@CoyoteMom love the love! Surprise travel grant, that’s extremely cool.
I’d be so stressed at trying to find an internship at this late date, how wonderful that you’ve gotten such a quick and positive response.
It’s been very interesting to see S17’s evolving thoughts this week, definitely some surprises. Leaving for Allegheny shortly which should be very interesting.
@eandesmom Can’t wait to hear about the next stop on the adventure!
D and I agreed our hands-down best tour guide was at CSU. We also had great tours at Smith and Gonzaga. Our worst were at Union College, BU, and (drumroll…) UVM. I could totally see our Union guide making that potato comment.
There’s lots of stress around here. CSU is out of the picture now because she wasn’t eligible for the huge scholarship. We were talking last night about whether or not to do the Michigan Tech visit and generally comparing RIT, Clarkson, and MTU. She stopped for a bit and said “I know I want to go to RIT, but it’s so much money.” Part of the problem is that we’d want her in the spectrum support program at RIT and that’s about another 2K/year.
She’d have to do max federal loans and we’d be over-budget past where we’d like to stretch. H and I need to talk, which I’m not looking forward to. I don’t think anyone enjoys talking about spending that kind of money! Do you ever feel like your brain is just going around in circles?
@techmom99, thanks for the specifics – very sad when college has such negative effects. I’m glad both kids got back on their feet.
@RightCoaster, I’ve wished I could move Clarkson to Fort Collins! You would need quite a few of those “Oversize” trailers.
@kt1969, my D didn’t get a likely from Smith either and I doubt she’ll be accepted. She’s decided she’s a little leery of the “general engineering” degree vs a regular EE degree anyway. She wants to do a lot of specific EE hands-on work.
@MSU88CHEng, thanks for the very helpful info. I can’t picture D joining a sorority in a million years, though Clarkson seemed really friendly so hopefully that wouldn’t matter. Hands-on and design are very important to D so there you go reinforcing the first choice! I’m also not worried about her needing a wider variety of majors. Even if she switched, it would still be a STEM field.
Nice mental picture of you backing quietly out of the room hoping not to interrupt the essay-fu!
@klinska, cool news on Beloit!
@eandesmom, looking forward to the next report!
My brain is definitely going around in circles!
The top choices are changing daily!
@snoozn hope you can find a way to de-stress. You have some difficult choices.
My brain is not going in circles really. I just wish I son17 had all of the info he needs to make a final decision.
At this point, most of the schools he has applied to have had his info handy since November!! Waiting 5 months for a decision is BRUTAL !!
Getting deferred in December stunk. The only good that came out of that was the fact that son17 applied and visited RPI which ended up now being near the top of his list. He was kind of frustrated with the schools that deferred him and I don’t think he likes them as much anymore. He’s kind of moved on I think. He has a huge bird in his hand with Clarkson acceptance and merit award, but he’s so curious to see what his remaining choices might be.
I think the next decision he will receive will be 3/11 and he will be away on a Model UN trip. Then he waits again until the 18th which is the super big decision day, I think 3 schools from his list release decisions that day. Crazy!
@RightCoaster, yep D was deferred by two schools and their decisions will just be a matter of curiosity now. At least we have that part out of the way. The waiting is a long slow burn and then the final decision making is when someone lights your hair on fire.
Having said that, good luck with decisions and hope he enjoys the trip!
Sororities do very well at heavily male colleges (which many of the Tech colleges are). The women find they need some extra support and friendships because they are surrounded by men all day long. My daughter is in a sorority, and while she’s not the strongest member or most active participant, she likes having ‘back up friends.’ She has her teammates, and spends most of her time with them, but she likes having an escape from ‘team team team’ all the time. Her sorority sisters go to her games to cheer her on, make signs, make sure she knows she’s supported.
The women in the sororities also tend to be leaders on campus. The woman who was president of D’s sorority her final year was also president of the MechE society and I think had an office in the Society of Women engineers too. This underachiever graduated with honors, was on the All Woman Jet Car Racing team, and had 4 full ride scholarships to grad schools. She picked Columbia.
Quick Allegheny recap
I found the campus to be really pretty, S17 less so and I can only assume that was more related to his general campus vibe impressions.
The campus was busy and full of seemingly happy engaged students. However for those who have stated it seemed really athletic and sporty, from a guys perspective both S and I would agree. It seemed like 100% of the male population was either wearing Allegheny college sports logo gear, dressed as if heading to the gym or to a lesser degree wearing fraternity logo gear.
This was not a positive for S who didn’t see a single hipster guy (or girl for that matter) but the girls did have a lower athletic wear factor than the guys, offset by a slightly higher sorority gear factor. The lack of PHF (purple hair factor) though not surprising, does have him questioning whether he’d find his peeps.
However. He loved loved loved the program. I did too. He completely clicked with his interviewer who was in the program and the faculty member he met with. The class he sat it on was. Super odd bit I guess all they could find that worked timing. Wise? History of Theater Tech. And the food. Hands down best food we’ve had anywhere and very nice dorms. The town though? Not so much.
He’s torn on this one. At lunch it was off the list and after lunch (interview and faculty meeting) it was back in the #2 spot. The theater and music departments are tiny which was a disappointment.
Over the course of the past 2 weeks his “top” schools have moved around quite a bit, it’s safe to say things are very much in flux!
Pre trip: UVM, Goucher, Allegheny, UPS (WWU off)
Start of trip: UVM, Allegheny, WWU, Goucher
Mid day yesterday: WWU, UVM, UPS (Allegheny off)
End of day yesterday: WWU, Allegheny, UVM.
UVM is moving down due to cost and concerns about lack of flexibility. He loved loved loved it but…is now seeing (on his own) that Bellingham and WWU is a very similar option with a strong program, better flexibility and a cool town …at half the price.
I am still in shock he’s come around to that all on his own but am trying not to count on it as it makes my wallet happy. It does have a few cons but for the price difference, likely worth it.
He’s run the gamut of not wanting to be tied to a major to then saying UPS doesn’t have enough in his area. Not wanting to be near home to all of a suddenly thinking it might be a very good idea.
Oy. 2 more to go this week, he will definitely head back to WWU for their admitted students day and may do an overnight at UPS depending on what the final offer looks like. No clue how these next 2 tours will factor in to the mix but right now I don’t see a decision before April.
@eandesmom – Thanks so much for the updates! We have Allegheny on our prelim list as well as Ursinus and Goucher so very much looking forward to your family take on the upcoming Philly area swing. We will be making stops and Muhlenberg and Ursinus in a few weeks over break and will be sure to post thoughts as well. Thanks again!
Thank you so much for the update! I love the real-time evolution of the list, and I really appreciate the detailed campus visit reports. Allegheny is one school that has been kind of nagging at me as a place we should have explored and I think TacoSon would have liked/disliked many of the same things as E1.
I can’t get TacoSon to give me a nice list like that (ever-changing or not). We have two more decisions coming that are within reach cost-wise if he gets in, he continues to like the less pricey option, and I think everything else he’s lumped into the too-expensive category.
(And I just silenced the Allegheny nagging by checking the website and seeing they don’t offer TacoSon’s major. Phew!)
@eandesmom really love the description of the thinking process as it evolves. Interesting that S17 got that jock/frat vibe at Allegheny–when we were there last spring, we didn’t pick up on that (but that was still early in our process, so may not have had our antennae properly calibrated). The student who did our tour (a 1:1 tour) was ROTC (or similar), and the one interaction that left an impression on me was when we walked past a really crunchy/hippie looking dude and they greeted each other warmly, by name. My D wants to take another look at Allegheny and do an overnight–I think that makes sense, especially for a small school where I think fit may be more important–gotta be able to find your tribe, right?
I would have loved for S to do an overnight for that reason. We are having lunch with a friend on Sat before we head home and her D is doing the overnight there next week so hopefully she will provide some additional input.
It would have been ideal honestly o do overnights at most of these schools. I do have a friend whose D is going to the Allegheny overnight next week. We are having lunch with them on sat and hopefully she and S will connect and follow up after her visit.
@CroissantMiser - delurking once again to say that when you visit Muhlenberg, try to find time to visit downtown Bethlehem. It’s only about 15 minutes away and it’s a lovely walkable downtown with great shops and cafes. Lehigh and Moravian are nearby (Lafayette is in Easton, another 15 minutes away).
I assume we will be in the middle of this in two weeks. S17 is still insistent that he’s not really going to think about it till all acceptances are in. Two more weeks to wait for the UC’s.
I don’t know…my husband just found an article where UofO is laying off a ton of non-tenure faculty. Don’t know how this will affect things.
Michigan Tech and CSU are now officially off the list. MTU was tough to cut, but D realized she was getting to the point of second-guessing herself and worrying that if she didn’t visit she might have missed the perfect (and more affordable) school. CSU dropped off easily - “I decided I definitely want to go out state. CSU is still too close.” (About 1.5 hour drive).
So the two remaining candidates are RIT and Clarkson. She has a phone interview for Clarkson honors tomorrow, but I think she knows RIT is “the one.” We’ll see. Narrowing down from your final list is a different kind of stress (for both parent and student). This has been the toughest part for D.
@curiositycat333, “Cost cutting” is not something you want to hear about the school you’re looking at. Especially when that means cutting faculty. Hello giant classes!
Of course I’m sure you’ll follow your S’s lead and just not think about it until the last acceptance comes. :))
@twoinanddone, yep there are very nice sororities that don’t fit the stuck-up mean girl stereotype at all. I can see why they’d be even more inviting at heavily male schools. But even the “supportive sisterhood doing charity work and producing leaders” type of sorority would not be D’s thing. (I’ll admit, she really doesn’t like being a leader!)
@eandesmom, I like reading your trip reports! I’ll be interested in seeing how the list continues to evolve. I love looking for the PHF. Even though oldest D doesn’t have actual purple hair, I think most visiting students would put a check by PHF if they saw her. :ar! <- closest emoji I could find to her look. D17 looks for the geek factor. :-B
I’m like @tacocat333 and will take a quick look at schools that get a positive mention on this thread. I also have a better excuse since I’m back to the selection process with S18! 8-}
In “better late than never” news, TacoSon is being recognized as a presidential scholar at his school for the first semester – meaning GPA (for that marking period) of over 4.0! 
When he told me, I congratulated him and said something like, “First time!” and he quickly responded with, “And last time!” Excellent point. I guess there is something to be said for the GPA “upward trend” for the 3 schools that have yet to give a decision.
(FWIW, there are many, many so-called presidential scholars and all they get is ice cream, so it’s not like a medal.)
@snoozn , sounds like RIT is the right fit! Keep us posted.
Congrats on the Presidential scholarship. Techson17 made the honor roll ONCE between 9th and 11th grades. It’s kind of pathetic because I once counted when S12 was in school and 67% of the class was on the honor roll (meaning 3.5 or above). There is so much grade inflation in our school that they can’t afford to give out ice cream because it would cost thousands of dollars a quarter. How sad is it that techson17 with a 3.44 is well down in the bottom half of his class? Techson has made the HR the past two quarters and I have been bribing him with cold hard cash.
@curiositycat333 that is interesting about UofO and a little worrisome - thanks for posting it.