<p>rockvillemom, i can’t remember if you put Dickinson on your list? If not, please look into it!!</p>
<p>Completely understand what you are saying jpm50 - and it is always a work in progress. With my older son - we jointly developed a list of schools and when decision time came - the final pick was his. Turns out the school he chose would not have been my first choice - but he has had a wonderful freshman year there and he really did pick the right school. He has matured greatly during this past year and handled lots of issues on his own - from having swine flu the first week of school - to selecting/registering for classes - finding a job on-campus, etc. I have had no involvement in these situations/decisions.</p>
<p>With a 16-year-old, however, I think a lot more parental involvement is needed. I assure you that if I asked my younger son to come up with a list of colleges he wanted to visit fall of junior year - I’d have a blank piece of paper to work with. I have tried to develop a varied list for him - small schools of 2200 or so - larger schools of 15,000 or so such as JMU and Towson, rural schools such as Susquehanna, etc., so that he is being exposed to a wide variety of colleges in different sizes and locations. However, all of the schools meet our basic criteria so that if he does fall in love with a school, I have already “pre-screened” it so that I know it has the attributes that we are looking for. And of course, I want to be sure it is a school he has a reasonable chance of being accepted at. So, if some feel I’m over-involved - that’s ok by me. I’d rather be doing what I am doing the way I am doing it than arrive at the fall of senior year with no plan and have a stressful, chaotic year.</p>
<p>SDonCC - I wish I could have Dickinson on the list - but the international focus and emphasis on foreign language does not fit well for my son. He has hated his 3 years of Spanish and refused to take Spanish 4 this year as a junior. He is going to try a semester of Latin and see how that goes. He also has expressed more interest in schools that have a brief January option to study abroad for 3 weeks - than having to go abroad for an entire semester. Dickinson’s business major in International Business - and he does not seem at all interested in that option. It’s really too bad, but I don’t see the point in considering Dickinson if the international flavor of the school does not interest S2.</p>
<p>Mdcissp: I agree with others that it is unlikely that you will find the perfect match in a college. I think the best strategey is to have your son apply to the schools that look like the best fit, and then re-evaluate next spring. You will probably have to comprise and set priorities. I agree with Rockvillemom about Salisbury. I understand that you prefer to have your son at a school with more Jewish life on campus, but some of the other factors might be more important. I would have him reconsider Stevenson and McDaniel so he will have choices in the spring. I think you should also keep community college as an option. He might need to spend a year or two at home while he acclimates to college. Does your local community college have an honors program? That might provide the intellectual rigor he wants.</p>
<p>In terms of the discussion of how much involvement parents should have in this process, I think that most kids need the help. My older daughter resisted getting started, so I finally just signed her up for SAT prep and presented her with a list of colleges for her to consider visiting. She went on the visits reluctently and finally started doing her own research the summer before senior year. When she realized that she should apply early decision to allow her best chance of admission to her dream school, she was in a position to make that choice because her testing was complete and she had visited a good range of schools for comparison. I’ve seen other kids who did have have optimal choices because they focused on things too late.</p>
<p>on the topic of “letting the kid run the show”…my senior daughter has been great in this regard to a point;
when she started looking into schools that she has NO chance of being accepted at, it was time for us to sit down together to face reality (both financially and academically)…</p>
<p>and I do agee with momjr re: early decision…if you think your kid is possibly in a position to do this, it’s really great to have alot of the process done on the early side…(if they are willing to)</p>
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<p>MD- in order to qualify for the CPA license, your son needs to be working at a public accounting firm and then take the exam. Some of his managers at the firm will no doubt be good teachers and mentors and some are likely to be great practitioners but lousy teachers. (That’s the nature of the beast in any professional setting.) So again- choosing a quantitative major for a kid who doesn’t love numbers begs the question of why not choose a major that plays to his strengths? Not every accounting or math professor will be great-- some will be highly supportive and nurturing but may not be able to explain the concepts in such a way that hits your son’s sweet spot.</p>
<p>So the focus on accounting strikes me as mis-placed. </p>
<p>What does your son love???</p>
<p>I would not encourage a kid who is looking for a strong Jewish community to sacrifice that in order to be at a school which otherwise seems like a strong fit. You may be wrong about the fit- and then your son is in a place which isn’t right academically, and doesn’t have a strong Jewish community.</p>
<p>And it seems that you are focused on the business major offerings- if not accounting, are there other business disciplines that interest your son?</p>
<p>A national study of student experiences at colleges attempted to measure how engaged students were in their education, using a wide variety of factors, such as workload, small classes, interaciton with faculty, etc. Not every college participated, but hundreds did and USA Today published the results last year. It is the only tool I have seen of this type:</p>
<p>[How</a> to make NSSE college scores work for you - USATODAY.com](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/nsse.htm?loc=interstitialskip]How”>http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/nsse.htm?loc=interstitialskip)</p>
<p>^^yabeyabe: great find; surprised we all didn’t catch this when it was published in Dec…thank you</p>
<p>Thanks. As with any source, we might not all agree with the definitions of the criteria or some schools may succeed in “gaming” it, but it is worth a look. I wish it had a feature where you could select multiple schools and have their results all on one screen.</p>
<p>rockvillemom, I can see that Dickinson might not fit for your son. I did want to point out for others reading this thread that I think the emphasis on international stuff is as much marketing as it is reality. We actually were disappointed by how easily it seemed to be to place out of the foreign language requirement. Our tour guide had no interest in languages, and placed out based on her high school language class, which I recall as only three or at most four years. </p>
<p>However, Dickinson still seemed like a nice school, and definitely an active Jewish presence. My S received personal emails from professors and current Hillel students trying to interest him in applying.</p>
<p>SDonCC - that’s a very interesting point. We have seen Gettysburg and are planning to visit Susquehanna and Muhlenberg this fall. If S2 likes these smaller PA schools - maybe we will have a look at Dickinson after all. Like I said, I was disappointed that it did not seem to fit - because I like that it is an easy drive for us, it offers early action and I know it has a good Hillel. Thanks for the info.</p>
<p>Looked it up on our Naviance - large public hs. Might be a little reachy for S2. Most accepted students had about a 4.2 - 4.3 weighted GPA - S2 has a 3.97 right now - I really don’t see it going up - I just hope he can hang onto what he has. The average accepted student had about a 1250-1300 SAT or a 29-30 ACT. I’m hoping he can hit a 28. So, it might be worth looking into - but I think it might be a bit much academically.</p>
<p>Jewish life and Hillel at Dickinson look wonderful. Here’s the link.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.dickinson.edu/student-life/resources/asbell-center/content/Hillel-at-Dickinson/[/url]”>http://www.dickinson.edu/student-life/resources/asbell-center/content/Hillel-at-Dickinson/</a></p>
<p>SDonCC has a point. Every school that we visited was proud to announce that they have a “global perspective.” Usually that boiled down to study abroad and a required course on cultural diversity.</p>
<p>Maybe I’m splitting hairs - but I think S2 would find a better fit at a school that was less “intellectual” and more “pre-professional”. I think he’d be in over his head at Dickinson. I do agree with you though on the “global perspective” - that seems to be another phrase we hear at every school. And the cultural diversity course requirement - yup - familiar with that from S1’s school.</p>
<p>Rockvillemom, re: post 1803…my daughter, who has moderate dyslexia, also dropped her language as early as she was permitted and doesn’t want to attend a college with a significant language requirement. In addition, she loves the idea of the January (or any time of the year) 3-4 week session during which the student has an opportunity to do something different, whether it’s an international stint or a community service project, etc. For these two reasons, Elon has risen to the top of her list. Have you found other schools that have the 4-1-4 type schedule that Elon has? The ‘1’ doesn’t have to be in January…D found another school that had it–I believe it was Bates but can’t recall–but ended up ruling it out for other reasons.</p>
<p>In terms of how involved we as parents should be…we have to know our kids. D1 ran the whole show and told me what she wanted, where she wanted to visit, etc. Of course we talked things through and I shared some of my views but I took a back seat appoach because that’s what was best for that D. D2 needs much more of my involvement. I’m constantly impressed by the parents on CC and their efforts to aid their children in the process. I suppose there may be those parents who truly take over, become too invested and it really does become their process but I don’t generally see that on CC and certainly not on this thread!</p>
<p>collage1: It may be bigger than the schools your daughter is considering, but Delaware has a long January term with many study abroad opportunities.</p>
<p>collage1 - I agree with you wholeheartedly on Elon. I would be very pleased if S2 ended up there. But - I don’t want to push it too much - so it is simply one of the schools we are visiting this fall. But I think it comes closest to meeting every single criteria on our list. We’ll see…</p>
<p>Bates is not a good school for Jewish life. There is a small group of students who run it on their own. Friday night they get together to light candles and have challah, but don’t really have a service. (although they said that they did that because that’s what the current students wanted and would have one if someone wanted). We were impressed that these students made at least this commitment on their own, though. </p>
<p>The website makes Bates sound much better than it is in terms of Jewish life. It also would be a stretch for the students on this thread, IMO, at least with the colleges that most seem to be looking at here. </p>
<p>The 4-1-4 plan is really wonderful, though. (Bates is 4-4-1). I went to a school that had it, and I wish all schools did. It’s a great time to enjoy campus life apart from the pressures of the regular semester.</p>
<p>Someone had recently suggested Drexel to me as an option for my son - and while I don’t think it is the right fit for him - it should definitely be in the conversation of schools for Jewish “B” students.</p>
<p>A few facts - private university located in Philadelphia with about 13,500 undergraduates. Known for its co-op program. Active Jewish community - here’s the link for Hillel:</p>
<p>[Drexel</a> Hillel Highlights](<a href=“http://drexelhillel.org/drexel]Drexel”>http://drexelhillel.org/drexel)</p>
<p><a href=“http://phillyhillel.org/campuses[/url]”>http://phillyhillel.org/campuses</a></p>
<p>Princeton Review shows the average GPA as 3.47 and the ACT midrange as 23-28. SAT 1200-1300. 72% acceptance rate.</p>
<p>From our large public hs - 40 students applied in 2010 - 37 were accepted and 2 will matriculate. Most with WGPAs above a 3.0 and at least a 26 ACT or an 1100 SAT were accepted.</p>
<p>Engineering, business and technology are popular majors. Admission is rolling. Tuition, room & board are about $46,000. Freshman retention rate is 84%. Students have 4-year and 5-year options depending on whether they want 1 6-month internship or 3 6-month co-op experiences. Only freshman are guaranteed housing.</p>
<p>I don’t think it is sport-oriented enough for my son and I don’t think he wants to be in a major city like Philly - but this might be a wonderful option for someone who wants to add another rolling admission school to their list.</p>
<p><a href=“Students”>http://www.drexel.edu/guide/prospective-students.aspx</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.drexel.edu/undergrad/about/facts/[/url]”>http://www.drexel.edu/undergrad/about/facts/</a></p>
<p>Drexel is very urban–it is next to UPenn, with less green space. Very strong in science and good in business. I have been told it is not generous with aid below its Honors program.
No football team, but sometimes good in basketball.</p>
<p>they send out a lot offree “priority applications”.</p>