@2muchquan thanks for posting those prompts, fascinating! S19 would be so all over those. Fun. For the right kid. Nightmare for others. S17 would have fun with a couple of them.
@jyc1230 travel can be difficult. S17’s choices are almost all away, some more so than others. The closest is 90 minutes but after that it’s 3-8 hours of travel and that is with staying west. We have dealt with this with S15 and even though she is west coast (as are we), it’s still at least 7-8 hours to get her to school and that’s assuming no stops between a 2 hour flight, then a 3 hour drive plus the travel time to and from airport/tsa, etc.
It can be very difficult at break…especially if they miss a flight and it’s a limited flight option/small airport situation/hard to get to location.
We have a school we are avoiding touring quite yet as they will want an interview and he is not there yet. We may still tour this spring and do it but I want to get a few tours under his belt first and see.
@caroldanvers I have a close friend whose son is at Delaware, EE Honors, he loves it. He had some really nice choices and picked Delaware. They are not preppy country club at all and it seems pretty rah rah from a sports perspective, at least for football but that is largely based on my facebook feed in the fall. I’ll try to ask her about it next month when I see her.
@carachel2 thank you for the Purdue recap! I’ve always loved the vibe there but haven’t been able to get my kids interested in it but you never know…I haven’t been to the campus though in almost 20 years so it’s nice to hear what it is like now. I think S17 would like it there and there is a good program fit for him. He is SO focused on west…rain/snow/trees/mountains that it is limiting.
@jyc1230, I would like to add that what you consider your “need” to be may not match what the FAFSA or individual college feels your “need” is. So needs blind is kind of a loaded term.
@carachel2, thank you for the visit reports! I will try to do the same after we visit schools in AZ next week.
@4beardolls …you are welcome! Sorry it’s so long…total fun for us and I love reading detailed reports from others. Everyone who hates detailed reports…feel free to skip!
Also meant to add a tip: download the app “Yik Yak” on your phone and then read the comments near the university you are visiting. Take it ALL with a grain of salt…these are quippy/sarcastic/funny/bored tweet like comments from students. But it can be eye opening when you are near a particular campus. We found drinking/sex/bodily function comments near every campus we visited (yes, even JHU) but definitely we noted trends at specific colleges.
@carachel2 Yes, thanks so much for the recaps! Pitt is high on our list, and MiamiU has been just barely holding on because of the merit, but I hear you about the diversity and Greek ‘issues’. I think I’ll silently let it go for now. My D will never know…remember, she’s not driving that bus so doesn’t know where we’re going.
Interesting about Purdue as well. My D was into engineering a few months ago (BioMed Engin as well) but has decided that it was not the engineering part of that that interested her, so she is looking more at Neuro/BioMed Sciences/Genetics instead (followed by grad school), so Purdue kind of fell off the list. I may look at it again.
JHU. Just a warning if you need to get enough merit to make it similar to your in-state choices, you may need to move on from that one. I believe the only merit given at JHU are a dozen or so full-ride Stamps (or similar) scholarships. Maybe someone else can chime in, but I’m pretty sure most of us would be full-pay there 8-|
@2muchquan …oh yeah, we know that about JHU. Like I said…total reach in every way. She is a great kid but I doubt she could get admitted. She has not spent her summers curing cancer or inventing things for which she holds a patent! Don’t get me wrong, they sound like fantastic students at JHU and it looks and sounds like an amazing school. It just won’t be happening here and I think spending time this summer on the essays and such would be a waste of time. We couldn’t afford it even if she got in. D takes it all with a grain of salt and seems to be very very careful in getting her hopes up.
She does really like Pitt and it is a possibility if she can get merit aid. She has one half of the formula for what they say they look for, she will need to crank it up to get the other half of the formula. Also…the budget cuts look to be a BIG crisis and will likely play out in tuition increases and cuts in merit scholarships from what I could see in the campus newspaper. The timing stinks!
@carachel2 Great recap! Glad you had fun. We love segway tours and try to do one in every major new city we visit, time permitting. Your D sounds so much like mine, except that they are looking at different majors. Pitt is also very high on our list, but D will need huge merit aid to make it affordable (as with most schools…D knows the spiel).
I look forward to reading more tour recaps. This is such a great, helpful group!
She will have to be. She is fiercely independent when it comes to her school. We never helped her with her homework, never hired a tutor and did not purchase an SAT prep course for her.
@CaucAsianDad Absolutely nothing wrong with getting help with homework, tutoring, or SAT prep courses. Knowing when to seek and accept help/guidance is a huge asset and skill that everyone needs.
Just curious what others thought of sending ACT/SAT scores to schools early as a sign of ‘interest’? We did not choose to use the ‘freebie’ scores at the time D signed up/took the ACT, since we were unsure at the time where to send them. Now that we have a few ideas, I’ve heard it may make sense to send scores as a way to show interest. Of course, this isn’t important if the school does not consider this, but for the ones that do it seems like a no-brainer…no? It gets your file started early?
Also, I’ve been digging into the schools on our spring break trip, and I’m not sure I would make the same choices I did when I made these plans 2 months ago. Oh well, it will be a bonding experience!
Sorry about post #2329, got a call while editing and the session timed out. I meant to write the following:
She will have to be. She is fiercely independent when it comes to her school work. We never helped her with her homework, never hired a tutor and did not purchase an SAT prep course for her. She has been adamant that she do her own work, as best she can, by herself. I expect her to be no different with essays.
I call it the Harry Potter syndrome. Harry has the greatest living wizard trying to help him, but he continues to try to solve problems on his own or with only the help of his classmates. Everything turned out OK for Harry, I mean not that many people died.
My D used her free score report when we determined the following:
She felt she did well on the test
School values "show of interest"
3 School super scores and states they are just looking for best score
Nothing to lose, and best of all, her schools will have her SATs when she applies, no need to sweat out whether the CB gets them to the school on time.
@2muchquan we have not yet sent scores to anyone. As we were not sure where we would want to at the time of either test taken to date, and we hope to improve scores, it didn’t make sense.
Curious as to what you are rethinking on your tour. I forget, what all are you touring?
@CaucAsianDad I expect my S19 to be exactly like your D, I seriously doubt he will let me see his essays. He will do a prep class, as he wants to but that’s about all I expect.
We are touring NC & SC: Duke/UNC/Elon/Davidson/Furman/Clemson/UofSC. Phew! University of South Carolina has been a favorite for a while, mostly because of the highly-rated Honors College there, and the opportunities for merit (OOS tuition waiver+). However, they don’t have a Neuroscience major, which is probably OK if they are strong in Bio. Not sure about that, though. Frankly, portions of their website is pretty bad, especially the Neuroscience Minor portion. It really reflects poorly on the school, IMO.
Also, just the fact that we will be touring 3 LACs, and I’m just not sure now if that is a great idea. Especially for a student like my D, who is just not sure what she wants to do…not exactly. We may need to have a little more variety available.
And the last reason is that merit from the Dukes and/or UNCs is pretty competitive. We will still have several other schools to visit, and I’m feeling like we are going to run out of time.
@2muchquan that is a lot to tour over one break! Doesn’t sound like much down time. It’s a fine line, finding a program fit but also having variety there as a backup should they change their mind or refine/alter the direction just enough to where the initial program no longer fits.
@carachel2 I have set up tours with the honors college/programs at UofSC and Clemson, and the Biological Sciences Dept. at UofSC. I have a request in to set up time with the Genetics Dept. at Clemson. We are doing Duke/UNC on the same day, since they are close. We won’t have any time to do anything but the normal information sessions at those 2, which I think is fine since they are real reaches…and D is still feeling things out. Just the typical tours at the rest so far…
Ok good! Stop somewhere in NC and have some fun… Might go a long ways towards helping her make a decision. There are some great zip line tours in some parts of NC; take a half day hike or something? Lake Lure and Chimney Rock are gorgeous!
Pitt is also very high on our list, but D will need huge merit aid to make it affordable (as with most schools…D knows the spiel).