Parents of the HS Class of 2021 (Part 1)

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
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Since there was a lot of great feedback on Boulder, I wanted to asked about Colorado School of the Mines. It was on my S’s list earlier this year and then fell off his radar. I remember reading the Fiske description and it didn’t seem like a great campus culture, so I haven’t advocated for him to put it back on.

Anyway, I was going through some mail b4 dinner and found a big envelope from them got buried under some other things. It’s their Golden Admissions invite – no essay, no app fee, and priority consideration for merit. I’m sure this is mostly just another slick marketing piece, but it got his attention – marketing works sometimes!

He’s engineering or CS – most likely the former. Anybody visit recently? Thoughts to share? @NateandAllisMom – I think it’s on your S’s list?

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@AlmostThere2018 S is almost done filling out the Golden invite app. There are two supplemental questions he’s almost done with. It’s a strong school for engineering or CS with good graduate salaries and placement but one of our least favorite virtual visits. It’s definitely of the nerdy variety with lower numbers of female students, but I think only about 20-25 minutes from Boulder and fairly close to Denver. A friend’s daughter with great stats filled out the Golden App and got a generous merit award and quick answer.

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@BmacNJ Podcasters I listen to said to put the activities one spends the most time on / of the longest duration and those that impact other people closer to the top.

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@NateandAllisMom - yes, I remember reading about the male/female imbalance particularly being an issue. I think I also read parts of the campus are not attractive despite the overall good location. Also the non-STEM electives seemed lackluster when I investigated earlier this year. One thing my S likes about WPI is that for a STEM school it has pretty robust non-STEM electives. I mean, I know engineers don’t get a lot of electives, but he likes the idea of some decent options.

Also, so there are essays?? The envelope said “no essay.” Maybe they’re optional – which of course means you have to do them right? Seems a little bait and switch to me. . .

Any insights @kanfly and @AlwaysMoving?

I think my S likes the idea of an early acceptance in his pocket, which I get. And Colorado, which I also get. He also sees it near the top of earnings lists which he also likes, lol. We have our weekly college meeting this afternoon so I’ll see what he’s thinking. I’m guessing he’ll at least do a virtual visit.

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My D is a swim recruit at Mines, so she has been there a few times. It’s sort of her safety school, and I think there is about a 50% chance she ends up there.

The campus is nice with a lot of new buildings. It’s obvious the state is investing money into the school. I think Mines is transitioning from being an elite mining/manufacturing school to being a top STEM school like Georgia Tech. The campus and buildings feel small to me. There aren’t any massive buildings like at CU.

Golden is a great town, but it’s a sort of sleepy compared to Boulder. I think the downtown is evolving into a cool area and it will eventually be a big plus for the school. All of Denver/Boulder is growing, and Golden is one of the places that people are starting to notice. Close® to skiing, white water rafting in town, excellent MTB and hiking, etc. Also, Golden has a light rail station that will take you to Denver and then to the airport.

The male female ratio is typical for a STEM school. Very lopsided. As my D says “the odds are good but the goods are odd”. lol.

One of my closest friends went there, and he has done very well. He works for a top tech company and is valued, so the degree will get you where you want to go.

What are the negatives? Like CU the biggest one is cost. They give merit aid quickly, but they don’t have that next level of aid to be a strong value. If Mines is going to make the jump to being a top STEM school they need to get aggressive with scholarships. My niece goes to GT for about $15k instate, but it would be $30k instate at mines if she lived here. The advantage of this is there aren’t a lot of tippy top students grabbing all of the opportunities.

I don’t know if this is a negative, but it’s something that concerns me. Our HS is one of the best in the state, especially when you consider STEM, but very few kids even apply to Mines.

Personally I like Mines better than CU Engineering. Academically they’re about the same, but Mines isn’t as rigorous out of the gate. Also Mines has parties and greek life, but it’s at a level where a serious student can be part of the fun.

btw, Mines is elite for a Phd in anything mining related. I don’t know how much of that trickles down to the undergrads.

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@AlwaysMoving – this is super helpful! I love your D’s quote, btw. Hysterical.

Based on your feedback, I think School of the Mines would be a better fit for my S than Boulder. If he’s going to do a big engineering school, he’s got other publics that I think he’s more excited about – specifically Virginia Tech and Wisconsin. But he is trying to make sure he has some feasible smaller engineering schools to consider as well and they are harder to find. School of the Mines potentially fits that bill, esp. in conjunction with its location. He’s a big camping/hiking guy.

Glad to get your input that the campus and town are nice.

He’d have to get some merit to make it feasible – but he’s well aware of that.

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@AlwaysMoving that was a great post, thank you. Yes, @AlmostThere2018 two supplemental essays and I don’t think it says they are optional. There is no stated word limit and the box just expands. I guess “no essays” means no personal statement. He has another “safer” school that has a quick app, but if you want to be considered for the honors school, you have do 6 essays in the CA. :frowning:

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Maybe, maybe not. Just my two cents but against the standard conventional wisdom, my D’s college counselor (who was an admissions officer at Harvard for three years) recommends balancing out the list of “important” activities throughout the 10 activities and not just putting them ranked #1 first to #10 worst. She felt that mixing up the list elevated all of the activities (especially the less significant ECs).

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@socaldad2002 So you’re saying balance them out as you go down the list - how so? Like maybe a sport that took a lot of time first and then something completely different next and jump around like that by category?

I think D’s list will be her top two ECs that take up 25 hours of her week. The way they break down, they will take up the first four spots. After that, we are thinking of putting something she did this summer during the pandemic that shows leadership and community service even though it was only for one summer. And then finish with other clubs at school and a volunteering gig that was competitive to apply but only met for one month before Covid hit. I agree that you want to try to keep the reader’s interest all the way down the list and it’s definitely not important to fill all ten spots.

For S19, we put his sports first since that took almost all of his time, then his art ECs and his leadership/community service ECs, then his summer job.

It’s hard but you want to try to pretend you don’t know your kid and then read the list and see what picture is painted. The AOs only know what you put on the application so that’s what they are judging. If the info is all over the place, they can’t get a good sense of who the student is and what they will bring to campus.

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@AlwaysMoving “As my D says “the odds are good but the goods are odd”. lol.” That one made me laugh…

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@AlmostThere2018 — My son is a sophomore at Mines, majoring in CS, and seems very happy with his choice. He only applied to Mines, Cornell, GT, WPI, and Purdue — was not accepted to Cornell. He received a sizeable merit scholarship. He originally planned on Computer Engineering so he was happy it wasn’t a big deal to change gears at Mines. He loves to ski. Mines not as well known in NY but I grew up in CO so knew it’s reputation. A friend of mine had 2 sons graduate from Mines and one still there — both graduates found excellent internships and solid jobs before they graduated — one did Mech E, the other petroleum. One con is the lack of housing for upper students; another con is the dining… they just don’t offer much BUT lots of good restaurants within walking distance. We love visiting Golden — friendly place and some good restaurants. It is 15-20 minutes to downtown Denver, 20 minutes to Boulder and closer to the ski slopes than any other school. My son has liked most of his classes and is really enjoying CS so far. According to him, the school does attract nerds (he is guilty as well!) but smart nerds who are often outdoorsy as well. The football games are fun with Blaster the Burro charging the field every touchdown. Love the marching band, too.

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My son submitted his last application today! Now, we get to sit back and wait and wait and wait and wait some more. I feel like I could have a baby quicker than it will take to hear back from these schools probably (and that says a lot at my age-HA!).

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@chillycow awesome…

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I am in awe that kids have submitted apps, even all of their apps! Since Covid hit and we’ve been home more, my son has been less and less likely to share information. He has a rough list of schools, I think? Has started the CA, I think. I’ve acquired a huge body of knowledge thanks to CC and other research. I love the topic. I don’t think he wants to hear any of it. It’s a little troubling, but I’m trying not to poke him too often. I’m going to leave it until mid September. Maybe. I may ask to see his timeline for getting the work done. I know he has a spreadsheet, so that’s good?

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@ChillyCow - amazing!

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@Zinnia203 , he is only applying to 3 Texas schools so it isn’t as daunting a task as for some kids who are applying to tons of schools. His sister applied a couple of years ago on opening day, July 1 and so it feels like he is behind already since apps didn’t open till August 1 for his schools this year. Two of the schools are rolling admissions/early bird gets the worm type schools and the third one is a super high reach so earlier than later just tries to get some icing on the cake to make him look better. Plus, he bought into my conditioning training that he will be so happy to have the apps done and behind him and can concentrate on senior year classes. It seems like senior year parents have a lot of waiting to do-whether waiting on the kids to submit or waiting for decisions. Best of luck to your son this year!

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@bakergirl3 – Tks so much! Glad your student is doing well at Mines and glad it’s back on my S’s radar! That part of the country truly is dreamy, IMHO.

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My D hasn’t submitted an app!

At our HS you order transcripts in person and the counseling department hasn’t released the new system for remote learning. I’d love to have a safety or two already accepting her.

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Oh gosh. Neither has D21. She has five due either 11/1 or 11/15. Total of 12 essays for those five and she has two left to do…then we are still waiting to decide about test scores. Her school SAT score and her Sept SAT score and her Oct SAT score all come mid-Oct. (If her Sept and Oct sittings even happen.) So, even though she’s been ahead of the game with essays, her apps won’t be sent in until then.

Then the next eight aren’t due until 1/1 or 1/15.

She will have two answers by 12/20 and two more 1/15 and then the long wait until March.

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Can I join in on this conversation? I have been reading through the thread and everyone is so nice, helpful and supportive, what a treat. I also noticed a number of postings about Colorado and I live in Boulder. I am now trying to figure out if I can smell the pot - it may be that I am so used to it that I can’t discern, lol. I have a D21 and an S22 (not sure if I am using the lingo right) so I have one right after the other going through this process. My D21 is almost done with her apps and I can’t talk about that with anyone here because they would get annoyed so I can share here! I am SO sorry for the folks trying to sit for tests - we got so lucky that my D took the ACT last September. I am curious how people are thinking about Safeties vs Match (apologies if this was covered on a previous page!). My D has good scores/grades but it all seems unpredictable. Does she need a >50% acceptance rate for a safety?