Good to know. I didn’t dig into medical stuff yet. Which is odd as I’m a former ED nurse and I usually look there first! My oldest was/is the one with the medical/mental health issues so it was more a concern for him.
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My older S18 graduated from ESF last year. It was the perfect college for him. In fact, we’re not sure he would have succeeded anywhere else. He’s been laser-focused on science and environmental issues since he was young and he really found his crowd there. That being said, all of your comments about the pros and cons of the school seemed pretty spot-on. The connection between SU and ESF has many benefits and a few drawbacks. My S18 said that some of the more ignorant SU kids looked down on the ESF students (even though the schools attract similar caliber students and are similarly ranked!), but for the most part the kids from both schools partied together frequently. He survived living in a triple freshman year and even said he rather enjoyed it, but he preferred moving off campus into a house with several friends – mostly because he wanted to get off SU’s meal plan and make his own food. There was some petty crime in the area around his house, and he had an XBox stolen at one point. (We think it was taken by an acquaintance of one of his housemates, but will never know for sure.)
Our son did say the academic advising wasn’t great, but he got through it and graduated in four years. ESF is the perfect school for certain types of students, but kids enrolling there need to know they want a STEM degree at a school with a definite environmental bent.
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Well all good things must come to an end… S23 has officially chosen Emory/Oxford College! Sent in the deposit and put the sign they gave out at the admitted students preview event in the front yard (I kind of knew when he agreed to take one that he was really interested, plus he also asked to buy merch which he hadn’t done at any other school). He is excited to get the best of both a small LAC experience and the slightly larger research experience - says he feels like he isn’t having to chose between the two experiences.
He had an eclectic list of schools from the start as he has been conflicted between choosing a true tech experience for a compsci/math major (possibly with a game development concentration) or following a more broad liberal arts education (in case compsci is too saturated or he gets bored coding) and had narrowed it down to an eclectic top three: Loyola Nola - Honors Program (honestly he loved the city as much as the school and has friends attending), UAH-Huntsville, Honors Program (he really loved the way they had the compsci concentrations broken down, easy math minor and the dorms were the best of any school we’ve scene) and then Emory/Oxford. Also accepted to Uof Denver, RIT, and Rhodes but unfortunately the financials were just going to be too much of a reach. His in-state safeties were Birmingham-Southern, Troy, University of Alabama, Auburn and U of South Alabama. Waitlisted at GATech, CaseWestern, TulaneU and Emory/Atlanta campus. Denied at NortheasternU after being deferred EA round.
Now we just have to survive AP Exams, and all the Senior lasts of Prom, Casino Night, Elementary Parades, and then Graduation on the 18th!
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It is so exciting to see everyone’s students finalizing their decisions!
D23 finalized a while ago so we’ve been deep in dorm decor planning for the past couple of weeks. She has the list of things she doesn’t want to choose before finding out dorm & roommate placement (so they can divide what might be brought by each to reduce possible overlap) and her personal list.
This is my super organized, bullet journal keeping child - so she already has lists upon lists upon lists. I’ve been shown more idea boards than I had believed one child could create.
We went to The Container Store -her favorite store of all time - this week just so she could “get an idea of how she might organize her closet at school” and I stood patiently as she and the very kind and patient Container Store employee, Denise (yes we are on first name basis now), discussed optimal clothes hangers and the pros and cons of a “double bar closet system”.
I suggested she just migrate some of the Container Store closet accoutrements we already own from her closets at home and you would have thought I was suggesting some sort of Solomon’s baby solution. 
I keep reminding myself this is her process and she is so excited. I keep reminding her how little the dorm room will be and that another person will be sharing that limited space.
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What a day at UMD! We attended their annual Maryland Day, and it is the 25th anniversary of the event.
23 won a 25th anniversary hat to continue the UMD swag collection. 
UMD was smart to start Maryland Day and so many camps for kids (insects, physics, sports, computer), because they sucked my kid right in!
23 visited the place where they will keep working and signed the contract and is excited at their pay increase over a different job last year. People from their work hugged them when hearing they committed to UMD, and 23 met up with a friend and they went around campus sampling activities, food and visiting goats, seeing the foals, etc.
We parents were happy because UMD gave us plants—a tree and two tomato plants.
23 wanted to walk by their dorm AGAIN, so that is four visits to their future dorm so far.
They are over the moon. Lots of smiles and excitement.
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Nice! We are waiting for daughter to commit and she is torn between Schreyers VS UMD vs JHU!
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We too went to IMD yesterday and I was impressed with all the CS students we ran into. They all seemed smart and driven.
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Schreyers 32 K year.
UMD 56K
JHU 85K
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Any parental decision making lower based on finance ?
That’s over $200k from the top to bottom choice. And college costs more than they say.
If not, I wish your student the best.
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Of course we would want low cost but it’s her decision right?
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Depends on the family, budget, and value system.
One can make an argument for each of the three.
As long as you don’t impact your lifestyle and retirement…
Kids like prestige and from that POV JHU would be hard to pass up. Others say Schreyer is special. And then UMD does great in CS.
Some say for CS where you go doesn’t matter.
Is that the major ?
In our case my kids would be at PSU. We set a budget and the other two are over. We took emotion out. But every family is different.
I could afford JHU but didn’t want to.
So it’s their decision if you are ok with it - 100% absolutely. But if it’s going to cause you strain, I personally think you have to speak up. Others will say it’s too late for that.
Obviously the student has 3 great choices.
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She didn’t get in to any Honors or scholars at UMD so she feels discouraged though she loves UMD and the campus location and one of her friend who graduated from UMich this last week with combined under and graduate school in 4 yrs told her prestige matters to get a first job and he tried 100’s of companies to get his job so this girl who was happy with Schreyers before changed her mind.
Then we visited JHU and we were impressed with their resources but with a hefty price difference of 200K.
So here we are asking her to make up her mind and pay deposit!
We said go wherever you feel happy and optimally challenged and you believe you will be successful.
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What major ?
Computer Science.
It’s great you have the resources to make any choice workable! She doesn’t have a bad option among her three choices - she will shine at any of them.
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you seem disappointed with Schreyer and PSU and have discussed transferring. I would take that off the table.
Would she be happy at UMD? That is a happy medium (financially) between the other two options. Can she apply to honors after freshman year at UMD?
What choice is she most excited about? That is the answer if you take finances out of it.
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Really. Prestige matters ?
I know UTK grads, Alabama and MTSU grads and interns with plenty of opportunities. My daughter’s friend at UTK applied to many and had 5 or 6 intern offers. He accepted a positionthat is providing housing on top of salary.
I know of a PSU Cyber security who took 10 mos to find a gig after graduating. My nephew went to Arizona, majored in poli Sci, passed the tests and works in NYC in CS although he got into CS at 30. But got a job after working in finance (got his mba).
A lot will be economy based - right now tech is laying off big time.
Students have to be go getters to get a job, no matter where they go. They aren’t handed to you. I think that’s more an issue.
But what that Michigan student said is not what I’m seeing at all. I suspect if you checked career services at all three (hopefully you have), you will find general success.
Good luck.
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We are just confused that’s all there is.
It’s her decision whatever she decides we are happy for her.
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Yes she is a go getter so hoping she would do well at her choice of school.
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There is departmental honors so if she is top 25% of her large very bright and hardworking class yes she can but I don’t think it has any guaranteed housing.