<p>Had a nice talk with my D last night. She really is doing great. It’ll be a tough journey through these next few weeks with the APs, some auditions for next year, end of the year concerts, etc. But she’s holding up. </p>
<p>Found out she does NOT want to apply to two schools that were on her list. She is still happy with her safeties, though. She’s trying not to go to schools where people she knows are going, but that will be unavoidable with the in-state publics, she knows. I guess we’ll be doing a few more visits.</p>
<p>Well, well, well, last night for the first time D talked about studying for her AP exams. This being my second child to go through this, I’ve been totally chill about it. Glad she plans to prepare a bit.</p>
<p>I hope you don’t mind if I share what I think is a very good AP strategy (not designed for those brilliant kids who get 5s on ever test.) Look at the AP credit chart for a few of the leading contenders on your student’s list, to get an idea of what, if anything, they give credit for. You will probably find that the elite schools give no credit, the lower tier states give a lot and everyone else falls between. I realized that even though a 3 is passing, not a lot of schools give credit for 3s…the student needs a 4 or 5.</p>
<p>So I told Son to only prepare for the tests on which he thought he could get a 4 or 5 and just wing the tests in the classes in which he had a lot of trouble. Sort of counterintuitive, but it works. Look at it this way…five scores of 3 could yield 0 college credits, wheras 3 scores of 2 and two scores of 4 yield two classes of college credit.</p>
<p>missypie, we did something similar last week with LuckyBoy. I showed him the AP credit chart for the local flagship (where he must apply, family rule) and a few others. He was pleased to see that every school accepts 4s and 5s on the exams he’s taking this year (Calc AB, Physics C Mech, Eng Lang, USH). After that, he hasn’t complained ONCE about the workload, the practice tests in/out of class, and extra studying I’m pretty confident he’ll get at least 4s on most, physics being the exam of concern.</p>
<p>I’m getting MYSELF stressed out trying to narrow down The Big List wrt to merit aid and decent need aid. I <em>think</em> our EFC will be $18kish, but have no clue how the Profile schools will determine need. The amount we will have to pay is a huge consideration. I’ve been reading the individual school forums for schools on The Big List trying to determine if accepted students received the aid they expected or if “gapping” was common. Or if loans were used to “meet” need…</p>
<p>Is there a list of schools known for gapping? I’d like to eliminate those right away, except if they are also know for good merit aid based on objective measures (as like UPitt’s over 1400, top 5% of class etc measures).</p>
<p>Come on, I need something to obsess over while painting old deck furniture today :D</p>
<p>And in non-college news, S asked us last night if we’d host the pre-prom for a group of band friends and their dates! We live the closest to the prom location. I hope the guys agree to have it here, then I get to see all the couples dressed up :)</p>
<p>Are the prom-goers traveling by limo? If so, have some adult double-check the arrangements. Last year, the limo went to the house of the kid who booked the limo (way way way out in the country) instead of the place where everyone was meeting. The idyllic pre-prom meet and pix turned into havoc.</p>
<p>Missypie: Concerning what you said here: “I hope you don’t mind if I share what I think is a very good AP strategy (not designed for those brilliant kids who get 5s on ever test.) Look at the AP credit chart for a few of the leading contenders on your student’s list, to get an idea of what, if anything, they give credit for. You will probably find that the elite schools give no credit, the lower tier states give a lot and everyone else falls between. I realized that even though a 3 is passing, not a lot of schools give credit for 3s…the student needs a 4 or 5.”</p>
<p>Thanks for posting this tip. I looked up the college we are visiting on Monday (our first campus visit!) and found the AP chart. Son is a junior and only had one AP test last year (didn’t do well on it) but has two coming up in two weeks. He should do better on those.</p>
<p>The school I looked up, for some AP credits, it gives a specific grade – for example, a grade of 4 for chemistry gives you 3 hours credit for Chemistry 1305. But for some, it’s a range – for example, an AP grade of “3-5” on music theory gives you 3 hours credit for Music 1300. So, I guess that just means some courses have specific AP requirements and others could be a range. </p>
<p>By the way, I’ve figured out that you must be a Texas resident; the school we’re headed to on Monday is St. Edward’s. We live very nearby.</p>
<p>The strategy works perfectly for senior year AP exams, when you have already decided what school you will attend. Of course, I don’t know how seniors who are attending schools that give no AP credit ever force themselves to prepare at all!</p>
<p>My husband and son visited St. Edwards. It didn’t make it into the top 4, but I don’t recall why not.</p>
<p>missypie, thanks for the AP strategy tip. I suspect it’ll be used more for senior year than junior year for D1.</p>
<p>D1 was telling me last night about a former student at her high school who was a super-amazing student (went, in fact, to Deep Springs). SuperStudent’s AP scores were, uhm, a real range: 5’s on the humanities subjects, and 3’s on the sciences, with the exception of one science class (not a senior year one) where SS received a 1. SS, incidentally, was accepted to all the super-amazing places. </p>
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<p>I love Davis, both the town and the school. If it wasn’t for the awful summer, it would be perfect. Also, I adore the phenomenal tortillas at Pedrick’s, the farm stand on the west edge of Davis. I’ve told my kids that one of them has to go to Davis just so I have an excuse to keep restocking the freezer with those tortillas.</p>
<p>Those Common App essay prompts are so incredibly dreary. D1 uses essay prompts as a screening mechanism for where she’ll apply: if the topic excites her, she figures that the school is more likely to be a good fit. If the topic is something where she knows she won’t get motivated until the 11th hour, then the school is unlikely to make it onto her final list, because she knows she won’t make the best effort on that school’s app.</p>
<p>It just occured to me that the Common App is the equivalent of a successful chain store. It’s a known, comfortable quality, but it makes it much more difficult for the mom and pop approach (meaning, quirky individual essay topics). No wonder the number of applicants to U of Chicago went through the roof this year.</p>
<p>I’m not sure I agree that essay prompts define how creative or interesting a school is. Remember back in our day before the Common App, when you had to do each application from scratch. The Common App was supposed to streamline that process, and the prompts are fine, in my opinion. </p>
<p>My D1 was an applicant the first year Tufts famously started their bunch of mini essays. I didn’t think it made all that much difference - some were only 100 words, I think, and really all of the different “quirky” ones just showed the same stuff repeatedly, but kept her up an awful lot of nights. I’m grateful for the Common App, and for the ability for schools to have supplements - unless they end up becoming an entirely new, large individual application. </p>
<p>This isn’t all that different from the conversations about why schools decide to want different tests, different amounts of scores, whether they superscore, etc. Some of us want schools to be consistent; some of us want schools to be distinctive. It probably all comes out in the wash eventually. But it’s an awful lot of work, sometimes unnecessary, for already very busy and stressed kids in the meantime.</p>
<p>In an effort to try and whittle down my/S’s long list of prospective schools, S mentioned to me he didn’t want any CA schools on his list (currently have University of San Diego and Santa Clara University) because of earthquakes. I was kind of taken back by my 6’2" football playing S saying he was afraid of earthquakes. He doesn’t mind visiting, he just doesn’t want to live there for any length of time.</p>
<p>You sound very good-humored about this, mamom (and your screen name and previous posts imply you’re not from CA and needing them for instate safeties). I’m not poking fun at you, but it brings up an important point.</p>
<p>I know kids can be fickle, and maybe they seem arbitrary sometimes, but I think this is a valid opinion. These are the 3 best pieces of advice in college choice we got. We almost haven’t needed any other:</p>
<p>1) Transferring is always an option
2) No matter what the school, you have to want to live there for 4 years
3) Want to go to every school you apply to, so your choices in the spring will all be ones you’ll be happy with</p>
<p>My D loves theater as much as anyone; she loves to go to NY on vacation and see as many plays as possible. But she couldn’t bring herself to look at any of the schools that are in Manhattan proper: she just doesn’t want to live in the city as an undergraduate. She knows she has plenty of time to live there later, and also many schools where she can visit the city whenever she wants.</p>
<p>There are so many schools in this country that #2 above is a very valid criterion.</p>
<p>My D is exactly the same way…she’d do Chicago, Boston or Baltimore, but won’t consider NYC. Fine with me. Like I said, any reason to rule out a school with so many on the list is welcomed.</p>
<p>As some of you recall, I’m the one who put convience of travel high on the priority list (started a thread on schools in cities to which Southwest Airlines fly.) Now, of course, there are a few on the list that look promising that are not in the “easy to get to” category. I guess they’ll stay on the list for now, until I can research how easy or hard it really would be.</p>
<p>EmmyBet, I agree, S has to feel good about his choices and fear of earthquakes are valid. We all have fears about something. It just took me back that he had even thought about it. I am going to have to keep in mind the transfer option and make sure S keeps this in mind also. </p>
<p>Missypie, S’s list has about 40 schools on it right now, many of them reaches. With SAT’s on sat. and AP tests the following two weeks I am hard pressed to pressure S to take a good look at the college list right now.</p>
<p>LOL, I’m the one who has put too many schools on the list. D has given me her perameters…besides OOS and not tiny, the big one for her is “Don’t let me fall in love with a school you can’t afford.”</p>
<p>Missypie, I think convenience of travel is a consideration. It is low on our list right now, but it is there. Trying to get to visit some of the schools on S’s list has highlighted how difficult it will be to come home from certain schools. Another factor is cost to get there and back. My neice was unable to come home for Easter and spring break because she/her parents couldn’t afford the airfare and it is too far to drive. Luckly she has made many friends at her school and had somewhere to go.</p>
<p>Oh, S’s list is totally mine. Well, he has had some input lately, but up til a month or so ago, he could have cared less. I know a lot of the less well know schools would not have made his list if I hadn’t added them, like Bryant.</p>
<p>I am hesitant to even schedule visits to some of these hard to get to schools. We live in the suburbs in north Texas, where it is flat and brown, with no natural beauty, where we shop and eat out in strip centers. I think D will be greatly influenced by a beautiful campus, a cool college town, lovely surrounding scenery…I kind of hate to show her these places if we aren’t willing to make it happen.</p>
<p>We didn’t consider convenience of travel initially, but have been giving it some thought lately. D loved Bucknell when we visited last year, but lately has not been so receptive to the thought. It is hard to get to, a long drive from the nearest airport and not well connected for us. She ruled that one off the list. </p>
<p>On our spring road trip, we did drive by Oberlin (about 1/2 hour away from Cleveland). D wasn’t very interested and it isn’t very easy to get to either - so rule that one out as well. </p>
<p>Originally, D wanted a school about 6-8 hours away from home. But after some conversations with a friend who moved to St Louis, she’s become more aware of where exactly the schools are and how long does it take to get home from there. Nice to see her recognize this - I don’t mind her being a plane ride away, as long as it is with a city that’s easy to get to. Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Houston and New Orleans are all still on the list.</p>
<p>A great idea I was told was to visit schools that resemble faraway schools, to get an idea of how they feel about the other attributes. First, they realize that “cool little colleges” or “exciting big state schools” are everywhere, and when travel becomes the question, you know they are really focused on why they want THAT particular school.</p>
<p>My D1 at first wanted warm weather, so we read about schools in the South. But she realized that while she wanted to get away from home, she didn’t want a whole new part of the country. With family in the Boston area, she realized that she could separate from where she grew up, but still have some familiarity (she was lucky we were a two-region family). Travel has been an issue for her, with a long-term BF at school back home (and we only pay for the basic trips back every year, which doesn’t include Thanksgiving), but for her the positives have outweighed the difficulties.</p>
<p>I took D2 to a nearby “lovely little college” for her first visit - I wanted her to see it before we went east and she thought they only existed out there. It’s helped a lot. It also was an easy way to find out if she likes little colleges, what kind of town she wants to be near, etc., etc. Now if she wants a “lovely little EASTERN college,” it will be for the very specific benefits of that particular college. I know schools are not so alike, but these tests visits are very, very helpful.</p>
<p>Yes, look carefully at travel arrangements - my D1’s BF is at a rural school where they only run airport shuttles on break weeks, and then not conveniently. For people who will be doing a lot of plane travel, it’s very important to know in advance. Not that these are predetermined “bad” choices - just to know and not be unpleasantly surprised.</p>
I’m pretty confident he’ll get at least 4s on most, physics being the exam of concern.</p>