<p>Has Purdue ever come up on this thread? Rockvillemom, do you have this in your Naviance?</p>
<p>Re the Citadel: Yes, most of the Citadel students are not Jewish. Neither are most of the CofC students. But, in pure numbers, the males from the Citadel somewhat balance the male/female ratio in Charleston. And that is something to consider when looking at the ratios of schools. Are there other colleges and universities nearby that may help provide some balance, if that is important?</p>
<p>This year, our Temple sent one student to the Citadel – a female! Next fall, another student will be attending – a male. (Not bad when you consider that an average Confirmation class has 3 to 5 students) The Jewish students at the Cit participate in the CofC Hillel activities.</p>
<p>C of C is approximately 10% Jewish though. Percentage wise it has to be much much less at the Citadel (Military College of South Carolina), surely less than 1%. The Medical University of South Carolina is in Charleston (a nice Med student maybe) but is there much interaction with C of C?</p>
<p>Levirm…my S1 has applied to Purdue for engineering, so I am pretty familiar w/ it in that regard. Here is the Freshman Profile for this fall’s class, taken from the Purdue website:</p>
<p>Freshman Profile, Fall 2010</p>
<p>Size of class: 6,347
Number of applications: 30,707
Overall average high school class rank: Top 18%
Middle 50% high school GPA range: 3.3-3.9
Middle 50% SAT range: 1530-1900
Middle 50% ACT composite range: 23-29
Middle 50% ACT English/Writing range: 22-27
High School Class Rank<br>
Students in top 10% 37%
Students in top 25% 71%</p>
<p>The above info was for Purdue in general, not engineering, in case that wasn’t clear.</p>
<p>UMBC TOUR</p>
<p>Went to UMBC and was really disappointed. Did not like the dorm (dark brick walls, small, depressing, window faces another building, dark hallway), not a single flier about Hillel or any Jewish activities, Economics department is very small and could not find out much about it because no Economics staff was present, and just could not see the academic fit for a kid interested in Businesss or Economics.</p>
<p>Do not want this forum to get the wrong impression as UMBC does have its virtues: many wholesome activities (make mac n cheese, Sports Zone, etc.), not a party school, serious students, a good place if the school has the major or program you want.</p>
<p>Now my son decided to apply to USC. After an exhaustive search of the many schools mentioned on this thread, and visiting schools of high interest, USC is clearly a top choice, but hard to get into. Everything this thread wants–Marshall Business is fantastic and its Accounting program is a top 10, has Jewish groups and activities, a very vibrant campus–only difficulty with USC is that it is a “reach” school for the B pllus student.</p>
<p>Our large public hs Naviance shows that in 2010, 16 applied, 12 were accepted and 1 is attending. The average weighted GPA was a 3.96 - pretty much a B+/A- student, with a 1200 - 1300 SAT. All but one applicant with at least a 1200 SAT were accepted. Average ACT is a 27. So, I do think it is a match for a B student with at least a 1200 or 27 ACT.</p>
<p>In other news, finished the Great Gatsby. I thought it was absolutely awful for the first few chapters, 2nd half of the book was better, but still - I can see why my barely 16-year-old son hated the book. We will be studying from Spark notes tomorrow as several of you have recommended.</p>
<p>Towson also remains a top choice and I continue to think that Rockville Mom’s son should apply to Towson.</p>
<p>mdcissp - Towson is definitely still on his list. I’d say right now it is Elon, CofC, Susquehanna, Muhlenberg, Delaware, James Madison, Salisbury and Towson. I think that is going to be it - since he won’t consider expanding into NY or CT - and we want him in driving range. His GPA and 27 ACT make most of those schools matches - Elon might be a little reachy - I’d feel better about Elon if he could get the ACT up to a 28 or 29. But our Naviance shows him looking pretty good at most of these schools - not that anything is a guarantee - but as much as you can derive from Naviance - he looks ok.</p>
<p>The truth is - he’s not worried. He is confident that he will get in somewhere and he seems to be pretty relaxed about doing fine wherever he ends up. I’m trying to embrace his mellow attitude - but it is a stretch for me.</p>
<p>I think your son will have many great choices and the problem will be choosing which school to attend! Not sure why you are keeping James Madison on the list. Perhaps after visiting all schools you might get a smaller list which is ok.</p>
<p>Football and tech are separate draws for boys, although some schools have both.<br>
I am not sure religion would be as much an obstacle for a nonSouthernJewish CofC girl with a Citadel boy as the the military orientation.</p>
<p>In reading the posters who believe a lopsided ratio is more of an issue at a small school than a large one, I hope you are right, but I am not sure why you would be. It does not seem to me that 3000 girls to 2000 boys is logically better than 300 to 200. Yes, there are more boys around, but there are proportionately just as many more girls. Yes, you will see more boys, but the odds of dating one–as the UNC story showed–are no better.</p>
<p>Rockvillemom, does Naviance use weighted or unweighted GPA?</p>
<p>mdcissp: I have also thought that USC would be a great fit for my S2. I have kind of ignored that thought for 2 reasons one being that I expect that it is reachy, and that admission into Marshall would be difficult even if admission into USC was accomplished. (Do you know if students get admitted into the business school as freshman if if they transfer in as juniors?) The other concern is cost. I know you have also been concerned about the cost of privates, does USC have strong financial aid in the form of grants rather than loans?</p>
<p>RM: I have also done those read the book/spark notes tutoring sessions and may do them again, soon. I have found that sometimes, reading some passages or early chapters together, where there are subtleties to discuss that tell you about the character or foreshadow events, helps son to gain an understanding of where the book is going and S can then finish without a problem. This is especially helpful in a book that is hard to read in the beginning. I have also found that there are several study guides online besides Sparknotes. I have Googled a title followed by review questions and come up with essay and multiple choice questions that can be helpful for reviewing. Good luck with that!</p>
<p>RM and Northeastmom: (Regarding your posts 3083 and 84 and my post 3080)…Thank you for the suggestion about using EFC as a guide, we fill out the FAFSA and CSS each year but it would be good to project out 2 years to see how we stack up. I expect that we will qualify for aid. The other question is whether the aid comes in the form of grants or loans and if full need is met by the school. </p>
<p>We are very familiar with laying it all out in advance so that if unhappy choices have to be made they are at least not a surprise. My difficulty is that right now I have a happy kid who prefers some publics to others, hasn’t really looked at any of them but says he’s fine going to a state school. I’m confident he will get into one of the publics but I’m not sure which one. In the case of S1 it was clear he wanted to go to school OOS and very likely to a private. I didn’t tip him to that choice he made that decison on his own. He was also a candidate for scholarships that I don’t think S2 will be. For S1 it was relatively easy to set the ground rules because it was putting a limit on what he already wanted. For S2 it would be me showing him all that is out there, then getting him to the point that he wishes to go to a private and then possibly disappointing him because these schools are out of his reach. I am tentative about whether to even open that door or not.</p>
<p>yabeyabe - my feeling about the gender imbalance being more of an issue at smaller schools was written from the perspective of having a boy and wondering if he would have enough potential boys of his age to hang out with. Goucher being so small - maybe 350 per class - and then only about 35% male - means there would be only about 125 boys per class - that seems really tiny. At James Madison, even with 39% male - there are 4000+ kids per class - giving him potentially 1560 boys to hang out with. I agree that when it comes to dating - boys have the advantage pretty much everywhere!</p>
<p>mdcissp - S2 really liked JMU when we visited - and since it meet our criteria - within driving range, price is ok, some Jewish life and Hillel, majors he is interested in, etc., I am fine keeping it on the list. It would not be MY first choice - but there is no reason to disallow it. And I have to consider that every survey I read shows happy kids at JMU, great freshman retenntion and graduation rates - so they must be doing something right!</p>
<p>levirm - our Naviance uses weighted GPAs - so that 3.96 GPA I quoted regarding Purdue is weighted. That is pretty much exactly my son’s GPA - it reflects A’s in non-honors classes and B’s in honors classes - so I do regard a 3.96 WGPA as a B+ student.</p>
<p>Thank you Moltobene, you do make Tulane sound wonderful for theater and in all ways! I think it’s too far from us but there are others who would be thrilled to know about it. There’s no substitute for firsthand experience! We were at U Rhode Island this weekend and were much impressed with the students and faculty we met, not to mention the beautiful campus.</p>
<p>RM, thanks. I should have mentioned that I understood from a boy’s perspective, but recalled at least 1 girl poster saying imbalance did not matter at a larger school.</p>
<p>With boys with typical interests–sports, videogames–I think size of school generally matters little. They will become friendly with enough of the first 25 typical boys they meet to have a group of friends which will last them all 4 years. </p>
<p>From about thrid grade on, I have seen boys be much more inclusive than girls and much less likely to change friends. In college, it seems the majority of friendships are made freshman year.</p>
<p>re: gender imbalance: small, medium and large school…this was something my daughter asked about (among students) at every school she visited…</p>
<p>Not one person (and she spoke/stayed with quite a few) knew or noticed what she was talking about…and, honestly, although we knew the stats, never markedly noticed a discrepency like this at any school we visited…</p>
<p>the numbers, of course, don’t lie…but in an entering freshman class of let’s say, 1000 students, the diff between 400 guys and 600 girls, in my daughter’s opinion, is not recognizable unless you plan on lining everyone up on two sides of a football field to see the difference…that’s not even counting the rest of the school…</p>
<p>and as she says, “I’m coming out of an entire school with a grand total of about 200 guys…I’ll be fine with 1000…” (assuming the smallest school is around 2400 students)</p>
<p>I think your daughter has a very good attitude. My son, coming out of an HS with 470 seniors, noted that he had far from exhausted that crowd k-12, so he did not think a small school would seem too small by 2014. I would add that “fit” with the student body is key–if there are a lot of kids your child does not mesh with, the numbers shrink-for example, the non-frat boy in the frat-dominated school, although, again, the non-frat boy with 3 or 4 good non-frat friends will likley be pretty happy anyway.</p>
<p>Similarly, a girl who has not had difficulty get boyfriends is in a better postion to cope with imbalance than one who has.</p>
<p>BTW, I have been a fan of CC for a long time and forgot my old login, so while it says 1-2 posts, I have been around CC since 2005. For those interested in USC and Purdue, I have some anecdotal information. My nephew attended USC with a full academic scholarship. That kid was super smart, and even now as a PhD student, has never seen anything lower than an “A”. Ugh…I wish my kids had those genes. He loved USC and is a big Trojan fan, but did say these things about the school: heavy CA presence of students, very preppy girls (asked him what that meant, and he said, they take the time to put on make-up every day and wear high heels to class w/signature purses, not exactly his type), smart kids, big on fraternities/sororities. He was not big into Hillel and interestingly, his roommates were mostly of east Indian decent. My high school son has several friends at the school and they like it. Also, be aware of where your S or D eventually wants to work. Most students who do business school in CA colleges end up working there. Northwestern U. kids end up working in finance in Chicago and Michigan/Penn/UVa/NYU-Stern/Emory usually go east to NYC.</p>
<p>Purdue is a different story. My friend’s son who went there was pretty smart (into robotics) and did engineering. He is doing an interesting program there where they spend 5 alternate semesters working for a company and he has done some very interesting engineering work. Problem with that is, that he has not been able to make close friends outside the program and misses a lot of campus activities, like football, if he is working.</p>
<p>USC is a reach school for the B plus student. The school had over 35,000 applications. If accepted and you need financial aid, you have to fill out the financial aid forms. I do think it is an excellent school to consider for transfer too.</p>