Checking in briefly from college tours. Everything is going well except the visit to Miami University in Oxford. Maybe we did something wrong… But it seems to absolutely be in the middle of nowhere. We came in literally with cows on one side and a huge commuter parking lot on the other (???) … Entered campus. Beautiful campus but with every building looking like it was punched from the same cookie cutter and the students themselves were not too far behind. Very little diversity.
I sat for an hour watching students while D was meeting with faculty (which she said went really well) and really tried to feel differently about the place. I could never picture D here. Beyond two “cute streets” near the campus (shops/restaurants etc) there seemed to be nothing else to the town.
Did anyone else seem to have a different experience??
@carachel2 , I went there for graduate school, but I was captured audience from outside US, with full ride scholarship. I had some dealings with undergraduates, and was very concerned that some of the kids who need calculator to add 7 to 8, will eventually become partners at major accounting firms. There were a lot of diversity in my graduate class, but most of the undergraduate I met are from upper middle class and had strong sense of entitlement, or what I am educating my kids not to become.
One modification I would make to @eandesmom’s list would be to keep closer tabs on scholarship deadlines. GA Tech, for example, has an Oct. 15th deadline. You have to on top of your game for a lot of scholarships.
A tip our older child was given was to write her essay questions in August before school started so they were ready to go. Some schools have November deadlines.
Thanks for sharing calendar. I think though some dates are a little late. My D goes to a very big school so I’m acting as her personal college admissions guidance gounselor. She has a tough senior schedule so our goal is to get all apps done before school starts. The common app and most school apps will be open before school starts. She’s asking for recs before end of year so teachers can work on them over the summer. She’s already getting required info to her high school counselor for counselor rec. For many schools, the earlier you get app in, the better chance of getting good merit offer.
@itsgettingreal I agree the dates are late and IF the kids are actually seeing it and IF the parents are following it and want merit, those dates do not help them at all.
We will not be following the dates as outlined however based on Naviance, it does not appear we “can” ask for LOR’s until school starts or right before as the teachers can’t actually upload them. We will have to ask basically the minute school starts. What may be hard for us, is convincing S17 that he needs to do his apps over the summer when the school is saying otherwise but…he is well aware that merit would really increase his options. He too has a tough senior schedule so it is going to be in his best interest (and ours) to have them done.
@carachel2, My older d is a freshman at Miami University and my younger d is considering attending too. Yes, Oxford is definitely in the middle of nowhere, but seems to be a fun and lively town. My d loves it there and has found a wide variety of students on campus. She has found her classes to be interesting and challenging, advisors helpful and accessible, and she finds plenty to do on the weekends that doesn’t involve Greek life or bars.
Definitely not the place for every student, but we’ve had a very positive experience so far.
I agree on working on the essays over the summer. It makes the process so much easier once school starts and they have homework and activities. I read over my son’s essays and made suggested edits. The typos and basic editing stuff he did change but for the most part he did not change topics I didn’t like or major changes I suggested. In AP Lit they did do peer review of essays and the teacher read and edited a certain number per kid. Our school also has a writing center where teacher’s are always available to help with these types of things though the edits he got from one teacher there I disagreed with and he ultimately did not use them. My son’s essays did reflect his personality and were not a totally polished product but I think schools like to see real vs cookie cutter essays that don’t sound like a kid. He has gotten into a number of top schools and has been offered merit scholarships at every school he has been accepted to so it seems to have worked for us.
I will have my D work on her essays over the summer as well.
@eandesmom For my D16, I did most of the edits and then sent them off to my brother in law who is an 11th grade english teacher as well as my sister in law who works in admissions for a top university. It was great to have both of their perspectives. My D’s Lit teacher had all of the students submit one essay to be graded, but she wasn’t much help since we had already done most of the editing ourselves.
Regarding essays…my older kids had all essays finished before school started in the fall so that they could concentrate on school work and busy extracurriculars. Made for a busy summer for them, but totally worth it! As far as looking over essays, the kids were comfortable with me doing it because I do that sort of thing for a living.
@eandesmom Definitely ask your child’s teacher for a LOR before the end of this school year, and give them a copy of your kid’s “brag sheet”. Don’t worry that this will be done ‘formally’ through Naviance in the fall. That is just a formality at that point. The teacher will appreciate the head’s up, and can work on it over the summer if they so wish.
Having essays done before school starts? One can dream!!
I’m a published author (national magazines), and a retired copywriter/proofreader/editor, so both D’s always ask me to put eyes on the papers. However, I also ask them to have their Lit/English teachers review it as well because I don’t want to have all the onus on me.
I did catch a mistake on D17’s physics paper last month where she’d messed up the formula. How on earth I remembered the correct formula from my high school days I’ll never know, but I did say, hey, this formula seems to say heavier things fly farther (it was about weighted nerf bullets), and that doesn’t seem right. And she said “none of my friends caught that” (they proof each other’s papers), so I was glad I’d helped her.
But yeah, the more trusted eyes on a paper, the better.
My S’s counselor likes to review their CA essays as long as they get them done by a certain date she tells them. That worked better than me reviewing D15s essay because the GC was an “unbiased” review. That also helped prompt the kids to get their essay done before school started at the end of August. It was more difficult to get supplemental essays reviewed for things like scholarships unless the kids were really on top of it. I looked at those.
I am sure no one will see my D’s essays except her and the university. She is a good enough writer that she will not need proof reading for technical issues. I think any suggestions would result in her changing her voice. I doubt she will sell herself as well as she could, but I am sure her essays will be uniquely hers if she knows she will not need to please anyone but herself, and the university of course.
I’ll be proof reading all of my daughter’s essays. I drive her crazy with all the critiquing and editing, but it’s what I do for a living and she’s used to it.
Since English is my second language, I can’t provide proof-reading or technical help for DD. I try to help by providing general feedback from an adult point of view.