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<p>It’s an IB program in a large NYC public school. Frankly, it’s a ghetto school with stabbings, poverty, overcrowding. The whole bit. Very few non-IB or IB-level kids go to college at all. The school is also so huge and understaffed that the office has to be rigid in its demand or nothing will get done.</p>
<p>zoosermom - I’m sorry that your D’s school is that way. No school should be like that. </p>
<p>Sounds like we’re all going to be very busy this year. It’s good to know we’re not alone.</p>
<p>Question - Are any of your kids truly interested in visiting colleges right now? My D is resisting because she says none of her friends have started yet. I can’t get her to understand that what is best for them may not be what is best for us (which would be to start now).</p>
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My d is not really interested, but she knows that with dad working two jobs including almost all weekends, she’ll have to get out there when she can rather than when she wants to.</p>
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<p>Son may be starting to show some interest. A few examples…</p>
<p>We were on vacation last week. Tuesday was my day for picking what we did. I chose touring (self-guided) niece’s college. She will be a freshman at Coastal Carolina U next month. After dragging all of them (H and D included) to the campus kicking and screaming, everyone enjoyed it once we got there. At one point S even said, “hey, can we see a dorm?” (We did.) Then, a few days later, I caught him voluntarily reading the school’s brochures. CCU is not a match for for him, but at least his first tour experience was positive. Now I can raise the subject next spring without expecting ignorant-based rejection. (BTW, CCU was far more impressive than I expected. Don’t know why USNWR shows it as 4th tier.)</p>
<p>I keep a copy of the 2009 Fiske Guide on the coffee table in case inspiration strikes S all of a sudden. Stuck inside the pages is a list of 35+ schools that might be a fit for him, based on things he’s said (no urban, etc.) and things I’ve learned on CC. It is purposely a long list so that he can be assured I’m not pushing any single school. Caught him reading it the other day. Even turned down a few pages. </p>
<p>Bonus: Now GF has discovered our copy of Fiske. Every time she comes over, she wants to look at it. By default that means S is, too. :-P</p>
<p>After the three school visits we just had, he’s actually pretty jazzed about it. He named a couple of other places he’d like to go and said that he’d like to revisit the school we visited last year, now that he knows more.</p>
<p>He’s never been a glad-hander, but he was pretty engaged on two of the three visits and definitely had opinions about each one. I felt like the trip was really successful.</p>
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<p>My D’s been interested since 9th grade. It’s partly because we’ve moved a couple of times. We lived on the East Coast until she was 10, ended up in the Midwest for complicated reasons but still get back to NY and New England fairly often. D thinks of herself as a “displaced New Yorker” and can’t wait to get back to the Northeast for college. </p>
<p>But I also agree ^ that a few visits can generate interest in others.</p>
<p>I think my D was interested in college visits until her friends told her she was crazy to start so early. Now she can’t be bothered. I can understand why your D is so agreeable to college visits - she wants to be back where she feels like she belongs. </p>
<p>I still have some hope that I’ll be able to take my D on some visits at the end of August, though my schedule has to be adjusted a bit. I think part of her reluctance to visit schools is that she knows her BF will be leaving for college towards the end of Aug. I’m thinking that if I plan to bring her the day after he leaves, she might be willing. We’ll have less time than I planned, and I’ll have to take her alone, but it might work. Plus it might take her mind off the fact that her BF will be gone (and no longer be her BF since they are planning to end things when he leaves).</p>
<p>DS has just signed up for the next ACT. He was debating whether to take the writting part or not. The deciding factor: “if I don’t take the writting part, could I still be able to get a 36”? </p>
<p>I LIKE IT!!!</p>
<p>My D is interested in colleges and has checked out many websites, but only one short visit last year during a summer program. We will pick her up from camp in Aug and visit Dartmouth and Middlebury before driving home. Trying to fit the visits in when we are in the area to minimize gas. We were going to stop at Clark while driving through that area but timing didn’t work out. So this will be our first real visits, I am excited :)</p>
<p>We will get to Dartmouth and eat lunch (I emailed admissions asking if we could eat with cash in any dining halls, also asking for vouchers and haven’t heard back) and do student panel/info/tour. Then drive to Middlebury and do the info/tour the next morning. Dartmouth will still be in session so that is a plus. It is her first choice school but without test scores yet who knows how attainable.</p>
<p>Dad II, I know this isn’t the point you wer trying to make, but a question on the ACT. Is there a reason ever to take it w/o writing? Can’t it only be subsituted for SAT if it includes writing?</p>
<p>jackief - I convinced my D to go on a little college tour (Boston area schools) in August, and I’m trying to add on Dartmouth. It’s not like we have lots of time to get up that way, and I know it’s a school she’ll be considering (also dpeending on test scores), so I think it makes sense to look then. </p>
<p>D hasn’t checked out any college websites as far as I know, and she never looks at the mail the schools send (that I do know). I’m hoping that once she’s officially a junior, reality will kick in. Or that the summer visits help - Tufts for sure, also thinking H, M, and Dartmouth. I tried to get her interested in seeing BU and Northeastern, but she said no. Also, I thought about taking her to see Trinity in Hartford, CT, but again, she said no. None of the schools I mentioned are even on her radar (except Dartmouth), but I just want her to start thinking about it. </p>
<p>Like you, we visited one school last summer - W&M, which she loved. We also visited Georgetown (not a real visit, just a quick look) the summer before that. She liked what she saw, and loved the surroundings. Unfortunately, we looked at those schools before we knew she would be interested in engineering.</p>
<p>LIMOM, I hope to get down to Tufts at some point, even though she doesn’t wan’t “university” it is on the small side and even though she is interested in “double majoring in Psych and English, minor in classics, and then become an English teacher at her private school when her favorite teacher retires” I want to put more language/international areas on the far edges of her radar screen. She takes two languages and gets A+ in both so that is her strongest area. </p>
<p>She wants nothing to do with schools like BU which are in the city and have no campus. She has walked through Harvard and wants to apply there “just to see” if her stats don’t put her in the running she can pay the app fee! I would love for her to visit Georgetown and other DC schools but she is anti-Catholic schools right now so I want to get her at least on a campus, I’m angling for Holy Cross, to see that everyone isn’t praying all the time (we are Catholic but she not to into church currently)</p>
<p>If you can visit schools similar enough to Dartmouth it is hard to justify the drive up there for just one school. It is a pretty campus. Maybe add BC or Brandeis. The big plus Dartmouth has going for it is that there will be students there in the summer including a student panel discussion through the admissions office.</p>
<p>Enjoy your stay in Boston, so many schools to choose from there is something for everyone (except me, who grew up nearby and wanted to get away from the family!)</p>
<p>jackie - the reason I selected Boston as a destination was because of the variety of schools available. Tufts is probably the one she’ll like the best (from what I’ve read/heard about it). Many of the schools don’t offer engineering (or they do, but as 3/2 programs which D isn’t interested in) so that eliminates Brandeis, BC, and Holy Cross. She feels the same way as your D does about schools like BU with no campus. At the moment, the only schools on D’s list are Cornell and Princeton, with Dartmouth as a maybe - I don’t think it’s for her as it’s pretty rural, so I’d like her to see it for herself. I don’t think Cornell is right for her either - too big and too rural. </p>
<p>Thanks for the good wishes, and I hope you enjoy your visits as well. Oh, and do try to get down to DC. Your D will probably really like Georgetown - even if she doesn’t love the campus, the surroundings are great for college students. GW is like BU - a real urban school. American is another good option - not in the heart of the city, but just a short metro or bus ride away.
DC is a great place for students - so much to do (for free!), a fun nightlife, great internships - I really wouldn’t be upset if D ended up there - but only GW and Catholic offer engineering, and GW is too urban, and she’s not the least bit interested in Catholic U.</p>
<p>LIMOM, as a Cornell Engineering grad, I can your daughter which one to pick! 
I was the type who was fine in a big school with big lectures, D is not that type, her HS has small seminar type classes and that’s what she wants to continue. I also liked the variety of students at Cornell, not all geeks, and the campus was amazing. “Too hilly” for my D when we were there last year for a reunion, she was not interested at that stage to go on an official tour. </p>
<p>You should probably check out Olin also, if you have time you could swing by WPI just for another data point comparison.</p>
<p>Thanks jackie. I have lots of friends who graduated from Cornell, so they’ve been pushing it a bit too…lol. I really don’t think my D is the type to like the big lectures either - but I will take her to visit Cornell for sure so she can judge it for herself. She has a few friends who will be going there this year, so they can show her around after we’ve had an official tour/info session. At this point, she isn’t interested in purely tech schools like Olin or WPI because she would like to have a very non-technical double major or minor - she’s thinking either comparative religions or gender studies.</p>
<p>We just came back from a “college visiting trip.” Mostly we just walked around campuses getting a feel for them, but also did a few tours and admissions talks. The short of it is we were hoping for D to like some less selective schools for possible safeties, but unfortunately she is more set on Barnard than ever.</p>
<p>Queen’s Mom - Do you mind sharing which schools you visited and your thoughts about them. We’re also on the lookout for possible safeties for my D, and I’m really not sure where to begin.</p>
<p>haven’t been folllowing this thread to carefully as it is way too long and my kids are way past 10th grade- but as I am also a LI Mom of 2-<br>
–are you considering U of Rochester?? Has engineering- religion-women’s studies and Rochester has a nice curriculum where you can combine many areas of study. As your d is also just starting 11th grade, (?) you can see if her HS participates in any of the Rochester awards like Bosch and Lomb. Each participating HS can nominate a kid for the award. If your kid gets the award and decides to go to Rochester it can save you around $10,000/year in tuition. The award is also a nice boost to put on a resume. The award (my kid got the humanities /social science now called Susan Anthony- Frederick Douglas award) I believe prompted my kid to get a merit scholarship from CMU as the award was listed on her resume and it seems schools like Rochester-CMU-Tufts and Case Western get alot of kids applying and the schools seem to compete for the same type of student.
I’m gonna put in another vote for Cornell as my d just graduated from the ILR school and absolutely loved her time there. But if you do decide to check out Cornell, also check out Rochester as it probably less then 2 hours away from Ithaca.</p>
<p>marny1- Thanks for your recommendations. The thing is, I am considering lots of schools - the problem is getting my D to consider them…lol. It isn’t easy. She’s definitely interested in Cornell, and I’m taking her to visit Tufts this summer (at the moment, she isn’t especially interested, but she’s willing). Most likely we would not incorporate a visit to Cornell with a visit to Rochester because I think if she visits Cornell, she’ll want to spend time with friends who go there. Having said that, U of Rochester does have what she’s looking for and I will bring it to her attention. You’re right, the awards are a great incenctive - I’m pretty sure her school participates - I’m just not sure that she would qualify. I’ll have to look into what the requirements are. I’m sure her grades are good enough, just not sure about ECs. She has plenty, just not sure if they’re the right ones. I don’t think CMU or Case Western are quite what she’s looking for - but I’ll have her take a look at them as well.</p>
<p>Congratulations to you and your daughter. I’m glad to hear she loved her time at Cornell. D has some good friends who will be starting there this fall.</p>
<p>Li Mom- forgot that we spoke about Rochester before- so I may have repeated myself a bit.<br>
as d # 2- sorta had a stubborn streak and wasn’t as interested in the college process as I was, I learned that I couldn’t overplan or really intrude too much- but I got real good at nudging her just a bit.<br>
– but if you are doing the NE area and drive via thruway and NE extension to Mass, you may be able to get her to do a quick look at Union College and RPI. (both in the Albany area?)
it may be a good mix of a LAC with engineering, a technical school, and Tufts as a small U to at least give her some ideas to think about. If you do drive this route, you won’t be too far from Williams College if that peeks her interest.<br>
For whatever reason- my kid did not like the Tufts campus but really liked U of R. There was a thread going a few years back about kids reaction to the Tufts campus. Either- you like it or you don’t. It doesn’t seem to get a neutral response as most campuses do.</p>