@curiositycat333 @IABooks DS12 must have had good luck then. Only course he was lotteried out of was poli sci his first semester. It was for distribution requirements so he took a history class instead which he enjoyed and took the poli sci class a few years later. He found it funny that in his 4 years his largest class was an English class his last semester–taught by a “legendary” prof and capped at 40 rather than the more usual 20. Courses in his science major were all seminars and so no more than 12 enrolled. One of the modern physics seminars went above 12 and they split it running two seminars. H and I went to the same college and had a similar experience. Guess we were all fortunate.
@rerunagain Yeah, I won’t say that D14 never sat in a lecture hall with a couple of hundred other freshmen, but that suited her preference to be more anonymous at that point. Chances of smaller lectures are definitely better at smaller schools, but we’ve found all the large universities we’ve visited know that’s something people are concerned about, and they offer or require the smaller seminars or labs for class discussion of the lecture material. And D14 found that system worked very well for her first year and a half. After that, her classes haven’t been more than 40 or so students, although as I said, she has occasionally had to take a section at a different time than her first preference.
She’s also found she prefers a good TA leading a seminar to some of the tenured professors teaching the lecture, but again that varies widely based on school, class, faculty and student.
It’s great when you and your student hit on the situation that gives you exactly what you want. I’m glad your family has been happy with your experience. I’m just stating ours for others who are staying away from possibly good schools or scholarship offers because of concerns about class size and scheduling at a large state university.
I should add that we generally expect D14 to take 15 or 16 credit hours each semester. She has repeatedly informed us that everyone she knows takes fewer, around 12, as @dfbdfb mentioned. So far, she’s managed to keep a 3.5+ GPA as required by her scholarship while working and enjoying a good social life, so I think she’ll somehow overcome the adversity 
QOTD: I have a very crude “spreadsheet” consisting of a piece of looseleaf paper divided into columns with the school names going across the top. When I think of a new piece of info I need to track, I just add another line. I tried creating a computer spreadsheet, but started getting too neurotic about it, lol, and it was taking too much time so I just stick with my little piece of paper. 
@saillakeerie I understand how cruddy the landscape is for lawyers right now, Son17 loves to argue, debate, challenge beliefs, etc. His favorite EC is model UN and he plans to continue that in college. I think he might like to study law as a minor, and maybe innovation and entrepreneurship as a major. We have a friend who works for a law firm that represents businesses in trials and my son kind of likes that idea. Our friend sat down with him and discussed his career with him. I don’t know if son17 will actually follow through with it, but at least he has some kind of plan! If the law thing doesn’t work out at least he will have a degree he can use. I don’t like the idea of paying for law school, but it he attends an undergrad school where he gets some merit $$ I’d feel better about forking over the cash later for law school ( or MBA).
Previously posted using what I ‘thought’ was my daughter’s unused account, only to discover she was using it. Posts were under VBHitter21 - my middle child currently a senior in HS.
QOTD - 5th year - we say we are not doing a 5th year, but I guess we are doing it with S15 just in a different format. S15 attends Miami OH - has a 4-1-4 semester plan. Has taken classes each winter term as well as a summer class. Starting his spring semester as a Sophomore he is 1 whole semester ahead. He had some AP credits, they count towards graduated credits, but don’t always fulfill a requirement for required classes. He has taken some courses through another Miami campus, another Ohio college and a local community college during winter and summer breaks. His goal is to graduate, on time in 4 years, with a double major. He is on track to meet that and possibly have a minor.
My push to the kids with AP classes changed after going through the college thing with S15 - take what you love, don’t count on getting anything but knowledge out of it because it really depends on where you end up and what you study whether they count towards college or not.
Spreadsheets? Yes, have them for the college search process, the application process and then the financial aide process.
Still not making headway with getting D17 to check out other colleges she was accepted to - can force the issue and will in the end, but without interest from her and me forcing the issue, I feel it’s wasted time, money and energy. I think BF is talking about transfer to the school she is stuck on, the only acceptance she has visited, so waddling through the fog of first love, attempting to help her see that an informed choice is a good thing but not having much luck. This one argues over everything and feels the need to do things her way, it’s just been a long process. The whole college process was much easier with S15 who was more interested in making sure he was in the best place for him and checked everything out except the one school he ended up in. Funny, he applied there at my recommendation, was accepted there first, wouldn’t visit because it was in the Mid-West instead of SouthEast - everywhere we went there was at least 1 thing that didn’t set right with him, we stepped foot on Miami and he felt that ‘vibe’ and said mom, this is it! But the push with him was all him wanting to make that informed choice. I hope to have a similar time with S19.
Nice news in the mail today…S17 was awarded $5k/year (for 4 years) Maximus merit scholarship at Ohio State…takes a chunk out of the instate tuition bill…let the good times continue to roll $-)
@vandyeyes Congrats! And yay that OSU is finally sending out merit offers.
H and I were out shopping over the weekend (since I never have time to shop anymore and the cupboards were bare!), and we were at Walmart, and they have all these awesome cruiser bicycles. We ended up having a 30 minute discussion about which bike would fit her at which college, all the while staring at the bikes.
It was fairly amusing to me, looking back on it, that this is how we are processing the idea of D17 moving away and going to college. We were trying to figure out saddlebags vs basket in front vs tray in back, what color. It was slightly surreal that this was so important to the two of us, but there it is.
@MotherOfDragons All the people that don’t have cruiser bikes hate them because they take up so much space in the bike racks and it’s hard to use the slot next to them. The super wide handlebars are the problem. But they look fun.
@MotherOfDragons – I just got a cruiser bike for Christmas: http://www.electrabike.com/bikes/cruiser
love it!
^^ This.
I mean, I’m tenured faculty and think I do a decent job in the classroom, but I’m not even going to pretend that a good TA with energy and who isn’t jaded yet is likely to be a better teacher than someone who’s worn out by it all or overfocused on the other aspects of a faculty position, no matter how knowledgeable or well-known they might be.
As a result, I’m never at all impressed by exclamatory claims by some colleges that all of their classes are taught by faculty, never TAs. (There’s also the issue of who counts as faculty—if they’re counting, say, an adjunct professor of American literature who’s shuttling between four campuses to make ends meet as faculty and not as a TA just because they’re done with grad school, well, I’d utterly rather my daughter be taught by a grad student than someone being put through that particular bit of academic-job-market exploitation.)
I loved TAing and happen to think I did a pretty good job as evidenced by the line for my office hours I was young, passionate and spoke English really well. I found that especially female students preferred my office hours to that of male foreign grad students, who had… let’s say less than favorable reactions to female students who were struggling.
Huh, D just got an ‘in case you just forgot to submit your app, we’d still be happy to take it’ email from Haverford.
Another crass ploy to drive up application numbers? Some schools I might expect it from, a little surprised by Haverford. D had planned to apply there, but it fell to essay fatigue.
@vandyeyes Congratulations!
@MotherOfDragons I thought of this when I read about your encounter with the cruiser bikes.
http://www.theonion.com/article/moms-fears-about-daughter-leaving-college-channele-51060
Pretty quiet on the college front. In recent days, D has received a small travel grant to visit a campus where she has been accepted and got her first major college swag - a nice package of goodies from Case Western.
One of the QOTD - 5th year: It depends on the school. S is mainly applying to schools where he gets nice NMF scholarships. OU, as someone said, give a 5th year of tuition. If he chooses a school where we are not paying for his tuition, I would consider paying for the 5th year if he wanted to get his MS. If it was a WUE school, we may consider paying for the 5th year. Because we will be full pay at other schools, he would have to finish in 4 years if he chooses one of those.
FWIW, D15 is at a small LAC, has been able to get the classes she wants, and is on track to finish in 4 years with a double major and possibly a minor (thank goodness). We would not pay for a 5th year for her. I’d rather help her with grad school.
My D was going to take AP lit and AP calc anyways, senior year she wasn’t sure which other AP history to take. She didn’t really want AP gov so decided on AP econ. It was nice that she got 6 credits of college econ out of it.
My D got Saint Louis University VP scholarship award of $22K per year. Dave_N mentioned about presidential scholarship interview. Does it need separate application or essay?
@Pam1972, yes, the Presidential scholarship requires a separate application. Unfortunately, the date for application, December 1, has passed. More information is available here: http://www.slu.edu/financial-aid/types-of-aid/scholarships.php
Wisdom teeth removal
My D17 had hers removed today. She is doing fine, using only 800 mg of Motrin for pain. I suggest if it’s possible have two people go, one to drive and one to sit with the patient in the back seat. DD got sick and I was glad that I was able to help her. I hope she recovers quickly and without complications. Her twin brother is up next.
Finally the semester ended last Friday. Thank goodness they both managed to keep straight A’s, my son squeaked out a 90 in AP Calc. I’m sure senioritis is headed out way.
Now if schools would finally release early action results. Is anyone else waiting on EA still? We are waiting on UVA.