Parents of the HS Class of 2017 (Part 1)

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
3581

Thanks for delurking @dfbdfb – I’ve also appreciated your posts in a number of other threads. Interesting set of majors! Thanks for explaining conflict studies.

DS says dry heat is OK for him, but he doesn’t want humid heat. He goes to Las Vegas (UNLV, not the strip) each June for a math thing, and thinks that heat is OK. He says he wouldn’t want Florida-style high humidity combined with high temps. He claims he’s OK with snow, but we’ve only done that on ski trips, so he’d have to learn how to deal with it and buy clothes for it for anything longer than 3 days.

I don’t think he’s seen cockroaches outside of a zoo exhibit. They were certainly a surprise to me when I went to college in Texas. We have crane flies and dragonflies, but that’s pretty much it for large bugs.

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LOL! Those of you with kids with bug phobia…don’t send them to Tulane! I think Louisiana has some of the biggest roaches around. Some of our close friends lived in NO for several yrs and she had a serious problem with roaches described in the inches. (Yuck!!)

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Uh oh, @Mom2aphysicsgeek, roaches could be a deal-breaker for D and Tulane! She does have a bit of a bug issue, now that you all are talking about it. You may have saved me airfare! I will add this to the list of ‘Minuses’.

My D is ready to get away from the Midwest winters. She wants to wear the least amount of clothing possible. Funny how we visited Case Western on literally the coldest day in February, and she actually liked it! I believe Cleveland tops most lists as the worst weather in the coutry.

@itsgettingreal17 You’ll find some nice cold merit-giving schools up north, I’m sure!

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Many of the schools equate SAT + 2 SAT IIs as being equal to ACT with writing. However, many are moving to “recommended” for SAT IIs (starting with Harvard) because it is being considered a financial hardship or if one wants to be cynical, to increase the number of apps…

There are a few schools (Harvard, Princeton, Columbia come to mind) which had required 2 SAT IIs whether one took SAT or ACT.

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My D can’t tolerate the cold. She wears sweaters when it’s 75-80. She’s always cold. If she gets into her top choice she will have to deal with it a little, but not like the harsh winters way up north.

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Louisiana and Texas have big ole FLYING cockroaches!

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@greeny8 My ds who attends Bama is exactly the same way. I talked to him today and told him his sisters were swimming in the pool b/c it was hot here today, and he told me he was wearing his sweatshirt and people were giving him crazy looks b/c apparently people “thought” it was hot there, but not enough for him! I am pretty sure that winters will be a serious adjustment if he ever moves up north.

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It’s appearing that my d may have a medical issue exacerbated by cold temperatures. Most of the schools on her list are more south than the midatlantic. So weird----she prefers humid heat while the rest of the family prefers dry heat!

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Pardon my ignorance, what is “WUE” ?

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western undergraduate exchange http://www.wiche.edu/wue

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Thank you

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My DS can’t gets dehydrated quickly in hot and humid weather. We need to figure which regions/states to eliminate.

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@WhereIsMyKindle Does you D suffer from Raynaud’s? My daughter has a touch of that, and playing lacrosse when it’s 40 degrees makes it rear it’s ugly head. Not why she’s looking south, but it sure wouldn’t hurt.

Back to the topic of “sending all scores” for some schools that require it. Do they mean all scores from SAT and ACT, or just all the scores from the specific test you are sending? I always thought it was literally “all scores”.

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@2muchquan, I was also under the impression that it was all scores, SAT, ACT, subject tests, etc. No score choice allowed or selectively picking a particular test (ACT over SAT). Elite schools/Ivys are the ones who typically require all scores.

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@2muchquan I think the answer to the SAT and/or ACT submission question is “it depends.” The closest post I found to addressing this question is http://blog.prepscholar.com/which-colleges-require-all-act-scores-sent, which mentions this question for several universities.

This will also be a question for us to consider, because he’d probably prefer just sending his ACT and his SAT Subject tests, but I don’t think that’s allowed for many of his schools.

Some schools require all SATs but not all ACTs because the SAT is one charge for all scores, while the ACT charges separately for each score.

3596

My son and I worked on his “schools of interest” recently. Would appreciate any isnights/thoughts/advice.

Son: junior in good public HS in MA, pretty competitive

3.7 GPA UW 4.2 weighted, weighted will probably go up a little bit. He basically gets a few A’s and A- and a few B+ every single semester.
Mostly honors everything sophomore and jr year, 2 honors as freshman, will take 2 AP and rest honors as senior.
Will graduate with a business concentration certificate from school for taking a bunch of business classes and getting good grades in them.
ACT score 1st attempt 29 ( did cruddy on science section but 30’s on other sections). Will retake to hopefully up score to 30 range
SAT- waiting for results, he thought he did fairly well on it, we’ll see.
Because he didn’t take all honors as a freshman his class rank suffered. He might be top 1/3.

Extracurriculars/awards:

National Business Honor society
DECA- 4 years, made it to state tournament this year
Model UN- 2 years, enjoys it
Lacrosse- 4 years high school player and also plays for a club team in the summer/winter
Soccer- 4 years, also played on a club team for 2 years
Not much volunteer work- basically only tutoring for kids after school. He does not have a lot of time or interest in volunteer work.
Job- he is a licensed soccer ref
Fun: Season pass holder at a ski resort- snowboards 30 days a year.

Typical suburban white male from the burbs. Doesn’t get in any trouble. Quiet, and enjoys having fun and relaxing whenever possible. Likes to read, play video games etc. Not much of a social animal. Not a huge studier, but somehow manages to pull off decent grades, has a crazy good memory. Shocked at how much info he stores in his brain.

Wants to study business. Possibly entrepreneurship or digital media marketing . Does not want to go to a huge school. Wants to stay in the North East. Likes being near some action, but I don’t know if he would like city living. I think he would do better in a smaller setting. We’ll see. Doesn’t want to go to catholic school. Might be able to play D3 lax at school, but only schools interested have been of no interest to son. So I doubt it.

Schools of interest: We will be full pay parents. No merit chasing, won’t qualify for FA

Safeties:

UMass- don’t think he is going to apply, didn’t like it
UVM- liked it, business school, fun small city, near ski slopes, might be too big. But he liked it.
UNH- sort of liked it, decent town area, kind of big, might be too much of party school, new biz school looks nice

Match:

Clarkson- good biz school, smaller size. Smart kids, good internships, remote? Near some ski slopes. Need to visit
Bentley- good biz school, good size, decent internships, near city, near home.

Reaches:

Babson- his favorite so far. Really liked it. On Naviance he looks like he should get in, but it’s close. He would apply early decision.Has visited 2x.

Boston U- wife went there, big school. Biz school getting hard to get into. Lots of stuff to do. Might be overwhelming. He seemed to like it though, he likes having some action around and some diversity.

So that’s the list. 6 schools. I’d like him to consider some other schools. Thanks for any thoughts.

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@RightCoaster I just wanted to extend a welcome since I can’t help you with those schools. Hey, who knows? You may find some merit under your pillow come next year. Those are good stats.

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@RightCoaster The son of friends will be going to Babson and is excited about it. His GPA is probably lower than your son’s, though he participated in an entrepreneurial academy and senior year in an EC that raised a lot of money for charity by holding a couple large concerts. He got waitlisted at Babson (did not apply ED), but they have a special program where waitlisted kids can opt for spring entry after doing a gap semester business internship in the fall that meets Babson’s requirements.

Other than that, I’m a left coaster, and don’t know much about East Coast schools, especially for business. The Coloradans on here will say they have better snow. :slight_smile:

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@RightCoaster – has he considered and dismissed Northeastern? If your wife attended BU, she may still be thinking of NE as it was 30 years ago. The school has changed considerably and they have cobbled together much more of a campus than they ever had, and certainly more so than BU.

I haven’t looked at it since the 2014 admit cycle, but they used to recalculate GPAs, bumping .5 for honors and 1.0 for AP courses. They have since started offering ED alongside EA, but I do not know how that has played out in the admissions process. They attracted a fair # of NMF by offering a large chunk off tuition. (Sorry I am being vague on the #s but my info is a couple of years out of date.)

Since Catholics are off the table, that rules out Villanova and Fordham. Business program at small school is tricky. Many offer Econ and then a few business courses, but not a business degree. Schools we considered for older son included Lehigh, Lafayette, and F&M.

My completely anecdotal read on UNH is that it is a bit of a party school. Complete secondhand info!

Bentley & Babson want interviews, or at least they used to.

Good luck!

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Thanks guys!

This was just an initial list to get him thinking about schools which he really doesn’t feel like doing at the moment. He wants to go to college, just can’t deal with the stress/haggle/effort part of figuring it all out right now. I’m just trying to get him to get a preliminary list done so he can have some focus come summer time. Like I said, he’s fine with most of the list so far and he can see himself at any of the schools. He’ll be fine wherever he goes, he is not super picky or selective. He knows he’s not getting into Ivies and top 20’s,
so there’s a lot of stress taken out of the process already right?

@CT1417 he hasn’t looked at Northeastern yet. It might be too big for him. I’m not sure he wants to be right in a city anyways. I got accepted to Northeastern in the 80’s and when I went to visit I hated it! I went to school down south for a change of scenery. Now it’s really hard to get in there, and his stats are right on or below the bubble to get in. It’s more competitive now than ever before. Truthfully, if he could get into Babson or BU I’d rather have him go to those anyways.

I think he’d probably enjoy going to school in CO/UT/Wyoming but he doesn’t seem interested in traveling far from home. I’m not going to argue.

His guidance recommended 6-8 schools for a list. He’s at 6. I think he’ll get in at UNH and UVM as safeties, wouldn’t mind identifying 1 more match and 1 more reach for him.