<p>PhillyArt, Congrats. Sarasota is one of my favorite places in Florida. Great downtown, and the beaches are nice. A great place to visit.
Samtalya, congrats on invitation for fellows. Good luck.</p>
<p>thanks rodney. she is very undecided at the moment - still waiting for several RD decisions. this is her first visit to Elon, so hopefully it will help the eventual decision process. I will definitely reach out if Elon make her short list - FWIW, I am very impressed by the school.</p>
<p>Congrats PhillyArt!</p>
<p>Thanks all. I am nervous because I have not ever been to Sarasota or the campus. My dh took dd when they went. I have seen a few videos put out by the school about the facilities and they look fabulous.</p>
<p>Congrats to Samtayla and PRJ!</p>
<p>Credit card companies also seem to have access to the same data files as the colleges. The GC at my daughter’s high school recommended that parents screen all of the unsolicited mail to avoid over-burndening their children with the material from colleges. I noticed that my daughter was receiving solicitations from credit card companies at the rate of 2-3 per month even before she turned 18. This has continued, although at a slower rate, during her freshman year at college.</p>
<p>I’m sure most of our children have enough sense to avoid the temptation of responding to these credit card offers, but I would still recommend intercepting and discarding this type of unsolicited mail.</p>
<p>Grrrr Hofstra . . . S applied EA and was deferred pending mid-year grades. Today he received an email (his college email account gets forwarded to my email, yes I am overinvolved) about the upcoming presidential debate and how it’s going to be so exciting to be at Hofstra this fall, then: “I’m looking forward to seeing you on our campus this fall! Remember, you can login to your My.Hofstra.edu Portal to secure your seat in the Hofstra University class of 2016, by submitting your enrollment deposit securely online today!”</p>
<p>Of course I thought, Oh, hey, I guess they went ahead and accepted him! Great, he’ll be excited. Checked the portal to confirm but it still has the message that his application is pending. An hour later they send out a new email with CORRECTION in the header; new email is mostly the same (debate this fall, how exciting) but with that last paragraph omitted. Grrrrr. I wonder how many kids (and parents) saw the first email and thought they’d been admitted. I know mistakes happen but really, admissions people should double-check before sending out something like that!</p>
<p>I am new to this thread. In fact, this is my first posting on College Confidential. It may seem counter-intuitive, but a school to think about is Texas Christian University: don’t let the name put you off. Although TCU is a university, it is primarily an undergraduate school. The class sizes are small, the faculty-student ratio is small, and there is a lot of student-professor interaction. I know of a student that missed some classes and was told by his professor that he better not miss any more or else there would be repurcussions. You won’t get lost in the crowd at TCU.</p>
<p>Although it is a small private university, there is a vibe on campus and high morale. Everybody who is there wants to be there. TCU has a big time sports program (they won the Rose Bowl two years ago), and is enlarging its football stadium.</p>
<p>There is the C in TCU, but all that means is that you have to take one religion class to graduate, and that can be a class regarding any type of religion. TCU’s Chancellor has been quoted as saying that at TCU they are not trying to make you believe any particular way, they just want you to believe in something.</p>
<p>TCU has a safe campus. At night, it is all lit up. If you are somewhere on campus late at night and want a ride to your dorm, you just call Froggie Five-0 and they come and get you. There are emergency blue-lit telephones all over the place.</p>
<p>TCU gives out not only financial aid, but also merit-based scholarships.</p>
<p>Although the Jewish population is small, the Hillel chapter is active, and was just left a generous bequest in someone’s will. There are Jews in the administration and on the faculty. </p>
<p>There is a wide array of study abroad programs and an active alumni base. TCU also seems to be a legacy school. They want their alumni children to attend. You can always tell who graduated from TCU because of the stickers on their cars and, because even after graduation, they are still wearing purple. People who went to TCU are glad that they did.</p>
<p>The college application process is a stressful time. TCU is very welcoming and responsive. Check out the website. It is very user-friendly. You can follow your application’s progress on-line. </p>
<p>My family is Jewish, and we have twin girls who are high school seniors. Both applied, and both got in. One is definitely going, and the other is giving TCU very strong consideration. In fact, the Dean of Undergraduate Admissions personally came to our house and hand-delivered the acceptance packages; something that we will always remember (although originally from New York, we live in Fort Worth, about 7 minutes from TCU). We couldn’t be happier.</p>
<p>mauiman - welcome to our thread! What a fascinating post - I would never in a million years have thought of TCU for a Jewish student - quite interesting.</p>
<p>From the TCU Hillel website:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.hillel.tcu.edu/prospectives.asp[/url]”>http://www.hillel.tcu.edu/prospectives.asp</a></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The website does not look like it has been updated recently.</p>
<p>Also found this article:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.tcu360.com/dailyskiffcom-archive/2011/04/12718.holocaust-survivor-says-he-lives-tell-his-story[/url]”>http://www.tcu360.com/dailyskiffcom-archive/2011/04/12718.holocaust-survivor-says-he-lives-tell-his-story</a></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And this was quite interesting:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/12/27/2742336/the-texas-christians-of-texas-christian-university-jewish-students[/url]”>http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/12/27/2742336/the-texas-christians-of-texas-christian-university-jewish-students</a></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Looks like a “B” student option - here are their score ranges:</p>
<p>SAT score range</p>
<p>1630 - 1860</p>
<p>ACT score range</p>
<p>24 - 29</p>
<p>Howdy Mauiman, welcome,</p>
<p>I had to respond to your discussion about TCU because as a Texan I tried to take a good look at TCU and SMU last year. I may have given them more serious consideration if I had seen your post at that time; but my son probably wouldn’t have had any of it. Early on he decided he was staying in Texas and shortly thereafter was set on one of the two big state schools. But just for the sake of full disclosure for most of the non-Texans who are reading your post I want to share the information I received from Hillel (I dont’ recall the title of the gentleman who wrote back to me)but the email was a big part of what dissuaded me from encouranging my son to apply. Don’t get me wrong it was very polite and welcoming and I was very thankful for his honesty. It was just the facts he presented that made me think.</p>
<p>He stated that they knew of about 70 to 80 students about 1% of the TCU population that was Jewish. He indicated that if a student chooses to participate and be active with Hillel he would have ample opportunity but that students choosing to be active was a variable. He did indicate that the community Temples were welcoming to students and that individual families would welcome students into their homes for first night seders while the congregations would welcome students to second night seders. He indicated that last year there was not enough interest in a Hillel seder but that Hillel participated in an interfaith community seder.</p>
<p>I felt that for my son who has bonded strongly with his Jewish camp community but who rarely encounters Jewish friends at school, this would likely be more of the same. It didn’t seem to me that the group of 70 to 80 students would be reliable enough for him to necessarily bond with a Jewish community which seems to be something that is important to him. I also think that being part of a Jewish community is more important to him from a social perspective than from a religious perspective so I was not sure that the Temple community would fill the void. </p>
<p>I am not familiar with the atmosphere of Fort Worth but my kids, growing up where they have are very comfortable among very religious Christians and conservatives. I think that kids that have grown up in a sizable Jewish community really need to be prepared and comfortable about teaching if they transplant probably to any other school in Texas than UT Austin (and maybe Rice but not appropriate for this thread and there is probably some teaching at these schools as well, just a more sizable community to teach with.)</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong I have only heard good things about TCU from students who go there and if my S wanted to pursue that exploration I would have supported it. What I learned from my communications with Hillel made me comfortable about dropping it as a school to pursue since he didn’t want to anyway. It wouldn’t have made me discourage him if it was a direction he wanted to go. For the sake of full disclosure, while the final decision isn’t in, my S will most likely go to A&M. Definitely a school known for its very conservative climate. If he does go there our hope is that just by virtue of its sheer size there will be a community that works for whatever he is looking for. It was that tradeoff that yielded my compromise on size because I was thrilled that he wanted to stay in state.</p>
<p>My suggestion is that while TCU and also SMU and Trinity University are all wonderful small schools in Texas and may offer what you are looking for in a small school, be careful to allow your student to overnight and spend some time in the community so that they can decide for themselves if the school is a fit and if they are comfortable as a real minority.</p>
<p>Good morning, I’m sorry, I get a bit carried away when Texas is mentioned, it happens so rarely. I completely forgot to congradulate Phillyartmom and Samtayla and PRJ. Mazel Tov to each of you!</p>
<p>^^that is why this thread is so special…only here will you find people coming back 12 hours later to congratulate our fellow posters…</p>
<p>And apologize for a great post…</p>
<p>Spectrum, the only apology needed is that your son is STILL leaning aggie not longhorn…</p>
<p>Welcome Mauiman, and good luck to your D’s.</p>
<p>Congrats to Samtalya, PRJ and Phillyartmom. Phillyartmom, you will love visiting Sarasota. It has great beaches, shopping and restaurants.</p>
<p>Simkin: That email from Hofstra was a rude tease. Don’t they realize how stressful this process is?</p>
<p>simpkin - I feel your pain! Had similar incident with S1. I think every year there is a story in the news of colleges sending out incorrect emails re acceptances - last year the big story was Delaware. And of course, it is always a “computer error”!</p>
<p>I understand decisions did NOT come out yesterday at 5pm and everyone is still waiting. I wish they would announce a date and time - I think the speculation on when the news will be released makes the waiting even worse! So - again - good luck to all of those waiting for Maryland.</p>
<p>socaldad: Thanks for the chuckle! I’ll take that under advisement, the final decision hasn’t yet been made :)</p>
<p>Thanks Rodney, and congrats to Mauiman from me as well.</p>
<p>I’m on Muhlenberg’s mailing list so I thought I’d pass along this info just received in their latest communication.</p>
<p>Muhlenberg will offer a 6 months NYC semester through Jewish Theological Seminary in NYC, for students interested in Jewish studies.</p>
<p>Muhlenberg also has a variety of other academic partnerships which you can learn about here [Muhlenberg</a> College | Applying to a Cooperative Program](<a href=“http://www.muhlenberg.edu/main/admissions/cooperative.html]Muhlenberg”>http://www.muhlenberg.edu/main/admissions/cooperative.html)</p>
<p>This year admissions computer mishap seems to have hit Vassar ED2according to another thread; sent out acceptances by email to students that were supposed to be rejected…and they are not reversing the mistake; unlike UDel who put those kids on a wait list last year. Rejections are sticking…</p>
<p>Not nice…</p>
<p>Wow - that is certainly NOT nice!! A good friend’s daughter was part of that UDel “mistake” last year and was NOT put on a wait list. As a matter of fact, the University never contacted her, just removed her “acceptance” letter from her portal. My friend called the university and they basically just said “sorry” - nothing else. The girl was devastated - it was a reach for her and she quickly posted on facebook and told all her friends when she thought she was accepted. Afterwards, she had to tell everyone what happened and sadly, some people accused her of lying about the acceptance. It was such a humiliating event for her.</p>
<p>Maybe that is why some schools still rely on snail mail…</p>