<p>SUNY Geneseo is a funny story - I posted it on ‘why kids rejected colleges’ thread but will repeat here.</p>
<p>He took it off the list becuse they made his grilled cheese sandwhich wrong! I kid you not. I tried to explain that the cafeteria staff would not be his fellow students or professors, but he was beyond reason… he tried to say later that it was other things too, but the lunch experience left a sour taste in his mouth (no pun intended - OK maybe intended a little :))</p>
<p>Geneseo is actually a great school at the size I was hoping for him (and the right price for a NY resident) - I was disappointed none of my kids would consider it. S1 said it was too small (only applied to +10K students schools), and D1 said it was too remote (wanted to be closer to a city). And now we get strike 3 because they couldn’t make a grilled cheese sandwhich! I thought it was just as pretty as Colgate or Hamilton - and the caliber of students is very high academically. Definitely worth taking a look at.</p>
<p>Colgate alum here - great school, and it is beautiful. I really liked the small class size. D1 is at Cornell. She thought Colgate was too small for her. She doesn´t find Cornell´s size overwhelming. She is a senior now and would do it all over again.</p>
<p>Take a look at Tufts. It is in the 4-6k range for undergraduates and most of the grad schools are on a different campus so it feels comfortable.</p>
<p>Amherst is a small LAC but students can take courses within the 5 college system (Umass/Smith/Hampshire/Mount Holyoke --with free buses all day). I took advantage of this when I went to Umass.</p>
<p>I’ve been reading CC for a couple of months now and I think it is fabulous, especially since I’m the mom of a Junior D and she’s finally getting into looking at schools and considering hem seriously.
We have a list of 6 schools but without even the PSAT back its hard to really know what will remain on the list, except UT. I’m requiring that she apply to UT since rak will get her automatic eligibility but she’s very clear that she wants to go OOS. We’ll see how that plays out.
Since she has some very particular needs/wants its made looking at schools fairly easy. Many schools don’t have the major she’s looking for (Religious Studies), from the perspective she wants (liberal, open.) Other desires are a traditional looking campus and schools with dance teams that compete at UDA or NDA. It really narrows down the field. For the record UT does meet those parameters. I’m very glad this resource is here for this ride into 2012.</p>
<p>Ha! I can’t tell Gambier and Granville apart. (Son visited Denison in Granville but also has friends at Kenyon in Gambier; you can tell I am not from Ohio. But I think that Granville has about 3000 residents and Gambier about 2000; does it really matter? )</p>
<p>Both Kenyon and Denison are in tiny towns. (If you have a car at Denison, you can be in the suburbs of Columbus quickly and easily.)</p>
<p>Great grilled cheese story Kttmom! I think that many times kids can’t really describe why a college doesn’t feel right, and they know that parents want to hear something concrete, hence the grilled cheese story. We will have to wait and see what speaks to my DS. He is not ready to visit yet and spring will be busy with lots of tests and competitions, so I fear we may be visiting in the summer. Bad timing, but I think all will be fine in the end. Lots of kids here are visiting school in the fall of senior year. We may be on that schedule. Waiting to see what his PSAT score is and then we can get a “real” game plan together.</p>
<p>My computer has a weird “n” key - meant to type “rank.” In 2012 UT will consider the top 9% of Texas high school students as automatically eligible for admission based on rank - if your school ranks. It had been top 10%, then went to top 8% for 2011 applicants and was recently announced as top 9% for 2012 admissions. Since D is focused and is doing even better this semester than the previous two years and was comfortably within the necessary band, I’m confident that she will be eligible.</p>
<p>From these boards I’ve seen “OOS” used for “out of state.” Love all the information I’ve gathered lurking. I figured it was finally time to post.</p>
<p>Thanks TXmom, I feel like I am learning a new language. Now that I have discovered CC I plan to do my share of lurking too on the students threads! Does UT provide good financial support for these top-9%-students? If so, it must be great to know that your child has a strong, affordable option.</p>
<p>Thanks for the congrats on my S2 ACT scores - it was a very pleasant surprise :)</p>
<p>The testing strategy in our house has been to take ACT and PSAT (to qualify for NMF) in October of Junior year. Based on those scores we can get an idea of the colleges they should be looking at - and also which test seems to suite the child better (it was ACT for all 3 of my kids). Then they would re-take the ACT (or SAT) again in June to see if they can improve it (both D and S1 did with no prep). S2 will also be taking 4 AP tests in May and the SATII in Math 2 (already took SATII Bio last June)- then he will be done with all his testing in Junior year! And senior year can be dedicated to applications. This strategy worked well for my first 2 kids, so that is the plan for S2. </p>
<p>We will add Tufts to the list - S1 was accepted there, but again he felt it was too small for him (he only applied cause I made him keep a medium size school on his list in case his preferences changed from Dec. to April). It may be a better fit for S2.</p>
<p>Geogirl - we ended up doing some summer tours, and it was fine. Personally I would prefer summer to Fall of senior year - the fall is just so stressed for these kids, and I prefer to have the final list by September, so they can get started on applications. We also did some tours to schools farther away AFTER acceptances if they were still in the running based on FA offers (like Michigan State and University of Michigan). Yes, it’s all coming back to me now… D1 toured 21 schools and S1 toured 18 (although some of these include X2 because of accepted students day). They were fun times spent one-on-one with the kids before they left the nest (mostly H and I divided and conquered since we had younger kids at home).</p>
<p>I have learned that if you lurk long enough or use search, eventually most questions you have will be asked/answered by someone else. This board is amazing!</p>
<p>UT is awesome. My older sis went to UT Austin for grad school and never left…
Going back to the math thing, my D will never go past PreCalc. She took Honors Geo freshman year, Algebra II sophomore year, at her school they take Math Analysis/Trig their junior year(although the book says PreCalc) and PreCalc Honors (with a 5.0 scale) their senior year. She is on the middle track. Since she is a English/History kid, I wasn’t too concerned about it. As I read the most exclusive of the private schools, the rule is “four, four, four, four.” Four years English, four years math, four years social studies, four years foreign language, four years science (of which three should be lab.) She has or will have done all of that, albeit her math will only go to precalculus. She did take Chem and AP Chem (and bio and will take Physics this year.) Right now she is really hoping for Brown for the Ivies (she spent last summer there), and clearly has the GPA and SAT for UC Berkeley and UCLA. She got a 2190 on her first SAT and will take again next fall…</p>
<p>Do you think her lack of Calculus is going to hurt someone who is clearly going to major in English and minor in French?</p>
<p>chrissyblu - I doubt it matters as long as her guidance counselor checks the ‘most difficult’ curriculum on her application. I’m pretty sure you need that to have any hope of getting into an Ivy - unless you have a hook.</p>
<p>Yeah… she definitely has done that. I think she will have ten AP courses before she graduates. There is this guy, though, who says the “hook” is very much not what you may think it is. His name is Cal Newport and he wrote “How to be a High School Superstar.” He is very interesting. Alot of the kids on CC talk about him and admire his perspective. You should google him…</p>
<p>Hmmm - I will have to read the whole book, but the 2 examples he gives in the excerpts were definitely not ‘ordinary’. One had 3 years of research and one ran a company with 800 customers as a freshman in HS. </p>
<p>My kids are really boring compared to those kids. Great grades and test scores, 9+ AP classes, some sports (but not olympic level or even recruitable), some clubs they are interested in (but may not have leadership role), some volunteer. They have plenty of free time (never do homework past 10pm) to become ‘interesting’, but choose to play video games or go to the movies/bowling/hang out with friends. That would not make them ‘interesting’ according to Cal Newport. And that’s OK - they are happy and will get into great schools (although maybe not an Ivy)…</p>
<p>BUandBC-- maybe our paths have crossed! I love the idea of “an itinerant special ed teacher”-- it sounds old-fashioned and honorable, as if you went by stagecoach! It always surprises me that New England is still so rural-- twenty miles out of a city and you’re on a farm. I love it.</p>
)</p>