<p>Booklady – Just caught up with the thread…since you live so close to St. Joe’s I don’t blame your S for not considering it! (and imagine my horror once I realized I tried to describe the campus to someone who probably drives by it daily!)</p>
<p>D’s working list:</p>
<p>Reach:
Haverford
Wesleyan
Brown
Bowdoin
Middlebury</p>
<p>Match:
Bryn Mawr
Scripps
Michigan (legacy)</p>
<p>Safety:
Earlham
Wisconsin</p>
<p>Still to investigate:
U of Chicago</p>
<p>Based purely on her current stats I’d say the reaches aren’t “high reaches” but all these schools have such low admit rates that we’ve got to list them as reaches, as much to manage expectations as anything. Similarly, the matches are probably “low matches,” i.e., borderline safeties but again the admit rates, although higher, aren’t high enough to warrant listing them as genuine “safeties.”</p>
<p>bclintonk–our D’s have quite a few overlaps. D was just lamenting today that Middlebury does not have more astronomy. She was particularly drawn to the possibilities for outdoor fun there.</p>
<p>I was really impressed with the info session at Bryn Mawr. We went a few weeks ago. We sat in a beautiful dark paneled room. The girls sat around a large table with the admissions officer and a student (who also volunteers as a tour guide). The parents sat around the perimeter of the room. It was very informal, but very informative. And I really liked that the student was there. The admin officer frequently turned to her to get her perspective.</p>
<p>Bryn Mawr does not have my D’s major either, but she would participate in the dance program there if she went to Haverford to major in astronomy. (Although we were told that you can easily attend Bryn Mawr and major at Haverford and vice versa.)</p>
<p>mrsref -no problem. St. Joe’s was a very sensible suggestion if we lived anywhere else in the state! :)</p>
<p>He did it! Ds is an Eagle. :)</p>
<p>He’s so happy. He changed his Facebook status to reflect the Eagle, and friends have posted congrats.</p>
<p>I was so nervous right before it started because the adults looked so serious and official. I have only lately even warmed to Scouting so I had been feeling emotionally detached from it all. Oh, and we got to read the letters of recommendation, and one was from the teacher ds would like to write college letters for him. Not once did he call ds hard-working or diligent. :)</p>
<p>Congratulations!!</p>
<p>Wonderful news, Youdon’tsay! Tell him congratulations.</p>
<p>YDS:</p>
<p>Hail to the new Eagle Scout!</p>
<p>YAY and also LOL on the recommendation to YDS (am I in acronym city, or what) !!! </p>
<p>Some disappointment for D. There is a girl a year younger than her on a sport team who is a superstar,definitely recruitable, she (the other girl) was captain this year but she didn’t participate with the team she did her own training. Well this girl was re-elected captain for next year and also received a coaches award. D will be the only senior girl on the team and even though she isn’t as talented, was hoping she would get one or both of these. Not sure if she will do the team next year, as the coaches fawn over this other girl, she is very nice and certainly has the talent, but you need more than one great athlete to get a good TEAM score Mr Coaches, so showering only one with praise could very well backfire for you…</p>
<p>Other news is that we got the contract for our private HS, tuition has gone up 4% for next year, which seems to be about what the colleges are doing, of course my and H’s salaries are not going up 4%, but they aren’t going down -100% either so we will have to be happy…</p>
<p>Youdontsay…Major kudos to your Ds on making (becoming?) Eagle!! That is a huge accomplishment!</p>
<p>jackief…I feel your pain. My D has experienced similar problems in her sport and doesn’t know if she’s going to play next year. The thing is, after three years of hard work and countless hours (and several years before that in middle school), do you give it all up? And I know I shouldn’t think this way, but doesn’t it look poorly on your college application?</p>
<p>YDS, congrats to your son! </p>
<p>That’s neat that you had a chance to peak at what a potential recommendation might say. We saw one of our son’s outside recommendations afterwards (when the original letter writer asked US to tweak it for a scholarship recommendation). It was weird, if anything too effusive.</p>
<p>
Congratulations, congratulations! What an accomplishment! You must be very proud.</p>
<p>curious- I would vote for her quitting and spiting the coaches, but that’s just how I feel now, silently of course, last night I just gave hugs. There is another EC during the season that she would like to do, last year she tried to do both and it over-extended herself. She does enough other stuff and will have 3 years for this sport, and 3 years for another, plus a couple other smatterings, so I don’t think it will have a big admissions effect.</p>
<p>YDS - a big congrats to your S - Yay for the new Eagle Scout!</p>
<p>jackief - I’m sorry for your D’s disappointment. As far as quitting the team, I would leave that up to your D. If she really enjoys it, let her continue; if not, then she should probably quit, especially since she has other activities. I spent half of this school year trying to talk my D into quitting her fall sport next year - she is completely overloaded with fall activities, and then she’ll have college apps to complete, plus a heavy courseload, and her fall sport’s coach is the one who completely stresses her out. I can’t tell you the difference between fall and spring in our house. She has a lot going on in spring too, but the stress load is so much less, just because she has a different type of coach for her spring sport.</p>
<p>Yay for our new Class of 2010 Eagle Scout! That is awesome!</p>
<p>Jackie, I’m sorry to hear that about your daughter. I think the coaches are being incredibly short sighted. </p>
<p>S’s college list is shaping up very differently than the others I’ve seen. We have a very short list of academic and financial safety schools and then there is the list that depends on winning the lottery and/or merit money. S is well aware of all of this, so we’re not getting hopes up at all for any schools other than the financial matches. </p>
<p>In a nutshell, the honors college at UMASS Amherst is his safety both academcially and, on our end of things, financially. We are so incredibly lucky that he absolutely loves UMASS. It’s 1500 miles from us but an easy bus ride from my sister and they have adored each other since the day he was born. I think he sees that this would be a nice way to launch into “freedom!” but still have a secure base very nearby, just incase. Also, free food and access to the washer/dryer! Naturally, we say nothing about that, leaving it all up to my sister because if we say it, it might become not such a great idea, natch. </p>
<p>We would like his academic and financial saftey/match/reach list to be much longer and I put my foot down that he at least must all apply to UT Austin (I don’t know how I feel about the 10% rule other than I’m glad it will benefit my son if he needs it. Selfish, I know. I’m not proud, just the facts.) But my son is very stubborn (gee, I wonder where he gets that from?) and as far as he is concerned that list is perfect.</p>
<p>Then we have the schools that factor in both academics and financial reality. It’s a longer list but still not that long. </p>
<p>Reach
Princeton
Brown</p>
<p>Match
Brandeis
Boston U.
Northeastern
American
George Washington</p>
<p>Safety
Sarah Lawrence
Bennington</p>
<p>Anyone else have two lists? I know we’re doing the right thing for our family but I must admit to occasionally feeling a pang of guilt that we’re being so strict on the financials. My philosophy is that a person can throw financial caution to the wind once in their life and we married/became parents young so that was ours. Darn those fancy brochures!</p>
<p>LIMOM- yes it will definitely be her decision.</p>
<p>PMKate–I have a couple of close friends who went to UMass and had a great experience. One was a music major and one majored in something that led to dental school. I believe it still has it’s party reputation, but it’s a big place and I’m sure kids can find a niche that works for them. And it has the 5 college consortium. </p>
<p>I went to GW as an international affairs major. Their financial aid was generous back then, so hopefully it continues to be. Your son was interested in gender studies, right?</p>
<p>Jackief:</p>
<p>Wow, that coach is being very short sighted, and with a team sport, too. Suppose the superstar girl goes down with a season ending injury, then where does that leave him in the eyes of the rest of the team when he flips and turns to them? Is this superstar some prima donna that needs pampering? An athlete he could lose to another sport? Someone who’s parent is a high mucky muck?</p>
<p>These situations are so difficult. As adults, we’ve all experienced something similar when we’ve been on the wrong side of such favoritism (whether “earned” or not) and boy, don’t we want to protect our kids from feeling as we did. And yet, unless it’s over the top extreme, we really can’t because the kids need to know that the world out there isn’t always going to be fair. Merit and hard work do not always prevail. Old boy and girl networks exist.</p>
<p>Jackief - I guessed that you would let your D make the final decision. 
And I agree with the others about the coach being shortsighted. </p>
<p>pugmadkate - I know what you mean about the financial safeties. D isn’t really interested in any of them, but realistically, she knows she has to apply to some, just in case FA/merit aid doesn’t work our for her at the other schools.</p>
<p>This thread is moving fast today. Congrats to the Eagle scout. Great achievement. Jackief, the coach does not sound like he is making a good decision for the team. I do think if your D enjoys it, she should stay.</p>
<p>My D decided to drop AP Euro next year to pick up an unweighted elective (comparative religion). So, only 3 AP classes next year for her. Back in my day graduating with 6 APs was a major achievement. In D’s school, it is below average.</p>
<p>I hope she likes the class.</p>