<p>sujormik - congrats on Tulane! Fabulous news. Fingers crossed for a nice merit award as well.</p>
<p>I attended my D2’s medical school white coat ceremony this past weekend in Chicago. Each student had to identify themselves and their college and major. I thought you would find it interesting to see where some of the 130 students went to school undergrad. Note, that her medical school tends to favor Illinois residents because of its location and the fact that it offers lower in state tuition. </p>
<p>Favorite major: Biology (as one kid put it, “yeah, I majored in Biology, like everybody else”, which got a big laugh). Close seconds: Engineering, Psych/Neuroscience, and surprisingly, languages. The majority of the students did not enter the med school directly from college, but instead, did post-grad research, masters, worked in health sciences or peace corps. One woman even had a J.D.!</p>
<p>Largest represented schools: University of Michigan, University of Illinois, University of Wisconsin, The Ohio State Univ., Northwestern, Univ. of California schools (Berkeley, San Diego and Santa Clara).</p>
<p>Schools that sent a couple of kids: Miami of Ohio, Vanderbilt, Lawrence University, Wheaton College, Washington Univ. St. Louis.</p>
<p>Schools represented by one student: Elon, Tulane, Emory, Johns Hopkins, Boston College, Harvard, Florida International, Univ. of Iowa.</p>
<p>This list is from memory, so I obviously missed quite a few. Hope you guys find this interesting.</p>
<p>socaldad: I started a new thread about cell phones/internet for study abroad in Italy. So as not to derail this thread, here’s the link: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/study-abroad/1238709-recent-cell-phone-internet-access-tips-italy.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/study-abroad/1238709-recent-cell-phone-internet-access-tips-italy.html</a></p>
<p>moltobene: THE Ohio State University? I always chuckle to myself when I’m watching an NFL game and the players introduce themselves and where they went to college and they say THE Ohio State University. That’s some school pride! No one says: THE University of Michigan or THE University of Florida. Anyway, congrats on your D2’s accomplishments!</p>
<p>UMBC - Going to look into it further. Was never able to get onto their site after the 60 Minutes piece ran last night. Their Hillel page is also in the process of being updated so no info there.</p>
<p>University of Pittsburgh is interwoven with the city, right? Not a campus within the city? That was looking like an option until I saw the pictures…</p>
<p>Linymom: Yeah, that “The” always gets to me. So, one of the kids who went to Johns Hopkins, got up on the microphone and said he went to “THE” Johns Hopkins University and everyone chuckled at that one.</p>
<p>LINYMOM- yes Pitt is interwoven with the city in the sense that you have to cross city streets, etc, but is in the separate neighborhood of Oakland, so in that sense it is not interwoven with the downtown area. There is no defined campus and no closed off campus walk (such as Penn or Temple have) though the grassy area around the Cathedral of Learning serves the purpose of a green area. The neighborhood seems very safe. I take it that your son is looking for something with a defined campus area. That would not be Pitt.</p>
<p>So you can get an idea, here is a link to the campus map. <a href=“http://www.tour.pitt.edu/tour-firstmap.html[/url]”>http://www.tour.pitt.edu/tour-firstmap.html</a></p>
<p>LINYMOM: Pitt’s campus is interwoven into the city in the sense that city streets (including a couple major city streets) run through it and in some places there might be some non-Pitt buildings or businesses in between Pitt buildings. However, most of the Pitt buildings are contiguous. You definitely know you’re on a campus (both in lower and upper campus). There are a few green spaces - the largest being the Cathedral of Learning lawn. It is not as interspersed into the city as NYU.</p>
<p>LINYMOM: from our neck of the woods, it appears that Tulane is an easier admit than Miami and Lehigh (RD) …check your Naviance if you have one…</p>
<p>We know a number of B/B+ students with about 28-29 ACT who have been admitted this and last year…full pay mind you, but still admitted</p>
<p>I did comps yesterday (like when I was in real estate!) I hope this chart works. </p>
<p>First three columns are from common data sets (attending freshmen, 2010) - SAT CR, SAT M, ACT</p>
<p>Last three columns are from our high school’s Naviance -avg accepted SAT, avg accepted ACT, avg accepted GPA</p>
<p>I threw in Maryland and Binghamton so you see how they compare too. Maryland is harder to get into from here than Lehigh and Miami!</p>
<p>Lehigh
580-670 640-720 27-31 1268 27 94.5</p>
<p>Miami
590-680 620-700 28-32 1249 26 93.63</p>
<p>Tulane
610-700 620-700 29-32 1336 30 96.71</p>
<p>Maryland
580-670 640-720 27-31 1336 28 96.39</p>
<p>Binghamton
580-670 620-710 27-30 1279 28 94.77</p>
<p>Very interesting…just goes to show how diff HS’s work…</p>
<p>Linymom:</p>
<p>If you go to visit CMU, then of course you’ll be able to visit Pitt on the same trip! CMU has a much more defined campus. We were impressed with CMU and Pittsburgh and where CMU is located, it’s right in Squirrel Hill, the Jewish section where they have synagogues, JCC’s, etc. </p>
<p>UPitt, I believe, is just down the street from CMU, but more city-like. You probably could do very well with merit aid at Pitt for your A child.</p>
<p>Did you look at Johns Hopkins “in person” yet? If your S is serious about Bio Med eng., that is the place to be, but it may be too “serious” for him, not sure. CMU also will be a tough place, homeworkwise, but either one of those schools would be fabulous for an A student wanting engineering.</p>
<p>Btw: Just keep in mind: Lehigh is not great with merit money…</p>
<p>chocchip: We will visit CMU if it looks like SAT scores are what CMU is looking for. Otherwise, forget it. We have visited Johns Hopkins and it will be on DS’ list, will certainly be his reach school. He really liked it.If he gets in, would be hard to turn down.</p>
<p>As I mentioned, though, I’m looking for the engineering schools for “Jewish B” students where DS can be assured of getting in. Everyone on CC is quick to tell me- Duke, Cornell, MIT, etc. Yes, I know. That’s the mentality on this website. But where does everyone else go?? If DS was ok with a big school, I can easily find the options. On the smaller side, that’s an issue. As you can see from the stats above, even UMDCP is really hard to get into from our HS! </p>
<p>Does anyone on this thread have a student interested in engineering? What have you found?</p>
<p>Have you checked out Case Western for Biomed Eng? Very strong program, good with merit money. Cleveland and Pittsburgh are an easy drive from one to the other. Case has a nice campus in a cool neighborhood. The students we know who go there (all 5 are Jewish, strangely enough) are very happy with their programs.</p>
<p>Linymom:</p>
<p>Didn’t you guys visit RPI? What did you think? Did you look at WPI? Olin?
Anyone know anything about Stevens Inst. of Tech?
We already talked about GA Tech…UVM too far north?</p>
<p>I agree with PAmom about Pitt. It is in a very good location in the Oakland area of town. There are areas around the campus that have a campus feel, but it is not an enclosed campus. One thing that is great about the school is that it is one of many right there and CMU is maybe a 10 minute walk. The Jewish students center is wonderful. We spent an hour there getting a tour and talking to the kids when we went. It sevices many of the colleges and sits right between CMU and Pitt and kids from both schools work and frequent there. My dd, who does not really care about a Jewish population even loved the place and could see herself there (she has not said that about any other Hillel). Hope this helps.</p>
<p>My daughter is going to Florence next semester. Thanks for the phone advice. How do you all suggest handling finances. Did you load a debit card? Give a visa or Amex? What about the fees for ATM. I am unsure as to what is the best strategy. I appreciate guidance, points of view,vand suggestions. </p>
<p>Thanks in advance</p>
<p>My Pitt review, I know it’s long and apologize but we were REALLY taken with it.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pittsburgh/1241963-requested-my-view-pitt-long-sorry.html#post13455716[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pittsburgh/1241963-requested-my-view-pitt-long-sorry.html#post13455716</a></p>
<p>socal: I’m planning to stop at my bank and call my credit card company to see if what DD has right now will work there. So many details!!! Also - strangely - there’s a mandatory PARENTS meeting at school for parents of students going on this trip. I hope to find out more there.</p>
<p>Here’s another tidbit I heard this weekend: At Binghamton, admissions will accept a “self-reported” HS transcript this year - so you can load all the info yourself! This way, it gets right into their system (no waiting for it to be input like rvm/towson experience). The speaker went on to say that next year, this will be the only way to submit your transcript when you apply. Eventually they do want your official transcript - after you are accepted/deposited. Seems like they are trying to do some streamlining… and will rely on an honor system.</p>
<p>Anyone else hear this at any college info sessions?</p>
<p>(Thanks to everyone for the other college suggestions for DS!)</p>
<p>LINYMOM, the University of Illinois has self-reporting too, but it worked dramatically AGAINST one of my D’s friends last year. She had reported quarterly averages to reach semester grades or something (honest mistakes, but some inconsistency with her official transcript) and was denied admission over the summer. She scrambled to find another school at the last minute.</p>
<p>Regarding self reported grades- Rutgers uses this method, and although it is a little intimidating at first, but it worked out great. Our GC gave DS a copy of his transcript which he used to enter grades. That might be an important step in the process. On the Rutgers SRAR only final grades are reported. It does require a lot of proofreading.</p>