<p>Good luck to all the freshmen kids and parents!!</p>
<p>Thanks for the well wishes everyone! </p>
<p>Now I am hyperventilating about getting all the luggage in the rented SUV, but I think that is so I don’t think about dd leaving.</p>
<p>Best of luck to everyone else.</p>
<p>Best of luck to all the parents and kids flying the coop this week!</p>
<p>Good luck, too, to those on deck!!!</p>
<p>Have a wonderful trip Phillyartmom! I’m excited for your daughter, for me art school was the road not traveled. Ringling looks wonderful! Momjr best of luck with the real launch. Mdmom, it is also packing week here. We are lucky enough or unlucky enough to have the opportunity to spread the move in over 2 or 3 trips within the first week of school. I wonder how many trips it will be before we leave home with an empty vehicle. The school has freshmen come a week before classes start and then the Sunday prior to classes is Freshman Convocation which the school makes a big deal about families attending. That would be fine but we also have an MD appt later on that week. There was no way to combine the trips but we may skip the convocation.</p>
<p>Best wishes to all the launchers and launchees!</p>
<p>HoustonTXmom, I’ll concur with pennylane’s suggestions. Bryn Mawr is indeed gorgeous. Smith also offers some generous merit aid. Macalester likes NMFs. Also American in DC. </p>
<p>Back from a family trip to Colorado where D2 took a look at U Denver and gave it a thumbs down. Shoot, I could’ve been happy visiting and having the pancake flight for breakfast at Snooze. 
On the positive side, she gave her clearest version yet of what she’d like: Pacific coast/possibly Arizona, college town but NOT a city, majors in child development and nutrition, Jewish community of some sort, not a big party school. She loves UC Davis, will probably also like Santa Cruz and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, but I think she’d really benefit from a smaller school…sigh. Again looking on the positive side, she knows that she’ll need to work hard to bring her SAT score way up to be in any way considered for Davis, which is motivation enough to put in the studying/tutoring effort. And also on the positive side, it’ll be easier and cheaper to check out schools without needing to go cross-country.</p>
<p>Speaking of U Denver, the adcom who gave the info session talk is a former UD Hillel director.</p>
<p>Are there Jewish kids at west Virginia university?</p>
<p>SlithyTove, DD And I visited Bryn Mawr already and it’s definitely on the list. Gorgeous school and nice people, but with the intensity she wants. She’s thinking about American, too, and we are going to try to visit.</p>
<p>According to the Hillel website there are about 800 on campus- how active they are I don’t know, but there is a Hillel there.
Best to contact them…</p>
<p>Thinking of all you launchers . . . have a great freshman year!</p>
<p>I’ve known some Jewish kids who really liked WVU, but I don’t know how much Jewish life exists on campus.</p>
<p>jan: I know of a few Jewish kids there that actually transferred out; not because of the small Jewish population, but rather because that they felt there was very little academic “mindset” of the West Virginia kids they met and not much from the OOS ones either…one girl almost failed out; there seems to be little support; very sink and swim…not a great place unless you were a motivated student in HS…</p>
<p>If you are looking for a large public for an OOS “B” student, look to University of Kansas, Michigan State, or even, University of New Hampshire…I could give you a laundry list, but have no idea what your criteria is…those are just a few</p>
<p>I would add Coloroado, Boulder to Rodney’s suggestions.</p>
<p>Two quick questions…what should my son wear for interviews? Also, should his activities resume include everything he has ever done since 9th or just the biggies? (and would you put Orchestra on the list since it’s a class?)
Thanks!!</p>
<p>Shalamit I’ll share my first thoughts but do see if others agree. For an interview I think it probably does make a difference with the school you are applying to. For example I would think dressing up matters more for Southern schools that have a more formal ambiance than perhaps California schools. In general I don’t think you can go wrong with kakis a polo shirt and casual shoes. As for the list I would think it depends on how long the list is. If it is a good list with a few really important EC’s then I would be less likely to include everything. I would omit anything that has no significance to your son at all but things that would add to the picture of who he is I would include. It’s been a while since I looked at the common application, my son was told when preparing his resume to suppliment his apply Texas application that he should list EC’s by grade (which involves some duplication but would indicate including everything since the beginning.) As for Orchestra we don’t have this at our HS. But assuming it is similar to Band and involves participation outside of class I would include it. Basketball is also a class at our school but very definitely also an EC.</p>
<p>Thanks Spectrum! Re orchestra, there’s very little outside school day activities for his level (general orchestra) so I am doubtful about including it.</p>
<p>Shalumit: I would include orchestra. Playing an instrument seems to me to be an EC. My DD was in symphonic band (flute) which was only in school. But she was first chair. She was also in it throughout high school, which shows ongoing commitment to her instrument (not that common in high school). This was separate from marching band (which obviously has some out of school commitments). But both bands were a daily class in school.</p>
<p>DS is including all his bands on his common app - symphonic band, marching band (both same as above) as well as jazz band (which is not a class). It’s not his #1 or 2 EC, but it’s definitely top 5.</p>
<p>time is creeping up and next week I will be taking D1 back to Pitt …seems like the summer has gone by way too fast! D2 will not launch until mid-Sept due to Drexel’s quarter term schedule. She had her wisdom teeth pulled this week, which was probably not how she wanted to spend the first week after her summer job but it couldn’t be helped. So far its been ok, got out the blender tonite for her spaghetti…takes me back to the days when we used to make her baby food LOL. </p>
<p>Thinking ahead to becoming an empty nester and wondering what I will do to fill up my time. New hobbies? Any suggestions?</p>
<p>Hey Panmom we are one week ahead of you on the wisdom teeth. The blender was definitely our friend. Spagetti worked fine I just broke it into very small pieces prior to cooking. Then since my S wanted meat I cooked ground turkey and then blended it with sauce. Our other creation was barbequed beef (this is Texas) blended together with sauce and mashed potato. My S was happy with both of these, I guess your mouth has to hurt for it to look good. Smoothies with protein powder are still a staple this week. I hope it goes well for your daughter. We are initiating our empty nest with a 2 week vacation to the west coast. Coincidentally S1 just happens to be at school there, but most of the trip will be just the two of us celebrating our 29th anniversary!</p>
<p>Congrats on 29 years!
and thank goodness for blenders…</p>
<p>^ Saw this most recent post about blenders and it brought me back to my college years. And my friend just bought her DS a blender for his college apartment and her DH said, “Are you kidding? Do you know what this will be used for?” LOL</p>
<p>I guess a blender is also useful when you have your wisdom teeth out…</p>