@klinska - Thank you! We have been waiting for portal info from UMass Amherst for S17 - EA app sent 10/31. D16 is a Freshman there now - she applied RD and waited until early-mid-April for the decision. She applied at the deadline though. I’m pretty sure with a 10/31 RD submission - you should hear by mid-March.
Just wanted to pop in to say congratulations to those with acceptances so far! I can’t possibly keep up with this thread but I try to read it every few days as we go through the process over here. Still waiting for ED and rolling admissions…
“most of the people there are good folks, though often with different politics and religion from me. Some can be pushy and some can be downright offensive, creepy, and/or really awful. I mostly lived in small towns and definitely felt “different.””
Lol…pretty much how I feel in NYC…and in a lot of other blue states…“no offense to anyone living in a” blue state…ridiculous
@CAtransplant – that may have just been the bias of my very sheltered upbringing. Classmates attended all of the other Ivies (and Brown was really hot in those days, while not at all popular currently with classmates at my boys’ HS).
@eandesmom — sorry about that with the WSJ article. I have the Times and Journal delivered at home, and tend to forget that the Journal locks down access. I think if you google the title of the article along with WSJ, you will be able to read it, if interested. Title below.
Legal Marijuana Poses a Problem for Gun Buyers
Here is the sentence I was quoting from: "The form asked if she used marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes, both of which are legal in Alaska. If she answered yes, she would be unable to get the gun, because federal law prohibits anyone who uses illegal drugs from buying a firearm.
@carachel2 – some of the schools invite the parent in for the last five minutes so that the parent can ask any question she may have. I recall this from older son’s interviews and one or two that younger son has gone on. So I would say that I accompany him to the interview/meeting location and the interviewer usually introduces herself and indicates whether or not my presence will be requested at the end of the interview.
We have not had any exploratory sessions as @IABooks described, unless that was a description of the large campus info sessions.
No overnight visits, but if son should be so fortunate as to be accepted at more than one school, then I think I will arrange for overnight visits, ideally with a friend of a friend on campus. I think I could find someone to reach out to at just about every school. I slept on floor of a stranger when accepted, met up with other accepted students, and had a great time. That visit showed me what college could be like, but I had never been away from home before that.
I’ve lived all over this beautiful planet and I can honestly say there are great people everywhere, and there are terrible people everywhere.
You just have to find your little tribe of like-minded weirdos in the world, and try and do no harm to the others who don’t share your views. At least, that’s how we try to roll.
Just speaking as someone who’s lived my entire post-school life in red (well, in the case of Florida while I was there, purple with a quite reddish tinge) states, I’ll say that ruling them out rather limits one’s options (similarly, ruling out blue states, which I’ve heard from other quarters).
Also, does that mean the Universities of Wisconsin and Michigan and Penn State (and Penn!) are now out, due to the voting in the last election, despite the overall history of those states? (While UNLV is in despite Nevada’s overall voting history?) It’s not really an easily-defined thing, actually, this whole “red or blue state” idea.
Yes, my sentiments exactly. I also never considered campus carry but just checked the college list and luckily none have that. #:-S
Columbia: My brother graduated from Columbia 15 years ago and felt very safe on campus and the surrounding area. However, when D and I recently toured Columbia, he did not recommend we stay in a nearby hotel or walk around alone at night.
QOTD1 - We haven’t attended a session like that, however, I know from shadowing D at college fairs, she was annoyed with me standing there listening in on her conversations, so I think she would not let me attend and it’s probably for the best so she can really shine.
QOTD2 - At some point you should definitely call and explain the change in circumstance because they will probably request additional documentation and it could result in a better financial offer. I haven’t looked in awhile but I think many of the universities’ websites might even describe what to do in this scenario.
To me, the idea of “red states” versus “blue states” is very simplistic. We have none of either. All states are purple states. In addition (at least in my experience), vast majority of the country isn’t very political at all. They think about politics for a few weeks every 4 years and a little bit less every other year. When elections are over, they go back to their lives. Back to work, family responsibilities, spending time with friends, etc. At that point, attempting to put “red” or “blue” labels on them makes no sense (and just doesn’t work). Because they are all different people and trying to line them up by supposed “red” and “blue” issues doesn’t work (in reality they are all a mix of both and thus the purple reality).
Haven’t been around here for a while. Busy with senior year stuff. Congrats to everyone who has gotten acceptances. Good luck to those waiting for them. Welcome to the new people here.
@Fishnlines29 – my reference to the area around Columbia was from more than 30 years ago. Today’s Manhattan is a very sanitized version of the place I lived for eight years after college, after short stint in Boston. My HS classmates would have been applying very early 1980s, when the area was vastly different than it is today. We toured last spring and I thought it was beautiful.
I know that (some of us) are extremely type A :-), but I have a question - is there any real reason to check the portals once the app is shown as complete? Decisions won’t come out for another month… Some schools longer. (DD applied to Case, Rose Hulman, IU, and Purdue.)
I’m totally fine hitting the refresh button constantly if there’s a chance something is going to change - but not if there’s no chance…
@snoozn The election is really going to influence D’s final selection. She was open to certain red states before, but no longer. I think we need more open-minded young people to attend schools in red states and eventually settle there to be agents for change, but I can’t fault my D or any other student for not wanting to deal with it all.
@thshadow The IU decision can come as soon as 5 days - 1 week after the app is complete. I can’t speak to the others.
@theshadow Some portals are now posting scholarship and/or honors programs information. More reasons to click click click. I need help.
But I agree. No reason to check more than once a week (just to be sure) if answers are not forthcoming for weeks or months.
.
@dfbdfb I don’t think anyone should completely rule out all red states or all blue states, but I do believe it’s important, particularly for minority and LGBT students, to pay attention to the political climate of the state and the particular school, and the support they’d receive at each school. I personally know what it’s like to be on a campus where minorities feel isolated and have to deal with racial incidents. Certain schools never made my D’s list for precisely that reason and I agree with her that given recent incidents in some states and given the current political climate, some schools are no longer a good option for my D.
I cannot condemn any teen’s reaction to this election as it is unlike any other in modern times in terms of ugly rhetoric and people’s willingness to act on that rhetoric. If a college applicant wants to avoid red states this year, it is understandable - whether or not it is simplistic teen thinking, whether or not a specific college/town is “blue” in an otherwise red state, whether or not they are a group targeted by the rhetoric, whether or not we agree. If red/blue/purple is not on the final pros/cons list, this is ok, too. Let’s support each other when a personal decision doesn’t effect anyone else, please.
@CT1417 oh sure, I got that, just trying to give one more perspective! it was a pretty campus, however, D wants NO campus feel, go figure!
@thshadow no reason really, we’re just all insane :))
No red? So no colleges like UA where over half the kids are OOS?
@thshadow wrote
We had an issue with this. D finished the UMDCP app in October, it showed as “completed”, and we didn’t go back onto the portal until last week because someone on another thread had mentioned that some schools want first quarter grades and to check.
So we checked (umd doesn’t need them, btw), and there’s this big exclamation point and now it says “incomplete”. Turns out a teacher never noticed the email from UMD, or my daughter’s reminder email, about the LOR. She had to go find the teacher and have the teacher write a “mea culpa” letter to UMD in an attempt to get D back on track for the scholarships. Who knows if they will-when I called UMD they were rather cryptic about whether D would be in the running-iirc they said they’d “address the issue if the teacher sends an email explaining”.
(most of you know this story already, lol. Beating a dead horse a bit more).
So, yeah. Check the portals. Her NEU portal isn’t working as of this week, and she has an email in to them, as well, trying to figure out what’s going on.
Anyone else here have an issue with IDOC? I didn’t realize until I logged in with documents in hand that they say documents take 2-3 days to process before they are available for the schools to download. Actually, it has been taking closer to a week, according to a friend who just went through the process. We submitted ours before the priority processing deadline for one of our schools but they are still not available (deadline has passed). It’s not clear whether this means we will be considered as meeting the deadline or not. I’ve read things on the IDOC website and the school website that could be construed either way. Argh.
Anyway, a word to the wise. Maybe you all knew this already, but don’t wait until a few days before the deadline to submit documents to IDOC. Sigh.