We’re planning a Boston college tour for the first half of spring break because S23 has the state robotics tournament during the latter half of break. Which west coast schools are you visiting? We plan to tour CA schools in February and still have to figure out our Midwest college visits too. Altogether, we need to take four more college visits/trips. It’s a bit overwhelming to say the least.
I think we are basically doing the small/medium colleges of north and south California:
(LA)
Occidental
Pepperdine
Loyola Marymount
Whittier
(San Fran area)
Santa Clara
University of the Pacific
Saint Mary’s College of California
A little all over the place with the schools but as I said, we decided to make this trip the “what kind of college do you like” fact finding mission, as well as do you particularly like any of these. It will be interesting to see what D23 thinks.
Right now she is pondering whether to try to add UPS, Lewis and Clark and a couple other further north. But I don’t think the trip will be pleasant if we try to do too many schools. I think it is just going to be California.
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I’d love to hear your thoughts on Loyola Marymount and Santa Clara as those could end up on the list if he changes his mind on his major.
University of the Pacific will be on his list too. Can’t wait to hear about your tours! (UPS, Gonzaga, and Pacific Luthern would be maybes as well).
On the west half of the country, none of the schools that could end up higher on “his” list are close to each other. (note, “his” as in, he still has yet to narrow down but are on the possible reduced tuition list)
In WA theres Gonzaga and UPS, opposite sides of the state. In CA, he would like to see U of Redlands and U of Pacific, again, not exactly close together. In CO, its Regis and Western Colorado. In AZ, NAU and U of Arizona.
We may likely need to wait to see if he got admitted first before seeing in person.
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We’ll be doing a spring break trip with D23. I think it will mainly be to New York/Mass/PA. She needs to spend some time looking at the possibilities list I put together for her and narrow it down. But I know at this point we’ll at least be including SUNY ESF, Mt Holyoke, Muhlenberg.
There’s also 1-2 Schools to the south that are possibilities but the larger group are north of us (VA) so the NC/SC schools can be some weekend trips at another time if she wants to see them.
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We still don’t have a real list yet, just some general ideas. Hoping to sit down and work on a list when she is home from BS for Christmas. She had thought she wanted a big school, but is enjoying her Boarding School experience and thinking smaller may fit better. Took the SAT yesterday and hopefully that will help with school list “reach” choices. I am thinking 3-4 reach, 3 target, 1-2 safeties. How many do most people actually apply for? In the olden days I applied to 3 (all were easy to get into state schools).
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@JESmom please let me know your impressions of Mt Holyoke, right now it is on D24’s long list (I should think this is a good thing that my youngest is actually already thinking schools, right? Not, wait your turn young lady, I’ve got your sister to get through this!)
I will definitely do my best to come back and share D23’s thoughts on each school on her tour (as well as the parent perspective) for those who have asked. 
@AnonMomof2 I doubt D23 will apply to more than 5-6 schools when the chips are down, and none of them will be ‘reach’ schools like many discuss. Our biggest motivator is budget, and she needs to be able to get merit at whatever schools she will apply to. So al the schools she will apply to need to be ones where she is in their top cohort of applicants - the ‘reach’ will come with whether she qualifies for top merit or lower merit.
D20 applied to schools that would be considered safeties/matches for many but again was looking for >50% off cost of attendance in pure non-need based merit (we don’t qualify for need based aid) and got that. We found plenty of schools that fit her parameters, the only thing she didn’t get was the location she preferred (we told her she could move to her dream city after graduation) and she didn’t get any ‘prestige’ bragging rights (not something she or we are interested in).
Funnily enough, now that D20 is looking at grad programs and talking with her professors about options, she is realizing how good it was we didn’t give into the idea of location being at all paramount. Grad school will again come down to budget (which PhD program will fully fund her), so she is more interested in trying to make sure she creates the strongest CV for her application rather than trying to do a location/prestige search.
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D21 was accepted at Mount Holyoke with good merit and seriously considered it. We couldn’t do an official in-person tour because of Covid, but we visited the campus last spring. It’s so pretty, and we were impressed by the level of engagement by both current and prospective students during the (virtual) accepted student events.
As far as campus goes, there are many gorgeous buildings, but some, including those that house the departments D was planning to study, were fairly dated. We had heard that the town wasn’t anything special, and it’s not large, but we found a restaurant we really liked, and there were some cute shops. We thought this was perfectly fine, but you want a real “college town,” Smith is the better bet. The MHC dorms were also larger than we’d expected, mid-rise buildings, and those didn’t appeal to our D, although we couldn’t go inside.
We saw lots of students out and about, many with brightly colored hair and/or funky fashion choices, nothing too zany, but more so than at Smith or BMC. I’m sure someone on here has a student at MHC—those were just our impressions!
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@kbm770 super helpful, thank you!!
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@beebee3 - we are with you with merit for undergrad - coffers are running dry after paying for 12 college yrs so far. 7 more to go. I agree with your D20’s ideas too with grad school.
for this upcoming semester: here’s the plan.
Tour some nearby 1-day drive state schools and their engineering departments. Not necessarily for the school’s sake, but for her to see if she’s really interested in engineering. (maybe also math or physics or finance/business programs.)
prep for ACT if needed. she’ll take it next week. At the schools in our $ range, lots use test scores for merit $. Test tutoring through the spring if needed; maybe april or june test again.
thinking two trips this spring. (although she’ll be on the tennis team. this causes issues missing games/practices.) southwest merit schools, and then southeast merit schools. hope to do it when they are in class and not on their spring breaks or over summer.
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My daughter loved Mt Holyoke when we first visited - the campus/buildings are beautiful, she loved the traditions, etc. buildings are old but well kept. She didn’t like how isolated it felt; the town is small, but it was the first school she fell in love with. It later fell off her list for other reasons - academically it wasn’t arts-focused enough for her - but I think it’s a great option.
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Sounds like Mt Holyoke is definitely a school we will need to take D24 to visit; either she will absolutely love it (based on what has been said so far) or it will feel too constrained (again, based on what has been said so far).
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We visited MHC back in 2016 for D17. It’s a small, compact and I remembered shaded campus. I think we were there in August. There isn’t really a town but just a small collection of shops that included a coffee shop, a movie theater, pharmacy and maybe a restaurant or 2. If you aren’t happy with the cafeteria food then you are kinda out of luck. I remember the tour guide saying that many students took advantage of the 5 College Consortium by taking a class at UMass close to lunch time so they could eat in the UMass dining hall because the food was much better (UMass is known for having great dining hall food). Otherwise you’d have to take a bus to Amherst or Northampton. They had some of the same old fashioned traditions like Smith in that every dorm had a Grandfather clock and and a piano and they served afternoon tea and biscuits every Friday. It’s where Baby from Dirty Dancing was supposedly going to go to school so they show Dirty Dancing in the Amphitheater during back to school week every Fall. My D17 ended up not applying there but focused on Smith instead which she preferred due to location, facilities, etc.
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S23 is going to have to cast a super wide net to try to get money.
Had a nice talk yesterday with some senior parents at his school. I love hearing their thoughts about schools and how the kids approach decisions. One senior fell in love with Northwestern which shocked mom as she thought he would want to go further from home. It was great seeing how supportive yet realistic the moms were.
Some of my sons closest friends are doing trades so I feel alone in my thoughts and worries sometimes. Their parents don’t have much college experience either. Our nephew is a senior this year but his list is very focused with only 3 schools on it with all pretty much being safeties. Nephew has had his list of schools for years so no real discussions there.
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After much discussion, we’ve settled on a list of 2 safeties, 3 targets, and 5 reaches. Ideally, S23 will be accepted early to one of his reaches (once he figures out which one he likes most). We’re a donut hole family, but D19 is at a top school known for generous FA so we have an idea of what amount we would be expected to pay at that level; all of S23’s reaches fall into the generous, meets financial need with no loans category. We also live in a red-hot real estate market and are looking to downsize once this kiddo leaves the nest. Cashing out equity gives us a lot of options. CS/engineering strength plus good fit/vibe are important to us.
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Mt Holyoke: D17 toured Mt Holyoke (don’t know if it’s still the same what with the pandemic and all, but at the time it was purely drop-in, with no reservations), applied, and got in with a decent but not worldbeating merit package. It was definitely high on her list of colleges applied to (12, which was too many, but then as now we were chasing Big Merit Money™), but not overwhelmingly so. I do think she would have been quite happy there, but she’s happy where she is now, so no worry about might have beens.
The shortlist: My D23 has had, as mentioned before, a list of colleges to apply to for a good while. There may be some changes around the edges, but it’s becoming less and less likely. There are 12, but at least half of them are very straightforward with nothing beyond the Common App required. I’m not actually a fan of the safety/match/reach nomenclature, but as far as acceptance there’s probably 3 low reaches/high matches, 4 matches, and 5 safeties. Again, though, it’s all about the Big Merit Money™, and two places are true financial safeties, but they’re low on her list.
The joy of twins, PSAT edition.
One twin will almost definitely be a NMSF and the other will not (227 and 215). Surprisingly, it is the one who since they started standardized testing in 2nd grade always scored slightly lower then his brother. It’s also not the one who was going to apply to UTD if he made NMF for the scholarship. Also not the one who is likely one and done with SATs after last June’s test. Twin with a 227 retook SAT in October so that may have been the difference, he did not score quite as well as the PSAT he took the next week predicted but 10 higher then twin. I am proud of both of them, wish their Dad was alive to hear since he was a NMF. So out of 4 boys, oldest and youngest (by 1 minute) will likely be NMF.
Oldest went to Northeastern on a full tuition scholarship for NMF, what a difference in scholarships 10 years makes. I
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215 selection index for D23 on the PSAT. That puts her right at the projected estimate for our state so we’ll just have to wait until next Sept to see how it all plays out. Regardless we’re super pleased and it bodes well for the SAT she just took on Saturday! Last week of classes and then exams next week so we’re in the home stretch before break!
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We did spring break tours when my DS19 was a junior in high school. I think the timing is great, especially if your kid does fall sports and is planning to use EA/ED…which I also strongly recommend! Fall of senior year gets really busy. I think our “early” trip was motivating and helped narrow down the big questions (big/med/small; urban/rural/college town, etc). I would like to do a small spring break trip with my DS23 to look at a couple of schools in Utah.
My DD17 graduated from Loyola Marymount University. She loved it. We visited while out there for theater auditions and they put together a tour even though it was a day off school, so we got a nice one on one. (Side note: Check spring break schedules for the colleges you are looking at, it is always better to visit when classes are in session and you can really see the students. This should work because most college spring breaks are earlier than high school).
Anyway for LMU we were only in the LA area (LMU, USC, UCLA) and we drove past Pepperdine but my daughter wasn’t interested in the more-religious vibe there. My biggest advice for LA, college tour or not, is realize that it takes a lot of time and energy to get anywhere. Traffic is a major factor and LA is so spread out. Just know that if you are going to try two tours in one day, for example. For our first several visits or so we would just end up exhausted and eating dinner at 9pm not really by choice! Use Waze app for scheduled drive planning with traffic so you have realistic timeframes. Now some fun stuff…LMU is not too far from Pepperdine and if you want a beach visit, there is a beach nearby LMU for a stop, or stay in Manhattan Beach for beach/restaurants/shopping/fun walking around. Definitely plan your LA phase by location and I think it’s worth it to change hotels rather than make long drives back to one home base. Plan for cool evenings.
PS We are HUGE fans of medium sized schools! So far 2/3 kids of mine are at medium colleges and I think there are many many benefits over the majority of their friends that go to our large state flagship.
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My D has 4-5 national events this year.
Couple UV lined up, so far. Mainly focusing on D3 and some D1 and D2. Some coaches are getting more serious in their communications. I think we have to bite the bullet and go to these ID camps.
I don’t think these national events will be enough for them to make a decision. She went to a few ID camps this summer and that is where she got the best feedback and interest. At a big tournament, coaches were interested, but not the same kind of love. They want their coaches and players (captains/seniors) to evaluate on their own terms.
I will share more after Florida. She has 3-5 ID camps lined up.
I have feeling coaches are going to make decisions soon. If any of her top 3 schools offer, she will take it ED1.
Good luck to your D!
DS23 got his PSAT score on College Board today. Not yet on the H.S. Naviance page.
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