Wonderful news @Fishnlines29 !
@Fishnlines29 congrats that is so cool!!!
@Fishnlines29 That is awesome news! How did she manage studying abroad for her freshman year? What a great opportunity!
Congrats, @Fishnlines29 ! What an honor!
TacoSon had a rough day with Spanish but I think he is back to feeling he’ll just ride it out. The pressure to get a B or higher is off, and we may explore a Pass/Fail option, but it’s more likely he’ll leave it as is. He’ll have the IB exam in May, and after that there’s basically nothing to do until his last day of school, so there’s that to look forward to. I suggested he take the SATII for Spanish just to see if he can place out of FL in college, and he flatly refuses to take any tests he needs to get up early for on a Saturday (IB is during school hours).
Congrats @Fishnlines29 Freshman year abound sounds original. Was it something she wanted?
Thanks everyone! I haven’t figured out how to tell Drexel we have to withdraw from admitted students day this Saturday. :-S
@mackatarinasmom and @curiositycat333
Yes, she decided to apply to NYU’s Core Liberal studies program as her first choice after we sat in the information session about it during the Open House in the fall. For this program you spend your first year abroad taking core classes in either Paris, Florence, London or Washington DC. The program touts smaller class sizes and more interesting core classes. She felt the program would fit her perfectly, giving her a chance to explore (in more of a philosophical manner) prior to committing to the sciences. She chose Paris as her 1st choice and lucked out! I gave her an “out” last night if she didn’t want to go that far, but she’s still all in.
How the heck are you going to move your D into a dorm in Paris. @Fishnlines29 ? :))
@Fishnlines29 how wonderful!!! Congratulations, that is so exciting. I’m in the city for work right now and thought of you as my cab went by NYU earlier tonight!
@tacocat333 hugs! We had a rough year with Spanish last year with S17 and its brutal in French with S19 right now. For totally different reasons though.
I will be very curious to see how S17 “really” feels about some of his schools when reminded that he will have to take a language at some. He too, refused to try to test out last year with a SAT II test. My gut right now is his short list of 4, may really turn into 2.
Congrats on NYU and the year in Paris. As for Drexel, just email them asap and say something came up; they may have a waiting list. If you are ready to commit to NYU, you can just thank Drexel and tell them that your D has opted to go forward at another school. They will appreciate your freeing up the spot for someone else.
@eandesmom - Have fun in the city! How long are you here for?
We have the FL issue as well with Techson17. He was able to get by 4 years of Latin, which translated into 2 years of HS credit because the program in our district is very history based and that’s a strong suit of his. NYS requires one year of FL for graduation, 3 for an advanced diploma but since he dropped math after geometry, the advanced diploma wasn’t happening anyway. FL is one reason why he is pursuing BFA programs, as most of them don’t have it. He plans to take ASL and will defend it as being valuable for theater tech as it is a way to communicate without disturbing people.
One of his schools, the one that we haven’t visited yet because it’s so tough to get to, allows CLEP for math credits. It’s moving up on his list because of that.
I told Techson17 today that he has to make up his mind by May 1 and he seemed shocked.
We are doing a local accepted student day at the far school on March 12 and accepted days for the 2 privates down here as well. The second weekend in April, we are going upstate for an accepted students day, audition/interview for the BFA and a campus overnight at the school. We are also going to see a musical theater performance and wander around the town. I have bribed my 20 year old son, the best driver in the family, to take us up. It’s in NY, but about 8 hours away…
Our HS has an 85% attendance rule. If you miss more than 15% of the classes, you can fail. However, excused absences can be made up and college visits are considered excused. My SD is very hung up on college stats so they really do try to be extremely accommodating for college stuff. It’s really tough to fail on attendance if you are halfway diligent.
@curiositycat333 - Saturday detention sounds so Breakfast Club. We don’t have Saturday detention here; it’s a very Jewish area and even non-religious Jews, like me, would not tolerate a Saturday detention. Here, detention is served after school for an hour, can be multiple days, in a quiet room known as “The Tank,”
@CoyoteMom we will be spending the night in philly, not at the mall lol. And yes, I realize I am likely driving an extra 90 minutes to make that happen…for a night. He will not get to see much. I am a bit annoyed by the whole thing to be honest, it’s a boondoggle for him lol. But I splurged on the hotel and good friends are meeting us for dinner so those things ease my annoyance. Oh well, at least we won’t have the “you didn’t let me visit, maybe it would have been great” conversation later. Despite him saying, and I kid you not, in the same sentence. I know I don’t want to go there. But I do want to visit it.
SMH
My concern with UVM is partially the science/math lineup of the ENSC versus the ENVS programs but really more driven by the supremely cool sustainable/renewable/energy options in the sustainability concentration offered on the ENVS side that seem SOOOO him. Although so does the policy option. It is interesting as there really are almost too many options there.
The Environmental Program offers a major in Environmental Studies (ENVS) that can be pursued in four different units:
the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS)
the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS)
the College of Education and Social Services (CESS)
the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources (RSENR)
On the Science side…
Students can elect to pursue the environmental sciences major through the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Arts and Sciences, or The Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. A common set of foundation courses (biology, chemistry, mathematics, and geology or plant and soil science) and core environmental sciences (ENSC) courses is a uniting experience between environmental sciences students in the three schools. Students then choose to concentrate in one of nine focus areas; this is where studies begin to branch out and differ.
It seems to me that he would have substantially better networking, research and internship opportunities within RSENR either way. That is what he is admitted to at present.
@curiositycat333 that’s too funny. I went to college to major in broadcast journalism. Couldn’t stand the entry level communications classes. Majored in poly sci. Because well, I like arguing politics. I am in sales and marketing and my joke is that i got my degree in professional BS and it’s paid off well. Because really unless you go to law school (which I likely should have done but really didn’t want to) what does one do with a poly sci degree?
I did love my classes though. And never took calc.
@techmom99 We have a lot of Jewish here as well. On Saturday in certain area’s you can see them walk to synagog. Many may go to the private Jewish Day school only down the street. I don’t know… if you don’t want to go to detention on your holly day, maybe don’t break the rules. Although honestly they are fairly sensitive to these things and if your parents were to explain it’s the holy day, they might find something else similar.
Neither of my kids even got any Sat detentions. (Knock on wood here there is still a few months to go.) So I don’t really know the details.
The point is… Saturday detention is something the kids really really don’t like. I believe they are allowed to bring homework.
@endesmom Sounds like environmental science has come a long way since I was an undergrad.
Congrats to @Fishnlines29 D for both NYU and starting in Paris - how cool is that??
@everyone for sharing sympathy and other transcript woes – I’m meeting with GC tomorrow so that I’ll at least know what’s on the 1st semester updates.
@smakl70 and college visits - so far, we’ve managed to squeeze in visits on school holidays or teacher workdays - mostly because CoyoteSon has two teachers who are extremely punitive for missing their class, even for excused field trips and even though they each have scheduled all day field trips involving missing other teacher’s classes. Hence the quick trip to Beloit on Sunday-Prez Day, but back to school on Tuesday. We’ll try to fit in any other visits over spring break - but by April, I may be less concerned about high school attendance than making sure CoyoteSon has good overnight visits at two-three top choices. >:)
@eandesmom – ha ha, though I get why it really isn’t so funny – about the cognitive dissonance of “I need to visit, but I know I’m not going there,” but so glad you will both enjoy Philly itself! Plus,
the vibe and campus facilities really are quite different from Goucher, so I’m glad that you will see them both and not wonder about the one that got away.
Wow - thanks for explaining UVM’S various EnvSci “core” for three different colleges, and then branching into so many concentrations. That does sound like a really deep program, and still lots of flexibility to go into policy instead.
@curiositycat333 and @eandesmom - I was going to major in Engineering (which would have required transferring schools, but would have let me out of the Foreign language requirement in the College) - but I hated the Engineering clases, and found Environmental Science instead…and here’s the funny part - I loved the science, and the economics - and took a graduate Enviro Law and Policy seminar - and went on to work at EPA where one really needs both the science and the politics. I’ve since taken a career detour into teaching - which hopefully can sustain me for another few (cough, cough, hopefully only 4) years before I look into getting back to EPA!
My nephew is in one of the environmental programs at UVM. This discussion has made me realize I don’t really know much about his major because I don’t even know which of the programs he’s in.
Looked up DS’s grades today. And they are back on track. The D in economics was just that early semester only a few not really important grades in the portal, and everything looks terrible because it’s only based on one or two homework grades. One good test and the grades back up where it needs to be.
@techmom99 I am here for over a week! My work stuff goes through next weds. I’ll have 2 days on my own, though really will be working from my hotel room it would appear and then hopefully seeing friends both nights. I intercept S on Sat from his school drama trip and it is off to vermont we go!
May 1 stresses S17 out, he wants to narrow it down NOW I can tell. All of a sudden he is Mr. Urgent.
No Sat detention here, it’s “tardy tank” and is offered 1 or 2 days a week. During some breaks though they will ahve a longer block to “take” and that can wipe out the tardies. Which both my boys get for jazz band lol.
@curiositycat333 well, not all programs are nearly that deep. WWU’s is pretty robust but UVM has almost 50 full time faculty. It’s nuts! In a good way. WWU has 18 I think and Allegheny winds the LAC category at 10. Which is substantial for an LAC of that size but it is still…10. All of these are larger once you factor in affiliated and part time faculty but the size of the UVM program is impressive if nothing else. There are other schools that are deep but at least on paper, UVM seems to blow the rest away (at least for a school my kid could get into). The cost though, ugh.
@CoyoteMom since we aren’t visiting Ithaca (which he was cranky about but is now over) I threw him a bone. LOL! It will help for comparison purposes if nothing else. We will be benchmarking all 3 LAC’s to UPS…Which is the most expensive and quite likely off the table though we won’t “really” know that for over a month.
There are all kinds of cool environmental law options at UVM but ugh, not going there with S. He has interest but it’s a brutal field right now and that kind of debt just doesn’t make sense.
My S would love your career path! Well maybe not the teaching part but the rest sounds up his alley. We just need to figure out something that feeds these needs and interests yet doesn’t have him behind a desk/computer. The kid needs to move.
@rosered55 there is actually more than those 2, I didn’t list the other majors available lol. They also offer
Forestry
Natural Resources
Parks, Recreation and Tourism
Wildlife and Fisheries Biology
I’m trying to schedule a visit to Ithaca, but time and money are not on my side.
@eandesmom Jumping in to offer our experience.
D is a senior forestry major/wildlife minor at UVM. Knew she was interested in natural resources/env sci going in, but not exactly sure which field. UVM offers large tuition discount for New England residents in Forestry, so she chose that going in to save the 10k/yr. With curriculum similar for the first couple of years, we left it up to her if she wanted to declare a different major after sophomore year (and encouraged her to get a full year of reg freshman bio - one semester with her AP credit - which is not required for forestry, but would give her more options if she decided to change majors), but she decided to stay in Forestry.
Saved us a bundle, and I will also say that EVERY job she applied for last summer (5 or 6, including university and federal research/monitoring, botany/wildlife, state management) she was offered.
Meanwhile, my engineering son applied to many more, and was offered none. I was left wondering if we’ve encouraged too many kids to go the engineering route and not enough the natural resources route. Yes the ultimate career-jobs may be less lucrative, but there are a lot of opportunities to get field experience while you are a student, building a resume, and learning what areas really interest you.
Oh @eandesmom, please tell me there’s something you can do with a poli sci degree!!!
@WhataProcess wow! What a fabulous story and outcome so far for your D. Uber jealous of that tuition discount! I fear we will really be faced with trying to decide if the program is worth a higher price tag for the possibility of stronger outcomes like your D’s. You make a fabulous point though, I think we will really really need to look hard at what kind of changes could be made easily, versus not.
Even with grad school the ultimate career jobs will be less lucrative than say, engineering, but if you don’t like engineering, I fail to see the point in that! I want happy fulfilled kids. I majored in what interested me, figuring a liberal arts degree was a liberal arts degree. I don’t know that I’d change a thing but it wasn’t an easy path to be sure. We are seeing the oldest go through this now with his music degree. It’s an expected result but watching your college educated kid work catering jobs because his industry can get away with contract work (very little full time) is hard. But heaven knows I survived doing the exact same thing! And it worked out just fine.
@klinska I view a Poly Sci degree like most of the liberal arts humanities degrees (English, History, Philosophy). Fabulous to study and you will get a well rounded education that could prepare you for a variety of jobs. In general however, unless teaching, grad or law school is the goal, it is far less of a direct career path in most cases. My sister has done well with her grad school degree in IR, in the NGO world but it’s certainly not a lucrative field. One that makes her happy though. All my degree did was show people I’d gone to a decent school and had a decent education. Early on that didn’t get me terribly far but I also think early on, I really had no clue how to leverage it and was given zero aid by my college (which is not abnormal for many many schools, especially in fields like these). So, if a student is self driven, willing to just “work” and work their way up/into a path that suits them I think any liberal arts degree is good. I just think the world has gotten a lot more specialized since then and it’s even harder with those types of degrees…initially. Sales was certainly never my goal but it did ultimately get me mostly where I want to be (marketing) and has been good to me. Truth be told, for the most part, I’ve fallen into my career and it has not been a straight path of any sort at all. But, it is not for the faint of heart. LOL! S17 has what it takes to figure it out which to me is some street smarts and grit. S19 on the other hand…I fear a vague intellectual degree for him.
Depends on the school though. This is where I would think (hope!) that the small LAC with a super strong alumni network and strong placement center could make all the difference in that degree versus a large flagship.
Just my 2 cents and not based on any real data other than what I’ve seen with myself, my family and as I’ve interviewed and hired folks over the years.