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Alumother
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| Joined: | Fri Mar 24th, 2006 |
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Posted: Mon Aug 28th, 2006 06:09 pm |
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OK. So looks like we will go east first, since D wants to see us , but it turns out that S's long weekend is *surprise* Freshman Parent's Day at Princeton. So, of course, reservations may be an issue. D wants me there because I missed freshman parent's day last year.  If this works out we will go to Manhattan and take him to NYU and to Columbia, to Princeton, and to Haverford/Swarthmore or Bucknell. Probably will use Pton as the base and just drive to the other places.
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westkymom
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Posted: Mon Sep 4th, 2006 02:17 am |
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Well, it looks like we're flip-flopping our trip. We'll go to Rose-Hulman IN then on to Beloit College WI this Fall. I'm overwhelmed by our Spring 2007 trip. My son wants to visit the following schools: Ithaca College (Ithaca NY), Skidmore College (Saratoga Springs NY), St Lawrence University (Canton NY), Clarkson University (Potsdam NY) [Canton and Potsdam are very close to each other], Swarthmore College (Swarthmore PA, near Philadelphia), Juniata College (Huntingdon PA), Allegheny College (Meadsvile PA), and Marlboro College (Marlboro VT). I wish we had a month!
--Rhonda
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CarolynLawrence
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| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
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Posted: Mon Sep 4th, 2006 08:25 pm |
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Rhonda,
Well, at least your son has a list of schools he wants to visit! My son so far only really wants to visit one school (Reed), which we can probably do over a long weekend.
My daughter and I already had a list of all of the colleges she wanted to go see and a plan for visiting them at this point in her junior year. That was one of the reasons why she was able to apply EA and rolling and be done with it. But, we also had a pretty clear idea of where her grades would likely end up, so it was easy to figure out which schools were realistic to look at.
If my son manages to get his GPA up even just a bit this year, his list of realistic schools to visit could change considerably. So, right now, I'm kind of in a holding pattern, waiting to see how he does this year before making any school visit plans.
Last edited on Mon Sep 4th, 2006 08:33 pm by CarolynLawrence
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GladHi
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Posted: Mon Sep 4th, 2006 08:48 pm |
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Carolyn,
About visiting either Whitman or UPS--Does the remoteness of the school matter to your son? Because UPS is in the middle of civilization, but Whitman is definitely not. It takes many hours to drive to Walla Walla--four hours from Portland. Older D, now enjoying her 3rd year at UPS, refused to consider Whitman because of its location ("Mom, there's a prison there."). Younger D (now happily at Beloit  ) agreed to take a look. We drove there from Portland (visited University of Portland, and had already seen Willamette and Lewis & Clark with older D). It is a beautifully scenic drive along the Columbia River, but takes a big chunk of time to do!
But the big plus of visiting Whitman was that younger D really liked it, and was okay with the fact that it was not close to any major cities. That was news to us. After that visit, we searched for schools "like Whitman" in other parts of the country. (She was more adventureous than her older sister, who would only consider colleges in Washington or Oregon.)
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Wed Sep 6th, 2006 02:09 am |
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| GladHi, It's hard to say. Originally, son said he did NOT want urban, or even suburban. He thought Kenyon sounded nice. However, when he saw Beloit, he said *maybe* he'd like to look at some schools in a bit more...exciting places. So, who knows? I do think it's hard to visualize until you start visiting, so Whitman (or Kenyon for that matter) might be off or on after a visit. His "dream school" of the week is Reed, but that is probably only because he is going through a phase of imagining himself as a brooding intellectual. When the next phase comes along (this kid has had more persona's than an undercover detective), all is subject to change.
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bumpyroad
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Posted: Wed Sep 6th, 2006 07:23 pm |
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Carolyn - one thing to consider before a visit to Reed from the perpetual sun in CA is whether you want to see it in the dry season (where we are now) or the rainy season (where we'll be in about a month and a half). Truth-in-visiting suggests the rainy season might be better, because a majority of the school year is spent under clouds. Personally I like the cool misty days, but they're not to everyone's taste.
Reed is a great school - I wish my D (also class of 2008) would consider it, but she's determined to leave the Portland area. The closest school she's talked about is Whitman.
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Thu Sep 7th, 2006 01:33 am |
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Bumpyroad,
My daughter was like that. Any school outside of California was her number one requirement. I do think it is great for kids to experience a different part of the country, and Portland is certainly different than San diego, yet both are wonderful. We'll see how the Reed attraction plays out for my son. He's a really social kind of guy, so I think once he hears Reedies talk about spending their weekends - days and nights - in the library, some of Reed's luster might fade.
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PrimetimeMom
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| Joined: | Mon Mar 6th, 2006 |
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Posted: Thu Sep 7th, 2006 02:16 am |
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We are also in SoCal and my son is not interested in looking at at CA schools except UCLA which he will most likely not have the stats/test scores for. His school is a feeder school to USC but he has NO interest in applying there. He is enamored of Boston College so we will visit the Boston area at some point. I'm hoping he likes Boston U because he has a better chance there and a new GC at his school worked in admissions at BU.
The other schools he is interested in are also pies in the sky; UNC Chapel Hill and UT Austin where he has visited cousins and had fabulous sports filled weekends.
I think this year will involve introducing more realistic colleges that he would be interested in attending.
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bumpyroad
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Posted: Thu Sep 7th, 2006 02:43 am |
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I spent 20 years in Chapel Hill, a number of them in graduate school, and I'm amazed at how it's become such a sought-after school for undergraduate students. I went to Oregon State as an undergraduate and as far as I could tell there wasn't much difference between the undergraduate student pools.
North Carolina mandates a large proportion of its undergraduate slots to its own students, so the competition for out-of-state students is hugely different from in-state, but the in-state students dominate the campus. Things may have changed since I was there 10 years ago, but the pattern in NC was to spend relatively little on K-12 and lavish funds on the university system, whcih doesn't produce a really great crop of undergraduates. It's a relic of the southern oligarchy - the relatively few well-off familes send their kids to private school, then off to UNC to become the next generation of movers and shakers in NC.
It's not a place I'd recommend for undergraduate, although they have a number of very good graduate programs. And Chapel Hill is a great place to live, no question.
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PrimetimeMom
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Posted: Thu Sep 7th, 2006 04:37 am |
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Bumpyroad I am especially interested in your mentioning you went to Oregon State. U of Oregon will probably be one of the schools that my son is interested in applying due to Prefontaine who is an idol of my son (a cross country runner). I would be interested in learning more about Oregon State.
My son's Step-Dad matriculated from UNC Chapel Hill in 1982 after transferring from Wake Forest. He is the first to admit how times have changed in admissions at these schools. He was a B- student from Tennessee!
Last edited on Thu Sep 7th, 2006 04:39 am by PrimetimeMom
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bumpyroad
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Posted: Thu Sep 7th, 2006 05:25 am |
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Primetime - I went to both U. of Oregon and Oregon State. In both cases a long time ago, so my impressions are a bit dated, but my nephew's at U. of O. now. It's a great place for those who love running. Going to a track meet in Eugene is like going to a football game at Michigan, with the stands full of enthusiastic fans. I believe the next Olympic trials are in Eugene.
The difference between the two schools is like many between land-grant/liberal arts schools around the country. OSU is good for engineering, forestry, and agriculture - plus science in general; U of O is good for languages, history, etc. Oregon is a funny place - it's a blue state with a fiscally conservative bent - so the universities haven't gotten a lot of support from the state. They've even discussed going private since so little of the budget comes from the state.
Both schools have honors colleges, I believe. The U. of O. honors college is the choice of many around here with smart kids but not a lot of money, and I know OSU is pretty generous to kids who do the IB program.
Neither of these schools is particularly hard to get into. However, one thing I think is true for all the public universities in the west - because there are fewer private options out here compared to back east, the overall quality of the students is pretty good, and a lot of good students go to these schools.
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HImom
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Posted: Thu Sep 7th, 2006 06:00 am |
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I went to UofO in the 70s & loved it (majored in social sciences & then went to law school at UCDavis). For those who live in the western states, there is a Western Undergraduate Exchange program that UofOR does participate in that can reduce tuition if you are chosen to participate in the program (it is competitive).
I loved the people I met at UofO & did find it sufficiently challenging and academic; they allowed me to create an honors program & be the 1st to gradaute with honors in my department when I was there by getting advisors & writing a thesis. I was also allowed to be a teaching assistant when I was a sophomore & I had limitless leadership opportunities that I loved. We only visited OSU once & it was for the football game where we were the visitors--don't even remember if we won but do remember it was COLD.
Loved Oregon but the rain got to me after a while, so had to get out of it for law school & loved UCDavis.
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dufay
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| Joined: | Mon Jul 17th, 2006 |
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Posted: Thu Sep 7th, 2006 04:08 pm |
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| Daughter is a junior, and has taken a different path. She lives in a different city (about 5 hr drive) with a host mom and attends a ballet school about 25 hours/week. She cyberschools- and takes honors and AP level (and French and Russian university level) courses on line. She is very organized- and has to be. I can check most of her work, and can make sure she stays on track. All A's except one B in Geometry. She is considering college if a dance career doesn't happen (and funding for the arts being what it is, it's unlikely). She does NOT want to dance in college (so she says- I think she would miss it). Thinking of genetics counseling, but very strong in languages, so maybe major in a language and minor in biology. Don't know scores yet- to take PSATs. Expect very strong verbal, OK math. Barnard, Georgetown (reach), American, Penn (alma mater), Pitt, Toronto, Mcgill- this is a city girl. I'm not sure when we'll get to look as next year might be a combo of auditions and college viewing.
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alanarch
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Posted: Thu Sep 7th, 2006 05:23 pm |
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| Dufay, one minor comment on the geometry. My son was and is a very good math student (800 on SAT I and II) but had a difficult time with geometry because there are a lot of proofs and a lot less computational material (different sides of the brain?). After that he did just fine.
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alanarch
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Posted: Thu Sep 7th, 2006 05:27 pm |
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posted twice, please ignore.
Last edited on Thu Sep 7th, 2006 05:28 pm by alanarch
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dufay
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Posted: Thu Sep 7th, 2006 06:17 pm |
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| Both my kids- and my son is more the math whiz- have said that geometry was much more difficult for them than algebra. I hope trig turns out OK- they are well past the point of my ability to help them. I must say that the cyberteachers are incredibly good at turning around ??s. They have phone and IM office hours in addition to regular email. I have much better contact with them than I ever had with public school (son is in public school, not cyber).
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westkymom
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Posted: Thu Nov 2nd, 2006 02:07 pm |
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I've been following the seniors' thread; it's really buzzing with filling out and sending applications. I was just wondering what other parents of juniors are experiencing right now. What's going on in your world?
For us, believe it or not, we have a hurry-up request from my son's German teacher to get info to her for a recommendation letter. She's a very popular teacher (who also teaches English) and is expecting a baby in February 2007. I didn't expect that my son would be requesting recommendation letters this early.  We were just putting out feelers to see how early she'd like the info (given her situation) and her response was a resounding NOW! She wants to get son's letter finished before Winter break (just when we thought we were being really proactive...a little unsettling, this process). Since the colleges want the recommendation letters sent directly from the teacher and my son's list of schools isn't quite written in stone yet, I'm not sure exactly how this is going to work out. 
--Rhonda
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HImom
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Posted: Thu Nov 2nd, 2006 03:22 pm |
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Wow, that IS early! I suspect the teacher just wants to write the "meat" of the rec & can wait until later to write the addresses (Us). Glad to hear she is being proactive so she can devote attention to the letters & do a good job before she's swamped with being a new mom or at least mom to a newborn.
My D is just trying to get thru JR year. Over winter break, we'll try to get her to register for ACT, SAT I & discuss which SAT IIs to take & when. JR year is notoriously busy at our kids' school.
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bumpyroad
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Posted: Thu Nov 2nd, 2006 04:07 pm |
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I'm still trying to get my D to start thinking about coming up with a list of schools. She will be gone all of next summer to be a counselor at a science camp, so she won't be able to do any visiting travel or application work over the summer. I'm anticipating next fall will be pretty busy, so anything we can do now would be good. As I told her, to a 16-year old a year is an eternity, but to a parent it seems like no time at all.
This weekend we're going to the NACAC traveling show in Portland. Maybe that will get her excited. We made a quick trip to Claremont a few weeks ago to visit my wife's brother who teaches at CMC. Visiting a friend who lives in a dorm there did get her excited about the joys of living away from home, but I'm not sure the college tour itself had a big impact.
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Bridie
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Posted: Thu Nov 2nd, 2006 05:37 pm |
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my junior D took her PSATs and we've just signed her up for the ACT in Dec. I guess we'll see which looks more promising. I'm kind of hoping she can do well enough on the ACT so we don't have to think of doing SAT2s in addition. Also, she's stronger in english and my understanding is that most of the sections of the ACT (including the science section) are actually reading/verbal.
I'm trying to get her interested in looking at school websites etc. but I've done most of the looking so far. We are taking a trip to see several schools (that happen to be very close to each other) next weekend just to give her some feel for what smaller schools are like. Instinct tells me that she would excel in a small to midsize environment but she has never seen a school of 2,000 kids. I'm hoping she'll like it but, even if she doesn't, it should help us focus a little more.
Junior year is full of pressure and challenges but so far she's weathering it OK (prob. better than me!)
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