Parents of the HS Class of 2017 - 3.0 to 3.4 GPA

Parents Forum
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@morningside95 I think you’ll find a cultural fit at all of those (PLU, Gonzaga and Seattle U) and definitely with the added benefit of community, social justice and ethics thrown in. I am trying to get S to look at Gonzaga as some of the classes in the curriculum look absolutely wonderful for his area of interest and bleeding heart social liberalism…who loves a debate.

If you have Costco, check there for rental cars. While I don’t rent locally, in general for travel I use them almost exclusively and I do a lot of business travel. I like your loop idea if you add another day or 2 to the trip so you don’t kill yourself on travel. I agree with @Agentninetynine on Linfield if McMinnville isn’t too small. They are known for good merit aid too.

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Thanks a bunch, @eandesmom and @Agentninetynine.

I will talk to S17 about those schools, in addition to the UPS, Willamette and L&C options. He is great kid, but with a lower GPA, and our need for merit aid, I suggested he apply at as many schools that seem to have a good fit; and we are finding a few closer to home too. So the more suggestions the better! We will go the last week of June, as it looks like most of the schools have tours, etc all of that week. We’ll be in the area from Sun afternoon to Sat night or Sun AM, so I hope that is enough time.

I usually use: Kayak.com for airfare searches, Hotwire for hotels and Costco Travel for rental car. I agree with @eandesmom that Costco the best rental car prices, if you are a member. Unfortunately, it appears that the all the taxes at both PDX and SEA are extremely high - about 35% of the bill. I rented a car, through Costco Travel, w/ Alamo, for spring break: paid $300 for a premium car (Toyota Avalon) for 10 days. So paying $425 for a Toyota Corolla, for 1 week seems really high, (also thru Costco).

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Thank you @cocosmyfavorite . I was thinking Muhlenberg and maybe Gettysburg. I hadn’t considered Leon or College of Charleston. I’ll have to check them out.

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@morningside95 I would keep checking Costco since the rates can actually change quite a bit over time and it’s so easy to rebook. I rebook all the time. There seems to be a window about 3-5 weeks out where they can really go down.

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@eandesmom Western Washington is high on her short list. I agree with you re compromise.

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I am a frequent traveler both for work and personal. TSA lines have become ridiculous. We left the house 3 hours before our Denver flight last night. It’s a 30 min drive with no traffic. Granted it was rush hour and we had planned for that but we had to do terminal parking and has only enough time to get thru security, buy food to eat on the plane and board. Alaska boards 40 min before departure and will close the gate 15-20 min before departure so you can’t be late to boarding.

FYI for those of you planing summer Seattle tours, I don’t expect it to improve on the traffic side, just too much construction and tsa is really hit or miss.

I had the same experience at Seatac 2 weeks ago and last month, it’s sad the 3 hour window has become my norm. Orlando was just as bad earlier this week. I’m finally going to get pre check next month but that won’t help the rest of my family.

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Thanks, once again, @eandesmom ! Costco is usually great. I ck’d back for our spring break rental car in LA, and saved about $40, and moved up from a full size to a premium! The taxes on rentals both in SEA and Portland are crazy high. I even ck’d on prices for renting in town, insetad of at the airport, but it was also high. To get the best deal, we are flying into SEA on Saturday afternoon, so we can to fun things for the first 2 days, and then we’ll start tours on Monday-Friday. We leave Portland on the Friday night read eye. Is the Portland airport easier to navigate than SEATAC? Now that S17’s schedule is letting up, only taking 1 AP test and then has a big 4-night Choir concert in Iater in May, he will start reviewing the list of colleges in WA and OR, that I think he has a chance of getting into, to decide where he wants to tour.

Also, wising PEACE to our hometown creative superhero, Prince. We just drove past a beautifully lit up Paisley Park last Friday, on a night out, and were talking about him.

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How did your spring break visits go, @eandesmom? Is S finding any schools for his “List!?” Anyone else have the beginnings of a list with their S or D?

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@morningside95 & others … we started with a list of 26 possible universities that we thought fit the academic & personal criteria for our S17. After visiting several universities & an extensive online research of the others, I feel confident that we can cross off 15 from the list that no longer appear to be good fits.

Our original list included public & private universities in CT, DE, MD, NC. NJ. NY, OH, PA, RI. SC, VA, WVA. Our home state is VA, so the biggest obstacle will be the OOS cost. Our household income doesn’t qualify him for need based $, so we’re hoping that an improved GPA & good ACT or SAT scores will net him some merit based $. For those of you who have been thru the process, do you find the NPC on the university websites to be accurate? So far it appears the most we can hope for is $5K, but its enough to lower the OOS costs to below the maximum amount we’re willing to pay.

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Portland airport is small and easy. However, if you are returning a rental car it is a little more complicated. Most companies are offsite, and bus you back. Remember you can’t pump your own gas in Oregon so have to find a station. Try THAT at 5 am!

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School visit: Colorado State University

This visit went great! D had Monday off and CSU happened to be having a special program about competitive majors (which includes her choice of engineering), undergraduate research (big interest for her) and honors program (would be great but who knows…) Our tour guide was amazing – best one out of the 8 schools we’ve visited and most were pretty good. The campus is not as pretty as CU-Boulder, but still very nice and of course a beautiful mountain backdrop. It’s pretty compact at one square mile delineated by streets on each side. Most of the buildings on campus are new and modern. The surrounding area looks college-towny and downtown is pretty close as well. The guide said relations between the school and Fort Collins are excellent and very supportive on both sides. The dorm room we saw was the nicest one we’ve seen yet. Quite big for a double and a private bathroom. Regular doubles (with communal bathrooms) and suites are available too. There is themed housing and D likes the idea of living in an engineering dorm. The rec center is great and includes a large climbing wall and students can get training. Outdoor equipment for camping and other activities is available to rent for a modest fee and lots of students take advantage of the beautiful surrounding environs. And very importantly - D and I agreed the dining hall food was the best we’d eaten yet.

The dean of engineering seemed like a pretty cool guy. He told a story about being a first gen student who’d never thought of engineering until his hs counselor suggested it. His father was thrilled. However his grades were not good enough for engineering so he went in undeclared. But his father was so proud he couldn’t tell him the truth! Luckily he did well enough to get into engineering the second year and his father never found out. There is lots of research being done and most profs have undergrads on their teams. It sounds like it’s pretty easy to get involved. Word of advice: kids going into mechanical or biomedical engineering must apply early action because there is a cap and there are never any openings for regular decision. Also, all engineering applicants must include a second choice major (can be another engineering major or not). There are two engineering buildings, though I can’t remember how they are divided up.

The honors program sounds amazing. Minimum stats are online, but do not guarantee honors admission. I think the guy said about 1/3 of those eligible are invited, but I’m not sure. Honors classes have 15-20 students. Some are more in depth versions of regular classes and some are specific to honors. (I wanted to take the one called Mythbusting: Science, Pseudo-science and Just Plain Nonsense!) All honors classes satisfy gen ed reqs. Honors students get priority class registration ahead of seniors – wow, is this normal?! Honors students have specific research programs. There is also an honors dorm which apparently is quite nice though we didn’t see it. Oh, also a $1000/year scholarship as if all those other perks weren’t enough.

D liked everything about it except the size, which is pretty big at 32,000. It did seem quite crowded at class changing time. She really wants to go to a small school. But it’s a definite pick over CU-Boulder. I think if she got into the honors program (keeping fingers crossed on those darn ACT/SAT’s!) it would be a better fit than she thinks. She will definitely apply here as it is our most affordable option (in-state for us).

If anyone has any questions ask away.

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And if that last post wasn’t long enough, I will add that the next schools D most wants to visit (and I agree with her) are Western Washington U (thanks to you guys on this thread!) and Rochester Institute of Technology.

We looked at pictures of Bellingham and that is almost enough reason to go to WWU in itself. Not quite as small as she’d like, but one of the smaller of the “big” publics. Also D said she’s always wanted to visit Seattle which I didn’t even know. I can definitely picture her living in the pacific northwest.

One of the guidebooks described RIT as having a unique artsy/geeky vibe and students who are more into video games than sports. She’ll be able to wear her favorite t-shirts every day from Dr. Who, Star Trek, Marvel Comics, Dungeons & Dragons, xkcd, etc. etc.

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@snoozn what a great update!!! I will be back to comment later, we are on the road now to University of Wyoming. It was a fascinating and illuminating day of tours yesterday, CU in the morning, CSU in the afternoon. Which is why we do this, you can read all you want but being there really tells you so much more. S definitely had some of his assumptions and things the thought he wanted/didn’t want flipped a bit upside down.

It will be interesting to see how today goes!

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Thanks for the fabulous trip report @snoozn. I’ve always been curious about the Colorado schools, but they weren’t on dd’s radar. A friend of our d loved CU Fort Collins but ended up choosing Oregon State due to cost. Ds has often talked of living in Colorado but the only college that has his major is Colorado College, which is pricey.

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This was our first time checking out schools. Three very different schools, three very different tours. I am long winded so I’ll do a separate post for each

University of Colorado – Boulder (CU)

This is a school that we really only visited because we were going to be in town and was basically on the way to another school we wanted to visit (or could be, depending on how we drove). We hemmed and hawed about even visiting, thinking it not a match for S17 but decided to do the general tour and at least see Boulder as it’s a neat town.
We did the general tour. A one-hour info session followed by a 90 minute walking tour. Info session was student led, slide show sales pitch with information on the school, admissions, etc. Interestingly enough their glossy packet featured a kid whose majors and interests could have been S17 (environmental studies and music). Definitely very packaged and rehearsed and the student literally spoke 90 miles an hour. Which while a bit annoying wasn’t all that bad. Undertone of elitism in the overall pitch but not horrible. What really stood out to S was their strong focus on it being ok not to have a clue what you want to do and being open to exploring multiple interests, a lot of focus on dual major kid/examples with eclectic combos of interests that pulled it off in 4-5 years. Good messages for S at this point in the game.

Our walking tour guide was adorable. Classic California cheerleader but she did a very good job and was relatable. The walking tour covered a fair bit of the campus. Basic dorms, nothing earth shattering at all. Most kids only live on campus year 1 so it really doesn’t matter that much. No AC but not a big deal there. They offer RAP’s where you can live with other kids in your major (for an extra $800 a semester) and some other group interest living options. Impressive and stunning campus. Absolutely gorgeous. S had walked in expecting not to like CU. He’s been very anti “rah rah” big football schools and big schools in general. He absolutely loved the architecture and feel of the campus. Very seduced by the traditional collegiate feel, both the old buildings and the new that had been made to really blend in with the old. Good use of open space and lots of kids enjoying it, and working. Very active busy good vibe everywhere. Amazing rec center. An outdoor pool shaped like a buffalo (their mascot) that is heated by the thermal release used to freeze the ice in the indoor ice rink in the rec center. S loved hearing that the environmental design students had been involved with the concept and project. Tennis courts on the roof of the rec center looking out onto the Flatirons. Amazing outdoor programs available, a huge plus for S. Their efforts in sustainability was referenced constantly. Zero waste football stadium, huge recycling emphasis, solar panels serving as parking roofs, very obvious and pervasive which really impressed S.

Their mascot is a buffalo and they bring the buffalo out for all home games. Apparently running with the buffalo is a D1 sport itself. About 6 handlers or more run with Ralphie. Stunning library with amazing resources and a campus full of macs donated by Steve Wozniak, who was expelled from CU for hacking in and changing his grades. The tour ended at Old Main, the original campus building which had a great gallery of notable alumni, including a Glenn Miller gallery which trombone playing S absolutely loved and then an athletics one where equal space was given to the marching band display as it was to the football team. That was a big hit for S as well. Nice transit options, some free internal busses and then inexpensive passes to go skiing or $5 to get to the airport.
As it was a general tour we did not get much of a feel for the academics beyond the glossy presentation. We did have lunch in the main union, interestingly enough at Packers Grill. Alferd Packer was a famous cannibal. Apparently that was the last time the school let the students name anything. Currently it’s not part of the meal plan but will be next year. Excellent tacos from the Cannibal Grill. After we ate we walked over to the “hill” area to meet H and S19 where they were having lunch, at The Sink. S loved loved loved the vibe of the Hill area. He didn’t get to see Pearl Street which is a bit unfortunate but we had to get on the road.

This was a great stop for S17. His comment after was that it felt a lot like the UW (Washington) and he loved that. Which is funny as he has maintained UW is too big, too rah rah. Now he says it’s just that it’s too close to home. The other parts didn’t bother him at all. Campus aesthetics are very important to him and I don’t think we had really factored that in at all in creating the list. While H thinks it is ridiculous for that to be a factor, as far as I am concerned whatever creates an environment that you feel you “fit” in, those are factors that need to be considered. Assuming of course that academics and programs are equal. CU has some programs others do not that S likes, most notably the Environmental Design. At the end of the day he isn’t entirely sure he sees himself there (which is good as it’s not affordable) and we really didn’t get a feel for his program areas at all but it opened up his mind to bigger schools (and to being open in general) and that was a very good thing. It may or may not stay on the list, if it did it would require a lot of scholarships to make happen.

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Colorado State University (CSU)

For CSU I had booked an engineering program tour. It had been billed as a 90 min program tour, followed by a 60 min general tour and that seemed to work well for us. We checked at the bio engineering building in and had some confusion on their end as to who our guide was, if they were coming (still at class, not coming, not sure, oh wait this guy will take you kind of thing). Which was interesting as when they’d confirmed with me I’d gotten 2 separate emails noting 2 different student names as our guides. We ended up with someone else entirely. While we were waiting a mechanical engineering student struck up conversation with S asking about area of interest (not sure, vague idea etc) and kind of seized on one point, ran with it and then went on and on and on about how hard it is. She, and another girl at the desk then launched into if he wants mechanical, apply early as there is a cap and it’s hard to get in because everyone wants mechanical etc etc etc. Oh and it’s great, and she loves it, but hard. For the kid debating between engineering and the softer side of things it was maybe not idea. True of course and he needs to know that should he go the engineering route but it kind of freaked him out. We finally get our guy who then takes us on the program tour. We toured both engineering buildings, the newer one which had bioprocessing and I forget what else and then the older main building. Shaped like an “E” each side of the E housed labs for the different disciplines. We walked them all and saw active labs in both mechanical and civil. Nothing in electrical so saw a dark “clean” lab. We also saw some of the standard classrooms engineering library and engineering specific study areas. Apparently printing costs less in this building than at the dorms or the student union. Seeing the labs with some “live” ones was incredibly beneficial, as was talking about some of the senior projects and others our guide had worked on in his classes. Our guide was a sophomore civil engineering student, great kid and very engaging but knew little to nothing about S’s area of interest, environmental engineering, which as a bit surprising as it’s an offshoot of civil and he’s doing the general tour. So, good general info but very broad and not in a way that got S excited about anything specific. He too focused on how hard it was.

We then set out for the general tour. Campus is HUGE. Sprawling, flat buildings, tons and tons of open space. Lots and lots of walking. Pretty setting though the foothills felt farther away. The dorm buildings, and the Engineering dorm (if you want that route) had some great options, especially for networking, study groups, printing, but the rooms themselves were what you’d see anywhere. Our guide was an RA who had lived in the Engineering dorm his first year and couldn’t say enough good things about it. The area we toured, academic village, was much much nicer than the dorms right next to the engineering building. Student dining in the living area seemed quite nice but we really didn’t get to try or see it other than a brief peek. Our guide was kind of like “we can go here if you want to see that for the rest of the tour”. Which was fine but it meant that we ended up seeing only a few of the main areas (rec center, library, student center, and dorms) and did not get a feel at all for the history of the school and other areas of the school. Great transit option, free bus pass for the entire city limits for students. As with CU, very very strong outdoors program which is a plus for S.

We headed back to the student union to get a drink and meet back up with H and S19. Neither of us were impressed with the offerings food and drink wise at the union. It was a warm day and we’d have killed for smoothie but had to settle for iced tea from Subway. We checked in to our hotel and then H and I went into the mall area of Fort Collins while the kids chilled for an adult beverage and then came back, got the kids and headed back in for dinner. Fort Collins itself is incredibly cool. Very busy all around for a Thursday evening, tons of dining, snack, shopping and entertainment options. Busy with families and students, not just a college town for sure. We all loved the town. The school though was a huge disappointment to S. He had expected to love it, it was the one he had been looking forward to the most. He did not care for the low flat buildings, the lack of collegiate feel (he thought it felt like his HS) and how spread out it was. It was “too” casual for him. Which was really surprising. We both felt though that CSU did get shortchanged by not having a better general tour aspect for us. If they had more programs that were of interest we both thought we would go back again and give it another shot but the reality is they only had Environmental Engineering. Nothing on the Environmental Studies, Environmental Science, Policy or the Energy areas he is interested in. Yes, he could do mechanical engineering but without the focus, it just doesn’t grab him the same way. Which is sad but if there isn’t a program fit or preferably multiples, it just doesn’t make sense. He definitely needs a school that has options so he is able to change his mind if he wants. As a result, as much as we all adored Fort Collins, it is off the list. In retrospect I think S’s ADHD was a factor here. He fed off the more densely populated spaces and energy from the other kids at CU and didn’t have that to feed off of at CSU.

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University of Wyoming

We did not know what to expect out of U Wyo. It only popped up on the radar due to the variety of Energy Programs. You can request up to 3 areas of academic interest for a personal tour and I had done that. I had been concerned that we hadn’t received an agenda and contacted them earlier in the week when they said it would be most likely the day before as they were coordinating the academic appointments.

I had requested the following majors

• Energy Systems Engineering (ESE)
• Energy Resource Management and Development (Bachelor of Science)
• Environmental Systems Science (ESS)
• Environmental Engineering

When we got our schedule, the day before, it had only the ESE program and a marching band meeting and the overall day an hour less than the 3 area tour I had requested so that was a bit of a disappointment. That being said, it was our top choice of programs to see so that was something. We got up in the morning and made the drive from Fort Collings to Laramie. Which was stunningly beautiful. S17’s mouth was hanging open the whole drive, completely entranced with the landscape. Enough like home to feel comfortable but enough different to feel unique. We were lucky on our tour dates. They’d had a blizzard the week before and we wouldn’t have been able to make the drive at all, all routes to Laramie would have been closed.

We checked in at the Gateway building, a welcome center that was a combination of event space and prospective student/admissions info. Absolutely stunning building. The day started off with the gift of a Nalgene water bottle which was a nice touch. We met with admissions for an hour, discussing interests, scholarships, transfer credits etc. Our first time in that kind of a meeting and a great first foray into it. Nice $ opportunities for S and an amazing funded study abroad program for all students were some of the highlights. She really took the time to try and get to know S.
After that it was a general tour with a group. The campus is absolutely beautiful. Similar to CU in the collegiate feel but in a sandstone national park way versus collegiate brick. Just stunning. Great use of outdoor space, plenty of areas to chill in and hang out but not too sprawling, you felt like all of the schools were still connected to each other, which we didn’t feel at CSU at all (and really have no idea about CU). It was the smallest of the schools we toured, at about 10,000 undergrads. It felt nicely busy. Enough energy for S but not insanely crowded either. Lovely library, we liked it better than CSU’s. Basic dorms, again, one year. Honors dorm is not any nicer but there is some $ offered along with the honors classes. There are some underground tunnels for dorms to dining and in some of the other areas for the nastier windier parts of the year. Our guide (Junior Physiology major) did a nice job. After the general tour we headed on our own to lunch in the dining hall. Decent amount of options and does change daily. Another student ambassador found us there and hung out with us for lunch. Great kid, very relatable (AG major) who was able to share a lot about the general student culture both on and off campus. Does a lot of the outdoor activities and provided some great info in that area.

After lunch it was off to the engineering building to for our ESE meeting. We were paired up with a Assistant Mechanical Engineering Professor (ESE being an offshoot of MechE) who oversees all the undergrads for the program and is an active professor. Great overview of the program as a whole, what it takes to be successful, what he looks for in a student, etc. More importantly he and S had a pretty open conversation about the energy industry in general. Wyoming is built on coal, and gas but especially coal. S is anti-coal, and focused on alternatives. It was a wonderful dialogue for my bleeding heart liberal that opened up S’s mind quite a bit. Wyoming has been hit hard with current pricing across the board and we heard a lot of economic horror stories. This particular professor did his undergrad and masters at Wyo and PhD at Cornell. He’ll send his own kids to Wyo over Cornell any day. Not only did the economic realities of a changing industry hit home with S, the fact that this professor was working on a research process for alternative uses for coal, creating polymers and other materials, etc. They had a nice discussion on co2 capture among other things. Great info on recruiting, internships. Research opportunities etc. A lot that really resonated with S. They reviewed the ESE curriculum (which looked outstanding for S, great mix of adding in the environmental and policy items) S asked about examples of some of the senior projects for ESE. Which our guy didn’t now so he took us down the hall to meet the lecturer who oversees all of the senior projects for the ESE program. He was chatting with a TA and immediately made time for S to come in and chat. He grilled S a little bit and then chatted about a couple of the senior projects, one he was extremely excited about and one he thought was more mundane (but sounded like a ton of fun to S). Incredibly engaging approachable guy, as the first one had been. Both of whom S would have as teachers if he chose the program. S came out of there lit up like a Christmas tree. As a result, we were a solid 20 min late to our next meeting, with the marching band.

Wyoming has a strong performing arts program, music, dance and theater. Beautiful facility. We met with the Marching Band director, who is also the Professor for Low Brass and Trumpet specifically. His face lit up like a Christmas tree with Trombone playing S. They need trombones and will pay for them. Not a lot mind you ($180 ish freshman year lol) for a non-music major but there is a small amount just to be in the marching band, that goes up annually for all instruments. It’s a D1 marching band that travels and does quite well, about 240 kids, 80% of which are non music majors. $20 per pep band game played. All groups (concert, jazz etc) are available to all kids, audition based. 3 jazz bands. S mentioned jazz and the professor got up and has us run to a rehearsal hall to try and hear Jazz 1 practicing (they were headed to a competition later that day). As we walked to the halls he is teasing kids as we go about not practicing. Lots just hanging around with each other, doing homework, writing music, etc. Classic band director, loved him. The most aggressive of the bunch about recruiting S, great info about what to send in for an audition tape and what kinds of money might be out there for him with the bottom line message being that they will pay for him to come play. We also picked up info to add a music minor. There is a scholarship just for kids who do music and engineering. We did not meet with the theater folks but as with music, S could get involved with productions on the tech side without it being a major. It really is more a question of balancing time. After looking at the curriculum, S felt study abroad would be out unless it was over summer or during the month long winter break. At least if he did the ESE program. We didn’t get enough info on SER to really see.

With that we were done, headed back, S turned in his survey and got a free tee shirt. We then drove around downtown Laramie (which takes 5 minutes) and picked a spot for some nachos and a beverage before hitting the road back to Denver. There are some cute spots downtown, it is just quite small.

Apparently I am so long winded on this one…it will be continued in the next post.

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We felt the love at Wyoming in a big way. S met with 3 assistant professors, all of whom he would interact with directly. They took the time to get to know him, as did admissions, as did our lunchtime hangout dude. In 2 cases, students were in the office hanging and chatting, really illustrating to S an open door policy and involvement that beat out any lab tour he could have ever seen. The campus was stunning, the outdoors program offers all that CU and CSU did. There are a few drawbacks. S is not at all crazy about having a Cowboy as a potential mascot. It is a more conservative culture than he is used to, yet the students were more diverse than I was expecting. He didn’t feel the sustainability as much as he would have liked however since we were there on earth day he did get to meet a couple of kids from their school of environment which was good if he goes that route. As the day went on he liked it more and more. He is mildly concerned about distance. For a kid who was talking about Vermont and New Hampshire as states he want to explore options in, it was interesting to have him go…maybe distance is an issue after all. As for me, I was impressed. It’s a hidden gem. My kid went from intimidated and discouraged about engineering to going…ok it will be hard but this sounds fascinating and I can work hard and maybe do this. The direct interactions with the teachers made all the difference in the world. The national park like setting sure didn’t hurt either. Clearly a flagship but with a much more chill vibe. Good mix for S. Fort Collins is only 1 hour away, Denver and family 2-2.5. that helps.

The end result is:

CSU: Off the list

CU: moved up on the list but could easily come of

U of Wyo: Stays on and moved up to the high end of the list.

Some other results. Western WA, after this trip moved from a back-up plan in S’s mind to a I can’t wait to go check it out school. After liking CU, Oregon State is now officially under consideration. When we get back we will also see what the counselor came up with. Overall it was a great trip and really really helped get some good ideas on what “fits” S.

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Really great posts @eandesmom! Forget about the kids, I think I want to go to U of Wyoming :slight_smile:

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And I’ll give one other positive for Wyoming - I have had no issue that they haven’t been able to help me with. No vaccination record received by the health department? The admissions office called the registrar to see if there was one attached to her transcript. Voila, there was, problem solved (and she could register at orientation). Some sort of roommate mix up? Fixed with a minor room change (same dorm, same floor, different room). Snowed in or out of Laramie? School understands and exams or due dates are fixed. They are really nice people to work with. (at my other daughter’s school, they are nice but everything takes 20 people to work on the issue, and many calls to fix anything).

If you didn’t get to see the theater and dance building, it is a new $10M remodel and addition. There are so many study abroad programs that I’m sure your son would find one. Many are for the summer. The school sponsors a spring semester in London (you pay as if you are in school in Laramie, or even less), and I know that last year 3 of the courses were environmental studies.