<p>A law partner and friend once said to my daughter, “There are indeed too many laywers, but we are woefully short on excellent ones.”</p>
<p>FLVADAD, congrats to your D - - that’s a great offer!</p>
<p>Read the FAMU article. Darned shame, that. If there’s any silver lining, it’s that hopefully this “wakeup call” will serve to save several other lives. </p>
<p>I managed to scramble through undergrad @ no less than 3 fine-to–middlin’ institutions, none of which had either frats or marching bands, & so avoided the adventure of hazing. </p>
<p>My youngest is seriously considering sororities at Ohio U, however. If she pledges, she’ll be the 1st female on either side of the family to do so. Safety’s a definite concern for me. I’d like to hope FAMU’s tragedy will shed increased scrutiny on the initiation activities of student groups across the board.</p>
<p>Thanks FP. We feel very fortunate. Of course, D2 is pretending to still be mulling it over, but I think she knows the score. </p>
<p>sybbie, how much time does moot court take out of your daughter’s schedule? Mine is a mock trialer in undergrad and the hours they put in are insane in my opinion. </p>
<p>SMIA, I have heard horror stories about pledging greek as far back as I can remember, but never band sections. That was a new one to me. </p>
<p>Two of mine went greek without incident. The only negative was the time management aspect, but they’ve reaped some positive experiences and friendships as a result. That said, I believe the experience varies significantly from one campus to another so potential pledges would be wise to do some due diligence beforehand.</p>
<p>She and her partner went 4 rounds in their school’s moot court competition (missed going to the semi finals by 1 point, overall finishing 5th out of 48 teams). </p>
<p>From what she said, it was an insane amount of work to write a brief and deliver an appellate argument before judges and lawyers. The brief alone was about 50 pages and there was less than 24 hours to prep if you advanced to the rounds. She said that in prepping that she spent more time with her partner than her boyfriend and was happy that she lives less than 10 minutes from school.</p>
<p>She said that it was a great experience for (she said she had to thank her 1L legal writing professor and the judge that she interned with who also teaches legal writing) but she said that she has done so much writing this semester between this, journal, her classes and her job as a research assistant (maybe that religion/english major thing paid off). Over the years she has definitely grown and knows the meaning of time management (if she could just stop procrastinating when it comes to packing and getting to the airport).</p>
<p>She is taking her last final on Friday and is looking forward to being off for a couple of weeks.</p>
<p>My oldest is back home! Yayyyyy!! I’m going to have her read this thread about the amount of time your D put into her moot court competition, Sybbie. What an incredible honor to make it to the semifinals!! Fabulous resume booster, and all that writing experience will, in all likelihood pay huge dividends in the biglaw competition (if that’s where her interest lies). :-)</p>
<p>Next up for us? Scholarship essays. Apparently she’s got several due in January. It’ll be nice to turn in the FAFSA & other Fin Aid Apps to get past all the “guesstimating” we’re doing right now. I don’t want her to get too starry-eyed about T14 schools, that just may not turn out to be fiscally prudent. I’ll bet they do it this way on purpose: Admit the kids, ahem – young adults – and let them bask in the glow of “Name Recognition U” for months so that when reality bites them in the keisters w/the financial aid award letters in March, they’re too emotionally invested to think clearly!</p>
<p>Well best of luck to EVERYONE’s offspring, Season’s Greetings & all that. 
Now that I’ve got the brood back for the holidays, I may not check in quite as much until they’ve quit the nest again in January.</p>
<p>“Oi. Sybbie, forgive me. Seems I momentarily confused you w/Shrinkrap, who IS on the West Coast”</p>
<p>Here I am! Probably too late. Oh well, nothing to offer re law school, but plenty regarding Greek and marching band stuff. D is about to graduate unscathed, but son is just beginning.</p>
<p>Seems this thread may be officially dead, but for closure’s sake, thought I’d report back. After much soul-searching and school-visiting, D narrowed her choices to Cornell, Duke, UPenn & UChgo. She’ll be in Philly next year. I’m worried about the cost (Cornell would’ve been essentially tuition-free & Duke was her dad’s & my top choice for it’s dual degree & generosity) – but SHE fell in love w/the ivy of dubious name recognition. UPenn offered some merit $$, but in an age where annual law school costs top $75K . . . <em>sigh</em> Well. We’ll see . . .</p>
<p>Thanks, all, for sharing the journey.</p>
<p>SuperMom- While, I haven’t been on this journey with you like some of the other posters, I just wanted to ask if UPenn definite? If so, I hope everything works out. I know you must be very proud of your D, but decisions like that are, understandably, very hard to make. </p>
<p>I haven’t read through this entire thread but have you and your daughter visited the other schools? Maybe there is something that she can fall in love with the other schools, or something missed in the first visit that might change her mind with a second. To be debt-free is so important, especially with law school down the line.</p>
<p>No matter what happens I wish you and your daughter the best luck.</p>
<p>Any parents here just beginning the process of college searches/admissions?</p>
<p>I hope this thread doesn’t die out. </p>
<p>I have a son in college, but ready to start application season in fall with my current junior daughter. Right now list is 15 schools, but not sure how many colleges will come off and how many will be added. </p>
<p>DD is just finishing off the last month of her junior year, so just trying to keep her focused. In the fall, we will probably sign up for some diversity visits for schools she hasnt seen yet.</p>
<p>Should be a great journey!</p>
<p>Hi Semilucky,</p>
<p>SuperMom<em>I</em>Aint’s D is in the law school process. She is trying to decide on which law school to attend.</p>
<p>SuperMom<em>I</em>Aint, she has some amazing choices. If Chicago is no longer in the equation, Penn is an excellent choice, especially with it’s proximity to NYC if she is considering working in NYC down the line.</p>
<p>Read the fine print on all of the merit money. Is it based on maintaining a certain gpa or is the money simply based on continued attendance? Remember, law school is another whole animal and the curve can be brutal. For the most part, her grade is solely going to be based on a final exam.</p>
<p>Congrats and good luck to her. Yes, it is another 3 year wild ride</p>
<p>First, sending a big hello to everyone. My D is just starting high school in the fall. I know I am on here pretty early but with my D, I am going to need all the advice I can get. </p>
<p>Thanks sybbie for the clarification.</p>
<p>SMIA- I second what sybbie said, review the conditions of the merit money. Your D has some great options and if she can get the same quality education at a fraction of the cost, then that is the way to go. Just my 2 pennies. Congrats and good luck again.</p>
<p>Hi everyone! I’m glad to have found this thread. I’m been lurking on CC for sometime now and have learned alot. It’s nice to have a thread to exchange with my peers. My DD is a junior and we’re also starting our college search. We live in NH. A state not famous for its diversity. Throughout elementary and jr high DD was always the only AA in her school. She is now one of 25 AA students in a HS of approximately 1100 students. She is ready to breakout and is yearning for the bright lights of the big city. She’s very interested in urban schools or ones within close proximity to an urban area. We’re looking for schools on the East Coast. The hardest part and most frustrating thing is coming up with our list of affordable schools.</p>
<p>Like many on this forum, we are blessed to have income that exceeds $200K. We’ve also been able to put some money away for college. While this is certainly a plus. It also makes us full pay, especially at the highly competitive schools and Ivies. Based on my calculations, we can comfortably pay $30K per year and still leave money for Grad school. DD is interested in potentially being a nurse anesthetist so we can’t blow all our cash on a dream undergrad school. Because she wants to go out of state it’s been a challenge to find schools that are affordable without taking out loans which I’m determined not to do.</p>
<p>DD has a 4.1 unweighted GPA in a rigorous curiculum. She’s taking the SAT’s in May and is tracking to score in the 1900 range. She has good ECs and leadership experience.</p>
<p>Is anyone out there in or been in the same boat? Where you able to find schools that offered your DD/S merit aid? If so, what schools should we add to the list.</p>
<p>Looking forward sharing the journey!!!</p>
<p>Hello Classof2013Dad!! What schools are you and your daughter looking at? Perhaps others can give advice on schools already on her list. Also, is she considering any HBCUs like Howard or Spelman? I’m pretty sure Howard offers scholarships on a first-come, first-served basis, based on GPA and SAT/ACT scores.</p>
<p>Hi everyone! Hi SMIA! Sounds like good choices for your daughter. </p>
<p>It would be pretty sweet if there was enough interest to keep this thread alive again! </p>
<p>My D, the reason I got “caught up” here, will graduate Duke in three weeks. Son is about to finish his freshman year in engineering at Loyola Marymount. D was full pay, son got a surprise grant that was helpful, but I don’t expect he will get it again this year. Both kids got into their “reaches”, and have had their academic struggles.</p>
<p>I am checking in here also. Ds is class of 2014 and he has been on many college campuses because of his dad’s work. We officially visited two schools over spring break. I keep hearing about oos publics not giving much merit to students but wonder if that applies to AA males in Stem fields …ie. Wisconsin? </p>
<p>I do not expect any need based aid even at the Hyp level. But I am kind of confused at the in between level. Mostly you hear “doesn’t give merit scholarships” but than I see it show up on a list of limited merit aid. Schools like northwestern, Notre dame, etc. </p>
<p>I think some things have changed since this post was started in 2008.</p>
<p>I don’t think I understand. You’ve heard Northwestern and Notre Dame don’t give merit?
I’ve heard ivies dont give merit, and some publics (UC’s) don’t give much, but it’s otherwise rare for a school to give NO merit. Things HAVE changed economically since 2008, but I would not assume there is more merit for middle class URM’s.</p>
<p>The original…</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/349837-any-upper-middle-black-posters-house.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/349837-any-upper-middle-black-posters-house.html</a></p>
<p>For historical interest.</p>
<p>Hi SemiLucky! Initially DD had her heart set on California schools so she had USC, UCB, UCLA, UCSB, and Loyola Marymount on her list. My wife and I convinced her to reconsider East Coast schools for 1) our entire family is based from the mid-Atlantic to New England and we have no family or support system in CA. DD doesn’t handle stressful situations very well and can be a bit of a drama queen. We don’t think she’s ready for that level of independence yet. She can head to CA for grad school; 2) the cost of flying home would be too expensive; 3) limited merit $ available to OOS students made the UCs unaffordable.
My biggest frustration with her is that she is not expressing any real interest in East Coast schools. She just wants to be somewhere preferably warm and close to the city. I’ve started compiling a list of schools for her to consider. Her Spring vacation is coming up next week and I had planned a college road trip, but since we have no real targets we’re going to visit 3 schools in MA to give her a feel for a large urban campus (BU or BC), LAC in the suburbs (Brandeis), and a large public in a college town (UMASS Amherst). </p>
<p>She is not expressing any interest in HBCUs. I would like her to visit Howard to see if she could picture herself at one. I know it has taking me a while to here, but here’s the list I’ve started compiling in no order of preference:</p>
<p>UMASS Amherst
Boston University
Boston College
University of Pittsburgh
Penn State University
Fordham University
University of Maryland College Park
University of Virginia
James Madison University
American University
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
North Carolina State University
Howard University
University of South Florida
University of Miami
Tulane University
Columbia University</p>