are going. Keeping in touch, being a sounding board, listening without judging are what we’ve tried to do as parents. Our role is changing this year, and we’ve been making adjustments. </p>
<p>Williams is wonderful for students who love the outdoors. The mountains are lovely. Our son is exploring the area with friends. He’s hiked around, gone swimming in the quarries, and he seems healthy and happy. He enjoys personal relationships with his professors and likes knowing many kids on campus. Williams is a good fit for him. The academics are challenging. We’ve been looking through papers and notebooks that came home after the first year, and there is no doubt that the workload is difficult. We’re happy with the school, feel it’s a good fit for our son, though we think the town could offer a bit more to students in terms of gathering places, and things to do. Perhaps some of the redevelopment on Spring Street will include bringing in a bit more to enhance the social life/night life in the area.</p>
<p>D1 is at Cornell, like Marian’s daughter. She went to a rigorous private school before Cornell. She was used to study very hard, but getting straight As. In college, she is studying very hard and not getting all As. As a matter of fact, in one of her majors (Math), she is getting mostly B+ with a a lot of hard work. She tells me that her school has stretched her mental capability.</p>
<p>Academic aside, she loves the big school atmosphere of Cornell. There is much to do outdoor if that’s what one is into. There is enough partying at fraternities that she doesn’t feel like she is missing out on night life in a big city. The school is so big, it is easy to find like minds. There are a lot of activities - concerts, lectures, recitals on campus, D1 doesn’t feel the need of getting away. She is one year from graduation, she is going to miss the school.</p>
<p>The down side of a big school is one needs to be proactive with the administration and professors. D1, coming from a private high school used to getting a lot of attention, is at an advantage. She often feels it’s her right to get certain service (attention) from the administration, and she will demand it. She also feels it’s her right to be able to meet with her professor, not just TA, and she will make appointments to see them. One of her math professors laughed at the fact that she is the only one who bothers to see him after class.</p>
<p>D2 is doing a summer program at Amherst now. She said the campus is beautiful and dorms are very nice. I think it may be a possibility when it comes time to apply to colleges.</p>
<p>D1 just graduated from Harvard; D2 will be a junior there next year. Both went to a rural, public HS in the small-town South which does not typically send graduates on to top schools. They’ve both loved Harvard, primarily for their peer group. Being in an environment in which everyone is incredibly talented, does amazing things, and perceives few limits on what they can achieve is not only a thrill, it rubs off on them in very empowering ways.</p>
<p>Any more info^?</p>