<p>momonthehill - that sounds like quite a trip! Indiana’s become quite popular with the kids from D’s school.</p>
<p>Rochester’s campus is surprisingly beautiful–be sure to check out their library. Kenyon was my very first LAC love, but I just can’t commit to a school with only a minor in “Scientific Computing.” I don’t know much about Indiana–CB says it’s twice the size of Pitt, and about 19 times larger than Kenyon. Are you in-state?</p>
<p>OK, minding Limom here…she is strict! LOL</p>
<p>Don’t have much to say re colleges… Well, guess I could pass on a thought for other PTA’s… DS’s school (full disclosure… tiny/alternative but following still a good idea I think). The GC organized 6 or so alumni from the school to come back and talk to the kids/parents. Some are freshmen, soph, 2 seniors, maybe one grad, (one or two are joining in via SKYPE). </p>
<p>Anyway the group is being a panel to have the kids ask questions… how was it to search colleges, what do you wish you’d learned in HS to make college easier, why XXX school, how are the dorms, etc etc. </p>
<p>The whole school will attend (again, tiny) but good for freshmen to get thinking about it. Too late for seniors, except maybe will aid transition to college… Sophs get time to build, and jr see people like them in college.</p>
<p>It is something that I haven’t seen a school do, but then I’ve only lived through one other before (DD is happy collegefreshman…who is NOT home for spring break YET, sniff! ((she went mountain climbing ye gods))</p>
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<p>Rent Breaking Away, a great movie. ;)</p>
<p>There was an article I read in the past few months (I can’t remember where, unfortunately), on the fact that many more east coast students are going to IU these days. As LIMOM says, it’s become a popular choice here, whereas in the past it drew almost exclusively from the midwest.</p>
<p>Our gc organized something similar this year. We couldn’t attend, but it sounded very successful. Was open to all; six freshman alums spoke. They attended colleges from the tippy-top, to very large state public, to small OOS LAC, to a military academy. It was easy to put together. We just put the word out on Facebook. The freshman were very enthusiastic to come speak about their schools, and we timed it to coincide with beginnin of spring semester for our kids and while the alums were still on winter break. Apparently, there was no set program; kids and parents just asked questions. One kid spoke about being devastated at the time about not getting into UChicago but is really happy now at his current school.</p>
<p>Booklady, what’s the draw for these East Coasters?</p>
<p>Keilexandra - we live on Long Island, so definitely not in-state for Indiana, but a lot of kids from D’s school ended up there last year. And Booklady’s right - there was an article about (perhaps in the NYT, but I’m not sure either) about how the school is drawing a large number of east coast students. The article talked about how the rich kids from LI and the east coast kept themselves apart from everyone else on campus. </p>
<p>Esobay - thanks for the post - you’re such a good listener. 
Those panels are helpful, I think. D’s school did a panel like that this year - back in the fall, I believe. I think it was a success. Kids were invited, parents were not.</p>
<p>YDS, the draw seems to be that IU can be easier to get into than similar schools in the east (UMD and the like) if you’re from out of state. It has some very good programs, and is of course a big-time sports school. And LIMOM is right, the article also talked about how the NY-area kids tend to stick together and not socialize much with the other students.</p>
<p>Got it. Interesting that they don’t try to integrate with the other students. Isn’t the point of college to expand your mind? :)</p>
<p>And now for something completely different …</p>
<p>I have a feeling I will be in a world of hurt come graduation time. I acknowledge that I am quite sentimental, but I am truly excited about the prospect of ds spreading his wings. I just can’t wait to see how it all turns out. However, this morning, I think my true colors showed. Dh worked late into the night on a slide show for ds’s Eagle Court of Honor. It’s customary in our troop to do a video presentation showing the scout through the years. I watched it and started bawling. I was speechless. To see the years all put together like that, and having not seen ds in a week, and thinking about what it will be like when he’s gone … it was just too much.</p>
<p>The daughter of a friend of ours (interested in dance) turned down NYU Tisch for Indiana. She decided she wanted a school with a campus and wasn’t convinced she wanted to do all dance all the time. She had family in Indiana which was another plus.</p>
<p>We’re from Pennsylvania, so we’re OOS for IU. I previously read that NY Times article about IU, as well. In the article it was being touted by some parents as the next U. Wisconsin, which seems to have also had some polarization between the in-state kids and the wealthier east, and west, coast students. This is a concern, albeit a relatively minor one, but I agree with YDS, that it is really unfortunate. </p>
<p>What’s attracted D to IU is that in more than one guide it was noted that IU’s English courses have a reputation for being quite challenging(whereas we’ve gotten the sense, repeatedly, that our state flagship’s English Dept. is not particularly strong) , Bloomington is reputed to be really nice college town, the transportation between IU and home seems like it would be relatively uncomplicated(one direct flight, plus there’s a shuttle between the Indianapolis airport and IU) and IU seems to be relatively good for merit aid for OOS students. I want D to have at least two public universities on her list. She’s just about certain that she’ll apply to U. Pittsburgh, which seems to have a strong english dept. One other state U that has come up is U. Maryland, which we may very well check out, but I’m not sure about the OOS costs and merit aid potential.</p>
<p>LIMOM-Yes, it’s going to be quite a road trip. And what’s more, we’re bringing along our 12 year old. We’ll just try to limit it to one school per day, bring lots of books, sketchpad and pencils (D3 likes her art), gameboy, etc., and try to make it fun when we can. (Actually, I, myself, happen to enjoy visiting colleges, which is a good thing, since for my H the schools start to seem alike after one or two stops.)</p>
<p>Keiliexandra-Thanks for the U. Roch suggestions. Any other tips would be welcome.</p>
<p>I’ll second the nomination for Breaking Away - a great movie that should have won the Oscar for best picture (Kramer vs Kramer won - not exactly timeless IMO). If you haven’t seen it, you are really missing out - especially given the age of our kids.</p>
<p>As for alum panels - our school did one in combination with other schools a few years ago - with only recruited athletes. Talk about eye opening - extremely helpful if you had a college athlete wanna be. </p>
<p>Our school also invites them alums for career day - where parents talk about what it is like being a ____ and the recent grads talk about their college days and their quest to find a career. Works surprisingly well.</p>
<p>Can someone explain what the nyapali thread is about?</p>
<p>I think it is two kids (or one with two IDs) having fun - the posts almost perfectly alternate.</p>
<p>Glancing in at the 2009 thread, I see that one topic I wonder about is popping up - how involved should I/we be in the application and financial aid process? On the one hand, I would like to simply know where to send the check - on the other hand, there is just a ton of stuff to do during applications and perhaps I could help lighten the load. What do you all think?</p>
<p>I was thinking about this, too, scualum. I remember when I first joined not thinking a thing about helping with the clerical tasks of filling out stuff, etc. But I think I’m changing my mind on this. Curious to see what others say.</p>
<p>I recently saw Breaking Away on demand it agree it was a great movie. </p>
<p>If you haven’t seen the thread on the admissions stuff at Amherst and Tufts, go read that. I read it in the paper this morning and was going to post it but marite beat me to it. I did cringe when I read about the big reject of the Girl Scout with all A’s (plenty of others like her) but also noted that Tufts accepted all the stellar students in their first past, which seemed to be a not so subtle reference to Tufts Syndrome…</p>
<p>Keep your chin up YDS, you’ll make it!</p>
<p>I did all the FA stuff with S1. He signed off, but I put it all together. Also was of assistance in assembling/organizing the mailing of apps. There are only so many hours a day, and once some award stuff started happening last year, he was swamped.</p>
<p>^Agreed. I remember a few years back with D1’s college apps., and there’s just no way, given how involved those FA forms are, not to mention all of the supporting documentation to go with them (thinking of the CSS Profile here), that any of my kids had, or will have, the time to pull all of that together. Her apps. she just about did all by herself, although IIRC, I helped out with some of the final organizing and mailing/delivering of forms.</p>
<p>I saw “Breaking Away” many years ago, shortly after it came out, but I was planning on renting it soon to watch with D.:)</p>
<p>I guess I should have said what I did with S. He ended up applying to 19 schools - and I was very much involved in the clerical end of things. Fortunately, most took the common app, reducing duplicate effort - and the UCs all use one application, further reducing the effort. When it came time for FA, we did that together - he sat at the desk in my office asking me questions - and I dug through the file cabinet looking for answers. Actually worked pretty well - probably less than an hour in total and this also led to some good discussions about money management and why we have things arranged the way that we do.</p>