<p>We haven’t had any virtual catering in awhile, so I’d like to offer:
*chocolate cherry bombs
*butterscotch cashew bars
*espresso blondies
*apricot squares</p>
<p>Decaf or regular to go with that?</p>
<p>mayhew, I hope with 22 visits that there are a handful of real prospects in there! Out of 11 visits so far, there are 3 that will be on D1’s final list. One is a safety, so there’s a sense of relief there. There are two distant schools I’d like her to visit, which we can rationalize since there would be merit money and since those schools like when applicants show them love. Another in-state safety, a few local schools, and then I think she’ll be done. Visits anywhere else can wait until after the admissions committes declare thumbs up or down.</p>
<p>I would love a butterscotch cashew bar with regular coffee, thank you very much!</p>
<p>Out of the 22 visited, I would say 10 or 11 of them are of real interest to D. They are a mix of urban and country, but all with a general size of 4,000 - 8,000 undergraduates. D will not apply to all of these favorites, and I will want her to round out her applications with a couple of “likelies/safeties” that are not on this list of current favorites. Of course, all of her favorites are made up of schools that have some of the lowest acceptance rates out there - she likes a challenge!! We shall see…</p>
<p>Well I will be happy to contribute a triffle. Regular coffee, I am working on S’s college visit list and trying to work out logistics and really need the caffine right now.</p>
<p>Our D was really shaken by her recent PSAT score results which were 15 points worse than her soph yr. She thought she had a chance at NMSF based on her soph yr scores, and now is below commended level, so I understand her dissapointment. I’m afraid she is getting herself overly worked up about the March SAT though. She just asked to enroll in the prep class at her school. Her dad and I aren’t convinced that the prep class is worthwhile, but I don’t want her to feel any less confident than she already does. She is convinced that since all her peers are taking the class that she also should also enroll. I posted previously that she has alway been an excellent tester and her PSAT was probably just a fluke, and unlike most of the cc’ers here, I don’t think a PSAT in 190s is THAT bad. Her grades are excellent, she attends a top public HS, and has decent ecs. I just wrote the check for her to enroll in the prep class, but I would have liked to have convinced her that it isn’t necessary instead.</p>
<p>Husky,
Same thing happened here. S did great on his psat soph year and I had my fingers crossed for NMSF. But, we live in MA and the cut off is high so I would have been happy if he even came close. Instead his PSAT score dropped a few points. We get the test questions back later this month, so we can review what went happened. </p>
<p>S is a good test taker, in general, and he has taken Russian Math for years. He took the SAT last spring and his CR score was very good and math was OK so we decided not to take advantage of the free Princeton review class they offer at his school. We will do some practice tests before April, go over questions he gets wrong and also do the question of the day from ERB. We take the xiggi approach to studying for the SAT, do problems, review figure out why you got them wrong. Unlike your D my S stresses over nothing that has to do with school, academics or college. Wish he were a little more like your D.</p>
<p>The bottom line the NMSF doesn’t get you all that much more scholarship money to make it worthwhile to stress over, but it is a nice prestige award. But, everything helps when it comes to paying for college. I am sorry your D did not do as well as you hoped.</p>
<p>I’m also trying to figure out college visits for this Spring for my son. Too many colleges that look appealing! Our school is very good about letting kids go for college visits as excused absences but my son does not like to miss classes and he does have a hard course load this year. The colleges that he mostly wants to visit are all driveable, but in the North and in three different states. The colleges that I think he should at least look at because they are affordable and look like great colleges are in the South. We have four days in April if we don’t do Easter here to see something. Time for a sit down meeting with son and a map!</p>
<p>After a not-so-great SAT score, he’s decided to do a school run SAT prep class and take the March SAT. I was hoping just doing the Xiggi test prep would work, but he thinks the more disciplined setting of a class would be better. His friends that have taken the test prep have done pretty well, so he may be right.</p>
<p>I am so impressed with those of you that have made college visits. I am having a difficult time getting my D to focus on her college search. One problem is that none of her friends are moving forward in that regard either; strange, because they are all high-achieving kids who will probably wind up at great schools eventually - but they aren’t doing anything to advance that goal yet. I’ve come up with a short list that I think may appeal to D (smaller schools with some merit potential - a requirement for us since we won’t qualify for need-based aid but I can’t afford to pay full freight, and D definitely does not want to go to our state flagship b/c it’s too big). She has a school trip over spring break unfortunately (or unfortunately for college visit purposes - it’s an AP European History class trip to Italy, so I’m glad she’s going) so that limits our available time. It looks like we’ll wind up doing some trips over the summer, which is somewhat unfortunate because she won’t be able to see schools while they are in session.</p>
<p>With son (class of '09) we were only able to squeeze in two visits during the school year. The rest were done during the summer. It was fine. You visit when you can visit. A visit during the summer certainly beats no visits at all. All of the schools to which Son applied had EA or rolling admissions, so he had all 8 acceptances in hand before Christmas. Over break he narrowed down the 8 to 4, and we made second visits to those schools.</p>
<p>We are like you - need merit aid because we won’t qualify for need based but can’t pay full price for a private or OOS school. D (my '11) wants to apply to some schools that are pretty far away. I told her we’ll visit only if she gets accepted with a merit package that makes it possible for her to attend.</p>
<p>Count us in on those wanting to plan out college visits over the spring. D had done some research, had a list of colleges. But these need to be revisited now that she has her PSAT and SAT scores. I asked her to do this over the break - but of course, not much got done. We are in the northeast and I know she does like a couple of schools close by - so perhaps we’ll just drive down to see a few of them over Feb vacation.</p>
<p>UMass Amherst might end up on her list as a potential safety school. But she hasn’t been to see it - so we might do that in Feb. Folks familiar with this area - is it a good plan to try to stay out in western ma for one day and hit a couple of the other schools - Mt Holyoke, Williams, Amherst while we are there? She’s not interested in girls only schools - so that rules out Smith.</p>
<p>IMHO, the way to get the kids interested in visiting the colleges is to simply pick a couple to begin with that you think will interest them and just go. None of my three kids were the ones that started off wanting to visit colleges but all of them liked it and had real opinions and preferences once we started. Living in the NE we have literally dozens of colleges within a two hour drive and it’s not a bad way to spend a Saturday visiting or to take a day off of school - if I could convince son of that. We are also in the merit aid or bust camp.</p>
<p>Visiting colleges can also be a wonderful motivator for working harder or keeping good grades up. My daughter was a good student but visiting a school that she thought was a match and finding out it was a reach made her turn her B’s into A’s.</p>
<p>We’re also looking for merit aid for OOS publics and privates. Our in-state isn’t a bad option, but it’s less than an hour from home which makes it less desirable for D2. With PSAT and SAT scores in, I’m starting to seriously look at a range of schools she might be interested in, the spreadsheet is growing! While D2 doesn’t have quite the level of qualifications of D1, she’s looking for a different college experience and seems to be open to a wider range of schools, so I’m hoping she can put together a list that gives her some good choices come spring of 2011.</p>
<p>We took some college visits with D1, so D2 is better informed but also not so gung-ho. However I’m hoping to hit a couple of colleges over spring break this year. She might have opportunities to do some fly-ins next fall and spring as well. Unfortunately our spring break is right before decisions, so we’ll only be able to do accepted school visits for early admissions.</p>
<p>We did some college visits in March of last yr and will do some again this March…</p>
<p>The trip was very helpful as it took the abstract idea of what a college and campus etc could be and put flesh on those bones so to speak…
a few schools I thought our student would like, were no’s
and a few were surprise yes, I could go here’s…</p>
<p>December ACT scores were a mixed bag, composite was a couple points short of what D1 was aiming for. I told her that private schools will superscore, which cheered her up. Then I told her to go do her chem homework, which undid all the cheering :)</p>
<p>I really wish that there were summer ACT and SAT testing dates. </p>
<p>The holiday issue of the New Yorker had a lengthy article about budget protests at Berkeley and the general state of the UCs. In 1990, state funding per UC student was around $16-17k a student per year in current dollars. It’s down to around $7-8k a year. It breaks my heart to see what’s happened to our crown jewel. I told the spouse, who thinks I obsess about this college thing a bit too much, that if it wasn’t for my obsessing, we’d have absolutely no idea about any other alternatives.</p>
<p>No visits for us. It’s just too expensive. S will probably apply for some fly-ins next fall. He did attend a summer program at our State U this last summer so feel like he knows it well now. He loved having access to its library. Unfortunately he is not at all impressed by its program in his prospective major, computer science.</p>
<p>I have no idea what his final list will be. FA is the driving force for us, and we learned we just couldn’t predict what the outcome would be. He will definitely apply to some reach schools with great FA, but we’re also trying to look for schools with good comp sci departments which would be delighted to get apps from a kid in a rural, underrepresented state.</p>
<p>so glad to have found this thread. My D is a member of the class of 2011. We started looking at colleges in her sophomore yr. (People thought I was crazy). She is so busy that I felt we needed to start early to fit them all in. Last year we just looked at the SUNY colleges. We ruled some in and ruled some out. So far this year we have looked at 3 private schools. Unfortunately I think due to her extracurricular schedule and going on a class student exchange to Costa Rica over spring break, and her job out of town at a sleep away camp all summer, the other schools are going to be a whirlwind the last week in August! then hopefully a couple of day trips for the remaining closer ones in the fall.
My d also did worse on the PSAT than she did in sophomore year. I had been hoping for a commended scholar based on her soph score, but alas…it wasn’t to be! Now she is trying to fit in studying to take the SAT later this month. Not much studying has been done though, so it will be interesting to see how she does!
I look forward to going through this process for the next year and a half with all of you!</p>
<p>It’s fun to see this thread ramping up! It had languished for a long time with infrequent posts, but with PSAT scores in and the need for college visits, things are hopping. S wants OUT of frigid New England, so we’re headed to Florida in February to see 4 schools. (nevermind that it was 30 degrees in Tampa today). Of course that’s the most expensive time to visit, with flights at a premium, but April is baseball season so it has to be now. S is also taking the January SAT, so of course he was doing ACT practice test this weekend!</p>
<p>Yes, I am worried about it. I checked the websites of all the colleges that we will be visiting (western PA, Ohio, Indiana) and am planning around their first days of classes. Wish we could visit another time, but with D’s schedule it just isn’t possible.</p>
Out of 11 visits so far, there are 3 that will be on D1’s final list. One is a safety, so there’s a sense of relief there. There are two distant schools I’d like her to visit, which we can rationalize since there would be merit money and since those schools like when applicants show them love. Another in-state safety, a few local schools, and then I think she’ll be done. Visits anywhere else can wait until after the admissions committes declare thumbs up or down.</p>
I told the spouse, who thinks I obsess about this college thing a bit too much, that if it wasn’t for my obsessing, we’d have absolutely no idea about any other alternatives.</p>