Why rush into paying tuition? There is still quite a bit of time, well over a year. Let your S23 do prep on his own and see how things go? I do not think ACT 24 is a bad score to start unless target schools are T50.
My son sounds a lot like yours minus the car/computer bits. DW had to remind him that ACT was next day at school. No prep and took it cold. Got 27. I told him to do a practice QAS SAT test. Apparently, he got a 1400. So, he will prep for SAT on his own this summer and take the NMSQT/PSAT in October and the real SAT in Nov.
Our school had junior set as almost ACT prep in their core classes so im not going to have him try until March when the school does it. Pre ACT like tests have resulted in my kid not trying knowing they werenât real. My kid needs the high stakes environment to put in his best effort.
The University of Maryland just opened up tours for the back half of summer, and they start the last week weâre close enough to do one! I was particularly hoping for this because nostalgia (both the spouse and I went to Maryland for our undergrad, thatâs where we met), and it gives the kids a chance to fold a state flagship into their tours. They donât offer what D23 wants to do, but for D25 their econ program would very easily allow her to focus on behavior rather than money.
So after a week of family reunion-ing that ends in a couple days, weâll have our last three tours the following week, then D23 has her music tech summer camp, and then itâs back to Alaska to enjoy the last couple weeks of everything being green before the leaves start turning at the end of August.
Interesting turn of events here todayâŠThing 2 had applied for the Summer 2021 session of the Senate Page Program which ended up being cancelled due to Covid/quarantine. He received an email today from our Senatorâs office saying they would like to interview him for the Fall 2021 session. Iâm really conflicted. We werenât mentally prepared to send him off for a whole semester. Heâs on the leadership team for Marching Band, has already scheduled Fall ACTâs and has been selected for the Youth Action Council for our City.
How does the schooling portion work? Do pages take the same classes they would have taken at their home school (AP/Honors etc). We live in Texas where class rank is VERY important for auto acceptance to UT & Texas A&M, I donât think we could risk his class rank taking a hit and knocking him out of the auto acceptance ranges for those two .
I told him to reply back thanking them for the honor and to let them know that while the Fall 2021 session wonât be feasible, he would like his application to be considered for Summer 2022 if possible. He will of course reapply. It also turns out that we know someone who until recently worked in our Senatorâs office DC office (sheâs still in DC, just working elsewhere now) and sheâs offered to put a word in with staffers for him.
Are we going to regret not letting him interview for Fall?!
Ok change of plan, he is doing the interview! Itâs tomorrow morning!!! Aahhhhh!! This is all happening way too fast, Iâm not quite able to wrap my head around it
@dfbdfb Thank you so much for the news on UMDâs tours opening up. Itâs on our list so Iâm signing up. Looking forward to your next installment on visit impressions.
Absolutely not! Especially in Texas! I donât think it is necessarily more prestigious than the youth advisory council and itâs not more important than keeping on track with school. I was an intern during high school and the pages were glorified runners.
Edited to add: this is what I get for not reading to the bottom of the thread first! If he loves the idea, itâs a fine thing to do. Find out how it effects top 6% thing ASAP though. Make sure he asks questions about schooling during the interview.
My DD23 is signed up for the Sept. ACT. She has a set study schedule until then in between her summer STEM program. She also just finished putting together a broad college list that we will go over in more detail this weekend so we can start signing up for some fall college visits. So it beginsâŠâŠagain (already did this with my DD20).
Twins took SATs the day before my husband died, we got the results yesterday. What a strange day. One twin should be one and done, the other one is debating between retaking it in August or October. All I wanted to do was talk to my husband about it. The one and done might re-take it just because he thinks standardized tests are fun - I hope not, he missed 1 question on the math section and got a 790. He knows that was a very generous curve compared to other dates, he had a goal score and was 10 points below it.
Today, twin who did very well on SATs got a board position on at a charity. Both twins interviewed for different positions. Other one got nothing and 1st twin got a higher position than what he interviewed for. Luckily second twin is holding it together and is happy for his brother.
We toured Johns Hopkins last week, I donât think either will apply. Itâs a beautiful school but neither are interested in pre-med or engineering and that was the entire focus. The tour guide talked about all the activities, but at 4 different building she said âThis is my favorite place to studyâ and either Iâm here til 4 am, I spend all day here or itâs the cafateria you can stay here from opening to closing and study and eat all you want for 1 swipe.
This weekend, Iâm sending them up to Boston alone to visit their older brother and tour some schools, no official tours opened. Later in the summer touring Wesleyan, Williams and Amherst. I was so much better at finding matches and safeties for my older sons. This is going to be a crazy ride.
Anyoneâs student taking the ACT tomorrow? Mine is. Sort of a baseline but he has done a few practice tests to become familiar with it. Too bad the Test Info release is not available for this test date!
I havenât actually signed D23 up for any sittings yet, but I should probably get on that. Sheâs just started doing a little bit of diagnostics/prep this past week. Her weakest section thus far is the no-calculator math, a lot of it is stuff she hasnât seen since 8th grade and some is just holes in her background (thanks, Covid!) but she doesnât mind working at it.
One cool thing has cropped up this summer. D23 has a regular volunteering gig at the public library where tech-savvy teens help older adults learn how to use their iPhones and computers (not surprisingly, a lot of grandparents needed to learn Zoom and FaceTime this year!) and D has been so good at it that she got offered a paid part time job assisting the IT director. Got to go get her working papers filed this week!
College Visit Trip Update. I should start with S is looking to get a BFA in musical theater. He has different concerns than your average student because of this. Current goal is minimal non MT classes. Not all MT kids are looking for the same thing.
Also, S is black, so diversity and racial comfort is important to him. Also, you sort of go where you get in, so some the standard for something coming off the list is âI would rather not go to college than go to this school.â
Starting with what I will call the âhell noâ list:
James Madison: They appear to have managed to build every single building at the top of its own giant hill and there are lots of buildings. Its about 22K kids. We decided this is a bad size for MT. Itâs not big enough to have amazing resources of a âbigâ school but big enough that it lacks flexibility and personal attention. Its possible this experience was soured by a bad tour guide. She was very into sports (a fan, not a participant) and a health sciences major. Her only question to S was âWhy would you want to come HERE for MT.â Freshman orientation was going on and everyone was in groups of 20 or so students. All were white appearing. Except one group that seemed to have all the kids of color. Hard no for us, but I suspect others might really like the school if they are going for teaching or health science stuff and are not concerned about diversity. They have a cadaver lab! Its a beautiful campus and the food choices looked top notch. They also have an on campus pharmacy which is helpful!
Fairleigh Dickinson: I am putting this in the unknown gem category. The campus in Florham Park (Morris County NJ) is the old Vanderbilt compound. If you are in the area, take the college tour just to see the place. Its that beautiful! The tour guide was beyond fabulous. She was some sort of science major but engaged all 5 potential students about their unrelated majors, had tons of knowledge about the campus (and the history of the estate) and was clearly not scripted. Literally everyone on campus was beyond friendly. We wanted to stop and hug everyone goodbye when we left. Despite the rather large group on the tour, they clearly knew who my kid was and had read his registration info for the tour and it seemed they were kind of courting him. The dorms are all airconditioned and seemed above average. Its a physically huge campus with very few buildings and classes are spread out among them regardless of subject. My kid could totally see himself thriving there because of the people but unfortunately, it has nothing anywhere near what he wants training wise. We didnât see any black people but it was not bothersome because of the atmosphere. Wish I could explain why it seemed OK here but not at JMU! Its first choice if he changes his entire life plan.
Montclair State: This was an odd one. We left the tour. It was horrible. Had at least 50 people in the group. By the time our end of the line made it to the first stop in a classroom there wasnât even anywhere to stand along the walls, let alone sit, and the guide was already well into his spiel. We toured on our own. It seemed like a large number of the spaces were centered around the arts. You can see the NYC skyline from campus but its full on suburban campus. Surprisingly beautiful campus with a mixture of clean spanish architecture and 1970âs red brick buildings. @2plustrio I think you should put this one on your Sâs potential list. GPAâs above 3.0 get in state tuition. I suspect it might check a lot of his boxes. Good sports plus music. Average students academic wise. This one stays on our list because it is a highly ranked MT school and was not bad enough to be crossed off this list.
Thanks. We have lots on our TE and FACHEX list but if my son changes his major (tentative music education), we may be starting over with our âschools to look atâ list (which is long at the moment). For my son, cost and location will probably be the biggest factors. Then âfitâ and potential sports as hes very active. I dont see him doing a fraternity.
Our list keeps growingâŠ(not in preference order)
Fachex
Gonzaga (WA)
*Xavier (OH)
*Loyola-New Orleans
Tuition Exchange
*Stetson (FL) football
*Jacksonville (FL)
U of North Florida (accelerated music ed masters that can be applied for)
U of Redlands (CA) football (dual major music/finance)
U of Puget Sound (WA) (econ) (athletic and quite Greek)
Pacific University (OR) (football)
Syracuse (NY) (skiing)
Depauw (IN)
*Butler (IN) music + finance possible
Roanoke (VA)
*USC (CA)
*U of Indy
Salve Regina (RI) football, higher chance of TE, 3 yr res req
Lawrence (WI) poss dual major w/econ in 5 yrs
*Shenandoah (VA)
*U of Pacific (CA)
Case Western Reserve (OH)
Gettysburg ¶
*Duquesne ¶ football
Gustavus Adolphus (MN)
*U of St. Thomas (MN) (good sports)
Baldwin Wallace (OH) (skiing 30 min)
*Otterbein (OH)
*Western Colorado (CO) football.
Trinity (TX) (good post grad)
U of Delaware
Others (not all have music ed specifically)
U of Minn-Twin Cities
Boise State
Montana State U
U of New Mexico
U of Vermont
Ohio State
ASU
Loyola Marymount
Flagler
checking back in here after a long absence. My DD 2023 is a soccer GK at a strong club and currently looking to play in college. She is English/Hummanties focused vs Sci/Math. She took a strong schedule of classes this year and finished with a 3.9 (UW), started a job at Starbucks this summer and got her liscence. Took her first ACT last saturday and finished up her club soccer season at a showcase in FL at the beginning of July. She is currently talking to nearly 20 schools for soccer and has attended ID camps at University of Buffalo, Ohio Wesleyan, and Kenyon. Kenyon is a favorite so far but she wants to leave Ohio. We head to NYC to see Fordham, NYU, St. Johns, Stony Brook, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, and LIU next week. She will do ID camps at Fordham, Stony Brook, and Bryn Mawr. So far this process has been stressful and time consuming but we are trying to enjoy the ride. I really think she needs a personal assistant to help manage it all. Cross country and culb soccer start back up in August and we have a trip to Chicago with visits to Loyola, DePaul, University of Chicago, and U of I - chicago planned with an ID camp at DePaul. She is hoping to commit by spring so I donât see things slowing down anytime soon.
Her top ten where she has already talked with the soccer coach are
I feel like a slacker parent. My DD is going to boarding school this year as a repeat Jr. So was class of 2022, now 2023. She has taken the SAT and ACT (no real prep- ACT is one and done with a 34, SAT she has a goal score 30 points higher than what she got so will do it again). Covid online school just did not cut it and while her gpa remains above a 4.0, she wanted the HS experience. Anyway we have zero lists and have made zero visits. Just have been saving the brochures that come in the mail from âgoodâ schools. Please tell me I am not alone! Although we are going to do a quick self guided look at Cornell as we drop her off at her boarding school. Hopefully she ends up with a fabulous college counselor!
You are not alone at all! College visit trips are a âthingâ in my family. Plus, it seems to help my child to go on vacations where he can envision getting away from me!
We havenât done any college visits though I am planning quite a few for fall - my d really hasnât narrowed at all what kind of colleges she is interested in. We also havenât done any standardized testing, considering doing a practice act late in the summer
Back in a previous professional life I did some online design work for Montclair Stateâs Peak Performances program and had the opportunity to visit their lovely campus. Iâm glad to hear you and your S werenât put off by the poor tour.
We have no time for true college visits right now. Kid lucks out with potential discounted or free tuition so that limits his options. His potential major may limit it more. He takes AP Music Theory this fall which may sway him either way.
My summer work schedule plus kids activities gives us zero free time and it depresses me. So putting together lists to investigate more helps me not go crazy.
Glad to not be alone! My husband is a Professor so we have the option of free tuition at his school and a huge list of tuition exchange schools (two separate lists), which apparently as I learned on this site, are not easy to get actual tuition $ from. Our jobs and vacation also limit any time for school visits. And she will be gone in the fall so there goes fall weekend trips. Her school is surrounded by many colleges so maybe we can squeeze in a few during parent weekend. We do know she is interested in something health related, probably a smaller school, and East Coast.
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