<p>It’s a great plan, SDMom. It’s the one I wanted my son to follow, but I don’t think he will be.</p>
<p>Great plan SDMom. I’d have liked D to do something similar - fortunately, she wants to get the testing out of the way as well. Current plans are to take the PSAT in oct, followed by the SAT and ACT (hopefully before the end of the year, latest Jan). Sat IIs and AP exams will be in May. If she needs a retake of SAT I, she’ll have to do it in March/June or wait till fall of 2010.</p>
<p>My youngest (4th bio child, 7th of our blended family) is starting his junior year and we are just starting looking at schools for him. He likes chemistry and is thinking about chem eng.</p>
<p>Can someone give me a brief rundown of what is involved in recruiting and what our strategy should be? Our son is Varsity Tennis; 3.85 GPA, no SATs yet.</p>
<p>This might get you started [How</a> to Register Athletes with the NCAA Clearinghouse | eHow.com](<a href=“http://www.ehow.com/how_5277631_register-athletes-ncaa-clearinghouse.html]How”>http://www.ehow.com/how_5277631_register-athletes-ncaa-clearinghouse.html) but you should probably start your own thread. You’ll get lots of helpful suggestions.</p>
<p>Thanks, Kathiep. This is embarassing, but how do I start a thread?</p>
<p>Go back to here - [Parents</a> Forum - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/]Parents”>Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums) and look for the “new thread” button above the thread titles.</p>
<p>School starts tomorrow. Last week was a whirlwind east coast trip with D1 to Boston (Clark, Brandeis, Tufts), Philadelphia (Muhlenberg, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore) and Pittsburgh (U Pitt). Some schools D1 really liked, some she didn’t. I quietly patted myself on the back for picking a few winners for D1, schools that I put on the tour. In some ways, it’s almost a moot point what she did and didn’t like, since there’s still time for her to mulll it all over and change her mind before a final list. Not to mention the jiggernaut of her junior year bearing down, because this is the make or break year for her transcript. For now, we’ve learned that she really has no interest in women’s colleges and that she prefers a city environment (except when she doesn’t). She’d like to take a look at Pitzer (local, easy for us to see), and might be interested in seeing Macalester. I also want her to tour Santa Cruz as her UC safety; if she hates it, there’ll be no point in applying. Then she’d need to scramble to find another in-state public safety.</p>
<p>Too many parents on these tours were asking too many questions, especially about things that you can read on the school’s freaking website. I amused myself by seeing which guides sounded most like Valley Girls, regardless of gender or home town. “It’s, like, such a great place to be!” was all too typical. The Bryn Mawr guide was a notable incredibly well-spoken exception. Even D1 noticed, and commented to me that the guide wasn’t using “like” inappropriately. Clark’s tour guide was the runner-up. </p>
<p>We spent a lot of time checking out Hillels as well, except at Brandeis, where it would be like asking about the quality of the food at the Culinary Institute of America 
I’m going to put that all in a separate thread.</p>
<p>Domi555 - check out the Athletic Recruits forum, which is located under the College Admissions forum.</p>
<p>SlitheyTove - could you post your impressions of Clark, Brandeis and Tufts? I think Tufts might be a good one for D to see - have to convince her to take a look. Right now, all these fall into the “too close to home” category for her. Thanks.</p>
<p>SlitheyTove, As long as you are in the area, you may want to swing by UC Davis. If you D does not like UCSC, she may like Davis. A good number of the graduates from my D’s HS go there. Nice place comparable academics to UCSC, but a different envirnoment and setting. </p>
<p>My D had the same opinion of Women’s colleges, but she really liked Scripps. It had the advantage of being in the middle of other, coed colleges, but the added attraction of not having the male presence in the dorms. Seems to lend itself to a quieter existence. Its her #1 on her college list</p>
<p>arisamp, I don’t have my notes with me, so this is just what I remember off the cuff. Clark is in a gritty area, but there’s a pretty park in front of the campus with a duck pond. The students I asked for directions were friendly and polite. The campus had a lot of energy, maybe due to start of classes and gorgeous weather. There were 3 tour groups and about 15 prospective students total, so we had a smallish group. Our tour guide spent a lot of time talking about academics and research opportunities even starting your freshman year. She was an International Relations major, and had spent the previous summer doing research on issues of religion-inspired violence against women in India, which was her home country. Most impressively, she talked about a variety of departments, not just her own or even just in social sciences. We were in the Bio building looking at student research posters. “Frying Nemo” was one that got a lot of chuckles, though I can’t remember what it was about. The guide said that she often ran into a bio professor who really liked talking to tour groups. There seem to be a lot of activities on campus to keep students engaged. That coming Friday night there was going to be a performance by a phenomenal mentalist that D1 had seen perform at a local college, which gave us a good feeling . Our tour guide also talked a lot about the campus community and study abroad options, including one opportunity to work with a professor in Antarctica (very cool, so to speak ). When we talked to the Hillel director later, he was very forthright about the downsides of Clark, namely, that the area isn’t the greatest, and that it’s not a big college town a la Cambridge. I was a little put off by the tour guide’s comments about the resources that are available to help make the academic transition to writing college papers vs high school papers, because D1 is a highly capable student who attends a frighteningly rigorous high school. But the opportunities there seem wide-ranging enough to keep D1 engaged. Not a fancy campus, pretty but not flashy, e.g. gym workout space was small. D1 really, really liked the school, especially when I told her that her current stats would make her a highly likely admit. We have a family friend who is doing the 5th year option, and we’ll inquire about things like how often students go into Boston. </p>
<p>Next we went to Tufts, where school wasn’t yet in session. It’s a gorgous campus, very lush. That big green lawn took my breath away, coming as we did right from dry and parched and fire-stricken Southen California. We did a self-guided tour. A young woman, a senior, assuming D1 was an incoming frosh, asked if we were lost, and then talked to D1 for half an hour about the school and student life and going from a warm climate to living in snow (One thing I do like about Tufts is that they are one of the few schools in a snowbelt area that includes snowy pictures of campus in their promotional literature–truth in advertising 
). It’s definitely a more moneyed feel (the young woman, who’d grown up in a couple cities around the world, was carrying an Abercrombie shopping bag). We later stumbled over the campus sustainability office, which racked up more points in D1’s mind. They suggested we eat at a local eco-friendly burrito chain, which also made D1 happy. For these and other, ineffable reasons, D1 loved the school. She feels that it’s academic but not insanely so, she likes that it’s near Cambridge and Boston, and then there’s just some other gut feeling for her. It will be a reach, but it may inspire her to work hard this year. She’ll go to a local Tufts info session in a few weeks. </p>
<p>Brandeis visit started with an info session. We were late. I missed most of it hunting for parking. The room was packed with people squeezing in everywhere. D1 was already not impressed, whispering to me that it didn’t seem very academic, which shocked me. I have no idea how the session gave D1 that vibe, but I’m sure that the admissions office would be horrified to hear that reaction. D1 and I chuckled when the presenter said they had a study abroad on every continent…except for Antarctica. Point to Clark! The large group was self-divided into thirds to go off with the guides. Even though we picked the most clear-spoken, the groups were really too large to hear the guide easily. I thought the student body seemed diverse in terms of fashion, but D1 said it felt too Jewish, another shocker I wasn’t expecting from her. I was impressed by the liberal dorm policy on drinking (you can register to host wet parties if you are over 21, with serious penalties for under 21’s drinking, along with what looked like alcohol education), by the dual kosher/nonkosher dining facility, by the new buildings that have recently gone up, especially the gorgous and hopping with activity student center, including student employees holding up handlettered signs urging “Go to Brandeis!”. On the other hand, not a single kid asked a question–it was all parents asking. Tour guide was academically blinkered, referring everything back to his majors (creative writing and music). And the tour guide told us about the valet laundry service, where you drop off a duffle bag of dirty laundry and get it back washed and folded. It was the first day of classes, and already there were a heap of those duffles waiting to go out for laundry service. I could understand around finals, but at the start of the semester? Was there a plumbing breakdown, or something else that would allow me to feel charitably about the students using the service that early in the school year? </p>
<p>Bottom line for me, not speaking for D1, who is allowed to change her mind: all three schools seemed like fine choices. I personally liked Clark more than I expected, and now “get” the Colleges that Change Lives meme. I was underwhelmed by Brandeis, since I expected to like it more than I did. Tufts I don’t know enough about yet, but I was struck by D1’s enthusiasm. We will be full-pay, so Brandeis and Tufts would be bucks. Clark is a merit aid possibility. </p>
<p>kumitedad, D1 took a look at Davis a couple years ago. We have family in the area, and she’s seen the school several times. She does like it, and will apply. Two years ago, I would have regarded it as her safety. After last year’s admission bloodbath, I’m no longer so sanguine. I don’t think I’m allowed to mention women’s colleges any more, even Scripps. I’ve tried to promote Barnard as an easier-to-get-into option for Columbia, which D1 loves. Nothing doing. D1 did notice that there were men walking on the Bryn Mawr campus and in classes. She just wants a residential experience with them, as well.</p>
<p>Can I join in? My D is a junior, and I feel like we’re already behind in college prep. Like everyone else, we were inundated with letters, brochures and catalogs post-PLAN testing, and for the most part it’s all in a stack in D’s room, with email information in her College Spam folder. She is totally unsure of where she wants to attend college, other than definitely not wanting to go to our state flagship school because it’s too large. Too bad for me, since it’s a very well-regarded school and would save me big $$'s, but I want her to find a place she’s happy with (within reason - I’m encouraging her to focus on schools that provide some merit aid). I’m a little perturbed because it wasn’t until reading some postings on the CC site that I saw the recommendation that students take the SAT II’s right after they’ve completed their AP class/test in a particular subject. She took AP Euro as a sophomore, did well (and got a 5 on the AP test) but had no idea that she should have taken the SAT II at that time; no information about SAT II’s was provided by her school. Surprisingly, our high school has an excellent reputation, but now I’m concerned that they’re not as on top of things as I’d hoped. A rambling first message, but I’m glad to be here!</p>
<p>cooker, welcome and no need to worry. There’s no SAT II in European History. And congrats to your D on her excellent score!</p>
<p>Are my kids the last to start school? For the first time in years, D1 doesn’t have overwhelming complaints about her schedule. She’s apparently one of the few at her school who doesn’t. The counseling office was a madhouse. Classes are packed to the gills because of teacher cuts. There are usually 2 sections of AP Chem, only 1 is offered this year, and there are more students than chairs 
The art teacher quit a month ago, no idea when a new one will be hired, so ceramics class will be social hour/studying for now. Since D1 takes a foreign language class outside of her high school, she has an extra free period. She’s signed up for college peer counseling. Downside is supposed to be working with a difficult supervisor. D1 could switch into AP Environmental, but that would make 5 APs for the year, with corresponding stress.</p>
<p>SlitheyTove: Good thing your D is missing the craziness. When my S took an AP Comp Sci class the teacher quit mid first quarter, and the school had to make do to fill in. BTW I know what you mean about what constitutes safeties these days. When I went through this process for my S I got some rude shocks about the process so </p>
<p>Off to the second to last college visit now. Signed up for Preview Day at St Mary’s in Moraga. Looks really good and is #56 on the Forbes list for all colleges (!). And there is a free lunch. Works for me :)</p>
<p>So far, so good here on day three of school. Son lucked out with three of his classes only having 11 or 12 students in them - AP computer science, AP Euro and Honors English. Those are his hardest classes so I’m pleased.Nothing like summer homework to weed out the slackers. Bonus - he misses a day of gym every week for a computer lab and only has to make up tests.</p>
<p>D hates her AP English class. The teacher is intentionally vauge at explaining exactly what he wants on assignments, wanting to “encourage competion” among the students to figure it out and do the best job. What the heck??? I know that we describe our HS as a “competitive suburban high school” but I’ve never seen a teacher blatantly encourage the students to compete against each other.</p>
<p>D is a bit stressed out with her schedule and work. She said the classes are tough, but very interesting - that does make it better. Add in cross country running, she’s one exhausted kid at the end of the day. And it’s only week 2 of classes! Here’s hoping this will get better soon…</p>
<p>Classes here started August 20th, so S2 is already knee-deep in labs, papers and upcoming tests. Its tough to add an exhausing school sport on top of that! Because of some medical issues, S2 ended up quitting football, but is grateful for the extra time in the day he now has. He’s actually doing some SAT prep.</p>