<p>The more people know my ds, the more they all say “he should be a politician” and I just wonder if that is a compliment that he should take seriously or if maybe he should just go into sales right now and skip college.</p>
<p>Rom - I tried to send you a private message, but I can’t tell if it went through. If you didn’t get a pm from me, could you please let me know?
Thanks!</p>
<p>D is stuck on 3, plus still plans to join a WL (and so far I am supporting her, as it would give her virtually everything the other 3 can give her, combined, so she doesn’t have to compromise). I myself waffle about the ups and downs of each school, so I can’t blame her.</p>
<p>As a parent I’m trying to figure out the one thing I would say that could shove her toward a decision. But really it’s completely subjective, and up to her. </p>
<p>I’m ready with what I’ll say if she confesses she just can’t decide, which school I think would be best to take a chance on now - a specialized program (actually two) that she can’t get anywhere else, a lot of personal attention and support, and a large scholarship. But we’re not there yet - there are things she likes about the other schools (and doesn’t like about this one), and I don’t want her to think I feel negatively about any of her options or am pushing her for my own purposes.</p>
<p>I played around with the College Pick site today, and found it very useful. I may suggest she use it. It seems best for comparing 2-3 schools; when I started adding some of her other acceptances for the heck of it, the numbers went all over the place, because you only rate 1-5 and there were a lot of ties.</p>
<p>Congrats Pepper03! Welcome to shore.</p>
<p>Amanda, you always crack me up. The conga line sounds like too much fun.</p>
<p>EmmyBet, maybe D is not making progress toward the decision because of the waitlist school. That option is not closed, not 100%, and it sounds like it might be hard to let go and pick one of the others.</p>
<p>Puma - got it and responded :)</p>
<p>Oregonianmom - Thanks, that was it! Amandak, I like yours too!</p>
<p>Speaking of Boston, we’re going later this week to an accepted students visit at Wentworth Institute of technology. We’ve never seen it, no one here has heard of it but it’s very affordable. We’ll see if we’re mistaking value for price. Opinions welcome.</p>
<p>Son is also full of indecision. I’ve been threatening son with a FB vote!</p>
<p>Kathiep- Wentworth is very urban near Northeastern and Museum of Fine Arts. Lots of dorms and students from both Wentworth and NU in the area. I have a friend whose S is graduating this year with a degree in architecture. He is going on to grad school. He loved his years there and actually spent a year in Germany studying. My D will be attending middle school not too far from there in the fall and I will end up driving by there every day.</p>
<p>pepper~Congrats on reaching a decision and making <em>The Deposit</em> to Northeastern a lot of happy kids at this school. Boston is a fabulous college town…GO HUSKYS</p>
<p>Waving to all</p>
<p>Amanda–you just made my night fun with laughter about your conga post. Glad I had finished sipping the beverage before reading :)</p>
<p>Amanda, I am chuckling and clinking my glass your your S’s. I really do suspect that we are looking at our kids through one particular microscope–SATs, ECs, etc etc. When the world at large will see them through regular eyes–and those eyes really appreciate a guy who can lead the conga.</p>
<p>Morning All</p>
<p>So fun to read recent posts about all of the visits and decision making. Very exciting and all looks and sounds like fun! Cheers to all disembarking onto new shores!</p>
<p>Have enjoyed getting onto the Shutterfly and will post a pic or two. Had a slew of things going on last two weeks and this week I feel like I am trying to tie up loose ends.</p>
<p>Biggest challenge, the fin aid package from the U…they had not even put in the corrected Profile info/changes etc. I am quite disappointed by the attitude of the young person I spoke with—I am wondering if any of those are work-study students without real working knowledge of tax law, federal statutes etc. One big error in the package should never have been made–If the U followed the federal policies and guidelines on it’s own fin aid web site! The girl was arguing with me about what I said I wrote on a page–I am holding the original faxed to them in October–and clearly see what is there. Very exasperating. Praying higher ups clean up the errors and mess so we actual get some numbers this week. Its the middle of APRIL.</p>
<p>I cannot imagine what this would be like if I was culling multiple pacakges. My hat is off to you parents who have had to compare pacakges and check for errors at each school. Its time consuming!</p>
<p>Perhaps we should arrange a CC Parents Conga line? I love it!</p>
<p>Great point madbean-now that he has made his choice I am starting to look at him as just my kid again-he looks so much better! :)</p>
<p>I know a woman whose son attends Wentworth-loves it and has gotten some good experience there. It is right near NEU so I like the area. ;)</p>
<p>fogfog I hope the person you talked to was a Work Study and not a full time employee. I will tell you my experience from dealing with financial issues over the years is very few people really have a working knowledge about the area they are dealing with-it’s ridiculous but true. I hope for your sake they get this cleared up ASAP.</p>
<p>Fogfog, not sure if you are dealing with a state U, but I have found them more underfunded/overwhelmed when it comes to paperwork than the privates, irrespective of size. All of the SUNYs lost at least onem protion, if not more, of D’s package (test scores, recs, etc.)</p>
<p>Hope all our midwest folks are keeping safe- aren’t a few of you from WI, too? Hang in there, better days are coming.</p>
<p>Congrats to Pepper’s son on getting off the boat. +++++ for those still on board.</p>
<p>Boychild’s prom was Saturday night. No pics to post. 
I’m hoping the parents who went to the pre-prom meet up at a park to take pictures will email them to the parents who didn’t go. </p>
<p>He had great time and even won a 22" Samsung HDTV. They had an after party/sleepover at one of the kids homes. My how times have changed - can’t imagine my parents letting me go to a co-ed sleepover and they fairly liberal. </p>
<p>It’s suppose to be 87 today!</p>
<p>Good morning - we had some crazy weather last night, but it’s much clearer today. I’ve developed intense “weather head” these past few years, and the barometer throws me for a loop, especially on days like yesterday.</p>
<p>Maybe it will clear in other ways, too!</p>
<p>What a nice group of people this is - I hope everyone has a very nice week. We counted this morning: 7 weeks until graduation. Seems like we’re middling compared to everyone. I know it will fly by.</p>
<p>Congrats on fun proms - ours is this Saturday. D’s BF’s mom called me - she was out shopping for corsages and wanted to know if she had the colors right. D’s dress is an absolute non-color, black with what I can only possibly call bronze. So I suggested she go with white. She’s picking up the boutonniere (had to look that up!), too, since my D is clueless about these things.</p>
<p>seattlemom - You may very well be right. I’ve considered putting my foot down and saying why don’t we just consider the WL a great compliment but move on. I wouldn’t say it’s all about the WL; she’s not someone hanging on that and hoping it “saves” her from another choice, if only for the reason that she hasn’t done the mini-app that it requires, and doesn’t talk about that school any more than about the others.</p>
<p>Her schools each have one very definite, and different, “bonus,” and if she could just decide which bonus matters more to her, she’d be golden. I’m guessing she’s going round and round and round with them … or maybe kind of knows which one she’ll pick (I’m guessing the same one I’ve alluded to) but just isn’t ready to say goodbye to the others yet. </p>
<p>This is where the College Pick gadget is nice - you assign priorities to various aspects (academics, location, etc.) and then score your schools. Maybe if she’s disappointed in her scores, she might find out she’s mistakenly prioritized her aspects; perhaps weighting location more, or adding a score for something simple like dorms or food (in her case I think campus layout could be very important, actually), will give her a lineup that finally looks right.</p>
<p>We all had a chat a few months ago about choosing colleges with lists and personal rankings, and I told the story about choosing a house, how when we “scored” the houses we looked at, the “best” house disappointed us: We had to add a new “I just like it better” score which made the outcome look much more accurate. So seeing an “objective” ranking sometimes helps you realize that either you need more subjective criteria, or you had a secret wish about how it would turn out after all.</p>
<p>I’ll actually have a few minutes with her after school today, so perhaps I’ll get a chance to talk to her about the WL, this choice tool, or whatever. I know she wants to get on the ball with this. I think some other things were hanging on her this weekend, and she got work done; this morning she seemed fresher, so I hope it will mean movement in the college choice direction, too.</p>
<p>If we’re relieved when they’re done, just think how relieved THEY feel!</p>
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<p>Really good point. Sort of kin to saying “flip a coin” and the teen says, “can we do 2 out of 3…then 3 out of 5…” you know they are leaning and maybe just need to confirm it.</p>
<p>Reminds me of the thread of Colleges You Crossed Off After Visiting…
Some teens cross schools off for what seem silly reasons, and yet at the same time, they now are needing to potential split hairs to choose between nice choices. </p>
<p>So if in the end when majors, programs and $, location, weather, airport access, meal plans etc etc are all weighed and measured…
somewhere there has to be decision…and perhaps the answer is “there is no bad/wrong choice”</p>
<p>Graduation here isn’t until June 14th so he just started 4th quarter today. He is really ready to move on but I told him it’s important to finish the right way. I can’t help but believe a week in Spain will help a bit! :)</p>
<p>His Senior Prom is not until the first weekend in June. I know he’ll be attending-no idea who the (un)lucky girl will be. He came home from school last week and told me he was asked to go to the Junior Prom-to which I replied “How are you going to pay for this?” He then told me (after dancing around the question) his new goal on to get invited to the Sophomore Semi-Formal for a clean sweep of the school spring dance season. This kid went to two dances all of middle school under extreme pressure from his two buddies those of you who have been on Shutterfly see him with repeatedly. Now there is no stopping him.</p>
<p>emmy I hadn’t seen your story about house shopping but I like it. My experience was once there was a certain threshold that he really needed academically the subjective parts were much harder to deal with because I couldn’t really help him there-that’s the part he had to do all on his own.</p>
<p>fogfog yes we got to that point where his final choice came down to two very different schools-either of which would have been a great choice.</p>
<p>Yes - all of D’s choices are good, which we have been telling her. I think there’s a chance that secretly she wishes we’d tell her there IS a best choice for some reason and solve all her problems. There are cost differentials, but among this group the higher cost schools have a good reason to be, and we can pay (did pay for her sister, so there’s even an equity issue, and in the past she’s expressed fear that somehow we wouldn’t do the same for her, which we’ve assured her isn’t true at all).</p>
<p>D1 goes to a school on a hill (yes, SlitheyTove, that school) and says now she NEVER wants to climb a hill several times a day ever again. I’m ready to put “no hills” on the criteria list and see how D2’s choices line up … honestly that “secret #1 school” I keep referring to would win, again.</p>
<p>In case you’re wondering, the secret #1 school does have some deficits in student body, fit, and location, so that’s why it’s not an obvious slam-dunk. Yet it’s also got the absolutely best transportation access …</p>
<p>I feel like D’s in the dinghy lashed to the SS Indecision. She’ll put down a deposit at the one accepted school (after we visit for the 1st time…yes…I know…I’m doing this backwards). And she’s on the WL at 3 schools so far (maybe 4 by the end of the week). Me and EmmyBet are in the same boat (or dinghy). The seasickness is worse the closer you are to the waves.</p>
<p>Congratulations to pepper’s son for his Northeastern pic. Lots of students in this thread are going to be in Boston next fall. Such a great town.</p>
<p>fog and emmy: We used a combination of your two plans in picking thre three houses we have lived in during our 22 years of marriage Pros/cons, gut feeling and a coin toss! The running joke with our kids is that we toss a coin to determine everything from where to go to dinner to what house to buy.</p>
<p>Today is the first day to pick dorm rooms at Mizzou. ROAR (Residents Online Access to Rooms) opens at 4 p.m. Our son and his roommate are armed and ready with “paw prints” and passwords–hoping for a suite-style room with a living room in the Math & Science living group. Both sets of parents have agreed to the slightly more expensive room since the boys have earned enough merit aid to more than cover tuition. Should be an interesting afternoon!</p>
<p>Happy spring to everyone. We are dog-sitting our older son’s two Corgis and I love watching them through my office window as they romp through the lush green grass and try to catch the squirrels that run up our maple trees!</p>