This was in 2019 but she is my artsy/creative child and very smart but not as academic as my son as her priorities and talents were centered in theatre, music & songwriting. She was an average student (90 GPA, 26 ACT.) They don’t really break down how much of her scholarship was academic and how much was talent but her audition went very well and she tested high on the music theory assessment. She received their top scholarship of $23,000. On top of that she was able to get that extra $3000 per year so the total was $26,000. They were impressed with her YoungArts recognition (10% chosen amongst 7000 applicants) was a semifinalist in the International Songwriting Competition and she made it to the judges round of American Idol (just before Hollywood week) around the time she applied plus released an original EP, so my guess it was mainly based on talent, not so much academics. I know they give $5000 to honors students and I assume that is on top of the basic merit scholarship. Her major is Popular and Commericial Music which is exactly what she was looking for (hard to find colleges that offer Pop music.) As parents, we liked that it was a comprehensive program. Most colleges focused on crafting your talent but Loyola also included the business and law side of music which is very important in such a tough business, no matter how much talent you have. She is currently taking a one year leave of absence due to some music opportunities in Atlanta, thanks to some of her connections in New Orleans. I think she needed a mental break too as remote/hybrid learning was definitely a challenge for a music major. If she returns after 2 semesters she can still keep her merit awards.
Weather issues have been stressful, including hurricanes. She took it all in stride, just followed the safety protocol or evacuated when needed. Fun fact: the campus was pretty much spared during Katrina but the hand or fingers of their St. Ignatius statue was damaged-that was the extent of it. The heat was insane when we were moving her in. She prefers the hot weather and that was a positive in her mind. She has many friends at Tulane and it is literally next door (I didn’t realize how close until we visited and walked around.) She met her boyfriend, a business major at Tulane who is 2 years ahead of her, during her Freshman year so that expanded her Tulane friend group. So they definitely intermingle and hang out at college clubs, do activities together. In fact, they can use their swipe cards at the the Tulane cafeteria to get some more variety and I think they share shuttle services. Freshman dorms were not great (your basic set up) and my daughter only dormed one semester, crazy as that sounds. Her roommate, who she met at an accepted students event and seemed perfect, had 4-5 friends over watching netflix or hanging out in their tiny dorm almost every night, including nights when my daughter had to get up early. It became unbearable and RA intervention did not help. My daughter has always gravitated towards older friends so an older friend at Loyola (who shared an apartment with a junior from Tulane) had an extra room and invited her to live at her apartment which was close to school. Normally, the students have to stay in dorms for a certain amount of time but they were short on housing at the time and said they would approve it. So she lucked out and it was actually cheaper, so that worked out on our end too. Having said that, many of her friends had no issues with the dorms, one even had a triple and loved it. Plus, housing options are better for upper classman so that’s a plus.
And just like that, D23’s semester is over. (Her last final exam for her DE classes was last Thursday, but the school district requires some attendance this week—last week before break for them—in the HS-only classes, so she had a “just for fun” one yesterday.)
She expects good grades, possibly a 4.0 (she’d locked up an A in her HS class and two of the DE classes before finals week, but the others require a decent showing on the final exam/paper).
She likes the timing of college classes, but she’s being intensely bored this week, since her parents are amidst stressful, time-consuming days at work and her sibling who’s still at home is amidst finals, and so none of us have any time to help entertain her.
Welcome @AmyIzzy, both of your kids sound amazing. I am trying to get my Econ twin to look at Fordham as a NM option, but it’s going to be a hard sell since he is opposed to religious schools. Also, opposed to schools in hot climates, so …
Our county is over 75% fully vaccinated and a mask mandate has been in place since school opened. As of today all sports, music, field trips and any extracurriculars are cancelled for at least a month. Positive cases in the high schools have just exploded in the past week. Twins had 2 concerts this weekend and an inperson MUN conference in January, all gone along with lots of other activities.
On a brightier note, after a rocky start, Math twin was able to pull up his CC Diff E grade to an A. All homework for semester was due Saturday night at midnight, final was Monday night at 5. He handed in 12 math homeworks and 3 of 5 Matlabs projects at 10:30 pm Saturday. I did let him skip school on Monday to study for the final, he got a 92, which in addition to being the final could replace your lowest test grade (78). And the thing that excites me the most is he decided not to take CC Linear Algebra next semester during Robotics build season.
My kid23 is also doing robotics - a ton of work but they really enjoy it.
linear algebra? my s20 took it this year in college! that’s quite the progression for your s23. what does he want to study again?
** and hope you guys all have a decent holiday season 
His dream is MIT 18C (math and computer science), so a math heavy CS major with some Econ thrown in, likely not at MIT but it’s okay to dream but be realistic.
Wow, your daughter sounds amazing & talented - best of luck to her!
Oh boy, sounds like you’ve got your hands full. Somehow our kids always seem to get everything in order, even if it’s last minute and causes us to freak out a bit. My daughter was a procrastinator with certain subjects and it drove me nuts, but she always found a way to get it done.
We are experiencing a spike in Covid cases in our area too, despite strong precautions. My son’s band concert is still on. They are doing 2 nights with limited seating (for mainly junior & senior parents) so we feel lucky get to see him tomorrow night. The new variant seems to be very easy to catch but luckily vaccinated kids, teens and adults aren’t likely to exhibit severe cases or be hospitalized.
My kids were raised Catholic but we are lucky to have found a progressive place of worship. Our priest will happily baptize the babies of gay couples or openly question why the Catholic Church doesn’t allow for more leadership roles for women. Both kids have been involved with music ministry and think of religion more in terms of volunteer service and welcoming all, especially those in need, but they disagree with Catholic views on many things, as do I. So it doesn’t surprise me that my daughter was open to a Jesuit college based on how they approach things as I’m sure my son would be. I can tell you they are not “pushy” about religion at all at Loyola and welcome many faiths with open arms. They do require some religion classes but I think my daughter took Ecofeminism or something like that and was considering a class on Buddism. Lots to choose from. Would my kids survive a day at an ultra conservative religious college like Liberty University? Not on your life. It’s all in the approach and attitude I guess. You might want to visit and see if there is some openness that might surprise you.
Agree we are secular/Jewish and my d loved Georgetown. The Jesuit schools are more focused on inquiry and the catholic aspects are unobtrusive and can easily be ignored if you prefer to.
I was told that they still have cut-offs for each category and-as of now (it could change)-they still inform you separately for each category. For example, “you meet the criteria for African American scholar,” etc. In fact, some class of 2022 students qualify for 2 categories because they also received the small town designation. I think the Texas Hispanic recognition cut-off for Oct 2019* was about 1290 just to give an example.
*but not sure if this was before the college board took over the program?
Welcome! How about William & Mary? Midsize, not heavy greek life or a rah-rah sports school. Suburban location.
My D23 has Susquehanna and Juniata on her list and we’ve visited both. She also did a summer program at Susquehanna. They are definitely very rural! That is good for her because she’s wants to do environmental science/ecology but probably a hard sell for someone opposed to the “middle of nowhere”. Juniata felt a lot more remote than Susquehanna.
Both also have a pep band, which appeals to my daughter who does marching band now but does not want such a big commitment in college. Juniata’s, however, is pretty newly revived while Susquehanna’s seems more well established.
We haven’t looked at William & Mary but heard good things. I’ll have him look into it. Thanks!
Thanks for that info in Susquehanna & Juniata. We are very torn on whether to visit. I’ve heard so many great things about both but not sure he can get past the rural location. We are about 4 hours from each. Not horrible, but if he gets bored and wants to come home on weekends, not easy to do. I think both have active campuses, though, so that might help. He’s never been involved with pep band (assume like a marching band?) but I’ll bet he’d enjoy that. He tells me he wants to have an open mind and that the priority is the psychology program and research opportunities so maybe their programs, reseach, and study aboard programs could persuade him, but not so sure. He also wants a diverse college and I think they are both trying to expand their diversity, but obviously neither is super diverse. He was also told to check out the College of Wooster in Ohio but same dilemma. His gymnastics meet is in State College, PA (in January) so if anyone has other suggestions closer to a city, let me know. Ursinis is pretty far from his meet, but is that more of a suburban/urban campus near Philly? I’ll keep you posted.
Ursinis is pretty far outside of Philly (1+ hour to drive because of the traffic and no easy public transportation). I’d say it’s much more exurban than suburban.
One thing that surprised me about Juniata is that there is an Amtrak station in town. So, while it’s remote it actually would be pretty easy for D23 to get home (we’re in DC).
A pep band is like a marching band in the style of music but they typically play in the stands at sports or other campus events.
Anyone else get SAT scores today from the Dec. 4th test? My son scored a 1450. We were beyond excited. He had a 1300 on the PSAT so we assumed it would align with that score since it was his first time taking it and he just wanted a baseline. Didn’t prep for the PSAT and minimal prep for the SAT (about a week of review and a 4 hour “SAT Bootcamp” back in September) so I think he surprised himself. Personally, I’d say “one and done” but my son wants to retake it at the end of the school year or in the summer and see if he can boost it up more with more study. My D19 really struggled on tests like this (anxiety, focus, etc.) and was philosophically opposed to them (“I don’t want to be judged by a number.”) but S23 is a different kid. I’ve always had mixed feelings about these tests. They definitely have flaws and are biased in many ways so I’m glad many schools have moved to test optional or don’t put too much emphasis on them. But for some kids this is a way to shine so it’s nice to know it has some value in an overall assessment of students at some schools.
Edited to add: I realize a 1450 is not exactly a guaranteed pass into some of the schools he likes like Northeastern (I’ve seen 1500 SAT students get rejected) Boston College, Emory and Rollins but it’s on the high end of many schools he is considering so I think he just hopes it could put him in a better position for merit and hopefully increase his chances at a few reach schools.
Still waiting, she had a great score last year, many would be one and done, but it was in the lower end for some of her reach schools. Nervous though because her psat went down 10 points from last year. Last year she did psat and then sat a few weeks later and went up 30 points. So really have no idea what to expect. She is a no-prep kid. Her ACT was one and done, I think- but she may decide to try for those 2 points .
Congrats to your son for a score that should work well for him at many of the schools of interest. D23 didn’t take the Dec 4th but took the Nov 6th. Her PSAT went down 20 points from last year, and her SAT score in Nov was better than the PSAT by a good amount. I think for kids who know how to do some of the higher difficulty-level content, their scores are artificially capped by the PSAT which doesn’t test that content, so more points get opened up to them on the SAT. At least that’s my theory!
Like your son’s score, D23’s score works well for most of the schools on her list but not for her 2-3 reachiest ones. I’m not sure yet whether she will take it again. Right now she’s waiting for her ACT score from Dec 11th with hopes that could be the end of it. 