<p>Booklady, riverrunner, Thanks for the thoughts!</p>
<p>"Hi, I’ve been away from CC for a while, but I noticed this thread and had to join in. I have twin girls in 10th grade and a son at Drew (sophomore) and sometimes feel overwhelmed. "</p>
<p>Hi Deb, I remember you! When you are less overwhelmed, would you consider discussing Drew with me? It’s caught my daughter’s eye for a variety of reasons, but we have no first-hand info. </p>
<p>Welcome to our happy thread, by the way. (Shame we couldn’t get a forum for each grade of high school.)</p>
<p>zoosermom, just PM me with any questions. It’s been a mixed bag but basically, my son is happy and I’d be more than willing to answer any questions.</p>
<p>I’m another parent of a 10th grade boy. He is just starting to be intereste in colleges. We are visiting a few schools during vacation that aren’t too far away to see what appeals to him. I think he will do well in a school that hvs small interactive classes. He gets a’s easily in the discussion based “interesting” classes. </p>
<p>I’m a little concerned about his EC’s. He’s been in the Junior Classical League for 2 years and volunteers 5 hours a week at an aquarium. That’s it. </p>
<p>We’re visiting Emmanuel, Northeastern, Roger Williams and Salve Regina. So we’re hoping for an interesting week. </p>
<p>So glad to have this thread!!</p>
<p>warriorboy648, my children aren’t involved in a lot of things, one daughter was doing too much and the stress of lack of time and us picking up and dropping off was too much. They do 2 things, one fluctuates and one is steady, but they wont pad their resume with things just to do them. One daughter does a program at Yale and tells me how admissions criteria does vary even there. One student told her she had decent SAT’s, but not near perfect,and got A’s and B’s at school,one didn’t do a lot of EC’s, but had 1 club she enjoyed for 4 years and a job. (these weren’t the most affulent students, but not poor) The reasons they were picked vary I’m sure but she joked, it was probably refreshing to see an application that wasn’t tailor made by a admissions specialist…it’s important but it does get old.
My niece, when interviewing, was honest in saying she had to work to save money, she worked close to home because she didn’t have a car, she stayed after school one day a week because there wasn’t a bus after dismissal and she did dance on the weekend which was a long time love. She never found anyone in interviews saying that was lacking…sure being president of this and that is nice, but only a few people can be the leader and not everyone has the same personality. I always admired that she knew who she was even in high school, so many of her friends couldn’t figure out what they liked after a while and what was for college. Somehow I think it will get worse before it gets better.
My girlfriends son loved Northeastern, he wanted to go into business and liked the school and work balance there. At graduation he is working for a financial firm in Boston and happy (but it’s expensive!)</p>
<p>oh, yes on both points! I say it daily…we’re wealthy! That’s what’s amazing. And yes…room,board, transportation, etc…it adds up quickly.</p>
<p>Count me in! I’ll be stumbling through with the rest of you. I have a 10th grade boy. I’ve been active on the Prep School Admissions board, but now I expect I’ll get more active on the college search boards. </p>
<p>In the end, he will probably want to apply to the schools that his friends apply to. However, I have been working on giving him a frame of reference so that he can tell his College Guidance Counselor what types of schools he likes next year. Without any clue, how would he know? Starting last summer, we visited some colleges so that he can start learning about what is available. 11th grade seems very busy with all the testing (SATs, SATIIs, ACT, PSAT, etc.) and AP courses plus trying to articulate the type of college he would like.</p>
<p>Debruns - Thanks for the words of encouragement. I’ve been reading through past threads about lots of kids with perfect test scores, straight a’s and a huge list of EC’s and have been wondering if a regular kid with a’s and B’s can get into a school these days. I guess there is still hope.</p>
<p>Gosh, I guess I had better join the discussion and complete the Prep School bunch (Burb Parent and warriorboy648) reunion. </p>
<p>And yes, we are in full college search mode. Have an interesting tour planned for the trip home from school in May across NY state. Great opportunity (even if the campuses are empty) to get a sense of place for many schools, even if they are whirlwind drive-bys.</p>
<p>Throwing in athletic, FA needs, and goaliegirl trying to figure out what she wants to be in life doesn’t exactly make this easy. Kinda makes the whole boarding school thing seem simple in some ways.</p>
<p>“Have an interesting tour planned for the trip home from school in May across NY state.”</p>
<p>Care to share the schools you’re going to check out?</p>
<p>Sure, although many are probably not matches - hey she is still trying to figure this out! It is about most of the schools in NY that have varsity womens hockey…</p>
<p>Going form East to West (approximately)…</p>
<p>Union (primarily because my FIL is an alum and I basically have to drive by Schnectady), a reach for my D.
Utica
Syracuse
Cortland
Elmira
Oswego (my dad is an alum)
RIT
Niagara</p>
<p>Schools left off
Colgate - an out of the way reach
Hamilton - ditto
Cornell - ditto
Potsdam - D has already said no boonie schools like her boarding school
Plattsburgh - ditto
Buffalo St. - just doesn’t sound like it is worth the time.</p>
<p>I admit that this list requires a lot of driving. Trying to figure out if I want to zig-zag going north south and end up exiting out of the west or loop around and exit after visiting Elmira (through PA - to I81). Any thoughts here?</p>
<p>Thanks for posting Goaliedad, as a New Yorker, I’d be very interested in your impressions, particularly of Syracuse.</p>
<p>We recently went to the mandatory college fair at my daughter’s school and met the rep from Buffalo. My daughter asked her a question about their classics program and she made a face and said “and what is classics now?” Ugh. Very off-putting because there isn’t a lot of choice in classics in NY state schools.</p>
<p>Sounds like your daughter has a direction to pursue - and definitely not at Buff State. lol Perhaps Stony? </p>
<p>Goaliegirl is still trying to figure her direction out. Hence, the variety of schools. Still in 10th grade, so there is time, though. I think though that goaliegirl is more of a doer than a thinker, if that makes sense. She is not one to ponder the meanings of things, but wants to git ‘r’ done. Could end up being anything from a physical therapist to an FBI agent.</p>
<p>Also left off Manhattanville, but that too is out of the line of this drive. More likely to look at that on a different trip, as we usually head up 81 and drive through CT on our way to school.</p>
<p>Will let you know what we think of 'Cuse.</p>
<p>A lot of this trip is to identify what she likes and doesn’t like about schools. We got a sample last fall when we spent a day in Boston and did a tour of Northeastern and did drive-bys (not conducting tours that day) of BU and BC. She liked Northeastern and BU and was Ok with BC. Clearly it was the level of activity that seemed to get her interest. And as a doer-type, I think Northeastern with its Co-op arrangements may be the best match I’ve seen for her so far.</p>
<p>However, even if the first frog she kisses ends up turning into Prince Charming, she should at least kiss a couple more to find out that Prince Charming is definitely better than toads! At least with school tours that don’t cost that much…</p>
<p>My D is also a field hockey and lacrosse player! It’s lonely here in Texas for those 2 sports lol. We’re hoping they might be a ‘hook’ at a D2 or D3 school. She’s looking for a strong writing/literature, possibly film, school, smaillish, out of Texas.</p>
<p>mimimomx3,</p>
<p>Let me clarify, goaliegirl is an ice hockey goalie. However, she does play field hockey and lax now at her boarding school (and not as a goalie in those sports per her wishes).</p>
<p>I can relate to the lonelyness of playing a sport in a locale without teams, though. I take it that you are transplants in Texas from New England?</p>
<p>I’m a Jersey relo now in the Southeast, and I sure know what the OP is talking about. Our family is already in a major “disconnect” on this topic! I’m thinking, “How about Williams?” where my Ivy husband is saying, “yea, Harvard!” and our son is saying, “those schools play crappy football!”. (and he’s not a football player) His sports friends will all be going to the publics in our state, his private school classmates are all over the map from Princeton to East Carolina and everything in between. His head is spinning. Maybe a gap year is in order!</p>
<p>warriorboy648, how about some of us who have a child with a couple of Cs thrown into the As and Bs mix? I can just keep repeating that she will get in somewhere, just maybe not one of her two “dream schools” but somewhere nice and respectable where she will do just fine.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>zoosermom, alas there aren’t that many good choices for Classics, especially if your D will have had a lot of Latin and/or Greek by the time she graduates. Our D is particularly interested in the languages, and at a number of schools she looked at she would have pretty much topped out their Latin language (as opposed to history and civ courses) offerings by the end of her sophomore year. D had some luck e-mailing faculty at various schools; they were delighted to hear from an interested high school student, and she even arranged to meet with some of them when we were doing the campus visits. They’re in the best position to give your D details about the dept.</p>
<p>As for NY schools, I believe Binghamton has a very good Classics dept.</p>
<p>Queen’s Mom, I can relate. DS is at a top 40 LAC, he had one C in one marking period his entire hs career (honors math). DD is in 10th grade, had 3 C’s during marking periods last year, and already has had 2 this year, although all her C’s have been in honors classes and her end-of-year grades last year were all B’s, and all her academics last year were Honors. She is a good student with great EC’s (stronger EC’s than her brother) but I think we’re going to have to drop down one tier or so for her college search. I wish I lived in a state with a strong State U, as I think D would do well in a large school with a solid rep and it would be less costly for me! But I have very little faith in our state U, so I guess we’ll be looking at OOS or private. I don’t mind paying thru the nose for DS’s relatively-highly-ranked LAC, but I’m not sure I want to spend the same amount for a mid-ranked private.</p>
<p>You are me! 
LAfalum!
Our state school, UTAustin, is practically impossible to get in, although all Texas residents are guaranteed admission to a UT system school and can transfer to UTA with the right GPA. We have great kids who will do wonderfully at whatever school they attend. As I remind her (daily!) life isn’t a race.</p>