It’s looking like DS will apply to 3-5 UC campuses (all one application) plus 6-10 others. So, that’s 9-15 total. A bunch of them are lottery schools. Only 2 are EA (not counting SCEA, which he will avoid).
@Hades321 I shared this article with my ds and you might find it interesting. http://www.thecollegesolution.com/the-benefits-of-a-less-selective-college/ DS is also aiming for med school or a PhD and has v high SAT/PSAT scores & gpa. We are struggling to build his school list because of the quality/merit availability dilemma and because he knows he needs to have a very high gpa in undergrad. Merit is most definitely more readily available for VCU than UVA UNC and Duke. But it is downtown Richmond and a completely different feel than the other 3. Another lac to consider which is smaller and in that area and more of a UVA/unc/duke feel is W&L which has the Johnson scholar program and evidently a lot of ug research $$. The sciences building is amazing as well and class size small. Loved the little town of Lexington as well. Good luck with it all!
A friend’s son is at Wake Forest for pre-dental. Also most public state universities will be plenty rigorous for pre-med. Especially with an honors college.
Probably around 10. 2 safeties, 3 matches, 5 reaches
@crazym0m My sentiments exactly. Trying to convince her to be open to less selective schools. I hope she likes some of the smaller less selective schools when we visit them. Thank you for the info on Washington and Lee. We will check it out during one of our visits
UVA offers very little merit money unless you win one of the few Jefferson scholarships. They look more at leadership though than just high scores and grades so it may or may not be a realistic option. My son was selected as a Rodman scholar this year which is the top handful of students for the engineering school and thus far he has been offered no merit money though other Rodman scholars have told him he will get $2000 it is apparently more of a stipend than a scholarship. In any case he is going elsewhere. There are lots of lists on CC about schools known to be generous with merit aid and many/most are great schools.
Wow, lots of posts. Congratulations to your dd @2muchquan. Definitely take advantage of touring the school while you are there. (And Raven Run’s accessibility depends on your definition. It is an easy, and beautiful, 30 min drive from campus. No biggie for us. We are used to driving to go hiking and nature areas are our favorite destination spots to explore.)
Impressions of UKy…
Dorms are fabulous. All older dorms will no longer be used as dorms by the time our kids attend. All the dorms will be from 2005 (maybe 6??) and newer. Dd really liked the floor plan of the honors dorm. They are not private rooms, but the rooms are large-- a 2 person suite with a 1/2 privacy wall between the 2 beds. That 2 bedroom suite shares a bathroom that connects it to another 2 bedroom suite. They also have private rooms and apt like set-ups for upperclassmen. Living on campus is never required, even for freshman.
Scholarships–The Patterson is automatic. If they make NMF, they receive automatic full-ride.
Strong programs–apparently their pharmacy program is one of the top programs out there. If you have a NMF who wants pharmacy, definitely check UKy out.
Interesting tidbit-- they just spent $65,000,000 revamping their business/finance/Econ building. One of the features…it houses a mock Wall Street trading floor. Everything streams in live, so students are experiencing real time stock numbers.
Campus is undergoing a lot of new construction. It is a nice campus spread out over a not intimidatingly large space. Rolling hills. Lots of green space. The campus itself appealed to dd.
Our day was super long. We met with a Russian professor a 935. Dd and I sat in on her 10:00 class and the. Went back to her office to talk some more. Dd also talked to another student doubling in French and Russian. Then we met with a French professor at 1145. We talked with her until about 1215. She arranged for an appt with the Study Abroad office at 115, and the. We went to the info/tour at 2. I wouldn’t have skipped a single one of those. It really gave us a feel for what she can expect at UKy.
At this point, it is the first school that has come close to meeting dd’s needs. It still isn’t a perfect fit, but she can make it work. Dd is not sure she would want to take this approach, but she could study abroad for 2 full yrs, one France and one in Russia. Patterson scholarship $$ can be used for study abroad and typically covers all or almost all costs. The Russian prof was extremely helpful. She did recommend contacting the language flagship schools and seeing if they might have special scholarship $$ available that they don’t advertise. (I do love it when a dept is honest and let’s you know that there might be a better fit out there.) She did say they work with their students and if they even have only 1student who needs a class, they will offer it for just the one student. (They have a sr right now who is taking a Russian lit course in Russian and he is the only student in the class.)
@carolandanvers Congrats to your ds!
@crazym0m I definitely understand your description of VCU. I have had kids DE at VCU and it is a completely different feel than your traditional college campus. I’m not sure how our kids would have felt attending there long term. One of friend’s dd majored in art at VCU. She had a solid academic experience there, but I am not sure she loved it there. It was more of a meets your needs kind of situation than I really want this school experience.
Just flew into Durham NC and our duke tour is at 2 so we have time to kill. Not much to do before 10, can’t check into hotel, so we are sitting in a mall parking lot taking a nap. Oh joy
@Mom2aphysicsgeek thanks for the UKy info. I don’t know if we compete F/Sa/Su but should have just reserved a spot for a campus tour. Now they are full, so it looks like a self tour. I will see if I can get a hold of a dept. staff to talk to someone.
I have heard that entry to their honors program is quite unpredictable for STEM kids. Not sure how true that is, but not something you have to worry about.
I find dept meetings far more valuable then campus tours. The only real advantage to the tour is seeing inside a dorm. I would see if you can maybe meet with an admissions officer individually bc they will be able to provide all the info given during the info sessions anyway. (Someone was doing that yesterday bc the tours were booked and they wanted to talk to someone.)
Big thanks to @carachel2 for the Yik Yak tip. My D enjoyed following the posts during our college visit yesterday. She added the site to her “herd” so she can follow back at home (no idea how all that works).
I think she was impressed that most of the posts were about classes or venting about the stress in college, not drugs sex and drinking, even though the school is considered a party school
Some of the less serious posts ones were:
How long is the line at Chipotle?
College is bad for the pores
Where can I get a cheap pizza?
And my favorite:
I am giving up Alcohol for a month.
Sorry that came out wrong:
I am giving up! Alcohol for a month!
@CaucAsianDad …some of them are hilarious aren’t they? Definitely adds a unique way of looking into student life although all should be taken with a grain of salt. I was intrigued to find some potty humor at almost all of the schools with students posting repeatedly about pooping $-)
One additional thought: we noticed a trend in “recitation groups.” I did not have this “back in the day” at Texas A&M. We just had the large lecture classes and that was it for the generic large courses.
Is this a newer trend among schools for those early classes with large lecture groups?
My kids have all had recitation classes. Our oldest started college in 2007. So while we didn’t have them, I am not sure how new is new.
@carachel2 Oh yes almost forgot.
“Shared dorm bathroom is not a good place to poop, what is the best place on campus for a good long poop with plenty of privacy?”
This was followed by a long discussion as you can imagine.
^^Lol I’m not saying a word!
I’m catching up…
Congrats to @Mom2aphysicsgeek’s daughter! <:-P <:-P And congrats to @2muchquan’s and @TimEnchanter’s gymnasts! <:-P <:-P And @caroldanvers’s son and his summer program scholarship! <:-P <:-P
I love reading all the trip reports! Keep them coming. Lots of parts of the country I’ve never been to!
We’ll be touring for spring break next week. Depending on how soon we can leave home, we may be able to look around UC Santa Cruz on 3/27, but that’s a Sunday (Easter), so no tours. We have a friend there to show us around, though.
We plan to tour Stanford on 3/28 and UC Berkeley on 3/29. Monday is Stanford’s first day of spring quarter, so things may be chaotic. We have short meetings scheduled with the “Undergrad Student Services” person in the Physics Departments at both. No visits with professors lined up, though.
No tours after Tuesday of spring break because of my dad’s memorial service and trying to get his house ready to put on the market. The kids will get to hang with their cousins and maybe go skiing, though.
Our local UC has recitation sections. They would have been useful to me in college (Texas A&M also), since I wasn’t very good at asking for help in math. So, they sound like a good idea, but make it difficult for a HS student to schedule classes, since you have to find 2 time slots that work.
Darn you, @carachel2, for introducing me to Yik Yak! If you use the Peek feature, you don’t even have to be near campus. I just PEEKed at the feed for Case Western Reserve. Pretty funny.
But, it’s useful for things like what happened in Brussels, too. You can read (but not post to) the Brussels Yik Yak too.