Parents of the HS Class of 2013 - Page 310

DONIVRIAN · 04-03-2012, 09:09 AM

Nice to hear your feed back after visiting colleges. For some of us who are at our wits end not knowing what to do when- this is helpful.

I can see that with a tough course load, how difficult will it be for the seniors to get some visits done in next fall along with the ongoing application process. And I am getting stressed out on every thing.

Lauren, thanks for your feed back on interviews. S will have to check at each school about the interview process and then plan accordingly. So much waiting for the spring break- so we get some time to breath and plan!

Perazziman: 4 Stanford admit is really good.I think in the last few years,none is admitted from S's school to stanford. However, three seniors are admitted to MIT this year- which is the highest for their school to MIT so far! We have navience in the school, so it is easy for us to figure out the past acceptance.

RobD: happy visit in Boston...

jbnc11 · 04-03-2012, 09:12 AM

"My son is so over visits. And we only did one!"

Made me laugh! Sounds like my younger son. Looking back on our experience with S1, I'm reminded at what a long process this is--we didn't even find the school he ended up at (Tufts) until fall of his senior year, after countless visits up and down the east coast. Came down to him deciding between a school far away, and Chapel Hill, 2 hours from home where many of his friends were going. In the end, he chose the more personable, smaller campus of Tufts to being closer to home. S2 is all over the map right now, we may be planning a trip to Portland to visit Reed and Lewis & Clark.

SteveMA · 04-03-2012, 09:15 AM

Our kids are sick of visits too but they understand they need them so they still go

. We are mostly done. Unless something else pops up in the next month or so we have one more visit but probably won't get that done until the summer because it is a long way away and we are trying to decide if we want to turn it into a vacation/visit or just go for a couple days.

DONIVRIAN · 04-03-2012, 09:45 AM

SteveMA: I so envey you for all these visits out of your way now....I wish I could say that.Your daughters are going to be very thankful for a less stressful fall...
If it is not for CC, i would have never thought of the visits until probably the time to apply! scary to think about that now.

How many of you have spring break coming up in two weeks? Can't wait for the spring break.. We have nothing planned yet as such- but i would like to sit with my son and plan the summer visit at least. It has been crazy few weeks so far!! finally the third quarter ended last friday! Have no idea how his grades are..waitng for the report card and praying too hard that his grades are not affected by the crazy schedule he had the past couple of weeks.

Haystack · 04-03-2012, 09:50 AM

LAC visits in the summer...much value to them with not many people being on campus?

We are not going to be able to do pre-apply visits and then a follow-up admitted visit for financial and logistical reasons. Our plan is to visit once. With my teaching schedule, I can't pull S out of class this Fall (say on a Wednesday) and then do a 5 day driving visit of the campuses. If we choose to do Fall visits, then they will all have to be via aircraft and may be too expensive. A summer driving tour might be possible but is it worth it?

Most likely visits are Wooster, Centre, and Rhodes.

SteveMA · 04-03-2012, 10:19 AM

DONIVRIAN-we had spring break last week. We got in one real tour and one drive through.

Haystack--I've found the summer visits to be just fine. It does give you a good feel for the campus and every campus we have been on in the summer still has lots of students around. Obviously you can't always sit in with a class or meet with professors but I still think they are better than applying blind. Our second visits, if needed are all close enough to drive-say leaving Friday night come back Sunday. We will have the bonus of getting some possible "official" visits for recruiting that the schools pay for. The far away schools would be two we would use those for, if necessary. So far everything they have looked at has been within 6 hours or so, with the exception of one school still on the list, but we did a summer visit there.

mamabear1234 · 04-03-2012, 10:37 AM

I agree summer visits are not ideal, but very necessary for those who can't miss much school. We took advantage of Columbus Day, the Monday after Thanksgiving which we have off school, and President's Day this year to squeeze in some visits. Spring break is only 2 days (this Friday/Monday); no visits planned then. D may be interested in D3 sports, so no paid-for official visits, but she should be invited for some visits in the fall. Hoping to get to Bowdoin sometime this summer to at least get a feel for the campus and location.

As far as on campus interviews, most schools we have looked at only interview seniors, so beginning in the summer that would be an option. Many have local alumni who interview also.

Oh, and no one from our school has ever been accepted to MIT or Stanford! Probably not too many have applied either, although I know one student last year was rejected by MIT.

momofboston · 04-03-2012, 10:42 AM

Summer visits are fine but then I really think that the kids need to go to the accepted students day for each school that they are seriously considering. That is when you really learn about the details...D1 went to 3 accepted student days, she had already ruled out the other 6 schools...she ended up choosing #3 on her list.

Although she loved #1 and #2, she learned quite a bit during the accepted days. For example, at #1 her primary professor for her major ended up not being very impressive - although the program was impressive, the people she would be learning from in year 1 were not - at all. Plus, their global perspective was clearly not their strength. They said all the right words but to be honest D1 had probably traveled more than her professors.

At school #2, the building she would in for 5 years (5 yr program) was beginning to be renovated and would be done for four years. She didn't want to be in a construction site for that long....plus their study abroad option was individualized and not part of the overall program she was looking at - it was presented very differently on the web site. We would not know any of this unless we went to the accepted day.

All her other options/programs, the class went together with professors from the school....at school #3, everything was perfect. The professors were fascinating, the study abroad program was great with tons of options, and the facilities were all brand new. And it was the closest to home...no plane rides necessary.

So, summer visits can give the student a feel but the accepted students day can make it or break it.

reeinaz · 04-03-2012, 11:06 AM

Momofboston, I can't see my son considering any of those things. I think that unless the classroom was like a scene from Dangerous Minds, sitting in wouldn't make much of an impression, good or bad. I care more about the details than he does. The one detail he does seem interested in is how many graduates found jobs soon after graduation.

tx5athome · 04-03-2012, 11:20 AM

I agree with momofboston about the accepted student days. D1 did not get into what she thought were her top 3, we re-visited the top three of the ones she was admitted to, which helped her make the decision. S2 was admitted to his #1, we only went to the one admitted student day, but I think it was really beneficial!

S3 has Spring Break next week. He was supposed to go on a fabulous New York City trip with Drama like Blueshoe's daughter, but it fell through. I have to work so I am sending him with my mom on some college visits. He has tennis practice part of the week, so we have to work around that. I signed them up for a morning tour at Claremont McKenna, and I am hoping they can catch an afternoon tour at Pomona, but that might be asking too much from them. Right now his SAT's are too low for those schools, but I think it would be good for him to see them.

He is thinking about his schedule next year. They are tentatively going to offer AP Physics. If they do, he will take AP Lit, APGov/APEcon, AP Physics, AP Calc AB (they only offer AB), AP Spanish, Journalism (he will be co-editor-in-chief of the paper), Production Drama and athletics (cross country in the fall and tennis in the spring). So, like others have said, I REALLY want to be done with essays in the summer.

SteveMA · 04-03-2012, 11:26 AM

Some of the schools the kids have looked at have fly-in days for out of state students with the plane ticket price picked up by the school. That might be an option for some next fall too.

anniezz · 04-03-2012, 01:20 PM

SteveMA, that's great to hear that the summer visits were useful, since the bulk of our visits will be during a week this summer.
DD and I both really liked the LAC we saw today, but her ability to play sports there would be limited. Aid there would be a crapshoot - from very good, to very little. Definitely worth the visit though - it gave DD a better perspective and the admissions person we talked to was very encouraging which really put DD at ease and will hopefully de-stress the process some.

Longhaul · 04-03-2012, 01:37 PM

We did several summer visits last year and expect more this summer.

Spring Break visits did not seem worth it to us because many schools would not interview a junior or permit them to sit in on classes.

My son's schedule is packed this fall and he will not be able to do on-campus visits. Many of the schools he likes are a plane ride away. He interviews in person very well, but has horrible phone skills. Hoping phone interviews will not hurt him.

I envy all of you with long weekends in the fall. We just don't have that.

Longhaul · 04-03-2012, 01:48 PM

Reeinaz

See if you can meet Todd McKinney on your Ursinus visit. Also Jon Volkmer if Writing is still high on your son's list.

With the size of Ursinus, the most important thing to me is to connect with the folks you'll have the most interaction with. I think he'll like the "green" of Ursinus -- only 2 roads and the bulk of the campus is between them. The "white" of the campus is an issue for some -- even with all their outreach it remains a "Philly Catholic School boy" campus to me. FWIW -- I am an alum. Most of the instructors really do bend over backwards. And the line you hear at many LACs that faculty hosts students at their homes is very true at Ursinus. A decent portion of faculty live in walking distance. I'm anxious to hear what your son thinks. It would be much higher on my son's list if I were not an alum. The price tag is huge, but discounted quite a bit with high merit ($12-20k/year; for highly sought students $30k/year).

RobD · 04-03-2012, 01:58 PM

We're on spring break now, hence all the visits. D2 is now evangelical about visits after her #1 on paper (Emerson) plummeted into a fiery pit of dislike, and her new # 1 & 2 are schools that seemed mildly interesting before the trip (Lafayette & Brown.)

It's been interesting to watch and listen to D2 as she figures out what she does and doesn't like, need or want. Even a bad visit leads to answers