| Author | Post |
|---|
mom61
Member
| Joined: | Fri Jun 23rd, 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 247 |
| Mana: |    |
|
Posted: Thu Apr 5th, 2007 12:54 am |
|
Thank you Carolyn for providing such a wonderful service. I am going to print it out and lay it on dear son's bed.
He is away with Dad enjoying a break from school. Knowing his Dad they aren't discussing college at all. Now if I was the one on the trip I would need a suitcase full of duct tape to keep me from discussing his options.
He is lucky to have options and I am going to try really hard to let him make the choice. I just don't want him waiting till the last minute.
|
vocca
Member
| Joined: | Mon Jul 3rd, 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 35 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Thu Apr 5th, 2007 05:15 pm |
|
Limner, I know what some of my biases are, but I can also flip-flop! You're lucky you have a front runner - is that your son's preference you're referring to or yours? 
|
limner
Member
| Joined: | Sun Jul 16th, 2006 |
| Location: | Tennessee USA |
| Posts: | 807 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Thu Apr 5th, 2007 05:44 pm |
|
vocca, his front runner, my front runner--you mean there's a difference?
I've been singing the hallelujah chorus (quietly) since S got into Carleton. I've kept my mouth shut (well, mostly shut) while he got over being rejected by his first choice and his dad got over S being either waitlisted or rejected at H's favorites.
And now Carleton does seem to be the one to beat for S. We'll see how it ends up. But no lessening of the duct tape usage around here.
|
vocca
Member
| Joined: | Mon Jul 3rd, 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 35 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Thu Apr 5th, 2007 07:40 pm |
|
Carleton is a great school. We know current and former students there who love/loved it. My D might have applied there if global warming were a bit further along.
|
limner
Member
| Joined: | Sun Jul 16th, 2006 |
| Location: | Tennessee USA |
| Posts: | 807 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Thu Apr 5th, 2007 07:51 pm |
|
mom61, it is really hard to keep out of it. It's probably just as well for us that H is going with S to the accepted students' weekend. (And D has rehearsals for her spring dance recital--miss one and you're out of the recital--so I's staying here). It's great that your S and his dad are having a break.
vocca, thanks for the votes of confidence on Carleton. It definitely sounds wonderful. (I was ready to enroll after reading some of the brochures they sent S.)
|
DesperateDad
Member
| Joined: | Tue Mar 14th, 2006 |
| Location: | California USA |
| Posts: | 829 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Thu Apr 5th, 2007 09:55 pm |
|
mom61:
"not waiting until the last minute"....don't count on it. LOL
Every year I hear of kids taking two envelopes to the post office on May 1, and finally dropping one in the mail.
|
mom61
Member
| Joined: | Fri Jun 23rd, 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 247 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Thu Apr 5th, 2007 10:44 pm |
|
They came home last night. I asked my husband did they talk about the different schools. My husband said no.
This morning as my son asked to go see a friend I said yes but you really need to spend time looking over your choices. He said don't worry Mom I have been thinking about it.
I did all the preliminary work with my son and I have found it works out best if Dad goes on the actual visits. As much as I hate to give up the control.
|
Fireflyscout
Member
| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 174 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Fri Apr 6th, 2007 01:35 am |
|
vocca, my daughter was told by Carleton students that the past few winters had been warm. So she enrolled. Then there was this winter. It wasn't a warm winter.
She survived (and loves the snow).
limner - if your son decides to attend Carleton, just wait til you go to drop him off or for Family Weekend - you'll be ready to move to Northfield. I sometimes wish Carleton had a "parents academy".
|
Alumother
Member
| Joined: | Fri Mar 24th, 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 201 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Fri Apr 6th, 2007 04:56 am |
|
Despite my son's professed requirement for an ocean, I keep thinking about what someone said, "There are all those lakes at Carleton."
Because to me too it sounds like an absolutely wonderful place. In fact, I have it in my mind that some time next fall I will swoop S out there for a lightening visit. Next week of course it's Boston College, Amherst, Brown, Penn, Duke and UMiami. What a LOT of flying and I hate airplanes....
What we do for love . Congrats again to all you parents of 2011.
|
limner
Member
| Joined: | Sun Jul 16th, 2006 |
| Location: | Tennessee USA |
| Posts: | 807 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Fri Apr 6th, 2007 11:49 am |
|
fireflyscout, maybe we can lobby the Carleton administration for a parents academy?
I'm already in love with Toff, the campus cat. And Carleton was on my son's radar because I had wanted to go there--based on the empirical evidence of a Seventeen magazine spread of Carleton co-eds in the snow at Northfield. Hey, that was college research in my day.
Alumother, it's true: we do things for our kids that we wouldn't even do for ourselves. And it's that kind of love that enables them to go 1100 or 3000 or 30 miles away to college.
|
CalifCarolyn
Member
| Joined: | Tue Apr 4th, 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 572 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Fri Apr 6th, 2007 02:55 pm |
|
limner wrote: fireflyscout, maybe we can lobby the Carleton administration for a parents academy?
I'm already in love with Toff, the campus cat. And Carleton was on my son's radar because I had wanted to go there--based on the empirical evidence of a Seventeen magazine spread of Carleton co-eds in the snow at Northfield. Hey, that was college research in my day.
Alumother, it's true: we do things for our kids that we wouldn't even do for ourselves. And it's that kind of love that enables them to go 1100 or 3000 or 30 miles away to college.
that is so true---we give our children wings to fly and the love that keeps them soaring. My Ds have so many more choices than I did and like limner most college research in my day came from magazine articles about the social life and the catalogs that were available in my small town
I love giving them the opportunities to grow, experience the world and then share their adventures with us.
|
GladHi
Member
| Joined: | Wed Jun 21st, 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 41 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Fri Apr 6th, 2007 05:21 pm |
|
Carolyn,
I just returned from a trip to London and Paris to see our older daughter, who is studying in London for the semester. I definitely ate some baguettes--my favorite French foods are sandwich jambon and pain au chocolat. Not to mention the cafe creme. My high school French manages to get me what I want, food-wise . (If all else fails, point to the food in question!)
I do love Paris, but I think I love London more. Probably because I was an English Lit major and spent a semester of college there, with the same program my daughter is now participating in. I am hoping the younger daughter decides to study abroad with Beloit's London/Florence semester, so my husband and I have an excuse to spend some time in Florence (only been there for one weekend, and it was too short).
And, on the main topic of sharing your blog: just yesterday I referred a colleague to your site. She has a high school sophomore with learning disabilities and wants to find a small liberal arts college that will accommodate her daughter. I know your site will be helpful to her, as it has been to so many of us. And I vow that someday we will finally meet each other in person---at the very least, when our daughters graduate in 2010.
|
binx
Member
| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 459 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Sat Apr 7th, 2007 01:07 am |
|
Carolyn, I read your blog outloud last night to my H and D in our hotel room, on our way home from Washington, DC. I couldn't write and tell you then how wonderful it was because I didn't have my password with me to log in!
We are among those having a very tough time making decisions. It may have just gotten easier. We arrived home this evening to a table full of financial aid info (brought in by a neighbor, and stacked neatly by school!)
I think D had been leaning toward Furman more and more, but we are tripping over the cost. Tonight we got their aid packet and it is the $10k violin money and nothing else. Leaving a COA of nearly $30k per year. We made the mistake of driving through the campus on our way home today, and it is absolutely stunning - trees, bushes and flowers in bloom everywhere.
Miami-Ohio's offer may be too good to pass up - less than $15k per year COA. But I'm afraid with my D, the forbidden fruit is always sweeter. We have some serious work to do.
|
mominva
Member
| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
| Location: | DC Suburbs |
| Posts: | 332 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Sat Apr 7th, 2007 01:37 am |
|
I thought of you yesterday, Binx, on my way to work. I was hoping you had the chance to see the Cherry Blossoms before the rains came. Hope you had a great trip.
We are also in the undecided camp, too, but resolution seems a far off prospect. Waiting on one more FA notice and the west coast trip doesn't start for a week.
|
limner
Member
| Joined: | Sun Jul 16th, 2006 |
| Location: | Tennessee USA |
| Posts: | 807 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Sat Apr 7th, 2007 11:48 am |
|
binx wrote:
Miami-Ohio's offer may be too good to pass up - less than $15k per year COA. But I'm afraid with my D, the forbidden fruit is always sweeter.
Binx, then your D falls in with the majority of the human race. I know Carolyn has some things on the site about approaching the finaid office. It might be worth a shot with Furman. Good luck to your D and to mominva's D too!
|
binx
Member
| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 459 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Sun Apr 8th, 2007 12:53 am |
|
I really need some duct tape. I worry, so I talk too much about it and drive everybody crazy.
However, D actually seems pretty cool with everything, and says she likes Miami just fine. It helped that big bro chimed in with his opinion -- doesn't matter that it was the same as mine, just that it came from big bro and not me. He is an economist, and said it made the most sense for an "undecided" major to go to the school with the most academic choices and least cost -- So that there is space for "academic freedom" to look around, and when a major is actually chosen, and grad school or a fifth year comes into the picture, there is money to do it.
May every student in this position have a wise big bro who is idolized!
Mominva - thanks for thinking of me! We visited this same big bro (he is an economist with the Labor Dept) in DC. We had beautiful days on Monday and Tuesday, seeing the cherry trees and doing tourist stuff. Went to the season opener baseball game on Monday. Glad it didn't snow till we left!
Last edited on Sun Apr 8th, 2007 12:54 am by binx
|
Thumper
Member
| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 222 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Sun Apr 8th, 2007 01:42 pm |
|
May every student in this position have a wise big bro who is idolized!
My daughter also idolizes her big brother. HE told her to "go where the money is...don't be stupid. You'll have a lot of opportunities to do lots of things with mom and dad's money BESIDE college if you do that." She chose the more expensive school (which truthfully IS the better choice).
DS shared this with us after the fact. Perhaps if his opinion had been different than ours, she would have listened.
|
binx
Member
| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 459 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Sun Apr 8th, 2007 07:05 pm |
|
If I am remembering correctly, Thumper, your D seemed to know exactly what she wanted out of college. So she probably didn't need anybody else's opinion! Both my boys were like that, too. They knew what they wanted to study, and exactly where. My S says my D is our only normal child.
My son's point with D is that since she doesn't know what she wants, she can look around cheaply just as well as she can expensively, and the cheap school has more of the things he believes an "undecided" student needs access to. I still don't know what will happen, but she seems open to anything, so it's all good.
|
CarolynLawrence
Administrator
| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
| Location: | USA |
| Posts: | 3191 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Mon Apr 9th, 2007 11:33 pm |
|
Binx,
I've been away for a few days visiting my daughter. I just wanted to say that I myself think the Miami campus is beautiful - it really looks and feels like a private university. And, the little town of Oxford is also very nice.
Speaking strictly for myself, I am the biggest worrier in our family. Even long after everyone has moved on after the decision has been made, I'm still going through the "what if" scenarios over and over again. I did that last year when my daughter quickly decided on Beloit, and will probably do it again next year, when my son makes his choice. One thing I have noticed is that I tend to look for reasons NOT to make a particular choice (i.e., looking for what is wrong with the choice), whereas my husband and kids tend to look for reasons TO make a particular choice (i.e., looking for what is right with the choice). It's a subtle difference, but an important one, I think. One thing you might want to do is look beyond the money when you look for reasons to like Miami.
My hugs to you --- I know this is not easy, but from what I know of your daughter, she is going to make a great choice, no matter what.
|
Current time is 10:16 pm | Page:   1 2 |
|
