Any kid thinking about military schools? DD went to hair dying ritual with her swimming team ( they do that before championship) with a new career-- she also wanted to apply Navy Academy! Her swimming team captain is going there. As a girl and 1st generation American, at least she will have better chance, right? I am still not sure if I am totally ok with it :-/
@mtrosemom that is honestly about what I expected. S is outdoorsy so that is a benefit but still, it is probably not the right environment over all just given the location and its limitations. Still, for the price and limited programs that meet his criteria, it makes sense to tour. And to do it at a time of year where we can hit CL and Lava Beds, which he would love. They do offer the program he wants in Wilsonville as well but I would expect that to be a commuter/older campus and know that Wilsonville itself would not be high on his list (if he wasnāt keen on Salem lol).
Do you think visiting it in the summer hurt the experience?
If S is seriously thinking of going to OIT, I would want him to visit during the school year to see what his peers would be. Otherwise, A visit will give you a sense of the campus. It is not large, but talking to a prof made S seriously consider OIT. If you go in the summer, see if there is teaching staff to meet with. Also, about half the student population are in the medical training programs dental tech, med tech, etc. These are predominantly female. The other half are the tech kids, predominantly male. FWIW, Cal Poly was a much better experience all around, but I know that is not in the right location for your S. I still think he should condier UCSC (my UG school). My H says that I went to school in a state park! ;))
@SincererLove We have a good friend whose daughter applied to West Point. Was an interesting process (including securing a nomination from a member of Congress). Ultimately she decided she wanted to go to GW. There have been a couple of people from our school who have gone there an done really well. As for you, at least on ships they are further removed from harms way. 
@mtrosemom I donāt know about seriously but I do think if we go, it needs to be while school is in session as attractive as a summer trip with the family to Crater Lake is. Socially I doubt it is ideal. Livable but not ideal.
D15 is a sophomore Cal Poly. Great School. She loves it. S will not even consider it lol. I agree about UCSC but have gotten nowhere on that end either. It is on the reserve list (in my mind anyway lol).
@eandesmom - Thank goodness for Skype, FaceTime, etc. for staying in touch with kids who choose to go further away from home. I expect our S17 will be pretty good at staying in touch, no matter where he attends school.
I had my kids wisdom teeth taken out when they were 12. I was told that it is the easiest surgery because the teeth have not formed and they are just little buds in a cavity in your gums. So the doc cuts a slit and literally scoops out the tooth bud. No risk of pulling formed roots and damaging nasal passages etc. They are grateful now that I pushed forward to get it done early as now a lot of their friends are going through it.
Spring break Iām taking D to North Carolina to visit a couple of schools. She has her heart set on not liking them because she has another school she visited last year that she fell in love with. She said she wants to apply ED and find out in December unlike my D16 who applied to 10 schools and still has to wait until the end of March to hear back from 8 of them. Long process esp. when the majority of her friends already know where they are going.
And yes, thank goodness for texting, FaceTime etc, unlike when we were kids and to make a long distance call I had to use a calling card and it cost 25 cents per minute!
Oh my gosh! Back in the 80s most kids could only afford to call home a few times a month, and only for short periods of time. We are lucky technology makes it so much easier to stay close. My S16 is only going 4 hours away, so weāll see plenty of him through the year.
I grew up in CA and had extended family in San Luis Obispo. I was just looking at some videos of their campus, and think Iāll mention it to S17. They have so many great programs there, and I know heād love the town. Being fairly close to the ocean is a plus. I wonder if there are buses to get you there?
@Agentninetynine - Thanks for your sage advice. Thankfully, S16 was not interested in prestige, even tho most of his closest friends applyied to the Ivies. He wanted a campus environment that fit his personal style, along with having strong academics. He is very excited about his choice of school, and we are happy that we were able to find a way to make a smaller LAC work for him. My nephew is at Yale and, although he has made some wonderful friends, it seems like he is fairly miserable there. Too competitive and too stressed. I feel badly for him, as it was his dream school. He is a soph, so hopefully Jr and Sr years are better for him.
@ morningside, yes there are buses but the train is usually a better (or more pleasant) way to go depending on where you are coming from. SLO does have an airport but itās a regional feeder with limited flights. D15 flies into San Jose and then drives down either with her mom or my inlaws (who live in San Jose) drive her. If you do train or bus itās either through SFO, LAX or Santa Barbara I think. Trying to recall, D missed her flight at xmas and it was all kinds of craziness to get her home.
Or do you mean buses to the ocean? I donāt know about that but do know that D makes it to the ocean semi regularly, I think itās 15 min or so to Pismo Beach, which is where I think they usually go. I expect my S17 to be semi decentā¦but sporadic. Since literally everywhere he is looking seriously at is out of state, Iāll need to have some ārulesā. LOL! Probably better than D is with her dad though!
Looks like we are officially hitting Colorado State and U of Wy over break. Made my MIL really happy as she will get us for the weekend in Denver and has the potential of a grandkid nearby for Thanksgiving
Humboldt has been on and off Dās list. She loves it for the same reasons as your S. Her problem is that they donāt offer any other type of engineering and sheās worried that she might change her mind about the type of engineering. Weāll see.
We visited OIT for their āTech Trekā day last month and D really liked it. We were able to sit in on a renewable energy engineering class (taught by the department head) and it was great. Probably about 12-15 students and everyone seemed very engaged. It was obvious the prof knew them all. I talked to a couple of guys behind us whoād been very involved in the conversation. They were both graduating seniors in renewable energy engineering and said they loved the program. Overall Iād say the campus was compact and it did have a college āfeelā but not as much as the small LACās I visited with my oldest D. People were friendly and Iād say it was on the quiet side. We didnāt get to see the ānicerā apartment-style dorms, but all the students say theyāre great. The downtown area (about 10 minutes away) was a little run down, but Klamath Falls seems like a decent little town and of course there is a lot of natural beauty around. I think D was more impressed than I, but probably because this was her first visit except for our local U.
CSU is definitely on the list as we are in CO. D was supposed to go to their engineering day last month, but unfortunately got really sick. Weāll visit some time this spring. Fort Collins is a really neat little city with a thriving downtown area.
Have you and your S looked at CU-Boulder? Itās not on WUE, but it has a good āPower electronics and renewable energy systemsā program (http://ecee.colorado.edu/research/Power_Electronics.html). D likes everything about CU except the size and the big classes sheād have. My oldest D is a senior there, so our visit for Girls in Engineering day wasnāt too exciting for younger D, but the info was useful. Iām pretty sure CU has environmental policy classes as well (maybe even a whole program). Might as well jump down to Boulder while youāre in Fort Collins.
UW is also on her list, but we havenāt looked too close at it yet. She and I are thinking that if she goes to a larger university, she might as well go in-state. There was something she didnāt like about Oregon State, but canāt remember what it was. Same as you and your S on Portland State ā no commuter schools.
Aside from these and the ones I mentioned visiting this month, Illinois Institute of Technology is pretty high on her list. They have a power control concentration (in the EE dept) with a lot of focus on renewable energy: http://engineering.iit.edu/ece/research/faculty-research/power-control
@eandesmom - Sounds like your S is looking at some similar schools that were suggested by my Sās GC. Iāll be interested to hear how your visits go.
We have a timeshare in So Cal for 1 week a year and w/ S16 headed off to college this will be our last āspring breakā trip together, so no college visits for us. Being in the Midwest, we definitely need to get out of here at the end of each winter. Although this year has been unusually mild. We have NO snow on the ground right now, which is really strange. Colorado is definitely on S17ās radar, but Iām not sure if there is a school we can afford, being OOS. @snoozn - Any advice on CO schools is greatly appreciated. Until this whole free-college-in-Germany detour, going to a school near nature and with students who enjoy doing a lot of outdoor activities was his latest direction. He thinks he continue on to some sort of medical degree, after UG, so he can find the courses he needs to get into PT or PA programs, just about anywhere.
Thanks for the advice on SLO. I was not very specific about buses. I meant, to the beach, but hearing using buses or trains to get from a larger airport to SLO is good to consider as well. I assume w/ so many CA kids going to SLO, there are plenty of kids with cars there.
Collegewise just released a āhow toā college visit guide that some may find helpful.
http://wiselikeus.com/collegewise/2016/03/our-guide-to-planning-college-visits-is-here.html
Hi all- where are your kids considering applying? What are their stats and ECās like?
Hello @waterfall27 It looks like you are a student, not a parent? Are your parents involved in your college search process? Have you discussed budget, travel expenses, etc with them?
yes, Iām a student. I was just wondering to get a sense on here! I have discussed a lot with my parents regarding collrge, and weāve visited many of the prospective schools!
Hi @waterfall27 looks like you are a sophomore so you still have lots of time. I personally donāt like to give out my kids stats, esp. on a parent thread. I think we are all here to support each other and give advice through this long crazy process. We still have a year to go! I wish you lots of,luck!
Wisdom teeth are much better to have out as a teen! Both the older kids had had them out already. I had them out in my 40ās. NOT fun. At all. Iāve never heard of getting them out at 12 though, wow.
@snoozn that is great info on OIT. Very very helpful. How did you get there? I am over long road trips so I think we will have to do train, or fly/rent car in Medford or a combo of the two. It really would be nice to visit all before applying. Of course neither OIT and Humboldt are the easiest to get to. I think we may try to get one or the other in, in mid May. Probably whichever one I can pull off without missing a day of school and I suspect that is OIT. I know S would love it if there was a way to do Humboldt in the fall where he could actually see their marching band, they sound like a riot.
Humboldt does have the engineering type S wants (the Environmental Engineering Energy Resources option), though itās less focused on the energy aspect than would be ideal, it does at least have it as a concentration. It does also have a wide variety of programs on the environmental studies and science side in addition to the engineering so would give S flexibility should he change his mind and go non engineering. That makes it a strong contender, at least on paper. However, should he change decide against environmental at allā¦yeah, heās in a bind I think and would likely have to transfer. He is conceptually in love with the school at pretty much every level, it is more a matter of liking Arcata or not for him I think. As a result it will likely be the last that gets visited.
I do think we will visit CU-BO. We wonāt be able to fit in a department/program visit but can get the general tour in as itās on the way. At least on paper the times map out. Weād hit Boulder first, do the general tour, then Fort Collins for a program tour. Spend the night in FC. While we could head back to Denver I donāt want to deal with rush hour traffic getting out as weād need to be in Laramie at 9am. Plus that would let us get a better feel for FC by having dinner there, etc. U of Wy for program and general tours which is almost a full day and then back to Denver. We will hit rush hour on the way back which is a drag but other than that it seems doable. As cool as Humboldt seems to him I do really hope he likes CSU. So much easier to get to for us and having family only 1 hour away would be really nice for everyone and more options if he changes is mind.
Boulder does have a program that works. The price tagā¦OOSā¦not so much. It does fall into the āBigā school category that S says he doesnāt want. But itās kind of silly to not at least drive through there. He really has no basis for that opinion other than U of WA. I am not sure that Colorado State will really feel any smaller to him, it will be very very interesting to see. I really donāt know what the hang up is with OSU is either although I do know heād prefer all 4 (or 5 if there is a minor or dual major involved) at the same place and that program would likely not be. Given that is is also OOS for us, Iām not pushing it at all as I am hard pressed to see them giving an offer that would make it comparable to his other options (same thing with Boulder), but it could come into play later if he isnāt loving what he sees this spring I guess. If he really did like CU-BO I supposed we could go back for a program visit at another timeā¦like after applying lol. You never know though.
U of WA is a great school, granted as an alumn I am biased. If he was leaning towards environmental science or studies more than engineering I might push harder but, the UG program is either civil or electrical and not as focused on areas of interest as heād like. Not to mention the application is a nightmare according to all. I figure Western WAfits the non engineering option just as well and meets his criteria much better so we will leave that out there as an option. It does have an energy concentration under electrical as well on the engineering side. Heās more drawn to the programs that are mechanical based or mixed but itās nice that there is one school in state that is a valid option for him.
IIT is great. Not in the rain/trees/mountains category that S wants but I can definitely see the appeal.
@morningside95 the one thing to know about CalPoly, is that they do have to declare a major at applicaiton and it is an upsdie down curriculum so they take a lot of their core first and GE later. This is to prevent transfers within the colleges and programs. To transfer you have to reapply to that program. Itās doable but because of the structure it would almost always add time to the degree as core classes may not transfer over. D freaked us out a bit when she did it but sheās held true to her choice and is happy so thatās good. Sheāll pick a concentration at the end of this year. But in terms of lots of great UG options for someone looking at PT or PA, it would be an outstanding choice. It is OOS for us, D got a small amount of merit but compared to some of the other OOS options, itās not horrible.
@eandesmom, I would like to hear your thoughts on CSU after your visit to Fort Collins. It is a school on Sās list. And @morningside95, we toured Cal Poly over MLK weekend and liked it a lot. The fact you have to declare when you apply works for S because he knows his major. He really liked the fact that he would begin immediately on subjects that interested him most. As far as transferring between colleges, both of our tour guides did it and will still graduate in 4 years; however, the important take away I got from them is it is easy/easier to transfer to a less rigorous college than to transfer up. For example, engineering is one of the hardest colleges to be accepted into and the GPA and test scores are the highest. If you want to transfer from business to engineering, you would have had to had grades and scores when you applied that would have been accepted in engineering as well as business. Since engineering requires very high stats, you can transfer from there into almost anything else.
@morningside95
Is your S mostly interested in pre-med or strongly into other options as well? I would be happy to answer any questions you have. I know by far the most about CU-Boulder.
My oldest D is a senior at CU (dance major who plans on going into physical therapy). In areas like anatomy she may have some overlap with classes your S would be taking as pre-med. Her boyfriend just graduated CU in physics and is now a grad student there. Both of them have been very satisfied with the quality of education, though D would have preferred a small LAC. D and her boyfriend both came from a 300 person alternative charter high school. Adapting was certainly a challenge for them freshman year. Let me know if you have any specific questions and one of them may be able to find answers through friends in other majors.
I know a little about CSU. Iāve known a couple of people whose kids went there (one in engineering, the other I forget what major) and they were very happy with it. In general CSU has a really good reputation here, though there is some definite elitism that CU is the better school and probably among CO students it is seen as small step up. D was supposed to go to their engineering open house program, but got sick. We will still visit at least by April when D has a long weekend. I can let you know what I think.
Boulder is definitely a great college town. Kids can find tons of outdoor activities here including hiking, mountain biking, road biking, rock climbing, and of course skiing near by. There are lots of cultural activities, concerts, dance shows, etc. (both at CU and in Boulder). The downtown area is a pedestrian mall which has tons of shops, restaurants, bars, clubs and is a very popular destination. The bus system is very good and students get a free bus pass.
Iāve only been to Fort Collins a few times, but from what Iāve seen and heard it is a really neat place and the downtown area looks like a lot of fun.
Both places are beautiful and of course are also close to Denver for some big city activities.
While we are talking Colorado, Colorado School of Mines is a smaller public university, very good in engineering and science, 5 minute drive from National Renewable Energy Laboratory where many Mines students intern. Mines has lots of Energy research program from petrol to solar.
The gender ratio is very skewed so I expect they would try recruiting more women students although I do not know in details. Great graduate program as well.