I like your metrics and feel your pain, I look at 4 year grad rates (can’t bring myself to let 6 year be a factor) and retention as well. Also average age of student and loan default, economist median salary etc. and then the usual suspects, a for b students, ctcl, Forbes, economist, money, Princeton review. I am a bit of a dork that way.
It’s funny, as a general rule my S is the same in a mainstream class, and I too don’t want him to be in the 75th percentile somewhere. He will rise to the occasion best, if challenged within reason. He would be ok on the smartest side mind you but better if not quite. That said one of his favorite classes this year was a mainstream one simply because of passion for the subject and the connection with the teacher.
Spanish tanked the GPA here as well, this past year was the first one without a C and that was by the skin of his teeth and frankly a teacher who adores him and made it work.
My S is more focused on jazz than MB so it opens up LACs which helps his search.
My S has done nothing AP wise. Honestly I am not micromanaging it as I know he will get it done. All have HW, AP Lit, AP Calc and APES. He’s off to a class at Western Wa for a week on Sunday and after his return I will start to nag. He also starts another ACT test prep sequence but luckily our band camp is…3 days.
Is your S restricted to a specific geographical area or major?
Band camp is only 3 days? Here it is two weeks in the hottest part of the summer. It’s really trial by fire for the H.S. freshman. DS’s camp start in a bit over 2 weeks from now.
Sigh. Our band really does not do formations or anything terribly complicated. March out, play, go back. Not what I grew up with. Freshman do not march although go they can attend the band camp.
Still, they have a blast, play well, look amazing and win a fair amount of parade awards so it works out ok and isn’t a crazy time suck they practice more in late winter early spring for parades than for fall football!
Our band competes… does very complex formations. It’s a very time consuming EC & requires a lot of parental participation. Is a very large group, but not the largest around the area. But it’s going to be an interesting season, looks like S17 is going to have an special role this year. I can’t say too much more, DS has requested I don’t talk about certain aspects of what he does with band on social media.
Transportation - easy and free. All metro area students have free (well, included in student fees) access to RTD, the transportation system. All schools, including Metro, CU, DU, all the community colleges. They can ride the buses in Boulder (campus to malls, to anywhere in town), to Denver, to the light rail in Denver, to the airport (either on the light rail or a bus directly to Boulder). There are nice commuter buses to Denver many times per day. Lift and Uber are also widely available, but of course cost extra.
Most freshmen live in dorms (it’s require, but of course there are exceptions) Most upperclassmen do not live on campus. At one point there was really no room, but I think there are now some apartment style dorms and a few upperclassmen live in those. Housing on the Hill is very expensive but there are apartment building surrounding campus that are a little less than on the Hill. Boulder is an expensive city. A lot of sophomores live in sorority and fraternity houses.
I believe my nephew was originally admitted to the school generally, and shortly after admitted directly to engineering. He then changed his major in the engineering department without any problems. It is very easy to transfer from engineering (or business, or one of the other colleges) to Arts and Sciences. It used to be very difficult to transfer into engineering or business, but I think it is easier now. If you apply undecided, you’ll be admitted to Arts and Sciences. If you are asking if it is possible to be admitted to engineering as a general engineering student, I think it is.
Lots of organized trips for hiking, skiing, camping, but also a lot of unorganized trips with just friends from dorms going camping or hiking a 14er. The organized trips cost more so as soon as the kids figure out a way to go with friends, it’s just cheaper and easier to go with a smaller group. My nephew’s family has a house in the mountains, so does his girlfriend (hers is nicer, in Vail) and they’ll go up for an overnight, go hiking, and it doesn’t cost much.
As to expensive. It’s all relative. It’s not going to be more expensive than where i live so it probably won’t shock me. But would be a lot more than near the Oregon schools we are looking at.
I had a heart attack when my sister asked me to look at the lease for my nephew whow goes to scool in Bolder and lIves on the Hill. He and 3 friends are renting the basement-ish section of a house (I think it is like garden level unit). I believe it was $48k for the year, which they can pay all at once or monthly for a service fee, have several other monthly fees (trash, snow removal, insurance, water,electric). The deposit was $7000, at least half which they won’t be seeing refunded because of cleaning, painting, rekeying, but I doubt they’ll see any of it. The girls renting upstairs pay more. The landlord is making $100 grand off this house every year.
My daughter lives in a sorority house in Laramie and pays about $1000 per month also, but that includes her housing, meals, utilities, dues and it is right on campus. It is about the same for dorms in Laramie, about $8500 with a meal plan. My daughter in Florida is paying $500 per month to rent a house with 2 others. Boulder is expensive.
@twoinanddone I live in S. Calif. Don’t want to get more specific as to exact location. Those rents don’t surprise me. Thankfully I’ve lived in my place for many years and don’t pay that much. But renting a 1 bedroom is crazy expensive & why my older DD will be living with us for quite some time.
@curiositycat333, S17 took the physics and Math subject tests. His GC told him to not bother, but S17 wanted to keep options open and there was the thought that good scores on those might help pursuing engineering admission. Looks like some schools that require subject tests will take the ACT instead. In the end it may not matter one way or he other–don’t know yet because S17 only has a partial school list at this point.
We are paying $1050 for rent, utilities, groceries + spending money per month for a shared house in SLO. $650 is rent, shared house with 6 girls and SD shared a bedroom. It went up $100 this year when she moved from a shared apartment to the house.
S17 refused to take the chemistry test last year. I did have him try a sample test, there were entire topics he’d hadn’t covered in his course. He told me he wished he took the SAT Biology, because he was told it was very easy. (He got a 5 on the AP.) But honestly NONE of his schools are going to look at SAT Subject tests, I checked yesterday. Not unless a) I change his mind about apply to UCSB & he applies there for Engineering and then the Math 2 is the only test they care about.
@eandesmom But that is SLO. I consider that Central California. Where I live it’s around $2K+ a month for standard 2 bedroom apartment. Never mind a house.
@eandesmom … S17 would like to attend a U within a reasonable car drive from of our home in VA (6 hrs seems to be max), but I’ve found a few U’s that are further away but accessible via Amtrak – he really doesn’t want to attend a U that requires a plane ride. He’s not sure what he wants to major in – maybe business or technology, so that has complicated the search process. USN&WR “A Colleges for B Students” was very helpful in the original search & then the CB website allowed us to narrow the list by specifics on the “wish list”. I’ve looked @ CLTC but most appear to be too small – 5K is the minimum.
@curiositycat333 … was the “only 3 days of MB camp” comment directed toward me? S17 is in MB camp for 3 weeks. We’re currently having a heat wave (near 100), so I hope we get back to typical July/August temps before camp begins. S17 will also have a “special role” in MB this year. Our HS MB competes during weekends in the fall, performs at the Friday night football game half-time show, & marches in 1-2 parades per year. It’s a huge time commitment during the 1st semester of school
@curiositycat333 The rent for the house is $4200 (not including utilities) there are six girls sharing the rent, four at 650 each and 2 at 800 (singes) it’s a four bedroom house. SLO is not cheap by any stretch of the imagination.supply and demand
Looks like we are done with testing in this house! I’m happy with both the ACT and SAT (super-scored over 2 sittings). I showed D where her scores put her in the 25%-75% and… well, I didn’t exactly repeat @eandesmom’s safety/match/reach post verbatim, but that sums up my thoughts. She says she’s done and it is a bit of a relief to me as well.
None of her schools required SAT 2’s and only one recommended them, so she didn’t do any.
Also, am I the only one here without a band kid??
@curiositycat333, just to add to @twoinanddone –
The deal with being admitted and switching majors is that it makes a difference whether you apply to College of Arts and Sciences or College of Engineering. At the info session D17 and I went to they made it pretty clear that if you want to major in engineering, you should apply to CoE and not assume you can just apply to A&S and switch later. There is a general engineering program you can start in if you don’t know what engineering you want. In that case you start with a survey class of the different types of engineering. Within colleges, switching majors is pretty easy and I understand that switching colleges from CoE to A&S is pretty straight-forward. I would say don’t apply to A&S unless you can find a major there you’d be happy with.
Transportation – yep easy and free, so nothing to add…
Housing is expensive. Yep. Freshmen are required to live on-campus if they aren’t local and very few upperclassmen live on campus. I don’t know of apartment-style on-campus housing other than married student housing, but I could be wrong as D11 didn’t ever look. She and her fiance pay about $900 for a one bedroom apartment that is pretty nice and in a safe area. I’ve heard there are some really sketchy apartments (drug activity and terrible management) near campus and if the price seems too good to be true it probably is.
On outdoors trips I’d add that some of the dorms organize trips. This can be a great way to be introduced to Boulder’s outdoor opportunities as well as your dorm-mates. One thing I don’t know is whether the school will provide equipment cheap or free. This is something they specifically mentioned at CSU, that most kinds of outdoors equipment are available for loan, much of it free. Probably a good question to ask!
Regarding recreational equipment at Boulder. On our tour they made a point of discussing at length how many activities were nearby how many different organized trips there where, discount on ski passes, etc., however they never mentioned equipment as being free. They always mentioned you could rent things. I would assume there’s a decent student discount though. Loan may be an option, I just don’t remember them ever saying it.
@snoozn Thanks. I am fairly certain Boulder will come do a campus visit this fall and I’ll push S17 to check it out. I think the decision needs to be made if he’s applying engineering or not. I’m hoping that his Physics class will give him a better idea of what he wants.
Curious if the general engineering is like UC Berkley where the ‘undecided’ engineering is actually the most difficult major to get into at the school. I’m fairly certain that for S17 applying to Boulder in Engineering is a reach but to A&S would be a match. He’s going to have to decide what he wants.
As for equipment. S17 has hiking backpacking equipment. What he wouldn’t have was snowboarding/skiing stuff. And I can’t imagine the school renting that kind of equipment for free. I’ve heard other schools say they have free equipment available, but my guess it’s it’s first come first served and not unlimited.
Yeah, take those ‘skiing discounts’ with a grain of salt. They are probably not better than discounts available to those living on the Front Range.
There are plenty of places to rent ski equipment and if CU has any (doubt it) there will be better quality and cheaper prices around town or even at the hills. It just gets outdated too fast for CU to stock it. Stuff like snowshoes and camping equipment also probably better quality for rent at sport shops. These are just not things to worry about at CU as there are plenty of places to rent sports equipment.
Wyoming outdoor club (don’t remember exactly what it is called but it is a regular office staffed by professional outdoor organizers) has kayaks, camping stuff, mountain bikes, organized trips, climbing equipment, etc. all for a low rental price or low enrollment fee. Everything’s cheap (or free) at Wyoming.
It will sound nuts but I’m a bit jealous. When I was in MB we competed. Same school district. It was a crazy amount of practice and so much fun. This MB, sigh, not the same. The look great and sound great and do some impressive unique things but all the effort is parade focused and even that is so much less than it could be. Sadly up here there just isn’t much happening at all competition wise, most schools don’t even have a MB at all! Jazz eats up a fair amount of time though and at least MB doesn’t conflict with XC for S19 so there are some positive aspects to our lack of rigor lol.
@MomStudent2017 are you looking for list input or ideas? Feel free to share what you have if you are, I think most of us are struggling with lists for a variety of reasons. 5k and up will eliminate a lot of LAC’s or even all but maybe not some of the private universities.
@snoozn I am amazed how many band kids there are here and on the main 2017 thread. But no, I don’t think you are alone at all!!! Yay for being done with tests, I wish we were. Just finalized S’s act prep schedule that will kick in when he gets back from his week at Western.
they practice more in late winter early spring for parades than for fall football!