<p>Heikendog ,</p>
<p>Thank you for the reviews. My nephew went to Roanoke and loved it. He was a business major - currently works as an auditor and plans to get an MBA at some point.</p>
<p>FogFog,</p>
<p>S has not started apps, essays or AP physics work - Aug 1 is the magic day! He knows it is coming soon. The goods news is that he ( I) found some volunteer work and job shadowing opportunities. He does not want to travel to see any more schools but is willing to take day trips to see Bowdoin, Bates and Colby. We will also do a trip to see NEU in Boston. </p>
<p>I am starting to lean towards ED if S finds a school that he loves and the FA works.</p>
<p>Tomorrow we will head to Colby …great FA but a stretch…according to Naviance Colby has accepted about 40% from our HS. …</p>
<p>Back from a great vacation with limited electronics, but maximum fun. A very nice respite from work, college discussions, cooking, etc. Ahhhh…if they could only last a little longer…</p>
<p>I’ll take some time later tonight to catch up on CC.</p>
<p>Fogfog–condolences on your loss. May wonderful memories bring you joy during this tough time.</p>
<p>Now…to attack the pile of laundry…</p>
<p>cheers!</p>
<p>We’re back.
Last night I asked K2 about a college a few hrs away…booked a tour and we went this am. The school has K2s intended major and EC. Was interesting because of our group there today 3 were from within the state, the majority were from the midwest or internationals. K2 had a postitive pre-read and the school is definitely staying on “the list”. I am trying to decide how many of the 9 (possibly 11) we should send off the SAT/ACT scores now, as with priority apps and snap apps/ K2 may have some decisions quickly with rolling admissions. Hoping I can get K2 to work on the essays. Frankly K2 will skip anything labelled “optional” much to my chagrin and knowing better…</p>
<p>We’re back too. Not quite rested, but the jet lag is subsiding, slowly. Have been awake since 4 a.m. </p>
<p>Fog – what is a pre-read?</p>
<p>What is this AP work ya’ll are talking about? The kids have to do homework for those classes as well as their summer reading?</p>
<p>AP work = extra work designed to make sure that hs kids have plenty of stress in the month before school starts. And at least at our school, yes, that’s in addition to summer reading. 
I am still unhappy that AP Lit alone requires them to read 3 books, watch a movie and write two papers. Throw in the other APs and the summer workload seems crazy to me!</p>
<p>So glad Spygirl’s school does not pile on the AP summer work. That’s nuts.</p>
<p>We got back from our two college visit this past Friday. Very exhausting trip, even after throwing a side trip to the beach into the equation, since we were moving from hotel to hotel and there were four of us. My DD decided to take a classmate with her and that put four of us into one hotel room!! Not a fun experience!! I did tell DD that for any future trips it would be just the family. Anyway, we visited Elon on Monday, July 22nd. First impression was very positive. Seemed like a very well manicured campus even though some of the buildings were a little older looking. We were greeted by a bevy of student guides to direct us to where to go. We gathered in the admissions office and were shown a film about Elon produced by Elon graduates. It was nice, but that was about it. Didn’t make you feel that you really wanted to be here over other colleges. We broke up into smaller groups which was nice and our guide was friendly and had answers to all of our questions. We did see a lot of the campus but were never shown the “cafeteria” or where students dine. I thought that was a big omission on her part. DD seemed to like the campus and the tour but wasn’t enamored with it. She felt that the campus was too spread out and large for her tastes even though the student body is not that large. We did try the campus driving tour and it started out ok, but we quickly found ourselves in a different location and gave up. We had lunch at a local pizza shop near campus which was OK but seemed over-priced. D doesn’t think she’ll apply there.</p>
<p>Our next stop was High Point (for some reason that school seems like it’s on everyone’s radar from my D’s school). I can understand why. Driving onto the campus you are immediately greeted by a super friendly security guard, and given perfect instructions on where to park and go for the tour. Of course we parked in the visitor lot and were greeted by the light up sign with my D’s name on it. Most kids that age love it…but my first comment was “marketing”. 
Anyway, we arrived in the admissions office and were seated with the many other students that were touring. What I liked is that there was no long speech about the campus, no video to watch, just a short introduction about the campus as well as introductions for the tour leaders. We were paired up in a small group given a nice cold bottle of water and taken to the waiting golf cart for the tour. Our guide was from Chicago and was very knowledgeable about High Point and what it had to offer. He was enthusiastic, a good listener and answered all our questions. We toured the entire manicured campus and of course my D was totally “in love” with the campus, the dorms, and everything High Point had to offer. We also discussed briefly High Points “study abroad” program. I got the impression they offer it, but it is not as strong as say Elon’s or Roanoke’s. Does anyone have first hand experience with High Point’s study abroad program. One thing our guide did not elaborate on was the Greek life. My impression is that it’s present but not that big? I could be mistaken. If someone else has something to offer on this please do so. All in all High Point had the better tour and of course campus. The tour ended on a high note in my book with a free lunch and a Starbuck’s coffee…free is good!! My D will probably apply to High Point and it’s a safety school for her. My biggest concern is financial aid. </p>
<p>I wanted to also visit Roanoke College but it was not a doable option for us on this trip. I would like to visit there but can anyone provide information on their financial aid packages? If they are not that liberal with aid, then it’s not worth the trip for me. </p>
<p>We have some more schools on our radar for the end of next month: Duquense, St. Francis University, and possibly College of Wooster if I can convince D to put that on here list.</p>
<p>Duquense is only a three hour drive for us and the College of Wooster is 2.5 hours. Can anyone provide any other suggestions for colleges to visit?</p>
<p>Anyway, there’s my first trip report for DD14…hope to provide more as the end of summer and fall fast approach.</p>
<p>^^^^SCSIguru
Thank you for the update about the schools you visited. I think the best thing to do about FA is to go to the college’s website and plug your info into the Net Price Calculator to get an idea about FA.</p>
<p>Yesterday we visited Colby for an Open House. Very lovely school - moved into number one position. The Open house was very organized -half the group went on a tour first and half stayed for an info session on Life at Colby. The school meets all S’s criteria - sm LAC, good Neuroscience program, no Frats, nice atmosphere, and a big plus for S was that Colby is Carbon Neutral and that they are building a new science center to open Fall of 2014. They also have good FA. It will be a stretch school but S will apply. Lunch was in one of the cafeterias - lots of options including Vegan and it was free. Free is nice!. I attended the seminar on FA that I thought was very helpful. They also just opened a new Art Museum that we wanted to tour but was closed ;< . S will go back in the Fall and interview and attend a few classes.</p>
<p>@onlyonemom. Not to dissuade your S from applying to Colby, but it was also very high on my DS 12"s list… he had 3.6 GPA from a top rigorous private prep and 2290 SAT’s and was denied…not even wait-listed. Again, this may have been because they are a need-aware school and we needed…On our HS’s naviance it looked like a good bet for DS. We visited(from CA no less), interviewed, etc. I can’t remember what your S’s stats are, but just my 0.2 cents. I never discouraged my S from applying anywhere, because you never know what will happen. But I think Colby has become an A student over 4.0 school. Maybe if your S is absolutely sure it is his top school… applying ED may help.</p>
<p>The other thing to consider with a small school and neuroscience is that’s one major that is not often recommended for a small school (esp by one PhD neuroscientist on here). They simply can’t offer as much in depth as the larger schools can… It won’t matter at all if the intention is pre-med (can’t remember if that is the case) as the major for pre-med is totally irrelevant, but if one is hoping for grad school and work in neuro, those with more foundation are supposedly better candidates. Just a thought. I’d want to be absolutely certain they had a good in depth program - that might require checking with a grad program rather than the school itself (as all schools are good in everything according to themselves). You can also look at class offerings between a known “great for neuro” school (like Pittsburgh) and any smaller school (or even larger schools that have it, but aren’t ‘known’ for it). When we were extensively asking for recommendations, I don’t recall Colby being mentioned by anyone “higher up.” Maybe we’re in the wrong region though…</p>
<p>Just food for thought while folks are still in the app process. If Colby remains the #1 choice, there are probably always exceptions to generalities for those who do really well… ;)</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice…I think S would be happy at any of the sm LA we looked at. If he applies to Colby it will be ED. but only after having a serious discussion with the FA office. We have been looking at Ruggs list and Colby is listed as having a good Neuroscience program. </p>
<p>The professor at UNE (that S had last summer in the Early College Neuroscience program )recommended Oberlin and McAlester but they are farther away than S wants to go. S is job shadowing the UNE prof. and will discuss more with him about the area programs. S is being recruited to apply to UNE so it is a little tricky. </p>
<p>Colby is not a done deal…remember last week Conn College was on top of the list…</p>
<p>5boys -I am surprised that your son did not get accepted by Colby because they are always looking for applicants from other parts of the country…Our neighbor is attending this year and I don’t think his stats were that high but he did apply ED and is paying full price! We will need FA…According to Naviance, Colby accepts about 40% ( 75% ED) from his HS. S SAT’s are 2020 - Cr and Math are 1430 …he will retake in Oct. His GPA is the issue 3.4 unweighted. However, he is in the range of who has been accepted from his school.</p>
<p>T keeps getting mail from them and today the marketing gimmick “free application” arrived in the mail. LC would be a mega-safety school for him. He and dad took a tour several months ago, and neither were impressed by what they saw or were told. Given that the tuition is [relatively] affordable and the opportunities for merit aid are [relatively] high, is there something really good about this school that we’ve all overlooked? Is it a diamond in the rough or a case of getting what you pay for? Thanks!</p>
<p>These are the questions I’d consider:</p>
<p>Does Lynchburg have your son’s major?
What is their graduation rate? Class size?
Are his stats far higher than their 75%?
Have you explored their class catalogue?</p>
<p>Agentninetynine:</p>
<p>Does Lynchburg have your son’s major? Yes
What is their graduation rate? Class size? 4-year graduation rate is dismal 48%; avg class size is 17.
Are his stats far higher than their 75%? Middle 50% ACT is 18-23; son has a 30.
Have you explored their class catalogue? Not really</p>
<p>We really only looked at the school at all because family would be within several hours drive if something catastrophic happened or to give the boy some place to go on an occasional weekend. We live in south TX.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The combo of these two would take it immediately off the list for us… Kids who are REALLY higher than the average student tend to be bored in college. The good thing is they’ll often get the perks from profs (IF there are any - there aren’t always). The bad thing is they won’t be challenged and they’ll wonder why everyone thinks college is so great. These schools are decent for their niche, but their niche doesn’t include everyone (no college is good for everyone).</p>
<p>Think about it like high school. A 30 should put a student in top level classes. An 18 tends to put them in lower level academic classes. It’s not even a “college readiness” score. The material taught in each is different. It’s that way in college too. If you’d said the top range went to 26 - 28, that should be fine, but 23? Not for us. My guys with those stats would be bored.</p>
<p>I’m with Creekland, Lynchburg would go off the list. The difference between an 18-23 and a 30 is just too vast.</p>
<p>Just to add fuel to the fire … per the [ACT</a> website](<a href=“ACT Test Scores | ACT Scoring | ACT”>ACT Test Scores | ACT Scoring | ACT),
18-23 equates to the 34th-68th percentile.</p>
<p>I’m sure that every student’s needs differ –
for us, the ideal is a school where our son
is in the 65th-80th percentile, but where
the school’s lowest 25th percent is above
the national 50th percentile.</p>
<p>Not the easiest balancing act, and there
will always be exceptions. Gotta balance
risk with potential reward.</p>
<p>We’ll all set our own thresholds – I’m wary
of a private school where fewer than 80%
return for sophomore year (75% for public),
and/or where fewer than 75% graduate
in 6 years (65% for public). Admittedly
somewhat arbitrary, and not hard & fast
(a couple on my son’s list violate these
‘rules’, and I’m okay with that), but these
are the guidelines that I’ve come up with
(after more than a little bit of analysis).</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone, for confirming what we’d already decided. Lynchburg came off the list a long time ago. With all the continuous contact from the school, I was just looking under rocks for some nugget of goodness that surely we must have overlooked.</p>
<p>The boy interviewed with the regional Rhodes rep on Monday and is very, very excited about the school. Unfortunately, that’s probably the longest shot – of his choices – in terms of significant merit aid. We’ll cross our fingers, but oh well, there are several others that will work just fine.</p>
<p>I have a simple question that’s probably off topic from this thread. Anyway, I’ve noticed a lot of books for sale on Amazon about scholarships and how to get them. Are any of them worth purchasing or is this information readily available elsewhere. I’m a “newbie” with this so any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!</p>