<p>Classof2015 … I like how you think!</p>
<p>It’s been rough getting DD14 to come up w/ some choices to look at over spring break. I think over this long 4 day weekend, we finally nailed down some choices and a game plan. </p>
<p>On paper, it looks like U of Rochester might be a perfect fit … we’ll see I guess.</p>
<p>2014novamom . . . . just, wow!</p>
<p>KaMaMom: My husband is a graduate of the U of R. Oldest son was accepted there with a very nice scholarship. Excellent school. Open curriculum. But, do not be surprised if it snows while there. Snow does happen in late March and early April.</p>
<p>Got spring break/college plans hammered down. Going to Mississippi State for a tour and a meeting with the department chair in econ/finance. Stopping in Tuscaloosa to pick up things from the oldest son’s apartment to take them home, as he graduates in May. Then, heading to Georgia Southern for a tour and visit. Oldest son speaks highly of the school. It’s only 80 or so miles from my parents in SC. And we’ll stop and see them for a few days.</p>
<p>beady – it’s whatever you want to make it. Right now, the choice for him is between more selective and safeties/test-optional schools. I was just getting so frustrated – I had booked 3 visits for this break. He seemed like he was ok with the plan then he announced he didn’t want to go to 2 of them. This is after I arranged the hotel, took the time off, re-arranged SAT tutors around the trip. So frustrating. They’re just so apathetic about the whole process.</p>
<p>So I let him knock out one (Franklin & Marshall) and leave 2 (Lafayette and Loyola). Because otherwise the break would be a total bust.</p>
<p>His other schools (Rhodes and Sewanee) will have to be seen in the summer.</p>
<p>KaMaMom - My son is a freshman at Univ of Rochester if you have any questions. He loves it there, feels challenged, enjoys being around lots of smart kids. The curriculum is perhaps the best I’ve ever seen. </p>
<p>We’re thinking through the spring break trip now. My d gets 11 days off of school. Thursday til the next Monday. I think we’re going to fly to see Auburn back and forth in 2 days - fly down Thursday, stay over, visit Friday, fly back Friday afternoon. Have the weekend off, then take off Monday for the driving part of the tour to see 3 more schools - Christopher Newport, NC State, Va Tech. That’ll only leave 2 more after that to see.</p>
<p>We have 3 solid yes I’ll applies on our list, with 9 total, I’ll be curious how many are on the real list come September.</p>
<p>eyemamom - I had forgotten you had a '14 too - as do I (my youngest)! I guess we’re both in that cycle again. I had been sort of putting it off with lots of help from youngest who definitely doesn’t feel like looking. He wants to GO to college, but not all the rest of the stuff that goes with it (testing, visits, etc).</p>
<p>Kamamom - my middle also enjoys U Rochester and is super glad he picked the school. Youngest would like it except it’s in the north and he wants tropical Bio/Botany. He hasn’t picked schools yet, but they’ll be in the south. </p>
<p>We only have 2 - 3 days off for spring break, so our visits may have to be over the summer. We can’t afford airline flights to multiple places right now - plus - the kid has yet to pick the schools to visit. He’s taking the SAT in March and it’s all I can do to get him to pick up a prep book a little bit. He’s a Bio kid and not so high with English/math plus our school does little (content-wise) to prepare kids for the tests.</p>
<p>He is going to Franklin & Marshall tomorrow for their College Summit. I’m hoping it inspires him even though it’s not the school for him (already visited it with middle son).</p>
<p>I do need to get out of my cloud pretending I can put things off and spend more time on this thread gearing up for another round at it all.</p>
<p>Our spring break is Holy Week, so many of the church affiliated schools d wants to look at will be closed at the end of the week. And d has some track meets the first part. We might be able to squeeze in one visit during spring break. </p>
<p>We’ve got our fingers crossed for no snow days the rest of the winter so she gets the day off in April and we can squeeze in another.</p>
<p>beadymom: When I gave him the binder, I asked him to spend 30-45 minutes looking through it and visiting websites, etc. which he did. I actually have a copy of the binder for myself, and DS, DH, and I have scheduled a time this weekend to sit and chat about its contents and any revisions, etc.</p>
<p>I think now that it’s second semester he’s becoming more focused on the process. He has a lot of friends who have already been accepted early, and he’s also been in attendance at a bunch of Senior Night events at school so it’s becoming real to him. A couple of coaches have also been in contact with him, asking for transcripts and test scores so he sees that he is on the recruiting radar for some small D3 schools and that’s also making him focus. </p>
<p>We have a spring break trip scheduled for the midwest and the big engineering schools there, as well as Northwestern (DH and I are alums) and Wash U.</p>
<p>Although we live in No. Virginia and have plenty of schools around us, it’s hard to get away to see them even for a day trip. I don’t want to pull him out of school (nor does DS want to miss any days) and the weekends are jammed with activities. Although not ideal, I think we’ll have to schedule some trips this summer to see schools in Pennsylvania and also in New England (separate trips).</p>
<p>momreads, creekland & eyemamom … I might take you up on some questions eventually about U of Roc … you may be sorry you asked! lol!</p>
<p>I believe they have a BS/MD program that DD14 may be interested in. Now that really is a long shot on acceptance (to say the least) and I really don’t know how I feel about that. She’s wanted to be a doctor forever … but making lifetime decisions while 17/18, I dunno. I’d hate for her to feel stifled and not take other opportunities that might interest her.</p>
<p>Or as my youngest daughter retweeted the other day: “it’s ridiculous how so much of your future depends on how successful you are as a teenager”</p>
<p>Preach on.</p>
<p>2014novamom–following up on your comment…even if your son’s weekends weren’t jammed, I am finding that very few schools offer Saturday tours & info sessions during the winter and spring. The few that are offered are the accepted student days in April. I had glanced at visit calendars last fall and even squeezed in a trip during the Sandy power outage, including Saturday tours, so I was surprised to learn that Saturday visits are more of a fall option.</p>
<p>We have all of the April break week to visit schools, but it isn’t as much time as it appears given the distances involved. There are some days when we will only be able to visit one school, especially if an interview in involved. Not hitting panic mode yet but realizing that more will be deferred to summer than I initially realized.</p>
<p>I love the idea of your binder and need to get all of my files off the computer and into a binder so that someone other than me can benefit from my research.</p>
<p>Creekland–F&M is on our list but I know almost nothing about it. Can you share why you think it will not be the right fit for your son? You may save me a trip!</p>
<p>Classof2015–will also like to hear your thoughts on Lafayette. Another on our list for April break. Am not sure how many small schools in PA I can visit in one week! We visited Loyola last summer and the entire family still talks about the tour guide who repeatedly said “Me and my friends like to go to…”. It is amazing how such a tiny thing can color an otherwise lovely impression.</p>
<p>At this point, I am driving the entire process and wondering when engagement will kick in. He buckled down and took the SATs twice last fall, but he has zero interest in researching colleges.</p>
<p>CT1417, you DS will thank you one day :)</p>
<p>Hey Creek! Looks like you’re in the same boat as me - all that researching and visiting and the next one wants something completely different!</p>
<p>KaMom - I think it’s okay if they change their mind even if they’re accepting to the md program. I completely agree with how insane it is that ages 14 - 17 can set the course of your life. I mean c’mon, they’re kind of just a bunch of dopey teenagers, how would they have any idea what they really want out of life?</p>
<p>I actually feel much calmer this time around - I fixed the mistakes I made the first time around. The other day you all were talking about sat 2 prep - I looked over to my hubby and said - honey, we forgot to have S study for them (he’s in college now) I didn’t get it together to have him try the SAT and ACT and the worst mistake I made…drumroll please… didn’t research safeties enough!</p>
<p>KaMaMom - BS/MD programs are super competitive and pretty much require a student have had a bit of medical exposure - enough to know they want med school - and then top stats. We opted not to worry about it. As many people told us along the way, if someone is good enough to get into a BS/MD program they will get into med school anyway. By not going that route, one leaves more options open. While it’s true that no BS/MD I know of is binding, it can put pressure on a student to follow through with that path. In reality they may find they prefer a different med school, or research, or something totally different.</p>
<p>CT1417 - F&M didn’t work for middle son because they offer no merit aid. He had high stats, so we took advantage of good schools that offer merit aid and eliminated all choices that did not. It won’t be right for youngest because he wants tropical Bio/Botany - something not found in PA. It IS a good school that is very well respected around here and students who go there like it.</p>
<p>Eyemamom- I could go through mistakes too, but I have a class coming in, so should switch my attention to them!</p>
<p>Timely article…
if you go to the wsj site, you can sort the data</p>
<p>[A</a> Degree Drawn in Red Ink - Yahoo! Finance](<a href=“http://finance.yahoo.com/news/degree-drawn-red-ink-021000044.html]A”>http://finance.yahoo.com/news/degree-drawn-red-ink-021000044.html)</p>
<p>Interesting and timely, fogfog. Thanks.</p>
<p>We have most of our east coast spring break tour planned. Hope to find out whether or not DD can see herself living on the east coast and hopefully find some safeties she can love. By the time we leave, we should have her February ACT score so that if we need to make adjustments, we can. For fun we’ll tour a couple of “lottery” schools–mainly because we have friends nearby for free lodging! I’ll be playing chauffer–hopefully traffic isn’t as bad as I’ve heard. The longest stretch will be between Boston and Philadelphia. All those east coast cities look so close together on the map! Wish we had more time to make it a “real” family vacation but since her younger 13-year old brother will be tagging along, I know we’ll have to make some allowances.</p>
<p>And a big unsolicited mailer from University of Rochester arrived today.</p>
<p>I do believe that’s what’s called a sign!</p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>^^^ Sounds good! Middle son absolutely loves it there - snow and all. Youngest loves it except for the snow and that they don’t have what he wants to study.</p>
<p>go2mom–the traffic can be as bad as you have heard or you may just get lucky. It really depends on the time of day you are traveling. Boston to Philly is a longish stretch. What time will you be leaving Boston? Depending on where you are going and where you are staying, you may be better off just leaving your car and taking mass transit around Boston.</p>
<p>And, if you post the schools you will be visiting in Boston, I may have some suggestions for diversions for the 13 year old. I haven’t lived in Boston in 25 years but visit somewhat regularly.</p>
<p>go2 - probably the worst traffic will be getting through Connecticut. If you accept you will sit in construction and take longer than the gps tells you, you should be okay. It’s like saying, I’m going to the west coast and we’re going to san diego, san franciso and portland…is 3 days enough for that? lol</p>
<p>My d has a weird thing - we live on the east coast and she wants to stick on the east coast. I told her 10 hours south isn’t any different than 10 hours west. But I’m certainly not going to push her for no reason to the mid-west or west coast. </p>
<p>My S hasn’t really talked about being bothered by the weather in Rochester, I’d never do it. I can barely handle the cold of the mid-atlantic. </p>
<p>And since I don’t believe in coincidences… I’ll say it’s interesting you got the mailer today of all days.</p>
<p>LOL eyemamom… good to catch up on what you’ve been up to lately:) I can’t believe we are going through this AGAIN! I am with you in that DS14 has not one school on his list that DS12 had… so totally different thing going on. We are headed to OH( which DS12 has made rolled eyes to DS14 about…but only because there are no mountains in the mid-west.) DS14 is all over the place, big school/small school, west coast/east coast/mid-west, BFA/ BA…AHHHHH!!! Calgon!!</p>