I just posted in the schools that moved up or down after visiting thread about our recent visit to Southwestern. (Seems like a great school, but too small for my kid). I just wanted to mention that if you are visiting small schools in Texas, you should also check out Trinity University in San Antonio. We are going there in a couple of weeks, so I don’t have first-hand information, but everything I have heard has been positive. Good luck!
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Thanks for mentioning that! I went and read what you posted on the ‘moved up or down’ thread.
We had considered looking at Trinity University, but it’s not even on the list because: (a) according to the NPC, it’s not affordable for us; and (b) D24’s GPA & test scores are below the mid-50% of admitted students (according to Naviance), so the odds of her getting in are low.
Therefore, we’re not going to waste our time in even touring it.
That makes sense about Trinity!
Southwestern does have a list of the automatic merit scholarships - I believe it’s on their website. It looks like Southwestern is very generous (and has a slightly lower starting point than many schools). Georgetown, Texas is a cute town with a town square that is walkable from campus. But you also have all the big box stores nearby and Austin is about 30 minutes away. They mentioned several clubs that go on outings and several study abroad programs. The career center sounds great also. If my children were interested in smaller schools, I think they would have included it.
I don’t know much about Austin College in Sherman. I have met a few people from there and they all had positive things to say.
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Dropped off D24 at ASU this a.m. for a high school language fair day thing that’s going on at the student union. Of course, we were late because of traffic. Dropped the kiddo off and left her to use the map on her own to figure her way to the student union. She already had plans to have some sort of Korean corn dog thing w/her friends at lunchtime. Have to pick her up at 2 pm from same location.
On the way there, she said she doesn’t want to go to college where it’s really cold in the winter, & U of A is officially in 1st place. But she’s only seen 2 schools so far. That will change over the next 2-3 months.
I am debating skipping the NM Tech Research Day, but am going to ask her later today what she thinks. NM Tech requires all students pursuing a BS to take a year of engineering calculus & a year of engineering-based physics. I think that the research opportunities there would be amazing for her, but the physics and math are probably going to be a deal breaker. And the town is very small…she’ll hate that.
She’s signed up now for a Southwestern Univ tour on 4/11 instead of Good Friday (they didn’t have any spots left for tours on Good Friday). Going to drag D26 w/us, too, so she can see that and Austin College…and D24 asked if D26 can come, too. Why? “Because it’s more fun when she’s around and so I don’t get bored.” 
In other news, D24 LOVES the new Calculus teacher. Calc teacher has offered D24 extra credit for coming to student hours (similar to a college prof’s office hours) and redoing quizzes and tests.
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Back home now from the language fair thing at ASU. Talked to D24 about which she wants to go visit over Presidents’ weekend - NM Tech or NMSU. She said NMSU for sure, doesn’t ever want to go visit NM Tech since it requires hard math & physics for all BS undergrads, so that school is off the list officially.
The vibe I’ve gotten before in Las Cruces is similar to what it feels like in Tucson, so I think she might like it there. We will see next month!
She said that she ran into a couple of former classmates at the language fair…students who previously transferred to different schools a year or 2 ago. And ran into a kid from her choir, too.
My S23 applied to EPIC at Cal Poly SLO but it is geared toward opportunities for under-represented-in-engineering kids, per its application. He is not in that group and was not accepted. He really wanted the Purdue one-week engineering camp (STEP) but they did not offer it in 2022 (he ended up going to U Kansas one week camp which he enjoyed). By the time we found out STEP was cancelled (in March 2022) he had missed a bunch of deadlines for summer engineering camps (UIUC also has a summer engineering camp that sounded good). There are quite a few programs out there but some are 2-3 weeks long. As my S had other commitments last summer he was looking specifically for a one week program just to dip his toe in and learn more about engineering. The Kansas program fit the bill, he had a fun week and is planning to major in engineering. He did not apply to U of Kansas for the fall because he was put off by the department head encouraging the campers to “get all your generals done in high school so you can take pure STEM once here”. He likes history and humanities and looks forward to taking those classes alongside engineering coursework, while in college. He didn’t like the vibe he got from that comment. But the campus was beautiful and the camp was good and reasonably priced.
I am not sure if EPIC might also favor CA applicants, which in your case would be fine!
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S and I keep getting emails about summer programs at colleges (the most persistent one is Columbia that now is sending us ones with an application fee waver to everyone in our high school). I just cant get past the idea of spending $7000 for a three week program. Just doesnt seem worth it.
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Yes, totally agree. Many of the summer programs advertised at colleges/universities just seem like money-makers for the colleges (they get to fill their empty dorms, sell food, gear, etc). I have a friend who works in independent college counseling who says not to go to a pay-to-go, non-selective, summer program at a college for the purpose of adding to the kids’ resume or to get help getting into that particular college, as that usually will not help and the schools make that clear on their websites. If however, the kid is really jazzed to take the classes offered, or to simply learn about college in general or that particular college, and you don’t mind spending the money, that’s fine too, just don’t expect it to help with getting him into a particular school. I have also heard that there are varying degrees of adult supervision at some of these college programs, meaning there is a lot of kids partying there as well.
She suggested to me to have my S23 to look at classes at local community colleges or state schools near us that offered courses he wanted to find more info about, something of interest to him that he might want to take in college. And then depending on his experience with the classes, he can incorporate what he learned, whether or not he wants to continue taking similar classes, etc into essays. In CA some programs she suggested were EPIC at Cal Poly and the UC COSMOS program, and other programs at various colleges.
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Yikes. My son has gotten a lot of those Columbia emails but since he isn’t interested, I never looked at the price. That seems usurious, honestly.
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I work nearby so I looked again in case his music program doesnt work out, that is the price for a commuter!
S21 took ASL at our community college for a few hundred dollars and it was great, totally agree.
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I’d save the money. Like professional certificate programs, these summer programs are simply (very profitable) revenue generators for these Ivies.
I haven’t seen any correlation between attending summer programs and getting accepted amongst the half dozen kids I know over the past few years who signed up for these programs.
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I agree. I’ve listened to a couple of college app-related podcasts where they briefly discussed this sort of thing and the collective conclusion was that spending hordes of money on expensive summer programs does NOT give you a leg up in admissions for that college.
Besides, $7000 is a lot of potential tuition money.
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I’ve looked for the most affordable, relatively speaking, options that allow for the experience on campus in the general geographic region and field of interest (visual arts). Often this means state schools and potentially 1-2 week non credit programs that aren’t with the T20 schools.
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Wow. That is some serious coin just for summer classes considering it doesn’t include housing.
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it is insane to me how expensive some of these summer programs are!
What do people think of Stanford Online Summer classes (what they call “pre-collegiate summer institutes”)? Not to get into Stanford, but to inform S23 about certain areas he might want to study/explore. D21 took one during the pandemic after everything in person was cancelled. They really enjoyed it, got a lot out of it, learned a lot about whether or not they were interested in the subject as a college major, and connected with many kids across the world. But I’m wondering now that most everything is in person, does it make sense to pay $3,000 for 2 weeks (2 hours a day) of virtual instruction? even if it is Stanford? Many of the subjects intrigue S23 and they do say it is “competitive” but wondering if other’s kids have taken the classes recently and what they thought.
Basically, think of it as “sleep-away camp” - and then consider the cost.
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We are basically only considering music programs at this point. The two main ones that he is awaiting are NYO2 which is free and Tanglewood that is around 7K for 4 weeks for everything. That is worth it if he gets in!
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Yes My son attended this. He enjoyed it and said he would recommend to other try. They did some hands on projects and some fun activities also which he liked.
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