<p>Well, I hope your S is very happy at MD. S1 has many friends from hs who went to MD and they seem happy. And S2 has friends who are already saying that’s where they want to go. Also know many kids who, like yours, passed up pretty prestigious private schools to go to MD. So, it’s a great place for those who want a large university.</p>
<p>Rockville, I think your list and process are very well thoguht out. My only concern would be that June visits will usually be to empty campuses, giving no idea of what kids look like–and I suspect Hillels will be closed. Since some of your schools are not far away, perhaps those 2 visits could be converted into Fall weekend visits?</p>
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<p>Our rate-limiting step was having truly NO idea how competitive my daughter would be as an applicant. Once we had a pretty good handle on what her GPA would turn out to be (middle of junior year), we harangued the guidance counselor into giving us a ballpark on where in the class that would place her (which decile). She also had no standardized test scores to work with until the PSAT scores came back in December. So I truly don’t know how we could have started on a list any sooner. What do you think is a good way to be able to predict what’s a good fit before you have a rough guess at GPA/rank/scores?</p>
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<p>I don’t think any of the schools on my daughter’s current list offer EA/rolling admission. Is there a list of such schools I can take a look at to see if there are schools I haven’t thought of? It is awfully anxiety-provoking to wait until spring!</p>
<p>I am confused here. I thought your child has to apply to the Smith School of Business (UMCP) during Soph. year. How can a child be a “direct admit” to Smith Business? In fact, this is one of the things I hate about UMCP. I heard the Business school is an “impacted” program with competitive, limited enrollment, application is not as an entering freshman, application is during Soph. year and that if you apply, you end up either at Smith in College Park, at the Shady Grove location, or flat out rejected with nothing. I don’t like it when kids have to apply to competitive programs after starting college because you can end up with nothing. </p>
<p>For the parent who is looking for pro-Israeli clubs, I heard that UMCP has 3 pro-Israeli clubs and a very active Hillel.</p>
<p>Rockvillemom: Please post your impressions about the College of Charleston. My husband said he saw it on a business trip and that it has a lovely campus with old buildings. How do you get there and is it reasonable and easy from your area? Thanks.</p>
<p>By Jan of junior year one should have a handle on at least the minimum SAT score from the PSAT as well as a decent idea of grades. If you can get a ballpark number for rank (assuming the school ranks - or reports deciles) that can also be helpful. </p>
<p>We visited a couple of colleges with my youngest during Feb break and a couple more during the spring break. (For my oldest we visited the same number of colleges, but all during the spring.) We visited three more all in the same town just before Labor Day since our schools weren’t in session but the colleges we were visiting had started in August. That was plenty of visits for my kids. The rest they visited after they had been accepted. I don’t think visits when school aren’t in session are much use. We visited Brandeis the day before Passover and the campus was already empty. My son never gave it a chance.</p>
<p>We never found many EA schools for my kids - my older son applied to two and was deferred from both and his safety had an early notification program. Younger son applied to two EA - was deferred from one and accepted to the other. EA and rolling admissions are great, but do be aware an awful lot of very attractive schools only have ED.</p>
<p>mdssp: Thanks you for the information about UT Dallas, I will keep an eye on that one. While you were in Dallas did you look at SMU? I have been thinking of checking it out since it has a strong business program, I’m glad to hear that there is a Hillel. </p>
<p>My3tuitions: Thanks for the info on the search feature, I had not seen the search thread option before. Your effort to educate was not in vein!</p>
<p>Thanks also for the suggesions about exploring the Jewish vibeand population of a school.</p>
<p>(I tried to post this earlier and it disappeared, so sorry for a double post if it mysteriously bounces back.)</p>
<p>mdcissp: My s just finished his first year at CofC. He loved it: size, location and weather, interaction with his professors, the fact that he did not need a car, and the liberalness and openmindedness of most students (we live in a conservative, Christian-oriented area of SC so this was a refeshing change.) Both the Hillel and the Jewish frat are very active. My s attended events sponsored by both. The frat has a rep for throwing the best parties and for having the nicest members.</p>
<p>Charleston has a very active Jewish comunity and CofC has a wonderful Jewish Studies program. We’ve been on the mailing list for the Jewish Studies Center for years. I think their “new” building has been around for about 10 years.</p>
<p>About 30% are OOS. Southwest Air just announced they will be flying out of Charleston next year. And the city is a wonderful place for parents to visit!</p>
<p>As for the low grad rate: s reports that some kids leave because of grades, some leave because the school wasn’t the right fit or they decided to study something that wasn’t offered, all kinds of reasons. </p>
<p>Any specific questions, happy to answer.</p>
<p>The summary in post 535 was excellent. However, with the “Watch the Price Tags” critria, all the reach schools on the list, Richmond, Tulane, etc. have COA of about $50,000. It might be hard for a B student to get a lower price tag.</p>
<p>yabeyabe - after doing college visits with S1 - I kind of see 3 goals - seeing the actual campus, facilities and area surrounding campus, attending the canned info presentation and student led tour, and finally, seeing and interacting with present students. So, in my view, we can accomplish the first 2 goals with a June visit and you’re right - we are close enough that if either or both of these schools we are visiting in June stay on the list - we will absolutely see them again in the spring of junior year or even fall of senior year. I just want to do these 2 June visits to a) motivate S2 to work a little harder junior year and b) get him thinking about the size of the college he prefers.</p>
<p>DeskPotato - I know my son’s weighted and unweighted GPA. I hope it goes up a touch in junior year - but I am working with what I have now. Our hs gives the PSAT in 9th, 10th and 11th - he did not to very well on it the 2 times he has taken it - but I was able to arrange for him to take the PLAN (preliminary test for the ACT) on which he scored a 26 - so much better results there. So, I am using 10th grade GPA info and PLAN info to work with for now - and will of course make adjustments as needed once he takes a real ACT and so forth.</p>
<p>dudedad - you are completely right about the price tags on the reach schools. But out of the entire group - I have many that are closer to $25,000. I would be surprised if S2 did end up applying to any of the reach schools - based on his stats today - would not be happening. But you never know - I keep hearing about boys who suddenly get fired up junior year and get the best grades they have ever rcvd, etc., - so one can dream, right?</p>
<p>Stillnadine - how did sophomore housing work out for your son? Is he going to be living on campus or off campus next year? Would appreciate hearing about that - pretty much my only concern with C of C is housing.</p>
<p>rockvillemom (btw, I’m a former Rockville mom myself…my kids would have been at WJHS had we stayed)–the big question mark for us was rank. Still is. I think some of the schools we thought were in reach became out of reach once we got the GC to tell us a rough class rank prediction.</p>
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<p>My son got into a reach school. They even awarded some merit money, which surprised me. When decision time came, we all felt that this was not the best fit for him. I felt this way early in the process, but as you say, one never knows. We did not want to close any doors, so he applied. My son had a good senior year academically (grades have been pretty steady and solid throughout hs). Still, we wanted our son to go to a school where he would be on the upper end of the applicant pool (not the tippy top, but not in the bottom 30% either). Our son is willing to work pretty hard (he leads a balanced life, but knows when he needs to really push himself), but he also has needed to work hard for his grades in high school.</p>
<p>Rockville, I know you have the situation well in hand. My only concern about June visits was that I read of kids who turn off a school for good after visiting an empty campus. An alternative is late August, when kids have moved in and high school has not started. </p>
<p>NEmom, kudos for going for the best fit, not the best window decal.</p>
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<p>It was easy since my son is not into rankings at all, and we all want a school where he has the best chance for success and happiness. He will learn wherever he is planted, so I don’t worry about not being challenged.</p>
<p>NEmom, did you write that he is going to UMD?</p>
<p>No, not UMD. I’ll send a detailed PM to you.</p>
<p>Our hs does not rank - so that won’t factor in. Our school profile is kind of weird in that they don’t identify deciles or quartiles - they give a breakdown on the % who had a wgpa over 4.51 and the % that had a wgpa over 4.01, etc. His wgpa right now is 3.96 - so my hope is he can bump it up a bit junior year and get into the 4.01 and above bracket.</p>
<p>northeastmom - I agree with you 100% re fit over prestige. I know my son does not have a lot of confidence in his academic abilities and at this point, I think he would be much better off at a school where he is in the top half of the class rather than the bottom half. But I am also open to the idea that a lot can change over the next 2 years - so I don’t want to close any doors prematurely.</p>
<p>yabeyabe - I hear you - I guess I just want to give it a try and see what happens. And think how easy it will be to park!</p>
<p>Rockvillemom, this is exactly how we felt when we were in your shoes during the process. It does not make sense to close any doors at this time.</p>
<p>RVM: Re: CofC housing</p>
<p>Sophomores (and juniors and seniors) get priority housing. The more hours you have, the higher the priority registration. They sign up before incoming freshman. They have their pick of dorm and dorm rooms/campus houses. My s will be an RA next year in MacAlester (interesting – not HIS first choice!.) Some sophomores, etc. move off campus. Lots of the houses nearby have been comverted into student apartments. </p>
<p>My s decided to attend CofC in June, last summer, after attending orientation at his 1st choice college. He had no trouble getting a dorm room, even at the late date. In fact, if he had not been selected to be an RA, he would have stayed in his old dorm with his former roommate, who will be a junior.</p>
<p>SMU: Can’t comment on the Hillel because we did not do the college tour. SMU is beyond our price range. My husband asked about Hillel at UT Dallas. He was told that students use the Hillel at SMU and that UT Dallas is thinking of starting a Hillel. If you are looking for an established, active Hillel, then UT Dallas is not the right choice. We all love UT Dallas for other reasons: the housing is the best we ever saw, beautiful new Business school, major in Actuary Science available, and my son really likes the leisure facilities (pool tables, basketball, etc.). There was a wonderful grocery store biking distance of the campuss. UT Dallas is also one of the lower costs schools. </p>
<p>C of C: What is freshman housing like? Can you get a bus or train from DC to College of Charleston? How far is it from the airport?</p>