<p>Booklady - I went to GW as an undergrad (international affairs with econ concentration) and had a great experience. I think its proximity to the National Mall compensates for being on city blocks. It was great to be able to go for a run down to the Mall. Access to the Smithsonian was easy too. My husband went tray sledding down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial the year before I started at GW–I guess you make due with what you have! Being in the city didn’t seem to take away from the sense of community either. There was plenty happening on campus.</p>
<p>zm, S has also expressed some interest in Loyola, and we may go see that and Towson on another trip. H went to Johns Hopkins, and while that’s not a school for S, we’ve spent a fair amount of time in Baltimore. I really like the city.</p>
<p>astromom, I think DC would be a great place to go to college. This is the first college tour for S, and I think it’s already opening his eyes to things he hadn’t thought of as far as what he wants in a school, which is the whole idea. He has lived in the shadow of his walk-on-water-academically big sister, but now he’s starting to forge his own path, which is a pleasure to see.</p>
<p>That’s good to know about Baltimore, Booklady. I’m very interested in the city as well. It seems like the perfect distance and seems to have so much going for it.</p>
<p>Spent the day freezing at a scrimmage, though dh and I did manage to squeeze in a VD lunch. But tonight ds, dh (for the first time!) and I will be looking at the Naviance data in preparation for the meeting with the GC next week. Isn’t it romantic???</p>
<p>Booklady - DC is a great place to go to college, though I don’t think the kids at George Mason or UMCP experience it the same way. If GW is a reach, and he doesn’t care for American, has he considered Catholic? </p>
<p>Youdon’tsay - can’t get over your romantic evening - you, dh, and ds pouring over Naviance data - too funny!</p>
<p>Mathmom - I always thought DC didn’t have that urban feel because I was from NY! ;)</p>
<p>Okay, I’ll help with the post count while I wait for my H to pick up both Ds from the dance studio. Then it’s out for a “Valentine’s” dinner for four.</p>
<p>My nephew is in his second year at JHU in biomedical engineering and just loves it. He’s taking a lot of economics too and is sometimes tempted to switch majors. I’m not sure how often he and his friends venture off campus. I do know they’ve been to some Baltimore Orioles games, but not sure about the evening. I can find out more if anyone is interested. I think the surrounding area is iffy, but in general it seems that colleges have so much going on on campus, you hardly need to leave.</p>
That too. Cities are funny, to me Paris and London feel urban, but Munich doesn’t. It’s over a million in population, but it just doesn’t have a tall enough downtown. Hardly anything feels like a real city if you’ve spent anytime in NYC.</p>
<p>Good to learn that about Johns Hopkins, booklady and astromom. That is one school we are not sure we will visit during our upcoming college tour. The student reviews (on a site we are not allowed to mention on c.c) make it out to be quite a boring school, where people go to get an education but not necessarily to have any fun (kind of like UChicago).</p>
<p>vicariousp, JHU is much better than it used to be in terms of fun on campus, although a party school it definitely isn’t! H graduated in 1975, and said the university’s focus on the undergrads back then was almost nil. He had a good time there anyway (and he wasn’t even pre-med or engineering), and it has definitely changed for the better. One of D’s best friends goes there, is majoring in Creative Writing, and is having a wonderful time.</p>
<p>LIMOM, I’ll suggest Catholic to S, thanks. </p>
<p>For some reason, JHU never entered D’s radar, and I haven’t mentioned it to her because the one person I knew who went there hated it. I realize it’s not fair to judge a school by one person’s experience, but we can’t visit every school that might be right for her, so I have to knock some off the list, and that was as good a reason as any.</p>
<p>mathmom - I’m sure I’d agree with you about Paris and London, and Munich sounds more like a big, fun town to me - at least that was the impression I got from people who did an exchange there.</p>
<p>I have lived in DC - but the section we lived in felt like the suburbs even though it was in the District.</p>
<p>Booklady, my D is very interested in Creative Writing and I recently saw that JHU has a fabulous program (Writing Seminars) for that. Maybe we should try to go visit.</p>
<p>I personally find Paris and London far less urban than NY. It probably depends on what part of the city you are in - but with the parks and the rivers, London and Paris can both be very relaxing</p>
<p>OK, Naviance just logged us out after two hours. That’s funny.</p>
<p>There are now 13 schools on the list, about 7-8 likely to stay there. We came up with a definition of reach as a school where he’s below the median SAT and/or the acceptance rate is less than 30%. A safety is a school where his scores are above the 75% mark and/or has an acceptance rate of more than 70%. Does that sound good? Based on those criteria, we have three reaches, two matches and EIGHT safeties. That really surprised me. All these LACS I thought were matches are really safeties, by this definition.</p>
<p>Money is a whole other matter for another night.</p>
<p>Anyway, it was good to get dh involved. This was all Greek to him. I kept making ds slow down to explain what he was looking at and what it all meant. Dh is so appreciative of the work I’ve done on the college front, but I want him to get more involved, too. We’ve decided to visit some more schools on the list in the summer. We really had fun last year doing that.</p>
Yep, sounds like where both dh and I grew up in the district. Very residential. (He near American U., me, more in the Georgetown U. Hospital area.)</p>
<p>YDS- I’m glad you enjoyed your valentines day! I think Naviance was was giving you a romantic hint! ;)</p>
<p>D put 6 schools into her ‘list’ on naviance, I want her to see if she can add a few more. Did you use the overlap data at all? Where you could say show me all the additional schools that kids who applied to school X applied to. I think I’ll have her do that and see what else she can find.</p>
<p>I’d say for her schools so far she has 2 solid matches/safeties, and the rest are reaches by varying degrees.</p>
