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HijinksAndSue
Member
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Posted: Sat Mar 29th, 2008 07:31 pm |
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Woah! Can you imagine being offered on-the-spot admission nowadays?
If I recall from your previous posts, HiJinks, you started at Amherst soon after they went coed. It sounds like they were suddenly very serious about getting qualified female students at the time.
Absolutely a large part of it ... in fact, I interviewed in June of my JUNIOR year so the first entering co-ed class was still two months away from moving into the dorms.
The dean of admissions at the time was a wonderful guy that everyone loved, something of a legend on campus. When he passed away a few years ago, many members of our class shared recollections of their interviews and it turns out that for whatever reason that seemed to be the modus operandi that year. I'd guess at least a quarter of us had the same experience (I think I also got lucky because I interviewed SO early).
My scores were OK (one point short of NMSF in NY State), my grades were OK (probably the modernday equivalent of a 3.5 at a small competitive NYC private), but I had a good hook with my ECs, very unique. PLUS I was a legacy which meant something in those days.
How much have things changed? One of my good friends at school is now the dean of admissions there and I STILL didn't want my own DD (a double legacy) to apply because it would have been throwing the app fee $$$ out of the window.  Funny thing is my DD is something of a carbon copy of me at the time ... similar scores, slightly better grades, interesting ECs. But I think she'd have a hard time getting into most selective LACs nowadays. Luckily she found the one school that is PERFECT for her and the ONLY place she wanted to go and got in EA, saving us much heartache.
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Thumper
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| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
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| Posts: | 226 |
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Posted: Sat Mar 29th, 2008 09:34 pm |
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I graduated from Ohio University 35 years ago undergrad, and I would absolutely go back there again now. The school has grown so much and my department has a great new facillity and is highly regarded in my field.
For grad school...I would go to Northwestern. I went to grad school in Illinois, but not at NU. I would definitely go to Chi-town for grad school if I were going now.
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bc
Member
| Joined: | Fri Dec 29th, 2006 |
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| Posts: | 13 |
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Posted: Sat Mar 29th, 2008 11:18 pm |
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| Graduated from William and Mary. If I had it to do over again, I'd go to George Mason.
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Descartes
Super Moderator
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Posted: Sun Mar 30th, 2008 12:15 am |
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If this were a "do-over", I think I'd pick Rice, which appears to balance academic emphasis with social life and broad curriculum with LAC size. It would also offer a vibrant metro area, different cultural experience (for me), and warm weather.
If this were for me now, I'd probably go a little bigger in all ways with less on-campus social life - maybe U of Chicago or Harvard?
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jocelynDAD
Member
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Posted: Sun Mar 30th, 2008 05:27 am |
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Well - when I was 17, I joined the USAF - college was not on the horizon for poor kids from the projects and waterfront in Brooklyn. 
I started college at nights on an AF base when I was 21, married with a child enroute. 5 years later I graduated, got a commission and in two years was going to Law School at nights while still in the military.
I swore my child(ren) would go to college straight from HS, live on campus and do it straight thru to graduation.
If I could alter the universe and select an opportunity for me, it would be at a LAC where I could be a person, know the faculty, be aware of and to the majority of students and be able to experience the fullness of the time and place.
The climate, state, amenities would be whatever they were. I feel that the opportunity to spend four years just learning, while maturing among a group of other young persons on the same or similar trip would be overwhelming to me.
I cannot select a college, I have personally visited close to 100 (if not more) campus in the past 29 years and I can truefully say that I would have loved to been an enrolled student at at least 40 schools. The other 60 or so, I might not have loved, but there was only a few that I would have turned down.
Our children are so very lucky to have the opportunities available to them. I certainly am happy for each of mine and for all of the posters on this site, but I am envious as well.
It is something that I have wished for myself many times over the past 46 years.
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CarolynLawrence
Administrator
| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
| Location: | USA |
| Posts: | 3319 |
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Posted: Sun Mar 30th, 2008 10:25 pm |
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jocelynDAD wrote:
Our children are so very lucky to have the opportunities available to them. I certainly am happy for each of mine and for all of the posters on this site, but I am envious as well.
Amen to that, JocelynDad, Amen to that.
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Consolation
Member
| Joined: | Mon Apr 9th, 2007 |
| Location: | USA |
| Posts: | 488 |
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Posted: Wed Apr 2nd, 2008 02:41 pm |
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Oddly, I think I would want to go to either of the two schools my S is deciding between. One was not coed when I applied (Dartmouth), but I always liked it a lot. The other I actually attended for grad school (University of Chicago). Ideally, I think I'd do Darmouth undergrad and U of C grad. Who knows, maybe he will!
A friend of mine commented after visiting MIT that it was her H who would truly love to go there. Her S ultimately did not apply.
Last edited on Wed Apr 2nd, 2008 02:43 pm by Consolation
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Mrs. Aardvark
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Posted: Thu Apr 3rd, 2008 03:38 pm |
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Well, I made an extensive round of colleges in my youth; unfortunately it was only after having enrolled. I attended Carleton my freshman year, transferred to University of Michigan sophmore year, spent my junior year abroad in Germany, and returned to U of M to graduate.
If I had known about it at the time, I probably would have selected St. John's College. I was intent on discovering Truth through a Classical Approach to education (majored in Philosophy).
In retrospect, I think Smith would have been a good fit for me.
If I were to drink from the fountain of youth and start college now, I'd consider Smith or maybe Scripps.
Last edited on Thu Apr 3rd, 2008 03:39 pm by Mrs. Aardvark
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CarolynLawrence
Administrator
| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
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Posted: Fri Apr 4th, 2008 11:17 pm |
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Mrs. Aardvark wrote: Well, I made an extensive round of colleges in my youth; unfortunately it was only after having enrolled. I attended Carleton my freshman year, transferred to University of Michigan sophmore year, spent my junior year abroad in Germany, and returned to U of M to graduate.
Wow, I think you deserve to be  of the day for having attended the most colleges! Dare I ask about graduate school? LOL!
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Chedva
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Posted: Fri Apr 4th, 2008 11:31 pm |
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When I was looking at schools, I fell in love with Northwestern. Visited a friend who was going there, and had a great time. But my guidance counselor loved Johns Hopkins, and my mother loved the campus. As a European immigrant, she also favored Hopkins because she'd heard of it! So I ended up at Hopkins. Didn't like it much, but my parents didn't believe in transferring.
I wonder what my life would have been like had I been allowed to make my own choices.
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Mrs. Aardvark
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| Joined: | Thu Jan 31st, 2008 |
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Posted: Sat Apr 5th, 2008 02:39 pm |
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I did manage to stay at one university for graduate school, but did two programs -- a divinity school degree and two years of a Ph.D in German literature.
Now I'm agnostic who read a German book only recently for the first time in years (I wanted to find out what happened to the White Masai, and the sequel is only available in German).
So I've certainly experienced how college is the first step in a life which can take many twists and turns.
That said, I'm a big believer in looking for fit in a college. My husband, on the other hand, attended MIT sight unseen and was happy as a clam.
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CarolynLawrence
Administrator
| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
| Location: | USA |
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Posted: Sat Apr 5th, 2008 09:45 pm |
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| Mrs. A, did you find your German reading skills intact after all these years? My college french takes a lot of effort to float up to my mid-life brain cells.
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Mrs. Aardvark
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| Posts: | 71 |
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Posted: Sun Apr 6th, 2008 12:11 am |
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That was an advantage of living for a year in Germany -- I did become fluent, and it has stuck with me (as far as I can tell) over the years.
I haven't had too many recent opportunities to speak German, but I am hopeful that it would come back to me, given the chance. The trick is to spend enough time listening or reading so that one is no longer consciously translating from English into German (or whatever).
I was never very good in learning a language in the classroom, but I studied music from an early age, and I think that helped when I finally set my mind to learning a second language. I do like to converse, and I put myself in a situation where English wasn't spoken so that I really needed to learn German in order to communicate.
I am somewhat skeptical of these "study abroad" opportunities that are only a few weeks long. It takes months to really immerse oneself in another culture and language.
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