@Sarrip The process is so different today. I agree. Our oldest applied back in '07 when NPCs didn’t even exist! I just haven’t had a very long break in between since we have had high school grads every few yrs since then. I am always paying attention to scholarship/admissions changes, etc.
We just relax b/c our older kids have done what is contrary to “CC worldview.” They have attended very avg public Us (not even ranked in the top 100) and have not had that negatively impact them at all. Our ds who attended a U now ranked around 150 is at one of the very top grad programs in his field. The doom and gloom forecast given him by so many people “in the know” b/c he was attending a U so far beneath him didn’t come to fruition. Exactly to the contrary. He had so many amazing opportunities at that U; professors were wonderful mentors; he was active in research starting freshman yr; he was able to take grad courses as an UG. The list goes on. His siblings scenarios are very similar. No downsides to their choices.
Just wanted to encourage parents who are stressing about choices and $$. While in the thick of it the decision seems far more monumental than the long-term outcome reality of it.
@MamaFx3 - We’re from MN too, so we’re used to the cold, but it was so windy that day and we were outside walking so much. It got old fast. It is one of our top 3 and DS is leaning towards going there, he’s just struggling getting comfortable with the size and being in the city. We’re from a small town and he goes to a school with about 50 kids in his class.
One more parent here with a kid who cast a wider net (14) and I think it was necessary for his situation. His stats are mixed - high standardized scores and high rigor but gpa is not. Also he discovered his major a bit late - that too a highly competitive one CS. For CS, the OOS public’s have become quite unpredictable - DS’s results are proving that (in one of the public oos he is outright rejected; in another similarly ranked oos public school he is accepted with honors and highest merit; I’m 100% sure it’s nothing to do with essays and more to do with other factors which we don’t know what they are). While it has been a lot of work, it actually helped casting a wider net for him. Yes - it may not be necessary for everyone - but I believe that number of apps is another case of ‘it depends’.
@Octagon U Maryland physics has some Nobel prize connections for particle acceleration field- participated in looking for Higgs bosun. New Quantam Alliance announced.
Honors College is great, too.
@Cole2020 my S20 was at the honors visit event the other day, too, and he was really impressed as well. Honestly he was already pretty sold on the U already but this definitely made him feel more excited about going, and participating in the honors program. It’s great you are all on board with the idea of your daughter going. What did they say about food? From what I heard from my family members who went, the food options at Middlebrook might be better than I remember it in the 90s.
@MamaFx3 My student found out about his honors admission from an email that told him to check his application portal for an update. It came several weeks after admission to the college. It seems like the time frame on decisions can be really unpredictable.
@cshell2 I’m sorry you didn’t have a great visit. I wouldn’t have wanted to be on campus in those temperatures, either. And it’s too bad they dropped the ball on the tour.
Looking forward to hearing about everyone’s students’ decisions over the next couple of months! Congratulations to those who have already gotten the answers they were waiting for and have decided. In ~6 months, we’ll be moving them into their dorms!
The kids on the panel didn’t say the food was great, there answers were more you could find something to eat. My daughter being vegetarian was interested that there are options, not every honors kid stays there although I believe mine will.
Just wanted to add our tour was good. we had taken one before but this one included crossing the Mississippi and seeing Middlebrook.
Would be interest if anyone stayed at the Graduate hotel not necessarily in Minnesota but At any other schools mostly big Ten schools it appeared… I never seen kids studying at a hotel before.
@cole2020 We stayed at one last weekend. And yes, there were a few kids there studying in the lobby. Nice place!
My kids cast a wide net this year. But we were dealing with two and all of the challenges that brings. They truly weren’t sure what we wanted when we started this fall, even though we had toured and researched a ton beforehand.
One kid has just committed to a great instate flagship that’s perfect for her major, one of her only schools that she has no scholarship. It’s a great choice. But I’d be lying if I said that her choice hasn’t given me some anxiety, even though we can afford it. Her close third choice school’s big scholarship she applied for hasn’t even came back yet and I’m wondering if she will have any regrets if she ends up getting it. Maybe mom just has some FOBO (purely experience based) for her kid? But in reality, she really did choose the best possible business school in her many options, regardless of scholarship status.
Anyway, now that one decision is made, the second should be easier. Second kid doesn’t want to go where twin does… so here we go on round two of final decisions!
Just when I feel like we have a handle on this stuff, I read about the honors programs (that we forgot to ask about) and now I’m stressing about housing applications! Another column on my spreadsheet and a day full of more calls.
@Colle2020 I know my D16 has “dining dollars” at UMD that she can use at the food court, is that what they mean by other options? My D20 is also a vegetarian so we are checking that too, though at most of the schools we’ve looked at there seems to be more vegetarian options than not.
@Cole2020 - We ate in Pioneer dining hall last week and thought it was fine (although DS did mention that it may be that our standards are lower than most ). There were all kinds of options. The normal pizzas and hamburgers, an international area, a deli line, a salad bar, and then the vegetarian and vegan area. It looked like they had quite a few vegetarian options. If you go online they have all the menus and they change them every day.
@amsunshine Yeah, I feel like that too, sometimes.
@Cole2020 Thank you! My son is a pescatarian and kind of a picky eater. It sounded like sandwiches (choose your own toppings) were at least an option? In my day, it seemed like the vegetarian option was almost always just spaghetti (except once a week or so when they had calzones). Hopefully they’ll be able to find things to eat; if not, at least they can have microwaves in their room these days.
S20’s main takeaway from the tour was that his tour guide’s roommate once put a Tide Pod in the dryer, LOL!
@MamaFx3 re:housing, at the main U at least, you can apply for housing before confirming enrollment; it’s separate. They assign choices based on when you signed up. It does seem like colleges now are more sensitive to different dietary restrictions.
I really don’t believe that is hard to get into a good college. I define a good college as one that can help you achieve your goals. A good college can be different depending on the kid of course. At least the last 10 years that I follow admissions very closely through my own kids, friends, relatives and our high school I am still to see the student with no good options coming May. Yes I read the posts here on CC with a giant grain of salt. The problem is that only “certain” schools are desirable and the angst is about specific admissions not getting in to a good college. Yes undeniable it is very hard to impossible to get into some schools. In my opinion people generalize that to all schools but that is not true at all.
@am9799 I agree with the idea it’s not difficult to get into a good college. I think what has shifted since my husband and I applied to colleges is the difficulty of finding good financial matches. It’s become more challenging to identify affordable options, even with some state schools, because the increased costs of higher education have outpaced both inflation and incomes over the past couple of decades. On the other hand, with some patience and research, finding those financial matches is possible. It just takes a lot more effort than it did 25-30 years ago.
About selecting a college: the pace of change is so fast it is actually difficult for some majors to select a small set of schools and be certain about it. Just on this thread, I remember reading a few members talking about their child not getting into their in-state flagship - despite of extraordinary credentials.
Based on just research a student with those credentials would have thought that he/she getting admission/aid in their instate is easy; its not anymore because things have changed faster than a Naviance (or some other similar tool) can give an insight into. Especially for the families that are chasing merit aid, the info is vague and student or parent have to spend lots of time researching.
My issue (rant) with college admissions is - there is still no transparency at many places. Of course there is third-party info and tribal knowledge out there. But this process should not take this much research - we all should not be spending this much time on CC - but it has become a necessity and in the absence of reliable admission/merit-aid info, its but natural for a 17-year old (and his/her parents) to feel uncertain about the outcomes.
Hello all and new to group, just found this group and want to know if I reply to somone comment how to insert that person comment when replying. As when i hit reply the comment I am replying does not come up.
Thank you
). There were all kinds of options. The normal pizzas and hamburgers, an international area, a deli line, a salad bar, and then the vegetarian and vegan area. It looked like they had quite a few vegetarian options. If you go online they have all the menus and they change them every day.
- but it has become a necessity and in the absence of reliable admission/merit-aid info, its but natural for a 17-year old (and his/her parents) to feel uncertain about the outcomes.