<p>RVM: I guess my biggest issue with staying for the summer is the housing expense; the article you referenced mentioned a girl who was starting a lease on June 1st so, for her, it makes sense…but the expenses add up otherwise…</p>
<p>Not that coming home is necessarily less money; so many internships are unpaid but require credit (which has to be approved and paid for)…</p>
<p>If staying on campus involves a paid job as well, makes alot of sense…</p>
<p>Wow - I was away for the holiday visiting older kids and there is so much great stuff to catch up on in this thread! Congratulations to all who have made decisions, good luck to all who are still in the process, and thanks for all of the great visit reports.
Regarding superscoring and sending scores - the colleges won’t know if you just send the ACT or SAT. But if you try to send only one SAT score to a college that wants all test scores, the site will not let you do it. If you take the SAT once, send the score, and then take the test again and don’t send the second score, they will not know. But if you try to just send the second score, the site will not let you. I don’t know about the ACT in this regard because none of my kids ever took it.
Also, when they say that they super score, believe them! It is in their best interest to do this.</p>
<p>It is very common here for students to take community college courses over the summer for an inexpensive way to fulfill requirements and stay on track for graduation. It is of course important to know what will transfer.</p>
<p>Also, regarding taking summer classes, many colleges will accept transfer credit from a local college. So, after making sure that they accept the credit, your student can live at home, get a job, and take a class at a local college which might be less expensive.</p>
<p>Levrim, I agree if it is possible this is the best way to go.</p>
<p>My son is coming home, he has one PT job lined up for a few weeks. Before that one starts, I told him he needs to land something else too. We don’t give him much in the way of pocket money during the year. I think he spends about $70 per week (about 3k for the year). He needs to earn that money. He did do that this year, so I hope he can do the same for his next school year.</p>
<p>another way to go with summer classes-- some university systems have on-line classes. My d did a few through the SUNY system which also has winter session
on- line classes.<br>
If courses are aproved by your child’s UG school, it’s a less expensive way to get those credits. My d added a minor in her junior year. By taking a few SUNY on-line courses, she was able to graduate in 4 years. Even though she was at a SUNY school, she still need permission from her advisor. But it all worked out as she graduated in 4 years.</p>
<p>My older daughter is planning to spend most of the summer in her apartment in Philly. She is doing an unpaid internship and will try to find a part-time job. She has a 12 month lease, so we would be paying for the apartment anyway. She was offered some paid internships, but felt that this one offered better experience. She also needs to work on her thesis this summer and it will be easier at school with library access. I’m sad that she won’t be home, but she gets bored at home these days. After freshmen year, a lot of kids don’t come home. She wanted to take a summer course at Penn after her freshmen year, but I nixed that because she didn’t need the credits.</p>
<p>Good morning! Re: SAT vs ACT, the SAT is much more common where we live. My D took the SAT once and did pretty well and then took a full practice ACT with a local company here that offers it like the real thing and gives you your score and then wants you to sign up for their prep. D performed much lower on the ACT so she stuck with the SAT–took it a second time and raised her score after some private tutoring. Both my older kids have now chosen the one-on-one tutoring which seems to work well as they just focus on those specific areas where they want to improve.</p>
<p>My D’s choices are Elon, USC and Bucknell. In a nutshell, she loves Elon but has decided she wants to pursue engineering and Elon doesn’t have engineering (other than a 3-2 where you go elsewhere for the last 2 years which doesn’t appeal to her), USC where she’s been accepted to the engineering school (biomedical) and Bucknell where she’s been accepted to the neuroscience major (what she thinks she’ll major in if she doesn’t end up liking/wanting engineering–she didn’t apply to the engineering school since she wasn’t sure in December) but spoke with the dean of engineering at Bucknell at admitted student day and she can pursue any discipline in engineering just by starting freshman year with the right courses other than biomedical (she’d go for mechanical).</p>
<p>Before she started looking at schools, she thought she wanted a big rah rah, football school (why USC was on the list in the first place) but, as she looked, she found she felt much more comfortable and happy at smaller schools in more remote areas. Doesn’t feel the need for a city and is okay if getting home is somewhat of a hassle (we encouraged her in this–how hard it it to get home, we believe, should not be a deciding factor).</p>
<p>The other challenging thing is that we met with 3 USC students that we know and all raved about their school. The 2 Bucknell students we know had tough freshman years and D has chosen not to reach out to them for updates this year. Actually, she just emailed them last night, at my urging. The one girl we know at Elon couldn’t be happier.</p>
<p>Last night we made a matrix where we weighted her criteria and ran some numbers (she’s a math science person so I thought this might help) and the schools were neck in neck! She thinks she made her decision yesterday–met with the college counselor–but wants to sit on it for 24 more hours. Hopefully I’ll be able to post her decision tonight or tomorrow. This process is killing me! lol</p>
<p>Would love to hear thoughts if anyone has them…big factor is ‘happiness’ at Bucknell and big vs small but D really does prefer small (goes to a small school now). Also, the party scene…craziness with excess partying doesn’t appeal to D.</p>
<p>Sorry for the long post!</p>
<p>No thoughts; just sending my best wishes…</p>
<p>you do know that she will be happy wherever she decides, right??</p>
<p>page #500 and still going strong, whoo hoo!</p>
<p>Collage1…one of those colleges will come out on top when she goes with her gut feelings…good luck with her decision. However, we do know of a Jewish girl now who was admitted to Bucknell and just transferred out this second semester to UMiami. Don’t know her major, but she did go to a small, private school…I think she did not like the small, secluded feeling of Bucknell…or maybe not enough Jewish kids…I’m speculating, but that’s what happened to my H’s cousin’s D who was at Elon and transferred to UMCP for more Jewish involvement and rah rah in general.</p>
<p>Linymom…definitely check out VT, sounds great!</p>
<p>Rankenjake…congrats on UMASS for your S, hope he has a great experience there!</p>
<p>rakenjake - congrats on the UMass decisions.</p>
<p>collage1 - interesting choice. Sounds like she fits Bucknell better - I’ll be interested to hear the final decision. I think that many times kids think they want the bigger rah-rah school - because so many kids do like that model - and then when they see it - they realize it is not for them.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the tips on summer classes. S1 is working on campus and hopefully living on campus as well (he has yet to inform me where he is living) so it all makes sense. It was just an unexpected expense. He’ll make enough to pay for his housing and put some towards the class - but certainly not enough to cover the entire cost. The class is in his major - so I’m not asking him to take it elsewhere. I just was not aware that this is the trend now.</p>
<p>College1: I’m not sure I can help but here is what I see. It seems you are really down to the choice between Bucknell and USC since Elon doesn’t really offer the major. I’ve never been to either school but just based on weather alone USC would provide a huge happiness component. (This from a former Yankee turned Texan). The Daily Beast posted a list of the happiest college campuses and the California schools did the great because of the sunshine quotient (although I don’t know how USC did specifically.) I would ask what makes her happier a small personal campus or happy weather. I would also consider if USC is organized in a way that helps make it feel smaller. Many large schools strive to find components that give them a personal feel. The third thing as a distant view that I see is the distance. Since in California it will be much more difficult to come home for a quick escape really loving the vibe of the campus would be that much more important. Finally, I would ask her to close her eyes and envision herself at each place and pick the one that she feels most at home. (I’ll bet she has already done that and isn’t sure.) …It does sound like she can’t really go wrong either way!</p>
<p>One summer when I went to college I sublet a bedroom in an off campus apartment. Those students who sign those 12 mos leases and not using it otherwise are always willing to negotiate.</p>
<p>Congrats Raven. I took course at Umass. Love the amherst area. Great place to visit.</p>
<p>Collage keep us posted. So many of our kids just love to drive us crazy!</p>
<p>My S is taking a course at a local university at $600 a credit. I thought it was high, but I want to make sure he gets full credit and I was afraid that at a community college he wouldn’t. Any of the Elon parents know about credit for community college courses?</p>
<p>samtalya, I did a little scouting around on Google and came upon these pages which you may find helpful.</p>
<p>[Transfer</a> Credit Evaluations](<a href=“Elon University / Office of the Registrar”>Elon University / Office of the Registrar)</p>
<p>[Approval</a> to Take Courses at Other Institutions](<a href=“Elon University / Office of the Registrar”>Elon University / Office of the Registrar)</p>
<p>Thanks Deborah, Of course being a rising senior, S can’t meet with Robin to get approval, but I put in a call. Hopefully, she won’t think I am toooooooooo crazy asking for advice.</p>
<p>collage1: Your daughter has a tough choice between two very different schools. I think that the happiness factor is important. Most kids who transfer do so because they are unhappy socially. I do think that it can be easier to find your people at a large school with more options. In terms of partying, most colleges have a lot of partying, but schools with more going on with have more options for non-drinkers. I think that I am somewhat biased about small schools. I really wanted to attend a small school, but I found that it got pretty boring academically and socially after a few years. It sounds like both schools have a lot to offer, so I’m sure that either one will work out.</p>
<p>Revisiting our research on Elon. Can someone please help me determine what the minimum GPA’s, ACT, SAT that would end in an acceptance? Our Naviance data for Elon has not been updated since 2009! Thanks.</p>
<p>CHmomto2: eveyone’s NAviance is going to be different; Elon recalculates all GPA’s the following way:</p>
<p>A=4.0
B=3.0
C=2.0</p>
<p>Honors= +1
APs= +2</p>
<p>but honestly, there are high schools that I think they give quality points to as well…and there were kids deferred/waitlisted that have very high GPA’s so to give you a minimum is not that helpful…</p>
<p>ACT/SAT same story: their range for ACT was 25-29 last year for the 25-75% but again, we know kids waitlisted with a 29…</p>
<p>Elon walks the walk: very holistic admissions process; that is why their essays are so important as is demonstrated interest</p>
<p>RD is very hard; EA is certainly easier (although very competitive), ED is easiest…</p>
<p>I have uploaded all my pics from UNC Greensboro, Elon and College of Charleston to Facebook. If anyone wants to see them private message me and I can friend you. Of course you will have to see my S in them too!</p>
<p>hope no one thinks this is too personal for this thread, if so slap me on the wrist. :)</p>