@sccaflagger74, I think Lafayette is the school my D is most smitten with overall too (but mostly by the aesthetics and feel of the place)…we’ll do deeperr looks at whichever become her favorites after seeing a few more schools this spring, and after her final test scores are in. Right now I think L may be on the reachy side for her, as it’s gotten popular, She doesn’t know yet her major so it’s hard to judge a department for her. Nice that your son is to a point where he can evaluate that. Lafayette’s newish science building was beautiful…I was impressed by how it was a separate building from engineering (nice for a small school).
I think my D would love to apply to W&Mary,has only seen it during trips to Colonial Williamsburg but it has quite a cache’ to her…but I think little to no chance for her at current SAT OOS.
Case Western for your son? I’ve heard good things about its campus…I think it has “sort of” a defined campus in some areas but may bleed into the city a bit on one side. But I haven’t seen it.
I’m assuming you toured Lehigh? We didn’t officially tour it but stopped by (on the way to Easton) and happened to run into the only student we know there…quite coincidentally within a minute of walking on campus…and he spent an hour taking us around.
@inthegarden We’re considering Case Western for a spring break trip but I think it will be a reach…we’re targeting schools where he beats the 75% SAT score and he’s below it there. ACT coming up in a few weeks so that might change things.
We have not toured Lehigh but will if he’d like to. From everything I’ve read about the school it would not be a good fit for him so have not pushed it. We were on the athletic campus several times last winter for track meets and offered to drive over the hill to tour the academic campus but he was never interested.
William and Mary looks amazing, but too expensive for us as OOS. We’re only looking at out of state publics that offer really good merit.
@homerdog that 4 class trimester calendar is intense! I wonder if D23 might have Carleton on her list of possibilities…am going to keep that calendar info in mind just in case.
@sccaflagger74, if he liked the look of Lafayette’s campus, he might like Gettysburg…I think of it as a slightly more relaxed Lafayette in terms of aesthetics, academics and vibe…with a mix of all-attractive historic and new buildings and gorgous grounds…and has the prettiest college town of them all (boosted by lively tourism…the town is packed) with lots of coffee shops, restaurants and boutiques within reach three or four blocks from campus. It really looks like the classic, well-kept LAC. Also it’s adjacent to THE battlefield that is a national park…students are free to wander onto it for long walks and picnics. It’s the farthest from a sizeable city…but that wouldn’t bother my D with the town nearby. It would almost be a slam-dunk for her except for concerns about Greek life/partying but we will be taking a second look for sure.
My D wanted to like Muhlenburg…everyone was extremely nice and the tour guide was trying so hard. The campus is super-compact with no room to grow and felt crowded, especially where the dormitories were packed in like sardines (it seemed to us). Some buildings just seemed out-of-date and gloomy (and I love historic buildings, but places like science buildings should have some edge IMO!) My D sadly said she would feel it’s too much like high school for her, but she also said she felt a little gulty feeling this way because there was a general niceness about the place. I wish for Muhleberg a nice infusion of money to bring some things up to standard! If I had a theater kid, though I would give it a second look. If the faculty and actual course offerings for your son are there, though, he might thrive and get a lot of attention there. I get the sense that M professors are very engaged with students. A parent who had one daughter at Lafayette and one at Muhlenburg PMed me before our visit to say that the Muhlenburg daughter felt M was “her” school from the moment she set foot in it and did very well…and is now on her way to law school. So YMMV!
We’re only looking at merit for publics. Privates will depend on the NPC’s I’ve run being accurate (and of course schools willing to take him despite need). We make too much for Pell grants, but not enough to pay list price (or even 2/3rds of the list price of privates). And 2nd one is in 9th grade now so another will be in the mix soon.
@inthegarden@sccaflagger74 the “newish” science building at Lafayette is actually brand new this year. As a Lafayette alum it warms my heart to hear all the love for my old school on College Hill. Unfortunately for me my daughter will not consider it as she thinks it is too small for her. And god forbid she go to a school where both her mom and dad went. I’ll just live vicariously through you guys…lol…
We did a “Discover Dickinson” day with D20 last year, and found it extremely helpful. In addition to the standard tour, we had an info session with the Provost, and lunch with current Dickinson students. During lunch, students sat and ate with the prospective students and their families, while answering questions about life at the college. My D really appreciated the opportunity to get answers from different students in an informal environment. Then the prospective students and parents split for two different sessions. The parents attended their own session with financial aid officers, and the students attended a session with admissions officers. They sat at a table and walked through “mock applications” with others in a group to get a feel for how admissions officers look through applications and evaluate candidates. The students do this in small groups and get to express why they would admit, waitlist, or reject certain applicants. D found it extremely helpful for understanding the holistic application process. We all came away from Dickinson extremely impressed, and felt we really understood the campus climate. It was the best experience on our tour of PA/DC colleges (which included Villanova, Lafayette, Dickinson, GW, and American). Though I have to agree with @inthegarden: the dining hall was underwhelming. D loved everything else about the college, and had she not been accepted to her ED choice, she was definitely applying to Dickinson.
@dadof2d, I thought it was a lovely school, with a surprisingly pretty campus and a supportive, inclusive feeling. The buildings were mostly older (as in, attractive/historic older with a very new, striking-looking campus center/dining hall/recreation facility with lots of windows. Nice-looking football stadium and library. Some of the academic buildings I saw looked a little basic…i.e… the science building probably didn’t have the latest cutting-edge equipment and labs. I think it’s a good school for good, solid B students and A students who don’t need or want a competitive environment and want a little nurturing from their profs. It’s a CTCL school. Safe, small-town environment, but doesn’t have much of a college-town feel either, though I imagine the students have a few nearby hangouts that they like…it’s right in the little town. Has it’s own permanent semester-abroad program in Budapest (I think with McDaniel professors) that coordinates easily with any student’s major, which is impressive and unusual for a small LAC…but the school also encourages a student to do other study-abroad programs that might suit them. Has a range of typical LAC majors but also has a business major.
My daughter simply thought it was too small for her at around 1700 students. Around 2400 to 3500 seems to be the “sweet-spot” for her. The campus was fairly compact but had more “breathing room” in the physicial space than Muhlenburg with lots of trees and attractive landscaping. Hill-top campus. Hope that helps!
Our local newspaper recently (within weeks) ran an article about a local girl who I happen to remember was a strong student in my town a few years ago (admittedly a small-town public high school). The student is now a senior (I think) at McDaniel majoring in something like biology or biochemistry and aiming for a medical research career. She won a spot for a very competitive summer research program at a top elite University (I think it may have been Yale…it was something of that stature.) The work involved something about the role of RNA in Alzheimer’s. Her findings are being published. After reading this I thought to myself that this little college must be doing something right! This girl is a very big fish in this pond and seems to be thriving. She probably would have done well anywhere, but may have been overlooked as “average excellent” at a more elite school and …who knows… may not have won the same attention from her profs to get her this far. At any rate, it certainly hasn’t stopped her!
Folks my daughter got invited to attend something called National Youth Leadership Forum:Medicine run by an entity called Envision. Basically from what I can tell it is a 9 day program that is being held at various universities during the summer. I looks like a very interesting program where they do things like meet with medical school students, do some hands on training, watch a surgery etc. They can also get 2 college credits through George Mason University. In fact the invite included a letter from the dean of admissions at George Mason. Of course this program ain’t cheap but it does look on the surface to be very interesting program.
I know they have programs for other fields as well. Has any one on here had a child or know a child who has participated in such a program?
@burghdad my daughter did a similar program last summer at Georgetown. It was though National Student Leadership Conference, she loved it! After much research we did it for the experience for her, knowing it would most likely not shoot her to the top of an admissions pile.
Hi everyone! I haven’t been on here to update in a while. I feel like I am behind schedule with D21 and really need to start getting organized with college lists, planning visits, etc.
D got her test scores back and they were lower than she expected even though she did not do any prep for them. I think she has decided she likes the ACT better which is good because she did a bit better on them. Now we have to get her focused to actually do some prep this time around!
Her grades also went down a little this semester. She has always had a 4.0 but this semester she got 4 A’s and 3 B’s. She has had a very hard time with the AP Lit teacher and APUSH and Pre Calc are just hard for her no matter what. It’s not the best time to have your grades drop and I know she was disappointed but I think she is over it. She has put so much pressure on herself over the years this might actually be good in the long run at least for her mental health.
She is in the middle of rec league soccer, still works at a restaurant 2-3 nights a week, babysits on the weekends and is part of several school clubs so she is trying to balance a lot of things at once. I mentioned cutting back on work during soccer season and she said no way she loves working so that is good!
Not sure of her schedule for next year but I am guessing she will follow a similar path as her older sister. She took AP Psych, AP Stats, AP Environmental, AP Lit (or lang, whichever comes 2nd), AP Gov/Micro, senior privilege (free period) and Photography at the local college.
@momtogkc A couple of Bs aren’t horrible, she has difficult classes. However, just reading about your D’s busy life makes me wonder if you can suggest again dialing back on work, just a for few months, to focus on classes and test prep. Agreed, losing the 4.0 mentality isn’t bad, it will happen sometime! But what happens this year will be what stands out on college and scholarship apps. She can work a lot this summer, but she can’t get back this junior year time.
Well D is thinking she may want to take the April ACT. She, nor I have ever seen the ACT but I hear about the science section being tricky. I don’t know how realistic getting a 36 is. She was not able to get a 1600 SAT after getting a 1590.
Anyone know good tips for science section?
The only reason she may try is because BAMA gives full tuition/fees with one year room/board and (2500 /yr X4 for engineering). I may be able to swing 3 years of off campus housing and books (working on figuring this out). Anyway that scholarship is for 1600 SAT or 36 ACT only.
EDIT:
Still trying to figure out how to afford without loans “go away, full college experience” at rah, rah state school. She shot down Utah schools as the fit would not be right.