<p>“Many of the schools have ‘virtual tours’ on their websites that he could then follow up.”</p>
<p>You could get fooled, though. Carleton’s would make you think they relocated to Aruba.</p>
<p>As we all - students and parents - agonize over college choices, I am reminded of something I heard when my D was selecting schools, from a friend’s son who went to Harvey Mudd. </p>
<p>He told us then that some kids at Mudd did a study to see if there was a correlation between how happy a kid was there and how they had done their college search. Visits or not? agonizing over choices or not? came to admitted students weekend or not?.. etc. They found no correlation whatsoever! </p>
<p>Sorry, I have no printed source, but I totally believed the student when he told me!</p>
<p>I don’t mean to say we should flip a coin or anything - just that life comes with no guarantees. I tend to be an information junkie and can’t imagine making choices without lots of research. Others might find themselves in info overload that way. We just need to make the best chocie we can, in the way that works best for us and our families, at the time we are choosing.</p>
<p>“I wonder if he would glance at Michigan-I am not sure about Case or CMU for economics/pol sci…He has not wanted to look at Chicago, I have encouraged and will again…”</p>
<p>I would encourage you two to give Chicago a serious look or relook. They have the best econ. department probably in the world. My S, whose interest and intended major is poly sci, applied there EA this year after a near-perfect visit a month ago. I wrote it up somewhere in the Parents forum… you might find it by searching my posts. It seems to fit all of the criteria you listed here (urban and cold), but there are probably others you haven’t mentioned that might rule it out, I suppose (like, if he wants a larger university or perhaps an emphasis on athletics or frats or something).</p>
<p>Mini – haha – I’ll have to check out Carleton’s site.</p>
<p>My parents were very heavy-handed about trying to influence my college decision (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth) and they were convinced that a Catholic school was the ticket – never mind that neither of them had gone to mass since my Confirmation. The first school to which I was accepted was Marquette in Milwaukee, WI, which is just fine if you play basketball, but really…the place just was not on my radar screen. I went to visit in FEBRUARY. Got out of the car, literally gasped for breath, IT WAS SOOOOO COLD!!! Got back in the car. That was it. Spent the next few weeks praying for acceptances to the other schools to which I had applied, all slightly further south…</p>
<p>I have, however, heard great things about Carleton.</p>
<p>Dizzymom</p>
<p>Mini- all our tours were summer tours, and we needed a sweater at Carleton…but I know what you mean about the “packaging” of virtual tours…</p>
<p>Wish<em>it</em>was_April- Great that the Harvey Mudd kids did the study. The fact that they are engineers(and I say this with great affection as I am married to one) might suggest that even the least analytical of them had an Excel spreadsheet or two that they worked from!! I am sure that the results are valid, and do reflect the various ways that people make decisions- and the fact that even when careful decisions are made, unexpected things happen!</p>
<p>momof2inca- Not only is Chicago a wonderful school for economics, it is also a great “admissions value”. Son doesn’t want larger and is ambivalent about frats. Unlike other schools which have a reputation for heavy workload (MIT, Swarthmore…)…son just hasn’t had a chance to talk with someone to help him understand how this works “in real life” at Chicago- I think this has been an issue. Given his newly redefined perspective, it is back on the “talking about it” list as it could replace a small, rural LAC of similar selectivity…</p>
<p>As for weather, Dizzymom, my older son also wanted a colder place (keeping in mind that virtually the entire planet except the sahara is colder than where we live). Now that it is November in this colder place, he is consoling himself with the fact that at least he doesn’t have to shovel snow…still liking the cold weather!</p>
<p>Robyrm, In our situation, my feeling about battling the arbitrary limit was: If he gets in ED, then no need. If he doesn’t get in, then case in point for more choices. This is pendant, of course, on his hearing from his ED school before everyone disappears for the Holidays.</p>
<p>For a kid that likes a fair amount of stimulus and diversity of all types, Michigan (my alma mater) or Wisconsin could be good choices. These would be the kind of school that I would be comfortable attending without a prior visit as they are so easily understood, generic almost. Both have fine residential colleges that give a small school within large feeling. For some reason that I can’t fully articulate I felt the same about Cornell, maybe because of its many Indonesian connections.</p>
<p>One of my son’s good friends is at JHU, a very social, verbal kid with an IR focus. He’s delighted to be there. Coincidentally his brother is at CMU. He shifted from biology to business and from what their parents say, I’d characterize CMU as the more “pre-med-grind-ish.”</p>
<p>Despite some weird management issues reported on this forum, I’d still recommend College Confidential videos for an unvarished look at college campuses. Not as good as being there, but at least a visual point of reference. Also good for refreshing memories after those whirlwind tours. We have a stack which we’d be happy to lend (although come to think of it some would have to be retrieved from the current borrower.)</p>
<p>Don’t even think about giving up the senior spring break in Bali! If the decision comes down to an unvisted, you’ll find ways to compensate.</p>
<p>R;</p>
<p>I applied to three architecture schools sight unseen. After I was accepted to one, I went to orientation, got my rommmate, met the Dean–and then was taken off the waitlist at another school in August and went there–sight unseen. Perfectly happy. Moved to NYC, sight unseen. Deliriously happy. H and I moved to SE Asia sight unseen. perfectly happy. Deliberately moved to Oceania sight unseen–figuring that a visit might put us off. Again, perfectly happy.</p>
<p>S1 wanted diversity and wanted a good sized university in a good sized city. We looked at four major cities and one major college town when we did our tour from abroad. When it came to application time, Mum was elected defacto GC, S1 was in the midst of Bursary exams and we trimmed the list to 4 schools, 1 reach, 1 match, 2 safeties. 2 visited and 2 not. As it turned out, he decided on a school we hadn’t visited–although he did know the city and loved it. Perfectly happy there.</p>
<p>I can’t quite tell if you are looking for another urban school–but I will say that I think it’s hard to go wrong at schools in great cities. Great cities attract great professors–is my theory. Please don’t flame me, but I’d much rather live in Washington DC than Hamilton, New York and I assume that many professors would feel the same. In other words, you can throw the dart in a great city and find a good school match.</p>
<p>Can you say which schools are being considered for the spot?</p>
<p>Robyrm - Do I gather from your post that your son has no safeties on his list? If he does have one that he likes then it really doesn’t make any difference how ambitious the rest of his list is. If he doesn’t, the first criterion for selecting school #8 should be selectivity. </p>
<p>I think it would be problematic to try making a case for a school he has already dismissed. Since he has visited so many schools already and since you both are clearly on top of the process, I bet that he would do a good job selecting an eighth school sight unseen.</p>
<p>Momrath,
I might take you up on the video offer. The timing of a potential push to surpass the limit is tricky indeed. Last day to get requests to the GC is December 1, in theory. ED will come out the 10th or so, last day of school is the 17th. GC has already suggested to me that they are working harder this year (since there has been a cutback in staff) so I am reluctant to engage until I have to…and then we have to keep it a common-app school to make it as easy as possible-</p>
<p>And, of course I wouldn’t dream of anyplace but Bali for spring break…</p>
<p>I think that in his post-turkey stuffed state tonight I will have him look on line at Michigan and Wisconson and maybe Maryland and SUNY Binghamton. Chicago is just too much application for what we need at the moment. The schools we could “retrieve” would be Rochester, Brandeis, JHU, or Tufts- the latter 2 are probably more selective than the school being eliminated. He has a safety where his stats are well above the 75%ile, and he likes it quite well, but the admit rate at the school is only 40% so it is not as “safe” as another safety might be!! The additional school (s)should be in the “reasonable match” range of things…</p>
<p>Again, thanks to all and safe travels…</p>
<p>Robyrm, I am just curious, is your son in the MUN and is applying ED to a school in PA?</p>
<p>Yes, Ledyana, he is one of two boys who fit that description that I know of!</p>
<p>Robyrm - I seem to recall that you’ve visited a lot of schools with your sons. Even though the schools you are discussing for S2 are mid-size to large, did you look at Trinity or Macalester with either son? Trinity is larger than the average LAC.</p>
<p>Reidm…
Yes, looked at Macalester with both boys. I thought it was a great match for son#2, and happily, now, so does he! We drove through Trinity…but never saw it, actually. </p>
<p>After a tumultuous few days in terms of his list he is now set. He left in one small LAC which is “less rural” than some, because he decided he so loved everything else about the school. He is firm on not wanting to revisit schools we dismissed and he is also firm on not wanting “too big”…so we are left with what we are left with… I think I have to back off from encouraging any more tweaking-- and let things just play out. He has quite a diverse list-- this has all been so different than with son #1.</p>
<p>Great Robyrm, glad he’s set! Glad to hear you got turkey in Indonesia.
This is a little side topic, but in reference to the Harvey Mudd study - I think what makes the difference to the kids is not the research, etc, it is their attitude going away, if they are excited, happy, apprehensive - all those things we felt - they’ll probably be fine, that’s why, right or wrong, they have to pick.</p>
<p>Cangel, I completely agree. Having seen people come and go making the adjustment to life overseas (often with huge culture shock, often with a loss of status(trailing spouses who used to work and now don’t)…it is clear that having the right mind set is completely key. </p>
<p>There was a woman who moved here with me 12 years ago when there was really a dearth of western food products in the stores (for better or worse that is no longer the case…). She spent about a month looking for Hostess Twinkies and HoHos for her kids (I know this sounds absurd, it is true). The products, of course, were just a proxy for a variety of things she couldn’t give up… Hers was the least successful adjustment I have seen, she left after 6 months. No matter what change you make, where you go, you have to be open minded, upbeat, realistic and optimistic to make it work! Having said this, I will certainly be sending my son to school with plenty of indo-mie (the local packaged noodles) and sambal (spicy sauce) unless he lives in an area with a large Asian population. There are some things no one should have to give up!!</p>
<p>Robyrm - If your S ends up at Macalester let me know. I’m an alum and live a short distance from the campus. And there is a Singapore-style restaurant with some Indonesian menu items about 20 minutes away by car.</p>
<p>Reidm,
Thanks, aren’t you lucky. I loved that neighborhood. In fact, I made son#2 stay an extra night just so we could walk around and look at the houses, etc…</p>