<p>kmurph: As you may know, BC now requires SATIIs. In general, it’s a good idea to take the test at the end of the year in which you took the subject (i.e. take the Calculus SATII in june of the year you took Calculus, for example). Your S may need to figure that out sooner than later. If your son is willing to look westward, other jesuit/Catholic matches might be: U. of San Francisco, U. San Diego, Seattle U. Santa Clara (great for computer and high-tech students) and Loyola Marymount in LA. Here on the east coast you can look at Duquesne in Pittsburgh. And while you’re in Pittsburgh, many people find U. Pitt to be a good option.</p>
<p>@kmurph22, take a look at:</p>
<p>Stonehill College (MA)
Providence College (RI)</p>
<p>Opinion wanted:
D’s college counselor strongly suggested we visit Ithaca College because it’s so close to Syracuse on our summer road tour in late Aug. Ithaca doesn’t have a Greek system, but looks nice on paper and is probably a good fit for D’s grades/SAT.</p>
<p>Would anyone like to weigh in on comparing the two? D plans to major in marketing/management with a minor in Spanish. Working in the fashion industry as a buyer or manufacturer’s rep is a dream goal. (Our last stop is the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC). </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>nyermom: thanks, yes, I just told S to sign up for the SATIIs. He could do Math I and Physics this year pretty easily.</p>
<p>and SLU mom I will check on Stonehill, I don’t know much about it. We saw Providence today at a college fair… S is really wanting to keep engineering as an option, and Providence only offers a dual 3/2 program although it’s a good one. He would rather have the option of getting his degree at one school, though. </p>
<p>Also at the college fair we met with reps from Loyola (still a favorite), Purdue, Villanova, Catholic U, University of Delaware, Elon, UNC Wilmington, High Point, and Florida Institute of Technology. I think he is adding UDel and Elon to his application list. The Villlanova rep kind of scared him off but I was impressed by the program they offer in engineering.</p>
<p>I will check out west too. S is back and forth as to how far away he wants to go, but the more options the better. He did visit the U. of Hawaii booth today just for kicks - a definite safety for many of our kids, the rep said they generally take kids with a 2.8 and better! How about that? If only I had a lifetime supply of airline miles…</p>
<p>momofwon–I don’t know a thing about Syracuse or IC for the purpose of becoming a dept store buyer, but perhaps you could contact Career Services at both schools and inquire if the national dept store chains recruit there for their buyer positions? Ithaca is a lovely college town (voted #1 college town this year:[Best</a> College Towns 2013, According To AIER (SLIDESHOW)](<a href=“http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/06/best-college-towns-2013_n_2813951.html#slide=2184649]Best”>Best College Towns 2013, According To AIER (SLIDESHOW) | HuffPost College))</p>
<p>Syracuse is a bit of a declining city. </p>
<p>kmurph22—we visited Stonehill last summer when we were visiting schools on a completely exploratory basis. (Visited schools that were convenient to other places we were traveling, without regard for match/reach/safety.) I was very impressed by the school. It is very small, but we just left there with a very good feeling. Accepted stats from our HS are 3,25 & 1770. No info on Eng</p>
<p>Villanova—attended info session & tour last week. I didn’t pay full attention to the Eng info as my son wants to study business, but they did say that Bio is the most difficult admit followed by business. I assumed that Eng would have been at the top of the list. The Ad Com said that the middle 50th% for ACCEPTED students’ weighted GPA is 3.8-4.19. I then asked if they recalculate GPAs since there is so much variation across high schools and the reply was no. But, they must take the school profile into consideration b/c I can see on our Naviance that the average accepted GPA was 3.66 with 2000 SAT. Do with that what you will. Clear as mud!</p>
<p>Elon—I have observed (small sample size) that ED admit helps case tremendously but EA can work in the opposite direction. To be honest, I have no idea why a school offers both EA and ED at the same time. </p>
<p>We were surprisingly impressed by Lehigh. I do not know your son’s stats, but if Villanova is within reach, then you may want to consider Lehigh, Bucknell or Lafayette. All offer Eng, the first two at universities, but all are in the same selectivity range as Villanova.</p>
<p>Morning All</p>
<p>I was just lamenting on the 2014 thread how difficult it is to find info on the list of schools our student has—unlike our 2011 where the schools were commented on heavily here.</p>
<p>So if anyone has inside or helpful knowledge, can do a trip report etc…please shout out.</p>
<p>Marietta OH
Mercyhurst, PA
Fairfield, CT
Franklin & Marshall, PA
Susquehanna, PA
St Joes PA
Loyola of MD
Washington College MD
College of Charleston, SC
Rollins, FL
U of Alabama
Clemson SC</p>
<p>K2 wants to study business and has a specific sport/ec.</p>
<p>My D with the strong GPA, but the not-as-great ACT fits in here I think. Although, as a probable music composition major, our college search has to be a little different. BUT, we have visited a couple of the schools on your list, fogfog.</p>
<p>We visited F&M late last summer and liked it very well. Beautiful campus, awesome dorms. We were impressed that the dorms built in 2010-11 still looked “historic” with 12ft ceilings (making the room seem bigger!) and arched doorways and a beautiful commons area with leather seating, fireplace, etc. Loved that the freshman seminars were actually held in the dorms and that faculty lived in each dorm. The F&M president has the entire freshman class over to his house for a cookout at the beginning of the school year, which my S (who was actually the one looking at the school) thought was very cool. From talking to various students, we got the impression that there were really nice connections between faculty and students and we just felt a good “vibe”, if that makes sense? We didn’t eat in a Dining Hall, but it looked pretty standard. Lancaster isn’t a huge metropolis, and definitely is not a great college town, but there are things to do off campus although there seemed to be so much happening on campus, that I’m not sure that mattered much! S would like to apply there, but I’m not sure we can afford it. My concern is that S is my more high stats kid, and with our EFC, we are looking for merit $, which F&M no longer offers. It also concerns me that without offering any merit, it will turn into a school for just wealthy kids…</p>
<p>S and I visited Alabama just last weekend. He really wants a much smaller school, but is interested in the Honors College and we wanted to see if he felt that he could be happy on a campus of 30,000. The campus is gorgeous and Tuscaloosa is a perfect college town. I graduated from a big fb school myself and thought I knew about school spirit, but the school spirit at Bama is unbelievable and it was easy and fun to be caught up in it. We were a little unimpressed with the general group tour, which seemed to be 80% about football and old traditions, and maybe 20% about academics. THe tour guide mentioned that the average freshman has an ACT score of 25, the average engineering freshman had an ACT of 27. There is a TON of new construction going on all over campus, especially in the Science and Engineering area. New dorms are going up as well. The Honors College dorms were absolutely amazing - 2 or 4 person suites, with their own bedrooms, 2 to a bathroom - not sure how they compare to others. If you have a kid who likes to work out or play Intramurals, one drawback is that their Rec center is on the whole other side of campus from the dorms, although the tour guide thought that they are planning to build another rec center closer to the dorms. We ate in the dining hall and it was a really nice set-up with a gorgeous view. Food was fine, nothing special. We were super impressed with what the Honors college has to offer and if your student has the stats, I would call their office to set up a visit with them specifically. S left the visit feeling that the Honors college would still have that small college feel on a big campus. Happily, he even said that Bama is a major contender for him!</p>
<p>@fogfog: We just attended the Susquehanna Open House and the St. Joseph Open House last weekend. I will be posting Visit Reports later if you want to check them out. (I write them in large part to remind me of the campus so they don’t all blur together). Both were great colleges but very different.</p>
<p>I have visited Clemson, amazing school spirit, very friendly kids, nice campus but with some very dated buildings. Great for Engineering. Not sure it would be my first choice for business. Franklin & Marshall was my oldest daughters finalist when she was choosing and we made multiple trips to campus. Very small campus but newer facilities. My goddaughter currently attends F&M and is very happy with everything but the course load. Fairfield University is near where we live so for that reason alone my kids did not want to look at it. Great reputation, location and access into NYC. Solid overall. I don’t know enough about the other colleges on your list to comment.</p>
<p>I can tell you that if my D wanted to study business, and had an interest in a sport, I would take a hard look at St. Joseph’s. I might also add Miami of Ohio or Indiana to the list if you don’t mind the travel. Good luck</p>
<p>Momofwon- Have not visited Syracuse but it is a “big” school in usptate NY- lots of school spirit, sports, generally good programs. Probably looked at as less of a regional school than Ithaca.</p>
<p>My D fit in the parameters of this thread for class of 2011. We too looked at Ithaca (and Wells College). It has a great music program but D found it limiting that as a non music major she could not use the practice rooms (or it would be hard). The students walking around she saw were trying to be cool- more jocklike and into each other- no friendly smiles for visiting h.s. students. She found it a bit insular, and as we call it- “whitebread”. Not a lot of diversity of thought/experience from our limited exposure. As she ended up at Hampshire College, you can see she leaned in a different direction. 
She actually preferred Siena College more than Ithaca- a bit more friendly, but also a step down in selectivity too though.</p>
<p>F&M is nice - but no merit aid. We cut it from our list for that reason, but did visit. Collegefortwins gave a good description. At our school, science bound kids often choose the place, but others like it too. Other than “no merit aid,” I’ve never heard a complaint about it.</p>
<p>Susquehanna is liked by a little bit lower section of academic kids than F&M (at our school). Kids like it. It’s pretty rural. I have no idea how their business program is.</p>
<p>UAlabama is one my middle son applied to and was accepted at (merit aid safety, etc), but it wasn’t academic enough for him. It’s very big on college spirit with sports, etc, but when he tried to get kids to talk about academics (when we visited), they didn’t have much to say and quickly changed back to talking about other things. I know a couple of kids who go there and like it there. All talk about the “spirit.” </p>
<p>If in the south, their name on a diploma is good. There’s still a bit of bias around us (here where we are in the north) otherwise. That may step on toes, but I’m just writing what we’ve experienced when we asked around. If your student wants to return home, 'tis best to check around as to how the name plays around you. The kids I know who go there WANT to live in the south. The name is a plus at that point (alumni, etc). My guy doesn’t care where he ends up as med school is likely in his future. His undergrad won’t matter at that point, but he simply wanted a more academic minded school. Had he needed it as his safety he’d have gone there and been ok. He may have come out loving sports more… but at the time, that really turned him off.</p>
<p>This looks like the perfect forum for me. My son has a 3.27 unweighted all subject GPA, (academic subjects only, weighted, 3.09) in well respected high school. He has had 3 honors classes and slated for one AP upcoming senior year. He has two good ACT scores (31 and 32) with one result pending. He is a late bloomer academically, started at 2.3, with his last semester GPA 4.0 after appropriate supports in place (ADD, auditory processing and graphomotor issues). ECs are quality not quantity (sports, music and service). Not much leadership (tougher to get in a high school with ~3000 kids)</p>
<p>We did a college visit tour LAST fall due to spring conflicts with sports and concerts, and to allow for visits while school is in session. He is interested in small- medium private schools in Florida (has hated our Midwestern winters since childhood) where he can pursue his extracurricular scuba/sailing interests as well. He does a good job of work before play/ balancing school and ED commitments. He is interested in business undergrad degree (finance/economics), prelaw track. </p>
<p>So far the brief impressions/ list:</p>
<h1>1 University of Tampa- compact but beautiful campus with fabulous facilities. Doable honors program. Sykes school of Business has good rep (higher than the school as a whole, I think, as does college of nursing), innovative and unique leadership opps, easy access to downtown Tampa internship opps/ alumni mentoring. Parking garage for his car hell need to get to Clearwater beach LOL. Varsity swim team as well as Orchestra Performance opps for non-music majors</h1>
<h1>2 Rollins College- The most prestigious of the schools we visited, but still probably a match (per naviance). Beautiful campus looks like a resort not college. It seems some of the northeastern rich snob stereotype may be true (long story here). On a well utilized lake which is good since far from beaches. Also a Sunshine State Conference DII swim school, good Greek system.</h1>
<h1>3 Florida Southern College- voted #1 most beautiful campus (is very nice). Was the most warm/ welcoming, with emphasis on individuals and ensuring success. On campus Greek housing. Is #3 ranked NCAA division II in mens swimming (? He might be walk-on only) ?Lack of reputation would hurt him for law school</h1>
<h1>4 Stetson University- great camaraderie. seemed the most academically challenging re expectations, but yet the most supports (even for regular non-IEP kids). Pretty campus is more classic. Most kids from in state which might be a negative. Nice on campus Greek housing. ~20 m from Daytona. No swimming, but a welcoming crew team</h1>
<h1>5 Eckerd College- thought this was gonna be #1 pre visit (one of the colleges that change lives, phi beta kappa, awesome beachfront location, Eckerd college search and rescue ECSAR service opportunity). Would be #1 IF he was going into Marine Biology etc, not so much prep for career requiring a tie. (Kids barefoot on longboards …), admin a little fuzzy on answering questions about things like LSAT success.</h1>
<h1>6 St. Leo University. Pretty campus, but out in the sticks 40 miles from anywhere. Best student body diversity. Nice new student center and business building. ? Weak reputation/ academics? (student body president expressed concerns to us about waning quality of accepted students). Many schools have religious affiliations which are imperceptible, St. Leo is VERY Catholic (neither good or bad thing, just is)</h1>
<p>I imagine he will apply to at least the top 4 above.</p>
<p>I would appreciate any feedback It seems much of CC is geared toward Ivy/top tier kids and not mere mortals like mine, and there is a paucity of CC info on the above schools, and much is >5 years old and likely irrelevant.</p>
<p>FYI his reach school is University of Miami. He will be doing the summer scholars program there this summer, so that will be a mega visit as well as a chance to try on college in paradise (? Is it doable) But it is $$$ and I doubt my son could get any merit money from them with his creds …</p>
<p>I am also insisting he apply at one in-state safety or match school in case of family financial catastrophe, and also one local (less than 6 hours drive) school in case he decides being a zillion miles from home in the heat is not all that it was cracked up to be.</p>
<p>@davzmom: Thank you for posting that great summary of Florida colleges. We know very little of the colleges in that state. University of Tampa is very aggressive about recruiting students from our area. (Connecticut). Your list is very helpful.</p>
<p>@fogfog: Just finished posting my visit reports for Susquehanna and St. Joe’s.</p>
<p>I posted this on our 2013 thread but thought I would do it here also in case anyone is looking at midwest universities.</p>
<p>Anyone worried about their kid getting a job in 5(+) years when they graduate? Consider a job in agriculture. The ag economy is booming right now, 4 years from now ???, but everybody needs to eat.</p>
<p>1,000 graduates a year and a 98% placement rate at Iowa State University College of Agriculture</p>
<p>[Strong</a> ag economy sparks interest in ag science programs at ISU - Iowa Farmer Today: Crop - Strong ag economy sparks interest in ag science programs at ISU: Crop](<a href=“http://www.iowafarmertoday.com/news/crop/strong-ag-economy-sparks-interest-in-ag-science-programs-at/article_10d7dae8-a20f-11e2-bccd-001a4bcf887a.html]Strong”>http://www.iowafarmertoday.com/news/crop/strong-ag-economy-sparks-interest-in-ag-science-programs-at/article_10d7dae8-a20f-11e2-bccd-001a4bcf887a.html)</p>
<p>davzmom–that is an excellent write-up of FL schools. Having lived my entire life in the Northeast, I know little about FL schools, but your description of Rollins matches my vague impression from my own HS days. I recognize that a school’s reputation may have changed considerably since I attended HS.</p>
<p>U of Miami has been receiving a fair bit of attention from our CT HS. At least two students will be attending next year and they are both solid students. We look to have a 40-45% admit rate the past five years, but many years no one has attended. I would say it is trending here but I do not know why. (Santa Clara is another distant school that has been receiving increased attention.) The stats of the accepted students at Miami are GPA 3.6 & SAT 1970/ACT 28. That 3.6 GPA is weighted but the school weights so little that the val only earns a 4.2.</p>
<p>Re: F&M–we really liked it also. Agree that collegefortwins summarized well. Only points I will add are that they do not offer merit aid, but award $37 million in need-based aid/year. I too liked the College House system: government at the house level; $15K/year activity budged allocated to each house to plan internal social events (bagel breakfasts); dons & prefects help students plan house activities; students remain a member of house for all four years of college, even after moving out of house after soph year; Freshman Writing Seminar teacher will be first year academic advisor. School also hosts a ‘Common Hour’ every Thurs where speakers are brought in and no academic classes are scheduled, with the hope that everyone can come together to share the same experience. (I believe free pizza was also offered!) School is test-optional and I believe the percentage not submitting scores was 12%. </p>
<p>FogFog–I am not that far from Fairfield but know little about it. My younger son will be staying there for a week this summer for a computer camp, but that doesn’t help you any. We visited Loyola last summer on one of our very first college trips. I had a mixed reaction to it. It all sounds good on paper so we will investigate further. The Sellinger school of business does well in the rankings and the Men’s LAX team won the NCAA Finals last year, so these factors will serve to increase their profile. It still felt very Maryland/PA but making inroads, I believe.</p>
<p>Regarding Eckerd College. The major with the second highest number of students is business. It is well regarded for International Business and International relations. They have a study center in London, and each winter term a business professor takes students to study in China and another to Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. They compete nationally as part of the organization, Students in Free Enterprise. Eckerd’s career services center sends out biweekly newsletters to their students and offer a least weekly sessions for career workshops. They also offer these services for life to alumni. Perhaps the most important is the professor mentor program. My son, who graduated 3 years ago still speaks with his mentor on a fairly regular basis. This mentor as well as career services has helped him to update his resume as well review of his law school application. Most law schools care only about a student’s GPA and the LSAT score. The college has developed a close relationship with the city of St. Petersburg and my son worked with a group to help set up small businesses in the city. They received the keys to the city and a letter of commendation from then Governor Crist. Don’t let the flip flops and long boards fool you!</p>
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<p>All this is part of why Eckerd is up there among my guy’s top competitors at the moment. We decided we’re not visiting until fall though - I really want him to see it in session. I don’t know if he’ll be Marine Bio or what - maybe - I know he wants tropical Bio and would love to live on an island in the tropics somewhere. He’d be happy barefoot for life and living off the land/sea as one with nature while helping his fellow man. He’s also part of our school’s FBLA though (and NHS). These kids do dress up at times.</p>
<p>Creekland, we also have a daughter that graduated from Eckerd with a degree in Marine Bio. The fall would be much better to visit the campus than during the summer. Daughter is still working with her mentor on research and should be the lead author when they publish this Fall. PM me if you want more info on Eckerd.</p>
<p>I just sent a FB message to a hs friend re Eckerd. Her dd attends there. Hope she checks in here to add info/help.</p>
<p>The more real honest authentic info we can add to our thread re visits etc, the better for all our kids.</p>
<p>any comments on recent experiences at U Tampa, Florida Southern College, Stetson or St Leo?</p>
<p>Sounds great ECmom! My guy is almost 100% certain he’ll end up in Florida or Hawaii. He was born in FL (St Pete! - well, born in Seminole, but we lived in St Pete for his first 6 months - then we moved to PA), so it may be his genetics calling him home…</p>
<p>However, like many on here, where he goes is likely to end up being the best financial option considering $$ is a factor for us. Schools in HI “may” give him more for geographical diversity. I don’t know anyone from our area who heads to those. A few head south each year (not Eckerd though, that’s a new name/place for us).</p>
<p>Like my other two boys, we’ll visit schools he’s interested in and he can rank them by his preference, then we’ll see what happens with financial/merit aid and our finances. Both older boys were able to get their first choices. I hope he can too. We don’t need free. We just need affordable.</p>