School Suggestions For My Junior Daughter

Parents Forum
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<p>@themclos where are you geographically located? Although your twins are exploring different campuses, a easy way home or to connect up (be it convenient air travel in the mix) even once during a semester may be helpful to happiness.</p>

<p>Glad TAMU/Galveston was mentioned. If she ends up changing her mind on scope of her degree plan, can transfer to TAMU (College Station). I got master’s degree at TAMU after going to a small private undergraduate school in WI.</p>

<p>Look into the colleges in Mobile AL (University of South Alabama, and other colleges there).</p>

<p>I would recommend your DD go to some summer program to see if marine biology is truly what she desires. My DD2 wasn’t sure what engineering degree she wanted to pursue, and a one week summer program after HS junior year helped her decide.</p>

<p>You are gathering a lot of great information. Surely some of the colleges have some kind of exploratory summer program.</p>

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<p>The Cal States referenced above are all close to water but are very small- Channel Islands is almost a commuter campus although it is slowly growing. School spirit is not big either. Cal Poly is bigger and has more school spirit but is still not huge. UCSD would be a perfect school as far as her love of water- La Jolla is gorgeous, she could walk to the beach and there is plenty of surfing, kayaking, etc. The Scripps Institute of Oceanography is amazing. However, there is no football team, it is D2, and not as big on school spirit as say, UCLA, USC, Cal, and some others. She might look at UC Santa Barbara which is also right on the beach. </p>

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<p>SOSconcern - we live in NJ, and we currently have a freshman attending TCU. In about 20 months, we will have 3 in college. And they may very well be in geographically disparate areas. Proximity to an airport certainly helps when they are far from home.</p>

<p>My daughter mentioned TAMU/Galveston to me (it must have shown up on a search for marine biology/sciences). I have a friend who teaches at TAMU, so we are going to reach out and speak with him. TAMU is a great school, but I think it might be a bit too conservative for my daughter (again, she will make the final decision). For now, it remains on the list.</p>

<p>We have been researching summer programs for her to attend this summer. I agree, a one week program somewhere may be very helpful for her.</p>

<p>takeitalin - i think UCSD, UCSC, UCSB and UCLA are schools she would consider. We were able to visit UCLA and UCSD this summer. She liked both, with a slight edge to UCSD.</p>

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<p>D’s friend is at TAMU Galveston as a marine biology major. She seems to be getting excellent training/experience. This is a girl who grew up nowhere near the ocean and always dreamed of being a marine biologist–she is making it happen.The school is totally ocean-oriented. (Galveston is about 3 hours from TAMU College Station–totally different campus. Not sure if the conservative reputation of College Station campus is that relevant to marine programs at Galveston). </p>

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<p>Wow. I applaud the amount of time and effort that you are putting into this college search. I thought I had spent some time on my son’s until I came across this. I’m not sure if the program is a match, but it sounds like the campus life would be perfect: Vanderbilt. Great school, great campus, and great city. Good luck to you and your daughter.</p>

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<p>atomom - thanks for the information about your friend’s daughter at TAMU Galveston. That is good to hear. Congratulations to her.</p>

<p>IowaParent15 - Vanderbilt is a great school, and I suspect my daughter would very much love Nashville. However, I think it would be quite a reach for her. I travel a bit for work, and so that means a bit of downtime on planes and evenings in hotels. I find it relaxing to do a little internet research. I bring suggestions to my daughters, and they decide whether they want to look into the schools further. I have been able to visit a few campuses and make a video for the girls. It is very challenging to consider colleges which are far from home. We may not be able to visit them before the child is accepted. it is just too costly. We have always made it a habit to visit colleges when traveling on vacation, even if the school is one they typically would not consider. We think it has helped the kids get a feel for different size schools. We have tried (to the best of our ability) not to set any limits or expectations on the kids, but have stressed that they know themselves and that they try to be true to themselves. This daughter is very independent and has a bit of a travel bug. I went to school 1500 miles from my home, so the thought of having my children go far from home does not bother me. My wife went to school 3 hours away from home, but also was not restricted in her college choices. We have been very fortunate. We did tell my daughter that Hawaii and Alaska were off the table. (that was not necessary for my other children) There are certain concessions they need to make when going that far away. They cannot come home on random weekends. We cannot come visit easily, or at all.</p>

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<p>Is Vanderbilt so much more selective than UCSD? Here are the admission stats for UCSD for 2013:<a href=“http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/files/freshman-profiles/freshman_profile_san_diego.pdf”>http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/files/freshman-profiles/freshman_profile_san_diego.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Most students have SAT-Math over 700. Most students have SAT-Reading over 700. Most students have a GPA over 4.0. Note that the UCs use the sophomore and junior grades only to calculate GPA, and only in core courses.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the link to the stats. Personally, I consider UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UCSC reaches. But I would say that Vanderbilt is more selective. I think her test scores will be improved enough by summer to put her in the mix for the UC schools. But we have realistic expectations. Once she has the right mix of safeties and matches, we would encourage her to include a couple of reaches that she feels strongly about.</p>

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<p>I think the OP’s daughter would have to improve her test scores (ie. to over 1400 CR+M) significantly to have any chance at Vanderbilt. I second URI and College of Charleston. Eckerd is very small, with almost no athletics, although it is strong in Marine Biology. A modest bump in scores would make Tulane and UCSD realistic reaches. </p>

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<p>Others have suggested it, but I think University of Miami might be a good fit. Your daughters academics, scores and EC’s seem to be in the right range and the location seems about perfect for someone who likes the water (warm water is always more pleasant the cold water IMHO :smile: ). They also offer some enticing merit scholarships to high scorers, so if the test scores come up a bit that might be a possibility. </p>

<p>I encouraged my daughter to apply there this year EA, and while she has decided to attend a different university, I was impressed with what Miami offered.</p>

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<p>Not to be a really wet blanket, but I would really look at UCSD hard before deciding it is a good choice. Note that the Scripps Institute of Oceanography is a world-class school. It is a graduate school that is a part of UCSD. They have completely autonomous administration. It is not all that well integrated, and really has very little crossover (except perhaps the Marine Physical Lab -MPL) with UCSD proper, and virtually none at the undergraduate level. Even their parking permits are separate. Their campus is separate. Their library is separate. Their students hardly mingle with students on the UCSD campus except for occasional classes. You VERY rarely see a UCSD undergraduate at SIO (your daughter could be the exception that proves the rule). I would emphatically endorse your daughter attending for a PhD. It is a crown jewel of Marine Biology at the graduate level.</p>

<p>For undergraduate, I would not consider UCSD above UCLA or UCSB. Really, really, visit CCS at UCSB. That would be the very first choice in my book among the UC’s for marine biology-oriented undergraduate education with a view towards graduate work.</p>

<p>I have no comment on Vandy, U Miami, and the others mentioned here- I am ignorant of their marine biology programs, so these comments are really comparing the UCs only.</p>

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<p>Just wanted to jump in since no one has elaborated on BU but you’ve mentioned it’s one of your daughter’s favorites. Even before you got to your school list, describing your daughter, I thought to myself “she would love BU!” It sounds like a really good fit–it’s a school for hardworking, smart people but doesn’t feel like an Elite School like, say, Harvard. It’s not a party school at all, but there are parties to be found if you want to attend them. There are some amazing community service orgs, and in fact most of the Greek groups on campus focus primarily on service, believe it or not. BU’s study abroad options are amazing–they have several programs for marine biology majors! The only area where I’d say BU is lacking is traditional “school spirit”–there’s a very strong BU solidarity, but we don’t have a football team so nothing near the culture you’d find at UCLA, etc. BUT, there’s a nice hockey culture and BU basketball has gotten better in recent years, so there’s definitely the opportunity to go to games and have fun.</p>

<p>Plus, with her current stats, I’d say she’s low match… but if she pulls her SATs up a tad, I’d call her a solid match. (my SATs were in range of hers and I got in on a merit scholarship). And that’s the thing: BU is pretty generous, so she may get a merit scholarship, which might help alleviate her worries about the school costing so much. She sounds wonderfully conscientious of cost, and you guys are awesome that you’re willing to pay for whatever school is best for her! </p>

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<p>Itsjustaschool - thank you for the insights into the UC schools and UCSD in particular. Very helpful.</p>

<p>proudterrier - thank you for the comments regarding BU. We know a couple of young adults there and they speak very highly of the school. They are all doing well. And Boston is a great college city. Yes, strengthening her scores will be helpful. She is committed to this and has a goal, which is realistic in my opinion. Good to hear BU is generous with merit aid - yes getting merit aid from a high cost school like BU would go a long way to addressing some of her concerns should she continue to consider BU. And that is what we have told her - focus on narrowing down her list based upon fit and academics, and do not focus on the costs at this time. Once the acceptances come in, then we can review any merit aid and discuss costs and relative value.</p>

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<p>Interesting to read about somebody with similar background to my D., competitive swimmer since age 5, still holds many of her team records (since 1998) who also wanted to be a marine bio. Well, at the time that she was in middle school (about 12 years ago), I have started looking inot the career of marine bio and discovered that there are no jobs in the field. I do not want to sound negative, but investigation into this fact (which could have been changed since 12 years ago) is a good idea.
After I have discovered that, I slowly but persistantly talked to my young D. It took about 3 years, but the mission was accomplished and she decided to pursue medicine.
She also did not plan to swim varsity, and since her interests were also very wide, she spread herself very thin in her freshman college year, discovered that even club swimming was way too much in connection to maintaining very high college GPA required for Med. School (and 2 minors).<br>
I am telling all of this to make sure that your kid will stay flexible and open to adjusting to higher standards at college.
I imagine that your D. will pursue a major similar to mine - my D. graduated with Zoology major. This type of majors are very challenging. If in addition to this, she decided to focus on engineering, it is even more challenging, engineering is the hardest of them all.
I am not familiar with any Ivy / Elite type of schools. D. just went to in-state public and it worked great for her. The Zoology department at her school was very strong. It maybe be something to be checked out.<br>
Another suggestion is to never take any test without preparation. It is a waste of time / money. She can take practice / diagnostic tests at home on her own as much as she wishes. It took my D. only about 5 hrs to prep. - 1 hrs / day for 5 days preceding the test, to preapre and get a score that she needed. It is worthwhile to prepare especially for math section as a lot of the math material is from the middle school and needs to be re-freshed.<br>
Best wishes from one swim mom to another and her D.!! Swimming is the best sport!!</p>

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<p>“Well, at the time that she was in middle school (about 12 years ago), I have started looking inot the career of marine bio and discovered that there are no jobs in the field. I do not want to sound negative, but investigation into this fact (which could have been changed since 12 years ago) is a good idea.”</p>

<p>I will be sure to tell this to my friend whose son graduated college in 1999 - has a masters and a PHD and is a marine biologist at Woods Hole. </p>

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…among thousands or others?

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" no jobs in the field." - I assume that was a comment for 4 year degree. Marine biology seems like a field that would need a graduate degree.

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I think it is a shame for her to have so much pressure about scores. Her scores are good for a first try and they may come up next time, but it is burdensome- and unnecessary- to spend a lot of time studying extensively for tests, especially for a kid who has so many positive activities going on.

Here is a list of test-optional schools http://fairtest.org/university/optional There are some top schools on this list. Granted, for merit aid, scores are required, but you don’t seem to be focusing on merit aid in your search.

I know she says she does not want a small school but I strongly recommend Loren Pope’s books, “Colleges that Change Lives” and “Looking Beyond the Ivies.” Colleges that Change Lives also has a website and college fairs around the country. I don’t think she needs a large school to preserve options for major choices.

If she is looking at big state universities, they tend to be more stats/test-driven and less holistic. She sounds like a great kid with work ethic, academic interests, and extracurriculars that are consistent and interesting. I really think some of the test-optional schools might be great for her.

Don’t be too afraid of what might seem, on the surface, "uber"competitive schools. I think your daughter could get into some excellent schools that are test-optional and not suffer with endless studying for standardized testing in the next year.

p.s.Looking at the list afte rposting, U. of Maine at several locations is on the list. Just looking at B’s: Bard, bates, Bowdoin, brandeis, Bryn Mawr, Beloit…then randomly scrolling Hobart William-Smith, Wesleyan, Middlebury, Mt. Holyoke, Muhlenberg, Trinity, University of Rochester. So I amend my post to say that schools of all sizes are on the list. And, again, I just scrolled at random. If you look at schools she likes, you might find them there. I think she can reach higher than you may think.

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“I assume that was a comment for 4 year degree. Marine biology seems like a field that would need a graduate degree”

Well yes, but so does becoming a doctor and many other professions, too.

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Just adding that the UMass area is a great place to visit because in a small area, just about every type of school is represented. UMass, Mt. Holyoke and Smith (both for women, both test-optional), Hampshire (test-optional, alternative, CTCL) and Amherst. None of my kids ended up at any of those schools but the visit was clarifying. Students at all these schools take classes at all the other ones in the consortium so it is the best of all worlds. Another school people seem to like is Clark University in Worcester, also test-optionall and one of the Colleges that Change Lives.

Your daughter’s swimming and diving might also make her a very interesting applicant at schools, even if she does not plan to continue.