<p>Marquette is on the radar. She has a class of '10 cousin who is strongly considering Marquette. If he ends up there, it would be great for her…his family is from northern IL and she could go home with him on occasion if she needs a home cooking fix, etc.</p>
<p>I felt bad for Cornell last night and Wittman couldn’t get a shot off to save his life and those he did… well, they didn’t fall. They kept the game close however and given how Kentucky tore up the court in their first two games, that wasn’t the case last night. So now I will have to root for Butler… only because they beat Syracuse (and no other reason whatsoever). And PS… I love the onion.</p>
<p>D16 wants a bigger school than S, but she is a sophomore so she has some time. Frankly, I am still a little afraid of mentioning schools until the end of this year when I can see the gpa.</p>
<p>Missy- has your D checked out Bradley? </p>
<p>Lots of good schools in Illinois.</p>
<p>lindz, thanks. We may well ask you some questions. I think it would be a great thing for ShawSon – he doesn’t even know where the Hillel is on his campus (which has 1650 students). They seem somewhat disorganized – he signed up for trips where there was no waiting list but they can’t confirm that he is going; they’re still adding trips; they expect to have all people assigned before Passover but haven’t interviewed him yet for eligibility. Was it like that when your kids went?</p>
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<p>Last year I started a thread about good schools in cities to which Southwest Airlines flies. I received a lot of helpful answers and some grief for being so shallow as to choose a school based on - gasp - relative convenience. But seriously, with three kids, having a convenient way to get to school is a bit important.</p>
<p>Long way to answer, don’t really want to look at schools in the middle of Illinois.</p>
<p>I think that’s a very legitimate reason- convenient flights. Particularly with three kids. There are some great schools in the midwest I wanted D to look at- but almost invariably her first question was how would I get home?</p>
<p>It can be easy to lose site of the “how will I get home” factor, especially when you’re doing a multi-city driving tour. Once you’ve made the long drive to the region, it doesn’t seem like a big deal to drive another 3 hours here or there…but when you really compute how to get to and fro from home, it can be a different ballgame. </p>
<p>My class of '11 child has no strong preferences for major, size of school (except for not tiny) or region (except for not hot.) If she had a very narrow major in mind, like forestry or dance management, I know that we’d have to choose the school, not the flight convenience. But without strong preferences, I think that convenience is a legitimate thing to factor in.</p>
<p>I looked Butler up and know who they are now. That’s one of the nice things about sports. It can take a college from regional to national name recognition in a heartbeat.</p>
<p>We totally underrated the value of proximity. As S1 was looking at everything from UC-SB to UT-Austin to UW-Madison, the distance of the school from home wasn’t even a factor in his consideration. He ended up at a school an hour from home and we would now rate location as the second most important thing he likes about his choice, right after cost. He rarely comes home but we pop over for games, to bring him something, or just to say hi all the time. Conversvely, I would put distance from home as the second most important factor we like least about S2’s school, right after reputation. At least it is still drivable and there are enough people in our area who attend, he can always catch a ride with someone so it isn’t us doing the driving. If I had a third child, proximity would definitely be a top consideration.</p>
<p>I totally get the travel thing… but even the best of intentions there can bite you in the butt. </p>
<p>When son first looked at his school, there was a direct flight. There isn’t one any more so now it’s a layover BUT it’s thru a pretty big hub to another big hub so there are lots of flights. What was more important than the actual flight was how far he would be from the closest airport and how much time, convenience was there. There was one school that is pretty popular with the kids from S’s HS, but i later learned that it’s almost an entire days travel to get to and from home due to timing of the flights, rarity of the bus schedule and the distance to the school. </p>
<p>All of this to say… it’s really the same for all real estsate: Location, location, location.</p>
<p>We were primarily considering travel to Pittsburgh, Ann Arbor or Charlottesville. Pittsburgh driveable, but a nightmare. Ann Arbor, flights out of Detroit relatively conveniently but we’re a fair distance from a major airport. 2+ hour drive. Glad C’ville won out.</p>
<p>Distance was always a top consideration for my Ds.</p>
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<p>LOL, same for my '11 D, but she wants it to be a FAR distance. Again, fine as long as she can just take a cheap plain ride.</p>
<p>shawbridge–my s’s experience was straightforward as he was already involved in his tiny Hillel and the director was able to say early on, he’d be assured to have one of the slots their Hillel was promised. My d however was not involved in her Hillel and while she was told there were available spots (not at wait list point) she did not know for several weeks that she was officially in. (In fact I bought her a plane ticket so if she didn’t get the trip, she could fly with the rest of us flying), Once she was confirmed, her trip coordinator was fairly disorganized, they never had the “required” 2 meetings, and she had almost no info, he didn’t even return emails. However he turned out to be incredible on the trip, even set up a website with photos and student stories each day. So it may turn out fine for shawson…I have heard that unless there’s a problem on the interviews they get in. good luck to him!</p>
<p>Distance wasn’t a consideration for my S, but should have been. On the other hand, now that he’s home and we’re re-looking at schools, I <em>still</em> don’t see a small liberal arts school for him near the SF Bay Area. Santa Clara is right here, but it’s so not right for him: preppy, plus upperclassmen (and he’d be one) live off campus. Maybe I should take another look at University of the “Pacific,” where the Pacific Ocean is deemed to extend to California’s Central Valley.</p>
<p>Yikes!</p>
<p>I called the Child Study Center that did Son’s initial diagnosis to schedule an appointment for an updated diagnosis. Boy, things have changed in the last few years. </p>
<p>They won’t schedule an appointment until we have completed and mailed in a 19 page application, plus they want “copies of all previous educational testing and medical records” plus a form filled out by “EACH of your child’s teachers.” </p>
<p>Last time we just called and scheduled an appointment. I don’t know if my personal executive function is functioning well enough to process all of that…I know that I certainly can’t pull all my income tax information together AND fill out the 19 page application on the same weekend!!!</p>
<p>Maybe I need to find another place for testing. I thought this would be the easiest since they did his initial diagnosis. They say they see kids 0-21, but I don’t think I kept up the baby book well enough to answer questions like the age at which he “asked ‘why’ questions” “picked up small objects with finger and thumb” “scribbled with crayon.”</p>
<p>Perhaps you should find a center that does adult testing. Those are ridiculous questions IMHO. What is the relevance at this stage of the game?</p>
<p>Missy… I couldn’t recall that stuff if you paid me! Those years of two “babies” and a third in the early years of elementary school? Not a chance. </p>
<p>Sounds as if you do all the work and they interpret your answers.</p>
<p>Missypie, nowadays that long questionnaire is used for diagnosis; it’s meaningful, not busywork. I had to fill out one last summer, when Fang Jr was getting an updated diagnosis. I couldn’t remember the answers to lots of those childhood questions. It was OK.</p>
<p>I don’t agree that the questions are “ridiculous.” Asperger’s starts in very young childhood. If Missyson had recently started having symptoms that looked Aspy, but didn’t have any Aspy symptoms at all in his first fifteen years of life, then the diagnostician would need to look at some other diagnosis, for example depression.</p>
<p>Even centers that primarily serve adults would be asking about the clients’ childhoods.</p>
<p>I guess what makes me the most hesitant is them requiring a form from teachers:</p>
<p>Does this child have problems with handwriting?</p>
<p>Does this child have problems copying from the board?</p>
<p>Does this child have difficulties making friends?</p>
<p>If there was a box for the profs to check that said, “don’t know; don’t care” that might work. Then they want each teacher to fill out the two page NICHQ Vnaderbilt Assessment Scale:</p>
<p>runs about or climbs excessively</p>
<p>has difficulty waiting in line</p>
<p>has difficulty with “quiet play” activities</p>
<p>When I asked the lady at the Center “really? for a college student?” she said that they just got done evaluating a college student. I think this would all embarrass Son to death.</p>
<p>Better find a place more geared for adults!</p>
<p>Point taken, Missypie. There’s no way I’d give that form to any of my son’s professors.</p>