<p>momtravels I was in your H’s shoes last year. I have twins, one who was in the top 10% of the class, the other the top 25%. For a variety of reasons I had hoped that they would not attend the same college. Top 10%er was WLed at her #1 so had to choose a #2 by 5/1. She had been accepted to several schools that I thought would be perfect for her. She ended up choosing the same school as her sister in spite of having 3 more highly ranked options which, in my mind made more sense, not b/c of ranking but because of program, for her and she never came off the WL.</p>
<p>I was sad at the time and had a hard time not crying every time I discussed her choice with others. Like your H I was happy for her in front of her but privately I thought that she had made a mistake.</p>
<p>Flash forward a year and she is three weeks from finishing her frosh year. She has seized opportunities, assumed leadership roles and basically taken the bull by the horns at her school. She could not have had these experiences at another school and I am now thrilled with her choice. In addition there have been many many times when having both girls on the same campus has been a tremendous bonus and given me peace of mind.</p>
<p>Don’t know if he will (and if he is like my H he won’t), but encourage him to look at literature and the website and allow himself to fall in love with Loyola also if you can enlist the opinion of someone whom your H respects to put a word in for the school that will help too. </p>
<p>Congratulations, If I can get my kid to look at the east coast both of these schools may be on his list too.</p>
<p>Hornet, I’m off to check the Berry website. Congrats to you and your boy!</p>
<p>momtravels - Had a similar situation with my older son. H wanted him at Fordham but S loved Delaware. S is finishing third year at Delaware, loves the school, doing great and H is thrilled. It’s your S life, H had his chance.</p>
<p>Oh My Goodness Hornet! I just looked at part of the virtual tour of Berry and I have only one thing say HOGWARTS!!! It’s beautiful! (is that two things? ;))</p>
<p>My advice is to listen to historymom and hornet. For what its worth, my son was accepted to a reach school. It is a tier one school with an acceptance rate under 40% and the midrange of entering freshmen either have an ACT score 25-30, or SAT score of 580-690. We decided that this school was not going to be the best fit for our child and we allowed him to choose one of his safety schools because that is where he feels most comfortable and wants to go next fall. I think of it this way, he could have a better a GPA at his safety and take leadership roles (like historymom’s D), or he could be overly challenged at the reach school and up unhappy with a lower GPA. One might think that there will be less partying/distractions at the reach school where students have higher stats, but the reality is just the opposite between the two schools!</p>
<p>HI there, I am a new poster to CC and have enjoyed reading this thread for the last few weeks. I am a parent of a 2011 student in this range. First time SAT’s yesterday, college fair this week, and a few visits under our belt. We are heading in to a new world of applications, recommedations and finding the right fit…</p>
<p>Just also want to say happy one year anniversary to the start of this thread!! Wish I could read the whole thing!</p>
<p>The year goes by so fast. Happy anniversary everyone. Great posts and yes much to celebrate! S1 is finishing up his first year and D2 is beginning the process of choosing where to apply. Seems like I will be on this roller coaster for awhile as D3 is gearing up already for her junior year next year. Thank goodness D1 is almost finished with her grad school!</p>
<p>Northeast-you make an excellent point about reaches. S sits in the middle GPA and SAT score wise of his choice. He would fall in the lower half for some of his other choices. I have several friends whose kids chose schools where they were either at the top of the heap or close to it. In all cases, the student has done well (two are now in med school -UNC and Wake Forest, another is heading to grad school at an Ivy). Historymom’s daughter’s experience sound so much like these kids.</p>
<p>If you are worried about your kid ending up in a party school here are some things you may want to avoid and most of the schools S was accepted to didn’t have these flags-isolated schools in the middle of nowhere (kids drink more at these out of boredom-plenty of top 20 LACs have this problem), huge Greek scene, lower number of service related opportunities, lower percentage of kids receiving financial aid (less FA kids means the potential for more wealthy entitled underachieving kids and the bratty behavior often associated with it). Visit the school on a Sunday morning-the trash cans and condition of the lawns and buildings can tell you a lot. </p>
<p>Historymom-Berry is incredibly beautiful-it reminded S of Hogwarts. It is an unusual school with a fascinating history and not as conservative as I first feared.</p>
<p>so, who is going to schedule our lunch outing?? I’m game…</p>
<p>anyway, some of the posts today have been right on target and should be required reading for all on CC…especially the post by hornet, northeastmom…</p>
<p>just returned from Binghamton and Ithaca…</p>
<p>Binghamton was extremely congested and crowded with buses and cars literally bumper to bumper around campus…did not leave a good taste in my daughter’s mouth at all; and our info session was just awful; the admissions person couldn’t answer basic questions (like job placement from the School of Management)…if they are trying to increase their OOS presence, they really need to step up their game…very disappointing…</p>
<p>Ithaca is a hidden gem in our opinion; highly underrated…this is our second visit; and both times we have met the most engaged/involved students…if you kids are interested in communications/music/PT/OT etc, this should be on the list…not saying it’s AMAZING, just underrated…yes, it was built by the same architect as built the SUNY campuses ( so not the prettiest), but certainly not on alot of people’s radar…</p>
<p>Thank goodness for this thread -such nice people and such real discussions. Thanks for sharing everything, people.</p>
<p>My D is in the middle of the test marathon, and year-end concerts, and I’m trying to let her be as much as possible. She’s also trying to fit in auditions for summer theater experience. I know she’s doing the best she can.</p>
<p>She doesn’t want to talk about college so much right now (just too much on her mind). That’s OK. I’m quietly working in the background, tweaking our current list, getting tidbits from her when I can. There is definitely a HUGE theme of how over her head she’d want to be. That is a big risk for kids in this GPA range who got a lot of their Bs because they like to make other choices (fun, less stress, more sleep, more time for arts, other activities). Also huge is the evolution of her understanding of herself in the spectrum of students … that identity has shifted a lot for her over the years (I get sad when she doesn’t identify with the “really smart” kids out of lack of confidence, but I respect it when it’s because she knows she has different priorities and a different style). Both knowing how she makes choices and whom she identifies with will be VERY important in choosing a school. She’ll have her reaches, but right now those are only because of her particular field of study, not in the “super academics” area. That was a big step in understanding, and clearly a common one for this gang.</p>
<p>Just got back from my oldest son’s graduation from Roanoke College. This was such a great school for him and they did a wonderful job with the graduation and Baccalaureate. Anyone that’s looking for a good small LAC for our B students and needs merit aid should check out Roanoke. The location within walking distance of the small town of Salem and a very short drive to Roanoke (good size city) and the Blue Ridge mountains is really nice.</p>
<p>Ithaca was a great place for a good friend of my daughters. She was a very good student in HS and was given a full ride scholarship to Ithaca. While there she did two study abroads and the second one included an internship in London. She got a job right after graduation (2007) at a local tv station and three months ago she moved to Atlanta to work for CNN. Ithaca itself is a beautiful town. The only downside has got to be those long upstate New York winters.</p>
<p>Congrats, kathiep on S’s graduation from Roanoke! </p>
<p>Lunch? Yes, let’s do lunch! </p>
<p>Am ordering S’s grad party invites today from Vista Print Dot Com. Cheap!
Told me to use same design as I used last year for sister’s party. Makes it easy! </p>
<p>Momtravels, both schools are in Princeton Review’s “Best 371”, tell H to be happy! This is my H’s (snob) factor! “Is the school in this book?” They are both ranked at #2 and #3 in USNWR’s “Best Universities-Master’s-Northern” PC at #2 & Loyola at #3. There isn’t much difference in the numbers except the admit rate! </p>
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