<p>SIU - one son kind of liked it, other hated it
Murray - both liked
Mississippi State - both loved (campus is beautiful - tour and facilities are very impressive)
UWSP - son loved the program, rest really didn’t matter to him - loved the idea of Tree Haven
Bowling Green - other twin loved it, likely choice (Digital Arts)
Northern Michigan - both liked it, nice school - beautiful spot, but brrrrrrr</p>
<p>Early on, we really wanted to visit Ohio U - a relative of mine went there and loved it. I guess the campus is gorgeous. It’s a little bit above what we want to pay, and the twin it would be for is NOT a partier - not sure if he would fit into that atmosphere at the former #1 party school in the US.</p>
<p>Ball State is right in the wheelhouse also. Thought about visiting - but it’s very much on par with Bowling Green (although not as strong in Digital Arts) and I’m not adding more to the mix now. </p>
<p>Miami of Ohio is in a college town and it is very quiet in the summer. You would not get a sense of the student body if you visited in the summer. They have just built a brand new student center and it is fabulous! There are a lot of “preppy” kids at Miami but there is also a pretty large group of alternative/hippy/artsy types also. </p>
<p>@kmanshouse - thanks for the summaries. You were right about the ugly campus of UW-SP. We went at the beginning of Nov. and it was a cold, grey day. The campus was dead (Sat. morning) and it did not leave a great impression. You are right about the Nat. Res. dept though - I was very impressed and thought it might be an ok fit for her, but she nixed it as soon as we were in the car!</p>
<p>The professor we talked to at Murray did mention the recent retirement of the head of the dept. He mourned the loss for the valuable information this person had to teach and he sounded like a wonderful man. But we were shown all the facilities in the new bio bldg and we were just very impressed. It was right around lunch time and he stopped to specifically point out the “roach coach” that the campus now has to offer lunch on a rolling basis to the students and staff. Apparently the food is quite tasty, although not exactly the best for your waste line!</p>
<p>@ahsmuoh - my aunt works on the Miami campus and she did say that it a very different place in the summer and the best time to see it is during school. I think we will make this summer tour and then fill out apps. If she gets in, she is interested and they show us the $$$, we will go back for another visit.</p>
<p>@ILMom13579, yes, we saw UWSP at spring break, on a Monday. It was a mild, grey day there, no leaves on trees yet. Kids were milling about, probably hungover from the weekend, going to class. It wasn’t hustle-bustle, but not dead either. The general presentation done by the admissions office in the auditorium left a solid impression though. Went on and on about the Schmeekle reserve, and this couple of restaurants downtown, as well as all the athletics, etc. It was a different picture than the Monday morning blahs the students were carrying around.</p>
<p>@illinoismom4, definitely check out Murray State. It won’t “wow” you, but it’s very solid. The tour is friendly and thorough. Also, they have the Land Between The Lakes about 20 miles away, which I guess is very cool. We didn’t go because we drove through a blizzard in central IL (spring break 2013) to get down there and were behind schedule. Friendly people down there. Not much of a town. We have a friend whose kid is going to Murray State in the fall, and he is a good student from a family with $$$ to spend. </p>
<p>@kmanshouse -thanks for the info on Murray State. I mentioned it to S last night and he said he’d heard of it-always a plus. Not much of a town could be the big drawback for him. He’s still making comments about the lack of a city around Truman State from when we visited.</p>
<p>@illinoismom4 - Murray has so much more to offer than Kirksville. Kentucky Lake and plenty of nature reserves are only short car-rides away. A better business district in walking distance. The area is more beautiful. And to top it off, if you have to live in KY, why not in the #1 city:</p>
<p>UGH. Ours were online today. You will not believe this. One twin needs a 26 to get the extra merit at BGSU - worth about $3500-$4000/year. His score? 25.25. One more friggin’ point on any section and he’d have a 26 composite. I am so frustrated. We will make him take it again. His three attempts are 25, 24, and 25. But the first 25 was rounded up instead of down, so there’s some hope. </p>
<p>Other son went down from 24 to 23. He is done. I’m not making him take it anymore. He’ll just have a 24 as his best score and that’s that. He’ll still get into one of the schools. He was 24, 24, 23. I think he’s just had it.</p>
<p>The scoring seems odd. Both my sons are strongest in Reading and English. Both got their highest Reading scores ever - in the 30s!! But they both got 21 in Science, which is the lowest scores they’ve ever received in that subsection. Very strange!</p>
<p>D finally checked her ACT score. She was very very nervous. She had previously taken the exam twice and got the exact same score with slight differences in the subsections (e.g., if math went up two points on the second exam, science went down two points). She crafted her college list based on these scores. She just wanted to go up one point, expecting at most two points.</p>
<p>We got her report card yesterday. It was a good one continuing a steady upward trend - no C’s (yay!). Not straight As but that’s why I’m in this thread, right? With that to bolster her confidence, I asked if she wanted to check the ACT site.</p>
<p>She went up 4 points! </p>
<p>The college list stays the same. These are good schools for her; most are CTCL with a couple of others. All are aimed at the B/B+ student. Her new score is at or above the 75th percentile for these schools. Her old scores were at the 50th percentile. Needless to say, she is done with the ACT.</p>
<p>@slackermomMD, Congrats on the good news on the ACT scores and the report card! I can just imagine how happy you must have felt when it was all good news for your D…we so want them to do well and feel good about themselves…so exciting when it happens. :-)</p>
<p>@kmanshouse,
Ugh!! I totally feel for you. For the BGSU kid, what about hiring a private tutor for his next act prep? If it costs $400-600 and he gets a scholarship worth $4000 per year, then it will be worth the investment.</p>
<p>@kmanshouse - @YoHoYoHo has a good idea about hiring a private tutor. It would be money well spent.</p>
<p>A private tutor wasn’t an option for us so H and I worked with D. I’m the crazy mom who took the practice test with D - anything to get her to take the practice test on a somewhat regular basis. It wasn’t particularly intense - one test a week (turns out, I’m not a great study-er either) but we had six months to prepare her for the ACT. Her last ACT was in October 2013. She was so thoroughly demoralized that I decided the next test had to be the end of the school year; she didn’t start studying until January. We probably didn’t get “serious” about the test until March.</p>
<p>She improved by just taking the tests but one day, I decided to score the subsections. I’m glad I did. In English it was obvious she was missing way more “Usage” questions than “Rhetoric” questions. She would typically get around 15-18 wrong and 12-15 were Usage while only 3-5 were Rhetoric. So, I had her study Usage. She spent a month just taking the English practice tests. It took a while but she managed to get the number wrong in Usage below 10. Then she worked to get the total number wrong to under 10. Her English score went from 25 to over 30. </p>
<p>I think a private tutor could and would do something similar with your sons. The tutor could look at the subsections and identify weak areas. If they are especially lopsided, like D, correcting the weak area would make their scores rise. </p>
<p>=D> =D> :D/ to slakermommd d. You are a brave mom; I did do the testing along with D like you said and her study time increased and so did her composite.<br>
We are OFFICIALLY done with the Red Book.
Funny you mention BGSU D wants to check it out because of the gerontology program. It is a safety on her list university wise but maybe not the program. She will be meeting with the Dean to discuss with her the requirements and the admission processes on our way home from Toronto.
Kmanshouse did you check the scholarship calculator? D is eligible for 1/2 OOS fee and 4,000 more so close to 8,000. I thought 1/2 OOS fee start at a 24?</p>
<p>Been laid low by illness! Better now thankfully so I thought I would check in.</p>
<p>I have no understanding of the ACT but I am very sorry @kmanshouse that sounds beyond frustrating. I hope the next time is a charm.</p>
<p>@slackermom that is great news-so you are the parent I remember who takes the practice tests with your kid-love it! I took one section of the SAT CR years ago with my know it all son and got a perfect score which shut him up and he did as he was told from then on! :)</p>
<p>My daughter went up a very good amount on the SAT-her scores would still be frowned upon by most CC standards but IRL they will now not hurt her-they won’t help but she won’t get chucked on the auto reject pile now. No prep but a fantastic English teacher and several more months post-concussion did the trick. Biggest improvement by far was Writing which doesn’t count much these days! She is much better at Math and that was her lowest score but she is fairly balanced-these results do not line up with her ability levels so like you I find the whole thing puzzling.</p>
<p>She is now very motivated to study so I got her some recommended books and a friend has offered (and more amazingly she has accepted) the offer of tutoring on CR and W and her brother bravely volunteered to help her out with Math. I do not anticipate this changing the schools she will apply to and told her she was good for the schools on her list but her favorite school does award merit and she wants to try-I do not see how she can raise the scores enough to make the place affordable but it’s her call.</p>
<p>I told her the day she got her scores and was visibly relieved that she would not be perceived as “stupid” anymore that she was the same kid she was before she saw the results and after she saw them-I hope she listened to that but these things are just so powerful it is hard to help them through it.</p>
<p>@pepper03 good to hear. My D ACT went up too. They aren’t good enough to get into to Havard but they will get her into all the schools on her list.
D internship has cemented her thoughts on her major and she is getting anxious for the next journey past high school. </p>