<p>He was a two sport athlete--football in the fall and track (shot putter) in the spring. This meant that he couldn't do a semester abroad. After a lot of soul searching, he decided to give up his spring sport so he could do a semester abroad because that was really important to him. He missed the application deadline by something like two days as he was sorting all this out and even though this was way, way in advance of when he would have to go (I'm remembering 7 months), the college told him he was out of luck because he missed the deadline. He tried everything and it was still a no go so he never did get to study abroad and was crushed. This seemed pretty inflexible for such a small school. This is an incredibly nice, hard working, diligent kid so I was also crushed on his behalf. </p>
<p>The other comments were just about the substance of his classes. They seemed to take a 30,000 foot approach, which particularly bothered me in the sciences. At my big public, any kid taking freshman geology or freshman astronomy for example was assumed to be possibly going on to get a PhD in that subject so there was a lot of nuts and bolts to the teaching. He wasn't getting that--think astronomy as a physics course with lots advanced math versus astronomy as a PBS special with lots of great pictures and concepts. Again, just my impression from our discussions and I guess if you aren't going to get a PhD in the subject some students may prefer that big picture approach. It just wouldn't be my cup of tea.</p>
<p>One thing that I did like about Amherst (forgot to mention this in the visit report I just posted) is that a lot of the classes have a round table rather then rows of chairs facing a lectern. Maybe this is true of lots of smaller schools, but I thought it was a nice touch.</p>
<p>TheAnalyst--glad to see you're still on. I haven't read this whole thread but noticed your first post. I just wanted to say that (1) several friends have kids at University of South Carolina and they're all having wonderful experiences and (2) actuaries rock. Those of us who have been in the profession for a couple of decades are eager to help the newbies. If your son has any questions/needs any help, please have him contact me. (I'm in Virginia too.)</p>
<p>ingerp, thanks. If he gets into the program, I will definitely take you up on your offer. I have spent a fair amount of time with actuaries who do consulting work (mortality tables) for life care retirement communities. It seems interesting work to me.</p>
<p>We are touring University of West Virginia (WVU) on July 24th and James Madison (JMU) on the 25th. He will send applications into WVU and University of Colorado at Boulder as soon as they are available (August presumably) and then wait for his retest of the SAT in October to send apps into University of South Carolina, JMU and Virginia Tech. I'm hoping the fact that he doesn't need any aid will boost his chances at Boulder; at the same time I'm hoping we don't have to shell out the big bucks to send him there so don't really care if he gets in. He would be delighted to go there, but not heartbroken if he doesn't get in since his friends aren't headed that far away. My goal is to get another safety I like better than WVU in the bag early because I know we won't hear from Tech and JMU until April. USC is rolling so we will know sooner on them, but I don't want to jeopardize his acceptance by sending that app in until he retakes the SAT. I have been really torn between the advantages of applying early to USC versus hoping for a higher SAT and therefore waiting until late October. This is sooo complicated.</p>
<p>He is totally into his Star Wars books and is reading a lot now. He is also spending some time once a week going over the verbal sections on the SATs he took before and discussing each question in depth and doing the daily practice questions, so I am feeling cautiously hopeful. He absolutely realizes it's crunch time.</p>
<p>LMU was well received by both. I was a little surprised as in the past they have preferred the compact schools and have not liked schools they felt were sprawling. LMU is beautiful though & both are considering applying. Tour guide was nice and informative said he turned down UCLA and UCB for LMU as a bio major. Definately a button down feeling at LMU though the few students we saw represented some diversity.</p>
<p>Oxy: Was a "no go" for both in spite of a quirky, rumpled, and funny tour guide who did a great job and the beauty of the campus. One of my girls said that it was just another cool little school and that she preferred the cool little schools she's visited in Oregon.</p>
<p>just want to keep this thread going-S has been writing his essay-made some progress. Helped that he has a mom imposed deadline! How is everyone doing? We were asked if we would take an exchange student this 1st semester of senior year....said no, felt bad, but cannot imagine that on top of applications.</p>
<p>On our way home from a college tour last week, where D found her #1 choice (at last), she was so excited that I encouraged her to take that enthusiasm and start writing. We had a 7 hour car ride, so she took out a notepad and started writing. She actually tore through a first draft, read it to me, and I loved it! I told her she would thank me when fall rolled around and she was studying day and night and did not have this to worry about.</p>
<p>S2 started his Univ. of Colorado essay and is struggling with it, which surprises me a bit. He has always banged out papers really fast. I guess in the past, he didn't really care what grade he got but he actually cares about the outcome now so he is frozen. </p>
<p>It is a somewhat complex prompt about how the student lives the Colorado creed in their life (gives you the full creed about honor, respect, contributing to the community, etc.). So far I have not done any brainstorming with him since he hasn't asked and with this child, he probably won't ask. I did give him the "show don't tell" advice and that's it. </p>
<p>Sitting by doing nothing is really, really hard for me because I absolutely love to write. Give me a prompt and my fingers just itch to start writing. Writing is how I know what I think so I NEED it. I often write long winded responses on cc and then delete them because the purpose is simply to understand my own thoughts on the topic better. Telling myself I can't write how I feel about this prompt, even secretly for myself, is just painful. But I know I can't, so I am sitting on my hands and writing in my journal about my diet instead. I won't let myself even think about the prompt.</p>
<p>Does anybody else have this kind of problem?</p>
<p>D refuses to have anything to do with college applications and essays until we return from our Florida college road trip at the end of the month. </p>
<p>Two weeks ago I had her run to HS guidance department and have them fax over her transcript and score reports to Stockton (for early IDD). She told me that it's ridiculous that we are applying so early. I told her if she doesn't get it, it's one less school to scratch off her list of 10 (ore more).</p>
<p>Analyst, that made me laugh because I AM a writer and this is sooooo hard. She said MOM I AM WRITING EVERY WORD OF THIS ESSAY and I will respect that. I am itching to make changes, but won't. Maybe she will ask my advice, LOL????</p>
<p>Oh and you will hear "Mom I am the only one who is doing ANYTHING this summer" and I just respond "You will thank me in the fall". And she will. I want her to have all her essays done this summer. She is not working and we are doing a lot of traveling, so no excuses! I am sticking to my guns on this one! She goes to boarding school and I can see it now.......waiting until Christmas break......no no no!</p>
<p>252525, I'm glad to know I'm not alone. I was a publishing fixed income research analyst before I retired and loved the writing aspect of that job. One of the hardest things I did was sign off on subordinates' reports without rewriting anything, but I know I hit the roof if an editor took any stylistic liberties with my work.</p>
<p>However, my kids never want my advice on writing at all--substance or style. Most of their teachers seem to grade their writing based on technical aspects alone, so that is what my boys care about most and that is so missing the point, in my view. I always want to talk about what they are trying to say and why they are saying it. They just want to get the paper finished as quickly as possible.</p>
<p>With that said, each of my boys wrote a paper once that stood out for me as outstanding and each time the teachers lambasted their effort, so I guess in retrospect I'm glad teachers usually ignored the substance. The first time was a 6th grade graduation paper, which S1 used as an opportunity to compare his three years in private school to his three years in public school. The paper was completely balanced, with an equal number of good and bad comments on each, but our thin-skinned public school system went ballistic at every criticism leveled at them, refusing to even grade the paper! The second was when S2 described breaking his femur in a football game at the age of 11. I found his delivery to be powerful, but the teacher criticized it as too restrained. He didn't use the term restrained of course, but essentially he wanted more superlatives and fluff words. Over my dead body. I really will be happy when the last one gets out of high school.</p>
<p>I just sent my D to the beach with her best friend's family. They've gone back to the same place for years. D has to get one app in before the end of july if she wants a chance at decent housing, assuming she gets in, and she's paralyzed with the idea of the essay. She's loathe to reveal anything about herself, and she's not a strong writer, except for research/technical writing. (totally math all the way) I, too, am a writer, so I sent her with a notebook and gave her several vague open-ended, non complete phrases to write about. I told her not to worry about punctuation, grammar ... anything. Set the clock for half an hour; write anything and everything that comes to your brain stemming from that phrase ... I don't care if it's one long sentence. We're going for ideas. We'll see if she does it. I told her if she'd do this for this week, she'd get into writing about herself to the point it wouldn't seem like such a big deal when she actually has to write the essays. In fact, she'd be surprised at what "gems" she'll be able to pull from her "journaling." At least having AP Lang this past year has finally convinced the perfectionist in her that re-writes are okay and expected. She no longer expects that "perfect" first draft. </p>
<p>zebes, calling tonight and afraid to ask if she's been writing. Sigh ...</p>
<p>Went to visit D last week midway through her summer camp job. Took her a packet with essay prompts from the application supplements for a couple of her favorite schools, along with a compilation of good essay writing advice from CC. Stuck it all in a notebook so she'd have a place to jot down essay ideas, etc. She loved the notebook (I'm no dummy - it was very cute and her favorite color :) ), but I won't be surprised to find it unopened at the bottom of her trunk when she comes home next month. Hey, it was worth a try!</p>
<p>I am resisiting calling or texting to say "just wondered if you've had a chance to think about your essays....?"</p>
<p>Analyst, I was in investment research and wrote long summaries of data analysis. I also love creative writing. I am appalled at what they DO NOT teach our children these days. Our son is in a fabulous private school, just finished his freshman year, and wrote some of the worst essays I have ever read, full of grammatical and editorial errors. You'd think the teacher might move them along the learning curve during the year???? Didn't happen. D loves writing (takes after her mom here!) so getting her going hasn't been too terribly hard. Ignatius........wisdom teeth are on the agenda for Christmas break......how did it go?</p>
<p>I am running out of the house and will write later, but reach Richmond's post for our review of the school (awesome). So awesome, in fact, that we ditched going to St. Mary's. She has seen enough schools and loves four of them enough to go, so we turned around and came home! Richmond is a 7 hour drive and being a NC resident, I still have Chapel Hill on the list. Huge difference in $47K vs. $15K per year! But all in all, we loved everything about Richmond. More later!</p>
<p>Amen to having all the essays done by summer's end - D has to have her Davidson application completed by mid-September since her HS is nominating her for the Bryan Scholarship (student-athlete). She tends to think of things to write about while on her long runs, she just needs to be prodded into actually writing them down....</p>
<p>252525 - I'd love to hear more Richmond info as well...was going to be a financial strain for us to have her visit, but just found a $79 fare on AirTran woot woot, I'll just throw her on a plane...</p>
<p>252525: "Ignatius........wisdom teeth are on the agenda for Christmas break......how did it go?"
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Wisdom for d2 - not so bad. She slept most of the day Thursday, and has taken it easy (with the help of pain pills) since. Some swelling - she looks like she did when she was a toddler - you know, chubby cheeks ;).</p>
<p>Word of caution for the Christmas break wisdom teeth removal: do it as early as possible during the break as recovery time might be longer than expected. Older d had her teeth removed after Christmas, but was not 100% recovered when plunged back into her rigorous school schedule. She looked pale and drawn and just tired for at least two weeks after school started. I think her misery could have been averted had we had the teeth removed at the start of Christmas vacation.</p>
<p>Youngest d works 9 - 1 daily and yesterday got up, took another pain pill and told them she would come to work - later. She went from 1 -3 only and napped when she got home. Went to work today and plans to stay from 9 til 1, but I fully expect her to not do anything once she gets home. Definitely a school routine with homework would be rough.</p>