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westkymom
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Posted: Sun Aug 13th, 2006 10:50 pm |
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jocelynDad:
Well, you'll be a goldmine of good info. That's great! We're starting to get our travel plans together now. I'll PM you when we're a little more organized re: our trip.
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm sure I can slip an extra college or two into the trip at the last minute. He won't have too much time to complain about it. I really do want to see Knox College anyway. However, we're flying, so I can't make an excuse to drive by. But I'd really like to see the college where Abraham Lincoln crawled in through a window to get into the debate room. 
--Rhonda
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skibum
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Posted: Sun Aug 13th, 2006 11:51 pm |
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Rhonda-
You know, of course, that Carolyn can give you minutae details about just such a trip. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, as it were...
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westkymom
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Posted: Mon Aug 14th, 2006 11:41 am |
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Hi Skibum,
Why, naturally, Carolyn owns that T-shirt. And most other T-shirts in this admissions game, as well.  We're so lucky to have her -- and all of you as well.
We've already gone on campus visits to Denison University in Ohio and Murray State University in KY, so they were our learning trips. We have a general idea what we'd like to do, and we have family in Penn to visit as well. We allow at least one full day per college. Also, we printed out the campus visit checklist in another topic on this server. But, we do like to pick the brains of anyone with special knowledge of the colleges we'd like to visit. We'll also print out the Allegheny and Juniata threads as well.
I like campus visits! It's fun to explore new places.
--Rhonda
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skibum
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Posted: Tue Aug 15th, 2006 01:58 am |
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Hi westkymom-
Yes, Carolyn is the resident expert on everything, but I am referring to the fact that she did this exact jaunt last year. I remember discussing places to sightsee when at Knox (I just dont remember the details-- brain is gettin too old...) when she did the tours in and around Beloit. I'll see if I can find the old discussion... it was on the "other" forum.
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westkymom
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Posted: Tue Aug 15th, 2006 02:58 am |
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Skibum,
Oh, that explains a lot. I wasn't on the "other board" very long. You're right, though, I know that Carolyn's son and daughter are/have been looking at the same schools as my son. I found it entertaining that if my son chooses Beloit, he'll go to school with Ama, but if he chooses Denison or Reed, he may end up going to school with Carolyn's son (who was also considering Denison and Reed). Really, on our board, the college world gets a lot smaller, doesn't it?
I have to wait until my work schedule settles out a bit, but I think we're aiming for Pennsylvania in Oct 2006.
--Rhonda
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CalifCarolyn
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Posted: Tue Aug 15th, 2006 03:05 am |
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We did PA in June and can't wait to complete our college visits in Oct. We toured Dickenson, Gettysburg and Elizabethtown before the weather stopped our travels (the late June floods)
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Tue Aug 22nd, 2006 12:17 am |
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Another school to add to JD's recommendations for when you visit Beloit is Lake Forest. Really nice school, and very generous with merit money. Lawrence U might also be worth a look. The only advice I would give is that driving distances in the midwest are longer than they seem on the map, perhaps because there isn't much to see along the way. 
Ama would be very happy to show your son around when/if you make it to Beloit. Just let me know when you'll be there.
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Lderochi
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Posted: Tue Aug 22nd, 2006 01:03 am |
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perhaps because there isn't much to see along the way
Ahh, spoken like a Californian (or any east or west coaster). As a native of the Great Plains I must defend our, um, unique scenery. Amber waves of grain have their own beauty!
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jocelynDAD
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Posted: Tue Aug 22nd, 2006 01:46 am |
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Lderochi wrote: perhaps because there isn't much to see along the way
I completely agree wirh Lderochi, it is very nice to be able to get on a highway, straight and level and for some quite long stretchs be able to view the landscape without trucks, SUV's and a multitude of cars in front, alongside, and speeding up on you from behind.
Having driven to and from Minnesota (one trip), Wisconsin (two trips) Iowa (one trip) Indiana (two trips) and numerous trips into Virginia, Maryland, Pa, New York, Ohio over the past two years and three summers, I can attest that it is quite a pleasant trip to be away from the traffic in New Jersey, the Rt 95 corridor, Baltimore and DC madhouses.
I admitted that going thru Chicago or traveling the parchwork road from Rockford to Beloit made me feel I was back in New Jersey, but on the whole, the driving is very pleasant.
BTW, the long stretch of easy driving is also easy sleeping time for W and D2 and D3, so the trip does not seem so long to them.
When my W visits San Diego next month - she is looking forward to seeing her Mom and not looking forward to California drivers and highways. She would prefer the East Coast to the West Coast (driving not weather).
When we take D2 to Minnesota next week, we will be stopping at colleges in Pa, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and PA (again). We are avoiding Chicago by taking a ferry across Lake Michign, hoping for good weather and pleasantly empty highways.
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MaizeBlue
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Posted: Tue Aug 22nd, 2006 04:42 pm |
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jocelynDAD: If you are heading south when you leave D in Northfield, and if you are a baseball fan, stay on 52 through Rochester and head to Dyersville, IA to the Field of Dreams. We just drove this circuitous route from Northfield to Chicago two weeks ago. The Field of Dreams takes about 30 minutes to soak in, and if you bring some equipment, you'll soon be tossing and batting with strangers. My suburbia-raised daughter enjoyed the drive through the teeny towns with their 2 blocks of angled parking spaces on the main street, a bit of Amish country, and lots and lots of cornfields. I had nostalgic moments recalling my farm town roots. Not too many cars on the road, and very few trucks, and no motor homes. The old downtown in Dubuque on the Mississippi looked frozen in time (which it is in the winter!). I'm in the "love the midwest" camp, having visited often in many seasons, but never living there. Call me nuts, but even the almost day-long drive through Montana seems pleasant to me in contrast to my dogging cars on the clogged freeways at home. 
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jocelynDAD
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Posted: Tue Aug 22nd, 2006 06:24 pm |
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MBlue:
I am a member in excellent standing of the Red Sox Nation, which is suffering mightily at this moment, but we shall rise from the ashes of our horrible homestand.
We will be driving up from Grinnell past Rochester to Northfield next week, but will be driving from the Twin Cities to Appleton, Wisc and then the ferry to Michigan, so will not be able to take advantage this trip, but over the next two years (as it stands now), we xpect to be drining in the vicinity of Iowa/Mn on a number of occasions and will keep your suggestion in mind. Thanks.
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alanarch
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Posted: Tue Aug 22nd, 2006 07:43 pm |
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| JocelynDad, you must have had a rough weekend watching the Yankees.
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Tue Aug 22nd, 2006 08:03 pm |
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Sorry, but the trip from Earlham to Knox to Beloit has to be the most long and boring trip ANYWHERE. When the highlight of siteseeing is stopping off at the rest stop that is "Illinois' cleanest" and the rest of the trip involves mile upon mile of nothing but cornfields and pig farms, I'll take East Coast or West Coast traffic any day.
Knox is a great school, however, and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit there. They actually will let you sit in the chair Abe sat in during the tour. The town of Galesburg is also much nicer, in my opinion, than the town of Beloit. But, it's a looooooong three or four hour drive between them with little to break up the journey. To this day, I suspect that part of why my daughter liked Beloit was because that's where the rolling hills start again...
Last edited on Tue Aug 22nd, 2006 08:06 pm by CarolynLawrence
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Alumother
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Posted: Tue Aug 22nd, 2006 08:40 pm |
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So, college visits again. I guess here we go, right? Looking for everyone's thoughts here. My S, remember him? 700M, 710W, 640CR on sophomore PSAT, grades so far all As except an A- each semester in APUSHistory, and an A- second semester in Honors Chemistry. Soccer player - competent for a small high school, could maybe play Div3 at a small LAC that isn't AW or S....Used to play saxophone in the band, quit this year. This year's schedule will be Latin 3 Honors, AP Physics, Pre-Calc Honors, Religion (Catholic school), English Honors, Spanish 1 (wanted to learn Spanish, taking this in place of band), World Civilization Honors.
He's quite a good writer if I say so myself, and scored highest in his high school on the AMC 10 but only did the problems that looked interesting. Told me he has decided that he either wants to be a nature photographer or a songwriter. (D at this point wanted to be either president of the US or a movie star. One is gregarious, one not so much....)This is just to make clear that this guy is more solitary, more creative, less social and interested in managing others...Anyway.
So. College visits. He has a four day weekend in October. Because he is not per se the clear candidate for HYPS that his sister was, and because I feel we really were dumb in D's college application strategy and kind of squeaked in, I want him to see a broader range of schools, and am willing to do two trips this year. His sister is at Princeton and wants me to take him back east this fall so she can see him and me. If I go back there, I would take him to NYU and Columbia to see big urban, and then down to Haverford to see a small LAC.
However, I had thought to build the list from the middle up, rather than the top down, and take him to Rice and Carleton in October. I had also thought this way to open his mind up to the Midwest and Texas, if possible, before taking him back east. Then down to UCLA and over to Cal to see the big state schools, because we can do that any time.
As we all know, it's easy to love the top schools. It's easy to love a school in NYC if you like cities, to love Princeton if you like beautiful suburbs, and Haverford if you want a small place.
What do you all think about the timing and order of these various visits? Does it matter?
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Tue Aug 22nd, 2006 09:50 pm |
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Looks like a nice list, but I think I might add a few slightly less selective schools if you think he will want the Northeast. Muhlenberg, Lafayette, Lehigh or Bucknell for example. The Northeast is just so hyper-competitive, that even schools like these are pretty darn hard to get into.
Like you, I'm not sure where to start with my son. He's expressed an interest in seeing Reed, Chicago, Macalester, Oberlin, Kenyon and Brandeis, and I'd also like him to see the U of Rochester, Carleton, Johns Hopkins and Tufts but we also need to sneak in some safer bets along the way. Obviously it will be a long (and expensive!) year of college visits if we don't come up with a plan of some sort. I am kind of leaning to starting with Reed, Lewis & Clark and U of Puget Sound, just to get him going.
Last edited on Tue Aug 22nd, 2006 09:52 pm by CarolynLawrence
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mom61
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Posted: Tue Aug 22nd, 2006 10:36 pm |
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Senior Son picked up his schedule yesterday. First semester Calculus, Life drawing and english plus an art class at the community college. 2nd semester Statistics, Govt and econ, painting and another community college class.
I don't know when my chubby little sumo wrestler became a tall lean young man. So many changes in the last few months. I am really liking what I am seeing. He definitely is a late bloomer but the blooms that have appeared are bright and beautiful. He is a young senior and I once again find myself wishing that all those years ago we had made the decision to hold him back. I would love for him to take a gap year and explore all his new interests. But he is feeling ready.
Due to the late blooming no college visits yet nor any essays started. He is reluctantly trying to make some effort to improve his Reading score on the SAT. He is still finding out what he wants in a school. All very hard on the mother who is ultra organized and likes to get things done early.
We did have confirmed yesterday that his counselor has retired. I have only heard of one person having met the new one and they weren't impressed. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the old counselor will be willing to write up the college recs. She knows my son well and it will be hard to develop a new relationship with just a few months. We also have to work with the counselor to schedule his SAT so I hope this new guy is decent.
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jocelynDAD
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Posted: Wed Aug 23rd, 2006 12:39 am |
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Carolyn: Wow do I disagree with you. When I am driving those roads from Earlham to Bloomington (IWU) to Galesburg (Knox) to Rockford - I see the open road, the lack of traffic, the skies Blue with some clouds, and yes the flat landscape easy to see because no Trucks on my bumper, or hot rods (showing my age) going 90 while I am going 75-80.
True from Rockport to Beloit is lousy and gong north to Appleton from Beloit was a little tiring because of the roads, but next week when I hit the 'open road' it is going to be a pleasure to not have the smoggy traffic that I see daily here in New Jersey and I saw in California when I lived there.
So Carolyn, while you are usually 99.9% on the money, you are not correct IMO on this point. 
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westkymom
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Posted: Wed Aug 23rd, 2006 03:17 pm |
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Carolyn and J-Dad:
Thanks for your suggestions. I'd also like to add Gettysburg (on CalifCarolyn's list); I just can't resist the history.
Regarding the boring driving in the Midwest, I'm counting on it. One of the reasons we decided to drive instead of fly is for driving practice. My sixteen year old just got his driving permit in July, and we've been tooling around parking lots and residential streets and downtown. I'm thinking by October, he'll be ready for some long boring highway trips -- the less traffic the better. The other ideal driving strip would have been the very long and very boring road from Albuquerque to Roswell NM. Nothing but flat land with intermittent short scrub bushes the whole trip -- and no traffic. Kansas City to Leavenworth KS is a good candidate for most boring drive too.
Being on old Kansas City (MO) midwesterner, I like the big open spaces. If you happen to go through farm country, you may notice that after a rain the sometimes large puddles in the fields reflect vividly the bright blue and white sky. Quite beautiful actually.
Btw, Carolyn, please share any impressions of life at Beloit that Ama can pass on to us. It's high on our list at this point -- at least until the visit next spring.
--Rhonda
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Alumother
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Posted: Wed Aug 23rd, 2006 06:54 pm |
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Carolyn,
I think your S and mine will wind up with slightly similar lists because they have some traits in common. However, right now my son expresses more of a desire for what I think of as square-jaw schools than crunchy schools. Which is kind of funny, as no one has been a Republican in my family for generations...So I think actually Davidson and Bucknell would be correct for him, if he goes for the LAC size.
For me that's the biggest question right now, big state school? mid-size private? or LAC. And then of course how much he wants to be near a city, which is what he says sometimes, and how much he wants to be in nature, which he also says sometimes:0.
It really is time for visits, isn't it. You think you will start on the West Coast, hmm. I guess for me the question is when do Minnesota and Texas present best, fall or spring?
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HImom
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Posted: Mon Aug 28th, 2006 08:31 am |
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Guess we're the odd ones out on this thread (lower stats). My D is also a junior. Her PSAT scores at a sophomore were 60CR, 71W & 54M. Over the summer, she took a review course & raised math to 66 in the practice test; her CR & W were inconsistent because she had trouble with the bubbling (yeah, she needs remedial bubbling). LOL! The NMSF cut-off score has risen to 218 in HI, so maybe she might make commended?
She has had some chronic health challenges that have made shambles of her GPA . Currently, her cummulative GPA is about a 2.5 or so, but she's very bright & has deep insights about people, loves to read, participate in role-playing games on-line, and is very social. She says she enjoys math & science labs, but neither subject is "intuitive" for her. She participates in orchestra but mainly for the social aspects. She has been the steersman for outrigger canoes since she was 10 years old and enjoys this very much and is very good at it. She has always loved to sketch but has been very reluctant to take art classes. She loves animals but is allergic to many of them & does not like blood or needles.
We have had her join us for a few college tours when we were taking her older brother around over the past two summers, as well as moving brother in at USoCal this fall. She has not shown much interest in college visits at this point.
I feel she would be lost in a huge school (like many of the UCs). Not quite sure what she'd like to study. Might encourage her to take a course in psychology next year as a senior, since she's so good at analyzing folks already. She'd probably like the West Coast (especially CA) the best, but we haven't discussed the subject much.
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