Colleges for the Jewish "B" student (Part 1)

Parents Forum
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<p>Chocchip:
My D wants to become a social worker, at least that is the plan at the moment. Even if that changes, I see her in the Humanities/Helping professions rather than STEM. </p>

<p>She is doing well in school this year and I think her UW GPA is probably around a 3.7-3.8? Not sure. Technically I shouldn’t be on this thread but it is where I feel most comfortable with the people, so keep me! :slight_smile: </p>

<p>Since we are full pay but not able to do so, we are looking for schools that she likes and would hopefully get some merit money. On the list right now, we have Wooster, OWU, Case, Furman, Grove City (maybe), Denison (maybe), Univ. of Mary Washington, James Madison, St. Olaf. She is applying to Vandy but only to see what happens. We can’t afford to send her and have made that abundantly clear. My Dh and I are both alums and she just wants to see if she would have gotten in. Given that it is MUCH harder to get into than it was when we were young, I kind of doubt it.</p>

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<p>I can be added to the list of future students. D2 is class of 2014. I can’t believe I am starting this again. D2 came on college visits for D1 last spring break and we did a few local tours this spring break to try to get more of a feel for what she is looking for in a campus. She pretty much likes everything as long as it’s not too urban. GW didn’t have enough green space on the main campus, but CMU has enough green space and she likes the city. She LOVES umdcp and liked Indiana and Miami of Ohio. So I do think she likes the bigger rah-rah schools. Greek life will probably be of interest to her. Has been on board of her BBG chapter for 2 years, so is very involved with that. Right now we are planning on the ACT and that will help focus the search. She is an A-/B+ student who is taking all honors classes this year (soph) will add 3 AP’s next year. Junior year will be very tellilng in how her GPA shakes out with the added rigor. She is also my moody child…so wish me luck! LOL!</p>

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<p>Chardo’s S: U of Alabama (Honors College, full scholarship, attending), Georgia Tech, RIT ($15K/yr scholarship), Johns Hopkins, Lehigh IBE</p>

<p>Cherryhillmomto2’s S: Rutgers (attending)</p>

<p>Chocchip: S1 freshman at Tufts, class of '15, S2 h.s. soph, h.s. class of '14</p>

<p>DDMLE’s S: Muhlenberg (attending)</p>

<p>Fourkidsmom: D1Colgate '10, S1 Purdue (senior attending with a co-op), D2 NYU Tisch</p>

<p>Ittliz’s D: Universities of Kansas, Oregon, Indiana and Colorado - Boulder; Michigan State U</p>

<p>LINYMOM’s DD: Delaware '14</p>

<p>Mdmomfromli’s D: Cornell University (attending),Tulane, Indiana (Honors)</p>

<p>mhc48: D2, UDel '15 (D1, Colgate '09; S, UMich '12)</p>

<p>MoltoBene’s S: Michigan '15; D2:Rush Medical College '15, D1:Tulane '09</p>

<p>Momjr’s D2: Boston U '15, D1: U Penn '12</p>

<p>Mom2009’s S: Universities of Indiana and Vermont (scholarship), Qunnipiac (scholarship)</p>

<p>Orangemom12’s DD: UF '13, DS1: UF '13, DS2: Pittsburgh, UMN/Twin Cities, UCF</p>

<p>Pamom59’s D2: Drexel (attending, $12,000/yr scholarship), JMU, Penn State, Pitt, Delaware ($3,500 scholarswhip) Temple ($2,500 scholarship) (D1 Pitt ’15)</p>

<p>Phillyartmom: Ringling College of Art (attending, no awards yet given), Tyler @ Temple ($3,000/yr); MassArt ($8,000/yr), Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Rochester Institute of Technology (for Illustration)</p>

<p>PRJ’s D2: Tulane (D1: Brandeis '13)</p>

<p>psychmom: D, Vassar '14; S, NYU '16</p>

<p>Rockvillemom’s S: Elon (attending), Towson</p>

<p>Rodney: D2 : Elon 2015 D1 : Newhouse@Syracuse 2012</p>

<p>Samtalya’s S: Elon (Engagement scholarship) (attending)</p>

<p>Seiclan’s S: University of Central Florida Honors Program, FSU Honors, Emory U (attending)</p>

<p>Simpkin’s S: Albright, Lycoming, U of Kansas, McDaniel</p>

<p>Socaldad’s DELAWARE(Attending) College of Charleston; Universities of Pittsburgh, Colorado - Boulder, Kansas, Indiana; Michigan State U, Oregon, Alabama,. D1 U Texas 2013</p>

<p>Spectrum2’s S: UT - Austin: Texas A&M</p>

<p>Srandrew’s S: U of Vermont (scholarship); Quinnipiac</p>

<p>Sujormik’s D: Tulane, U of Pittsburgh, Drexel ($23K/yr scholarship)</p>

<p>Uskoolfish: D2: NYU '16 (Studio Art–ED–attending), Accepted Pratt ($14K merit award–withdrew), Accepted SUNY New Paltz (withdrew); D1 (NYU '12–Vocal Performance/MT)</p>

<p>Vitrac: D1 Tulane '14</p>

<p>911C2S’s S: Bucknell (attending), Universities of Pittsburgh, Tulsa ($16,000/yr scholarship), St. Louis ($12K/yr scholarship)</p>

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<p>Chardo,</p>

<p>As the expert on this, You should know that spectrum is going to Texas AM. next time, you do this, perhaps you can add…
Wondering what the final decision is on a few people on the list. </p>

<p>What happened with itliz, is mom2009 going to UVM? What happened to orange mom? and Seclan? sujormik? and SRandrews? Can they update this list?</p>

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<p>Well D13 is back from taking the SAT. Overall mood is good and we are both relieved just to have the test behind us for a while. Does anyone know when the scores come out online?
Have a great Saturday, everyone. We have a few hours to kick back before getting ready to go to niece’s birthday celebration.</p>

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<p>UMich:</p>

<p>Will S2 be studying engineering also? The reason I ask is if you are visiting Goucher and the Baltimore area, then you should visit Towson too. Except I don’t believe Towson has engineering. Maybe they have Computer Science if he is interested.</p>

<p>Vandy:</p>

<p>Social Work sounds interesting. Don’t know about colleges on your list, except my nephew just graduated from Vandy last May and is now in Law School. (Translation to be unemployed when finished!) He loved his time at Vandy and boy, did those years go by fast! Has your D thought about Nursing? It’s a great field for a woman/mom because even with starting a family she will always find flexible work…actually OT is a hot profession now…</p>

<p>Hi Chardo!</p>

<p>So congrats on Alabama! What was the deciding factor? Sounds wonderful…lots of good luck to your S!</p>

<p>SoCaldad:</p>

<p>I think Seiclan’s S will be going to Emory (?)</p>

<p>Jaynebe:</p>

<p>Yes, we are in New England too, about an hour and a half from Boston. My older S is in Boston, younger S will also look at schools within a few hours drive. My younger one is finishing soph year, so we have time and I have my list ready!</p>

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<p>vandygrad87 I believe May 25th will be the date SAT results are online. GOOD LUCK. My daughter just came home from the test EXHAUSTED claiming that “her brain hurt.”</p>

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<p>No, Chocchip, no interest in engineering. Actually, he really doesn’t know what he wants, but it’s not math and science. As much as he dislikes school, he’s ironically thinking that he might look into education.</p>

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<p>Joining the list of 2015 kids. A-student.</p>

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<p>I posted awhile back. D13 is an A- student at a very competitive magnet HS. Her problem is that even though she has a good average, her class rank won’t be great, and that matters a lot, especially in TX. So, she’s going to have to look at a wide spectrum of schools to make sure she’s got choices next year. </p>

<p>She took SAT IIs this morning and said the math was challenging, and the literature was fine. Next there are APs and finals, and another go at the SAT. I can’t wait until she’s done with all that and can escape to Greene Family Camp, which is the Texas URJ camp. I’ll miss her, but I know It’s so much more fun than all this stress.</p>

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<p>Please add my S to class of 2013 :)</p>

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<p>Hi Houtx,<br>
S2 is also excited about his escape to Greene. But he’s also excited about the next two weekends of proms and then graduation. The AP tests and finals that are interfering with all of that he can’t wait to be done with.</p>

<p>If you hadn’t seen my posts he did decide on TAMU over UT. I know you didn’t see this as a good fit for your daughter but ask away if you have any questions as the year progresses. From the slant of your posts I’m assuming that UT Austin would be her first choice school but are there any other Texas schools that she is interested in?</p>

<p>If your daughter is an avodah she will most likely be invited to apply for an Olim fellowship next year. S2 is doing this and had a wonderful Kallah at Eisner this spring. If she is interested in it it seems like a great opportunity!</p>

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<p>Spectrum–Other than UT she hasn’t mentioned any Texas schools she’s interested in. She doesnt like the idea of goimg to another UT school and transferring in to Austin. She will probably use UH as her safety school because the merit money is good and she’d probably get into the Honors College. She doesn’t want to put Rice on her list because it’s so close to our house and so hard to get into from her HS. We haven’t visited Trinity, and I don’t know anything about it except that it’s pricey. Same for SMU. At this point, most of the schools she’s looking at are outside of Texas and have a significant Jewish presence. Where did you look other than UT and A & M in TX? It’d be so nice if we could drive to her college in one day.</p>

<p>I’ve never heard of the fellowship. I’ll ask D if she knows anything about it.</p>

<p>Congratulations to your son on his decision to go to A&M. I know they are trying to get more diverse. A good friend of D turned down Penn to take a scholarship from them.</p>

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<p>To add another wrinkle… DS did great in his tournament yesterday (tennis)… best of all was listening to what all the coaches were saying about him. Several asked me if he will play in college. One who I know pretty well said he would be glad to talk with me about it. I reminded him that DS is a pretty smart kid who is going to school for the education and needs not to be the only Jew at a school (yes, I emphasized that, even at the courts yesterday). I will chat with him about the kinds of schools he thinks DS could play at AND get a great education. DH and I are on the same page that the education is #1. My brother went to UPenn to play tennis (and get a great education) and, when his grades were not up to my father’s expectations, he had to quit the team. But he was at Penn so all was good. DS is not at that tennis level, but the coaches yesterday said he could play at D2 (as well as D3). But at what schools that would meet my educational requirements (yes, “my”)? I’m going to have to follow up on this… I know DS would love to play on a team during college and I shouldn’t automatically discount this. Then I have to read about NCAA rules… it never ends…</p>

<p>Anyway, DS will have great 17th b-day on Monday, playing for third place in our conference. Then he’s in the county tournament next weekend. So happy for him.</p>

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<p>@LINYMOM: Most of the NESCAC schools would meet your criteria…check them out.</p>

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<p>^ Thanks. I will check them out.</p>

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<p>awesome ny times article to consider:</p>

<p><a href=“Career or Deep Learning? Pondering the Purpose of College - The New York Times”>Career or Deep Learning? Pondering the Purpose of College - The New York Times;

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<p>also Linymom, there is a very very active recruiting board here on CC with lots of involved parents. (almost like here!)
[Athletic</a> Recruits - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/]Athletic”>Athletic Recruits - College Confidential Forums)</p>

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<p>Linymom: Congratulations on the tennis success! Here is a list of the ranks of NCAA D3 colleges in tennis. Many of these schools are A colleges and many of the A colleges have a comfortable if not sizable Jewish population (I’m thinking about 10%). I don’t know if that fits what you are looking for. [NCAA</a> Division III Men’s Tennis Rankings - NCAA.com](<a href=“http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/tennis-men/d3]NCAA”>http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/tennis-men/d3). If I am remembering correctly your son is an A student, interested in engineering and working on getting is ACT up a bit higher. On that list the schools that jumped out at me were Carnegie Mellon and Case Western and if the scores get really good MIT.</p>

<p>HouTx:Most of the Greene kids we know who were not auto admitted to UT also looked at many of the colleges on this thread. I will tell you that some of those kids did get into UT by decision. There were also a couple of kids that got into TAMU and are going there. But generally for Texas Jewish kids UT is the gold standard. The only other schools I looked at in Texas were Trinity, SMU, TCU and Rice. I expect that you know more about Rice than I do. The other 3 have very small Jewish populations but do seem welcoming to diversity from what I read. The only one of these that I actually visited was Trinity, which aside from the small Jewish population is a wonderful school. My impression of it was that has small classes and great professor access with a collaborative friendly student environment. The population seems friendly and collaborative rather than competitive. I seem to recall that about half of the students go Greek. They do give out merit scholarships but at least a few years ago even with a top merit scholarship the cost was significantly higher than the state universities. Although both UT and Trinity are urban schools Trinity has a beautiful closed campus (our tour guide joked that they had the lowest gardener to student ratio of any college.) and San Antonio has an entirely different feel than Austin. I live very close to San Antonio so if you have any specific questions about the area let me know. I was just asking you about Texas schools because I thought she wanted to stay in state if possible. My S2 was committed to staying in state and given his interests I expect it would have been a decision between SMU, TCU and Tech if he had not gotten into the big 2 and remained inflexible about travel. (I don’t really know about Trinity and engineering but as Rice is for you Trinity is too close to home to be a real contender.)</p>

<p>As for Olim it was new for Greene this year and all of the Avodah’s from the summer were invited to apply in the fall which was when we first heard of it. I expect that your daughter will hear about it over the summer or if not over the summer in the fall.</p>

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<p>Linymom:</p>

<p>OY! Not sure if you remember, but my S1 also played h.s. tennis and could have easily played on a team in college. Some of his best friends are playing tennis on college teams and report back to him what a HUGE time committment it is. My S is very happily playing club and intramural tennis, which is obviously much less of a time committment. If your S wants to study engineering, I would consider that in itself as a large time committment. Overloading him may be a mistake…you’ve worked so hard in getting a very good list of colleges your S would be happy at…maybe you could see what his tennis options would be at those schools!</p>

<p>Happy Birthday to him too! ;)</p>