<p>Charliesmom: After your DD takes the SAT, also have her try the ACT. My DD never tested well either and did better on the ACT. Not by a lot, but she ended up submitted ACT everywhere and didn’t submit SAT at all. Took both twice and ended up submitting both ACT scores because on one test day she did better in two test areas and on the other test day, she did better in the other two test areas.</p>
<p>RE: Penn State. I watched a lot of the coverage this morning. The Board of Trustees did the right thing - putting the university ahead of the football program and making a statement about what’s important here. PR-wise, it was the right thing to do also. I know students who have chosen Penn State over other schools (Maryland, Delaware) partly because of the rah-rah atmosphere (all would have been OOS for them). PSU does have an excellent academic reputation and the Board is clearly trying to protect that.</p>
<p>Hi- my D is currently leaning toward Temple U (which originally we thought of as her “safety” school). I believe this preference is mainly because the school is close to home and she has a serious boyfriend who she doesn’t want to be separated from. She has toured campus and she likes the feel of the school.</p>
<p>I know a couple current students but I’d love to get more feedback about Temple from anyone who is a current student/parent or knows of one. There is not much activity over on the Temple forum. Am interested in any and all info/feedback on academics, student life, housing, reputation among employers, etc.</p>
<p>Charliesmom: I agree with the suggestion to have your D try the ACT. Another good urban school in the Northeast that you might want to consider is Pitt. We had a similar search with D2 (D1 is at Penn). She is very happy at BU, but I understand your D’s desire to strech her wings. </p>
<p>The whole Penn State situation is a real shame. There really are more important things than football.</p>
<p>She is signed up to take SATs in January and ACT in February so we will see how she does. I think she would love BU but she won’t even look. She has great ECs and will have great teacher recommendations so that’s a huge plus, I think.</p>
<p>I saw on your other post that your daughter is interested in LACs. There are some that are test optional, so that might be a good way to go. I assume since you are posting in this thread you are interested in schools that offer Jewish life. I would highly recommend that you check out Muhlenberg and F&M in PA. Both are test optional.</p>
<p>Charliesmom: I have a graduate of Tulane and my husband went there many decades ago. Tulane is 35% form the east coast ([Tulane</a> Admission: Getting Into Tulane](<a href=“http://admission.tulane.edu/apply/gettinginto.php]Tulane”>http://admission.tulane.edu/apply/gettinginto.php)). In fact, my D1 who went to Tulane and now works in NYC, is close to her Tulane friends most of whom were originally from Westchester or Long Island. She was definitely in the minority being from Kansas, but she was always a New Yorker at heart.</p>
<p>pamom: The DS of one of my closest friends is a freshman at Temple. I will be seeing him at his brother’s Bar Mitzvah the weekend before Thanksgiving. He is not much of a talker, but I will see what I can get out of him.</p>
<p>PS - I just changed our plan for tomorrow. Skipping the engineering tour at Lehigh (since we visited the school already) and going to hit Lafayette. I think DS will be happy seeing another option.</p>
<p>I continue to shake my head in amazement at the admissions office at Towson. As you may recall - after many weeks of waiting and no response - after I complained - his app was processed and he was accepted. I also printed out their paper application - he completed the first page with all of his identifying info and the section that addresses in-state residency and mailed it in.</p>
<p>Today - he gets an email from Towson with those 2 pages of the application attached - to complete it and send it in to determine in-state residency status. Ok - fine. But - by extracting just those 2 pages - there is no place for the student to fill in their name!! There is a line for their home address - and a place for their signature - but no name/phone number/email section. </p>
<p>Now - I’m going to have him just write his name and Towson ID at the top - but can you imagine how many kids are going to fill this out and just fax it in as is?</p>
<p>Rockvillemom- regarding Towson, I have to say I wish I had saved myself the application fee $'s. After a few weeks D’s application was finally downloaded from the common app. She has never received an email from them with information on how to log in and check status, etc. Since she has already been accepted at two safeties and one match school, she isn’t going there. It’s not worth my time or her time following up with them, I just find this whole process amusing at this point. </p>
<p>Congrats to everyone else who has recently received acceptances.</p>
<p>mdmom - great news on the acceptances - I don’t recall seeing that previously - are you sharing where she was accepted?</p>
<p>college4three- thank you - he did get that news last month. S2 has a good friend at Towson who is happy there - but he has no interest in attending.</p>
<p>pamom-
she was interested in LACs but visited Conn College which she thought she would love but didn’t. I may still take her to see a couple more but it was really too small and isolated and not what she had in mind socially-I liked it but that’s not what matters!</p>
<p>Quakerstake-
Thanks for the links. I think she would love both Emory and Vanderbilt but worry that her scores won’t be competitive enough. She has time to work on it so we will see. Maybe if she loves one of them she will apply ED. Thanks.</p>
<p>charliesmom- I wouldn’t rule out all LACs just based on one visit to Connecticut College. You might also consider Skidmore, which has a cute town. What is your D looking for socially? Does she want to participate in Greek Life?</p>
<p>I think that she wants options-parties, restaurants, maybe greek life. She wants to study hard and then have fun things to do on and off campus…who knows. We need to look around at more schools. Originally she was set on Bates and Colby, just from what she knew, not from visiting. We haven’t seen them yet. I think she will end up somewhere bigger.</p>
<p>Lehigh might be what she is looking for. Very good academics. Great Social life. Very good Greek scene. I have a cousin going there, and she loves it.</p>
<p>Changing topics - back from the wedding I had mentioned a few weeks ago - the one where my 20-something cousin marries a non-Jewish girl and the bridal shower was held on Yom Kippur - that one. It was yesterday - on 11/11/11 - and was a very nice - neutral - ceremony - with no mention of any religion of any kind. No - chuppah - no traditional stomping on the glass - no blessings over wine or challah - no Jewish music of any kind - but nothing Christian either. So - it was not anything offensive - but it also felt somewhat lacking to me - I missed all of our traditions. But - bride and groom looked very happy - groom’s parents seemed ok - and I’ll just keep my opinions to myself.</p>