<p>Thanks for the travel help Booklady and bclintonk! I am getting all wrapped around myself trying to figure it out.</p>
<p>Practicality seems to say drop William and Mary, but…</p>
<p>I found out about the Amtrak discount last night while hunting around. Thanks for posting the link.</p>
<p>Airfares are surprisingly good, even into Richmond. What is not so good is the one way rental care price, but I think it is still cheaper than taking the train. I am not wild about the driving but can definitely do it and I would not bring the car into NYC. Thanks for helping me think this through.</p>
<p>DeniseC - sounds like you have a big decision to make. When are you planning to make this trip? You’ve gotten some really good suggestions, and I suspect that if you don’t visit W&M, you’ll regret it. How does your S feel about it? We visited the school while we were in the area about a year and a half ago - and D really liked it a lot. Not sure yet whether she’ll be applying there.</p>
<p>Great suggestions, bclintonk. I may take advantage of that special offer at some point this year.</p>
<p>missypie - forgot to say, thanks for that reminder. That’s been MY plan for D all along, and she agreed that it’s a good one - just don’t know whether she’ll get much done.</p>
<p>Found out last night that DD’s APUSH and AP English teachers are both going to use the time after the AP test to begin working on college applications… </p>
<p>A big thank you to the teachers. That time is traditionally wasted on movies and other make work. I appreciate that the kids have worked hard all year and have accelerated the class timeline to meet the AP testing dates - but I hate to see a month or so simply wasted. This seems like a nice use of the time which should not require much homework but still uses the time in the classroom wisely.</p>
<p>Anyone else have teachers employing this strategy?</p>
<p>Excellent reminder and we '10s thank you for it. My S already knows he’ll be working up essays over the summer for two very good reasons: 1) Intense fall sport (water polo) and 2) Availability of his “editor in chief” my sister in law, the attorney (Yale BA, Columbia JD.) We also subscribe to the EA idea. Unfortunately, his may be his uber reach of Stanford, which is SCEA. I’ll have to be back on the threads to see if SCEA AND rolling admit is possible … and what the rollers are. I think Michigan may be one, but we really weren’t planning on any publics outside of CA (which aren’t due until 11-30, with results much later.)</p>
<p>scualum:</p>
<p>I haven’t heard what the plan is for my S’s APUSH and AP English classes post AP tests. I’d be thrilled if if could be used productively on colleges apps somehow. I do know my S is planning on asking his AP English teacher to be on one of his LORs when more than one is needed (AP Calc teacher gets first dibs and really seems interested in writing a LOR for him so I’m guessing it will be quite good. He’s a great teacher and especially seems to get the BC students thinking that calculus is cool!)</p>
<p>My son’s English teacher used the post-AP test time to have them work on a draft of an application essay. While I thought that what he produced was pretty bad, the basic idea did form the nucleus of what he eventually wrote his real essay about. Since the initial idea is often the harded part, I was happy that they went through the exercise in class.st</p>
<p>Here’s another thing that I know you all know but I’ll tell you again…apply to safeties and matches, not just reaches. If you have the perfect student in every way, go over to the MIT thread and read the stats of perfect students who were rejected by MIT. It’s quite the eye opener. It’s all in making the list. A student with a perfect SAT could apply to all the Ivies and not be accepted anywhere. A student with an 1800 SAT could apply to 8 state schools and be accepted to all eight.</p>
<p>Scualum, it’s a good idea. The teachers at my kids’ school, don’t start working on applications until September.
BTW, don’t forget to ask your juniors to get a Rec. now, if there if a teacher leaving at the end of the year. Remember, some colleges want Rec. from specific teachers.<br>
This summer, I plan to sit on S until all his applications are done. Last year my D (who is a perfectionist) took so long to write her essays, if it wasn’t for the difference in time zone she will not be attending her school.
I know quite a few kids who did not apply to schools (those which did not accept the common App., and with many essays) because they ran out of time.</p>
<p>DD put together her latest list over the last few days and of the 18 schools on the list, 15 take the common app. Of course, even those that take the common app will often have supplements - but at least there will be some time savings.</p>
<p>QM - we are going next week. Our spring break begins on Friday! Yay.</p>
<p>DB - Sorry for your sons injuries. I am guessing that the gf that breaks up while you are receiving medical treatment is not that into the supportive side of the relationship, anyway.</p>
<p>Would love to hear about Tufts and Brandeis. We will do our New England tour during the summer.</p>
<p>Tufts, Amherst, Swarthmore impressions-I think those were the ones specifically requested-</p>
<p>Tufts-“stately” campus. Relatively easy access to Boston-campus shuttle to the Red Line and then 14 minutes to the heart of downtown Boston. Excellent info session with a young admissions officer. She spent quite a bit of time discussing the essay, what to do, what not to do. The 3 types of essays to avoid-“The Big Game essay,” “The Costa Rica Essay,” and “The Grandma Essay.” Although Tufts has a med school, dental school, vet school, etc., they are not located on the same campus, so the focus is on the undergrads. Emphasized research possibilities for the undergrads.</p>
<p>Amherst-beautiful rolling hills campus. Spectacularly renovated freshmen dorms. Great athletic facilities. Newest science building with labs was impressive. Young admissions rep who ran the info session was a Swat grad (!) He emphasized the unique factors at Amherst which distinguished it from it’s peer institutions. 1) Open curriculum 2) 5 college consortium. When a parent asked him to distinguish Sawt from Amherst he thought long and hard about it and finally said that Swat sends more kids on to Ph.D’s whereas Amherst sends more to law, med and business school. But he emphasized that those were still generalizations. You can walk into the town of Amherst in 5 minutes. Funky ethnic restaurants as well as a Subway, CVS and Antonio’s, best place to have pizza in the northeast. Antonio’s is open until 1 a.m. weekdays and 2 a.m. on the weekends to serve the student population.</p>
<p>Swarthmore-gorgeous campus, intense academics. Little emphasis on athletics. Beautiful performing arts center and music building. Town of Swarthmore is nothing special, but within a 15 minute walk is every store imaginable and their is a campus shuttle to stores like Target which are a little farther afield. Regional rail train to Philly is at the foot of campus. <25 minutes to the center of Philly.</p>
<p>adding Brandeis-looks very different from the other schools we visited since it was founded in 1948, rather than the 1800’s. Has an upper and lower campus and newer looking buildings, of course. Housing guaranteed for the first two years. They tout their uniqueness as a liberal arts institution with outstanding research opportunities. They do not recognize any frats although there are some which are recognized by national fraternal organizations. They take ~ 20% of their class ED. They have ~250 study abroad programs in which about 50% of the students participate.</p>
<p>momof3sons - thank you so much - those were the schools I was specifically interested in hearing about. So funny, but our Tufts info session sounds exactly like yours - only we had a guy - but the same info about the essay was given.</p>
<p>We’ll be visiting Swat in April, and hopefully we’ll fit a visit to Amherst in over the summer.</p>
<p>I’m still not sure what’ll be happening after the AP exams - except in APUSH, where I imagine they’ll prep for the Regents exam - though that’s a really long prep time. I seem to remember her AP Engl. Lang teacher saying that they’ll start working on college app essays at that point. Not sure about her other AP classes though.</p>
<p>missypie - thanks again for the other reminders. I should copy them and send them to my D.</p>
<p>DougBetsy, I do sympathize with you, D1 (24) lost her job and her boyfriend within about 24 hours of each event! But she seems to have bounced back!</p>
<p>we had the same info session at Tufts, I was first going to say we had the same person as momof3sons, but then I heard that LIMOM had a guy give the same talk. Our woman was very engaging. Hope the essay points stuck with D. I have that Bauld book, along with several prep books, in my ‘save for later’ online lists for when I need to bump up to free shipping…</p>
<p>Jackief - I do that with my online shopping too. The guy who gave the presentation at Tufts was very engaging as well - great sense of humor. Same for the tour guide.</p>
<p>momof3sons, Thanks so much for sharing all of that information. My sister got her BA from UMASS and then her MA from Smith. She returned to Western MA to raise her family and now lives 10 miles from Smith!</p>
<p>I absolutely love Amherst and Northampton. As much as it pains me to admit that there is a pizza place that rivals the neighborhood ones from my NJ childhood, Antonio’s really does. Yum!</p>
<p>At Brandeis, did they mention the Rose museum or the budget problems? What was the feeling on campus? My son is interested in Brandeis. He’s also going to apply to UMASS honors college, so perhaps our kids will be neighbors of a sort.</p>
<p>Okay, so I just went and met with our registrar at the high school. They recently sent out letters informing parents of their student current GPA and which quartile they are in.</p>
<p>Well, that didn’t help us much because I knew my son was in the top 25%, with his 1 B from Freshman year. What I wanted to know is how many b’s will bump him out of the top 10% (we are in Texas, and that’s ALL that matters :(). </p>
<p>So, he tells me that he can’t say for sure, because it is contingent upon how everyone does this semester, but at this time - there are 32 kids who have straight A’s and are tied for top rank!!! So, in his class of 500 - with his 1 B, he is at 7%!!! I am afraid that one more and he’ll be out!!!</p>
<p>Geesh - nothing like adding stress at this time of year…</p>
<p>ag54 - so much pressure for the kids in Texas! Is that for admission only, or is there scholarship money tied to the top 10% as well? Your S is still doing an amazing job, and you should be very proud of him. Good luck. :)</p>
When are you planning to make this trip? You’ve gotten some really good suggestions, and I suspect that if you don’t visit W&M, you’ll regret it. How does your S feel about it? We visited the school while we were in the area about a year and a half ago - and D really liked it a lot. Not sure yet whether she’ll be applying there.</p>