@scotiagal seems like we’re looking at a lot of the same schools! I worry about the WVU party rep, but I think it’s big enough they could find their place.
What was UNC Greensboro like? We may stop there after App State. My niece just moved to Fredericksburg so we’re touring UMW too before hitting Towson. Too many schools!!
My husband took D21 on the tour last week so I haven’t seen the schools. She thought Mary Washington was too quiet and very Southern. She is also looking for some sports. No school spirit. We have sent kids there from our high school but like South Carolina and Alabama, they have all transferred after the first year. She just didn’t like the UNC Greensboro campus, she didn’t do a tour because it was Sunday so they just wandered around. I do think doing the official campus tours make a difference.
My D is looking for the same. She’s not big on the South, but I think JMU will be a hit. We’ve also had a number of kids go to Alabama and leave after a year. D would never even consider Alabama.
We were planning on looking at Florida schools in April but just found out husband needs open heart surgery late March/April so that is out. Would look at Florida schools if any suggestions.
Following this thread because I’m researching colleges for my S21 son.
S21 is interested in Florida schools because he hates the cold and wants out.
We drove through USF and he really liked the campus. He’ll apply and we’ll go on an official tour if he’s accepted next year. We’ve also toured FGCU in Estero and he really liked the campus but I’m not sure he’ll apply. I want him to look at Eckerd, too, as well as UCF, but from what I’ve heard, UCF is getting more difficult to get into.
JMU seems like high school 2.0 to my son because so many of his classmates end up attending college there. To S21, it’s like a continuation of high school. I doubt that very much but that’s his perception.
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Just an FYI for those looking at Florida State Schools. Each one has different “average” GPA for admission. There is also a summer 9 credit requirement.
ECmotherx2, is that for incoming freshman? Is it mandated every summer while a university student or just after freshman year?
@2plustrio Marymount is considered a “private community college” by many, and has a lot of commuter students. We don’t have any junior colleges around here that have dorms, so this would be the next best thing. They have pretty non-competitive admissions standards (although slightly higher for nursing), and she’d only need to keep a 2.0 to keep going in the nursing program, and/or to enter as a transfer. So it still seems like a good option–we’ll see what her counselor says. She currently has a 99% in accelerated pre-calc which, as much as it makes me proud, it makes me SO MAD because if she only applied herself like this in every class, she’d have stellar grades!!! I don’t mind paying for a few extra years of college for her if it takes that–she will likely have a longer road that most and that’s ok if it leads her to where she wants to be. We will plan to visit Marymount in April sometime.
@sunwalker, that requirement is to be completed prior to graduation: All students entering with fewer than 60 semester hours of credit are required to earn at least nine (9) semester hours of credit prior to graduation by attendance during one or more summer semesters in courses offered at any one of the Florida State University System institutions. The University may waive the application of this rule in cases of unusual hardship. A student who wishes to have the rule waived must complete a “Request for Waiver of Mandatory Summer Enrollment Form” available in the Office of the Registrar. After submission of the form to the Office of the Registrar, the student will be notified by mail of the action taken.
Montana State visit report: This was their full day program. It started with a chilly campus tour at 7:45. The campus is pretty typical, nice and compact. The funny part was the guide showed us the third largest lecture hall on campus, and it only sat about 60. She did say the largest seats 301.
There were a lot of different sessions, some better than others. The university studies (undecided) program seems really good - they really work to help students select classes in different areas and still keeping them on track to graduate in 4 years with whichever major they choose.
The honors college presentation was pretty bad, and of course that was one the D21 was most interested in. The dean spent half the time showing photos of alumni and talking about all the awards they won. She didn’t spend nearly enough time talking about the program itself. There is a 4 week summer program you can do before school starts that sounded really neat and is worth 6 credits.
The other session D21 was really interested in was on study abroad programs. They didn’t tell a whole lot other than there are lots of options.
They are really big on the outdoor stuff, as you would expect. They have multi-day trips you can go on when you go to orientation in the summer - hiking, rafting, canoeing, etc. They have an outdoor recreation department where you can rent skis, snowboards, avalanche beacons and probes, mountain bikes, kayaks, etc. They run trips for all sorts of activities so you can try things like ice climbing.
We toured a couple of the dorms. The main honors dorm is a group of houses similar to fraternity/sorority houses. They each have common living areas and about 25 students in each one. The other one we toured was a traditional dorm but has a pod layout rather than hallways. The rooms are arranged in circles with an open area in the middle. The idea is to promote socialization and they said it works well.
They are very proud of their dining halls - they said they are rated the best in the country. They have a bunch of different stations and they cook food to order. They locally source about 20% of the food.
I really like the cost. D21 would qualify for a WUE scholarship, so the total COA would be about $21k. She’d have a good shot at some of their other merit aid as well.
Random tidbit: they have a major in snow science.
D21 liked it overall, she said it’s still on her list. Her main issue is that there is only dorm that has suite-style rooms.
@Johnny523 Thank you. I love hearing about other tours. 7:45 AM?? that has got to be a record.
I’m always looking at the architecure for the dorms. Especially for this nose-in-phone generation. I think socializing has to be made extra easy for them. The circle around a common room sounds perfect.
On a different note, some parents at our big suburban high school are working to get rank removed from the transcripts. Everything we’ve seen suggests strongly that many more students are hurt than helped by having rank reported. Does anyone here have positive anecdotes for keeping rank automatically on transcripts for any level of student?
@BktoNJ no personal anecdotes, but in “A is For Admission” (written by someone who once worked in Dartmouth admissions and had some insider knowledge of admissions processes at peer schools), I recall the author making a case that some students’ admission chances can be hurt by a high school that doesn’t report rank. The book is a bit dated, and I know more high schools are going this way (not reporting rank), so it’s possible this analysis has changed (and I believe her case was probably specific to top colleges and top students).
Thanks. We have heard from admissions officers at top tier schools that rank may help the top 10 individuals but hurt most of the rest of the top 25% or more. At our school of more than 2000 students it seems like a very bad trade. I think, and it’s been confirmed, thatwe would actually see more top tier acceptances for kids in the top 25% if they dont have rank on their transcripts. I think it may also help kids below 25% as no institution likes reporting rank below their targets.
We’ll see.
D’s school doesn’t rank and admits dozens to top schools every year. Of course, they still provide a report that breaks out GPA ranges and the % of students in each range, so it’s pretty easy to figure out where a kid stands.
Anyone here familiar with East Carolina U? Looking for a decent hotel to stay when we visit. Nothing fancy, just want to make sure we’re in a safe area as I’ve heard parts of the city can be not-so-nice! Thanks!
Since our trips were cancelled, D signed up for some of the on-line info sessions. We did the Northern Arizona one today. It was the standard presentation and they had a couple of students available to take questions as well. There were about 10 prospective students on the zoom meeting. It was reasonably informative. Hopefully we’ll be able to make a real visit later in the summer or early fall.
D has done three online info sessions- SMU, OU, and Auburn. All three were informative, but I’d say that Auburn’s was the most personal. It was also the one with the most students in attendance. Keeping my eyes open for other “tours” that may interest her.
App State is doing their open house virtually on 4/18. It was on our list to visit the following week, so we signed up for that.
We have been doing a lot of virtual tours this past week or so just to have something to do and focus on with all this downtime. So far my D has toured Temple, Syracuse, MassArt, VCU, Point Park, and UNCSA. Surprisingly since they weren’t high on her iniital list, she really enjoyed Syracuse School or Art tour. It was very personal and detailed and it seems they really work with the students on an individualized degree program to work with their interests and goals. My D just isn’t thrilled with their location with the cold and snow.
S21 didn’t get selected for the state competition he’d been hoping for - of course, the program may not even happen now since it’s a summer program with several hundred kids living in dorms - but he found out last week that he was not selected. Still, the semifinalist honor was a big one for him, and he didn’t feel like the final interview/test day back in Feb went all that well so we weren’t expecting him to be selected for the program. I’m proud of him for making it as far as he did and hope for the sake of the kids that got selected that they’ll end up with the experience they were hoping for, though unfortunately that seems doubtful now.
We’ve been doing some online info sessions as well. S21 has done Dickinson and Knox and has registered to do Willamette, Hendrix, Eckerd, and Kalamazoo. We are so glad we went early and saw two schools in the Fall (Wooster and Denison). The online sessions are a silver lining, to be sure - we weren’t necessarily going to go visit all of these schools in person so the virtual sessions are a bit of a bonus (and something to pass the time). D23 has decided to do some as well. Her school list won’t overlap his much (Dickinson and Denison being the main exceptions to that - they are reaches for S21 but probably won’t be for D23). She did a session at Reed this week and has Skidmore and Haverford scheduled for next week. Yes, it’s super early for her, but she finds it fun and inspiring and needs things to do, so we’re enjoying the sessions.