<p>Thanks everybody for the Pitt descriptions. We probably won’t visit it before he applies (we’ve already visited 15 schools and he’s too busy throughout this summer working in a university lab in NYC and commuting every day). He does prefer an urban environment but wants something of a campus. Loved Brown, Penn, Wash U but not NYU, BU. Pitt, however, might be a good source for merit aid.</p>
<p>RenaissanceMom - If he is willing to look at Pitt, he should consider Tulane and Miami also. They are all a bit less difficult to get admitted to than Brown, Penn and Wash U, and both Tulane and Miami have “classic” campuses.</p>
<p>Phb - congrats on the LOA. H is a grad and D loved SLS. I just wanted to be sure that you are aware of the reserve requirement after the five years of active duty. </p>
<p>From the WP web site:
You must serve at least five years of active duty and three years in a Reserve Component, a total of eight years, after you graduate.</p>
<p>Hope the stress fracture is completely healed!</p>
<p>Sdmomof3 or fog fog or anyone, have you visited Duke? What were your impressions? Is yournkid applying?</p>
<p>mnmomof2: Yes, we’re aware of the reserve requirement. D visited the academy over spring break, attended SLS and has read several books/watched the “Surviving West Point” series. I should have tacked on that “payment” to my original post. To me, it all seems like an overwhelming undertaking; to her, it’s a commitment she wants to seriously weigh. I’m proud of the fact that she’s even considering it, and my husband and I will support her final decision.</p>
<p>Hi, everybody.</p>
<p>My 2-cents-worth: I like keeping the rambling, various-and-sundry-things flavor and community spirit of this group all on one thread.</p>
<p>It’s my “go-to” thread on CC when I only have time to do a quick check. As others have pointed out, I love that we can (and do!) talk about all things…serious, light-hearted, specific, general, happy, sad, frustrating, funny, on-point, asides, whatever. It’s like having coffee with my friends…we bounce from one topic to another without worrying about transitions…if we have something to contribute, we say it, otherwise we just listen and wait for the conversation to take it’s next turn.</p>
<p>Regarding dorms…I realize every family and every kid are different. My D (she gets it from me) cares very much about her surroundings. She doesn’t need to live in a palace, but her mood and ability to work productively are directly affected by the visual niceties, relative cleanliness, and order of her surroundings.</p>
<p>Dorm visits are very important to us. While none have wowed us, we’ve seen some that will do just fine. We’ve also seen one that knocked the school off her list – not just because she wouldn’t live in the place, but because of what it revealed to us about the school in that they would show that dorm to a large group of prospective families.</p>
<p>Pepper, hope your Mom is feeling better.</p>
<p>I like this thread as is, too 
</p>
<p>Ds has The Big List of schools. Most are priced right about $50K (say $47-53K) with one or two in the mid$30s and our lovely flagship at a hair below $20K. We’re only comparing tuition, room & board (the avg amount if there are multiple choices) and fees.</p>
<p>Money is a major consideration. We’ve told ds that we can pay the cost of our flagship and that he’d be responsible for paying anything beyond that WITHOUT loans. Thus, he is very focused on merit money. Schools that he’d previously talked about didn’t make it onto The Big List because their max merit (per websites) didn’t bring the cost low enough.</p>
<p>He is competitive for the Ivies and other highly selective schools based on stats, but does not want to attend a school that is known as a pressure-cooker. He’s had enough of that in high school. He prefers a larger school, with a well-defined non-rural non-urban campus, weather decent enough to bike most of the year, an equal-ish male to female ratio (boys’ high school, enough said). </p>
<p>I need him to take another pass through The Big List to prune it to The Smaller List 
He should find a rolling and/or EA school, maybe three or more, to apply to in addition to the state flagship. </p>
<p>This week and next he’ll be working at said flagship at the science/robotics camp (rising 5th-9th graders) he attended. Then we’re taking a week vacation (WDW woot----I’ve got my spreadsheets humming for those of you who remember past obsessive-vacation-planning discussions here 
). Band camp is immediately upon our return. No time to visit any schools that start early in August or that are more than a daytrip away.</p>
<p>In other senior year news, he had the sitting for senior pictures this past week! He had to take a jacket, shirt and tie for the cap & gown picture. The photographer supplied the white dinner jacket, tux shirt and tie for the yearbook picture. The boys don’t even wear caps & gowns at graduation, instead the white jacket tux, so I guess that picture was for relatives who expect c&g pictures. I guess??? No optional pictures for our low maintenance guy. I’ve decide to manage dd '13’s expectations for HER senior picture shoot-----no $300+ packages here!</p>
<p>KLucky, sounds like he’s feeling much better. Completely over the mono, or still residual fatigue?</p>
<p>My D’s senior photo session is in 2 weeks. She, too, wants just the basic, traditional, head-and-shoulders photo (though she did say yes when I asked if she’d like a new dress for the photo…something she could also wear to one of the myriad senior functions next spring).</p>
<p>Contrast this to her friend who was here a few days ago and described to me her TWO-HOUR, indoor-and-outdoor, 4-outfit-changes, including props, color-and-black/white photo session.</p>
<p>Wow…these girls (who are good friends) are so different! :)</p>
<p>I was one of those who hated shopping, hated pictures. I guess my parents got off cheap. </p>
<p>D2 is going to have the big, fat photo session … I’m figuring it will at least be fun, and we will love the pictures (and they’ll come in handy for theater auditions). There have been trade-offs, other ways in which she’s skimping. Soon enough she’ll be living like her 21-year-old sister, who counts every dime. This is the last big splash. And the family will appreciate them, too.</p>
<p>Besides, we do want a nice shot of the saxophone …</p>
<p>Aniger, my son refuses to consider Duke because it is in the “south.” I can’t fight with him on this one – he is having a hard time paring down his list as it is, so I guess he doesn’t need more schools to consider. As I recall back when I visited it in the Dark Ages, it is a gorgeous campus that would show well in a visit. </p>
<p>On the other hand, we went to Harvey Mudd Discover Days yesterday. S had previously been on a tour and chatted with a representative when he came to our HS last fall, so I’m not sure he learned anything new. I, on the other hand, was really impressed with the school, although the dorm suite and room that we saw (belonging to our tour guide) was a mess. Some of the moms on the tour were visibly appalled. I don’t think it bothered my son in the slightest.</p>
<p>Also, adding my two cents that I like this thread the way it is.</p>
<p>KLucky - Any thought given to WashU? Based on your description, it might be a match and I believe they have good merit money. We received a lot of mail from them. One book was just on their scholarships. One of S’s schoolmates will be a soph (Jewish math major). He loves it.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd - We visited in March. Have mixed feelings. Son may or may not apply. Size great, curriculum great, intensity - may be a bit much. Not too balanced. Also on the expensive end as I don’t think we would get any fin aid. The one dorm we saw was disgusting. I did not like like that the doors opened to the outside (not into a building). Did not seem safe to me.</p>
<p>Re: Duke. We visited about 4 years ago. It is a beautiful campus. Very big. If I remember correctly there is an East & West side and you need a bus to get around. No interest here.</p>
<p>I posted this in the 3.0-3.3 GPA thread but I figured I’d also post it here because of how much traffic this thread gets.</p>
<p>Updated list:</p>
<p>DePaul
George Mason
Virginia Commonwealth U
Xavier
St. John’s
American (reach)
Duquesne</p>
<p>3.1 GPA, 28 ACT. Feel free to recommend other schools! I will need significant aid so tell me if any of these schools are known to be very stingy.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Thanks. Our list is also way too long and we are generally not looking at Southern schools but may make an exception for Duke. Many say it is similar to Stanford which my son really liked a lot (may be applying early there). It is hard to squeeze in more visits to schools that are a flight away but we might visit Duke. Visiting Columbia and Princeton this week and UPenn and Swarthmore next. He has finally been reading the insiders guide to colleges and I don’t know whether to be happy he is finally taking an interest or annoyed that now he is dismissing great schools based on a three page write up!</p>
<p>Thanks for the kind wishes for my mother. She is still very ill and she’s got a tough road ahead. I also have a very elderly father who needs help too-is this the “sandwich generation” or more like the “rock and a hard-place generation”? Those of you who have dealt with this know what I mean.</p>
<p>But…life goes on and college matters are pressing. S has been working on a college list and focusing on NY for a trip he is going to take with his father at the end of the week. Once the great list is final I will share it with my CC friends here!</p>
<p>He has also done some thinking about the major and been taking more or less a personal inventory of likes and dislikes. Everything he has done keeps coming back to Economics! Very interesting indeed-and at least some starting point.</p>
<p>He is in love with Cornell before even seeing it. He looked at the stats of who they accept and it is definitely a reach-he would have a much better chance at Brown since my father did go there and is one of the older living graduates-plus they seem to give some preference to RI residents.</p>
<p>Even if he was fortunate enough to get into Cornell I just don’t see how we could swing that-but it never hurts to look.</p>
<p>We also have an appointment with the RI Higher Education Authority on Tuesday and from what I have heard they are a tremendous resource.</p>
<p>@Aniger: I visited Duke with my child last year. it is a beautiful campus and the kids are nice, but there is not much off campus. That is a priority for him. He needs to have more than just the college for entertainment/food, etc.
There is a shuttle that goes quite often to Chapel Hill, where there is a nice town and activities and, of course, UNC. In my opinion, UNC has more going for it.</p>
<p>Hi from a fellow RI’er, Pepper. EG here.</p>
<p>Unless he is thinking of some specialty like engineering, which he apparently is not, I would tell him not to worry about major yet. Most schools are set up to let them explore for at least the first 3 semesters, some students can even wait 4 semesters to make a final decision.</p>
<p>Legacy makes a little difference, but these days without major donor status it just doesn’t count like it used to. But who knows, it might all work out fine. Sounds like you all know it is a stretch, so that’s good. The nice thing is that if he has stats that are close to Ivy quality, he can get some major merit money at some other schools. Could be useful, eh?</p>
<p>Morning all</p>
<p>CLeaned out the file box for our kiddo yesterday00Had bought a cool metal/mesh file box and sorted all fo the incoming stuff into hanging folders–So much new stuff had come in–and during exams etc–it just got thrwon on top/next to/near etc ha ha…
Many schools are just off the list now—wrong locale, doesn’t have kiddos sport (even as club ) etc…
I hate to throw away such expensive materials… kwim</p>
<p>Anyway–on the other hand it’s nice to streamline a bit.</p>
<p>How is the mail at your house? :rolleyes:</p>
<p>fogfog-drowning in mail here…and D is away for the summer so I am sorting through it and recycling most of it. Also getting alot of calls from schools. D hates talking to strangers on the phone, so even if she were home we’d be screening those. (love caller ID)</p>
<p>Good Morning,
Pepper- Sending best wishes for your Mom
Regarding- Cornell vs Brown
keep in mind that Cornell is by far the easiest Ivy to get in…fallenchemist is right Legacy is not what it used to be…especially true with the class of 2014 and 2015</p>
<p>Mail is coming like crazy after act/aps results came in. While it is flattering for the kids…it is invading my office Last year for S1 we kept everything until May 30th…this year we are filing, trashing, or holding for a month- still overwhelming. All those info can be found on the websites…;)</p>
<p>Have a great Day 
</p>