<p>levirm: I think you are describing a situation that is very much a Wisconsin issue:<br>
[JS</a> Online: The great ‘Coastie’ divide](<a href=“http://www3.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=370655]JS”>http://www3.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=370655)</p>
<p>The in-state - out-of-state divide you described while present in other schools is very prevalent there.</p>
<p>“Private dorm” makes it sound like an exclusive country club, but I sense it just means it’s not a dorm that belongs to the university. Or, in other words, “off-campus housing.” It’s not like a state university puts its students in “public housing” as the term is understood in urban settings, right? They are just university-owned (and therefore, because it’s a state school, technically “public”-owned) facilities?</p>
<p>I had not been familiar with privately-owned, off campus housing that was constructed in the style of a dormitory with dining halls and so forth, but I think it’s a great concept. I think dorm life was a great part of my college experience and I’m dismayed at the thought of kids who WANT dorm life being dispersed to various apartments and group houses at some distance from campus at schools that don’t have enough dorms.</p>
<p>Now, I would imagine any system of housing in which residents get to choose where they live winds up with each option developing a reputation for attracting a certain type of person. The Harvard house system, until they went to a completely random lottery just in the last decade, is an example. Everyone lived in diverse dorms freshman year, but after that, people could choose (to some extent) their preferred residential college. Jocks gravitated to certain houses, string orchestra players to another, artsy-fartsy types to another, and, yes, African Americans looking for a critical mass gravitated to one house as well. That doesn’t mean that these houses were dominated by those groups or that no one lived anywhere else. But people went where they thought they’d feel comfortable and happy.</p>
<p>socal - interesting discussion of the word ghetto. It would actually never have occurred to me to use that word to describe a community with a large population of Jews - be it a college dorm or a town. To me - the word has a very negative connotation. But I completely understand that you meant no offense - just an interesting word choice.</p>
<p>Wow!! After being away a week, it took me a day to read all the posts. I think it would take me another day to respond, so I think I will just jump in with a couple of responses.</p>
<p>RVM-awesome news for you and your son. I am so happy for you both. We are on the same path and coming to similar conclusions. S1 is also loving AZA and calls his chapter his brothers. He didn’t like USY weekends, because he thought it was too religious, and yet; this past weekend he attended the region’s BBYO Judaism Institute weekend and said it was the best convention yet!! He came home wearing a tee that said, “bris me, I’m Jewish!” Wish we were visiting schools at the same time instead of the opposite schedule. Can’t wait to compare notes when we both return.</p>
<p>Spectrum, you have received great advice here on balancing being a responsible parent and balancing your child’s responsibilities. Although your S helps out around the house, perhaps he can step it up a bit. Maybe he can tutor which will reinforce his knowledge and at the same time earn some money. It sounds like you are on the right track.</p>
<p>On another note, we came back from vacation to find out that S took another practice test and bombed it. Talk about a blow to his confidence. He did really well on the first practice test and then blew this one. He has to take a couple more, but I think he is getting burned out. I know that I am getting tired of timing him! The test is next weekend so I think if he takes one more test this weekend, that is it. I also think if he doesn’t do well on it I am going to tell him better scores to boost his confidence. I think between winter doldrums, the NJ grad tests this week, and all this prepping, my S has had it. BUT, as we know these couple of months are critical and he just has to suck it up and prep. Better to do well now and not have to take it again in June.</p>
<p>Samtalya - did you see the info on the book group? Taking your suggestion to read “Bread Givers” - I have the book and plan to start reading this weekend. Discussion group is on the Parent cafe and I did post the link.</p>
<p>RVM,</p>
<p>I understand your point. It does have a bit of a negative connotation. I never thought such a passing comment would conjure up this much discussion. Time to move on. Thanks.</p>
<p>Yes, RVM. I posted on the link. Not sure I like the parent cafe–first time visiting and I spend an hour reading!! I have to make sure not to get caught up there. I can barely stay caught up here. LOL</p>
<p>A propos of the recent discussion regarding the word ghetto, I’d suggest as a future book club selection,a book I read about a year ago, “The Fifth Servant” by Kenneth Wishnia. It is a historical mystery novel which came out about a year or so ago set in the 1592 Prague ghetto. It vividly shows the always precarious and dangerous relationship between Jews in the ghetto and the Christians around them. The tenuous peace is upset when a Christian girl is found murdered in the shop of the Jewish baker. The story which is quite accessible and entertaining is also well researched and portrays life in the ghetto and goes far beyond the vehicle of the “crime”.</p>
<p>The book shows vividly how persecuted the Jews of the ghetto were in those days. </p>
<p>It’s available on Amazon: [Amazon.com:</a> The Fifth Servant: A Novel (9780061725388): Kenneth Wishnia: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Servant-Novel-Kenneth-Wishnia/dp/0061725382/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Servant-Novel-Kenneth-Wishnia/dp/0061725382/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top)</p>
<p>mhc - sounds great. Hopefully this book discussion group will get off the ground.</p>
<p>mhc. I thought the book was great. I read it this summer before going to Prague. I saw the places mentioned in the book and it made the story come alive. good suggestion. We will see what happens when we pick the next book. There are also very good diaries from those who survived the Warsaw ghetto.</p>
<p>quakerstake, thanks for posting that article. All I can say is that the young woman that had the experience in Wisconsin is very, very down to earth and sweet, very “au natural”, and would never take an hour to get ready in the morning, really wanted to meet people, and she was still very excluded from everything going on in her dorm.
And, if I was in freezing Wisconsin, I would be wearing Uggs all the time, too!
samtalya, we had better luck giving short quizzes, such as the ones on majortests.com, without timing them, for practice. It gave practice without so much pressure that anxiety interfered with performance on a practice test.</p>
<p>Private dorms at Texas have been around since my friends went there and there has always been a dorm that is known to have large populations of Jewish kids. Dorm space at Texas is very limited and the majority of students reside in either private dorms or off campus housing. The private dorm is in West campus which is where the greek life centers and also houses Hillel. For thoses students wishing to pledge ( Jewish or or not), living in this dorm makes sense. I have friends who did not go greek and live in other dorms. I don’t know if Naismith is also comprised of students choosing the Greek system. University of Arizona, Indiana, all have dorms that Jewish students pick. Why? Because their parents (us) want our children to associate with other Jewish kids in some meaningful way. Living where there is a concentration increases the chances.</p>
<p>Quakerstate: Thanks for posting the article about Wisconsin. I’d never heard about those issues. I do think that one advantage to private colleges is the georgraphic diversity they offer. I have heard of kids having a tough time breaking is socially at some OOS publics.</p>
<p>levi, my s tried majortests.com tonight. we both did! we found it very frustrating in that the questions were different than the SAT, e.g. misspelled words and concepts that he hasn’t seen. did you find that? I love that it is short and easy to do, but my s told me he would rather do the full test in the college board book than this site. we started using a princeton review book and that was also not a mirror of the test. the one thing our tutor told us is that the college board book is the most accurate practice for the test, and it does seem that my s does better in scoring on the practice tests. at this point i will let s practice any way he wants so that he doesn’t get frustrated and still gets practice. then after next week, we will prep the ACT. S will take the ACT 1 time and see what happens. i am just glad we are getting this out of the way this year and leaving senior year for the apps.</p>
<p>IMO - the test maker has the best prep books - use Collegeboard for the SAT and the Red Real ACT book for the ACT. Good luck samtalya - I am sooooooo glad to be done with testing.</p>
<p>RVM I agree with you. For the ACT, i purchased the online prep through ACT. Since S will only have the 3 weeks to prep after the SAT, I think that will be the best way for him. I will have him do the diagnostic test and then he can prep using their suggestions. After spending the last several months prepping SAT and spending this week taking the HESPA I am sure he can take the paper version. I just hope he does as well as your S. He did great on the SAT reading, but his math is not good enough, so hopefully on one of these tests it will go up. I think because he scores so high in reading, it may bring up the score of the ACT to where it needs to be. next week is the SAT on his birthday and S is not happy about that. I keep telling him he needs to change his thoughts, that taking the SAT on his birthday is good luck!</p>
<p>This paragraph is from the admissions website at University of Miami:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>S2 actually meets their criteria for grades and test scores. Our large public hs does not rank. However, in the school profile - they give a very wide breakdown of gpa ranges - from which one could easily determine that he is not even in the top 25% of his class - top 50% yes. So - if the info coming from the hs says we do not rank - do you think they just ignore that criteria - or look at the profile to see how low his rank is? I guess I’m wondering if his rank will hurt him even if our hs technically does not rank?</p>
<p>I think the out of state divide is exacerbated at Wisconsin. Most state schools are large enough that students don’t typically stay in their high school circles. I have 2 sons attending schools out of state, one at KU and another at Pitt and neither has felt out of place. The community at KU (Jewish and not) has been welcoming to my son there. Pennsylvania is such a diverse state (and enough students come from neighboring states and elsewhere) that in-state and out-of-state makes no difference at all.</p>
<p>RVM: I know plenty of kids at UM that were not in the top 10% of their graduating class; more like 20-25%…but those are from schools that ranked; my guess is that they would extrapolate an approximate class rank from the school profile…</p>
<p>RVM, We are once again in the same boat with class ranking. At the moment my s is (i think) in the top 23%, because our hs is very competitive. Our HS allows us to check to not include class rank which we will do. </p>
<p>On the Elon app–the part the guidance counselor fills out, asks for class rank. If the hs doesn’t rank it asks for the decile. So how do we get around that?</p>