<p>PRJ- sorry I didn’t reply sooner. Academic internships are graded opportunities to assist teachers. Ds had one first semester, so that he could do independent chemistry research. He also mixed solutions, gradd papers and acted as a tutor for the chemistry students that needed help during that time. Senior year, he will either work as a tutor or assist the chemistry, physics or psychology teachers.</p>
<p>For those parents with concerns over early admissions to selective schools or any schools, check out the link a parent posted elsewhere, an analysis by economists at Harvard and Stanford in the frame of game theory. An excellent analysis.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12056299-post31.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12056299-post31.html</a></p>
<p>I was just cleaning out my old bookmarks and found this thread that is very interesting and still very relevant. If you guys have the time, you should read through it. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/647553-parents-class-09-what-were-oversights-during-college-process.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/647553-parents-class-09-what-were-oversights-during-college-process.html</a></p>
<p>lake42ks and seoclan, Thank you both for the links. Highly informative.</p>
<p>Do any of you remember a funny thread about Ivies? Somebody provided a caricature of Ivies. Something like, what would they do if a light bulb burned out? At Princeton, they will pour out beer and call someone while drinking to come and fix it, for example. It was pretty funny but I couldn’t find it anywhere.</p>
<p>Thanks seiclan - great link. I will say that one thing that my older son did right was applying to a couple/few schools with rolling admissions, early action, or priority apps. It was a REALLY good thing to have some early acceptances. Without those, I can imagine it would have been a lot more emotionally intense waiting for April 1st decisions.</p>
<p>Oh - another thing I did with older S is that I printed out some of the best from the “awkward interview moments” thread and read them to him in the car on our road trip to his first interviews. They had us laughing out loud and (I hoped) relieved some of the pressure for him. Kind of like, “OK, so as long as I don’t insult the school where my interviewer’s kid goes and then spill my drink on his laptop, I’ll consider the interview a success.”</p>
<p>PN - what a great idea - I’m stealing it.</p>
<p>^^^^ seiclan – I loved the old thread! If anyone else has other old favorite threads, please share! :)</p>
<p>seiclan - thanks for the link. I’ll have to go back and see if I posted on it - that’s D1’s class. I can see what advice PRJ09 has for PRJ12 ;)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>agree completely, PN. it was wonderful to know as early as November that D1 had some good choices already.</p>
<p>For above poster who wanted “light bulb” jokes</p>
<p>University Light Bulb Jokes
How many Princeton students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Two—one to mix the martinis and one to call the electrician.</p>
<p>How many Brown students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Eleven—one to change the lightbulb and ten to share the experience.</p>
<p>How many Dartmouth students does it take to change a lightbulb?
None—Hanover doesn’t have electricity.</p>
<p>How many Cornell students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Two–One to change the lightbulb and one to crack under the pressure.</p>
<p>How many Penn students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Only one, but he gets six credits for it.</p>
<p>How many Columbia students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Seventy-six–one to change the lightbulb, fifty to protest the lightbulb’s right to not change, and twenty-five to hold a counter-protest.</p>
<p>How many Yale students does it take to change a lightbulb?
None–New Haven looks better in the dark.</p>
<p>How many Reed Students does it take to change a lightbulb?
The Entire Reed Community ™ --One to change the bulb and 1200 more to throw a $30,000 party for no reason.</p>
<p>How many Harvard students does it take to change a lightbulb?
One–he holds the bulb and the world revolves around him</p>
<p>How many MIT students does it take to change a lightbulb?
five --one to design a nuclear-powered one that never needs changing, one to figure out how to power the rest of Boston using that nuked lightbulb, two to install it, and one to write the computer program that controls the wall switch.</p>
<p>How many Vassar students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Eleven–One to screw it and ten to support its sexual orientation</p>
<p>How many Middlebury students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Five–One to change the lightbulb and four to find the perfect J. Crew outfit to wear for the occasion.</p>
<p>How many Wellesley students does it take to change a lightbulb?
The whole student body–girls can’t do anything right.</p>
<p>How many Stanford students does it take to change a lightbulb?
One, dude.</p>
<p>How many Oberlin students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Three–One to change it and two to figure out how to get high off the old one.</p>
<p>How many Georgetown students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Four–One to change it, one to call Congress about their progress, and two to throw the old bulb at American U. students.</p>
<p>How many Duke students does it take to change a lightbulb?
A whole frat–but only one of them is sober enough to get the bulb out of the socket.</p>
<p>How many Williams students does it take to change a lightbulb?
The whole student body–when you’re snowed in, there’s nothing else to do.</p>
<p>How many Tufts students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Two–One to change the bulb and the other to say loudly how he did it as well as an Ivy League student.</p>
<p>How many Sarah Lawrence students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Five–One to change the bulb and four to do an interpretive dance about it.</p>
<p>How many Swarthmore students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Eight–It’s not that one isn’t smart enough to do it, it’s just that they’re all violently twitching from too much stress.</p>
<p>How many Mount Holyoke students does it take to change a lightbulb?
One–she calls a Smithie to do it.</p>
<p>How many Smith students does it take to change a lightbulb?
One–all you need is one hot woman and you’ll never have a heterosexual lightbulb again.</p>
<p>How many Boston University students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Four–One to change the bulb and two to check his math homework.</p>
<p>How many Amherst students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Thirteen–One to change the bulb and an a capella group to immortalize the event in song.</p>
<p>How many Wesleyan students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Wesleyan’s boycotting GE . . . you know, military-industrial complex and all that.</p>
<p>How many Connecticut College students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Two–One to change the bulb and one to complain about how if they were at a better school the lightbulb wouldn’t go out.</p>
<p>How many Bucknell students does it take to change a lightbulb?
One–but he’ll only change it if he can put in a white-light bulb.</p>
<p>How many Bowdoin students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Three–One to ski down to the general store and buy the bulb, one to take the chairlift back to school, and one to screw it in.</p>
<p>How many Bard students does it take to change a lightbulb?
One–but she’ll only do it if it’s an alternative light bulb.</p>
<p>How many Boston College students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Seven–One to change the light bulb and six to throw a party because he didn’t screw it in upside down this time.</p>
<p>How many Haverford College students does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
One to call physical plant to do it, since the whole campus is too damn apathetic to do anything besides their homework.</p>
<p>How many Skidmore College students does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
One–and his maid, butler, cook, poolman, and gardener.</p>
<p>How many U. of Chicago students does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
Not applicable - there are no jokes allowed at the University of Chicago.</p>
<p>^^Ha ha.</p>
<p>mompop Thank you. That’s what I was looking for to pass on to my kid.</p>
<p>Back from a family road trip to upstate NY with daughter and niece. Loads of other HS kids visiting campuses this week --despite the cold and snow (actually very revealing to see a campus in action in bitter weather). They were very pleasantly surprised with Union and underwhelmed with SUNY Albany. U of Rochester is still on D’s list but dropped a notch or two for reasons she could not completely articulate. I think she was looking closely at students’ behavior to see if they were smiling, talking, working in groups, etc… Both girls looked closely at catalogs, talked to students, and read school newspapers. I was amazed to see them so interested . Now, they are talking about where they want to go visit in April. phew…I was waiting for this.</p>
<p>mompop - Funny! Looking at my own two schools, I guess I would need 10…oh wait, I mean 11…doesn’t matter, at least there will be a party.</p>
<p>pathways - Sounds like a great trip!</p>
<p>Just back from our 6 day college tour.</p>
<p>Final verdict:
UPitt and Georgetown: rejected (S2 definitely doesn’t care for large schools or schools in a city)
Davidson, Wake Forest & William & Mary - will apply</p>
<p>My thoughts:
UPitt - great school for a kid that IS interested in a city school with good school spirit, research opportunities and merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Georgetown - I liked it, although it did seem a little ‘cramped’ - this was the last school we saw so you could really see the difference between the campus feel of Georgetown and the other 3 LAC schools.</p>
<p>Davidson - I really hated this school! (sorry if this offends anyone). It was too small, and I had a real problem with the empahsis on the Honor Code. The example our tour guide gave was that you would see $ bills taped to bulletin boards - cause if someone found them they wouldn’t keep them. I thought this was extreme. I think kids should be exploring and stretching the boundries in college and this sounded very restricting. This probably isn’t coming out right - maybe they were just too conservative for me. (S2 didn’t have the same reaction and is keeping it on his list)</p>
<p>Wake Forest - We saw this school the day after Davidson and it was it was like a breath of fresh air - they showed pictures of toilet papered trees and had swings in the trees. Just seemed like they were much more ‘chill’ and didn’t take themselves so seriously. They also have an Honor code, but seemed to have some sense of the difference between stealing a computer and a practical joke.</p>
<p>William & Mary - This was S2’s favorite and I think we all agreed that this was the best school so far. Beautiful campus, right size, school spirit, etc.</p>
<p>Good to be home - it was a lot of driving!</p>
<p>Great report kttmom - thanks! Interesting about Davidson. D2 is looking for a warm weather LAC, and Davidson is on her verrry long preliminary list, but from what you’ve said I’m not sure it’s a fit.</p>
<p>Kttmom - I think you’re the first person I’ve ever heard of who didn’t like Davidson. The campus devotion to an Honor Code was a turnoff? I agree wholeheartedly about exploration and stretching, but I’m not sure what boundaries we’d want students to stretch when we’re talking about theft, plagiarism, cheating, etc.</p>
<p>kttmom - Thank you for the report. Good to have different takes.</p>
<p>We are also heading out to visit colleges in a few weeks. In CA. We plan to be in Claremont on Thursday and Friday and then to San Francisco area for Sunday afternoon and Monday. What would you suggest? Nonstop driving to SF and spend a full day and half in the city? Or stay a night or two on the way up sightseeing?</p>
<p>Help! I am freaking out! My S came to me yesterday and told me that there was a party
where he knew there would be drinking and no parents but it was his very tight theater crew and he really wanted to go.</p>
<p>Background:
He is 17 and a Junior very level headed and doesnt care what is cool etc.
His theater crew is very hard working and have all been together for three years.
We let him have a drink at home if he wants he has done this three or four times.</p>
<p>I told him I needed to think about it and we would talk again.</p>
<p>Later he tells me he wants to spend the night because that is what most of the kids were doing since they did not want to drink and drive. He agreed that all the other kids were more then likely lying to their parents.</p>
<p>After a lot of calm discussion, what we were worried about, what could happen, the difference of trusting him but still thinking it was a bad idea not wanting to condone it …we decided to let him go but he agreed not to drink and he would call us at midnight to give us an update and he would act responsibly (beside being at a party of underage drinkers) if there was any kind of trouble try to stop anyone doing something really stupid etc…</p>
<p>He went, called at midnight, called at 8 in the morning and I dropped him off and picked him up. </p>
<p>I am feeling awful about it all. I feel like there is no right answer. If I had come down hard and said you cannot go he would not be telling me the truth in the future. I felt like I wanted to reward his telling the truth but feel really badly that I let down the parenting community. I am not trying to be his friend but I am trying to respect his opinion and to talk things out with him. I told him just because we let him go this time does not mean the flood gates have opened. Part of me thinks saying “No” is not going to stop these events, nor stop him finding a way to go…but by keeping things more open he would be more likely to tell us - call us if there was big trouble.</p>
<p>I find myself wishing he had not told me the truth! What kind of parent is that! Is this the burden of having kids tell you what is really going on?</p>
<p>I hesitate to post this but these are really issues and this is the first time I have had to face anything like this with my S and I am feeling very alone!</p>
<p>Cal1983, it sounds like you can really trust your S. Seems to me like you did the right thing. They’ll all be gone in 1.5 years, so all we can do at this point is hope that we raised them right and that they have enough judgment to do the right thing. I think you can be proud of him.</p>