<p>See PSAT thread</p>
<p>BurnThis:</p>
<p>Sounds like my Junior daughter as well. We are making as many college visits as possible to as wide of a range of schools as possible in hopes of generating some additional criteria. In these visits I am almost hoping that she says that this school is not the right school - because then we can explore why. </p>
<p>Three trips (to a total of 11 colleges) have given her a little more to consider:</p>
<p>Size of school (she now wants small)
setting (not urban)
student behavior (collaborative rather than competitive)
campus layout (defined campus center with open space)
Religious (some OK but not over the top)</p>
<p>āWinnersā thus far - Pomona, Scripps, Willamette, Linfield
āLosersā - Claremont Mckenna, Univ. of Portland, George Fox, UC Berkeley, Santa Clara, USF
āFenceā - Lewis & Clark</p>
<p>we have done visits similar to scualum to help define what D likes about a school. She has also gone from a one track mind to being open to others after seeing a second school she really liked. Now she wants to revisit some she poo-poo-ed over the summer. Luckily all visits have been fairly local (driving).</p>
<p>Also one she had lower on her list has now risen because she found they offer one of her sports as a club sport. We didnāt know this when we hadnāt originally seen it on the varsity list and in the viewbooks. So now she has some schools with the sport in the D1/Ivy group, the DIII group, and the club group, a factor to consider.</p>
<p>scualum, those are great criteria. While we have been touring it seems that our main criteria has been āfeelā. Some well-regarded schools just did not feel right.</p>
<p>Winners so far: Pomona, Bowdoin, Willamette
Losers: Middlebury, Cornell, University of Redlands, Tufts
Fence for various reasons: University of Rochester, Bates, Whitman, University of Oregon</p>
<p>BengalMom:</p>
<p>To develop the criteria, my D and I have been really good about discussing both the winners and losers. Each time we go visit a school, I make sure we have a quiet dinner together at the end of the day and recap everything we have seen and experienced. From those discussions we have generated that list of criteria. </p>
<p>The most recent trip was a drive down to Claremont (I think I posted about the drive - got a few gray hairs from that one!!!). In the information session as well as in the campus tour, the competitive nature of the classroom was a reoccurring theme. In our debrief that night, my D said that there was no way she wanted to spend 4 years in a confrontational environment. Thus a new criteria emerged.</p>
<p>Some overlap in our lists of winners - I think Iāll have my DD check out Bowdoin. I think my D has Pomona #1 on the list right now - simply loved it.</p>
<p>Another D who hasnāt a clue about what she wants to study, so sheās looking at schools that have a lot of different options. She doesnāt want too small or too large, but sheās not exactly sure how small is too small, or how large is too large. She seems willing to be in almost any setting - rural-suburban-urban - as long as there is easy accessibility to a city and transportation home. I think that if sheās in a rural or suburban setting, it would have to be one with shops/restaurants/movies nearby. So far, sheās liked all the schools weāve visited - but theyāve all been pretty amazing places. Weāll be doing more visits in the spring and summer to help round out her choices.</p>
<p>scualum ā Thatās how we felt about Pomona, too. We just kept walking around awe-struck, saying Wowā¦ Wowā¦ 
We had lunch with two students which really got S interested. All the students we met seemed so intelligent, involved and vibrant. Iām not sure S will be a strong enough candidate, but he wants to do all he can to give himself the best chance. Of course, itās not a sure thing for anyone these days. </p>
<p>Your discussions over dinner are a great idea, and that would have worked with my D, but not so much with S. He often tends to have conversations with me that are a sentence or two at a time. But as we get deeper into the college search, he is opening up more. Itās starting to become real to him.</p>
<p>I havenāt read your post about your harrowing drive to Claremont. Iāll have to go find it. We flew in to the Ontario airport so missed the excitement. :)</p>
<p>Ah Sonsā¦ with DS, I found the key was driving places - somehow when neither of us was looking at the other, he would open upā¦ weird but trueā¦ and I have heard it is the same with many of his friends and their parents (per the parents)ā¦</p>
<p>The drive was only dramatic in that it was the first time I let my DD drive on the freeway for extended periods of time - she did well but it was far from relaxingā¦</p>
<p>^^^^ Wow, how true about Sās. Sometimes I get the best info from my DS as an aside on the 10 minute drive to school. "By the way, Mom ā¦ "</p>
<p>Now I have delicate drama to deal with at the HS, without ruffling feathers of the GC. DS was approved for HS credit for taking an on line linear algebra class from JHU CTY. This is a class above and beyond any of the AP math (calculus/stats) offered at the HS. So we were all pleased but the class has proved a step up in challenge from AP Calc BC. </p>
<p>Happily heās pulling a 105% thus far (bonus points for the ātake homeā exams.) His AP Calc teacher, who gently recommended this route and will be a LOR writer, is pleased to watch him blossom.</p>
<p>All roses and soft music, right? Wait, drop those petals and have some skips from that MP3. The GC just advised heāll only get a 4.0 on his transcript, not a 5.0 like other AP classes.</p>
<p>Say what? He probably could have skipped merrily along with AP Stats and pulled a 5.0 with half as much time and effort.</p>
<p>I have sent a gentle appeal to the principal, copy to the AP Calc teacher, suggesting he shouldnāt be so harmed, especially in his junior year. </p>
<p>Iām not breathing a word about this to DS until I hear more.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, please envision the famous Edvard Munch picture entitled āThe Scream.ā</p>
<p>^^ Ha! Of course! It isnāt an āAPā class! Good luck, and let us know how it resolves!</p>
<p>FindAPlace-Edvard Munch is an apt description for your dilemma! Iām sure that CTY will provide a detailed course description and your high school math teacher will be able to certify the advanced nature of the course. Good luck!</p>
<p>Group collective fingers crossed. I canāt even talk to DH about this ā¦ at least not yet. Heās a math professor and would not be pleased, but I agree totally that the best pull in the school will be from the AP Calc teacher. CTYās progress reports are wonderfully detailed as evidence. Anyway, DH is in Paris on a business trip so perhaps some nice holiday gift is in the offing to calm the savage beast, AKA me, the Mom.</p>
<p>FindAPlace - good luck getting this straightened out. Will join in the collective finger-crossing for you.</p>
<p>scualum/BengalMom - you are both making me wish my D was considering Pomona - but she doesnāt want to go quite that far from home - and Iām not that upset about that.</p>
<p>Funny that Pomona is so popular with this crowd. My son and one of his best friends is considering that school, too. Itās definitely the farthest away heās looking.</p>
<p>BurnThis, yup sounds like my junior son. At one point he said he couldnāt imagine going to a school smaller than his high school (which would eliminate a lot of small LACs), but I donāt really think he means it. Especially since his favorite school from his brotherās college tour was Caltech (if only it werenāt a science-school.) I think we might do an east coast tour in February and see if he can at least decide on the big/small, rural/city/suburban issue. Heās going to be tricky, because PSAT scores heāll probably be a 1450/1600 with a B+ unweighted average. Lots more schools look possible now, but not sure bets.</p>
<p>Count us among those with juniors who arenāt interested. I might as well be asking Sonās opinion about window treatments for the dining room.</p>
<p>FindAPlaceāgood luck with the CTY course issues. My D is considering the same course next year, but I donāt think she even gets credit from her school. But they donāt calculate a GPA, so just having it on a CTY transcript might be okay? Am I missing something? It sounds like the course is going wellācan you PM me if you have any other thoughts on the course?</p>
<p>Highlandmomādelayed response from several days ago: we loved homeschooling, but my D wasnāt finding kindred spirits at the community college and small group homeschooling activities were not coming together like they had in earlier years (friends moving or deciding to go to school). I think it was the right move for her and sheāll always be an independent learner (see above!)</p>
<p>The farthest school from us that S has liked is Bowdoin. But to get home from there would mean a 45 min bus ride and 2 flights. That is a lot of travel time, and a lot of added expense, especially with airline ticket prices these days.</p>
<p>Travel time and expense wasnāt something we really talked much about the first time around, with D, but it is much more a factor now. D nearly chose Brown, which would have meant two flights to get home, but in the end she chose another school which is much closer, only one flight. Itās nice to know her travel is easy at the end of the semester when she is already very tired.</p>
<p>LIMOMOF2, care to divulge any of the āpretty amazing placesā you and your D have visited? :)</p>
<p>My D liked Bowdoin also. She liked Bates more which we visited on the same day. Have also visited Dartmouth - liked before she even stepped foot, Middlebury, rising in ālikeā since the visit, Conn Coll liked, Clark DID NOT LIKE. That could be guessed, one of these things is not like the others obviously. Only one similar to the likes which she did not like was Colby, but we only did a drive through and ārefuse to get out of the carā thing there. </p>
<p>Future visits planned, Colgate, Hamilton, perhaps Tufts. I also want her to think about some merit giving schools, if she canāt find any I have a few to suggest to her. It is tough when you visit the campuses where it is so plain to see the money coming out of their ears (Bowdoin was jaw dropping in their recent building projects)</p>
<p>We havenāt done as objective a like/dislike thing as most of the schools are similar, have just gone on feel. She already knows she does not want California (so no Pomona for us!) and doesnāt want urban. She is still ruminating on if small uni with some TAs is a go/no go for her, that seems to be the biggest categorization decision she will still need to make.</p>