Please let me know thoughts on Temple and Shenandoah. Those are on “my” list.
Did you get a feel for how they are on LGBT issues? One of the reasons I’m glad they (seemingly alone out of any of the colleges we’ll be touring this summer) are doing full multi-hour tours already is to get the chance to ask about that, but I figure the more datapoints the better. It’s a concern of my D23’s, and googling shows they have an, um, checkered history, but you don’t really find anything one way or the other more recent than some years ago.
I did not walk away with a specific answer to the LGBT thing but as a general rule any school with a big music or theater performance program is going to be OK on that front is what I have been told at other tours when we ask. And I do ask. What I have heard about Belmont is that those “music” people dominate the culture of the school. My son is black and we pretty much will not consider a southern school unless they are a known for a culture of caring for their students like their own children. Belmont and Texas State are the only 2 southern MT schools that seem to have that reputation in the MT world.
1 Like
Yes, my D21 was accepted to Kenyon, Oberlin, Denison + The College of Wooster. They are all great schools and all worth visiting. Academically they are all on par with one another, it’s the vibe and students that differentiate them. That’s something that really has to be discerned in person so your kid can figure out which one is the best fit. As mentioned, Oberlin and Wooster are about an hour apart, and then Kenyon and Denison are about 1.5 hours south of Wooster (it’s a lovely scenic drive). We saw Oberlin and Wooster one day, then Kenyon and Denison the next.
My D21 chose to attend The College of Wooster. It’s kind of the hidden gem of the bunch, imo. Wooster also is far more generous with merit. Not the deciding factor, but it didn’t hurt, especially when you get down to splitting hairs on the differences b/w some of these very similar LACs.
2 Likes
my D23 has no idea about colleges yet;
but i saw a light in her eyes when she realized how much her 25 yr old bro (actuary) and his 24 yr old gf (cs) are making two years out of college. She likes math. Maybe this will be a nudge? I’m sort of excited to see her curious and contemplative.
2 Likes
@bgbg4us My DD is amazing at math and I suggested actuary to her- she has no idea what she wants to do!
1 Like
And our school district just dropped the mask requirement through the end of the year.
1 Like
We’ve never had a statewide mask mandate, but we did have a citywide one til last week (they dropped it before the CDC changed its guidance). This is the last week of school, though, so the school district said they were keeping their masking policy unchanged for these last few days of the term, and then would revisit any possible changes for summer school.
@anonmomof2 - my son actually studied actuarial science; but there there are other ways to become an actuary; you dont need to major in it; just take the actuary tests. He really thinks some computer science background is helpful as well as a strong math background. His beginning salary was =/> engineers who he knows.
1 Like
I’d like my D23 to consider Wooster. It seems a good fit for her interest in science research. She’s just not sure she wants to go “so far” from Virginia.
We just scheduled a couple tours for free Mondays in June – SMCM and U of Mary Washington. Starting off with schools that are a short drive from home.
Data science is another field to consider. My son is great at math too and will be majoring in Computational Modeling and Data Analytics at VT (their “data science” major, a blend of math, stats, and CS)
1 Like
S23 told me on Friday that he is going to the prom (very small school; they need all the kids to go!), it’s next weekend, formal dress, and suit rentals start at $100. We’re in rural VT so a long drive to figure it all out, but I took him to JCPenney on the way home from getting his first vaccine shot. I didn’t realize until we got there that the store only had two days left before closing for good. We went in and he found a snazzy jacket, tuxedo pants, and a dress shirt, which came to about $25 total with the 90% off! He really lucked out because that was about all that was left worth buying in the store. Of course, no shoes in his size, but JCPenney was having a one-day online extra sale on men’s clothing, so we ordered a pair of dress shoes for $30, paid extra to get them here on time, and he’s ready to go! Had to brag about our shopping deal, since I can’t say that he’s made a college list or practiced for any tests lately…
11 Likes
Studying for the SAT is a good way to study for the PSAT except that if you’re really shooting for a high PSAT score for National Merit, I’d recommend she take actual PSAT practice tests (for timing) closer to test day. The two tests are set up exactly the same way but the PSAT is shorter and doesn’t cover all of the most difficult content that the SAT does.
Time pressure can be significant so pacing is important…that’s the reason for the suggestion to practice pacing with actual PSAT practice tests if the PSAT score itself is important (last I knew, I think there were 2 PSAT practice tests available). My D23 probably has a chance at National Merit but a slim one (math speed is not a strength). She’ll study for the SAT and ACT this summer (her score on the PSAT aligns exactly with her score on a practice ACT she took at home so she’s going to prep for both for now) with her main focus being on trying to get a good enough score on one of those in the fall to be done, but she’ll probably do the practice PSATs shortly before the real thing just to hone her timing a bit…for her National Merit will be a nice bonus if she gets it but not her focus in her prep.
1 Like
@nichols51 - thanks - that’s helpful info.
PSATs are so different; i know that the alternate test my s20 took in 2018 had a harsh curve on the math portion -missing 2 eliminated all chances of becoming NM.
d23 just celebrated summer-vacation-eve last night; it’ll be awhile before she’ll even think about it all!
JESmom - what types of jobs does a data science major do? I honestly don’t know. Jobs in all industries? what type of classes ? are the data science majors in business colleges or arts/sciences? thanks so much -
My S21 had Wooster in his final top 3 during his decision making process. (To the question posted about the Ohio schools, we visited Denison and Wooster with him, and we walked through Kenyon briefly on our own but didn’t see Oberlin). We were lucky to see Wooster pre-COVID during a 2 day open-house and therefore got a lot of info and good feel for the culture. That’s the visit that got S21 really excited about college. We dug deep into their programs during his applicaton/search process and, since it was in his final 3, we researched everything about it we could find, so I know a lot about that one. In the end, he chose another school partly because he preferred a more open curriculum and a bit less of a focus on the independent study process, but I agree with the person who said Wooster is a hidden gem - we really loved it.
D23 might look at Kenyon and Denison (she’s doing a summer program - virtual unfortunately) with Denison this year). She has been so busy with school that she hasn’t looked into colleges much yet, but I left the college guidebooks from S21’s search in her room with about 20 schools flagged for her to look at whenever she’s ready. She has a sense of what she’s looking for but doesn’t know much about any particular schools, and the LACs she’s most likely going to be focused on aren’t at all common coming from her high school. We’d originally hoped to see some schools on a New England drive starting late next week, but the schools of interest were mostly shut to visitors end of May/first week of June so we decided to put that entire trip off and are hoping to do visits in the fall on her October break and in early April next year. Not ideal since we don’t live near any schools she’s interested in, but later in the summer wasn’t a good option for us, and the schools likely on her list aren’t opening up to visitors quite quickly enough for our summer schedule. Visiting now would have probably been a bit early, but after going through the search/application process with S21 during COVID, we learned we were glad to have gotten a few visits in early with him! (He did soooo many virtual visits, and the content got a lot better over the past year, but when we went to visit two schools in March after he got his acceptances, we all commented that the virtual tours and google earth use hadn’t given us as much a complete picture of campus/setting as we’d expected).
The truth is that the New England trip would have also just been an excuse to go somewhere. I grew up in New England and met my husband there, and were selfishly looking forward to spending a week back there in the summer driving around and seeing beautiful campuses…that would have been a treat for us!
3 Likes
Data science is a fairly new major and when I was looking at programs with S21 they were all over the place. Sometimes in a business school, sometimes a track in a CS or Statistics or Applied Math major, sometimes a stand-alone major. Among the schools he applied to, UDel he’d have done an applied math major and the school’s 4+1 data science masters. A Miami U it was a data science major. At JMU, a statistics major. As I mentioned at VT they call it “computational modeling and data analytics” (CMDA) and there are options to do tracks within that focus on economics, physics, biology or cryptography. S21 is also interested in geographic data so might do a GIS minor
Jobs can be anything where you are making sense out of complex data. Examples from the VT program’s website:
- analytics for sports teams or internet/social media companies
- consulting in defense/space/homeland security
- modeling in the oil/gas/alternative energy sector
- data analysis for medical/pharmaceutical firms
- quantitative modeling in finance/insurance
https://www.ais.science.vt.edu/academics/cmda/future-students.html
1 Like
Basically any place that does ‘reporting’ will need data scientist. You can add Higher Education to that list since it’s such a large field.
1 Like
Really struggling with emphasizing importance of extracurriculars with my S23. To drive it home, I was thinking of having him start an ApplyTexas application just so he can see all the questions it asks. What do you think? So far, he’s only working during summers and taking heavy STEM AP classes…he was in Robotics this year, but it seems to have fallen apart. I tried to encourage academic decathlon or math/science clubs but he just doesn’t seem to be interested. And to top it off, his grades fell this semester (due to all the stuff we have dealt with personally). He’s just convinced that all sophomore years are bad (by example of his brother). Just concerned because admissions is getting more and more competitive.
I think you’ll find a lot of kids this year are struggling with ECs. Due to the pandemic the number of potential activities are significantly down. What’s certainly most important is to maintain a focus on grades and personal well being. When thinking about ECs it is more important to find something that he is passionate about then to try and fill a box with multiple activities. Maybe shift the conversation to the post COVD world, is he hoping that Robotics starts back up next year? Is there a class or camp that would help him in his Robotics? or some at home Robotic kits he could build with his friends.
1 Like