<p>momonthehill - I didn’t even realize there was a double post - I guess I was tired from all that driving yesterday. About Binghamton - the only staff we dealt with was the receptionist in admissions who was very helpful (gave us a map and highlighted the route to take to the nearest dining hall), the AO who gave the presentation (she seemed friendly enough, but we didn’t deal with her on a personal basis), and the cafeteria staff who were friendly as well. The kids were all polite (held doors, stuff like that) and seemed to be happy. We ate breakfast in the cafeteria at about 11:30 Sunday morning (on Sundays, it opens at 11), and it was pretty crowded with groups of kids, but there were still plenty of table available. D has a few friends who go to to Bing - all freshmen and sophs, and all boys - all nice kids. We didn’t go on the tour, though we walked around on our own a bit. Our favorite thing was a sun dial…lol. The only buildings we went in were the Admissions bldg (AKA Academic Building A), The Lecture Hall, and the dining hall adjacent to the Hinman College complex. Buildings were all clean, in spite of the large crowd of visitors. </p>
<p>Not sure whether you’re coming from out of state, but if so, they said that there is no preference given to in-state students as far as admissions goes. Not good if you’re from NY, I guess, but good for people from OOS. We didn’t drive around town as we were anxious to get to Cornell. According to the AO, there is an area in town which has cute shops and restaurants/coffee shops, but all we saw was what was immediately outside the main entrance - nothing tragic, but not the cute shops and restaurants. The AO also mentioned that buses were free to SUNY Bing students.</p>
<p>The AO didn’t get much into the specific programs except to say that the only one that’s growing is the Watson School of Engineering. Also, she said they’re aiming for a class of 2000 this year (as opposed to 2100 last year), and that they anticipate receiving about 30,000 apps for those spots. Not sure how many they actually accept to create a class this size. Also mentioned there is a 91% retention rate which is pretty good for a state public. Not sure what else, but if you have any other questions, ask, and maybe the answer is floating around in my brain (or notebook) somewhere.</p>
<p>Couldn’t sleep well at all - not sure why - but I’ve been up since 3:19 AM. Hope I make it through the Cornell tour.</p>
<p>LIMOMOF2–Thank you so much! BTW, I also often have a difficult time falling asleep when we’ve been travelling. We’re actually OOS (from PA). In fact, one of the reasons that D is considering Binghamton–aside from its strong academic reputation–is that the OOS costs of attendance there don’t appear to be any higher than our in-state COA for our state flagship school. Enjoy the Cornell tour and I hope that you’re able to get some more rest tonight. :)</p>
<p>Good morning all…LIMOM: sorry you didn’t sleep; hope you can get some shut eye after Cornell…you asked how they will get the 2000? as an alumni admissions rep, I actually spoke with my contact last week…I don’t think people are going to like my answer, but they will be using the waitlist actively this year due to the uncertainty of previous yield assessments…in the past, Bing has had between a 30-35% yield…last year, that bumped up a little…this year, they really have no idea with the economy: they’re actually afraid that it could bump up to 40% and therefore, really overcrowd.</p>
<p>More importantly, for our kids, Binghamton is planning to eliminate EA…all will be RD, with a possible early notification for international and OOS (don’t shoot the messenger)…</p>
<p>Let me know if you have any other q’s…I am fully aware of the pros & cons of the school…</p>
<p>Getting ready to drive up to Centre College in KY today. Not a lot of enthusiasm from DD; I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a love it or hate it reaction. I’d put money on the take it off the list reaction, but I think she needs to take a look at a smaller, more isolated campus so she can she how she’d do there. If she doesn’t like Centre because of location, there’s a few others on the list that can come off too. </p>
<p>LIMOM, if you like sundials, I hope you get to see the one on the engineering quad at Cornell </p>
<p>cp55- glad to hear your S is enjoying his time there. I am an alum so can offer tips to the propies, but can also chime in on posts from current families. I never lived in Balch but I ate in their dining room often, especially when they had the “gourmet” dinners come in it was done up the most elegant. Hope those are still part of the food plan, first time I ate frogs legs…</p>
<p>I am also sad to say I never experienced the Sunday Brunch at Statler. I did have an interview dinner there with GE where I saw silver crumb scrapers and ate escargot and heard the escargot joke all for the first time. I did have an enjoyable breakfast buffet there last summer during reunion weekend hosted by my department.</p>
<p>I have a new question for the crowd- tell me what you have done/researched so far wrt interviews, esp for people touring schools now. I know zm’s D has some lined up. When we were looking into a trip to Chicago at the end of Apr I saw on their website that they don’t start interviewing Jrs until May 1. Colgate also starts their interviews in May. </p>
<p>At our Junior college planning night the college counselor was telling people that if you are planning trips during our March break to get an interview out of the way during this visit because you might not get back there.</p>
<p>So raised my hand and asked- I said I had looked at some schools that did not do interviews for Juniors until after May 1 and was what I found the exception or the norm. He said it was the exception. </p>
<p>I’d like to hear if others are looking to do interviews during spring visits, or if not what are your thoughts around it. I know that fall visits are the best for seeing the school with students there, and interviews, but practically it can’t work out that way for all contenders. We plan to make revisits to the schools D has already seen and liked in the summer for interviews. She has already seen some of these in session. Most on her list are small LACs where interviews are encouraged.</p>
<p>I would say it’s the norm, not the exception. I did interview at URochester as a rising junior last summer, but most other schools discourage that (Rochester has a huge push for interviews and a matching staff of interviewers because they found that interviewees had increased yield). And I know Swarthmore doesn’t do interviews until after June 1, basically after junior year ends.</p>
<p>I think it’s more common to interview in the fall - most schools have alumni interviewers. I don’t know if you are better off interviewing when you visit, or so early in the game. I figured the longer my son had to mature before an interview the better. He ended up only doing two interviews, both at schools that strongly encourage interviews. (MIT’s acceptance rate is double for kids who interview.)</p>
<p>S has only had 2 interviews, both at safeties.
I agree with mathmom about letting S mature as much as possible before we get to the really important interviews. I wish I could figure out a way to get him to practice. He won’t do anything of the sort with me.</p>
<p>I recently read the thread about awkward interview moments, and some of the questions those kids were asked gave me palpitations – he would be dumbfounded I’m afraid.</p>
<p>Yes D doesn’t want to do an interview at a top choice for one of her first interviews. And I agree that having them in the fall would be the best. But if we are going to visit a school a distance away, we are probably not going to visit twice, and although there are alumni interviews I would think that an on campus interview is preferable. There is one school which is a strong match, maybe safety, that we might visit in the spring and we may see if we can do an interview then.</p>
<p>BengalMom- do you have a pointer to that thread?</p>
<p>That is my assumption, as well. However, D seems pretty set on really limiting college visits next fall. Of the schools that she’s committed to applying to <em>so far</em>, it looks like only two or three have interviews. One of them is a high match, so she’ll be making a second trip there this summer for an interview. Fortunately, it’s on the way to where we vacation. However, I’d hate for that to be her first interview. There’s another school nearby that she’s considering, which would be a relative safety for her, that does conduct interviews in the spring, so maybe that’s a possibility.</p>
<p>Just got a call from S - they’re on their way back and he really liked Univ. of Maryland, “better than anything else we saw”. He said the campus was beautiful, they have a journalism program which might appeal to him, and they saw what was supposedly a small dorm room which looked pretty large to him (his sister had a single in her freshman suite at Yale that she could barely turn around in.) He’s definitely drawn to a larger university, and one with a lot of school spirit. The downside to this is that it may be more difficult to find safeties that fit the bill, but we’ll have to wait for SAT/ACT scores to see what’s what.</p>
<p>DougBetsy, I’m loooking forward to reading your impressions!</p>
<p>Another reason for not interviewing juniors til May is that they’ve got to get the current crop of seniors accepted, courted and committed by May 1st. S1 tried to interview at as many schools as possible, but with S2 playing a fall sport, that will be VERY tough.</p>
<p>S1 did his first interview at a school he was considering but wound up not applying to. He came out of the interview feeling like he handled himself well, and we never worried about it again. (Confession: Interviewing skills were a BIG concern six months prior to that time. Maturity made a difference.) S1 would never practice with us, either.</p>
<p>S2 debates, so I feel more confident about his interviewing skills. The trick for him is not to get defensive. He seems to think he’ll be interrogated about why he didn’t do X or Y. I hope that one of the schools S2 visits this spring will allow April interviews.</p>
<p>Another reason for not interviewing juniors til May is that they’ve got to get the current crop of seniors accepted, courted and committed by May 1st. S1 tried to interview at as many schools as possible, but with S2 playing a fall sport, that will be VERY tough.</p>
<p>S1 did his first interview in August before senior year at a school he liked and was considering, but where he later decided not to apply (for reasons having nothing to do with the interview or the school itself). He came out of the interview feeling like he handled himself well, and we never worried about it again. (Confession: Interviewing skills were a BIG concern prior to that point. Maturity made a difference – for him, it came in the form of being at a summer program where he really blossomed.) S1 would never practice with us, either.</p>
<p>S2 debates, so I feel more confident about his interviewing skills. The trick for him is not to get defensive. He seems to think he’ll be interrogated about why he didn’t do X or Y. I hope that one of the schools S2 visits this spring will allow April interviews.</p>
<p>Booklady, that’s great that the day went well. (I was going to ask if UMD was instate for you, but then I noticed your location is PA, is he interested in Penn State or Pitt or any other instate schools for you?)</p>
<p>I think D will do ok in an interview. She has interviewed for jobs and other programs, and she had sone some organizational things where she has needed to talk to adults. Her classes are also small and discussion based, and I know that isn’t the same thing, but it does give some practice in speaking. I wonder if our college counselor would do practice interviews, he used to be an admissions officer.</p>
<p>Looking forward to hear about all the other visits happening today!</p>
<p>D and I went to the University of Maryland open house today. There was a great session on the honors program–it really sounded appealing, with small honors sections of regular courses and interesting interdisciplinary seminar courses that can be used to satisfy some of the core requirements. I found the other sessions a bit disappointing. I don’t feel like we learned very much in the opening session or the breakout session on science majors. Despite those disappointments in how the day was organized, I think my D came away favorably impressed (or at least as much as she can be impressed with the school right down the road).</p>
<p>I think this is where having done your research in advance leads to disappointment. At least in my experience, these tours/open houses are targeted at people who have not done any research at all.</p>
About Binghamton - the only staff we dealt with was the receptionist in admissions who was very helpful (gave us a map and highlighted the route to take to the nearest dining hall), the AO who gave the presentation (she seemed friendly enough, but we didn’t deal with her on a personal basis), and the cafeteria staff who were friendly as well. The kids were all polite (held doors, stuff like that) and seemed to be happy. We ate breakfast in the cafeteria at about 11:30 Sunday morning (on Sundays, it opens at 11), and it was pretty crowded with groups of kids, but there were still plenty of table available. D has a few friends who go to to Bing - all freshmen and sophs, and all boys - all nice kids. We didn’t go on the tour, though we walked around on our own a bit. Our favorite thing was a sun dial…lol. The only buildings we went in were the Admissions bldg (AKA Academic Building A), The Lecture Hall, and the dining hall adjacent to the Hinman College complex. Buildings were all clean, in spite of the large crowd of visitors. </p>