<p>We went to our first college fair. My son and I were both interested in going. As soon as we got there we both looked at each and didn’t know what to do. There were so many colleges there. I looked for places that had come up as matches for him on Princeton and other than that we were a little overwhelmed. </p>
<p>We are going to take a trip down the East Coast from NE to around Maryland this summer. A semi vacation to check things out. I have found out that my son is far more opinionated than I thought he would be…</p>
<p>zoosermom, thanks for the comments, no this is not a public school, it is a small college prep independent (ie private) school. I’d say the focus is in humanities/arts, which is good as that’s where my kids interests lie also. We are not in a large metropolitan area and don’t have school choice/magnets or anything like that, and this is the only private school option in the area.</p>
<p>warriorboy, My d went to her first big college fair herself when she was attending a summer program. Didn’t scare her off, that was good, and she got herself added to her first set of mailing lists We then went to a couple of the smaller fairs where 4-5 colleges come together to talk. tokenadult posts lists of these, we went to two which came to our city last fall. I continue to keep my eye out for this type of event. There is a bigger fair coming in a few weeks, but I don’t think the date will work out for us.</p>
<p>We haven’t been to any college fairs yet. D is mildly interested, but so busy with her ECs, that she hasn’t invested anytime in checking out colleges. I tried using College Navigator to make a starting list, and the selections it came up with were rather daunting - Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Georgetown, and Notre Dame. A few less selective schools would have been nice as those are the one we are having trouble choosing.</p>
<p>D got invited to a Fordham event all the way in August which seems like the perfect time to kick-off the visiting season. She is fairly interested in that one, but from the perspective of just loving to see new and different places. We’ve heard good things about the Fordham classics program, so I think that will be good.</p>
<p>For those of you thinking about initial college lists, you might ask your school’s college guidance office to give you access to naviance if your school subscribes to it. Naviance has scattergrams of GPA on one axis and SAT scores on another axis. It will show you the accepted, rejected, waitlist/accepted, and waitlist/rejected students from your school for the last few years by college.</p>
<p>Just wondering, are any of you planning to attend the admissions forum being hosted by the U of Rochester on May 31st? D got the invitation today (she hasn’t even seen it as she doesn’t even look at her college mail). Anyway, I was thinking of taking her, if she agrees and was wondering if anyone else was thinking of attending?</p>
<p>Wish we could attend that, LIMOMOF2, but that date is in the middle of my boys’ final exams and we can’t spare the time. I took one of my 10th graders to the “Exploring College Options” program which was mentioned in tokenadult’s “stickied” post… Harvard, Penn, Stanford, Georgetown and Duke were in attendance. Each gave a 10-15 minute powerpoint presentation, lovely slide show. There was a general Q&A period and then each of the reps picked a corner of the enormous ballroom and the attendees could go ask specific questions of the reps. We didn’t stay for that portion of the presentation since the kid is only in 10th grade, but after we left he thanked me for bringing him to the presentation. Said it made everything “seem more real.”</p>
<p>D probably would have been more interested in the event you attended momof3sons, but we weren’t able to make that one (can’t remember why). One reason the U of Rochester event caught my attention is that D’s exams don’t start until mid-June (except the Chem SAT II which is June 7th, a week after the forum). At the moment, she isn’t the least bit interested in U of Rochester - but I’d like her to get to know about schools other than the ivies, SUNYs, and U of Michigan…lol.</p>
<p>It’s been a few years, as d is now a college senior- but U of Rochester is one of those schools where it is real important to demonstrate an interest. So if you are even thinking about U of R, you really should attend the Rochester forum. Though d decided not to go to Rochester, it was definitely one of her top picks. It’s a great school, pretty generous with merit aid (at least they were 4 years ago) and has alot going for it.</p>
<p>Thanks marny1. Earlier today, I asked D if she would be interested in attending the forum, and she said that at the moment she feels like she has too many other commitments. I’ll tell her that I heard that demonstrated interest is important if she applies to U of R. Maybe that will persuade her. At the moment, I’m trying to get her interested in good schools that are a little less well-known than the ivies. Thanks also for telling me about their merit aid - that means a great deal. That might also influence her in a positive way.</p>
<p>Our plan for the summer is to do two relatively local driving trips so S2 can get a sense of what an urban campus, a suburban campus, and a rural campus look like. Also … a state school, a private U, a small LAC. We’re going to visit schools between DC and Boston … we are somewhere in the middle. This is supposed to be casual and fun – and hopefully spark some interest in college in general.</p>
<p>I hope he’ll pull together his own list of schools that he can start thinking about.</p>
<p>We’ll be visiting a few colleges this summer as well. I’m pretty sure we’ll be concentrating on schools in New England. We only have 4 days available, and one of them is a Sunday when no tours are given! D’s summer job and the fact that she has to be back at school early for practice mean we don’t have a real summer vacation - but we’ll do the best we can.</p>
<p>The U. of Rochester usually hosts a really nice open campus event in November. We went when my son was a sophomore. Mind you, he really did not want to go – his dad graduated from there, and he was scared that he would run into his dad’s old college professors.</p>
<p>By the time we left the campus eight hours later, the U. of Rochester was one of his top choices. He loved the open curriculum, the research opportunities, the food (yes, it was good), the tunnels (which are cool, too). </p>
<p>So if you don’t make it there this summer, consider checking the school’s site for its fall open campus program.</p>
<p>I always associated University of Rochester with science/math/research/music. Recently it has come on my radar. I heard that they have been strengthening their social sciences/humanities. True or not? I think my son will major in something social sciences but is undecided at this point.</p>
<p>For all you 10th grade parents who are even THINKING about U of Rochester-
see if your HS participates in the U of R Awards program. That includes the Bausch and Lomb Award and Frederick Douglas/Susan B Anthony Award (and I think there are a few others too)</p>
<p>Many High Schools across the country can nominate a student for these U of Rochester Awards. If nominated by the HS, and if your kid decides to attend U of R, there is a $7,500/year merit award to go along with this honor.<br>
For NY state students or high SAT scorers, there may be additional merit money (or at least that is how it was a few years ago).</p>
<p>High schools nominate the kids in winter (Jan/Feb) of their junior year.
We were very lucky. My kids HS would post all announcements, if a kid was qualified and was truly interested in the school, they would nominate that kid. It really doesn’t make sense to nominate a kid who wasn’t even going to apply to U of R. We had visited U of R campus the summer after 10th grade, and my d really liked what she saw, so she was definitely planning to apply.</p>
<p>My kid got $11,000/merit per year as she did receive the Social science humanities award (now called frederick Douglas/susananthony) and additional merit as she scored high on SAT.<br>
My kid gave U of R serious consideration, but she felt Cornell/ILR was a better fit for her academic interests. She’ll be graduating in 2 weeks, so I guess she made the right decision for herself- </p>
<p>Good luck to all you guys. You will survive. And it will in fact all become a distant memory!!</p>
<p>The Bausch and Lomb winner (my kids LI school will often nominate multiple kids as there are different awards) will be graduating U of R this year. I think that is why my kids HS is very open about the nominating process- as they are with ALL these types of awards. They try to match up those kids who are genuinely interested in the school. Of course it is no guarantee that the nominee will attend, but at least they are “serious applicants”.</p>
<p>momreads and marny1, thanks for passing on the information about U. Rochester. One of D2’s post-PSAT mailings was from Rochester and it piqued her interest. Like Burb Parent, I had previously associated UR with math, science and music, and D is a prospective English/Creative Writing major; However, further research seems to show that it’s also strong in the Humanities. I had been thinking that she and I would visit Rochester during a Spring Break swing through upstate NY next year, but the November Open House does sound interesting.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting all that U of R scholarship info. I will pass that along to D to see if it will stimulate her interest in at least looking at the school.</p>
We then went to a couple of the smaller fairs where 4-5 colleges come together to talk. tokenadult posts lists of these, we went to two which came to our city last fall. I continue to keep my eye out for this type of event. There is a bigger fair coming in a few weeks, but I don’t think the date will work out for us.</p>