<p>Here’s today’s unsolicited college snail mail. Hey, at least it has geographic representation.</p>
<p>CalTech
Willamette U
Washington U
Tulane
Vassar
RPI</p>
<p>The CalTech info offered the rather cheery stat that the average starting salary for their 2008 grads was $71,000 and that they have more recruiters come to campus than there are students. However, i think S has (probably rightfully) concluded that CalTech would be too much Geekdom for his tastes. That and it’s one of those lottery schools to get into.</p>
<p>^ But Caltech is one of the three schools in the country closest to true merit-based admission–no race, gender, legacy, or development preferences–so at least it’s not a rigged lottery.</p>
<p>(According to Daniel Golden’s excellent and depressing book THE PRICE OF ADMISSION, which I just finished reading today.)</p>
<p>Also according to Ben Golub (I think that was his name) who was a student member of the admissions committee a few years back. Caltech is very quirky - a place you love or hate, both my kids (even the non-science one) liked the vibe very much. Good friend of my son’s is there - she’s happy, but was a bit overwhelmed by the work first year. Dh went there for grad school - the grad students tend to be less weird.</p>
<p>Yes, you’re right. By lottery I met the odds are very high. I think my S feels a need, as he does in HS, to balance out his math/science side. I’m expecting by time of grad school, should he go that route, he’ll feel much more comfortable fully embracing his tech side. For now, there are loads of options out there.</p>
<p>LIMOMOF2, the other two schools are Cooper Union (engineering/architecture/art, free tuition) and Berea (LAC with an income limit for entering students’ families and a commitment to enrolling 80% from rural Appalachia).</p>
<p>jackief: I had also just found our current school profile online this week (we are class of 2011) and it also shows grade distribution from every class for junior year…it was shocking in some areas…so few A’s in every class…it also has only junior year GPA distribution listed ( we don’t rank and do not calculate cumulative GPA’s…I hadn’t even known that previously)…alot of this info seems incredibly crucial to planning, yet I came upon it by accident. Very specific about how difficult it is to be accepted into an AP class and how the only AP available junior year is US Hist (10 out of 100 kids).</p>
<p>Advice to all: get your high school profile ASAP…it may have great info for you to pick classes for next year and for other juicy stuff…</p>
<p>Your advice is sound. However, it may not work for parents with students in publics schools in CA. Many of them are expecting pretty visible cutbacks for next school year. I envision the few AP classes left bursting at the seams with students as class size at all levels rises. This is especially problematic for AP science classes with labs.</p>
<p>scu, findaplace: if they do cut AP’s, advocate for that to be in your profile…if it’s statewide, they will know…locally, not so much…</p>
<p>D1’s public was not clear on this AP admit issue on profile…it was a very rigorous entrance determination, but colleges thought kids could “choose” to be or not be in honors/ap classes…hurt alot of kids right below that level in admissions…</p>
<p>jackief, I was not discouraging the history classes at all - however he found out today that the teacher is lousy and he didn’t like the other kids taking the class. So he’ll take AP Statistics unless he doesn’t pass the gov/econ test. We had a nice discussion about his options, when did my kid get so grown up?</p>
<p>rodney - the high school should make it clear about it’s tough AP admit policy on the school’s profile. Unfortunately, D’s h.s. profile doesn’t have information about grades for individual classes - that would have been interesting to see.</p>
<p>Keilexandra - thanks. Wow! What different schools to have that in common.</p>
<p>Good suggestion - The GC has been pretty helpful in the French fiasco - so he will hopefully be helpful in the event that other classes are cancelled…</p>
<p>mathmom- glad the choice worked out and you had a great conversation.</p>
<p>re school profile- on the “improved profile” it also had different text in some of the sections, it did say that the school encourages limiting students to 2 APs per year. The school is adding more APs next year so I wonder if that text will change. It also says the minimum # of classes one can take is 5, it does not say the max # is 6. If the profile is in a state of active revision, I will see if that could be added. It was supposed :rolleyes: to be added to the handbook after round 1 of our fight last year, but it was not.</p>
<p>Jackief - I agree that it’s important that they add in that a maximum of 6 classes can be taken - because as you know, kids can take 8 or 9 classes at other schools (like my D’s), and that’s a huge difference in workload. The colleges should understand that it is the school limiting the kids, not the kids limiting themselves. Sort of wish D’s school had that rule so she wouldn’t have to work so hard.</p>
<p>I don’t think our school profile provides that amount of detail, but I’m going to take another look later today. I’m curious. I’d do it now, but I’ve got a bunch of errands to run!</p>
<p>I’m not seeing a school profile on line - guess I’ll have to ask the GC for it. I was going to ask for a copy of my DD transcript anyway so I guess it can be a two fer…</p>
<p>Thanks to pugmadkate, missypie, and zoosermom for providing such helpful information.</p>
<p>Pugmadkate, was it you that said you keep making spreadsheets and your husband laughs at you? I am slowly becoming just as obsessed. My family thinks I am a bit compulsive, but if I don’t do the research, who will?</p>
<p>I’ve been marked as “being obsessed” about this topic as well. But then, both my H and S just waltz on over and expect me to have answers to any and all, off the top of my head, too. It comes with the territory.</p>
<p>Since my S if off the main track for his math classes, there are already specific things the GC will need to address in her letter. If the district has to slash at AP classes and EC/sports that impact my S, I am going to press that the administration work out some common language that ALL the GC can access in that regard, so that the GC’s can do their regular work on these admissions letters. It seems right to me and could be a boost for the parents I don’t speak with who aren’t thinking this far ahead.</p>
<p>Sometimes thinking far ahead can seem like a curse when times are troubled, doesn’t it?</p>
<p>My laptop is very sick and I had to leave it at the shop yesterday (for at least a week! :eek: ). The tech thought i might need a new hard drive, and he isn’t sure how much he will be able to salvage fromm the old one.</p>
<p>All of the college spread sheets – hours of work – are on there!! Aaaaahhhhh!!</p>
<p>BengalMom ~ thanks for the reminder - I’m backing up my computer as we speak. I finally purchased an external hard drive to back-up to (rather than using CD’s). Hopefully the computer shop will get everything recovered for you. Good luck.</p>
It comes with the territory.</p>