@Dolemite - I think it’s a Hispanic mom idiosyncrasy. We want our chicks close to the roost. I know your daughter is looking at the opposite coast too so I feel your wife’s pain. East coast! East Coast! East Coast! East coast is where our D’s belong.
@dfbdfb My D has been thinking about MD/PHD after UG. How long does that take 
@Dolemite I don’t want to count 
I finished PhD after 24th grade, and DH after 22nd grade so between two of us 46 grade years of schooling! =))
We had children afterwards so we did not have to explain that to our own. 
I used to tell DS’s that I can help with their Math until they are in 20th grade. :))
Yeah—if we’re counting spouses, my wife got her PhD after the 24th grade, so together we have more years of schooling than either of us is old! That’s kind of scary.
(And that’s not even counting kindergarten!)
@Dolemite, 12+ years of college, 4yrs Bs, 4 yrs Med, 4+ yrs Ph.D.
x years residency, y years fellowship…
2 years practice and then retirement?
@payn4ward People used to ask as az home schooler what I was going to do when the math hot too hard. I would say when is that? DiffEq?
@mtrosemom Thank you! My new avatar is the Thinking Cap while all the class of 2017 here are THINKING hard. :))
Two questions Anyone with RD admission to WPI get their Financial Aid Package? Did I miss it in the mail, can I not find it in the portal? My DS want to apply to a scholarship this weekend and needs the FA Letter to make the application complete. and I think due to the “no job at our house” situation, the school is NFW with out this scholarship.
Second- if the financial situation means he can’t go next fall does anyone know their Gap Year policy- I can’t find it on the website.
thanks!
@VickiSoCal If you can handle Calculus, I don’t think DiffEq will be any different for you. Maybe linear algebra or discrete math, which is conceptually different. But at that level, kids would be choosing what they want to study and find out what books they need and learn themselves. So I don’t think you will be “teaching” them.
@MSHopeful just read your post about the bad tour at Columbia. Is there a way you could visit again? The reason I’m asking is that we were on a tour at a university last year and at the end of the tour this man approached the group while eating his lunch and listened as the student guide ended it. He introduced himself when the student was done and said he was a professor at the university and made himself available for questions. When we went home my daughter looked him up and sent an email thanking him for taking the time to do that. He emailed her back with a very thoughtful message saying he knew the importance of a tour and knew it can change a students mind. His daughter like yours was in love with a school until she toured it. After pestering her. She visited the school again, ended up enrolling and loved it. Just thought I’d share that with you in case it is helpful.
@MSHopeful With all due respect, there are a number of things one could find wrong/not like about Stanford. It is not a good fit for some students, and it can be somewhat provincial in an odd way. But the same can be said of every school.
@payn4ward I actually stopped homeschooling after sixth grade but it just seems to be that one thing that non homeschoolers think homeschoolers worry about. Given that I minored in math then took more math in grad school it was not an actual worry for me.
Congrats to everyone on all these great acceptances!
My D had the same experience – admitted to every UC she applied to. The results really were amazingly consistent. I had heard so many stories about students getting admitted to, say, UCLA and UCSD but rejected from UCSC, that I was prepared for anything.
She’s now trying to decide between Cal, UCLA, UCSC and Scripps. She’ll attend all the admitted students days. In the end I think it will come down to “vibe.”
D17 managed to do a full sweep – Stanford and Berkeley were just added to the list of acceptances! But for the Yale NUS / Singapore thing (who needs NUS when you’ve got Yale anyway?!?), she batted 1,000! Proud mama. Feeling like I should’ve bought a lottery ticket (or 20!)
@Testingearly - I can’t think of many negatives to Stanford, besides what you mentioned. I know my daughter – a humanities kid – has some concerns about what she perceives is an overwhelming techie/entrepreneurial culture, but she’ll have to visit and asses. They have a living/learning program that would allow for an immersive humanities experience, so that might offset those concerns, but she’ll have to see.
The quarter system can make internships more difficult, but I think most places understand that issue, and the benefits of the Stanford name and network might outweigh the scheduling issues; I personally was not a big fan of the quarter system for grad school – you barely have time to sink your teeth into something and it’s over (the upside, of course, is a greater selection of classes and if you don’t like a class, it doesn’t seem quite as interminable).
I’m probably not helping your case – I’m an ex-NYer that LOVES living in CA. My parents didn’t let me come out to the best (I mean west) coast for my undergraduate studies and I resented them for it for decades. (It was mostly my father – my mom loved CA and wished she had moved out there when she had the chance). My feeling is that college is a time to explore and enjoy new experiences and places. That said, I’d be thrilled if D were to stay in CA.
@letsshare Columbia is actually paying for her to travel there for a diversity visit for URM students. So she will get a chance to visit again and they have planned activities and she will get to stay in the dorm. I’m hoping this will be a much more positive experience for her.
@hopeyhippie I realize that. I was trying to be funny but it didn’t really come across in my post. I know it’s not for everyone. We live an hour from Stanford and my daughter always planned to apply. But when she became a junior/senior she decided it wasn’t the right fit for her.
So, 22 hours after we woke up to visit UMD, we’re back in central Illinois. That’s two colleges, one dinner with D15, and 2,100 miles in under five days. We’re SO done.
D17 has much more information, but no decision. Let the pondering begin…
Meanwhile, congratulations on all of the acceptances in the last 24 hours! (Unless the school is too far away from the nest; then I’m sending my sympathies and chocolate.)
Congratulations @LoveTheBard! Your D did an amazing job! I lost track of how many Applications she did but I know it is a ton. The results speak for themselves so I nominate her as the 2017 Essay Queen!!
@Testingearly my strongest argument against Stanford is fit-how big is your fish in the (arguably) biggest pond in the world (if we use the % accepted metric).
If she’s excited to run with the big dogs (fishes? Now I’m mixing my metaphors), then you gotta let her go. If she worries she’ll be the dumbest kid in Stanford, then that’s a pretty good reason (IMO) to look for a school where she’ll feel smart, confident, and successful.
Like you, I really didn’t want D17 going to the other coast (for undergrad). It feels so terribly far away from her-stretches my heartstrings too taut! We took a family vacation to San Franciscso last year and on the 5 hour plane ride back she said “this feels too far away for undergrad”. H and I breathed a big sigh of relief.
I agree with the others who say Class of 2021 doesn’t have a lot of relevance for us, either. I was supposed to be the class of, uh, (counts on fingers) 1992. It appears that I will be the class of 2017 [-O< H did not finish in 4, neither did either his brother or sister. It’d be nice, but given our family history, I’m not holding my breath! :-h
The whole “where she thought she’d go, where we thought she’d go” question-I thought about it for a while and I just can’t answer it because it was always so fluid and she very specifically had no favorites. For a while we really thought she’d end up in the Boston area because she enjoyed The Rationals Trip with her dad and grandfather so much, and Boston will certainly be on the table for graduate school, but I don’t think she or we put our heart into any one place until we had all the numbers.
The D’s are on spring break as of last night, and I’m not allowed to talk about any college stuff during it (or face the I Swear Not To Talk About College Jar). D18 did not get into the Governor’s Honors Program for mechanical engineering (she found out yesterday when the final cuts came out), but is pretty sanguine about it since she’s realized that marketing and hospitality are her real interests, not engineering. She has THREE marketing classes on her schedule for her senior year and no “fluff” periods-girl’s getting serious!
@NoVADad99 - my son has also applied to Goethe Institut study bridge program. Did your son get in? Did he attend? Thank you.