Happy New Year! @HarrietMWelsch Yes, it’s getting real now!
I don’t know if any of you are following the 2019 parent thread, but that is an interesting read now as admissions have been rolling in. That will be us in a year, too.
Very true, @bigmacbeth. Some of us will even be done by this time. No clue if my household will be one of those (or will have tried to be one of those). My older two both went ED happily, but it remains to be seen whether S2 will want to try that route.
Random question, but anyone else feel like there are certain threads on CC that turn you off to a particular school? It should probably be in the category of dumbest reasons you don’t want you kid to apply to a school - but I confess there’s a particular school that is on my daughter’s list that I’m not particularly enthusiastic about after a few months reading here. I’m trying to decide if these obnoxious alumni are outliers or giving me a flavor of the culture of the school.
Interesting question, @Darcy123 … I guess I haven’t been turned off so much by any attitudes but have gotten more info on schools here that have made me write them off (as far as suggesting them to my kids… if my kids independently wanted to look somewhere that’s a different story). But you are making me think of a related question which is how much does the student body of a place change over time… and really the one I’m actually wondering about - how similar is today’s student body at WashU as far as intellectual curiosity and partying to when I was there 30 years ago. (If it stayed the same it would not be a good fit for my middle kid. I’m guessing since it’s now quite a lot more selective than it was 30 years ago that there are more quirky intellectual kids than there used to be, though).
It’s a good question @washugrad In some ways, it’s easier when you have a lot of data points and context for evaluating fit/culture of a school. Even if some of your data may be a bit old. I read the threads for my alma mater and don’t really feel like it’s dramatically different - although I also don’t think it’s a great fit for either of my kids. In this case, it was a school that wasn’t really on either of our radars until a adcon visited the school. She came out of the 30 min info session very enthusiastic. Hopefully we can arrange a visit - but unfortunately the school is far enough away and spring is busy enough that it’s not easy. It’s just the more threads I read on the school, the more posters affiliated with the school annoy me. As an aside, WashU is also on her list and one I hope you’re right is a bit more academically curious than you experienced. Our neighbor graduated a couple years ago and had a very good experience. It’s also another one that’s hard to get to and there aren’t a lot of other schools she’s interested close by. We’re trying to put together a spring break trip, but she just has too many schools on her list that are too far geographically. We might try and squeeze in a few quick trips once we get through some big commitments in March.
What are your thoughts on campus visits? Do they need to be done before applying or is it better to wait until after acceptance/financial aid? I know some schools use it as demonstrated interest so, in that case, it would have to be done before acceptance. We are having a tough time squeezing in visits and have only been on one so far. Even with schools that say they don’t consider demonstrated interest for admissions, I wonder if they do use it for scholarships.
We’re planning on doing visits before applying to see if there is a school she’s 100% committed to for an ED application. She did a very early visit to JHU and has said for over a year that she wants to ED there. I want her to see a few others before making that decision. If we weren’t considering ED, I personally would encourage her to wait and see where she actually get in before going on a visit - with the exception of the early visits that help them get a feel for the type of campus they might prefer (size, urban/rural etc).
The bottom line is you have to do your own research and CC is only one of many resources to determine which colleges would be the best fit for your student. I highly recommend visiting colleges, especially ones that like demonstrated interest, as you really don’t know the vibe of the college unless you are “boots on the ground” and can talk to administrators, possible faculty and current students.
@ebh87 I think you can demonstrate interest in ways besides an in-person visit. If a rep comes to your school, go to their talk. I’ve heard that ‘liking’ the school’s FB page gets noticed by some schools (probably smaller ones would notice this more than large ones).
In our case we are doing a number of campus visits this year but I’m guessing there will be a few schools that are geographic outliers that my kid will apply to without visiting first.
Our family rule is no application until after a visit. That rule is easier to apply since ease of getting there is a selection criteria but I’d rather waste time on a tour than throw application fees and effort to the wind. The application list will be 6-10 schools max.
We only have two that would be day trips. The others would require stopping overnight and one would require airfare as well. We’re having a tough enough time just getting the day trips done!
Dd only wants to apply to 4 schools. Makes me kind of nervous.
There was definitely a room full of quirky intellectual kids there when DD went to visit last year. It turned her off, but she doesn’t really fit their profile anyway. She’s much more of a large SEC or Big 12 Greek life kind of kid.
@ebh87 There are only seven schools that fit what my DD is looking for in a college - and two of those are really not quite a fit and UTexas is probably too much of a reach.
@tutumom2001 how do you quote? I am still new to CC and don’t really know how to use it. My dd has a top two schools and neither are really good fits, IMO. If I could combine parts of each, I could make the perfect school! Two of my older sons attended a school (all three of my sons ended up graduating from the same university) that I thought was a bad fit for them and they were fine so I’m just going to hope for the best.
@ebh87 I would definitely do the day trip visits. I’d try to get in the overnight, if possible. But I’d skip the one that requires a flight. There are other ways to demonstrate interest, but the nearer schools will kind of expect you to visit. (According to both D19’s GC and paid consultant.)
I do think an on-campus visit is worthwhile. D19 had set her sites on NYU for a couple of years, but once we visited, she realized she would not do well entrenched in NYC as much as NYU is. One of her close friends had a similar experience after visiting Johns Hopkins, she did not feel like she was a good fit with the student body.
Hello all – was wondering if any of you have insight on letters of recommendation. My daughter connected with her english teacher last semester, but is an a new section this semester. That’s the way her school does it – different topics/teachers each semester. She will be applying ED, so she’ll only have teachers from this or last semester to write recs. College counselor says it’s common to have teachers who you may have had only for one semester write a rec but I’m leaning toward not embracing that sentiment. Common sense tells me that the longer you work with a teacher, the more information he/she will have to write a valuable letter. In any case, she would have to take a less desirable language section in order make free the period in which to take this English teacher’s section. Worth it? Thoughts?
@fencingmom my D19 does community college as her high school (we homeschool), so all of her teachers were semester teachers. She had no trouble at all getting recommendations and no trouble with her college acceptances. I wouldn’t build the schedule around having the teacher again. Since it’s the way the school runs, the teachers must be used to writing recs for students they’ve had a short period of time.
@momzilla2D I agree that the day visits are important because it would look bad to only live 2-3 hours away and not bother to visit campus. We’ve just had a terrible time trying to schedule them. Dd had to cancel one visit to one of her top colleges and I’m afraid to have her reschedule in case we have to cancel again. I think one time is understandable but not twice.
@fencingmom I would go with the better teacher for the class and use the English teacher your dd connected with for the recommendation. Is it possible for her to continue the relationship with the English teacher even though she is not in the class anymore? We have a recommendation dilemma, too. My dd ended up with a fabulous professor in her freshman year for dual enrollment who thinks the world of her. She was in three of his classes but only in freshman year. He would write an amazing letter of recommendation for her but I think freshman year is too long ago for admissions. She has a math professor who is also very good and she was in his class for part of sophomore year and all of junior year. He would write a good recommendation for her but not in the way the other professor would.
@momzilla2D, it was the opposite for my sister and her D last year. She was accepted to NYU and UCLA among others and she fell in love with NYU when they visited and is now attending.
As for my D, I am hoping visits will help her expand her list geographically. We have been visiting schools in state and will see a couple OOS in the NYC/DC areas.
Something I observed when D and a friend visited a school together was they can easily influence each other with their opinions. While it is fun for them to see places together, it is important for them to have their own list of must-haves.
@ebh87 That’s a good point – she could continue the relationship with the English teacher quite easily. I will suggest that to her. For the language class, it’s actually the same teacher, just a different group of students which she finds less compelling than her current and continuing group. That’s why she was thinking trading off the group of language students for another great semester with the English teacher and a potentially better letter (this teacher is a phenomenal writer!).
Ah yes freshman year – too far away. It’s hard to know what’s “good enough” isn’t it.