@scoutmom2002 At the places where you are just doing a quick visit, be sure to stop by admissions so they know you demonstrated interest.
@scoutmom2002 , I agree that Radford doesnât necessarily have the best reputation around here, but I certainly know of several NoVA kids who have gone there, and from what I can tell, had a fine experience. One was all set to go to the School of the Arts Institute of Chicago when her financial aid fell through and she ended up happy in the Honors College at Radford. All the same, I understand the questionâŠI agree that one can have a good experience almost anywhere, depending on what one puts into it, but based on my secondhand impression only, Iâm not sure how rigorous or academically-focused the culture there is. If youâre going to be in the area anyway, I think it would make a lot of sense to visit while youâre nearby and form your own opinion. Good luck! We are hoping to be doing some college visits next week over the break, too.
@shooflypie - Will be interesting to see what kind of vibe we get from the campus tour at Radford (which weâll take with a grain of salt as we already know that most tours are skewed).
At the same time Iâm willing to give Radford a chance â at least for my D20. She is more level-headed and can make it work for her. Whereas, Iâd honestly be more reserved about sending S20 there as he tends to be the less responsible/easily distracted student.
SoâŠI have a newbie questionâŠhow much input, if any, does an applicantâs Admissions Counselor have on college application review?
@scoutmom2002 according to the ones I have talked to, they do have some say, more so in the borderline cases, which is what I feel my child will be. I am not sure how hard we should try to establish a relationship. I guess we need to narrow down our schools first.
I would love to hear other peoples input.
We got our in school ACT scores back, and my sonâs ACT and SAT are very comparable, I guess I will have him retake the ACT with some prep this time and see if he can get it up a few points. He is where he needs to be for most schools that he likes but I would like him to try for NCSU (not engineering) and he is in the bottom of their range.
@ITBgirl â am in the same boatâŠmy D20âs counselor has told me she will likely be borderline at University of Mary Washington (which she toured and really liked). So D20 has already established a relationship via email with her UMW Admissions Counselor - D20 sent a simple introductory email where she spoke about the tour she took back in February, noted that she would also be attending the Open House next week and included the URL to her LinkedIn account. The UMW Admissions Counselor responded immediately to D20âs email which was very nice. That being said, I think this works best for smaller schools. Not sure of the upside of reaching out to say the Admissions Counselor at larger schools at this early stage but we might do that as well.
I think that at this early stage any contact with an Admissions Counselor should only be made after an actual visit/tour of the school as more of an introduction to show that you are interested in the school after the visit/tour and look forward to working with them on your application in the future. The email should include why you think the school would be a good fit.
S20 is currently taking his first ACT (with writing). Went in with next to no prep (acquired his very first girlfriend a few weeks ago which I suspect is interfering quite a bitâŠlol). I havenât pushed too hard since I suspect the SAT will be a better test for him (heâs taking that on 5/4).
Good luck to anyone elseâs kids who are taking the ACT today!
S20 is taking his first ACT test today too! Hoping it goes okay. I think he has been a bit discouraged because his practice exam scores have not been as high as he had hoped, especially for the schools that he is interested in and also compared to his older sister.
It is hard for kids in this range with older siblings who had much higher stats. His dream schools that he would love to attend are ones that she didnât think were âgood enoughâ for her. Even though we tried to discourage her from that view that you often see espoused here on CC, with some minimal success (hard to compete with what they are hearing from their peers), I worry that some of her thinking may have unconsciously seeped into his consciousness even though he never agreed with her either.
Anyway, good luck to everyone taking the ACT today!!
@Lemonlee Hope your S20 does well! My S20 said the science section sucked (luckily he does not want to study science or engineering in college). He also had a 5th section that was 17 really hard math questions which I believe is an experimental section so I just told him those wonât count towards his score I donât think. He felt the main math section, the language and the ready went OK and he felt decent about his essay. So now we wait 
@thedreamydaisy I heard from multiple sources the science section was really hard this time. My D20 didnât take it though.
@janiemiranda good to know - thanks!
S reported that he thought the test overall was harder than the practice ones that he has taken. Yikes! Well, nothing to do but wait and see. It will be a long 2 weeks!
Hiya! I thought this was an interesting link - found it on CC while doing research. It lists percentage of students in a sorority (thereâs one for fraternities too if you google it).
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/most-sororities
Could be used if looking to be in sorority or looking not to be in one.
@Lemonlee yes, there is a long thread on Reddit where kids are all saying that the ACT today was harder than any they had taken before or any practice test, especially the science section. So hopefully there will be a decent curve and we just have to wait.
New here. My son wants to major in environmental science. His top choice is University of Arizona - we visited last month and met with an advisor who totally sold him on the program, and he loved the campus. His second choice is Washington State but weâre not going to get there for a visit until September. Heâs also interested in Oregon, he liked it when we visited, but it might be a bit of a reach for him, and the cost could be an issue. And those are the only schools he is planning to apply to.
Reading CC, applying to only 3 schools would be insanity 
But he shouldnât have a problem getting into U of A or WSU, and with rolling admissions, heâll know pretty early. So there doesnât seem to be a reason to apply anywhere else initially, because there will be plenty of time if he does get rejected from both.
Am I off-base here? Thanks.
Seems like he could apply early, and if nothing works out, he could apply to some more with later deadlines.
@Johnny523 D20 was telling me a story over the weekend that she has a friend (c/o 2019) who applied to ONE school. It was an OOS flagship. She knew she had the stats to get in, and she is happy as a clam. The rest of the story is that she was being interviewed for a scholarship and the school asked her if she would attend another if she didnât get the scholarship. Her answer was that no, she wasnât going anywhere else because â[Name of School] is the only school I applied to.â She got the scholarship, too.
So - we (D20 and S20) visited a total of 8 VA colleges over Spring Break and we managed to have a little bit of fun too! We visited mostly small to medium which is what D20 is looking for. Hereâs the quick run downâŠ
Roanoke College - planned to just stop in and get info at Admissions Office and do a quick on your own tour in the morning. Was very impressed - they were quickly able to get a student to provide an actual campus tour and said student was very knowledgeable and had great communications skills. D20 very much liked the small campus. It is in Salem, VA (just south of Roanoke). Being a very small school though does have its cons â limited campus dining; however, the gym/rec facilities were amazing (indoor track). It comes across as a school that definitely takes care of its students and you are on first name basis with all professors. While it does not offer shuttle transportation they provide vouchers for students to take taxi to/from downtown Roanoke, mall, etc.
Radford University - official presentation and tour. While it doesnât have the best rep we were actually impressed by the academic offerings as well as the campus which while larger than Roanoke College, was still easy to navigate. They offer a great 4+1 program which is of interest to D20 where she would get Masters in Education in 1 year. They have a strong Education Program where you can teach in any of the 50 states w/o retaking the licensure exam. As a mid-size university it has more dining options and shuttle transportation to local mall, movie theaters and even to Va Tech. Radford also interested S20 as they recently launched a degree program in Cybersecurity which is what he wants to do. The dorms were also good â most are suite style with bathroom between 2 suites. The only negative was that I did see students smoking while walking around campus.
University of Lynchburg - planned to just stop in and get info at Admissions Office and do a quick on your own tour in the morning. They were able to get a student to provide an actual campus tour (which I missed due to having to take a work call). D20 did not like the dorms at all, but the campus was small and similar to Roanoke College, although amenties were not as good. At this point, D20 liked Roanoke College better.
Longwood University - official presentation and tour. Impressed by the academic offerings and the campus is simply beautiful! Great fitness center with indoor track and rock climbing wall. Good dining options too. Also something for both D20 (College of Education) and S20 (Center for Cyber Security). But for some reason it didnât seem to impress either D20 and S20 â likely the fact that it is in Farmville, VA and there is no shopping mall or really a lot to do; although a bus will take students to the movie theater. But as a parent, I see this as less distractions 
It also has a strong sorority and fraternity atmosphere and I saw a lot of activity on campus. The campus had designated areas for smoking (didnât see any students smoking though), so no students smoking while walking around campus.
As it was on the way back home we did stop by the Richard Bland College of William & Mary - the only Junior College/Community College in VA with dorms - and very nice dorms - apartment style. They participate in the Guaranteed Admissions program in VA. But very limited amenities and of course not really the college campus experience. Neither D20 or S20 were impressed at all. But worth a stop to just check out.
Virginia Commonwealth University - official presentation and tour. Very different campus environment â in downtown Richmond (capitol of VA) and large with 20K+ students. This visit was more for S20 (way too big for D20) who wants a larger school. Great academic offerings and amenities plus tons of dining options. Being in the city you are also surrounded by many things to do and places to eat, work and play. That being said, S20 was not a fan of the big city and preferred a campus with more green space - he liked JMU better which is my Alma Mater so this made me happy!
We made a quick stop in Ashland, VA to get information from Admissions Office of Randolph-Macon College. As it was late in the day, we only had time for a quick on your own tour of the very small campus; but students were in the main quad having a mac 'n cheese cook off contest which was nice to see. We ran into a student who had nothing but good things to say about the school. As itâs only 2 hrs from home, we plan to do an official visit/tour in future. We had dinner in downtown Ashland which is quaint; however, as with Farmville, VA there really is nothing around.
Our final stop was the Open House at University of Mary Washington (D20 and I had already done a tour back in February). Very impressed with the Open House (albeit our first college Open House) - her packet included 2 pre-printed business cards with D20âs name and contact info which was for her to hand out to her Admissions Counselor or other key contact she came across during Open House. D20 was able to meet her Admissions Counselor (whom she had already sent an introductory email to ahead of time) and give her business card to her. We were provided discount vouchers to eat in the dining hall which has a great variety to choose from and the food was good. There are also other dining options on campus and even off campus. UMW has bus/shuttle service to surrounding Fredericksburg which has seen a large growth - a shopping mall and many things to do and places to eat, work and play. The Open House plus the fact that they also offer a great 4+1 program where D20 would get Masters in Education in 1 year solidified UMW as D20âs #1 choice so far.
I havenât forgotten S20 - but weâve already visited most schools he is interested in (GMU, JMU, Va Tech) - and he is an athlete working hard to get recruited to play soccer in college which is unfortunately where his focus is right now. On the plus side, most of the schools we visited are either starting a Cyber Security program or offer it as either a Minor or Concentration so even though they are small-medium LACs they would be able to offer something for him as well.
Sorry for the long post. We plan to hit eastern shore schools at some pointâŠCNU, ODU.
Hello all! Iâm popping in from NoVa. My kid (like my D19 didnât in the 2019 group of the same name) doesnât âbelongâ here based on gpa, but does based on other factors⊠so here I am. D20 is looking at schools that are easy to get into and offer her majors⊠and are near a beach. Thatâs pretty much it. We homeschool and she hasnât tested yet, but Iâm guessing somewhere near the national average if sheâs lucky. We havenât toured anywhere yet except for the places we went to for D19, and that was a very different type of search altogether. Anyway, sheâll be taking the ACT she SAT in the next couple of months and we will have a better idea of where we are. CC and a transfer arenât off the table if need be.