Lol this is my third kid visiting Swarthmore and third kid who won’t be applying! I thought it seemed great academically and nicely located convenient to Philly. The kids thought (this may be the reputation more than the visit honestly) that the place was intensely academic and competitive- this is what their high school experience is like and none wanted that for college. Amherst seemed more balanced to them (of similar schools).
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Haha-that is funny and I have heard the same thing about the school. You reminded me to add one more thing to my son’s checklist. He wants a school with rigor but prefers a collaborative environment vs. competitive and cut-throat. I didn’t think Swarthmore would fit the urban/suburban preference anyway but heard there is transportation into the city so thought maybe that would help my son’s perception. We aren’t really at the burn-out phase (we both enjoy college visits and travel & dad is happy to tag along) but really don’t want to add colleges we are pretty sure won’t make the cut. Thanks!
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Are you only looking at schools that give merit or are you considering any meets full needs schools? Also did you visit Pitt and other schools in the Pittsburgh area?
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so we are branching out! Looking at summer STEM camps for D23.
none of the older BGBs have attended (pay-to-play) camps in the summer; mostly mission /youth group / band /dance camps. All of them worked too in the summers after junior year.
But - this year might be different , hoping to throw in a road trip or two as well. So we are looking at some midwest driving distance STEM camps. baby steps! (Purdue STEP, Michigan State, Missouri S&T; Maybe ISU or KU; UNL’s Raikes camp) . our glitter dancer likes physics. we want to encourage that, and have her see if STEM is what she wants. Would take suggestions if you know of others.
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@2plustrio , hmm, this does make his situation so much more challenging! I was thinking the same about gap years…most of them are more of a “spend money” rather than “make money.” And now we know that staying home and working has major downsides. I do think there might be jobs out there, at least summer jobs, with residency…like theme parks, summer camps. In the meantime it sounds like NOT working at the dad’s would be best, if that can be worked out.
Are there in state schools that you could swing, full pay? I have no idea how his bump in the road will affect his admissions and merit (does your GC have ideas?), but maybe just knowing that there are 1-2 options that are possibilities for him be able to go away to college might help. He’s clearly feeling a heavy weight of the financial ramifications of his mistakes which is a big load for a kid with a lot going on.
Finally, I’ve recently heard of a “post grad” year which maybe is only a boarding school thing, but seems to be used for a gap year situation. Again that’s probably another option of a gap year spender, instead of a gap year saver.
We would consider “meets needs” schools but I assume that means we would be expected to pay around what our EFC is which is $40K? If that’s the case, they would be out of our target range (trying to keep in the SUNY price range.) I did do the NPC for Northwestern (when we were considering Chicago schools) and Boston College (after our visit.) Northwestern came out to $42K (way more than we would consider paying) and BC came out to $27K (which is surprisingly close to our target price.) Not sure of where that discrepancy comes from (or maybe I goofed up filling it out?) but I did hear each “meet needs” college has their own formula so he is open to applying but understands our target price range. We did an info session with Pitt Honors and he decided not to visit (not sure why he didn’t like the vibe of it, but he wasn’t interested.) Our friend has a son at Pitt in honors and loves it. But he took it off the list, so I didn’t push too much. He doesn’t have any Pittsburgh schools on his list but it’s definitely a cool city if you have suggestions of schools we should consider. Thanks!
Snow Day here in Texas…solid ice and freezing rain which turned into beautiful snow and accumulation which brought back serious PTSD for all of us who lived through Feb 2021’s Snowpocalypse when Texas’ failed power grid tried to kill us all.
We already missed a week of school with closures due to Covid/Omicron staff shortages and now no school Thursday & Friday…Lord help our Class of 2023.
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I thought Pitt would be a very good option for a number of reasons:
- Top Clinical Psychology Grad program so should have plenty of trickle down research opportunities for UGs.
- Bachelor of Philosophy degree so would guarantee UG Research = https://www.honorscollege.pitt.edu/bphil - For someone looking to eventually get a PhD this is probably a great foundation.
- Merit Aid
- Rolling Admissions - Can apply in September and know in October if accepted. Always nice to have that first acceptance in the bank. Also Merit awards use to start coming out in late November so might know that as well early.
- Not too far from Buffalo but far enough to be away for college
You can also visit Duquesne if you go to visit.
Look into Americorps. My S21 is currently doing a gap year with them. He gets paid very little but will earn a $6k education award at the end of his service term. He’s in the NCCC on a team of mixed ages- some 18 like him, others taking a break from college and others who are recent graduates. They travel the US working on service projects - he’s built houses, worked on hurricane disaster recovery and environmental projects so far. He’s learned to cook for groups (they rotate meal prep on their team) and has an assigned job working on digital media for his team.
He left last summer thinking he come back and attend a private college for $$$ but now is planning to return and use a scholarship he earned for free tuition at a local 4 year public school. He says too many team members have debt and no ideas about their next steps, so he wants to stay at home, start with a 2 year IT program that could go into a 4 year degree at the same free-to-him school, while saving money and figuring out his next steps.
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These are great reasons to check out Pitt! I thought he would love the Bachelor of Philosophy option and the research opportunities, and he did seem intrigued, but not enough to keep on his list. I will say that he is NOT a fan of virtual info sessions, in general, and tends to zone out or lack enthusiasm, unless it is interactive. So maybe it was just the format that turned him off. I’m sure it will be fairly easy to schedule a visit in the next 6 months so maybe I can convince him to rethink Pitt. Thanks for reminding me of good reasons he may want to apply.
My daughter considered a gap year to travel but ended up changing her mind. She and a friend wanted to do a program where you worked for a family in Europe (nanny, house project help, etc.) and received room and board in exchange. This link lists some reputable programs. A good option if you are on budget. There is also a Facebook Page called “Workaway Spain” to give you an idea of options/how it works if you don’t do this formally through an agency.
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Not sure if there’s a lab near you, but you may want to look into AEOP for summer STEM opportunities. There’s also a thread on cc about summer programs which lists quite a number of programs.
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Tufts just posted tours sign up for first three weeks of March. We need the fourth week so I hope they will have tours then as well.
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Do all colleges include community college courses that are not on the high school transcript when calculating GPA? Or is it a case to case basis? They would only use courses from the summer after 9th grade right?
I am trying mightily to get my kid interested in St. John’s College in Annapolis but I fear it’s a lost cause, b/c the school is so tiny - fewer than 400 students - he thinks of it as a high school. Also, he wants the big city and Annapolis doesn’t qualify. But the curriculum is so intriguing.
Anyway, they also have summer programs that are not as hugely expensive as others’ - $1200 for a week, which I recognize is still costly for lots of us. Really great seminar-style setup with fascinating topics. Worth a look if you have a humanities-oriented kid.
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I can only speak for the California UC’s and Cal states, as long as the courses are UC/CSU transferrable, yes they would be included in the GPA calculation. Probably very school dependent.
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We scheduled our first tour over Spring Break. It’s at a reach school, and we don’t have a list yet, but baby steps!
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It is exciting to hear about all of the tour plans! D23 is looking into some in the next few weeks and then maybe in spring we will re-visit some northeast schools that we only had a chance to do outdoor self-tours last August. If they aren’t offering “Real” tours we will wait until summer–its a bit of a drive just to repeat what we already saw. Closer options that have real tours are JHU, GTown, & Wake (& maybe W&L vs Davidson to compare smaller options) so the goal is to line those up either for spring break or for long weekends. She already has 8 definite-applying schools but we are trying to round out the list with more options to make a more balanced group. She also has never toured the two in-state publics that I assume will be on the list, so I suppose that has to be done as well.
She is having a great year academically --but it will get intense as AP season approaches, and spring is a busy time for her main EC–so I am not sure we will get to do too many before summer because free weekends are hard to find after march. Summer is definitely going to be a midwest tour coupled with vacation to see family so that will hopefully include 3 colleges. Then other than a few Northeast re-visits, I think we are done.
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My older d just graduated from GTown happy to answer questions.
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We had one kid do the SJC summer camp and they really loved it. There was a family from Australia at the closing ceremony and I remember the parent saying they were intrigued by the approach and courses. Everyone goes through the same curriculum and only one “major” is offered from what I recall. I still think it’s a great school for the right student.
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