@whataboutcollege – No, not engineering…something with Arts in the name. He is applying engineering where forced to, but plans to double major in CS & Math, so prefers to apply to A&S, where allowed.
Wasn’t expecting a scholarship anyway as OOS applicant, but perhaps that is what the Leadership Weekend is for. Uninformed here! Thanks for the quick response.
Thanks @payn4ward! I have asked cc to change my handle and they said they would but it hasn’t happened yet. It might not happen until my ten year old is going through the process
@CT1417 Added some details for the ELW to the earlier comment. I asked on a parent group (on different social media platform), they all think this weekend event has nothing to do with future scholarship probabilities. But ways for the school to get better matriculation to CoE.
QOTD: I learned that S is pretty focussed on internships. His ears perked up at Albany when they talked about a semester working for state gov’t or even a semester in Washington, DC (his major is Public Policy/Poly Sci, or the like, depending on the school, with a minor or double major in Economics). Ditto for MSU with internships through James Madison. Then when Buffalo stressed undergrad research, he was unimpressed. I also learned we had the same snarky sense of humor with some things presented or things said by tour guides and/or tour participants–our favorite inside joke was that one professor was one of the 50 most influential living philosophers–who knew there were the many?! :)) Also, we still giggle about the mom on one tour who was obsessed with dorm bathrooms… 8-|
@whataboutcollege Yes, I am interested in the ELW. U of M has been known to be pretty stingy with scholarships that amount to much. I think there are a few, but the big ones are Stamps, which we all know are pretty few and far between. I believe a 2016 Parent thread D got one, but ended up elsewhere.
@MACncheez So, why do you say you learned not to go to the campus events on the holiday weekends? (We have S’s trip booked for the Bama event on MLK weekend.) It really is our best opportunity to go wrt his school calendar and upcoming commitments, so it’s just the way it worked out, but now you’re making me nervous that it will be a huge mistake.
We are planning to go to Case on Feb. 20 (Presidents Day) for an accepted students event and so DS can sit in on a couple of classes. Northeastern is having an Honors Day on March 19th - a Sunday which is good - hope to go. Waiting for GTech on Jan 14th - another visit there could be very helpful if he gets in! Otherwise looks like we’ll schedule April return visits after getting any additional good news.
@IABooks It’s different if that’s your only weekend you can attend due to schedule. We went to Case Western (driveable for us) on Prez. Day and it was mobbed. Same at Pitt (Ready! Set! Pitt!). It’s just less intimate and harder to get questions specific to your C answered. You have a bunch of people asking questions about stupid stuff, like the blue light system or financial aid. That was just our experience. Any visit is a good visit, we just had better luck with the regular visits that sometimes included one-on-one departmental tours or meetings.
@MACncheez – The Blue Light system!!! The amount of tour time dedicated to discussing the on-campus police response time to a Blue Light call then countered by the ‘well, I have never known anyone who needed to use it’ or the ‘just call if you want a ride home late at night’.
I am just jaded after 30+ tours with two children.
@MACncheez curious why you say not go to the big events? EDIT: never mind, I just saw your response, ok makes sense!
@MotherOfDragons my day was similar yesterday, full of rest. We played cards against humanity, uh, it’s kind of vulgar! But I went along and we were laughing all night. Good luck with your classes!
Blue light systems: As my D19 said after the sixth or eighth description of how useful the blue light system at each campus was, wouldn’t it be quicker and easier to call the police on your cell phone?
(Yeah, I know they wouldn’t get good location data, but seriously, if you’re in danger enough to use the blue light system, you don’t want to be hanging around in one place around it after pushing the button on it, anyway.)
Biggest surprise. I have a feeling I will be in for a few more after our Feb visits to accepted schools.
Campus feel and aesthetic was hugely important, far more than I’d expected. I also didn’t expect small LAC’s to be in the mix but after one visit they now make up the bulk of his list. I also didn’t expect a college fair rep to make the impact some have.
I agree though. What was important at the start of this process and what is important today has changed quite a bit.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the blue light system is great. My D asked why IU-Bloomington didn’t have one, so I know she notices and appreciates it. It just is what it is, and there is nothing your question to an administrator will do about it.
The worst one was when a woman from New York City asked about the crime rate on our tour of Northwestern…because, of course, Chicago is 8 miles away and 700+ people have been shot there in the past year. I’m sure it’s ready to overflow into Evanston any day now.
Gotcha @MACncheez. We’ll see how it works out. We much prefer setting up individual visits too. I’m pretty sure D14 chose her college because everything on the visit was very individual. We had 3 tour guides for our group of 3 (D, H and me). The coldest day of year combined with wind gusts apparently leads to a lot of no-shows. The guides had fun with it, devising short cuts and impromptu stops to get inside, and D decided it was just a fun casual place.
@CT1417 We have an informal campus tour bingo to alleviate our jadedness. The blue light, tutoring, the Harry Potter building/library space/auditorium, the significant other/graduation/grade prediction with a lake/campanile/stone tradition, devise your own club, etc. There’s always one parent who seems to feel like they’re sending a much younger child to college – asking how the parent can check grades, answering questions directed to the student, etc. That fills in the bonus space.
@MACncheez, when we visited IU-B, our tour guide pointed out “one of our two blue lights.” We thought she was misinformed, but maybe she was not. Nevertheless, we made a game on subsequent visits of being able to spot the third and “more than IU” blue light. At a few campuses, we could see three from the same spot.
But as @dfbdfb says, I’m not sure of the advantage over cell phones. Probably an additive thing, every little bit helps, but not sure if these blue light systems are the most effective/cost effective systems.
@Dave_N I guess I should have said “we didn’t SEE any at IU.” I guess they do exist (did not know), which doesn’t surprise me. I definitely think it’s one of those ‘marketing’ things for parents more than for the kids. Parents need to just chill out, my gawd.
I liked the story that a president at IU placed a lamp post wherever necessary so that you could read a book as you crossed the campus. Maybe that’s why they don’t need blue lights all over the place.
The thing is, if you do any sort of cost/benefit analysis, blue light systems are not the most efficient use of funds for improving security (for a bit of an eye-opener on that, talk to the head of any campus security office for a bit—fascinating, really)—they are, however, one of the most efficient uses of funds for convincing potential students’ parents’ that security is good.
Similar to the blue light systems at every campus, at UVM the tour guide touted the student warning text service. Someone asked if it had ever been used while they were there and the student tour guide replied, “yeah, last year when a bear wandered on campus.” 
Blue light system: Whenever they are brought up, I am the mom who asks if they have escorts available at night to get students back to their rooms. I don’t care about the poles, but I do want my Dd to know she doesn’t have to walk from the library to her dorm by herself at night. Now I can’t remember which campus it was, but one had police officers in the library at night and the officers would escort the students.
@stencils Unfortunately Temple sent out messages about a mob 2hrs after the incident!