<p>hi all,
Nice to hear about the college tours. While you are visiting these colleges, are you getting your interviews done too? Or will you go back for an interview?</p>
<p>megpmom, congratulations to your son for his acceptance to summer programs. Looks like he is going to have pretty interesting stuff lined up for him in summer. Happy for you.</p>
<p>jbnc11- Thank you for giving me big time hope that with targeted studying and tutoring, Step-D can get her dismal scores up! She’s an A-/B+ student and I would just like her scores and her impressive GPA to correlate for her! We are definitely going to do all we can to give her the best shot of succeeding! </p>
<p>SteveMA - You must be able to read my mind. I JUST put Truman on Step-D’s list last night. In another thread, Haystack reminded me about the good Athletic Training programs for Step-D at Iowa and Iowa State and then I saw Truman also has a certified AT program! Might make a nice stop on our way to Iowa and ISU! Please PM me (or share here if you’d like) with a review of your visit. I would LOVE to hear more of your impressions of the school, the town, etc. </p>
<p>megpmom- Wow! What a talented S you have! I would definitely tell him about the California opportunity. Even if you and he decide it’s not best for him to go, at least you didn’t hold anything back from him. He’ll always know he was accepted and it is another feather in his cap, at the very least! </p>
<p>blueshoe - What a trip! I cannot imagine it could have gone any better! Sounds like your D really experienced the best of NYC - theatre, music and…shopping! ha ha </p>
<p>Donivrian - No interviews per se for us here. I have set up a few Athletic Training ‘informational interviews’ for Step-D since that is her area of interest at this point. </p>
<p>Longsx3 - Same situation here. My Step-D is a Florida girl, wants nothing to do with any school in the South 
Lives with her mom in the Orlando area. We live in Northern Virginia. Has her dad’s GI bill to use for college (thank goodness!!) :)</p>
<p>Lauren–LOVED the campus, older buildings but very well maintained, red brick with white trim. They’ve done some additions to buildings and kept the original outside walls so when you walk into the buildings it is almost like a courtyard feel, very nice. Campus is set up in a basic square with a center quad that is well landscaped, lots of mature trees, pretty much a hang out for the students. Campus is smaller than what you will find at Iowa State and U of IA (only about 5500 students) which is perfect for our D.</p>
<p>First thing I noticed was how friendly everyone was. Tour guide said hi to about 50 kids, by name, along the way. Students obviously figured out we were on a tour and pretty much everyone smiled or said hi. After we were done we were a little turned around to get back to our car and a faculty member stopped and said “you look lost, where can I point you” and did. The student body looked a lot like the kids at their high school, clean cut, down to earth kids. The last campus we toured was pretty goth, funky hair cuts, multiple piercings in odd areas type kids and not a fit for our kids so she was happy to see more kids like her.</p>
<p>Walked by a few classes in session and the kids seemed interested in what they were learning. School is very well connected with several major companies and internships are plentiful. Connected to two medical schools which is a huge plus for DD.</p>
<p>Didn’t look into the AT program but one observation, the sports programs just went through some big cuts and they don’t have a full compliment of sports. That could be a negative depending on the size of the AT program.</p>
<p>Kirksville is pretty ‘remote’ if you aren’t used to rural Midwest areas. It’s about 2 1/2-3 hours to Des Moines and about 3 hours from St. Louis, MO-but easy drives, 4 lanes or interstates. Kirksville is kind of a dumpy town but has your full compliment of fast food places, Walmart, etc. Most kids have a car, parking is only $100/year, so going places is easy enough. The bulletin boards around campus were packed with things to do on campus so entertainment is not an issue. We were there later on Friday and most kids were still around and seems like most stay on campus for weekends.</p>
<p>Dorms were pretty nice for dorms. Rooms were on the smaller side but not tiny, tiny. Big closet/dresser space for a dorm too.</p>
<p>Thanks so much Steve! Truman sounds great and I can’t wait to check it out! </p>
<p>Now, if you could visit some of our other schools for us and post reviews as well, Step-D and I will just stay home and read about your travels. Will save us lots of gas $$ (ha ha! j/k) </p>
<p>Sounds like if Step-D can get over the ‘remoteness’ of Kirksville’ she may end up having a great time. Boo on the Athletics cuts. That particular fact does not bode well for the AT program, but we’ll have to talk to the staff and find out how it’s affecting the overall program.</p>
<p>Congratulations to your S, megpmom! It must be fun to attend his musical events. I’ve never had a kid like that. </p>
<p>I am starting to feel very stressed about college admissions for D13. One of her matches or even a “safety” was going to be Grinnell. She visited two years ago and really liked it. They were known for excellent financial aid so I thought it might work. Now, this year, they were flooded with applications and became more selective. We’re down to only having University of Mississippi as a “sure thing” for a school where she could study international studies and Chinese without breaking the bank. I’m not sure my liberal daughter would be happy there. D’s loving her UWC experience - she had an eye-opening project week in Arizona on the Mexican border learning about the NGOs that provide services to illegals who cannot seek medical care or police services for victims for fear of being deported. I know she will always value her UWC experience, but I have no idea what they do for college advising and it is difficult to help her from a distance.</p>
<p>Congrats megp…You must have some talented son.</p>
<p>Apollo, my neighbors son is graduating from University at Buffalo. He majored in mandarin and international studies. He just landed a position with Universityh of Bejing for post grad work. It is a fairly large and somewhat liberal campus.</p>
<p>My dd had her first overnight visit this week. We already visited one large state school and are visiting 3 private schools this week as well. She really has her heart set on a private school but we are very worried about the financing. Her stats are nothing special so we know that their won’t be much academic merit money and very little if any need based aid.</p>
<p>Morning all! Checking in from Boston and the Emerson college campus :)</p>
<p>Mspearl: thank you for your words of wisdom about lob sided test scores and admissions.</p>
<p>We visited Lafayette on Friday and absolutely loved it; campus was beautiful, people were friendly and as d observed the students were "smart but not pretentious " Price tag was asthma inducing: $57,000!</p>
<p>I know I had more to say but since I can’t do the “two window open” trick to read and reply at the same time on my phone, I cant remember. 4 different beds in 4 nights makes one confused! Good luck to all on visits! Even bad visits give you answers…</p>
<p>Just found out four kids from my son’s high school were admitted to Stanford. However, they do not have Naviance.</p>
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<p>If you kids aren’t involved in a fall sport, late august is a good time to visit. The HS’s (at least here in the North) haven’t started yet, but the colleges have. Just check when they are in session, and not in the freshman orientation period.</p>
<p>Perazziman: We don’t have naviance either so I get all my admission information from asking around or from what my kids tell me. Four Stanford admissions is very good! In the last few years all our school has gotten is a couple of kids who were wait-listed at Stanford.</p>
<p>Ds’s senior friends started a FB group listing the class acceptances. Interesting reading. You could see whether your senior class did the same.</p>
<p>parent4real, fall sport as well, but it will still be preseason and we may be able to take a day then. We’re doing a quick run this morning to a LAC an hour away - before her game this afternoon! DD is not happy that I got her up so early on her break. :)</p>
<p>anniezz-I hear you on trying to fit in visits. We have no time in the fall at all. Winter, maybe, but weather is an issue. Spring is bad but we could fit in some weekend visits if we had to. </p>
<p>We’ve did a lot of initial visits last summer. There were still a lot of kids on campus over the summer so you still saw a sample of the students there. Our kids want to visit all of the schools they are considering before applying. They don’t want to waste time applying someplace they will never go, and I agree. We have ruled out one school we though would be a good fit doing that but so far, so good on the rest of them. The plan is to do second visits, if necessary, when acceptances roll around to their top 2 or 3. If DS gets into his #1 and they give a good enough package, no need for further visits, he is there. DD is going to have a harder time. She doesn’t’ have a clear cut #1 school. She has 3 that she really likes right now, and she is a recruited athlete so that throws a wrench in the plan as well. We will probably have to do visits again for her, unless one school really stands out for aid in the end.</p>
<p>I’m so envious of you that have actual plans this early on. Everything here is pretty much on hold until testing is done in May, maybe April if S does reasonably well on the ACT this month. Right now, his grades are looking pretty good for him but there are some teachers that haven’t graded his quarterly project yet. Depending on the class, it’s worth 15%-25% of his grade.
Meanwhile, I’ve been mining the college websites looking for schools that give excellent FA that are FAFSA only or don’t require NCP information. I have to have a plan in place in case my ex doesn’t want to fill out the paperwork. Unfortunately, it’s looking like a very short list so far.</p>
<p>reeinaz–some of that comes from been there/done that and knowing what the kids’ schedule is like. They simply won’t have time in the fall to do much more than their activity and homework. They are both taking 4 AP classes and one college class. We tried to talk them out of such a hard schedule for senior year but “everyone” is doing that so oh well. I would like them to have all of their information ready to go and as much of the applications filled out as they can before schools starts in the fall and to get off applications to schools with rolling admissions early in Sept. before they really get busy, busy. They of course are kind of bucking that process but I know they will be happy we pushed them to get it done when their friends are frantic at the last minute trying to finish stuff.</p>
<p>Hey everyone! Please don’t forget to give us your impressions of the schools you are visiting! (So glad you guys love Lafayette RobD!) It looks like Step-D and I will have quite a few schools to see this summer and if I can eliminate one from your feedback (or add one that you all have liked) that will be so helpful! </p>
<p>Happy visiting. Nothing but testing for Step-D until Memorial Day weekend when H takes her to California to look at a couple of schools out there.</p>
<p>Happy visiting to all! Hope the campuses are lovely and inviting, and the speakers and tour guides helpful.</p>
<p>Those of you doing a bunch of tours: I made DS write a “pros/cons” list immediately after each visit. It really helped him process, remember which school had which and he had something to look at when writing his “Why X?” essays.</p>
<p>Hi Everyone - We are finally narrowing down our list from an initial 18 schools to about 9-10. …this is for D2, D1 is just completing her freshman year in college. At first D2 wanted to go far away but as the time to apply draws closer and as she watched her sister ride the frosh roller coaster (oh, it definitely isn’t done when they get accepted;-) D2 has decided to stay closer to home. I was very pleasantly surprised on our visit recently to Providence College…PC is located close to downtown Providence which offers transportation to Boston, NY and to the beaches of Newport - good shopping, great restaurants, etc. It has a good study abroad program (very impt to D2) providing semester options as well as shorter summer options, a nice campus, good merit, etc…we are keeping it on the list. She loved BC, Northeastern and BU which surprised me because I never pictured her as a city girl. Each of these options are very different from each other but she seemed to like all of them. She is testing within range for all of these schools but I keep telling her BC is now a lottery school…its admissions this year were all over the map. At first she wanted a Big D1 and rural, now she wants big and urban. Go figure…we will apply to both types…and some in between!</p>