Parents of the HS Class of 2023 (Part 1)

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
6415

I worked in the area for a long time, though it’s been a while. The schools are quite different but I’m no expert on either; I just know something about the areas they are in.

Lafayette is in College Hill, a neighborhood of Easton. College Hill, apart from the college, is almost all gorgeous & expensive Victorians, with some small businesses sprinkled on the main drag, but not much else going on.

To get anywhere else, your kid would need a car. The name is apt: it’s a steep hill down to … downtown Easton … which is cute but rather small. It’s on the Delaware River - fun river-based activities nearby, the old canal system etc.

In the downtown, there’s the State Theatre, which gets some nice touring shows and lesser concerts, a farmers market and local festivals, and there’s the Crayola Factory - not really a big draw for college students. It’s a nice place to visit, but I’ve never thought it would be a great home base for a college kid. The boxer Larry Holmes grew up here, still lives nearby, and has contributed a lot to the downtown (the main riverfront street is named after him).

Lehigh is in south Bethlehem, a neighborhood of Bethlehem. The university is on the south side of the Lehigh River, in a working-class kind of neighborhood, and also on a steep hill. Nearby are some cool places, like Steel Stacks, an event space with various cultural activities and also an ice rink.

Across the river is Bethlehem proper, a historic district with lots of gorgeous old buildings from the Moravians who settled the place, and a thriving downtown restaurant/shopping scene. The Hotel Bethlehem is lovely and would be a perfect place to base your visit.

Both schools are in the Lehigh Valley - Easton, Bethlehem and Allentown are basically adjoining small cities. There’s a minor league hockey arena in Allentown; it also serves as a concert venue. There’s a small airport - LVIA, which doesn’t have much in the way of competitive fares. It’s about a half hour to the Poconos and skiing/hiking/mondo outdoors activities. It’s about 90 minutes by bus to NYC (there is no train) and about an hour to Philly. There is lots of traffic, as the area is constantly growing, and you really need a car to get around beyond the campuses.

Hope this helps!

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6416

Thanks for the descriptions! DD has no driver’s license yet (is at Boarding school so no need for one and no desire- plan to do that this summer but she won’t have a car.). We live just under 5 hours away which is close as we have been driving her back and forth to BS that’s 9 hours away!

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6417

S23 just got an email this afternoon saying the decision will be out at 3pm on Tuesday! I had hoped we could open it together (I thought decisions might be released in the evenings or on a weekend!) but he’ll be in the middle of math class and so we’ll both be opening up the portal solo and crossing all fingers for a positive result :slight_smile:

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6418

What school? Exciting!

6419

Ditto! Which school?

6420

@relaxmon and @bethy1
He applied ED to Whitman; we did a financial pre-read in the summer - they came back with a great number that made it possible to make the ED commitment (it was also a number that made me hopeful that a “yes” was in the cards, but of course I wake up at 2am frequently thinking it’s a “no” and somewhat panicking even though we have a pivot plan; I think I’m going to be a mess by Tuesday afternoon :smiley: ).

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6421

For Michigan State, if she hasn’t been accepted to the honors college but has reasonable stats, have her go ahead and apply. It’s an extra $5K a year.

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6422

I’m thinking that too! And her grades and rigor this semester are stellar and so I’ll encourage her to send them those as well at the end of fall semester.

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6423

Finally - Northwestern announced ED decisions released this Friday Dec 16.

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6424

Hi all, promised to post about my '23 art school search, so here is an update. I’ve been offline for many months & look forward to catching up with your posts.

First, this app cycle was not remotely what I envisioned. I thought I’d be lovingly coaching my kid through portfolio prep & essay writing, and strategically guiding her to the finish line.

Nope.

Illness – mine, other family members – hurricane Ian, all kinds of general :poop: rained down upon us, and I had to step away.

My '23 submitted all her apps, portfolios, essays, etc. on her own. She decided on the final school list. She applied to some early, some reg. In fact, mentally, she has already moved on to more interesting (to her) topics like Scholastic Awards & painting commissions. She is proud that she did everything her way. And she is not stressed at all – which would not be the case if I (stressball) had intervened. So this is a huge relief and I’m so proud of her.

Ok, so she was only interested in applying to accredited stand-alone art schools with competitive, road-tested, “real,” tech-heavy animation programs. Which isn’t a long list. You can always learn the tech skills at a CC… but those don’t have the special sauce that she’s looking for from a small residential college with real investment in Animation as a signature major.

She eliminated CalArts early on after figuring out that their student profile is older and much more experienced than she would be as a true, first-time freshman. It would be a reach in every sense – and perhaps not an enjoyable experience at this stage.

Research led her to Ringling & SVA as the next possible contenders. After PreCollege at Ringling, it quickly went to the top of her list. But she admits that she simply doesn’t know SVA that well. She’s open to visiting if she’s accepted. (She was born in NYC but it feels far away to her now.)

In her back pocket are acceptances to SCAD and KCAI, which also happen to be the least expensive & least rejective choices. And our state flagship, which her guidance counselor made her apply to.

I could see her doing just fine and finding her people at any of these colleges.

And now we wait on the final 2 schools, one of which may not notify her until end of March. :upside_down_face:

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6425

I forced my daughter to go to lacrosse camp before her freshman year of HS - it was at Bryn Mawr for a week. She was angry I was making her go away. Then she loved it.

It hit me this past summer that she was leaving home for real this next summer/late summer. I really choked up when it hit me. And now she is ready to go.

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6426

I feel guilty about this, but can I tell you, quite selfishly, that the pandemic was absolutely glorious for me? Both my kids came home from school, after I’d basically been grieving for months that they had left me. I had the kids for months and months and I was WFH and I had no commute, and I started a victory garden. They were some of the best months ever.
It is almost like survivor guilt, though, so I don’t talk about it much.

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6427

I understand that! For ME? Personally? It was amazing - I agree, having no commute was great. I mastered how to make fresh homemade bread and chicken pot pie. I can always find a way to entertain myself and I’m fairly introverted, so I loved it.

For my daughter? She was miserable. No lacrosse, no theater. No friends for a long, long time. She has an IEP and online learning was horrible for her and no one seemed to really support IEPs at all.

So I understand you completely because it does make me feel selfish for enjoying it a lot. I’m very bitter about having to go to the office two days a week again. My daughter actually doesn’t like that, either, even though she has a car and will be gone next fall.

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6428

I completely understand are you are not alone. I had one child who suffered a lot but if not for her I would be have been twirling every day!

I still have many fond memories!

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6429

I’m interested to hear where your child ends up! My D25 is in a boarding school arts academy and is an animator/game designer. Attending SCAD this summer and is also considering Ringling, RISD and CalArts for college. I wasn’t aware of the age at CA, but was already a bit turned off by how tiny it is. Please keep us updated and best of luck!

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6430

If your daughter is considering larger schools, she should look at USC.

https://games.usc.edu/main/degree-programs/

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6431

Thank you!

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6432

Last February we toured Willamette and visited Lewis and Clark as part of a quick trip to get sense of my son’s preferences for big, medium, and small. Willamette was on winter break and visiting an empty campus didn’t go over well with my son. (We were at Univeristy of Oregon in the morning and the contrast between the schools was stark). The next day we visited Lewis & Clark. They were only allowing seniors to sign up to tour. I’m not sure if it was because of COVID restrictions or if they always limit tours at that time of year so they can focus on the newly admitted students. My son liked what we saw of the campus, but it wasn’t the same as our visits to the other schools. We toured University of Portland that afternoon. My son really liked it….good size for him, nice walkable campus, great tour guides. UP was the winner from our OR trip.

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6433

Popping in from the Class of 2019 thread, my niece and nephew both went to SVA, my niece for Photography and my nephew for Film. We also toured the Photography department with my daughter a couple of years ago. I thought I should post just because both my niece and nephew have been able to build really successful careers based on their experience at SVA, including some terrific internships arranged by the school. They are both in different fields from your daughter, but I guess one thing all us parents of artsy types may worry about is whether they can both pursue their dreams and make a living. I think my niece commuted the whole time she was there, but my nephew lived in the dorms for a couple of years. My daughter in the end did not apply to SVA because she decided to go in a different direction, but we were also impressed with the school when we visited. It is uber-urban, spread out over a couple of blocks in lower Manhattan, but for a kid who likes being in the city, it would be a fun environment. Our tour of the Photography Department was very good, one-on-one and very substantive - perhaps we were just lucky, but if your daughter is interested, I would encourage you to visit.

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6434

Liberty University in VA- anyone visit? Very curious about the campus vibe, surrounding area and general feel of the school. S24 looking to expand his list a bit from the current list of mostly large SEC schools and curious about this school.