<p>We took advantage of spring break and took DD to visit Purdue and Univeristy of Illinois (Ch/Ur) last week. Wow - things have changed in 25 years! DD is taking a practice ACT today and we are gearing up for the end of HS Soph year & finals in about a month. Both admissions departments reminded everyone about the importance of applying early and keeping a calendar just for college dates & deadlines so nothing slips between the cracks. Is high school almost 1/2 over for our kids already?</p>
<p>mspearl - Our older S graduated from Miami and really enjoyed his 4 years there. It is an excellent school with a great business program (his major). The campus is beautiful as well.</p>
<p>Congrats on the Kenyon choice for D12. Enjoy the visit to Miami and the other schools.</p>
<p>Spring break will be a bit crazy in our house. Sâ14 is spending the weekend working as a referee for youth soccer games. Hey, itâs a job, he makes good money and he loves being outside. We have an inspection set for Monday on the home we are buying (or hope to buy). Then, we are heading to Alabama to see the oldest son, who receiving all kinds of awards during Honors Week. Sâ14 has an interview at the Honors College, which should be good for him. He really likes the school. (Actually, he likes football, the rec center and all the pretty girls, too) ⊠Meanwhile, he has set his schedule for next year â AB/BC calculus (all-year class), APUSH, AP English Language (not his favorite subject), AP Bio (another all-year class), physics and life fitness. At least he wonât be bored.</p>
<p>That sounds like a challenging schedule, momreads, both for spring break and for your sonâs next school year. If Alabama is a good match for him, I would hope that they would throw all sorts of merit money at him. Iâm amazed that they are interviewing him so soon.</p>
<p>Mspearl, Congratulations on your daughterâs happy decision. Just think, financial aid should improve when you have two in college (Believe me, Iâm counting on it since by 2013 I will have two in college and Iâll have three in college in 2014 unless S14 takes a gap year).</p>
<p>Iâve read (here on CC) and heard from parents that sophomore year is too early to look at colleges. After our whirlwind spring break Disneyland/college tour, I have to disagree. It was a wonderful trip and a great reality check for D, regarding highly selective schools.</p>
<p>We visited:</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd
Caltech
Occidental
UCSB
Santa Clara
Stanford</p>
<p>She now has a better idea of the size of campus she is comfortable on and the true selectivity of these schools.</p>
<p>Hello! I have a D2014 and am happy to find this thread. Also a S2012 and am hoping I will be a little better prepared to help DD.
Regarding the posts about taking SATâs in Middle School, my kids were invited to take the Johns Hopkins talent search, but I didnât think it was worthwhile, but am sorry they didnât. My D just took the SATs in March, much earlier than her brother. She did a little prep, did the sample question of the day for a while, looked at website. Got a 2100, but we are hoping she can do a little better.
Jr year was definitely the toughest for my S and expect it to be much more stressful for D who just stresses much more the S ever did. She will take 4 APs next year. I donât know if any classmates will take more, but I think is this may be the most Jrs will be able to take.</p>
<p>Good Luck to all!</p>
<p>Momreads~we just got back from UAâs early college orientation for Dâ14 and I think she is starting to fall in love 
H was also impressed (again!) with the administration and faculty. D1 is hoping D2 will follow her to UA. We arenât pushing, but she is definitely aware of the opportunities that will be available with the merit money they give! We are hoping to work a formal college tour and visit with the honors college this fall, after she has taken the ACT.</p>
<p>Hi All, Looking for some advice about college campus tours. We are very excited to be going down to DC next week to take a look at GWU, AU, UofMaryland - CP, and Georgetown. Since this is our first set of tours with our first (ddâ14), would love some feedback from those parents with older kids on tips for tours. Good questions to ask, etc. Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>I wonder if you could add a smaller college so that your daughter could get a sense of how size affects student life. I think most of the schools you plan to visit are about the same size. If your D loves DC it is good that you are visiting all three of the private schools in the area because selectivity and financial aid varies a great deal between the three of them. I know my D13 would probably love Georgetown and she has a friend there but I hesitate to take her to visit because they are not known for being generous. It should be a beautiful time to visit DC. Get away from the colleges and visit Dumbarton Oaks park. You wonât regret it!</p>
<p>Having just lived through the first admissions with my older son I have to say there is a balance between obsessing about college for a 10th grader, and being aware and light planning. My son saw too many schools on trips with his hs and then didnât feel like doing it once it was for real. However, I feel at the end of the day we had the right list, the right plan of attack and he had great choices.</p>
<p>DD 14 and I are touring 4 schools at the tail end of a spring break trip. This will give her an idea of city, big public, small private, medium private. Just a looksie for her to start thinking what kind of school sheâll be looking for.</p>
<p>The question I want answered by each individual school - when you say you are looking for rigorous coursework, what is the average amount of honors and ap classes your accepted student takes in high school. I think many on CC feel if you arenât taking 5 a year youâre doomed, and that just isnât so. My theory is - take the highest level class where you can get an A or B without everything else suffering.</p>
<p>Eyemamom:
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<p>This is exactly what the presenter at Stanford told us. Every school is different, and they understand this. The ad coms are looking to see that the student took advantage of what was offered.</p>
<p>from pinkmomagain:
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<p>Iâve only done it once with my daughter whoâs now a freshman, but I think the most important thing is: stay neutral. Hang back. Itâs her journey. Let her ask questions, or choose which tour guide she wants to follow. If you know your child, youâll start to sense their take on the school. They donât want or need to hear: âhoney â did you hear that? Free ice cream!â They are absorbing the info and filtering it and processing it.</p>
<p>However, you can be a useful resource when they try to remember which school was which (especially if you see 5 or 6 in one trip). Take notes; take photos. Itâs like when youâre looking at real estate â after a while, you get the gourmet kitchen of one house mixed up with the big back yard of another house. Itâs hard to keep them all straight. Or you might take silent notes on things like guaranteed housing all four years, or how safe the neighboring town is.</p>
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<p>This is exactly how I handled our spring break visits. DDâ14 and DSâ17 were up front on tours. I stayed back, chatted with other parents.</p>
<p>Once we were at lunch we debriefed. D gave us her take on the school, THEN I chimed in with my thoughts. This way, she wasnât unduly swayed by my opinion. S was really along for the ride, although he had some insightful moments as well. Unfortunately H was not able to make this trip. But thatâs just as well. He tends to have stage whispers that everyone can hear. Weâll need to gag him this summer, lol.</p>
<p>I also knew which schools my son like most based on how close he stayed to the tour guide and how many questions he asked. Except of course when it was a pretty girl, then heâd always be right up front.</p>
<p>My older son ('11/'15) was too shy to ask questions for the most part so I often asked a tour guide or other student we met what they liked best about their school, and what they wished was different. (Itâs better to ask that one-on-one if you can â in front of a large group they are less likely to âcomplainâ about the things they donât like as much)</p>
<p>^^^^ Funny! Both my kids liked being up front, easier to hear. </p>
<p>Thereâs a thread about tours somewhere, not sure, but I have to tell you about our poor Caltech tour guide. She walked backwards the entire time (which many do) and ran smack into a pole. She also nearly twisted her ankle stepping off of a curb. Made me nervous!</p>
<p>They all walked backwards except at Santa Clara, where they seem to have some sense. Sheesh.</p>
<p>eyemamom, I did have a feeling weâd found the place when we went to lunch with the student ambassadors from his intended department, and while I ran off to find a bathroom, he seated himself right next to the ambassador and was asking questions! (That is where he ended up attending.) I had broken the ice earlier by voicing a concern that my son had voiced to me, to the student, who gave my son a helpful reply. If your student is more outgoing, you should be able to just hang back. But if you have a shy one, you might need to get the ball rolling a bit yourself ;-)</p>
<p>We spent two nights visiting a college town over spring break. We had to schedule around 3 tennis matches but made sure we were in Pittsuburgh for a weekday and did the tour at Pitt.
I have to say that DH travels the country for his job and works with colleges so my boys have been on many campuses. </p>
<p>We really had a wonderful tour on a very busy day. We didnât stand out with a sophomore because there were so many tours and info sessions going on. Even younger DS who had complained like crazy really enjoyed the campus tour. DH and I said we werenât going to keep talking college stuff but couldnât help it since it is also work related for him. DS also got tired quickly and didnât want to make small talk with hubbyâs colleagues.</p>
<p>We did other touristy stuff in Pittsburgh and tried to forget about the college in 2 years thing. I had also scheduled an info session at CMU, mostly just to see if DS would prefer info or tour. We all would choose TOUR. The kids and their parents all seemed pretty intense. The good thing is that we can now say, âIf you want to compete at that level, we may have to change your schedule to add an AP Science junior year.â All their SAT IIâs are very specific to which school you apply to. </p>
<p>DS is pretty sure he wants a big city. Pitt is smaller than a couple of our state Uâs. What would be a smaller college in the midwest? Butler, Marquette, or DePaul? (he also wants a sports atmosphere) We probably wonât do anything else until Junior year but any other suggestions?</p>
<p>First time posting here⊠but Iâm glad the group exists! I have a Dâ13 for whom weâve been looking at colleges, and on her heels a Dâ14 son as well as a 2017 son who is being left alone⊠for now! Took D to look at JMU (James Madison Univ, in VA) and took S along, although they are very different students. D is all about perfect grades in honors/ AP classes. S is willing to take a few honors/ AP classes, and also willing to accept Bs given the alternative is to work much harder and stress much more. Anyway, he loved JMU and has a new outlook on things now. My point being, its probably worth starting the search with sophomores if you think they may be jolted into putting forth a bit more effort and thereby opening up options as far as colleges they could become a âmatchâ for, as opposed to a âreachâ. Iâm hoping it works. Maybe by the time I join the HS class of 2017 board Iâll know if it doesâŠ</p>