<p>Welcome. And no it’s definitely not a boy thing. I’ve got a junior d who could care less. Gets downright snippy if the topic comes up. There’s no way she’d ever cooperate with the grand tours you’ll hear being planned for other juniors. And schools with any name recognition are far away. She’s never agree to a long trip just to see a school</p>
<p>NewHaven: Yow! Hope you’re cozy inside!</p>
<p>labbydog: While there are offerings specifically for videogame design, my S is planning on a BS in computer science. It is deeper, more general and flexible. There are BSCS programs with focus, emphasis or minor in game design, so we are exploring those.</p>
<p>Kees4mom: “testy” 
Perhaps that is where the word comes from?</p>
<p>My S has taken a number of summer courses (for HS students) at Digipen as well as some Saturday workshops. He will take a few more this summer, probably in sound design and other areas since he has exhausted the programming offerings. It is a very good program but not for everyone. As of now, he pictures himself in a more traditional college setting (dorms, sports, and gender balance). H took him to OSU (that’s Oregon State for those of you following along on the East Coast) and they really liked it. Chipotle on campus was a strong selling point. We are also looking at USC (reach), Chapman, U of the Pacific, and possibly UCI, UCSC, U Vic and Utah in the west. There are some good programs in the east as well but I’m not sure he needs to look that far if he can find what he wants closer to home. (Northeastern, Drexel, Champlain, Lehigh, Rensselaer, RIT, WPI).</p>
<p>My S’11 and now S’14 have definitely not taken the lead in the college search process, but have a least been willing participants. I chose a bunch of possible schools in one region of the country that’s driving distance from here and told him to choose 5. (Then I slipped in a 6th that wasn’t on my original list for a drive-by because it’s right in between two that he did choose.) He’s willingly coming along on the visits at least.</p>
<p>In the interest of full disclosure, I should add that I am the one digging up schools for the most part. I have a huge spreadsheet based on his criteria. If he knew how much time I spend online he would probably have me declared mentally incompetent.</p>
<p>A great tip on not overwhelming a disinterested child is to talk about college with them less, not more, often. Sometimes natural anxiety over the future masquerades as lack of interest or irritability.</p>
<p>That’s a good point seattle_mom. The college counselors at his school warned the parents about making every dinner conversation about the college process, and it seems that is what I am doing! I guess I’ll have to work behind the scenes, as you are doing, and select some schools myself. I’d like to line up some New England (that’s where we are from) schools to visit the second week of March vacation. We will have to save any “distance” schools until summer, although seeing a school not in session doesn’t seem like the right thing to do.</p>
<p>@beady</p>
<p>Do you have the link to that video? I would love to see it!</p>
<p>seattle mom–loved the comment “Chipotle on campus was a strong selling point”. I can only imagine my son’s reaction if we found a Five Guys on a campus!</p>
<p>I am also fully driving the process but am happy that both boys accompany me on our trips. My HS Jr thinks my efforts are completely over the top, but since he is not taking an interest in the planning process, I will.</p>
<p>Good morning all. Hope everyone hit by the blizzard is doing okay, staying warm and successfully digging out from under.</p>
<p>Interesting discussion about who should be taking the lead on the initial steps of the college search process. Some kids just jump in; others are not as interested or, perhaps, don’t even really know how. I’m on my 3rd and final and this D doesn’t really know how and, honestly, with her school and extra-curricular schedule, it’s easier for me to do some leg work, check in with her to get feedback that i’m on the right path and carry on. I’m relating this to a college trip we’ll be taking shortly as she has a week off school in February. As we’re on the west coast and my kids all wanted to go east (or, at least explore it), we go on a college trip Feb of junior year so they can see campuses in the cold and snow. I am thankful that we’re missing the blizzard! </p>
<p>So we leave within the week and will be seeing 7 schools. D is thinking mechanical engineering so we’re focusing on schools that have engineering programs. Looking forward to spending time with her and an extra bonus is that we’ll spend a night with one of my other D’s who’s a senior in college.</p>
<p>I’m an obsessive spreadsheeter as well. I picked out my d’s schools as well - we’ve now narrowed it down to 9. I find our gc completely useless except having his assistant send in records. He lowballs the kids so much all to preserve his percentage of admits on his picks. To me, if you don’t get denied anywhere - you didn’t reach high enough. </p>
<p>If I can throw in something I wished I had done last time - find 2 safeties they love. Spend more time finding them because if it comes down to it, they’ll appreciate having a choice. The horror stories here are sickening of kids overshooting and getting waitlisted and denied everywhere. Right now it’s all abstract - next year when you’re chewing your nails off waiting for answers you’ll appreciate having a couple in the bag. </p>
<p>We have 3 safeties - we’re going this Friday to see the first one. We’ve decided lots of schools at once and lots of driving is an easy way to kill her enthusiasm. </p>
<p>She should be doing the writing section of her ACT as we speak - can’t wait to hear what she thought of it all!</p>
<p>Also, do EA or rolling admission at the safeties if possible. It’s great to have those <em>for sure</em> when you’re waiting to hear from the reaches/matches. Well, do as much as you can EA really, there’s nothing to lose and you get an answer sooner :)</p>
<p>Mathmomvt–regarding nothing to lose with EA…I would just caveat that this may not be 100% true for schools that offer BOTH EA & ED. I cannot guess why a school would offer both, but have observed EA deferrals of more ‘qualified’ candidates where the ED option also exists. </p>
<p>There probably still isn’t anything to lose as long as the decision is a deferral and not a rejection, but perhaps that rejection would have come from the RD round anyway. Yield management…</p>
<p>We don’t have any experience applying to schools with both, but I can’t imagine that applying EA hurts compared to RD. You might have something to lose with EA compared to applying ED of course, but you’re not going to apply to your safeties ED, and getting deferred is no worse than just applying RD.</p>
<p>Question</p>
<p>If dd applies to a rolling admit school during the summer and gets in, then decides to apply ED to a school in the fall… what happens then?</p>
<p>mathmom–I don’t have any experience at all since this is my 1st child! I just recall hearing about both Elon and Colorado College deferring EA applicants while accepting ‘less qualified’ ED applicants. I think in both cases the deferrals were more of a psychic blow since the applicants were also deferred from their RD choices.</p>
<p>S’11 didn’t do any ED, and S’14 doesn’t intend to, so I haven’t really investigated the ins and outs of it fully, but my understanding is that you can keep applying to certain rolling and EA schools (rules vary according to your ED school) while waiting for your ED decision. Once you have an ED acceptance AND a financial aid package if relevant, you decide if you can afford the ED school, and if so, you make a deposit with the ED school withdraw your applications from any other schools, and decline anywhere else you may already have been accepted. If you can’t afford it, you tell the ED school and get released from your ED commitment, but cannot go back and decide to attend that school anyhow if it turns out that your dd doesn’t get any better offers. Once you turn it down, it’s gone.</p>
<p>If you’re just asking whether a rolling acceptance prevents your dd from applying ED somewhere, the answer should always be no, assuming of course that she hasn’t made a deposit or commitment to the rolling school.</p>
<p>Schools do sometimes give a “bump” to kids applying ED – this would be compared to both EA and RD kids.</p>
<p>Sample ED rules. Cornell says
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<p>Williams College says:
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<p>Yale offers an unusual “single-choice early action” program which is non-binding but which limits where else you may apply early, but still allows you to apply for rolling admissions.
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<p>CT1417 - 5guys opened down the street from us this week. I’ll tell S to check it out.</p>
<p>labbydog - for March visits, check the college website to make sure that they are not on break.</p>
<p>NewHaven - I think she would treat the rolling admit like an open application. According to the ED agreement, she would cancel that application (notify the school that she will not be attending) when she receives the ED acceptance.</p>
<p>I agree that EA/rolling is a great thing to do if you can. It takes a big weight off their shoulders to find out in December that they’re going to college, instead of waiting until March to hear from anyone at all.</p>
<p>Scowling DD is sitting in the ACT rightnow. I pick her up in a couple of hours. She was insistent with her dad this morning that it started at 8:30 am–although it was quite clear on the ticket I printed that it was 8 am. Perhaps a little unconscious self-sabotage–hope her mood improved! It is her first time taking it and although she prepped some, I hope her defeatist attitude turns around and that she walks out of it feeling better. </p>
<p>Just got off the phone with a long-distance friend whose son is driving the college admissions search. She read to me the list of the schools they will be visiting–majority are “lottery schools” and he has yet to take the SAT or ACT! She’s divorced and while her income is low, her ex-H has a high paying job and comes from a wealthy family (current home is worth millions) where all the siblings have ownership in the LLC. Having run the financial aid caluclators on our combined income and knowing we won’t qualify for much if any financial aid (and not being even close to the assets he has on his books), I talked to her about how it was unlikely that her son would qualify for financial aid. Ex-H has said he will not contribute to his son’s college nor are the grandparents willing to help out. I talked to her about adding some safeties and finding schools where he might qualify for a full-ride. She just doesn’t want to hear it. Poor kid is going to be very disappointed. I’ve encouraged her to find out her EFC but what can you do. </p>
<p>Curious if any of you have any info on University of Richmond? School counselor recommended it. I know nothing about it.</p>
<p>Hope all of you in Blizzard Country are staying warm and safe.</p>