@klinska -
What is your D interested in studying? How are her stats? I can give you some guidance on how to parse through the SUNYs, if you want.
TM
@eandesmom, thanks for that link! Very helpful!
@eandesmom I would love to see that second link but it doesn’t show the whole thing. Can you pm me? Or write it out some other way? I don’t know why they are so annoying about links on CC.
@techmom99, thank you so much! D’s stats: 3.3 UW/3.75W, new SAT 1270 (670 EBRW/600 M; taking again on Saturday). Wants to study political science/global studies/economics. Interested in political campaigns, social justice, LGBTQ rights–floats easily between different types of kids: jocks, theatre, smart kids. She doesn’t have a single type of school that appeals to her–she’s always been a bloom-where-she’s-planted kind of kid, not a hothouse flower. Is willing to consider small schools and big schools (but seems to favor mid-sized schools: 5000-15,000 students). Let me know if any other info would help!
@klinska -
http://www.suny.edu/media/suny/content-assets/documents/summary-sheets/Admissions_qf_stateop.pdf
This is a link to the summary sheet of SUNY’s mid-range stats, e.g., Albany’s mid 50 gpa is 88 -94 while mid-range SAT is 1100- 1240 (old SAT). It also tells you the size of the student population. If you scroll down, the second page of the attachment lists the sports available at each school.
I have a particular fondness for Plattsburgh, a school of about 5500 students located 30 minutes from Montreal and across Lake Champlain from Burlington, Vt. It has a theater department that I don’t believe is limited to majors (my D performed in the Vagina Monologues several times and was not a major), a number of D3 and inter/intra mural sports, including ice hockey. It has an honors program and is fairly diverse. My son studied poli sci there. As i noted earlier, it is known for its international
http://www.suny.edu/media/suny/content-assets/documents/summary-sheets/honors_programs.pdf
This is a link to the requirements for the various honors programs at SUNY schools. Plattsburgh and Oswego give $ and you don’t necessarily have to be in the honors program to get some.
You can also do a search by program or major.
TM
re: activities. I found the comment on the main 2017 board I found super helpful, regarding a way to note additional info on activities is found in the “additional info” section. I think we will use this for 3 of S17’s activities as it will allow him to include a couple of video links for music, expand his music, theater and environmental sections where it is most meaningful and makes sense. It will become almost an arts supplement and at the level he needs that, should hopefully be about “just right”. And then removes the need to add the resume for the 2 schools that would take it. It still leaves out 2 JV sports entirely but I can’t figure out a way to get those in as they really aren’t worth much air space other than to say he did it for one season each…which is practically meaningless to him anyway.
@techmom99 , thanks for those links–great way to compare across the board. Plattsburgh looks like it would be a a possibility, actually. Do you happen to know how the GPA is calculated for SUNY admission? Core courses only/all courses? Unweighted/Weighted? Whatever the high school provides?
@klinska -
I don’t but I have never heard that they don’t accept what the school sends. Our school actually goes up to a 5.5 scale but they report on a 4.0 and I have never heard it challenged at a SUNY…
I will say that my D applied to Plattsburgh for the entering class of 2009 with a 2.8 UW (she never took an honors or an AP class and was a very mediocre student and lazy girl in HS) and a 1260 SAT and was given $1K merit money per year. After the first year, she joined the honors program. She came into her own in college, which I attribute in large part to the atmosphere at Plattsburgh, and graduated magna cum laude.
I’m glad the links were useful. I have used the data to weed out schools that my S17 just couldn’t be competitive at.
No school is going to be admitting my D on the strength of her “activities” section! :))
Space was not an issue. Yes, I was annoyed that “martial arts” wasn’t a choice. That’s a pretty common activity. All three of D’s physical activities ended up under “other.” I looked at the link with advice on filling out the section. The problem for D is that she just hasn’t had any particular leadership roles or community service. I’m just putting the activities section out of mind and hoping the AO’s who read her app will give it a quick glance and move on without giving her any negative marks.
She can’t move forward on her CA essay until H and oldest D read the current draft which they haven’t. Yes, I’m a bit annoyed with the two of them.
D got an invite from OSU to a local reception. It just happens that it’s the evening we get back from our WA trip to see Gonzaga and WWU. Three schools in three days – whee! OSU actually visited her HS today and she was the only student at the session (kind of surprising). She came away with a positive impression. The AO told her that a teacher at her HS was an OSU graduate and she happened to be one of D’s favorite teachers.
@eandesmom, the issue with the two LoR’s is that the teachers haven’t submitted them to Naviance yet. I can see where the one teacher lists as “submitted” for the all the schools D listed as wanting that teacher’s LoR. The other two teachers just show up as “requested.” I’m pretty sure this just means that they’ve been submitted (or not) to Naviance since she hasn’t applied to any schools yet. She told everyone she needed them by the end of the month. If they don’t show up by then I’m not sure how long she should wait to politely inquire about their status.
@klinska D12 applied to Purchase (as a CA kid) and didn’t get in. (Her GPA was on the low side anyway.) I know OOS students do apply to NY State school, but perhaps they are like CA State schools you need much higher stats to get in. IDK As I’ve said before on this post we did visit Purchase, but we choose the worst day ever in the middle of August when no one was around and the main part of campus was being redone. It was very very eery… but we did wander around the dept building and didn’t see a sole. And she still applied.
As for activities… I haven’t seen any of these sections yet. Don’t know what S17 is doing. As I posed on there other board. S17 has been filling out the CA & the UC App, and has at least opened both the Oregon apps because he can answer questions about them. But he’s not sharing at this time. He will if he wants to to pay for the apps. 
And I would like to see it early than an hour before the app is due. But I’m not ready to push yet.
How far back to do add activities for? S17 did martial arts for 7 years but quit end of freshman year. I don’t think he plans on adding it to his apps. Really he just got too busy with H.S. activities had to cut back, and the martial arts was what was cut. (I was sad but it was a realistic decision on his part.) Schools only really care about activities during H.S. correct?
Otherwise his activities aren’t very long so I doubt he’ll have problems not having enough space.
@curiositycat333 Yes, activities are just for HS. S17 also stopped Martial Arts at the end of 9th grade, he couldn’t manage it and his music and theater tech commitments. I think it’s pretty clear on his app where he transferred his time and energy. However it was 10 years of his life with a large chunk of that Freshman year spent on it with 2 performance/competition teams and a higher belt level earned so it does show a long term commitment and accomplishments. It’s dead last on his list of 10 activities but he did want it on there. He has 2 single season JV sports (one in 9th and one in 10th) that meant a lot less to him and aren’t mentioned at all.
Of course the app does leave out that he did lose some momentum after fracturing his hand at that last belt test during board breaking :)) and after the forced time off…really never got the same momentum going and the theater community stole his heart.
@snoozn I am really hoping his activities help him. I think they do but I am likely just biased and they really aren’t anything terribly special. Given there are zero academic awards he needs everything he can get. There is some leadership but it’s not super strong (Co founder of a political club, student council rep with environmental focus work and achievements, band council, created a band for a specific fundraiser, that kind of thing). Better than nothing but…who knows. Decent community service including service awards, but there is overlap with the theater stuff so not sure how much it will count for. I am hoping that when you add all that up plus the theater, music and jobs it adds up to an interesting story somehow worth merit money lol. Or at least they factor in the hours spent on all of these things plus the semi decent if not earth shattering grades means a well rounded, balanced, interesting, committed and passionate kid that they want. We shall see huh! I figure if nothing else it definitely makes a strong statement as to his character and personality, between the activities list and the essay itself! Based on his list of schools, far more of them rated “character” as important or very important (5/7) than did interview (2/7) or interest (3/7). I’m banking on that.
On the LOR’s if you have a “submitted” showing you are way ahead of us, all we have are “requested”.
And of course still zero input from the GC on expected difficulty. Just a lot of N/A.
Sigh.
He actually did some work today to show interest in all his schools, nag a LOR teacher and send him additional info and finally order his transcript from his summer class so that’s good. He wasn’t aware of any counselor meetings scheduled, I have NO idea how she will fill out that form, she has never even met my kid! Nor has she responded to recent emails, in fact the only email I’ve received a response from her basically sent me to someone else.
Mine isn’t sharing much either. We are waiting on recommendations and her English teacher’s comments on her essay. I was hoping to get some apps out by October 1st, but that. Doesn’t look likely at this point.
Queen’s Mom… at least I’m not expecting S17 to get any essays out before Nov. Although honestly if he just sat down for1-2 hours he could probably crank out the Cal State essay soon after it opens on Oct 1st. The only thing annoying about it grades are self-reporting and MUST be precise. And he needs his 7th & 8th grade math grades to self report. Going to have to look harder to see if I have them, or as S17 to send a message to his counselor.
Had a thought yesterday that I could probably submit his SAT’s for him and get that step out of the way. It’s not a step he needs to do, I need to pay for it anyway.
Uggs. I just realized I wrote essay instead of application in the above post & can’t edit it anymore.
Yes, I’ll do the SAT this week. I keep forgetting.
To my surprise S17 talked about his college apps last night. (Without probing or nagging). We had a good talk about what EC’s to add. Still on the fence about adding martial arts (he quit sophomore year but had been doing it since he was 8). My husband thought it really didn’t matter given the schools he was applying. Wasn’t sure where to put being 1st chair in the band for almost 2 years. Maybe mentioning it under leadership. Advised him that at the schools he was applying & number of EC’s it was doubtful the martial art would make or break anything. He said his essay would be about his summer camp leader-in-training experience.
He also mater of factly told me he’s now planing on applying in Computer Science. That’s useful information. I don’t know if it will stick, but it’s a direction to look at. But it adds more questions.
Cal Poly: A few months back I found a web-page that broke down acceptances by major. Anyone know where to find that? I couldn’t find in anywhere last night.
Boulder: Has two CS departments, in the Engineering dept & in College of Arts & Science. What’s the difference? It’s doubtful S would get into CU Boulder in Engineering, so I was just going to have his apply to the A&S major. (Boulder is supposed to come for a H.S. visit we just don’t know then, it’s a question for that time.)
In light of this new more specific direction. Any suggestions for West Coast (not S. Cal) LAC’s good at CS?Maybe I should try suggesting U of Puget Sound again?
@curiositycat333 --at one top school we visited, during the Engineering tour talk session someone asked the question about CS being in both the college of engineering, and in the college of arts and sciences, inquiring about what the difference is. The answer was not much difference except there’s more math in the engineering college degree, but no matter which college all of the CS students were being recruited very heavily–so much so that many CS students took jobs and skipped their senior year.
All–If you have a child whose grades have been on an upward trajectory year to year, what is the view about applying early vs. waiting until first semester grades are in? If the answer is that the information you are getting is to wait, is that true even for rolling admission, and for WUE? One school S17 is very interested in offers ED. Another school S17 is very interested in has rolling admission. I’m inclined to tell him to go ahead and go early to those schools, and to the WUE schools on his list–his meeting with the GC isn’t until 10/5 and the school needs a full 4 weeks for transcripts.
@Hankster1361 Wonder if that’s similar to the difference between a BA is CS vs. a BS in CS. I think it just depends school to school.
As for your question. All of S17’s app’s have regular decision deadlines before 2nd semester ends. On the other hand I wouldn’t be surprised if those with the later deadlines (Jan 15th), do ask to see 2nd semester grades before they make a decision. I think that is one of the reason’s I’m not in a panic about getting applications in. I suspect the two this affects will want to see S17’s winter course schedule before making a decision.
S17 will only apply to one EA. I think he can get in without second semester grades. The CA school mostly don’t ask for 2nd semester grades, although it isn’t unheard of and I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened in DS’s case.
D has an interview with a Smith College rep this afternoon and I’m so nervous. I really shouldn’t worry too much because we know necessary merit is highly unlikely to come her way no matter how the interview goes (and of course she may not even get in). I guess I really just want her to come away feeling good about herself.
@eandesmom, I think your S’s EC’s will definitely help him. Remember that often when we see these lists on CC they’re for top-of-the-charts kids applying to Ivies. From everything I’ve read, your S’s are the type that “regular colleges” like to see. I know you’re hoping for music or theater tech related merit and the EC’s will show his devotion to these activities.
On the GC LoR you might see if she could get some input from a teacher who knows him well (one not already doing an LoR for him). It can’t hurt to ask.
@curiositycat333, I’d say definitely go with the A&S CS degree. Just make sure he does the BS and not the BA option. CS is a great field to be in and of course CU is well-respected. I think his job prospects would be great. All engineering would add is some job opportunities that require those high level math skills, which most don’t. (Just my opinion!)
@Hankster1361, my initial thought was that applying early for WUE is good, but then I read this on WWU’s website:
The way I read this is that higher GPA would help more than EA. But I’ve also read that in general applying early is better for merit. This might be a good area for your S to contact admissions at the schools where this is an issue. He’ll get the real answer and be demonstrating interest at the same time.
I think I found my own answer to the CU Boulder CS question:
http://www.colorado.edu/cs/undergraduates/difference-between-ba-and-bs-degrees
Answer sounds a lot like the difference between these majors at UC Berkley. Now to figure out if the admissions criteria is different.