<p>jozuko: That kind of interaction really helps narrow down the list. We are actually having positive interactions with Miami’s College of Engineering (they are going to give DS a tour of the BME dept when we are there next week and have him shadow a student). On the other hand, i am really TICKED OFF at Lehigh. The have an ADDITIONAL FA form that needs to be submitted by 2/15 WITH 2012 tax returns. I already submitted FAFSA and CSS (had to pay for the latter to go to each school). No way will taxes be done by Friday (beyond my control). I called but they were not helpful. I have no problem with their 100% verification process. It’s just the dates. I’m ready to cross them off. So annoying.</p>
<p>Tulane is really awesome. Very excited for you. I would be happy if DS picked Tulane or Miami.</p>
<p>actually, Vitrac, Miami calls up the schools where the kids aren’t ranked to get a ranking…which has created a problem for kids who apply to Miami who go to schools where there is grade inflation; their ranks do not hold up to their GPA’s…</p>
<p>They end up with an admit, but without merit…</p>
<p>Tulane, on the other hand, is all about GPA…not class rank…</p>
<p>Liny…I am mad at Lehigh for you! It’s amazing how much info some schools want before you have even committed to them. But this will just make the decision easier for you.
Rodney… are you a GC in a high school? you have lots of info! Don’t you find it interesting that Miami has increased their criteria for handing out merit money this year, yet they have fallen a bit in the rankings? (from 38 last year to 44 this year). I feel like they are playing a little game of “lets get our USNWR rank back up!” What do you make of this?</p>
<p>Actually, when I used Miami’s NPC and put in DS’ stats, the merit award came out higher than what he got. He met the posted criteria for $20K (GPA, rank, ACT) but only got $15K. I am super grateful for the $15K, but of course $20K would have been better!! Must have been a really high stats applicant pool.</p>
<p>Hi everyone, I have been wading through this terrific thread for some time, but this is my first post. Hope it is ok that I am posting this here, but feel that this is the right group of parents to share with. My oldest is a junior in HS, with a 3.5 unweighted and a 3.7 weighted GPA. She currently is taking 2 APs and doing ok in them, but at great cost to her stress-wise. She works hard for her grades as she is hearing impaired and has cochlear implants to help her hear. She did ok on the PSAT, not stellar. She is borderline for slow processing and also has organization and procrastination issues. She works with tutors after school to help her clarify things she may have missed in class and review for tests. Her ECs are the school dance team and BBYO. She has been a self and public advocate, raising awareness about hearing loss locally and worldwide. </p>
<p>We have visited University of Arizona and their SALT program (not entirely sure that she would get SALT, but would be great for helping her with time management, organization and study skills as well as tutoring.) We loved UA as it ticked off a lot of things on her wish list, warm climate, rah-rah school, large, friendly, good size Jewish population and Greek Life as well as a good variety of majors to choose from as she is currently undecided. As you can tell, she is extroverted and loves meeting people and is looking forward to college and the life it offers. We are heading to UGA next week as well as College of Charleston and may swing through UCF as well (though that one is probably too large.) </p>
<p>I’m looking for other suggestions for her as I feel her list is too short and we also may be short-changing her by not looking at more competitive schools. The biggest worry I have is that the school needs to be familiar with kids with hearing loss and offer CART (a captioning service for deaf students) rather than just notetaking, as well as other services she will need. If anyone has school suggestions for us that you think might fit the bill, please let me know! So far, SALT seems like the most organized program and UA’s Disability Resource Center was terrific when we met with them as well. I’d still like to broaden our search. TIA</p>
<p>NYMom3Kids: Welcome to our thread! Glad you finally posted! I can’t add add any suggestions to your college search, but I want to let you know that I worked for the PR firm for cochlear implants when they were approved by the FDA for use in children and I LOVE hearing great stories! I can still remember the look on the kids’ faces when they first heard…</p>
<p>Hi and welcome! I have heard very good things about the SALT program at University of Arizona. I’m sorry that I am not more familiar with CART and schools that offer it.</p>
<p>Are you looking for warmer weather schools? Just wondering - since you have mentioned schools in FL, GA, SC and AZ. Any other criteria you have in mind?</p>
<p>Yes, I mentioned her criteria, warm climate, good sized Jewish population, rah rah, medium to large school, etc in the middle of my wordy intro post. I don’t need help with the CART or services part as I do plenty of research. Just looking for some other ideas of where to look for her given her gpa and her wish list. Thanks.</p>
<p>I am not sure if this fits your criteria, but U. Alabama gets a lot of attention on these boards. I think it’s large and warm weather and rah rah. Perhaps someone more familiar can chime in.</p>
<p>NYMom3Kids, Hi. As an audiologist and also mom of a senior, I am familiar with your situation. I know that you said you are interested in a warm climate, however I am more familiar with Northeast schools, so I’ll tell you what I know. You, of course will want a school with excellent support services and a school who has at least a few hearing impaired/deaf students so that they are familiar with the needs of your D. I can tell you that Hofstra on Long Island has excellent support services and even has special dorm rooms for the hearing impaired. They may even have a few “looped” classrooms, not sure. I know that Adelphi also has a looped classroom and good support services, but small school. RIT (definitely not a warm climate) has a huge hearing impaired/deaf population so they are familiar with their needs. Hope I gave you a little info and best of luck in your search!!</p>
<p>Welcome NYMom, I don’t know anything about accommodations for hearing impaired students. I will tell you that Texas A&M did a wonderful job accommodating my S with his issues. The disabilities office is very responsive. The school has a small but very cohesive Jewish population, Jewish frat and sorority and a brand new Hillel building that opened this year.</p>
<p>I have a question. S2 is in the “weedout” semester of the engineering program. Both Calc and Physics classes are extremely demanding in terms of work load and difficulty. I am mentioning this because we learned today that S2 has mono. He had a physics test tonight that he was going to try and take up until the last minute when he realized that there was no way. Once he realized he couldn’t test he began to be afraid there is no way he will ever catch up. He asked me if I thought he could get a medical withdrawl and I am not sure. I googled medical withdrawl and TAMU but couldn’t find anything. Do any of you have any suggestions regarding procedures to follow to help him get on track or if necessary to pull him from some or all of his classes. What a tough break. He had an awesome first semester and was really driven to maintain his strong academic record.</p>
<p>Tigerm: Thank you for the suggestions. We are familiar with the LI schools but DD wants to go OOS and experience kids from a big mix of states. She has been mainstreamed since 1st grade in public school, completely oral and isn’t drawn to look at NTID, the deaf/hoh component of RIT. She has been lucky and already has a nice group of friends outside of school with hearing loss. The majority of her friends are from school/camp/BBYO and have normal hearing.</p>
<p>Shulamit: Thank you for the suggestion for Bama. LINYMOM also mentioned it to me. I have researched it previously and while it fits the bill on many accounts, the Hillel website (I know it is outdated) approximates the Jewish population at just 600 students. Even if it is more at this point, I think it is still too small a number for us.</p>
<p>Vitrac: Thank you for the suggestions. Miami is a hot one in our area and she is hoping to go to a school that has fewer kids from our town. We have cousins currently enrolled at Tulane and from what I hear they are very happy there. I don’t think there are enough majors for her though. She is all over the place with that - Education, Hospitality, Image Management, Film, etc. A while back she contemplated fashion design. She definitely has an artistic bent but doesn’t want to major in Art. But that, coupled with her terrific people skills and personality make me wish more schools had event planning or fashion styling as majors! I don’t know too much about University of Texas but when I looked it up it said it was mainly a commuter school?? Can someone explain and tell me what programs the school is known for and what the Jewish percentage and life are like?</p>
<p>Thanks again to all. Happy to have found you and I’m learning so much!</p>
<p>UT Austin is definitely not a commuter school. It would be impossible to list all of the programs UT is known for. It has top 10 programs in so many areas. I don’t know what the Jewish percentage is but there is a very strong virbrant Jewish community on campus. The one thing that you will however find at UT that might be different than at other state flagship schools is that by state law a large majority of the population will be Texan so she might not find the diversity of geographic orgin that she is looking for. There will however be all kinds of diversity on campus in other respects. Admission for OOS residents is also quite competitive but it is a wonderful school for an outgoing gregarious student.</p>
<p>Thanks RVM: We talked about him contacting his advisor tomorrow before we get him. His advisor has been particularly difficult to reach so I told him to contact his department heads as well.</p>
<p>NYmom3kids, what about UGA? My D2 was very interested in it, nobody from her high school in MA ever goes there but my husband is from VA and a lot of Jewish kids from there go. We ddn’t end up visiting but it looks beautiful on line, it is large, has rah rah, good weather. reasonable tuition and they offered her merit money.</p>
<p>One thing I recollect being told about UT years ago is that the Jewish kids could “only” join the Jewish fraternities and sororities. Is it still segregated like that?</p>
<p>mumof2 we are going to look at UGA next week. I have read a lot about it and it sounds like it may be a good fit.</p>
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