Parents of HS Class of 2024 3.0-3.4 GPA

I don’t have a lot of info about all of the schools on your D24’s list, but they’ve mentioned Elon before on the “Your College Bound Kid” podcast and usually have great things to say about it.

I live in the Phoenix area and we’ve visited ASU a couple of times. My daughter ended up not liking it very much, but that’s because it’s super close to home and she didn’t like how big it felt.

I saw in your other post that your D24, if she attends, would be at the main campus in Tempe. I think that campus is far preferable to the other 3 ASU campuses.

ASU is a really enormous school. And it’s going to be hot until mid-October. When move-in happens in mid-August, don’t be surprised if it’s 105+ degrees. But after a couple of months, you do pretty much get used to it. The dry heat IS different than humid heat elsewhere in the US. That being said, once it’s above 105, it doesn’t matter if it’s a dry heat or not…it’s just plain old hot.

One thing they mentioned at an ASU prospective student event we went to a year ago was that for non-honors students, which dorm they put you in will be based on what your major is. That’s done with the intent to make it easier to make connections with other students who are probably taking a lot of the same classes that you are. I thought that was a positive thing.

The main Tempe campus is super close to the Phoenix airport. Phoenix is a major hub for a lot of airlines, so depending on what your home airport is, the odds might be high that your D24 would be able to get direct flights home without any problem.

Your daughter would probably not need a car definitely for the 1st 2 years because there will be enough local students who DO have cars and she can just bum rides off of them…plus there’s Uber and Lyft which is available everywhere around campus.

A coworker’s daughter is a sophomore right now at ASU. She rushed a sorority during freshman year and her grades suffered a little bit because, as my coworker put it, “she bit off a little more than she could chew” and all of the extracurricular stuff took up a bunch of time (and focus) away from school work.

If your D24 has something like an IEP or 504 plan at school due to her ADD and anxiety, then wherever she ends up attending, I’d recommend to contact the disabled students office wherever she’s considering attending and ask a bunch of questions, do some research to find out what your D24 would need to do in order to get set up with whatever accommodations she needs. For example, what sort of documentation will the disabled students office need from your D24 and by what date? A few months ago, there was a “Your College Bound Kid” episode or 2 in which they talked extensively about this topic and had great advice on how to figure out which colleges you’re looking at would be the best fit from a disabled student perspective (because not every college handles it the same way).

The weather here in the Phoenix area in the winter, though, is pretty darn fabulous. Yesterday morning, the low temp at my house was higher than the high temp in Danville, Kentucky from the day before! :slight_smile: Spring is great here, too. And in terms of summer heat, to me, it doesn’t really start to feel HOT hot until right around the 1st week of June. Even in mid-May, it’s warm, but it’s downright balmy in the evenings once the sun starts to go down (AND in the mornings in May, it’s very pleasant). When the high temps are in the mid-90s here, it actually feels like it’s about 5 degrees cooler than that because the humidity is so low.

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Thank you so much for your input! I appreciate it! Yes, it is definitely a large school for sure! One thing that was good to hear is that all 1st semester Freshman meet for an hour each with week with their advisor to make sure they are acclimated and to get assistance with things. I am in process of contacting all of the students with disabilities offices for the schools to find out what is offered etc. This has definitely been a process! I am hoping she will have a decision soon so she can get her housing application in.

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I have a freshman at Elon and have nothing but great things to say. Very organized, very supportive. My somewhat reserved daughter has loved it from day one. All freshman have a class that meets for an hour each week called Elon 1010. It runs for the full year and it’s about 10 kids plus an advisor. Sounds like it is similar to the ASU program you mentioned.

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Yes that appeals to me about Elon and I will say everyone we have spoken to has raved about Elon. It is going to be a tough decision for her!

DD was the most happy and excited I have heard her yet in the college process today when she called to say she got IN at Gettysburg College with $37K merit! It’s one of the first colleges we toured and I think high on both of our lists of favorites. Very proud and thankful!

Then, just found out that Virginia Tech decisions are coming out tomorrow at 5 pm. This is a Target for her per CollegeVine but I think it’s more like a low reach. Going to be a LONG nail biting day for me. My instinct is that she would ultimately be happier at a smaller school, but she has not yet decided that, so would love for her to have the VT option. :crossed_fingers:

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I completed my undergraduate at Miami U and grad school at U. of TN. Feel free to pm me. Loved Miami. I’d send my D24 there, but OOS is too much. UT is a totally different experience. Southern culture, SEC football and everything orange :wink: Not familiar with support services at either school.

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Had my annual check-up with the oncologist yesterday. When D24 turns 18 in June, it’ll be exactly 5 years post-double mastectomy for me. I go in for annual check-ups with the medical oncologist and it’s always nerve-wracking. Have to get a colonoscopy this year, plus an upper endoscopic ultrasound of my pancreas, and an abdominal MRI since I didn’t win the genetic lottery and I have the ATM gene mutation.

Every year, the medical oncologist asks me about my kids, how are they doing, etc. :slight_smile: This doctor is a good egg. I mentioned to the Dr that D24 wants to be a physician assistant when she grows up. Dr said she thought that was a great idea, especially since when the Dr was in med school, for all of med school, she only would get a 2 week break once a year at Christmas. That’s it. The rest of the time, she said it was a horrible tiring grind with no days off AND then when you’re done, you have years of a fellowship and additional training, too.

Anyway, Dr’s niece is now a PA, having gone to PA school at SUNY campus in New York state. Dr said that the cancer center I go to annually started a PA paid fellowship program about a year ago and her niece is working there right now in this fellowship program.

It sounds really cool. I told D24 all about it, of course. :slight_smile: You rotate every so many weeks (maybe every month?) through all of the sub-specialties at the cancer center, including a lot of surgical oncology specialties. And the PA’s in this fellowship program, when they’re going through the various surgical oncology rotations, basically are right there in the OR assisting the surgeons in all types of cancer surgery. The last month of the fellowship is where you get to pick any specialty to spend more time in. And then at the end of the program, they offer you a permanent full time job.

Dr recommended that once D24 gets to the end of PA school, that she should seriously consider a program like this because, as she put it, “Most PA’s right out of grad school go work in a clinic or an urgent care or a little of both and sure, you could do the same daily grind day in, day out, OR you could get to do some really cool stuff like THIS and get paid while you get trained in it. AND it pays better than a primary care kind of PA job.”

I thought it was great advice. This doctor is pretty awesome.

didn’t feel like post this long thing on the other Class of '24 thread. When D24 turns 18, she’ll need to decide when she wants to get genetic testing to find out if she has the ATM gene mutation, too. The oncologist said that whenever she decides to get genetic testing, that I should send her (the oncologist) a message through the patient portal and she’ll connect D24 up directly with the genetic counselor to set up an appointment.

I hate the fact that my kids have to face this reality. If they DO have the mutation, then the standard of care is to get mammograms and breast MRI’s alternating every 6 months.

For the rest of your life.

OR you could choose to get a single or double mastectomy at any time.

*$!@$#!

I hope to God that neither of my kids have it.

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sbinaz, I wish I knew your name so I could use it right now. We lost my DH to esophageal cancer 5 years ago when he was 48 years old. I’m so glad you are doing everything you can to fight back against the hand you have been dealt. Obviously, many people need you greatly! I understand what you are saying intensely about the fear of genetic impact on your children. Esophageal cancer is much more rare and therefore there is nothing identified like there is for BC, but I of course fear there is something lurking that could whisk my girls away like what happened to my MIL, who remains one of my best friends. Hugs and wishing every good vibe I can channel. :heart:

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We are headed to USF this weekend for our first campus visit for S24. Politics aside, the Florida public univs are a great value for money as an OOS option, one of the reasons S23 last year decided to go to FSU, apart from the warmer weather. Even with the OOS tuition, they are close to our in-state Rutgers option. That’s the reason S24 applied to a bunch of additional Florida schools. USF has the distinction of having the risen the fastest in the USNWR overall college rankings in the last 10 years or so, from #180 odd to #89 now. They also joined the AAU this year and it’s been an impressive rise on paper. It will be interesting to see how the Admitted Students Day goes. U of M - Twin Cities is S24’s top pick right now for Engg - he insists he will be able to handle Minnesota winters. Let’s see if the 80 degree weather in Tampa this weekend is able to sway him!

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Hope you have a great visit!

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Doing some restaurant research for our upcoming trip week after next to Sherman, TX when we visit Austin College. Discovered just today that Sherman, TX has an Indian/Nepalese/Tibetan restaurant! AND it’s a 4 min drive from campus. AND they do delivery. :partying_face:

Also found a breakfast place that we can try when we get into town on Sunday morning.

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Wrapping up Unifieds. Already heard from a school she auditioned for on Sunday. Unfortunately it was a no for the BFA program. Does have an interview for a BFA MT program on Tues. She had a good experience overall.

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Have fun!! Please report back this school is an option for my son as well. Would love to hear your pros and cons.

Hi all, just back last night from the High Point Presidential Scholars weekend. The presentations got a little long as this was our third visit there, so we have heard a lot of the speeches and videos before. Still, High Point left a very strong impression on both of us once again.

DD really enjoyed her interview with two professors and two students from the political science department. Also, the head of the department (whose class she attended during her last visit) reached out to her Friday afternoon via email to welcome her and apologize for not being able to attend this weekend, copying the three poli sci professors who could possibly be in her interview. Pretty awesome and made her feel a connection for sure.

Each attendee was greeted on Friday night with a stack of business cards printed with their names and new highpoint.edu email address, in a nice card case. They were encouraged to exchange them with other students they met throughout the weekend to keep in touch. Directions emailed to them that night on how to set up and access the new email account. Doing so would certainly get a candidate even more mentally invested in the school… so a very clever move on their part for sure. Attendees also received a nice HPU padfolio with pen to use for their interviews, and a High Point Presidential Scholars scarf.

The dinner on Friday night was a buffet with seating in a large ballroom in round tables of 9. During dinner there was live music from some of the school’s instrumental ensembles. We were welcomed by a super impressive senior Presidential Scholar who was just accepted to Wake Forest medical school. There was also a panel of recent alumni talking about their experiences, another performance by HPU’s highest level vocal ensemble (DD, a chorus kid herself, loved this), and an entertainment act by a pair of comedian/jugglers.

DD connected well with a couple other girls that we sat with at dinner on Friday night. One of them she ended up grouped with when the kids broke away from the parents on Saturday morning and they ate lunch together along with a couple of more girls they had met. I was thrilled to see my introverted DD making these social connections!

Overall, HPU is a strong contender despite being the most expensive option on her list. The other top two currently are JMU and Gettysburg College, where we will attend admitted students days on 2/23 (Gettysburg) and 3/2 (JMU). The big remaining data point is whether she is invited to the HPU Honors program. We have both been really impressed by everyone we have met from the program and the strong LLC that is created by having all of the Honors freshmen and sophomores in the same dorm for two years, with regular social programming and even an Honors trip abroad at the end of the sophomore year that most of the students attend. I can definitely envision DD being really happy in that program. Unfortunately they delay those decisions until the first week of March. DD said that if she knew she was in Honors, she might be ready to commit to HPU now!

Should be an interesting next few weeks. I’m hoping that shortly after the JMU visit she will feel ready to pick a top choice. Wildcards remaining are her deferral at W&M and waitlist at VT. I think if she gets into W&M by some miracle she would go, but I’m not so sure about VT. She seems to be gravitating more toward the smaller schools as this process unfolds.

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Sounds like it was an awesome experience!

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D24 got notified this weekend that she’s been awarded a $3000/yr music scholarship at Centre College! Adding that to the merit scholarship, it’s $6k/yr more than U of A tuition+room+board. If she took a $5500/yr student loan, then it would be basically comparable to U of A cost. So that’s a plus.

D24’s current preference list based on her rating system is now:

  1. Austin College
  2. Southwestern
  3. Centre
  4. U of A
  5. UNM
  6. NMSU
  7. ASU
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Thanks so much for sharing about your D’s experience at HPU! It’d be great if you wanted to add your feedback to this thread, as I know that people have sought insight from those who have actually stepped foot on-campus:

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So here’s something interesting…DH suggested that in the decision-making, we consider the possibility that if D24 were to attend 1 of the public universities, what would the total tuition+room+board if she had to attend for 5 yr instead of 4. So we’re going to take a look at that. Do I think there’s a decent chance that D24 would need more than 4 yr to graduate at a public college? Yes.

DH disagrees w/D24’s weighted ranking & scoring, thinks that the cost factor should have more emphasis and weighting over all of the other criteria. I told him that D24 isn’t changing her scores based on his opinion, but he’s welcome to do his own scoring if he wants (he’s going to do that).

However, at the end of the day, I kind of come back to what D24 said last month…“I’M the one going to college, not Daddy. ME. It’s MY life and it’s MY decision. I’M the one who has to do the work and take the classes. What does it matter that the school is super cheap if half of my classes are online and I’m totally miserable? If I’m miserable there, my grades are going to suck and what good is that?”

She does have a point there.

DH is frustrated that cost isn’t her only determining factor.

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I’m a believer if you can afford to send a child to school that will make them happy, then you should consider it. Mental health matters. If they are happy, there will be a ripple effect.

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We had a firm top-line budget. And all three of our kids had options that were substantially below the top budget number.

The ultimate choice was up to our kids. As long as it was at or under the budget - they got to choose best fit.

Agree that as long as the budget fits, the decision should be about best fit for the individual student, not the cheapest. Good luck with the decision. :people_hugging: :hugs:

ETA: None of them picked their cheapest choice. :wink: :joy:

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