<p>I enjoy this thread more than my parents do. Oh dear…</p>
<p>No, seriously, though. I just have a small request to make of you guys - my list is far too long, so I’m just going to show you all it and ask you to let me know if there’s a school or two that just doesn’t seem to really fit in. I’d really love to cut this down (especially the privates) and I’m not sure how many I’m going to be able to visit. Ones I’m iffy about are going in parentheses:</p>
<p>(Amherst)
(Bates)
Beloit
Brown
(Carleton)
(UChicago)
(Cornell)
(Knox)
(Lawrence)
Macalester
(Mount Holyoke)
(New College)
Smith
(St. Mary’s College of Maryland)
(SUNY Geneseo)
(Wesleyan)
William & Mary
Yale</p>
<p>PMK, I see the list’s general tone as not too quirky, just happy and mainstream. A Hamilton, Kenyon type of place.</p>
<p>teenage_cliche, if you like Beloit/Brown/Mac, I’d recommend keeping Carleton, Chicago, Knox, and Wesleyan on the list. Maybe Holyoke too, if you really like Smith. St. Mary’s might be a good safety, although it is more traditional and less quirky. Lawrence I see as closer to Kenyon–environmental-liberal but still mildly preppy–while New College would be far left a la Reed.</p>
<p>^ Ah, yes, can’t believe I missed your location. Definitely keep Geneseo, then–it’s the closest SUNY to an LAC, although it would not be my first choice due to student/faculty ratio issues (18:1 and climbing).</p>
<p>Well, D and I attended the Exploring College Options event last night in Cary, NC and it was very interesting. The presentations from each college were very informative and it was easy to see the differences between the five schools. I really appreciated the folder of info that my D received. On the back it had a side-to-side comparison of all five schools according to certain admissions criteria. I don’t have the folder in front of me so I can’t tell you exactly what each were.</p>
<p>What I found more interesting was the quality of each presenter’s speech. It kind of blew me away that the woman from Havard kept saying “um” throughout her presentation. I guess my days as a speech and debate judge has made a difference in how I perceive speeches. Also, the woman from Stanford seemed to read her speech verbatim from her notes unlike the speakers from Duke, Georgetown and Penn who spoke very naturally. My D and I were impressed with the speaker from Penn who was very enthusiastic about her school and seemed to have an energy that the others lacked. We also like the lady from Duke who was very personable and knowlegdeable. Since my D and I both feel that these people reflected their schools, it gave us a solid first impression of each school. This may be strange criteria for some but that’s how we felt. We will be traveling to Penn to visit the campus firsthand. That’s one more added to my D’s list. We’re up to four now:</p>
<p>Clemson
The College of William and Mary
UPenn
NC State - her "safety school</p>
<p>This college searching is so much harder with my third one!</p>
<p>I went to Smith for my freshman year back in 1983 (Yes I AM old lol) and I LOVED everything about it. My one regret in life is that I didn’t stay there all four years. I was a stupid young girl in love and couldn’t handle being far away from my future husband. Northampton is a classic college town and Smith is a classic school. I have encouraged my D to look at Smith. The food is fantastic and the dorm life is really great. They really try to instill a sense of community. What I really liked, and I don’t know if they still do this, is that you could take your exams at any time during a designated week. There was no set exam time. I just loved my time at Smith. If you have any questions, just ask.</p>
<p>This is so strange. We also had an Exploring College Options presentation last evening in downtown LA as well, and I could almost make the same comments about the speakers that you did (save one of them) … and I’ve also participated/judged speech and debate, as recently as this last Friday for LD at the CA state tournament.</p>
<p>Did the presenters for Harvard-Stanford-Penn-Duke-Georgetown tele-transport themselves, a la Star Trek???</p>
<p>D just got an email, says ‘we’ll be sending you information about our school at the end of summer, before the start of your senior year’.</p>
<p>Hellllloooo.
She is making the long list now, visiting schools in summer. By the start of senior year she will be working off of the short list. Wonder why they won’t send the info at the beginning of summer when she has time to look at it, before we make travel plans? Is it just us that would like to have the mailings come out earlier?</p>
<p>Everything seems to happen at a faster pace nowadays so yes bring on the info, Karen Colleges, especially for the group that haunts CC!</p>
<p>Then there’s the other end of the spectrum who don’t even know yet the scheduled times for the SAT/ACT and will get caught in an awful time bind.</p>
<p>Update on my summer situation: I managed to wrangle an early notification from TASP–I was waitlisted, #3. Last year 2 people got in off waitlist, but it varies. I’m not getting my hopes up and will happily attend my backup French immersion program.</p>
<p>Thank you for that suggestion, expatme. If I’m recalling this correctly, Tufts is not on the list because of the combination of cost and not offering merit aid. Same with Vassar and a few other schools. </p>
<p>Keili, I had to laugh that you see his list as “mainstream.” Here is south Texas, most of those schools are considered “radically liberal”, if they’ve heard of them at all. My hope is that those schools will have a place at them for a quirky kid and I think they do.</p>
<p>PMK - I agree with Keil that the schools on your S’s list are pretty mainstream/non-quirky - but I don’t think they’re like Hamilton which I perceive as being more preppy (don’t know much about Kenyon, so I can’t say). I’m sure your S could be happy at any of the schools on his list. Have you run your figures through the EFC calculator (not sure whether Vassar has it’s own)? I would do that before knocking it off your S’s list - it seems like a really good choice for him. Also, I know his ACT score was high, so if his gpa matches his grades, maybe Yale? I know you’ve mentioned Princeton, but Yale just seems to have more of what he’s looking for - at least from how you’ve described him.</p>
<p>So, for you parents/students who have attended Exploring College Options, was it worth the effort? My D’s got a crazy-busy schedule right now, and I can’t decide whether I should push her to attend. I originally thought yes, but now I’m not so sure. Very strange about the sound-alike speakers in NC and LA at the same time.</p>
<p>Actually, I see Hamilton and Kenyon as being some of the quirkier “preppy” schools–my quirky WASP friend commented on Kenyon’s proliferate Save the Earth tees, and Hamilton has the “dark side” artsy contingent.</p>
<p>LOL at the comment about Boston College being considered radically liberal! I would reserve that label for schools like Reed, New College of Florida, Macalester, Oberlin.</p>