<p>Awesome Jane, especially the appreciation 
I’m still not ready to put the sharp knives back out.</p>
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<p>Which AP English? Language and Composition or Literature and Composition?</p>
<p>^
I think it’s Literature and Composition, but I’m not positive. I don’t know if it’s a standard thing, or just what this teacher does. Anyway, I like it! Each student wrote a rough draft, met with a student group and evaluated each other’s work, revised their work, and now they’re meeting with the teacher individually for feedback and polishing. It’s supposed to be done by October 1.</p>
<p>^^^^ Very cool, thanks.
My D is taking AP Lit and Comp.
I’ll have her ask her teacher.</p>
<p>HL, how was Clark?</p>
<p>Thanks! I think D would like the students and campus feel, but would probably have similar overall reactions. </p>
<p>Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using CC</p>
<p>HL, also thanks from me.
There are things about Clark that interest us also.
But I am also pretty sure my D, too, will not “love” it.
And it is a very long drive to visit.</p>
<p>Visited Loyola Maryland and Goucher over the weekend. I won’t post details unless someone is interested - know most of you are pretty far along in your process already and I also know there has been a fair amount of discussion on Goucher already. Let me know!</p>
<p>We visited Goucher and McDaniel at the end of August. It was before classes started and freshman were moving in the next day (in the case of Goucher) and that day (for McDaniel). Goucher had an information session and tour, but McDaniel didn’t have any admission reps on hand, so we did a walking tour on our own w/ a map.</p>
<p>As soon as my S heard that Goucher requires study abroad, he turned to me and said that he would never go there. Didn’t even want to stay for the tour, but I made him. He said there was good and bad about the school, but because of the study abroad requirement, he pretty much tuned it out. </p>
<p>He like the look and feel of McDaniel, and met w/ an admissions person at the CTCL fair the next week. He walked away from that quick meeting saying “I really like that school”…basically, he liked the guy. He will probably apply there.</p>
<p>Visiting Grand Valley State U later next month.</p>
<p>His grades are going to be low for any of the schools that he’ll want to apply to, but his practice ACTs give me hope (they’re disproportionately high, which doesn’t look great, but at least should counterbalance the grades to a degree…if he’s able to perform as well when it counts). Taking it in Dec for the first time.</p>
<p>I’ve been trying to get D interested in Goucher, I think she’d like it, and it’s closer to home than most of her choices. We were going to look this summer, but she got sick that week and we didnt make it. Now she is busy with school and sick of visits.</p>
<p>McDaniel: My sister (who lives near the school) tells me great things about it and her D’s GC loves the school and directs many bright kids there.</p>
<p>The study abroad at Goucher can be fulfilled with a 3 week program over winter break, or a 3-6 week summer program if you dont want a whole semester away.</p>
<p>My daughter wouldn’t look at Goucher because she hates the name. We toured Loyola Maryland early in her junior year, and she disliked it, but she couldn’t verbalize why. I would have liked to look at McDaniel, but I gave up on Maryland schools after she nixed two!</p>
<p>Joisymom - I’d like to hear what you thought of Loyola, if you don’t mind.</p>
<p>Re Goucher, I explained that he could do 3 weeks over the summer and it would be like a vacation, but he wasn’t buying it.</p>
<p>I like the idea of McDaniel a lot, but it’s expensive and a little further than I’d like (requires a plane ride). Also, the town is very small and somewhat limited, and I’ve read that transportation to leave the area is not readily available. If you’ve been to the CTCL College Fair, the woman who speaks at the beginning was an admissions director at McDaniel for 16 years. She really was a good speaker.</p>
<p>Just my $0.02 on McDaniel and Goucher. DS#1 looked at both. The kids at Goucher didn’t really look like a crowd my S would fit in with (very politically active but not his scene), and it was one of the few campuses I’ve seen that I actually found unattractive. McDaniel was a better looking school and seemed like it might have been a better fit, but the surrounding area was pretty empty/depressing. S ended up not applying to either (although did attend a different CTCL school).</p>
<p>ConfusedMom - Loyola Maryland ended up being another in a long list of “like not love” schools for my D. It’s a nice size at about 3500 and has a lovely campus. Although it is technically in Baltimore city limits, the campus is in a residential area and there are several other small colleges and private high schools in the immediate area. I had heard the surrounding area was sketchy so we drove the perimeter of campus before we left. Although the neighborhood behind campus isn’t as nice as the one we entered from, I didn’t see anything that concerned me.
Postives - a separate school of Education. Small class sizes. No need to be accepted into a specific program. Strong travel abroad program. Highly rated residence halls. Housing available in Summer. </p>
<p>Negatives - although they stressed that many students of different religions attend, Catholicism is certainly an important part of the experience here (no surprise at a Jesuit school!) and I think it spooked my (not Catholic) daughter. Somehow I didn’t come away with a strong sense of the “vibe” of the school in general, it just didn’t make a big impression. Tour guide said most students eat in the student center at a food court which wouldn’t seem to encourage much of a sense of community. (Not sure if this actually true - see below). Not much within walking distance of school.</p>
<p>I am trying to not let the tour guide color my impression of this school too much. This was the worst tour we have experienced. Tour guide was not knowledgeable (often prefacing her comments with “Don’t ask me about X. I don’t know anything about that.”) She actually stood outside the library and said “This is the library. I don’t know if you want to go in. It’s just a library. I’m sure you’ve seen one before.” And so on.</p>
<p>My daughter said she thought she would apply but I need to discuss this with her. Her body language did not indicate she felt comfortable. This is a “preppier” (her words), more mainstream (my words) school than others she has liked. Happy to answer questions if I can! (I probably can do better than the tour guide lol!)</p>
<p>Thank you. That was very insightful and helpful.</p>
<p>ah yes, the “like not love” list… I find that D then loses interest and it’s been so hard to find the schools that keep her motivated!
D hasn’t reacted well to the jesuit schools we’ve visited… great education, but she’s just uncomfortable with the catholic overlay. I think that it would be fine, and if she was there, it wouldn’t be an issue, but she’s rejected a few.</p>
<p>After having my attention taken away from this college thing by some health issues for DD and my parents, DD and I were finally able to do a whirlwind tour of Carnegie Mellon, Pitt, Juniata, UMBC, Dickinson, Richmond, Duke, and Elon.
We went in with her being obsessed with Richmond and Susquehanna, and came back with her hating Juniata, being very put off by Richmond, liking UMBC, loving Dickinson, and being head over heels with Elon.
I too will avoid details unless asked, since most are way past this stage already.
Local schools (Oxford at Emory, GA State, Kennesaw State, UGA) are still on the list despite my irrational objections to her staying here, and I’m trying to get west coast schools on her list (we’re from LA).
After having such a negative reaction to Juniata, schools she feels are similar are getting the axe (Susquehanna, Gettysburg, Ursinus). I’m genuinely terrified she’s setting herself up for disappointment - this is a 3.0 black Hispanic, dual enrollment student with stagnant, unimpressive test scores and a progressive chronic illness that really limits her ECs.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh</p>
<p>Cbreeze - I’d like to hear about Juniata.</p>
<p>Reeinaz - I posted about 2 weeks ago on Juniata - page 58.
AnnieZZ- I should have known that the Jesuit school wouldn’t have agreed with her - I had forehead-slapping moment in the info session when I realized I hadn’t discussed it with her in advance.
Cbreeze - Has your D visited Susquehanna or Gettysburg? I don’t they are anything at all like Juniata. They are very similar to Dickinson in my opinion. I believe I’ve got comments on all of them on this thread if you want to compare.</p>