Parents of the HS Class of 2020 (Part 1)

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
9741

@Octagon , my daughter graduates (in some fashion, which remains to be seen) from Princeton this year. Electrical engineering and Chinese. She was a homeschooler from a geographically remote and laid back state. She had a tremendous experience, and our hearts break that she is leaving so abruptly. I’ve got nothing but good things to say about the school. FWIW, she received a significant amount of financial aid, and we found that with Princeton, what you see is what you get financially. There were no surprise fees, no nickel and diming. Most activities were covered by the school. Even laundry is free.

They do work hard, no doubt about that. But plenty of fun to be had too. She got to go see Hamilton on Broadway as part of an American History class, worked on an engineering project in Kenya, spent a summer working with a robotics startup in Germany, all with school support.

9742

@AlwaysLearn I would not make a decision until you can walk Wellesley’s campus, even though they cancelled their admitted students’ day. We toured UW -Seattle, Smith, Amherst, UVM, Middlebury, Tufts, Northwestern, U of Chicago and Wellesley - which is unmatched in natural charm! If there is any way you can get to Wellesley to explore the campus, I would! You have to see it to believe it. Good luck to you and please share your thoughts. Congrats to your girl!

9743

@GoodGrief16 Thanks for the feedback! We are full pay (ouch!). Her experience sounds wonderful. He wants to double major with one being CS but it seems Princeton does not allow that. He says that it is because one concentration is intense enough for students. He will look more into that issue.

9744

Hi there - as a Vassar alum, I would recommend the Biology program which has cutting-edge facilities in a newish (2016) building. I am sure there are more, but two of my classmates have gone on to national acclaim:

  • Dr. Jeffrey Brenner - MacArthur “Genius” Award for health care reform
  • Dr. Ebony Boulware - Director, Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute
9745

D got into SDSU+Honors, UCSD, UCSB, UCLA, CMC, and USC. Waiting for Stanford today, and I guess her chances are slightly higher than average because she was deferred REA.

Before, I really hoped she’d be accepted to Stanford just because it is 20 mins away (she hates Berkeley and in fact only applied to schools she liked, that is, the 7 listed). Mostly, for my parents’s sake - they love their only granddaughter to pieces and would be devastated if she moved away and only visited once a year - a real possibility with LA. On the other hand, I realize USC is just a better choice for D - she’d have most of her GE’s taken care with AP/DE combo, would save $30K a year as an NMF, gain more independence by being away from home, enjoy better quality dorms, enjoy LA, etc., have a more relaxing time with the semester system (vs. quarter), etc. etc.

I don’t know if this Is my my way to prep both D and myself for today’s rejection, or am I secretly wishing for a rejection: if D is admitted, my parents would look at choosing USC as “running away” from the family and would be deeply hurt.

DH is no help in my internal dilemma and jokes that SDSU Honors is by far the wisest choice. And on some level I agree with him :slight_smile: Sorry for venting…

9746

@typiCAmom Best of luck – your D has great choices. What’s the best school for her specific major? On the other hand, financially, if USC is roughly $30k cheaper than Stanford (assuming she is admitted) – that’s nothing to sneeze at!

9747

@amsunshine, her focus is IR/Econ/Russian. Stanford has a slightly better Russian dept (though the best option for that major is UCLA) and Russian theme housing, but not sure it outweighs the other pros for USC. Thank you, she indeed has some excellent choices, but something tells me that making a choice will be just as hard as waiting to be chosen…

9748

@asiancaucasian, what did you think of Smith? Unfortunately we did not get a chance to tour and had planned on doing so during Spring Break — alas!

Wellesley is gorgeous. DD will stay on their waitlist, but we need to decide among those that said “yes”.

9749

@figgery Smith College was her second favorite campus and ours too! We toured Smith twice and we all (hubby, D20 and me) loved it each time. It was a very difficult decision to chose which to apply to ED. The town of Northampton is SUPER COOL in the beautiful Pioneer Valley. Charming as hell with a VERY LIBERAL population, which we loved. Investigate this, because it may not be for all. The vibe at Smith is very down to Earth, educated, and homey. Their housing situation is ideal - houses, not dorms. Go on their site and search Campus Webcams to get views of the conservatory, Paradise Pond, the waterfall, and the newly rebuilt library, perhaps the most state of the art, modern college library. Incredible design and a must see…it is all on their site, so do some investigating. The Dean of Admissions was a refreshing delight each time we saw her presentation. I hope my daughter does a semester at Smith. We are actually going house hunting in the Pioneer Valley - COVID19 willing - in May because we were so impressed. Please PM me if you have any specific questions…I will be honest and open! Best of luck to you and your girl. She has some excellent options to consider - but I vote Smith!

I went back to your post and had to laugh, we visited a lot of the same places with our girls. TTFN.

9750

@asiancaucasian Thanks for your insight. It does look very nice from what we’ve seen online. If there is any way for us to get up there and visit in person before the deposits are due, we definitely will!

@Cairochr Thank you. I will definitely pass this info on to my D. I think she was not quite sold on Poughkeepsie when we visited, however she really loved the school and the campus (and so did I).

@figgery We visited Smith and liked the campus. Was impressed by the students that we met there: smart, friendly, and driven. I liked the sense of community: If I remember correctly, there is nothing scheduled from 12-1pm to allow for everyone to have lunch together at the same time. There are a large number of single rooms availble in the houses/dorms compared to other schools that we saw.

9751

Yeah, I feel it for families who were feeling better about their ability to pay prior to the market downturn. Hoping for an extremely short-lived recession!

9752

After two rejections this week, then a waitlist from U Michigan, D20 decided she was tired of waiting and chose to enroll at U Wisconsin. Super excited for her! We were supposed to visit this week, so haven’t even been to Madison yet. Hoping it’s as great as the online tours/videos make it seem.

9753

@JCAmine Great that she decided to move on. We bloom where we are planted.

9754

Thanks @AlwaysLearn and @asiancaucasian

We will dive into those webcams & videos! I hope it won’t be too long before we know if she’ll be a UM Wolverine or a Smithy :smiley:

9755

I am not sure about that, and don’t want to steer you wrong. One place to ask would be the Real Talk Princeton site (it’s a Tumblr page, just do a search. You would probably enjoy looking at it too.) My daughter studied Chinese in addition to the EE, but it was for a certificate (minor).

9756

@JCAmine - Madison is just the ultimate big state school IMO. I’m still not letting D20 give up her spot there, since it’s our most affordable option. She loved it, but so many kids from her HS go there (we live in MN and have reciprocity). Otherwise it would have been much higher on her list.

9757

Having heard from all her schools, D made her decision last night: she’s going to Barnard. I couldn’t be happier for her because it is the best fit.

Here’s what we learned: instead of dividing schools into “likely, match, reach” it might be more productive to divide schools into “LACs, big public universities, and competitive private universities.” Our daughter’s admissions experience with each of these categories was very different.

With the LAC’s, she went 3/4 - in at Barnard, Colby, and Colgate, and WL at Wesleyan.

With the big public uni’s, it was good but a little more of a mixed bag: rejected from UVA, WL at Michigan, and accepted to Wisconsin, Texas and Indiana.

With the top USN private uni’s, there was less success: Rejections from Gtown, Vandy, Wash U, WL at Emory and GW, and accepted at Tulane.

I attribute this divergence to the fact that D’s grades at her rigorous private school were good but not stellar and her ACT (33/34 ss) was fine but not high enough to appeal to schools that care a lot about stats. But most of all, I think her profile resonated more with the LAC admission officers than the AO’s at other schools. The irony is that as this pandemic has unfolded, I have become more and more convinced of the benefits of going to a smaller, more nurturing institution. In any event, if D wants to pursue graduate school, there will be plenty of opportunities to attend a large university, public or private.

I have really benefitted from this site and hope to keep reading more about the Class of 2020 community. It is a welcome distraction!

9758

My daughter was accepted to all her high targets and wait listed to one reach school. Now she has to pick among 5 amazing schools and she is a bit overwhelmed. I take the blame for not letting her get “in love” with any school before we see acceptances and fin aid packages LOL On the other hand she can attend any of them and be very happy. Long month ahead!

9759

@Auntlydia My daughter will go to Barnard as well. Maybe they will meet!

@figgery We also loved Smith. The campus is ideal, the students were friendly and the housing is fantastic. We also liked the surrounding town - if you are a foodie, there are plenty of options, but still with a suburban feel to it. The Five College Consortium also gives students a ton of options for classes and socializing, though some of the schools are easier/faster to get to than others.

If D20 hadn’t gotten into Barnard ED, Smith was probably going to be her ED2 choice. Ironically, she started out her search dead set against women’s colleges, but look where she ended up! Goes to show, you just never know where life will take you.

9760

What a crazy roller coaster. I have to admit, I was naive about the college application process and, if not for finding this site while researching National Merit in the fall, I would not have been prepared for how tough this process can be.

D20 was waitlisted at 5 Ivy/T20 schools which was the tough part - watching waitlist after waitlist and wondering what she could have done differently. She was momentarily stunned/upset about one of these where we have a family connection (and we basically always pictured her going), but it sounds like she is ready to reset and move forward.

The good news is that she ended up with 5 excellent options. She is now deciding between USC and UChicago - two very different environments (and costs!) but both were in her top 5 when she started the application process. Since they are quite different and we will be relying on virtual admit sessions/tours, please feel free to give input if you have experience with either school. The USC thread here has been quite helpful already.

Congrats to everyone who has made their decisions!