<p>thank you reeinaz! I guess I needed to know that one! :)</p>
<p>on another note: anyone have an opinion of how to handle it when your kid likes a school “a lot” and you just get a funny feeling about it???</p>
<p>drmom123–let them apply and if it comes in as one of the top choices when all is said and done, visit again :D. DD’s top choice as far as the school goes is fine, the sports program, however, we don’t like at all (the coach). She applied, we are still hoping they don’t come up with the $$ for her to attend :D. If they do and she decides to go there, we will have a serious conversation about effort and putting up with stuff because she has better choices, she is being stubborn. For what it is worth, this is DH and my alma matter we are talking about even.</p>
<p>Happy Saturday, everyone!</p>
<p>It’s been a crazy week here. Senior night was, like I had anticipated, pretty useless for D and her group. The CAP advisor spent less than 2 minutes on college entrance, SAT/ACT, the ASVAB, military service, and “considering” college. <em>sigh</em> They spent 20 minutes on requirements for HS completion (D needed only Govt/Econ this year, everything else was extra) and registering for night school. Then 30 mins on Grad Bash, senior picnic and selling magazines for sr class. Seriously, it’s 1 hour of my life lost. LOL</p>
<p>D received her first admission letter today from Iowa State. YAY! She’s not that excited because she “knew I’d get in”. She says she’s holding excitement for scholarship notifications. She’s so much more pragmatic than I am sometimes.</p>
<p>Congrats to those in receipt of scholarship letters and athletics offers! How very exciting!!! :)</p>
<p>drmom, I agree with Steve. See whether the kid gets in first, then worry about it.</p>
<p>Had a serious talk with dh and ds2 about college, re-ranking the schools and talking about what would drop off if he gets in early here or there. I really need a drink. And today, I decided to give up Diet Coke and sweets. How am I going to get through this without my two biggest coping crutches???</p>
<p>Hi all!</p>
<p>No news here - senior year is busy and as I feared, college stuff is taking a back seat to schoolwork and sports. DD is basically starting her CA essay over, and hasn’t done a thing on the apps. She’s also not interested in visiting more schools, despite my feeling that it would be a good idea to find a few schools that are better financial fits. </p>
<p>No homecoming here - well, they have a homecoming game and dance, but it isn’t a dress-up thing, and not so big a deal. There’s a winter semi-formal that’s more popular.</p>
<p>swizzle, sounds like you had a great visit to Quinnipiac! That’s a top choice for one of my D’s friends, but she has another year before she applies.</p>
<p>Youdon’tsay–I think all the experts say never go on a diet during major life changes :D.</p>
<p>Just got back from taking photos for “Homecoming”–they got all dressed up, going out to eat, skipping the dance :D. They were having a lot of fun taking photos though. I think they will have a good evening.</p>
<p>And in another heart-stopping moment, I went onto Naviance to re-rank his schools and realized there is no more ranking because they’ve all moved to “Colleges that I’m applying to.” :eek:</p>
<p>Drmom- I also agree with Steve, see how it works out, a lot can change as acceptances start coming in.</p>
<p>Steve- I think you have the bigger problem. Kids like to go to their parents alma maters. I think they feel connected to the school. And since your kids seem to be great at getting scholarships… good luck with that one :)</p>
<p>Goodness, I’m away for a couple of days and the thread explodes! I think I’m all caught up, though. </p>
<p>We survived the two nights of the show. It was kind of funny to watch evil man avoid me at all costs. I swear if he saw me within a mile of him, he scooted off the other direction. </p>
<p>I think my daughter has decided to remain in one of his two classes for second semester. It’s a stagecraft class, and she feels she needs to leave that one since she is a tech theatre major. She will have to get out of the other class since it will conflict with her work at the other theatre. We also have to have evil man’s help in submitting a specific LOR online in February. As such, we just can’t sever all ties. </p>
<p>After gathering all the information I can from Carnegie Mellon, she will be going Early Decision there. Talk about an HMFR. But I guess if she doesn’t try…</p>
<p>thanks for the support and advice! i do agree with it. what I am not sure about is her thinking she should apply ED to the school (that I am not sure is the best fit)…and if she should get in…! if it were regular decision…okay. no prob…but ED??? if she gets deferred, okay.<br>
DD is also spending lots of time on schoolwork and EC…not prepping for SAT (which she needs to bring up a bit if she really wants to go to her …what do we say…HMFR!!! (I like that)…but, no prepping here. I don’t even know if she is aware that ACT results come out soon… ah well…maybe this means she’ll apply regular decision everywhere, and I don’t have to worry…till later!</p>
<p>Swizzle-that sounds like a fabulous visit. How exciting to have that one on one time with the dean of the
Communications school. 
</p>
<p>Ugadog- I’m glad the show went well. At least she’s aiming high with CMU. My D has a friend there studying music who absolutely loves it!</p>
<p>Carla- I wish my D wanted to go to my alma mater! LOL! We are a UM family and bleed orange and green. (my mom, sis, and cousin all graduated while my brother and I attended but had our time interrupted by military service). But she wants to go far, far away. C’est la vie.</p>
<p>24.more.hours.
I’m a tad nervous about the ACT scores coming out, even though there is nothing I can do about the results. Nor our D. So we wait.</p>
<p>Hopkins-our info session was late morning and we took the inner harbor exit towards the campus. I personally didnt think the surrounding area was as shady as I had heard. Of course I lived in Philly for 10 years. The campus itself is beautiful and the edge of campus is well maintained. In fact it was hard to distinguish what was on campus & off campus housing. I know two grad students were murdered off campus last year, but UNC just had an incident as well and that is a suburban college town. IMHO we just have to keep reminding our kids about safety, remind them to take advantage of escort services, and for me prayer. Hopkins had a veru visible presence of safety officers and the programs that stood out were a tour of campus given to freshman regarding safety in the city (where to go, not to go, where there are cameras,etc). A discover Baltimore class offered over winter break. Motion sensors throughout campus. Public safety assistance extends one mile off campus. And the safety department is run by the former head of secret service and guard to President Bush.</p>
<p>Atmosphere- this where they lost my daughter and me for a while. They overbooked the info session by about 50 family members who had to stand in a crowded room designed for 150 or wait outside in the lobby. Then to make matters worse the students at the front desk talked during the entire one hour presentation so those of us standing in the back couldnt hear the speaker. So parents like me who drove 3 hours, or I’m sure some more, missed the entire program. The tour was equally as unorganized with the students literally following each other so at times groups of 100 or so parents and students were piled into the same small lobbies and hallways listening to the tour guides literally try to talk over top of each other. I was really surprised a school like Hopkins didn’t have things planned a little better. My Ds comments were they only offered D1 sports in Lacrosse which doesn’t interest her, but she knew that coming in. The fact that they moved their homecoming to spring I think made her feel there was little enthusiasm for their football program, which is her game. She noticed none of few kids out and about said hello to the tour group or yelled come to Hopkins", which happened on quite a few other campuses. She said she didn’t feel the school spirit. Finally the tour guide pointed out an area called “the beach” which is an expansive lawn where she said on a beautiful day kids hang out, play frisbee. Yet it was a perfect gorgeous Saturday afternoon and no one was there. Maybe 10 kids. Also we heard a comment on the way back to our car about a call that came into the admissions office which was distasteful. I dont think the student who repeated it was trying to be disrespectful, but he probably shouldn’t have repeated it in mixed company. It was an unfortunate reminder that certain people still dont believe certain groups should be admitted to certain schools. </p>
<p>Academics-well its Hopkins. Endless research opportunities. One of their Physics professors won the nobel prize last year. Recently renovated academic buildings and new buildings going up. The student emphasized that Hopkins’ reputation for being cutthroat is completely false. In fact they just completed a building specifically designed to encourage group learning. Undergraduates have access to a robotics lab where doctors can participate in surgeries half way across the world. They also have a six week winter break where students can take classes that are included in tuition or travel abroad. Or come home and stay with us:). The first year at Hopkins is Pass/Fail, no grades, unless you want them unlocked for med school purposes.</p>
<p>Overall the campus is beautiful. The buildings modern. The opportunities endless. Not a fit for my D, but her needs are pretty specific.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>a great example of why it’s important to visit while school is in session when evaluating those types of things. Every school we visited seems to have one of those spots on campus that tour guides point out, but reality and hype aren’t always the same.</p>
<p>Thanks for the great report!</p>
<p>Carimama- Thinking about it, I told my D that my alma mater was great but not a good fit for her (yes, she’s applying), and I guess Steve raised concerns about the coach. Maybe you need to tell her not to go? :)</p>
<p>ACT - good luck to everyone who is waiting for results!</p>
<p>Thanks for the report…I agree with Annie…visit while in session…I will pass on this report to our friend who is applying :)</p>
<p>Be sure to correct my typos when passing on. I wrote this before my coffee.</p>
<p>Good luck everyone with ACT results!</p>
<p>Students typically don’t start hanging out in outdoor spaces until the afternoon on Saturday. On my campus of 30000 students, the grassy area is vacant on Saturday until 2pm. Even then, Saturday is no where near as crowded as weekdays and looks empty. Every campus we have visited is basically ‘dead’ on Saturday; from the elite, Northwestern, to the not so elite, Truman State. Kids relax, watch football games, sleep, etc on Saturday.</p>
<p>I agree with the late Saturday thing. On one of our last visits we had our tour start at 10:00. Some of the sports teams were up and practicing but the rest of the campus was DEAD. The kids commented on that so I asked them, where are you at 10:00 on a Saturday morning usually–they both said asleep or watching TV, bingo. By the end of our visit the campus was crawling with kids. It was actually really peaceful walking around with no one else around that morning. There was a bit of fog over the hills (WV) and we saw 3 young deer running around campus “playing”.</p>
<p>That’s funny 'cause we did say to ourselves during lunch if there was a game on tv. I think it depends on the school, setting etc. I went to an ivy and Saturdays during football season were pretty active, of course only if there was a home game that weekend. Our state school is into tailgating so here Saturday mornings are pretty active. Heck I think some of the kids start Friday night. My guess is lacrosse season at Hopkins is probably a beast. But yesterday all was quiet on campus until we left around 3.</p>