<p>Emmybet: Too funny about the food issue at Lafayette. But now they have far fewer frats! Down from 18 to 4! Still, about 1/3 of the students join (not allowed freshman year though).</p>
<p>DS loves Miami in Florida. Would rather be somewhere warmer than here. I was just looking at their biomedical engineering site again - it does look like it’s up his alley…</p>
<p>Any/all ideas are welcome!</p>
<p>LINYMOM, I’m guessing that your son is more like a B+, A student then a B student? Because I don’t know any B students that got into any of those schools unless they had some tremendous hook. I know lots of engineering grads from Lehigh - great school for that!</p>
<p>Yes, he is more of an A student - I started on this thread with my DD who was a B/B+ student (at UD and really excelling in academics way more than in HS!). For DS, we have plenty of match/reach schools and now we need safeties so the schools you are talking about here could fit the bill (depending on engineering/location/etc.).</p>
<p>I am making my excel chart now, like I did for DD, with school, CDS stats, Naviance from our HS stats, deadlines, etc. All of his schools have Naviance accepted GPA in the 90’s, but some of the accepted students’ avg ACT are not what you’d expect (Lehigh 27, Miami 26, Maryland 28). No stats available for Lafayette. He takes both SAT and ACT in December. I will be holding my breath.</p>
<p>LINYMOM - what about UMBC as a safety? They will be featured tonight on 60 Minutes - btw.</p>
<p>I attended Lafayette in the '80s - food was atrocious. They had no upperclass dining at all - being in a sorority and then eating with your sorority at a frat house was the only option I recall. It has to be better than that now! I also felt very isolated without a car there - the school is located on a hill in a residential area - you can walk down to the town of Easton - but it was pretty seedy and depressing at the time. Hopefully that has also improved.</p>
<p>This is national Naviance for Lafayette:</p>
<p>Freshman
Received: 5822
Accepted: 2430
Percent Accepted: 41.74%
Enrolled: 648</p>
<p>Test Score Ranges (Mid 50%)
Test Name High Low Avg.
ACT Combined: 30 26 28
ACT English:<br>
ACT Math:<br>
ACT Reading:<br>
ACT Science:<br>
SAT Combined: 2045 1760 1902
SAT I Math: 700 610 655
SAT I Critical Reading: 670 570 620</p>
<p>Thanks. For some reason Lafayette didn’t show up on our HS Naviance. Easton looked ok (the part we drove through). Can’t believe the food is such an issue there! Will check out UMBC.</p>
<p>Isn’t UMBC also a city school?</p>
<p>Yes and no. It is in the Baltimore area - but the pictures I have seen (have never seen the actual campus) look as if there are grassy areas. Watch the segment on 60 Minutes tonight - hopefully they will show enough of the campus to give an idea of whether or not it is too urban.</p>
<p>It’s a 500 acre campus - the pictures I have seen make it look more self-contained than urban in the sense of Columbia or GWU. But - could be wrong. Curious to see the TV show tonight.</p>
<p>Just got back from 20th anniversary trip to Florence and Italy. Hard to catch up, but i want to wish everyone who got acceptances congrats.</p>
<p>The advantage to being away is that the time for ED acceptances is getting closer and at least this past week it wasn’t the only thing on my mind!</p>
<p>Samtalya: you get to travel more than most empty nesters! How nice for you! Hope you enjoyed Italy(my favorite)</p>
<p>LINYMOM: while UMiami has been decent with merit money for top students, we found Lehigh to be surprisingly stingy…hard to find safeties that are similar to either one for engineering other than, possibly, Tulane…I’m assuming Union is too small for him?</p>
<p>I agree that Miami, Lehigh and Lafayette are for the “A” students. </p>
<p>RVM- Sorry, I missed that Towson acceptance. Congrats. When will Elon begin to notify?</p>
<p>Elon will notify ED applicants on 12/1 and EA on 12/20. It is getting close!</p>
<p>EA definitely later than last year…hmmmm interesting…</p>
<p>We’re going to DVR 60 Minutes tonight. I looked at the UMBC site briefly - it says “honors college”…hmmm…</p>
<p>Union doesn’t have biomedical or bioengineering…</p>
<p>Tulane does not appear any easier to get into than Miami or Lehigh…</p>
<p>Samtalya: Any input into internet and cell phone service in Italy? DD is spending four weeks studying there this winter and we are looking into this. (Happy Anniversary!)</p>
<p>Finding other schools that would be safeties, but they are HUGE (like USF).</p>
<p>This was a lot easier for my “B” student!!!</p>
<p>Great piece on UMBC on 60 Minutes. Glad I set the DVR - I will show DS. Their website is being flooded now - can’t load certain pages- so I will have to check it out tomorrow. Kudos to the UMBC PR team for the great coverage, which will surely help them in so many ways!</p>
<p>HI everyone, way behind on reading due to our weekend at Pitt and the 1000 miles we put on the car, but hoping everyone’s had some good news in the past few days, or at least no bad news!! </p>
<p>We never got to the Hillel at Pitt, a bone of contention between me and my H/D. Wish I could give you all something on this. We really liked Pitt though.</p>
<p>Also, got her acceptance to Tulane while we were gone. Gotta get her scholarship application in soon. She tells me she’s heard of a bunch of kids getting the $27k award with numbers lower than hers, so hoping this means she gets at least that if not some more.</p>
<p>And that’s it for me. Will try to catch up over the next few days.</p>
<p>Sujormik:</p>
<p>When we were in Pittsburgh looking at CMU for S1, we saw the Hillel building that CMU shares with Pitt. Nothing to worry about…beautiful building between the two campuses…looks very involved and lots of programs going on.</p>
<p>Mazel Tov on Tulane acceptance! :)</p>
<p>Lint mom and samtalya,
My d1 is going to Florence next semester. Any advice on phones, banking, and whatever…please share with me as well. I have to figure out the best ways for everything. </p>
<p>Sujornik, congrats on Tulane everyone I know loves it there. Any other Pitt insights…please share.</p>
<p>When my D went to France, she needed an international cellphone and we were happy with the one that she got from this company. [Cellular</a> Abroad - National Geographic Travel Phone](<a href=“http://www.cellularabroad.com/travelphone.php?gclid=COfh8qCTtqwCFcx-5QodvXN9Fg]Cellular”>http://www.cellularabroad.com/travelphone.php?gclid=COfh8qCTtqwCFcx-5QodvXN9Fg)</p>
<p>Other option is to get a phone through your regular cellphone provider that works in both US and abroad.</p>
<p>sujormik, congrats on tulane.</p>
<p>as for cell service overseas for those who have kids going, if you have att or t-mobile then you can unlock your cell phone and get a sim card from whatever country you are in. this is the cheapest way to make local calls and you can receive calls free from anywhere. if you have verizon or sprint then you will need to get an intl cheap throwaway. u can buy one for 39 and get a plan for local calling. receiving calls are free.</p>
<p>if you are with att or tmobile and have an android phone and unlock it, you can get a local sim card and use skype on the phone as well as receiving free calls and using a local number. remember skype is great on any ipad or laptop.</p>
<p>only blackberry and iphones will work overseas like they do here. you have to activate an international data plan and rate plan. this is what i do to receive all my emails while walking around, BUT i do not use the phone to make or receive calls. i use a throwaway with a local plan for that.</p>
<p>as for calling from the states to the phone, you can either get an intl plan for that country which might make sense to socal if your d is away for several months or you can get a calling card where you pay 2 cents a minute. it is more like 12 cents for calling mobile phones. </p>
<p>also to note that texts will charge even if you have an itl plan on blackberry. </p>
<p>i think setting up time on skype is the cheapest way to go and then your child can have a phone for emergencies.</p>
<p>Good morning. This thread has been busy.</p>
<p>Samtalya: Your trip sounds wonderful. What a great distraction from the ED wait. </p>
<p>Congrats to Sujormik’s D on her Tulane acceptance. </p>
<p>Socaldad: My D1 studied in Florence last summer. Your D will love it. She should be able to use her current bank’s ATM card in Florence, but there will be international charges for debits and withdrawals. We found that Capital One is the best credit card for international travel because they don’t have extra transaction charges. </p>
<p>A lot of kids from my area attend UMBC. A friend’s son is in a special computer science program and really loves it. Last summer, he worked as an intern at Google and will return this year. The school is strong academically, especially in science and computer science. It seems to attract good (but not top) students who are very nice kids. It is not a rah-rah school or a party school. </p>
<p>The campus is in a suburban area right off I-95 near BWI airport. The campus has modern buildings with a lot of grassy open space, but it’s not beautiful. There’s not much in walking distance, so I think it would be nice to have a car. A lot of kids go home on weekends, but many stay. The dorms are very nice.</p>
<p>In terms of cost, tution is reasonable, and they are generous with merit money. I think that this school is a great value for kids who like the atmosphere. UMBC has gotten lots of great press in the past few years, and it appears to have a good reputation with employers.</p>