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Just wow! I don’t know what to say about that.</p>
<p>Perhaps we shall see Drew in a few years as one of those places closing its doors if they keep that kind of style up!</p>
<p>This poses another question from me. For better or for worse, some students mention being turned on/off to a U based on their tour guide. It could be their speaking style, type of dress (shoes), whatever.</p>
<p>I’m curious. For the student tour guides, are they doing this gratis or do they get paid for this service? If the latter, then you’d think there would be some training and evaluation of performance (well, they could do this for volunteers as well.) Maybe this has gone by the way side since, deomographically, this is the hump year for applications. However, this means numbers of applicants (domestically, at least) will be dropping in the future, so you’d think the importance of a good tour guide might count for something.</p>
<p>Just my pre-lunch musing.</p>
<p>I thought being a tour guide was typically a Work Study job.</p>
<p>i was reading that some of your kids have 8+applications
that is sooo crazy!!!
I wish them all the luck in the world, especially for the uber reaches</p>
<p>my parents are limiting me at 4 apps…so one safety, two matches, one reach…and my fingers will be crossed</p>
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<p>Actually I think most of the pressure is created by the colleges that keep the whole process secretive, everyone has one application deadline and most have one acceptance date. More transparency would help a lot. </p>
<p>I mean, why can’t you send in a two page standardized pre-application in which you send in all your pertinent information to the college, they take one look at it, and within 1-2 weeks, tell you “yeah, you’re competitive” or “sorry, don’t bother”. </p>
<p>Then, you would apply to a small number of colleges, they would have to process fewer applications, teachers and counselors would have to send fewer recommendation letters, and there would be a lot less anxiety all around.</p>
<p>Because of the uncertainty of the process, I don’t know how you can get away with just a few applications. I wish we had a better idea what is reasonable. I’m not encouraging my daughter to apply to any “lottery ticket” type schools because I think kids tend to focus too much on the rejections, even if they knew the school was a huge longshot, and I want her to be happy with where she gets in rather than sad about where she didn’t. But she still will probably apply to about ten schools. Even with trying to be reasonable, there is only so much information out there and you don’t know who else will be applying to a particular school next year. So you have to cover the bases, right? Well, I guess this is my penance for my son only having to apply to one school when he was a senior!</p>
<p>vp, Interesting, I had not thought of that. It makes a lot of sense.</p>
<p>It appears from this list that many alternative locations have already been found. However, since school closures can occur with virtually no notice, stay tuned if you have a S or D testing Saturday (as I do!)</p>
<p>[SAT</a> Test Center Closings](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>Check for Test Center Closings – SAT Suite | College Board)</p>
<p>Wow. I held my breath while scrolling down that list. UIL has cancelled all sporting events, even local baseball and softball games. Seems a little hysterical to me.</p>
<p>youdon’tsay, I know! It’s crazy! My sister in law is the booster club pres this year, and she is getting notification of all kinds of cancellations - ie. like the scheduled Middle School Night at the highschool that was supposed to happen this week!</p>
<p>I wonder how long this will be in effect…</p>
<p>My prediction is you’ll see more of this to come, depending on how close your location is to the identified source, which is Mexico.</p>
<p>Here’s hoping this doesn’t put a crimp on the year end activities for the class of '09.</p>
<p>I don’t have cable so I don’t see what most of you see, but the coverage I have seen seemed very measured and reasonable. I mean, 30K people die every year of the flu. Whatever will Texas do about the TAKS?</p>
<p>There was a college fair held at my school this afternoon. It was hard for the counseling department to put together, but it was wonderful in the end, with reps from about 150 schools for the 189 in my graduating class, so we got one-on-one time with most of the reps, which was really nice.</p>
<p>I know I shouldn’t base my opinions about schools off of their admissions reps, but considering how random other things that can make or break a decision, especially little things that happen on a visit or occur in the application, this doesn’t seem too unreasonable.</p>
<p>Stand-outs included the rep from Bates, who was able to clearly articulate what he thought made the school different from other small, NE LACs without ever seeming cold or impersonal, the rep from Smith, who had a long discussion with me about houses, the rep from Harvard, who my mother made me talk to against my wishes, and the rep from Macalester, who I’ve met with twice before (he did an info session at my school last fall and I saw him in the admissions office when I visited, and he remembered me both times!) and that was very nice and informal. The rep from Yale also seem quite friendly and knowledgeable but I didn’t get a chance to talk to her personally as it’s always popular with kids from my school and her table was just surrounded.</p>
<p>I noticed that the reps I didn’t really enjoy talking to tended to be young, recent graduates who answered my question with as few words possible and didn’t elaborate on anything. I asked the rep from Amherst what he thought made Amherst distinct from, say, Williams and he just said “Consortium and open curriculum” without explaining them at all. I mean, I knew what he was talking about, but my mother, who went to the fair to get more info about the schools I’m considering, didn’t learn anything from him and it was very disappointing. Same thing with Brown and Princeton, both of which also had young males who didn’t really seem very interested in what they were doing and didn’t really sell their schools nearly as much as they could’ve.</p>
<p>burn this-im worried about so few schools, but i have no choice</p>
<p>besides, i’m not applying anywhere hard…
in reality my “safety” is a gurantee(77% rate…their 75th percentile for ACT scores is a 28, i have a 34)
my two “matches” are safeties(once again, i am far about their 75th percentile for ACT scores. Also, only like 20% of their class is in the top decile in high school. I’m in the top 1%)
and my reach is a reach…but not really a high one…Tulane</p>
<p>I’m not taking my chances on crap shoot admissions…I would never get in, why waste anybody’s time</p>
<p>rocket6louise - Are you shooting for merit aid?</p>
<p>^^hoping for it…
but doubting i’ll get any(except at my safety)</p>
<p>rocket6louise - it sounds like you have a good chance at merit aid - I wish you a lot of luck.</p>
<p>vp - I meant my own high school limited us to 7 apps back when I was in high school - that was fine back then. At my D’s school, I’ve been told it’s pretty common for kids to apply to approx. 18 schools! A little excessive, I think - though I can understand how it happens.</p>
<p>If you need merit aid, you almost MUST apply to more than 4 schools–10+ is typical.</p>
<p>i disagree with the ridic number of applications
as much of a risk as it is, i’m taking it
worst comes to worst, i don’t mind spending a year at community working</p>
<p>LIMOM: Thanks for clearing up my confusion. Entirely my fault…your post was very clear- you said “my high school”, and vicarious parent that I am, I assumed you were talking about your D’s high school.</p>